Adulthood has often been associated with independence. It serves as a turning point in life where one has to take responsibility for oneself and no longer being dependent on his or her family. Early adulthood, usually begins from late teens or early twenties and will last until the thirties (Santrock, 2013). Early adulthood revolves around changes and exploration while middle and late adulthood are more of stability. The transition from adolescence and adulthood differs among every individual. The onset of the transition is determined by many factors such as culture, family background, and the personality of the individual. Emerging adulthood (as cited in Santrock, 2014) is the term to describe the transition period from adolescence to adulthood. …show more content…
Emerging adults are always in the search of their own identity while experimenting with their life, love life and career path. Constant changes in emerging adult’s life are common. From changing residential place to love life, work and education, instability often presents during emerging adulthood (Santrock, 2013). In addition, emerging adults tend to place focus on themselves where they have no commitment and responsibilities toward others. This provides them a great chance to exercise their own will and to execute their plans for the future. During emerging adulthood, many feel like as if they do not belong to either adolescents or adult. The transition ends only when they have distinct marks of an adult. According to Arnett (as cited in Santrock, 2014), “emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities” (p. 296). The age of possibilities is when an individual has the opportunity to turn things around in life, especially when they are from a poor family …show more content…
According to Nelson, Badger and Bo (2004), non-Western culture tends to focus on practices that help the transition to adulthood instead of having the period of emerging adulthood. However, Asians usually leave home at a much older age compared to the Americans. With that said, Asians are slower in the transition towards adulthood by gaining independence and freedom much later in life. In addition to that, emerging adults of lower socioeconomic status reaches adulthood earlier than those who are from higher socioeconomic status (Settersten & Ray,
For all teens, the transition into adulthood is generally seen as a challenging and scary process. For teens diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as well as their caregivers, this transition is often more complicated. The period of transition for individuals with ASD into adulthood is intensely more challenging due to their “unique characteristics, the lack of services that address the special needs of such individuals in adulthood, and the expectations of society for a typical path to adulthood in the face of atypical problems” (Geller and Greenberg, 2009, pg. 93). Without the necessary resources to transition, teens with ASD find themselves unprepared for life at work, in college, or community living. Through this paper, the reader will obtain knowledge in regards to what ASD is, the barriers it yields concerning the transition into adulthood, and the effects it has on the individual as well
The transition from childhood to adulthood can be a harsh and difficult journey. As teenagers become young adults, they fall face first into a new and frightening world of—no longer feeling safe or sheltered.
If all Arnett’s talk about emerging adulthood sounds vaguely familiar . . . well, it should. Forty years ago, an article appeared in The American Scholar that declared “a new stage of life” for the period between adolescence and young adulthood. This was 1970 when the oldest members of the baby boom generation — the parents of today’s 20-somethings — were 24. Young people of the day “can’t seem to ‘settle down,’ ” wrote the Yale psychologist Kenneth Keniston. He called the new stage of life “youth.”
In recent years more and more attention has been placed on the period of development known as emerging adulthood; a period of life from the late teens to late 20s. In many ways emerging adulthood is a period defined by a sense of uncertainty, as individuals try and grasp a better understanding of themselves. A large piece of this puzzle is development in the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social fields; yet in many ways society and the internet work against this young age group in maturing these four domains. The trends, pressures, and stereotypes set my popular culture warp the development of emerging adults in a negative direction.
Emerging Adulthood represents the period of development from late teens through their twenties, mainly focusing on the ages 18-25. This is the period which people start exploring and realizing the capabilities of their lives, which then helps them characterize as adults and no longer teenagers. This topic of psychology is compelling to me because it’s a stage that every adult has lived through, it’s interesting that we have all experienced it differently based on our life circumstances and demographics. It’s interesting to see the changes throughout the years and eventually it will be easier for young people to explore these years as more young adults are going to school nowadays. It teaches me to further understand why emerging adults go through
In today’s culture, the number of issues that the average person has to face on a daily basis, are astronomical. Millennials, in particular, have been greatly affected by this, so much so that a new phase in the human lifespan has been created just for them! Dubbed “emerging adulthood” by psychologist Jeffrey Arnett, plopped smack dab in the middle of adolescence, and adulthood, this phase captures any, and all doubts that 20-29 year olds are plagued with. From their economic standing, to racial, ethnic, and identity issues, and to disabilities ranging from both mental, and physical, this phase captures every single uncertainty, fear, and qualm that one person can possibly have in a neat little package.
From the life course perspective, midlife behavior has both antecedents and consequences. Earlier life experiences can serve either as risk factors or as protective factors for the health and well-being during this stage of development. According to the study Journey from Childhood to Midlife completed by Werner and Ruth Smith in 2001, by middle adulthood, most people have noted a balancing in their lives and improvement in overall quality of their lives. The period of early adulthood had provided positive turning points such as community college, marriage to a stable partner or military service. A contributing factor is relationships that provided emotional support as well. The presence of a nurturing caregiver from infancy, as well as emotional support along the way from extended family, peers, and caring adults outside the family created a positive environment for the person to continue along the life course. Erik Erikson, Karl Jung and Daniel Levinson are three prominent developmental theorists on human development on the journey of life.
Coming to age means various things in different cultures, religions and regions in the world. As an example, in the Jewish religion coming of age happens when a boy or girl reaches the age of thirteen and has a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, which symbolizes reaching religious maturity. On the other hand, coming to age is not about turning a certain age or being able to bare a child, but rather coming to terms with your personal identity. Coming to terms with your personal identity does not happen over night, it entails finding yourself and accepting yourself as an individual. Moreover, in the short story, “Birthmark” and the excerpt of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night, they depict characters that have a hard time coming to terms with themselves. In both scenarios the characters face adversities that the majority of the population do not face which makes them feel like outcasts. Additionally, both characters come-to-age by finding their personal identity through all of the tribulations that they face.
J. J. Arnett argues his theory about a developmental stage individuals go through of 18-25 year olds as a new concept, (Arnett, 2000, pp. 469). He describes emerging adulthood as being a sustained period of time where this age group, as mentioned previously, explores their roles preceding being an adult. These movements can include events similarly by taking longer than previous years to get married and have children, moving back in with their parents at a point during this age span, exploring self-identities, not feeling like an adult and feelings of self-failure. James E. Cote, who is a previous colleague of Arnett argues the opposite about this concept being an unexperienced developmental stage Arnett calls, “Emerging Adulthood”. Cote states
Adulthood is not easily defined when it starts and finishes. If this cycle was based on biology it would be easy to define. Once again social pressures define this stage as well. Americans tend to look at it in three stages; Early adulthood, Middle adulthood, and old age. In early adulthood, we learn to manage the day to day affairs for ourselves, often juggling conflicting priorities such as, job, partner, children, and parents. During this stage, we learn to start putting everything we have learned together and manage ourselves. Early adulthood tends to end around forty years of age and Middle adulthood begins roughly from forty to sixty years of
Emerging adulthood can be a difficult time for many. It might feel as if one is stuck in between 2 different stages in life. They aren’t children anymore, but they aren’t quite adults. During this time people are forced to make a lot of choices, it’s a time of planning for their fast approaching future and a time of self-exploration. This decision making however can lead to some risky behaviors such as substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, or other violent behavior such as fighting.
According to Vander Zanden (1997), Erikson says that during each life stage of development, individuals will have to encounter unique life events. These life events enable the individuals to achieve their level of growth through life (Vander Zanden, 1997). Papalia and Olds (1998) say that young adulthood is a can-do period. This is the stage where decision making is important. Exercising their freedom to be independent, and using what they have learnt in their adolescent years. This is the time of exploration, trying things out, and weighing up the pros and cons. This is also the stage where the individual chooses to be away from family, to be independent, make their own decisions, buying their own home, budgeting, finance, accommodation, and day to day living.
As individuals age they will come to a point in their lives where they are considered to be in middle adulthood. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016), middle adulthood is the range from 30-60 which involves physical and health changes (p. 477). Some individuals may take this time to reflect on their lives and be happy will all of the things they have done and look forward to what is still to come and there may be others who feel that should have changed things or even may experience a “midlife” crisis. AllPsychologyCareers website (2016) states, “Midlife crisis is a time of great emotional upheaval, anxiety, and drastic changes in behavior (para. 13). Middle adulthood can be a time of contentment or even regret.
Our young adults today, are bombarded with numerous challenges. What can you do to help them encounter these obstacles and come up shining on the other side? What factors contribute to efficaciously disabling the ample hurdles that are thrown at our young adults today? Let’s discover together some of these life trials that many young adults meet today. More specifically, we will look into economic challenges, the peril of not having an established support network, and even the potential risks of not following God and how this can adversely affect how out young adults respond when faced with challenges.
Furthermore, Levinson classifies the novice phase into the early adulthood transition stage (17-22 years), entering the adulthood world (22-28 years), and age-30 transition (28-33 years). On the other hand, the culminating phase encompasses the settling down stage (33-40 years) and midlife transition stage (40-45 years of age). Nevertheless, adulthood is composed of middle-aged period (45-65 years) and late adulthood period entailing the age of 65 years and beyond. Some experts in developmental psychology have gone further to classify the late adulthood period into young-old stage (65-85 years) and old-old stage (85 and above years of age) (Newton, 1994; Levinson, 1978). However, it suffices to emphasize that these stages only exist as a guide to showcase normal development occurring in a continuum, since not everyone develops through displayed stages at exactly similar