Developmental Changes In Early Adulthood Essay

Throughout the lifespan, individuals grow physically, emotionally, and mentally (Gleason, Gower, Hohmann, & Gleason, 2005). Developmental changes are therefore one the salient mechanisms that characterize the life of an individual. Although much attention has been given to developmental changes during childhood (e.g. Piaget, 1969), little attention has been given to changes that occur in adulthood. One such developmental change of importance is change in social relationships (Erickson, 1959). Social relationships can be understood from many levels, including types of relationships, emotional involvement and influence (Fingerman & Lang, 2004). One of the most influential theories in human development is Erick Erickson’s developmental theory (Levi, 2008).

According to Carstensen (1995), acquiring the capability to initiate and preserve close relationship is a skill that develops in early adulthood. Research conducted by Arnett (2000) asserted that early adults are likely to gain more social experience due to the fact that this period in development is where social interaction is mastered (Arnett, 2000) . Arnett’s assertion gives an insight on why early adults’ friendships are more about quantity than quality. In this stage, quantity is important for young adults because a diverse portfolio of social interactions also means a great variety of social knowledge and self-knowledge (Fredrickson & Carstensen, 1990). In addition, young adults perceive quality of their social experience as being tied to the numbers of friends rather than the quality of friendships (Windle, 1994). While social interaction in early adulthood appears to be more about gaining self-knowledge and self-experience through pluralistic numbers of social interactions, middle adulthood appears to be characterized by different types of social interactions. We turn next to description of middle