Adulthood and Aging
Adulthood and aging refer to the developmental stage and process of growing older, encompassing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes. This period involves transitions such as career advancement, family formation, and retirement, as well as adjustments to declining physical abilities and potential health challenges. Psychological research explores the diverse experiences and factors influencing individuals as they navigate this life stage.
5 Key excerpts on "Adulthood and Aging"
eBook - ePubDevelopmental Psychology For The Health Care Professions, Part Ii
Young Adult Through Late Aging
- Howard. S. Feldman(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 A Developmental Perspective on Adulthood Introduction Since the 1960s, there has been growing interest in and research on the adult years of the life cycle. Previously, developmental studies had focused on childhood and adolescence, in which an orderly relationship between age and growth was assumed. Adulthood had been looked at as a time of stability, the end point of earlier developmental processes. The changes presumed to occur during adulthood were typically seen as centering around issues of deterioration that take place gradually, universally, and in an age-related pattern. These assumptions are now being challenged, and the span of time between early adulthood and ultimate death has become an area of great research activity. The new orientation looks at human development as a life-long process with change taking place throughout every phase, and its goal is to identify which changes take place at which points in the life course and to establish the nature of the patterns and interrelationships of these changes. Throughout adulthood, individuals experience growth, stability, stagnation, and deterioration in many aspects of their lives. These processes are subject to an intricate interaction between biological, psychological, and socioenvironmental factors. We will be looking at three periods of adulthood identified on the basis of chronological age: young adulthood, from 18 to 40; middle adulthood, from 40 to 65; and later adulthood, from 65 until death. This division is somewhat arbitrary, although it has heuristic value; issues and events actually overlap these periods and may occur repeatedly throughout adulthood. The first chapter provides a general overview of adult developmental psychology and explores physiological changes in young and middle adulthood...
...responding to stimuli; and conditioning, classical or operant, as the mechanism for that change. Adolescence as the link from childhood to adulthood This stage in development is sometimes regarded as a western concept, an example of ethnocentrism and cultural bias. It is true that many other cultures do not have an intermediate stage between childhood and adulthood, meaning that adult life either begins on the day childhood ends or that there is such a gradual transition from childhood to adulthood so that adolescence is an irrelevant concept. But it is also true that in Eurocentric or western culture there is this intermediate stage starting from around the time of puberty, and this stage has been named and studied as adolescence. The psychology of this stage is covered in Social and Personality Development by Tina Abbott (Routledge 2001). Concept of adulthood This concept does not seem a difficult one until we try and define what we mean! It can be the time or age when a person has to take on legal responsibility for themselves – currently in the United Kingdom that would be on their eighteenth birthday. It can be when a person is judged mature enough to marry (16 years old in the UK), ride a small motorbike (16 in the UK, 14 in France) or buy alcohol in a public place (18 years old in the UK and 21 years old in the USA). Or it can be considered as reaching a state of maturity (Whitbourne and Weinstock 1979) – another term which is difficult to define! Whitbourne and Weinstock saw this as being happy to act responsibly, accept one’s own social role, think logically, be emotionally aware, and cope reasonably well with life’s smaller frustrations. Ten years later, Turner and Helms (1989) developed this particular theme further, adding that the mature/adult state promotes physical and psychological well-being by the person having sorted out their values, achieved a realistic selfconcept, being stable emotionally and in relationships, and so on...
eBook - ePub- Harold G Koenig, Junietta B Mccall(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This is an affirmation of “I am me.” However, a similar life review can also result in doubt, fear, dread, and guilt. In this experience, the individual comes to a negative valuing of his or her personal life. The result is fragmentation, ambivalence, or ego despair. It is as though the person says, “I can not face who I am.” The challenges of old age, including changes, multiple losses, and in some cases, physical and mental deterioration, can stimulate a period of learning and growth, in which continued needs are met according to an appreciation of one’s own selfhood. From a developmental perspective, the goal of life is the ability to cope with life and death with integrity, based on accepting one’s self in one’s own essence or spirit. Butler (1975) described the developmental characteristics of old age as containing the following elements: A change in meaning A shift in perception An undertaking of a life review A desire to leave a legacy The establishment of a sense of serenity and a capacity for growth Definitions of Aging The state of being old was defined by the National Social Security Act of 1935. In this model, age sixty-five was the entry point into retirement and therefore old age. When this age was set, there were fewer people living much beyond this point than there are today. Old age is also defined by its end point—death! We have already dismissed this as an unhelpful definition, as we are beginning to see that there is much to do developmentally during a potential life span of some sixty-five to one hundred years. A third way to define aging is to view it descriptively as a continuous and unique set of processes. In this descriptive focus, we can see that aging consists of biological, sociological, psychological, and spiritual processes. By knowing something about these processes, we can learn something about growing old and about the elderly. The Grief of Growing Old There can be no doubt that growing old has its rewards...
eBook - ePubTeacher and Pupil
Some Socio-Psychological Aspects
- Philip Gammage(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Genetic, neuro-endocrine, nutritional and social-psychological factors all combine to provide the host of variables which contribute to the change from child to adult. Certainly, the psychological impact upon the personality of bodily change and the accompanying changes in social expectations can present a bewildering set of possibilities to the pubertal child, particularly when visible discrepancies are extant culturally and even locally and when differences between adult behaviour and adolescent behaviour can seem so subtle or so meaningless. Exploratory behaviour, conflicts and constant reassessments of self-image naturally take place and problems of identification with others may become acute. Possibilities for adult role-playing experiences occur more frequently and, with them, the thirteen or fourteen year old can begin to move away from his derived status of dependency upon parents. The peer group becomes increasingly more important as a general rule and emulation of revered peers and remote adult models is frequent. One of the problems inherent in a technico-industrial society is its demands upon mass education and the necessary prolongation of an adolescent ‘in-between status’, especially for the middle-class or aspiring middle-class youth. Another problem is that of the psycho-sexual acquisition of firm sex-roles which relate to childhood concepts of masculinity and femininity and yet make sense in terms of contemporary physical and socio-cultural expectations. Another is that probably, as Erikson says, adolescence in our present age has been over-diagnosed as a crisis period to the point where a ‘crisis role-set’ is almost deliberately set up and many react accordingly. Very few arbitrary assemblies of adolescents, such as a class of fourteen year olds, can be said to constitute a homogeneous group, since the difference in physique, in levels of intellectual, social and emotional maturity will be so marked...
eBook - ePub- Daniel K. Mroczek, Todd D. Little, Daniel K. Mroczek, Todd D. Little(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...For example, Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006) examined patterns of change across 92 different longitudinal studies covering the life course from age 10 to age 101. The findings show that people become more socially dominant, especially in young adulthood. They become more conscientious and emotionally stable through midlife. Finally, individuals demonstrated gains in openness to experience and social vitality in adolescence, and then equivalent declines late in life. This pattern of change is described as the Maturity Principle because it corresponds quite closely to definitions of maturity that are functional in nature. Hogan and Roberts (2004) argued that maturity is characterized by those qualities that serve to facilitate functioning in society—mature people are more liked, respected, and admired in their communities, social groups, and interpersonal relationships (Hogan & Roberts, 2004). This definition is quite similar to Allport's (1961) characterization of the mature person as happy, showing fewer traces of neurotic and abnormal tendencies, and having the capacity for warm and compassionate relationships. From this perspective, maturity is marked, at a minimum, by higher levels of emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. According to the empirical patterns of trait change, it appears that people do become more functionally mature with age. People become warmer, more considerate, self-controlled, responsible, and emotionally stable, especially between age of 20 and age 40. The interpretation of this definition as functional is bolstered by research demonstrating that people who score higher on these traits tend to be more effective in the tasks of social development...
