Adolescence and Adulthood

Adolescence and Adulthood
PSY/202
November 13, 2011
Professor Mason

Psychosocial development stage during adolescence happens during this stage. This is when you are testing, trying to find who you are, your strengths, and what kinds of roles are best suited to play for the rest of your life (Feldman, 2010). This stage is where you discover your identify. I discovered my own role and personality I believe I was around twelve years old. I realized I was good with others, had lots of patience with others and liked to help others so I decided I wanted to be a nurse. My mother was a nurse and I saw how much she loved her job and the way she helped people. Well when I was growing up the only big peer pressure was ditching school. I did not grow up with all the peer pressure our young adolescences have to face these days. Like drugs, sex, and pregnancies. These things were probably around when I was an adolescent but not as obvious as now. The way I responded to peer pressure was I did ditch school once. I really did not have a good time because I was so worried that my mother was going to see me or find out. So I decide it, it was not worth it so I never ditched school again. The social and physical aspects of late adulthood is the disengagement theory. This theory sees successful aging as a process of gradual withdrawal from the physical, psychological, and social worlds(Feldman, 2010). Such as retirement, losing friends due to death, less active due to poor health making it hard to socialize and becoming a widow. The physical changes of late adulthood are aging. Your hair turns gray and thins out, your skin becomes less elastic, wrinkled and dry and you begin to shrink and your posture becomes poor. The physical changes of late adulthood are, even though the activities are not all that different from that of young people adults tend to experience declines in reaction time, sensory abilities and physical stamina ( Feldman, 2010 pg 323). Old age may bring physical declines caused by genetic preprogramming or just plain wear and tear (Feldman, 2010. pg 323). The cognitive changes of late adulthood are intellectual declines are not an inevitable part of aging, fluid intelligence does decline with age, and long term memory abilities are sometimes impaired and crystallized intelligence shows slight increases with age and short term memory stays on the same level (Feldman, 2010 pd 324). The differences between the major transitions that occur during adolescence is the developmental stage between childhood and adulthood is marked by the onset of puberty and is when sexual maturity happens (Feldman, 2010 pg 309). The beginning of puberty is how you view yourself and the way others see you as well. The changes that occur in late adulthood is you have a sense of unity in life accomplishments and you have regrets over lost opportunities in your life. I believe there are no similarities because when you are an adolescence you are trying to find yourself and who you are going to be. When you are in late adulthood you have already found yourself and you are who you wanted to be.

References

Feldman, R.S. (2010) Psychology and your life modules 27 & 28

References: Feldman, R.S. (2010) Psychology and your life modules 27 & 28