Emerging Adulthood: The Difficult Challenges to Being a Grown-up
A human being will evolve through many cycles during their lifetime, beginning at birth with infancy, progressing through early childhood, then middle childhood, adolescence, emerging and early adulthood, middle adulthood, with the last cycle before death being older adulthood (Lesser & Pope, 2011). With each cycle comes benchmarks of learning and growth, as well as having its own set of challenges (Lesser & Pope, 2011). Many would argue that in a person's adult life, entering the older adult cycle is the most challenging, as it brings about a sense of morality, forcing the person to find acceptance that they will ultimately face death. However; there is a greater argument that
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These issues involve a continued identity exploration of one's self, as many young adults also report that they are still questioning their identity, a surprising answer, as much research shows this happening and being resolved in adolescence (Munsey, 2006). The emerging adult is determining who they are and what they want or expect out of the areas of work, school, and love (Munsey, 2006). At the early stage, many young adults; regardless of geographical area, social structure, and class status, report having the perception of "feeling in between", meaning that they have cleared the struggles of adolescence, and are feeling more responsible for themselves, yet are still closely tied with their parents (Munsey, 2006). While these feelings may exist. the emerging adult is very much a person of self focus (Munsey, 2006). Being free from their parents, and the typical society directed routines of growing up, they are able to show more of their individual personality, focusing on what their interests are: in terms of social circles, societal expectations, and experimenting with love, which will help them later in determining what they are looking for in a mate (usually by dating various types of people), before having to make the definitive choices of marriage, children, and careers (Munsey, 2006). This can also be a time of great instability for an emerging adult, marked by residential changes, such as moving into college, or living with friends or a girlfriend/boyfriend, and a possibility that the living situation will change several times during this duration, until a career choice and families are establish in early adulthood (Munsey,
emerging adults report that they get along better with their parents now than they did in their mid-teens (Arnett, 2015, p. 51 ). Most parents feel they have a better relationship now with their emerging adult children now too . The national Clark poll shows that 55% of emerging adults have daily or almost daily contact with their parents (Arnett, 2015, p. 50). Parents and children have more frequent contact and enjoy spending more free time together (Gillen, 2015)
For many young adults or “emerging adults” their first entrance into this phase is leaving home for the first time and entering college. It is during this the “achieving stage” (Schaie & Willis, 2015) where young adults increase their problem-solving skills, gain life experience and get to explore new views and thoughts that are acquired outside of the home, this was no different in Heather’s case. She went to a college that was dramatically different than her small town. It was in a large city, with multi-races and cultures, giving her the ability to gain so much more life experience. It was during this time that Heather first experienced Sternburgh’s theory on love which consists of intimacy the feeling of closeness or
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
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
Extensive demographic and cultural shifts have taken place over the past few decades that have made late adolescence and early twenties into a new transitional developmental period known as emerging adulthood for young individuals across industrialized societies. Arnett (2000) argues that emerging adulthood is a “distinct period of the life course” that is “characterized by change and exploration of possible life directions” (469). Additionally, a critical area of identity exploration during emerging adulthood is love and romantic relationships. Arnett contends that “demographic changes in the timing of marriage and parenthood in recent decades has led to prolonged periods of adolescence and delayed adulthood transitions” (470). By postponing
As we have already learned about how our body and mind develops through our younger years of life and how important those years are to our development, we will be now taking a dive into the importance of adulthood. The transitional phase of emerging adulthood is very important to ones growth. What is emerging adulthood you might ask? “Emerging adulthood is a time when people continue learning and exploring, postponing marriage, parenthood, and career while preparing for the rest of life” (Berger, 2015, p. 389). This is a critical time for growth due to many of the developments someone will go through. I will be focusing on the aspect of body development throughout the emerging adulthood phase.
To explain the statement: 'Power does not flow to unknown people in the organization', I will give an overview of the Model of Power in Organizations according to Mc Shane and Von Glinow, which includes a definition of the meaning of power, the different sources of power, and the contingencies that need to exist before sources of power will translate into actual power. Finally, I will provide a conclusion and recommendation.
Emerging Adulthood is the newest stage of human development. Young Adults engage in more risk taking events, than any other stage of development, because health and physic wise they are at their peak. Emerging adults engage in premarital sex which makes them vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases.
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.
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.
Transitioning into adulthood seems to take on many different forms in many different cultures. However, in the Unites States the argument of whether a new stage of life called emerging adulthood should be considered as a new phase in human development is still being disputed. Some claim that by establishing a new stage of psychological development 20-somethings will be more inclined to draw away from taking up adult responsibilities, but what they fail realize is that by not tending to their needs we are jeopardizing young adults’ ability to take care of the generation ahead of them. In “What Is It about 20-Somethings?”, Robin Marantz Henig claims 20-somethings are avoiding adulthood and by creating a new stage of development they will only
During young adulthood, range from 18- 40 years old, life is quite busy since people are always on the run. It is easy to say that many people do not think what they eat before they eat. Perhaps, it is because of the busy life during young adulthood that has a huge impact in our diet which can be detrimental to our health. In addition, many people have to go to work and school and they end up having little or no time to eat. In this case, they run to the closest fast food place and order something that is not very healthy. According to Fryer and Ervin (2013), “During 2007–2010, adults consumed, on average, 11.3% of their total daily calories from fast food.” Young adulthood is the phase in life that many people consume low nutrient food which
As my peers and I enter the stage of emerging adulthood, we have to begin thinking about what each of us needs to do as individuals to remain healthy and happy in our days on Earth. As of now many of us are in school; pursuing the degree that will be used as a tool to get the job we want. Regardless of the path in life we choose, however; there are a few general categories that we need to work on fulfilling in order to (in theory) lead healthy lives. Throughout this paper I will be using information from the MSU Dept of Health and Human Development well-being model, as well as information form the chapters about adulthood in the textbook “Experiencing the Lifespan”, and seeing how my life matches up with the ideas presented in these sources.
Transition and change are some of the most difficult obstacles for people to overcome. It is no surprise that adolescence, defined as the transition from childhood to adulthood, is full of obstacles (Feldman, 2012). During this time period, adolescents are neither adults nor children; they do not appear to belong in any stable group. However uncomfortable this may seem, it is also a fitting definition. For during the adolescent stage, adolescents face puberty, sexual curiosity, self-esteem issues, and doubts about their future (Feldman, 2012). Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson aptly argued that adolescents pass through the identity-versus-identity-confusion stage in which teenagers search for defining and unique characteristics about themselves (Feldman, 2012). When a teenager struggles with this stage, a crisis emerges in which they are unable to find an appropriate role in life, often acting out or pursuing dangerous behaviors (Feldman, 2012).
Young adults think differently than adolescents and they have different views and opinions on things. During adulthood, an individual begins to discontinue their risky behaviors such as having sex without protection, driving recklessly, and playing dangerous sports. On the other hand, some people still continue this behavior while in adulthood but it is not common. Many people believe that the key sign of actually becoming an adult is financially supporting oneself. This step occurs sooner to the students who either do not attend college or do not finish high school. Students which go to college, this occurs to them later on in life. Establishing intimacy is the sixth step in Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, “intimacy versus isolation.” Once a person has established their own identity, they are prepared to establish a “shared identity” (intimacy) with another person. Men and women resolve intimacy issues very differently, for instance, some women establish intimacy by getting married and having children, before they actually establish their identity. Middle-aged women attending college are an example of these