Who Is Entering Adulthood?

Developmental Psychology is the study of human growth during childhood, and throughout an individual lifespan. During the development of an individual, Erick Erickson’s eight stages of life theory can be applied. Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory has eight stages and “unique development we go through life. At each stage, a unique level developmental task confronts Individuals with a crisis that must be resolved. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point marked by both increased vulnerability and enhanced potential” (John W. Santrock). Erikson’s main focused was to see the development of n individual’s social and physical context and relationships with others during Erikson’s eight stages of life. The eight stages of life is: Trust versus mistrust (Infancy 1 year-olds), Autonomy versus shame and doubt (infancy 1 to 3 years-olds), Initiative versus guilt (early childhood 3 to 5 year-olds), Industry versus inferior (6 year-olds to puberty), Identity versus identity confusion (10 to 20 year-olds), Intimacy versus isolation (20 to 30 year olds), Generativity versus stagnation (40 to 50 year-olds), Integrity versus despair (60 and onwards). Each of this stages can be applied to any one’s life but depending on their experiences, challenges, and interactions will make impact their identities to be different from others. Although I have not fully experienced life I will be applying Erikson’s eight stages of life to my life.

Being an adult is the number one thing that children want to be: The desire to get older to do things that you want when you want and having no one say otherwise. However, what is an adult? An ambiguous term that really falls into the hands of the individual, where at Sixteen you can drive, eighteen you can vote, and twenty-one you can drink, for those in the USA, all varying ages that individuals could use as indications of adulthood. Robin Heinig wrote and article “What is it about 20- somethings?” where she discusses Arnett’s proposal about a new developmental stage, “Emerging Adulthood”. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, an American professor in psychology, believes that we aren 't entering adulthood till the later portions of our twenties. For some, this may be true but for the general population including myself I find this hard to believe. Leo Hendry’s article, “How universal is emerging adulthood? An empirical example”, on emerging adulthood gives a deeper understanding to what this generation 's kids are going through. The late teens are a crucial part to the lives of a young adult. It 's the time that we spend trying to identify ourselves, escape the circumstance that we are put into at a younger age, or just had a better family income. Arnett is not wrong, but all other external factors need to be accounted for before we know, or even consider if emerging adulthood is a new developmental stage.

As children, we have always turned to our parents or guardians to consult them about our personal decisions. They handled our doctor appointments, signed our field trip permission slips, and provided us with groceries and transportation. However, as teens progress closer to 18, the legal age of adulthood in the United States, they tend to encounter urges to break the ties with their parents in order to handle responsibilities on their own. Why must there be a certain age when a person is fully free to make independent decisions? Why are some rights and privileges given before and after the legal age of responsibility? There is a solid answer to these questions: education. In the US, it is mandatory to attend school until 18. Adulthood should

I find it hard to imagine what my life will become in the future. As people age, they move into different social roles that provides them with multiple identities. These transitions that we go through tend to be linked with age, in the sense that as a society we expect something called “age-norms” which refers to the idea that there are appropriate ages for making these various life course transitions. There are two types of transitions, normative and non-normative. Normative is when something happens that is expected like starting to drive or having a high school graduation, where non-normative is unexpected such as death or winning the lottery. Throughout this paper I will focus on what I want my future to look like, and I will look at what I can currently do to help make this happen. I will also look at my past transitions in life to show what has led me to be the person that I am today.

According to Arnett, “during Emerging Adulthood, young people are in the process of developing the capacities, skills, and qualities of character deemed by their cultures as necessary for completing the transition to adulthood” (Arnett, 1998, p. 312). The majority of Americans see big life events as reaching and achieving adulthood. It is portrayed that those who have succeeded these events are more independent,

As a young adult, I don’t always think of how I will mentally and physically change when I reach middle adulthood. I often think about what goals I have set for myself and a more immediate future for my family. Middle adulthood begins at age 40 and ends at age 65 (“Santrock” 2015). This particular stage of life has positive and negative changes that occur within the biological, psychological, and social forces.

According to Berger, emerging adulthood is defined as the period of life from about age 18 through age 25, when young people are exploring the possibilities of their lives and beginning to identify themselves as adults, rather than teenagers. Although physical health peaks during these years, young adults are also particularly at-risk for mental illnesses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 40% of American 18 to 29 year-olds meets criteria for mental disorder. The most common mental disorder and “evident in one-fourth of all U.S. residents below the age 25 is anxiety disorders” (Berger, 2014). There are many types of anxiety disorders, and one of them is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, terrifying or distressing events. The type of events that can cause PTSD are rape, domestic violence, or sexual, physical, or verbal abuse, surviving a dangerous event like a car accident, natural disaster, or terrorist attack, being a part of combat or witnessing war as a civilian and other traumatic events (WebMd). According to Julian Ford, one of the authors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Scientific and Professional Dimensions, people who suffer from PTSD relive their experience through nightmares and flashbacks. They may have trouble falling or staying

Identity can be describe using a variety of words; easy is not one of them. Sometimes, as you enter a state of emerging adulthood, some answers do not render sufficient. And realistically, who has not asked the question: who am I? I know I have. Assimilation and accommodation play a major role in the shaping of my personality. Egocentrism, on the other hand, is a virtue I possess and criticize at the same time. Moreover, if I intend to fully scrutinize my personality and how it was built, I must further discuss temperament and its importance.

Adulthood is the life course stage I occupy. I’m not a young adult but not middle-aged either. I am twenty-eight years old.

The age that defines adulthood varies from one culture to the next. In the contemporary United States, adulthood is most often marked by turning eighteen and gaining the rights to vote, sign a contract, enlist in the military, serve on a jury, etc. But has any consideration gone into why eighteen is the age of adulthood? Most will answer that it marks when an individual is able to support themselves on their own, yet it marks no significant physical or mental development. Studies have shown that full brain development doesn’t even occur until the mid-twenties. So with this information combined with statistics about the effects of war and combat on young adults, and the new trends in society that make it difficult for people that age to live

In addition to the beginning stages of life and Erikson’s psychosocial development theory, the last four stages apply to young adulthood and late adulthood. The last four stages of Erikson’s psychosocial stages are adolescence (12-18), young adulthood (19-40), middle adulthood (40-65), and late adulthood (65 to death). During adolescence, the central crisis of identity vs role confusion occurs. In young adulthood, intimacy vs isolation begins. Middle adulthood, the central crisis generativity vs stagnation begins. Lastly, maturity is where ego identity and despair emerges. In this analysis paper, developmental experiences that contribute to each crisis will be discussed; as well as factors that are not accounted for by Erikson’s

I feel like I fit into the emerging adulthood stage. I’m 21 years old, working full time at Roger’s Memorial Hospital (always wanted to work here), going to school part time, and living in my own apartment. So, I feel mature in that aspect. However, in some ways I still feel like a teenager and really unsure of what I’m doing. For example, I was having car trouble a while ago. I wasn’t sure of what to do, started to panic and ended up calling both my partners and one of my roommates. So I feel like half an adult, there are moments where I feel like I have my life together. But other moments where I don’t know what I’m doing at all.

I was standing on the side, waiting for my turn; half heartedly watching the person before me, admittedly too engrossed in myself. My hands were shaking so hard I thought they might fall off. Sweat was beginning to roll down my face. After what felt like years, it was my turn to take the stage. As I walked out with my head held high, I entered “adulthood” in the dance world.

As life goes on, people restructure their lives based on gains and losses in what they are capable of doing and capabilities, also by changing values and goals. Erikson’s stages of development, is an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial. According to Erikson’s theory, every one must pass through the stages over a lifetime (Erikson, 1998). Young adulthood ranges between the ages of 19 to 40, it is usually the age when the individual is at the peak in life. Young adulthood is the age where the adult has found their identity. Now they have moved into the adult world, they are seeking a partner to share, friendship, sex, and intimate feelings with (if they are not in an intimate relationship already) failing this, the young adult feels a sense of isolation, exclusivity or

The adolescent years and emerging adulthood have completely different phases. The assignment was to ask two different people of two different ages an allotment of questions. I chose to ask my sister, Nicolle, who is fifteen years of age and in the category of teenager, and asked my boyfriend, Collin, who is twenty-one years of age and an emerging adult. Nicolle is a junior in high school, while Collin is a returned missionary attending Brigham Young University. Each of them has lived similar, yet quite different lives.