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Essay about becoming an adult
Essay about becoming an adult
The adulthood life cycle
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What does it mean to be an adult in today’s modern society? Is an adult somebody who goes to work every day? Somebody who is wise? Somebody who is independent? Well, according to the law it is when a person turns eighteen years of age. But how is it that when you are seventeen years and 364 days old, you are merely a child but then “Voila”, one day later you become a mature independent adult? Well, not to spoil it but it doesn’t work like that. Being an adult has less to do with the law and more to do with experience. There is more to being an adult than going to work every day and paying the bills on time; being an adult means to have developed certain characteristics and with adulthood comes hundreds of new responsibilities and duties.
To begin, some argue that becoming an adult has to do with science, and how the human brain works. Neuroscientists have proved that brain maturation continues much further into human development than it has been previously discovered. Although, if science had a critical influence on this topic, we would not live in a society where it allows teenager...
In the essay “What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?” psychologist Alison Gopnik explores the issues surrounding young minds in today’s society and why they’re hitting puberty sooner and adulthood later. Gopnik suggest poor diet and lack of exercise could be a potential issues, she also presents various studies blaming brain circuitry and even speculating that the cause of today’s youth problematic mentality could be a result of an “evolutionary feature” in which humans have a prolonged childhood. Gopnik’s main concern about today’s adolescent mind, is a neurological one, Gopnik speculates that there’s an inability to sync their “control system” and their “crucial system”. Gopnik proposes a few solutions to the problem, such as more hands-on experience
McMahon’s “Inside Your Teenager’s Scary Brain” discusses how adolescent’s brains are delicate and can easily affect their development in a good or bad way, depending on the individual’s experiences. According to Jensen, a Harvard neuroscientist and senior neurologist at two Boston hospitals, “teenage years comprise one of the brain’s most critical periods of development”. She parallels her experiences with her own children with observations of teens in general. With new research continuing to surface, studies illustrate how susceptible juvenile’s brain are and how this could generate different techniques on how society, parents, and teachers handle them.
In the article “The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction”, the author believes that teens’ sleep, as well as social, physical, and emotional behavior are all impacted by teens’ changing brains, which in turn, affect teen’s decisions. First, the author states hormones do impact social behavior in teens. For instance, the author writes, “Enormous hormonal changes take place during adolescence. Reproductive hormones shape sex-related growth and behavior, but overall social behavior.”. This example reveals that the author believes that adolescences’ hormonal changes greatly influences their social behavior. Social behavior, such as stress, may occur due to these drastic changes. Teen’s social behavior influences teen decision making and teen’s
In a Ted Talk video by Adriana Galván “The teenage brain is really good at seeking out new experiences enjoying thrills and seeking out thrills.” That is because of the prefrontal cortex it is the part of the brain made for decision making and impulse control, because of that teens are more likely to seek out thrills than adults or children but that is because their lack of impulse control causes them to be reckless. In a Ted Talk video by Adriana Galván she mentions “that the brain matures and continues to do so” and “Your brain changes everyday and as you sit in this room your brain is reacting to my voice, to the person sitting next to you and your experiences ant the people you affiliate with shape the way your brain ultimately develops.” This means that although it is unsure if the brain keeps developing past the mid twenties it is a known fact that the brain constantly reacts and changes to the environment around it, which is completely different from the original belief of it over a decade ago. One example of the brains constant changes is in Romeo and Juliet when Friar Lawrence says “Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes” (Act 2 Scene 2). Showing how
Further research indicates that a person's intellectual capacity is at its greatest during these years. So much so that it could be compared to that of a full grown adult. The brain acts as a sponge soaking up all the information around it, learning as much as it can. “Adolescents and adults seem to engage different parts of their brain to different extents…” Thought the intellectual ability of a teen can match that of an adult does not mean that they think and interpret things the same. While performing tasks such as solving different problems and test, studies show that, when compared side by side, teens use different parts of the brain to different extents then the adult. This is due to the fact that the brain is still “Under Construction”. Therefore teen must use different parts of the brain for the same task as not all aspects of the brain are ready to handle some tasks, causing different results in different emotional and behavioral responses. This indicates the teen brain is still maturing
It is ironic that how some children are able to present themselves more mature than adults. The youth of the generation is becoming more mature and are developing adult skills faster than ever. People are beginning to wonder about the age of adulthood and how it should be determined. This controversy beleaguers around privileges such as drinking, driving, and voting. According to the article What is the Age of Responsibility by Alan Greenblatt, society determines that a person is an adult through customary rites, legal rights, and one’s responsibilities. However, I believe that the best way to adulthood is shown through one’s obligation for their priorities and work.
As every child grows up in a different environment, not all have a safe one to grow up in and as a result everything that surrounds them becomes apart of the clarity that their mind incorporates and becomes apart of that child 's behavior of way. In terms of brain development children or teens often listen, and see what is around them, it is also said, by researchers of the National Institute of Health, that in recent studies that were made that in teen years massive loss of brain tissue...
Similarly, going along with the prior rebuttal of the importance of differentiating juvenile’s characteristics and actions of that of an adult, science is compiling more evidence of its vitality. Many adults can look back and reminisce about an action he or she did when younger and say, “Wow I cannot believe I did that.” Science has proven the reason behind that is because an adolescent’s brain has not yet fully matured. Tsui states “Studies conclusively established that the brain of an adolescent is not fully developed, particularly in the area of the prefrontal cortex, which is critical to higher order cognitive functioning and impulse control” (645). The facts of scientific research need to be taken into consideration when distinguishing
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
Further, brain imaging studies noted differences in scans of adolescents and adults while performing tasks. It was theorized that the differences in teens’ brains were the cause of the turmoil and the myth evolved to the belief that teenagers are less motivated and put less effort into tasks (Epstein, 2007)--some see them as rebellious and irresponsible. It is now known that turmoil is not an inevitable part of human development. The author argued that differences between the teen brain and adult brain scans are not necessarily evidence of immaturity, deficits in reasoning, intelligence, cognition, or in any other function of the brain. He states that the studies may indicate a correlation, but there is no evidence of causation. Further evidence that turmoil is not inevitable can be seen in studies of other industrialized nations.
Laurence Steinberg, a distinguished University Professor of psychology, specializing in child and adolescent psychological development, wrote an article Should the science of adolescent brain development inform public policy: neuroscience has made tremendous progress in studying the adolescent brain, opening opportunities--and raising challenges--for using the knowledge to inform a variety of public policies for Issues ,Science and Technology, Spring
The adolescent brain is in many ways much different than the adult brain. It processes and learns things much different than the adult brain. For many years scientists have been studying the adolescent brain trying to find out what really happens as children grow older. Scientist have found that teenagers (adolescent) process actions without thinking about the possible outcomes. Based on the technology these days our brains have been able to learn and adapt to new challenges.
Teenagers and young children are at developmental stages where they are the most vulnerable to outside influences. Frances E. Jensen said a few things that caught my attention; “The teenage brain is not just an adult brain with fewer miles on it… It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them.” These students can be very smart academically and...
Childhood and adulthood are two different periods of one’s lifetime but equally important. Childhood is the time in everybody’s life when they are growing up to be an adult. This is when they are being considered babies because of their youthfulness and innocence. Adulthood is the period of time where everybody is considered “grown up,” usually they begin to grow up around the ages of eighteen or twenty-one years old but they do remain to develop during this time. However, in some different backgrounds, not everybody is not fully adults until they become independent with freedom, responsible for their own actions, and able to participate as an adult within society. Although childhood and adulthood are both beneficial to our lives, both periods share some attributes such as independence, responsibility, and innocence that play distinctive roles in our development.
Becoming an adult, also known as young adulthood, is a very crucial stage in one’s life. This is the climax of physical and health processes. This is the point in life when we make plans of our futures. It is the time when we think of what life will be like as an adult and make plans for the future. Most importantly, it is when we lay the starting point for developmental changes that we will undergo throughout our lives. An adult is a person who is fully grown or developed. Some people believe that you become an adult when you are 18 years old, other believe you are an adult when you can legally buy and consume alcohol, that is, at age 21 in the United States. Others believe that you are an adult when you are supporting yourself