Week 6 - Fitzpatrick - Early and Middle Adulthood

In week six our readings had us dive into the development of human beings during the early and middle phases of adulthood. In Chapter 9, early adulthood (ages 18-35, as stated by Erickson (219)) is discussed. Topics discussed throughout the chapter include the peak of physical development, healthy lifestyle and the effect of adhering to one, cognitive development, gender and sexuality, social development and the importance of building relationships, and marriage and family. In Chapter 10, middle adulthood (ages 35-60 (243)) are discussed. Topics discussed are physical development, including the external physical signs of aging and increase chance of decreasing sensory abilities such as hearing and vision, the importance of health habits on the effect of overall health, fluid vs. crystalized intelligence, generativity versus stagnation, stability versus change, middle-aged marriage and divorce, work patterns, and stress.

            Erickson’s theory on early adulthood stressing the need for intimacy to create identity stood out to me in this chapter, because of my absolute agreement with the scenario. The text states that “those who have achieved the stage of intimacy are able to commit themselves to concrete affiliations and partnerships with others…” (220). Conversely, I also believe in the idea that until an individual successfully achieves said state of intimacy – whether passionately or through strongly bonded friendship – they are willing yet unable to commit to said concrete affiliations. Freudian, yes, but I have come to this notion through personal experience.

When I hear the term early-adulthood, the first thing that comes to mind is college versus post-college life. For me, this stage of life was, by far, my hardest transition I have been faced with. The reason behind such a struggle was a result of said confliction. While I had spent the past five years of my life developing relationships with my friends and significant others, I found myself in an isolated state after graduation. Through no fault of any specifics, and simple poor luck and misunderstandings, I graduated from school near Indianapolis, and chose to return home near Chicago to accept a professional position. My girlfriend and I at the time had recently broken up, ceasing one relationship, and I returned home hoping to rekindle another, only to have them disappear from my life without notice. My friends returned home from college as well, but quickly moved to Atlanta, Florida, and other areas of the country, respectively. I was alone and did not know how to internally rationalize the changes around me of not having social communication with others. I wished to engage with peers and others around me, but through the loss of so many, I found myself distant, and hesitant to act on my wishes. I had staked so much of my identity on the identity I had created with my friends in high school and college, I had lost the self-esteem, and self-concept I had previously created, thus losing all self-confidence. It was not until five years after graduation, nearing my 30s and entering middle adulthood that I had begun creating relationships with new peers, and rekindled with former peers that I had begun to regain confidence in myself.

Piggybacking off the example above, I want to touch on the idea of personality stability versus change mentioned in chapter 10 (244-245). In that portion, it is mentioned that Erikson and Maslow believe in the notion all life experiences must be considered important, thus, the events that take place in our lives during both adolescence and adulthood are just as important in shaping personalities as are the events that originally create our personality in early and middle childhood (245). While I do not fully agree with this idea, using my previous example above, I cannot fully dispute the idea either. While I do agree with Erikson and Maslow that life experiences at any time can alter human development in the social/emotional format, because so many choices made cognitively throughout life are based on an individual’s interests that are created through past social experiences taking place in childhood, the likelihood of an absolute change in personality is far less imminent to be experienced than not in adulthood. It is my belief that for an absolute change of personality to occur in adulthood, the experiences occurring to an individual must be sudden, dramatic, and experienced against the individual’s will. To support this thought, I will say the text states "You've probably heard someone say, 'He's been like this ever since he was a baby!'" (244). Yet, to converse, how often has it been heard "they haven't been the same since..." This is, however, just an opinion, and open to criticism.      

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