Week 6- Early & Middle Adulthood-AKEL

EARLY & MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

Adulthood is distinguished by social and cultural experiences, unlike adolescence which is distinguished by physical changes and capabilities. The transitioning from adolescence to adulthood 18-25. Malcolm Knowles identified the biopsychosocial facets of adulthood as:

1.      Biological-when we reach the age to reproduce

2.      Psychological-self-concept of being responsible of our own lives

3.      Social-when we start to take on adult roles and responsibilities. 

I was a taken back to read that our muscles and bones start to deteriorate approximately 1% per year after the age of 30. It was quite alarming to read up on date rape. Date rape is coercive sexual activity between a victim and an offender who is known or an acquaintance. Male undergraduates said rape would occur in the following circumstances:

1.      If a couple went to the man’s house after the date

2.      If the women initiated the date

3.      If the man paid for the expenses

I don’t understand why the man would think he can rape or even lay a finger on her without her consent in return when he pays for the meal or treats her to something nice. Cognitive Development plays a role in adulthood, of course. In early adulthood, people can capitalize on the life experiences they’ve gained prior and during adolescence. Our main man Piaget is reintroduced in chapter 9. He argues that young adults possess more knowledge than adolescents, especially in certain areas of interests. He does make sense since age does play a part. The older you are the wiser you (hopefully) get. Theorists believed that there should be a cognitive development stage after Piaget’s stage of formal operations, so people can acknowledge the relativistic nature of problems and answers. William Perry did a case study in the 1950’s and 60’s on several hundred Harvard students between the ages of 17-22. He studied their intellectual and ethical development. His theory was criticized because the tests were done on male. We were then introduced to Sandra Bem who was a gender role researcher who believed we would all be much better off if most behaviors were viewed appropriate to both sexes.

Social Development also plays a part in adulthood. Adults tend to develop a separate and special personality, it is derived less and less from our parents and teachers and more from our behavior, also known as individuation. Daniel Levinson found that age 30 is a common time for people to reexamine their feels about major life tasks. I whole heartedly agree with this hence I’m back in school at 31 pursuing what truly makes me happy. The more I read up on Erikson, the more I am intrigued by the fellow. His 6^th stage intimacy vs. isolation plays a part in adulthood. On page 219 he describes this stage as, “The young adult, emerging from the search for and the insistence on identity, is eager and willing to fuse his identity with others. He is ready for intimacy, that is, the capacity to commit himself to concrete affiliations and partnerships and to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments, even though they call for significant sacrifices and compromises”. By intimacy he means the ability to relate to one’s deepest hopes and fears to another person and to accept another’s need for intimacy in turn. 

I must pause and say how much I loved what Fiore says about validation. This sentence stuck out and paved its way in me. On page 221 she says, “Validation is essential to our sanity”. Validation was probably used in a positive way here, but the way I wanted to understand it as we may always seek validation from people who don’t care as much about us as we do about them. And we are always doing our very best to get some sort of approval, token of appreciation or an ounce of love back for the sake of our sanity.… Okay, I’ll carry on…

The chapter goes on to talk about the rates of single parents and divorces have increased over the past years. They also mention same sex relationships. Figure 9.8 shows that there are more states in the US that legalize first cousin marriages than states that legalize same sex marriage which statistics should be the other way around in my opinion. 

I will briefly summarize chapter 10 since I enjoyed chapter 9 a little too much as I connected so well to it. 

Chapter 10 discusses the slow deterioration of our health, our vision, our hearing. Hormone replacement therapy is offered to women that have reached menopause. We are introduced to several types of intelligence. Fluid, crystalized, analytical, creative, and practical. Fluid tends to decline starting from middle adulthood. Crystalized increases throughout the lifespan. Chapter also discusses stress and how adults are usually expected to deal with it entirely on our own. Stressors that individualize experience including poverty, chronic illness, and divorce is known as Risk factors. Protective factors are characteristics of resilient individuals that protect themselves from stress. This chapter was a bit sad because the more I read, the more it described my parents, or elders that I love and respect in my life. We tend to forget as we grow older, they do too.