Adulthood:
An adult is generally defined as someone who is responsible, mature, self-supporting, and well integrated into society. There is a variation in developing these attributes, which suggests that there is a shift in timing when an individual becomes an adult or assumes adult roles.
The assumption of adult roles is directed by an individual’s social context. The best time for some of the most important life events (i.e. marriage, job, having children) might be quite different in different cultures but within a culture there is similarity in the course of adult development.
In early adulthood, two major tasks are
- exploring the possibilities for adult living
- and developing a stable life structure.
The twenties represent the novice phase of adult development. Gradually, a transition from dependence to independence should occur. This could be marked by an image of the kind of life the young person wants, especially in terms of marriage and a career.
Career and Work :
- Earning a living, choosing an occupation, and developing a career are important themes for people in their twenties and thirties.
- Entering work life is a challenging event in anyone’s life. There are apprehensions regarding different adjustments, proving one’s competence, performance, dealing with competition, and coping with expectations both of the employers and oneself.
- It is also the beginning of new roles and responsibilities. Developing and evaluating a career becomes an important task of adulthood.
- The adjustments that young adults have to make when entering a marriage relate to knowing the other person if not known earlier, coping with each other’s likes, dislikes, tastes, and choices.
- If both the partners are working, adjustments are required regarding sharing and performing roles and responsibilities at home.
- In addition to getting married, becoming a parent can be a difficult and stressful transition in young adults, even though it is usually accompanied by the feeling of love for the baby.
- How adults experience parenting is affected by different situations such as the number of children in the family, the availability of social support, and the happiness or unhappiness of the married couple.
- Death of a spouse or divorce creates a family structure in which a single parent either the mother or the father has to take up the responsibility of the children. In recent times, women are increasingly seeking employment outside the home thus creating another type of family in which both parents work.
- The stressors when both parents are working are quite the same as of a single working parent, namely, taking care of children, their schoolwork, illness, and coping with workload at home and in the office, etc. Despite the stresses associated with parenting, it provides a unique opportunity for growth and satisfaction and is perceived as a way of establishing concern and guiding the next generation.
Physical changes during middle ages are caused by maturational changes in the body. Though individuals may vary in the rate at which these changes occur, almost all middle aged people notice gradual deterioration in some aspects of their physical functioning such as decline in vision, sensitivity to glare, hearing loss and changes in physical appearance (e.g., wrinkles, grey hair or thinning of hair, weight gain).
It is believed that some cognitive abilities decline with age while others do not. Decline in memory is more in tasks involving long-term memory than short-term memory. For example, a middle-aged person can remember the telephone number immediately after s/he has heard it but may not remember it so efficiently after a few days.
Memory tends to show greater decline, while wisdom may improve with age. Remember that individual differences exist in intelligence at every age and as not all children are exceptional, neither do all adults show wisdom.
Old Age:
Just when “old age” begins, is not easy to determine. Traditionally, the age of retirement was linked to old age. Now that people are living longer, age of retiring from work is changing, and the cut-off point for the definition of “old age” is moving upward.
Some of the challenges, which the aged have to cope with include retirement, widowhood, illness, or death in the family. The image of old age is changing in certain ways. Now there are people who have crossed seventy years of age or so and are quite active, energetic, and creative.
They are competent and are therefore, valued by society in many walks of life. In particular, we have aged people in politics, literature, business, art and science. The myth of old age as an incapacitating and therefore, frightening phase of life is changing.
Of course, the experience of old age also depends on the socioeconomic conditions, availability of health care, attitude of people, expectations of society and the available support system.
Work is most important during early adult years, then family becomes most important and beyond that health becomes the most important issue in the person’s life.
Clearly, successful ageing for much of our adult life focuses on how effective we are at work, how loving our relationships are in our family, how good our friendships are, how healthy we are, and how cognitively fit we are.
Retirement from active vocational life is quite significant. Some people perceive retirement as a negative change. They consider it as a separation from an important source of satisfaction and self-esteem.
Others view it as a shift in life with more time to pursue their own interests. It is seen that older adults who show openness to new experiences, more striving and achievement oriented behaviour prefer to keep busy and are better adjusted.
Others view it as a shift in life with more time to pursue their own interests. It is seen that older adults who show openness to new experiences, more striving and achievement oriented behaviour prefer to keep busy and are better adjusted.
Older adults also need to adjust to changes in the family structure and new roles (grand parenting) that have to be learnt. Children usually are busy in their careers and families and may set up independent homes.
Older adults may depend on their children for financial support and to overcome their loneliness (after children have moved out). This might trigger-off feelings of hopelessness and depression in some people. In old age feeling of loss of energy, and dwindling of health and financial assets, lead to insecurity and dependency. The elderly tend to look towards others to lean on and to care for them.
Indian culture favours dependency of elderly on their children, for old age needs caring. In fact, parents in most oriental cultures rear their children with the fond hope that they will care for them during old age.
It is important to give the elderly a sense of security and belonging, a feeling that people care for them (especially in the time of crisis), and to remember that we all have to grow old one day. Although death is more likely to occur in late adulthood, death can come at any point in development.
The deaths, especially of children and younger adults, are often perceived to be more tragic than those of others. In children and younger adults, death is more likely to occur because of accidents but in older adults it is more likely to occur because of chronic disease.
The death of a spouse is usually seen as the most difficult loss. Those left behind after the death of their partner suffer deep grief, cope with loneliness, depression, financial loss and are also at risk of many health related problems. Widows by far out number widowers, because studies show that women live longer than men and tend to marry men older than themselves. During such times, support from children, grandchildren, and friends can help the individual cope with the loss of spouse.
People in different cultures view death differently. In the Gond culture in our country, it is believed that death is caused by magic and demon. In theTanala culture of Madagascar, natural forces are thought to cause death.
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