Week 6 - Early & Middle Adulthood

This week we read about early and middle adulthood which have similar milestones with different situations and markers.

• Physical Development
• Early Adulthood - One is at height of fitness but more susceptible to alcohol and smoking which can put them at risk for sexual harassment and rape.
• Middle Adulthood  - This is marked by health concerns and starting testing for serious conditions like breast or colon cancer.  There is more worry about cardiovascular health, vision issues and health/sexual habits.  These latter issues can be dependent on what we did during early adulthood.
• Cognitive Development
• Early Adulthood - This is shown during our college years and just after college with our intellectual development.  We look at right vs. wrong or is it right or wrong depending on the situation or new beliefs based on our understanding of our values
• Middle Adulthood - At this time frame we look at intelligence where it is fluid vs crystallized and the perceptual speed we have at this time.  We look for balance not quantity and our information processing has been learned over time but our memory begins to decline since our memory is filled.  There is less space for the new information.  One fun fact is this stage can be more creative as we use our knowledge to approach situations and solutions in different ways.
• Social Development
• Early Adulthood - This stage looks at the individual and the development of that personality.  Erikson looks at intimacy and isolation and how the two blend and work in the love triangle theory of intimacy.
• Middle Adulthood - Erikson explained generativity versus stagnation instead of intimacy.  It asks us are we useful to self but also society and are we productive versus bored and self absorbed with ourselves and not contributing to society.
• Marriage & Family
• Early Adulthood - Here we develop and start the relationship and grow into parenthood.  In some cases, cohabitation is more the norm and we see more same sex couples, despite laws for and against.  
• Middle Adulthood - Here we are better communicators, have older children who may have left the nest and adults look forward to their new couple view.  We also see aging parents and their impact on the adult relationship finding ourselves between our children and our own parents.
• Patterns of Work
• Early Adulthood - We are planning our careers, ambitious and looking toward the future.  We gain mentors and set goals for ourselves.  We find the way to balance our lives between family and friends.
• Middle Adulthood  - We are now challenged with balancing more the work and family which can result in conflicts with managers.  We may question our goals and decide to change careers or paths.
• My views
• Early Adulthood - I was ambitious and wanted my independence and career before I found my stable relationship.  I wanted to know who I was and what I wanted out of life.  At that time, it was an Accounting/Finance career and my own place.  Once I achieved that it was hopefully opening up to a relationship and marriage and family.  This all happened by the time I was 35.  I had my family (husband & two boys & two dogs), our home, our community, our work life and friends.  I was exercising and felt great.
• Middle Adulthood - It seems once I hit 40 things changed slightly.  All my exercising was a bit much resulting in health issues such as anemia, vitamin deficiencies, exercise induced anaphylaxis and sleep issues.  I started to lack value in my job and my relationship with my boss, who was at one time mentoring, changed for the worse.  I questioned myself, my role at work, my role at home and in life.  I needed a new perspective and found it through scouting.  I realized I enjoyed working with adolescents which resulted in working toward my teaching license!