Middle-aged adults experience change in many different areas of their life at this time, they will find that not only their health is changing, but their appearance, their family, their thinking, and their emotions are changes as well. When discussing people that fall into the middle adulthood age of life, the term “midlife crisis” is often used, but according to an article titled Middle Adulthood Developmental Psychology, “most people during middle adulthood are satisfied and pleased with their lives”, ("Physical Changes," 2008-2013, expression 1). This article also states that the age range for middle adulthood is approximately age thirty-five to sixty-four. Midlife crisis is a when an individual views themselves and are unhappy with what they see. If one experiences a midlife crisis they will have the desire to better themselves in certain areas such as: dressing differently, buying new cars, change in musical taste, starting an exercise regimen, reassessing current relationships, and interests in furthering education or desire to change jobs. Also, during middle adulthood it is normal at this time that a person will undergo changes in three physical ways: visible signs of aging, declining organs, and changes in hormones / emotions. Could also be faced with psychosocial changes according to Eriksonian ways. Stage seven, Generativity versus Stagnation. An individual has the ability to intervene with the physical aging process in order to slow down the progression. Physical activity plays a major role in overall well being and it is important for an individual that is seeking to improve their quality of life by finding an activity they enjoy. Of course nature will take it course and aging will take in effect, the middle aged adu... ... middle of paper ... ... was discharged to home on his third day of hospitalization. He was sent home with new prescriptions, new diagnoses, an aftercare plan, and all of the information needed in order for him to manage as an outpatient. As he entered the hospital in crisis, he left with a sense of self-actualization; it is now up to him to choose to follow the interventions needed to improve his overall well being and health. By adding physical activity, improving his nutrition, attending group therapy, and continuing with follow up appointments/medication management he will see great changes for the better. I have optimism for this patient to be able to increase his self-esteem and self-worth in order for him to successfully complete Erikson’s seventh stage of psychosocial development and be able to embrace all of the wonderful changed that mid life transformation brings to one’s life.
The crisis can be brought on as the result of biological and psychological changes, such as disease or the lack of youthful adventure. In addition, many adults come into mid-life having not realized their childhood dream and find themselves struggling with the transition to complete any dream. What is more, mid-life crisis is connected to ones ability to re-establish meaning and purpose in life that is greater than self-fulfillment, such providing a legacy of their children. In essence, a mid-life crisis can be a very real season in the life of an adult where they aim to transition form young adulthood to late adulthood. Yet as Yana Weaver (2009) writes, “Reflection and re-evaluation of one’s accomplishments does not have to be seen necessarily as a time of crisis and negative experience.” Therefore, middle-aged adults do not have to fear a mid-life crisis, but rather see it as a season to refocus and choose to finish life strong. An excellent example of this would be from the life of Solomon in the Bible. Solomon wrote his book of Ecclesiastes about the meaning and purpose of life. After searching for it all and having it all, he concluded it is all “meaningless, like chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). Perhaps this is what many mid-lifers feel. But Solomon passes on his wisdom to the future generation when he says, “Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). Long before any psychologist tried to figure out mid-life, Solomon knew that finishing strong was so important and giving one’s life for others would be the most fulfilling joy one could experience. Therefore, all adults would do well to decide in mid-life what they will do to finish strong and pour into future
When you think about life and death, are you excited to live or are you scared to die? For many people all over the world, this becomes an intense thought and concern when they’ve reached a certain age. Suddenly, their life starts to flash before their eyes but slowly, as if taunting them that their youth has been lived and death is approaching. Or so it seems. There have been many studies to determine whether or not the “midlife crisis” is fact or fiction and I believe that The Swimmer by John Cheever reflects this myth in a thought-provoking and self-assessing way.
stage (age 40 - 65), the late adulthood stage (age 60 - 85) and the late late
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
“Though the age boundaries are not set in stone, we will consider middle adulthood as the developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age” (Santrock, 2013, p. 485). I interviewed two individuals for this paper. Each person was asked the same fifteen questions (Appendix). I interviewed a male and a female who fell in the midrange of middle adulthood.
Many women in midlife feel that they have hit their stride and they feel confident and assertive, but often women can feel less attractive sometimes too. Physical development in midlife is a continuation of the gradual changes already underway in early adulthood. Middle age adults do beome much more aware of aging and there's more that can be done to promote physical valor and good health during midlife. 57 year old Janet teaches dance for children and adults. She has been teaching dance for the past 40 years now. Janet reflects on the aging process in her interview and states that she is very aware that her body has changed. Janet says when she was very young, she was more limber and she could bend all the way back and put her head against her rear end. She says she has lost some of her flexibility and it really makes her mad. she says, ''you see young dancers that can do all the jumps and I can't do the same anymore. It bothers me.'' She doesn't want to lose her physical and mental abilities and she says it's a fear that she is fighting. To stay healthy and maintain her good health, she says she reads Prevention magazing, does Chinese herbs, tries to eat healthy, doesn't drink coffee and she doesn't smoke or drink alcohol neither. She says, ''facing the reality of aging is difficult, but you have
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
Late adulthood should be a time in a person's life where they feel fulfilled. They can look back on their memories and be happy with the way they have lived their life. Now, too many elderly people are not satisfied and look at this stage as depressing. Most fear death of either a loved one or for themselves. This topic is interesting to me because elderly people should make the best of their last stage of life. This topic discusses about getting older, the life changes that they go through physically, emotionally, and mentally. We should know more about it so that we can help our family and friends get through one of the best, yet toughest part of our mortal life.
In the body-transcendence versus body-preoccupation stage, one must be able to learn and accept physical changes that happen as we get older, we refer to this as transcendence. If someone is unable to do so, they become preoccupied with the physical deterioration, to the detriment of their personality development. Although the physical capabilities are not the same in the elderly as when they were young, many older people stay regularly fit considering their age. The changes that began in middle adulthood are becoming more unmistakable by the time one finds themselves in late adulthood. The two distinct types of aging are primary aging and secondary aging. Primary aging involves the irreversible changes that occur as people get older due to genetic programming. Secondary aging refers to the changes that are bought on by illnesses and diseases, not increased by age itself. Late adulthood is a very interesting period of life. Since people are now living longer than ever before, late adulthood is increasing in length. Whether we say it starts at 65 or 70 years, the amount of people included in this stage is larger than ever before, due to medicine and technological advances. One of the most obvious signs someone is in late adulthood would be a person’s hair. Most people’s hair become distinctly gray and eventually white, which may thin
Ageing is a continuing life cycle, it is an ongoing developmental event that brings certain changes in one’s own psychological and physical state. It is a time in one's own life where an elderly individual reminisce and reflect, to bask and live on previous accomplishments and begin to finish his life cycle. There is a significant amount of adjusting that requires an elderly individual to be flexible and develop new coping skills to adapt in the changes that are common in their new life. (Dhara & Jogsan, 2013).
Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.
Late adulthood is known as the period of life after middle adulthood, usually from around 65 years old to death (Santrock, 2013, p. 485). There are many varying stages of development and health in late adulthood, along with steady changing of life expectancy. Aging is a part of life, and with it comes changes in every area of living. Many diseases find late adulthood as an opportune time to affect people. Eventually, whether caused by disease or another reason, every individual dies. Death is unique to every person, and healthcare in America is changing to reflect that. This stage of life is a time when bodily processes and functions may be decreasing, but depending on lifestyle choices, death can come at different times.
Some health concerns come with aging into middle adulthood. Physical changes that one might see is that of gray and thinning hair, wrinkles,
Middle adulthood is the generatively vs. stagnation stages in which an adult must care of others and realize that they need a family or a legacy. During this stage, people will nurture their own family or find ways to nurture others that need to be nurtured outside their immediate family. If an adult does not overcome the crisis during this stage, then they will not grow which will result in them being selfish and
This paper will focus on the latter part of middle adulthood. Middle adulthood represents the time in life between ages 34 to 60 (Newman & Newman, 2015). Since the middle adulthood is the longest stage of the life cycle, this paper will focus on an individual within the age of 45- 60. Individuals in the middle adulthood stage begin to develop concerns about future generation. They feel the need to contribute to the world through family and work. These feelings and thoughts are referred to as generativity. Erik Erikson refers to the problem posed at this stage as generativity vs. stagnation (Newman et al., 2015). Stagnation occurs when an individual is self-centered and unwilling to help society move forward. Several changes begin to