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Issues in Adult Development

Adult Development. The works of Gould, Levinson, Vaillant, Erikson, Neugarten, Low-enthal and others, and the enormous popularity of Sheehy's Passages point to a growing body of theory on adult development which is already having an impact similar to the impact on public thought of the earlier wo

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Issues in Adult Development

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    1. Issues in Adult Development

    2. Adult Development The works of Gould, Levinson, Vaillant, Erikson, Neugarten, Low-enthal and others, and the enormous popularity of Sheehy's Passages point to a growing body of theory on adult development which is already having an impact similar to the impact on public thought of the earlier work on "stages" of childhood and adolescence.

    3. Adult Life Cycle Assumptions (Vivian Rogers McCoy) • Life unfolds in sequence and in stages. • Each stage is marked by a crisis, a turning point, a crucial period of both vulnerability and potential. • At crisis points, progress or falling back occurs, but whichever happens, the future is substantially different. • Each period has specific tasks to be engaged in; when these are successfully engaged, we move on.

    4. • External (to us) marker events are constantly happening — graduations, marriage, childbirth, divorce, jobs. Changes within those marker events are what make up a developmental stage. • An adult's life involves both (a) membership in the culture — jobs, class, family, society — and (b) how his/her values, aspirations, goals are being met or frustrated by participation in the world. • It is in the inner realm where crucial shifts of growth occur. How we feel about the marker events, whether we come to grips with them or avoid them, determines if we move on or stagnate.

    5. • Crises are predictable and growth-producing. • Engaging change is scary, unsettling. Regression, accommodation, and integration of change usually characterize passage. • For growth to occur, challenges need to be slightly greater than the individual's present coping skills so that he/she can stretch, yet not be overwhelmed and forced to retreat to safer ground.

    6. As with the conceptions of child development, the conception of ages and stages of adults is only "true" for one-third of all adults at a particular age; another one-third are ahead and one-third behind. But the sequence tends to occur on schedule.

    7. Transitions The more difficult transitions for most people appear to be (give or take two or three years): • age 30 — when youthful dreams have had to come to grips with reality (sometimes more difficult for women)' • age 40 — when each comes face to face with the fact that half of one's life is over (sometimes more difficult for men); • age 50 — concerns about life purpose (sometimes more difficult for women); • age 60 — facing retirement (sometimes more difficult for men);

    8. Particular problems between spouses may be engendered at transition points when one is exacerbated or "out of sync" with the other's stage or crisis and misinterpreting the other's "strange" behavior. A passage, transition, crisis of "life course correction" is triggered by ordinary life events but even more by "off-timing" of unanticipated life events. Transitions are invitations for growth.

    9. Early Adulthood In early adulthood, according to Erikson, the issue is intimacy (relating to other people) vs. isolation. Ages 18—22 — Pulling Up Roots (Sheehy, Gould, Levinson and others) • The transition from adolescence to adulthood; leaving the family, establishing life on one's own. * • Continuing educational preparation, beginning work, handling peer relationships, establishing a separate "home," managing time and money.

    10. Early Adulthood Ages 22—28 - Becoming Adult (Sheehy, Levinson, Gould and others) • Reaching out; trying out the "dream;" establishing autonomy. • Setting in motion life patterns; selecting a mate; beginning career ladder, establishing a family, becoming a parent. • Finding a mentor, someone about 15 years older. • Often characterized by doing what we feel we should. • Characterized by feeling that we are different, special, that we can do anything.

    11. Early Adulthood Ages 28—33 — Catch-30 (Sheehy, Levinson, Gould and others) • The age 30 transition characterized by second thoughts, a feeling of being too narrow and restricted with earlier choices of career, marriage, relationships. Identity concerns, especially for women. • Characterized by a new vitality, and is often a time of change, turmoil and dissatisfaction.

    12. Early Adulthood • Urges to broaden oneself, make new choices, alter or deepen commitments change jobs, buy a house, have a baby, get a divorce, etc. Family-career conflicts for women. • Urge to do what one wants to do rather than follow the earlier "shoulds." • Time of reappraisal, putting down roots, searching for personal values.

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