Middle adulthood, or mid-life, is usually defined as ages 40 to 65. Experience Human Development authors Papalia and Martorell explain that during this phase, for the first time in life, development actually begins to deteriorate. Mid-life adults begin to lose height due to shrinkage of the discs in the spinal column and their bones become more fragile. Skin becomes less elastic and smooth, hair may gray due to declining melanin levels, and the senses begin to dull. Health risks such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes also become more common, even in previously healthy people. Sexual functioning also tends to change as hormone levels in both men and women decrease. Women lose the ability to conceive and some men may experience …show more content…
"The more people do, the more they can do," Paplia and Martorell state in the text (Papalia & Martorell. 2015, p.442). Those who are more active, both physically and mentally, tend to have longer stamina and resilience. Even mid-life adults who become more active in their mid-life years are able to retain more physical and cognitive abilities than those who are less active. Mid-life adults also tend to be stronger in knowledge-based activities such as driving and work-related activities than a younger person who has not had as much experience (Papalia & Martorell. …show more content…
In 2002, a forty-three year old Jamie posed for More magazine in only a black sports bra and black, high-waisted underwear with no make-up, no hair-styling, and no re-touching of the photographs. “I don’t have great thighs, I have very big breasts, and a soft fatty little tummy...I don’t want the unsuspecting forty-year old women of the world to think I’ve got it going on. It’s such a fraud. And I’m not the one perpetuating it,” Jamie told the magazine. Since this photo shoot, Jamie has also gone on to let her hair go naturally gray. It’s incredibly refreshing to see someone, especially in Hollywood, who is embracing her age instead of hiding it. I have never been very vain about my appearance, but I do notice more gray hairs and stretch marks than I would like when I look in the mirror, but I hope I can learn to embrace the gray and the pudge as I reach middle-adulthood. I hope that by doing this I will be able to also encourage my future clients to be comfortable in their own skin as they