Mental Health : The Generational Difference In Mental Health

Inconsistency and selfishness from the “Catch-30” stage turns into rationality and order in the early thirties. This is the “Rooting and Extending” stage where one is known to mature. People lay out their future with settled

Twenge has studied the patterns of behavior between generations documenting their contrasts. With her knowledge and 25 years of experience in the field of psychology, she has found stark distinctions between work ethic, personal desires, physical and emotional responses. Twenge collected primary accounts from an iGen who gave her perspective on how her generation responds. The 13-year old under the alias, “Athena,” has testified these behaviors as valid.

Another area many people tend to aim to be successful in is the concept of the American Dream. It is thought that if you live in America you need to fulfill the goal of achieving the American Dream and if it is not achieved or not meant to be achieved then the life lived has been a failure. Older generations and even present generations want the younger generations to get good grades, have a ‘successful’ college life, get a professional job, get married, have kids, and buy a big, just because that is normal to everyone but some may choose to live their life not as vanilla. William Zinsser talks about how everyone just follows the social norm in order to be seen as successful, “Our advertisements and TV commercials are a hymn to material success, our magazines articles a toast to people who made it to the top... He is our national idol, and everybody else is our national fink” (Zinsser 601). Becoming a specific type of successful is being pushed onto teenagers who are still struggling to find out who they are and what they want to do. They may want to figure out a different way to become successful in their own independent way.

We are hypothetical to spend our lifetime towards achieving a certain level of success. Who defined this success for ourselves? Family, our environment, our own thoughts? We need success to show others that we aren’t a loser, a nobody. To prove we have worth and we then show off success to others, somewhat of “rubbing it” in others faces. With the success we will acquire luxury goods, a few examples would be cars, iPhones, traveling, certain clothing etc. As in his Ted Talk, Botton states “…society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. It's not the material goods we want; it's the rewards we want.” (de Botton).With this philosophy how do we stand as the generation? Seeing that everyone has the goal of being successful, getting to their dream job, having a career, a house? This is the norm of some of our society’s ideals. What about our own ambitions? Some people may seek to own a business, having a family, not concerned for higher learning. While others may not want a family and want to be the best in their discipline. Where does the line crossover where you wanted to step up to others expectations while still having your own objectives and aspirations in mind to show off your success? Why must someone's value be based upon on materialistic items, as if they raise their value with each item? Though someone whole sees someone with those items

This generational gap was what altered the development of real learning, for it allowed Generation Me children to assume that hard work was not needed to succeed and to learn. Due to the different mindset that was developed through the gap, self-esteem was not lacking in GenMe. So, it is understandable why Boomers felt that an individual should be more important than society. They had to go through life fighting for what they believed in, causing what Tannen calls the “human spirit” to take the blow (Tannen, 419). She states, “contentious public discourse becomes a model for behavior and sets the tone for how individuals experience their relationship to others and the society we live in” (Tannen, 419). Baby Boomers did not have self-esteem so they enforced it on their children, keeping them from ever feeling that way. The cause of them feeling this way is that “the human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (Carr, 70). That malleability was used by Baby Boomer parents in order for them to set a sense of self-esteem and individualism in their children. This alteration of their children’s minds was Boomer parents’ first mistake, for it did not allow children to discover their own worth. Rather, it supplied them with false encouragement, and prevented the possibility of engaging themselves in a society where everyone works together and is confident, but not individualistic.

Ever since the existence of civilization, a fine boundary exists between human’s self-motivation and the expectation of social mechanism. As society progresses, this boundary is being gradually pushed against the will of individuals and favors the social construct. Unlike how people in the past were often inspired by their individual desires and goals, members of the new generation develop a perception of success that is heavily bounded by society’s expectations. Nonetheless, there are still individuals who are also motivated by their own values and dreams. These people are willing to step outside of the realm of ‘standard success’ and strive for what constitutes as success in their opinion. The following texts- “Project Classroom

There are currently six living generations in the United States, each with different characteristics, beliefs, and values. The things that define each generation’s culture are derived from their history, upbringing, and the lifestyle of their time. Our generation was born between 1980 and 2000. We are called Millennials. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative and religious. These characteristics, along with our instant gratification attitude, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations. For example, we might have differing views with the Silent Generation. Some Millennials may feel the Silent Generation’s social, religious, and economic conservatism is outdated.

The most universal goal every human has in common is the pursuit of happiness or “creation or construction of happiness” (Achor, 78). To be able to fulfill this wish of becoming happy, people often think the key to achieving happiness is success. In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he debunks this theory of success leading to happiness by illustrating the reverse theory of success. Through dozens of studies and experiments as forms of evidence, the author argues that an individual needs to achieve happiness in order to be truly successful. Achor 's argument is valid in that happiness should come before success because there is a clear advantage to being successful in an individual’s work life, personal sphere, and liveliness if they are happy first and foremost.

As time progresses onwards, the rift between generations seems to widen. Today, an emphasis is often placed on the defining differences between the younger and older generations.

Nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 were the first members of the new Generation Y, or more affectionately known as millenials (Thompson, par. 1). Many things play into whether a generation is considered to be faring ‘better’ than another one; job opportunities, the state of the environment, whether the U.S. is at peace or at war, income vs. living expenses, the general happiness of the people, and the list goes on. Millenials are part of a special generation because

The purpose of the essay is to identify why there has been an increase mental disorder amongst young adults. The research looks at what causes mental disorders and what treatments are being given to resolve the issue. According to the data collection there has been a recent spike of mental disorders in young adults. The research shows that there is an increase due to mental disorder awareness, meaning more people are education about it then they have been in the past. There is also a change in culture; many young adults are not taken seriously on issues because they often have a joking personality. Also doctors are shying away from certain medication because of some possible side effects, resulting in mental disorders continuing without effective

A person is often defined by how they act and what they accomplish in life. This natural expectation of success is the driving factor of many as they desire to be perceived as successful and accomplished. From something as small as graduating high school to something on a more larger scale such as starting a new business, accomplishes are apart of a person and how they are perceived in society. On top of the regular societal expectations, there are those that are expected to do more based on additional factors; their eminence, their position in the workplace, who they are related to, and more. These expectations were amplified for people such as the Kennedys, a familial generation of well known political figures to exist throughout American

Did you know that nearly 20% of people age 55 years or older experience some type of mental health concern? (Centers for Disease and Prevention & National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, 2008) Mental illnesses are very common among older adults and many times will go undiagnosed or will be misdiagnosed. This can happen because the signs of mental illnesses can be easily mistaken for the normal process of aging. Throughout this paper I will focus on the three most common types of mental illnesses among older adults, the facts of mental illnesses, how to recognize the symptoms, and properly treat/care for and older adult with a mental illness.

In any generation, from the Greatest Generation to Generation Alpha, you have your outdoorsy people, your video gamers, your pushovers, your leaders, your cooks and the people who can’t even make microwave popcorn. While certain things are supposed to affect a generation’s behavior, some will affect certain people and other’s won’t. Just like we all have a different code of DNA, different fingerprints or hairs on our heads, our personalities also differ. Maybe some people from Generation Z will fall apart without their devices, but others could care less about modern technology. One cannot address a generation and using the traits given to the age group, decide their capability in different scenarios. One thing that can be done, is understanding that everyone was made to have different skills for the exact purpose of being the yin to someone’s yang. To fill the empty spaces others cannot. Whether any group of people is thought of as deadbeats or not, humans were made to succeed. I choose to believe that we are all capable of surviving with a group of other people and Generation Z is included in that.

Anyone who is familiar with our generation knows that our generation is extremely different from our parents’ generation. Thus, creates a gap between the two generations, and has been acknowledged by many sociologists. Aside from today’s young people inability to accomplish the millstones of becoming an adult, there is lot more differences between this generation and the older generation. Therefore, in this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting both generations. From how their career expectations are different, what was their definition of happiness, and how their parents played a role on making their dream or expectation turn into reality?