Preview

Gail Sheehy’s “Predictable Crises of Adulthood”

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1005 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Gail Sheehy’s “Predictable Crises of Adulthood”
Did one ever wonder why a person’s characteristics and behavior change when he or she experiences different stages of life? Also, can one predict what kind of life he or she will lead during the next stage, depending on his or her age? Just as the title of the passage suggests, Sheehy predicts different stages that most people experience between the ages of eighteen and fifty. She uses age as a major factor to indentify and categorize the human stage into six stages: “Pulling Up Roots”, the “Trying Twenties”, “Catch-30”, “Rooting and Extending”, the “Deadline Decade”, and lastly “Renewal or Resignation.” Sheehy refers to her self-proclaimed stages of life as the “developmental ladder” in which everyone will go through at some point in their lives. The first step of Sheehy’s ladder is known as the “Pulling up Roots.” In this stage, the eighteen-year olds motto is: “I want freedom from my parents.” College, for most, is the mode of transportation for teenagers to get away from home. Although this is what they wanted, after awhile they soon realize how much experience they lack in living alone. Friends become the substitute for parents and siblings, and there are no restrictions and limitations. The moment they diverge from the friend circle, they are seen as outcasts, and the feeling of being lost starts to kick in. Sheehy predicts that “rebounds” to the family are noticeable between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. This first stage of Sheehy’s prediction is when the teenagers are uncertain of themselves when facing a peer group or sex role situation. Having some experience because of the first stage, one becomes more mature and asks the question of how to manage in the adult world. In this stage, the “Trying Twenties”, one starts to plan ahead and think about the future. Doing what one “should” is the main theme for this stage. People base the “shoulds” on the prevailing notions of their families and cultural lifestyles. A common misconception of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I was nourished with love from my umbilical cord in my mother’s warm womb, spoon fed when I was able to feed and hand held when I could walk; I was akin to my parents from my conception, as I was their child. But, soon I was riding a bicycle by myself while my father stood and watch, I was placed on the school bus by myself while my mother waved me goodbye, in less than a year, my parents together will send me off to school by myself. From a tender age, still being a mere child, my parents have engraved the nature of independence in me, a key quality of maturity. An essential proponent of the transition to adulthood is obtaining true independence.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Christopher Columbus’s exploration in 1492, a widespread colonization occurred because of the wonderful opportunities the New World promised to the European countries. While sharing a continent, the Spanish and New England colonies had major similarities and a plethora amount of differences. The Spanish and New England colonies shared significant similarities with the treatment of the natives, yet these colonies had extreme differences with the role of religion and the control of European government.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Becoming an adolescent is a time where you go from child to adult. At this time you will experience things your body maturing and your sexual identity as a young adult. (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010)) When coming into adulthood you tend to have your personality develop more along with your morals. You will find yourself experimenting and evaluating who you are. (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010)) In the social perspective teens will become more independent and yet still maintain that need for stability with their parents. Often time’s…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The life span perspective of development provides interesting information about the development of individuals throughout their lifetime, such as who different individuals are, how individuals developed into who they are, and who or what individuals will end up becoming. The psychoanalytic perspective of psychology offers a deeper look into life span development and helps explain the stages of development that people go through in their life. The life span perspective of development also provides significant facts in regard to how the effects of heredity, and the environment may come together in order to produce individual differences in life span development.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It comes as no surprise to anyone that teenagers are sometimes naturally moody, angst-ridden, and emotional as they transition from childhood to adulthood. No one, that is, but teenagers. For adolescents such as myself, the shifting position that teenagers come to in these years is awkward at best, and painful at worst. The sudden responsibility and pressure thrust upon a teenager in the latter years of high school (and often before) is near impossible to easily adjust to, especially when there is no real preparation offered. When left at the confusing crossroads of a seemingly transitory crisis, teenagers are faced with serious internal and external conflicts, often manifest in manic-depressive and abusive tendencies, as displayed in Salinger’s…

    • 1466 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The progression from adolescence to adulthood is one of the most complicated periods in one’s life. Naïveté and inexperience become insecurities, and the expectations a family places on children sometimes overwhelm their desire to thrive. Although society likes to paint pictures of perfect family relationships and what they are expected to be, they are more often riddled with trials and tribulations that do not always have a happy ending.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chap4 HHS4U

    • 5334 Words
    • 42 Pages

    UNIT 2: LEAVING HOME Chapter 3: Early Adulthood Chapter 4: Becoming and Adult Chapter 5: Young Adult Issues and Trends CHAPTER 4: BECOMING AN ADULT  Overview  Developmental Theories Stage Progression Theories  Age-Linked Stages Theories  Constant Change Theories   Socialization Family  School   Preparing for an Occupation Family…

    • 5334 Words
    • 42 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Critical Analysis essay

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Over the course of youth’s childhood, they will eventually make a remarkable change from an adolescent into an adult, resembling a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis and emerging into a beautiful butterfly. For years there has been a debate between teenagers and adults dealing with the topic of when teens rightfully become mature and grown up. Henry G. Felsen addresses this subject through telling his own sixteen year old son his opinions and thoughts on this debate in ‘When Does a Boy Become a Man?’. The difference between a boy and a man is not in which one looks like, it is the actions and choices that a man makes which differentiates him from the boy he once was. Henry Felsen has done a commendable job in supporting this theory. He explains what the future holds for these teens that rush into adulthood with the wrong idea of what it is all about.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ego Integrity

    • 3689 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Erik Erikson talks about eight stages of human development. The last stage, Ego Integrity vs. Despair, happens in late adulthood. This may be the most important stage in one’s life affecting their family and friends possible more than others in addition to bring one’s life to close. With better understanding of this anchor stage of ones life, we can aid our transition and even prepare for it early in life. Preparing for ones final stage, as everything in life, can lead to a more successful transition into late adulthood. Strong knowledge of Ego Integrity can help prevent dangerous fall out when life’s dilemmas and tragedies force us into other stages prematurely.…

    • 3689 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parenting Styles

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The adolescent is being introduced to a big new world, and the reality of a more complex life in which they are still learning to cope with. The intent of this position is not to cut the adolescent youth slack and leave them be, rather be more empathetic, supportive, and provide them with a wise knowledge to motivate them to function in more adaptive ways.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This is a time in an adolescent’s life where they feel the most need for acceptance from their peers. They have a need to be more experimental, innovative and sometimes controversial. They are at a time where they have to keep reinventing themselves so they fit in with their peers and society in general. Teenagers emphasise freedom but with this freedom come responsibilities and obligations that they don’t want nor do they think they need. Teenagers are at an age where they think they are adults but they don’t understand…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emerging Adulthood

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The transition from adolescent to adulthood is something everyone has or will go through in their life, in the new generation of Millennial this transition seems to be elongated and now referred to as “Emerging Adulthood”. Emerging Adulthood is a coined term by Jeffery Arnett for a new transitional period between adolescence and adulthood where people experience self discovery, instability, optimism, and self-focused in the ages of 18-25. This new transitional period is a phenomenon that only occurs within individuals in developed countries, middle class socioeconomic status, and most often attending a secondary school. It is a fascinating new time period in which has the media roaring in questions about what this will mean for the future…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When evaluating the contributions of theories and research their impact as they relates to life span development; there are several that stand out for me and I feel apply well to my area of specialization. These theories and research, although not directly related to my area of specialization affect and influence the way in which I will be able to work with each individual alone or in a group setting. Because of my strong belief that the environment can have significant impact on the development of the individual as a whole many of the stages theories (i.e. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development; Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development and Piaget’s Cognitive Stages of Development), although important in…

    • 5970 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A good relationship with parents is necessary to make the transition from adolescence to adulthood easier. Young adolescents have to make important decisions that affect the entire life course (Muuss 5). The decisions can be difficult, but with a parent 's help, things can run more smoothly. In Joyce Oates ' "Where are you going, Where have you been?" Connie experiences not having an active mother or father in her life. As a result, she takes her life into her own hands and makes decisions based on how she feels. For example, Connie has a different personality when she is at home than when she is with her friend(s) (Oates 496). This change can be a result of her parents not taking part in discipline or teaching her correct morals. It is suggested that children and adolescents learn their values from adults and/or their parents rather than being self-taught (Damon 170). With the correct parenting and also cooperation on the adolescents ' part, the difficult transition into adulthood can be enjoyable and easier. "Adolescents not only want parents, they…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curfew Essay

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The teenager stage of our lives is the most complicated component of all. In these…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics