Emerging Adult Life - Essay Example

Q Emerging adulthood is a human development phenomenon that has developed over the 21st century due to changes in marriage and parenthood ages. This phenomenon has been supported by other factors and emerging trends in society; Arnett points out that there are five characteristics of rising adulthood period, and they consist of the age of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, a feeling of in between and possibilities (2004). Identity exploration in emerging adulthood is a feature whereby the young adults look into various possibilities in their lives, which are centered on love and work (Arnett, 2004). In the period of promising adulthood, individuals explore love and work possibilities by establishing their identities through knowing whom they are and what they would want to do in life. In addition, young adults in this case explore working potentials and lay the foundation of their future careers. Secondly, emerging adulthood period is characterized by instability of individuals on the choices they make concerning their lives on love and work. They identify mistakes in their life decisions, and they revise the mistakes and paths so that they can undertake others, which are in line with their desires and interests. Thirdly, emerging adulthood period is characterized by individual self-focus whereby they try to free themselves from the care of their parents and guardians, and be independent in their decisions on friends, job and partners (Arnett, 2004). This period of emerging adulthood is also identified by a personal feeling of in-between. Arnett highlights that this age is between adolescents and adulthood, and due to exploration and instability individuals feel that they are placed in between two age groups (2004). This is because people take responsibility and independence on decisions and finances. Lastly, there are individual possibilities during emerging adulthood age. In this period, individuals have many chances of determining their direction in life because they are not yet settled, unlike the older generations. They use their past life experiences to set benchmarks on their achievements and desires. Q. 2 The period of emerging adulthood starts after individuals have passed through teenage. Therefore, this period is different from the adolescent’s age in different ways. In the first instance, emerging adults are independent of their parents than adolescents; thus, majority of the emerging adults do not live in their parents’ homes since they are in college while the adolescents live with their parents since they are in high school and junior schools. Secondly, emerging adulthood is different from adolescents in the individual adaptation of adult’s role whereby they explore their feelings of love and intimacy than adolescents (Arnett, 2004). Individuals perceive love as a feeling of deep intimacy, and they identify characteristics of other people whom they would want to collaborate with in life such as in marriage. Thirdly, emerging adults have greater freedom than adolescents do in choosing their career paths because they can travel to different places, unlike the adolescents. Arnett also highlights that emerging adults are people above the age of 18 years up to mid twenties and adolescents ate between the ages of 10 and 18 years. Hence, adolescents experience changes in their puberty while emerging adults are people who have attained full reproductive maturity. Emerging adulthood is also different from early adulthood in some ways. Firstly, it is considered as a period between adolescents and adulthood, so individuals are not yet into adulthood. Therefore, most of them still depend on their parents for financial help since they are still in college unlike early adulthood where people start becoming financially independent. Secondly, Arnett also highlights that people of the age bracket of emerging adulthood feel that they have not reached adulthood unlike those in the early adulthood periods (19). This is because they are still learning in schools and other institutions unlike their counterparts who are already in employment. Lastly, majority of people in emerging adulthood age are not married, but in early adulthood ages, people are already married and they have children. Q. 3 Tanner, Arnett and Leis highlight that individuals experience physical development in the emerging adulthood period. In physical development, young adults face challenges such as obesity and influence to drug abuse such as tobacco smoking (2008). In this development, individuals experience development of their physical bodies, which is influenced by their lifestyles and behavior. These physical development challenges form the foundation of future health problems during the middle and old age. During the emerging adulthood period, Erickson theory suggests that cognitive development occurs through the development of individual cognitive structures. This development involves individuals developing the ability to rationalize and make decisions on issues. They should be able to regulate their emotions and decide on physiological tasks by developing adult behavior and thinking (Tanner, Arnett and Leis, 2008). Lastly, social development is also a significant facet in development of emerging adults. In this case, young emerging adults develop close relationships and friendships that are perceived to help them develop in other areas of their lives. Individuals are able to develop social relations with other people in the society who are not their family. Hence, they achieve companionship and social support from other people to enhance their career development, aspirations etc (Berk, 2009). Q. 4 When the physical, cognitive and social domains of emerging adulthood are not developed, it can result to problems in life during the early and middle adulthood periods. The first problem is the health problems that can arise due to improper development of physical domains where individuals can develop harmful conditions such as hypertension and cancer, due to unhealthy physical behaviors. This can result from factors such as obesity and abuse of drugs like tobacco that can lead to health problems. Secondly, they can lead to a problem in the ability to make life and career decisions. In this case, individuals who did not have proper cognitive development can have difficulties in making their decisions in life and careers. In addition, this can cause problems in individual personalities whereby they are unable to control their emotions and behaviors due to lack of proper cognitive development in the emerging adulthood period. Another problem that might arise is the lack of good social relationships that can develop from lack of proper social development. In this case, individuals can lack support to develop their aspirations and careers. Lastly, individuals can have problems in developing intimate love relationships with other people during their middle years if they do not develop cognitively, physically and socially in their emerging adulthood ages. Q. 5 Culture and family expectations affects emerging adulthoods in various ways. Firstly, culture and family influence the period of emerging adulthood by extending of reducing its duration (Arnett 22). For example, some cultures prohibit marriages before people attain ascertain the age while others can encourage early marriages hence, affecting emerging adulthood period. The size of a family or culture also affects emerging adulthood period (Berk, 2009). This is because, in big cultures, people have more opportunities to explore chances than in small cultures. Thirdly, the past circumstances of a family or culture can also affect emerging adults. For example, if a family has been violent and poor in the past, it can affect emerging adulthood because people will work hard to avoid a repetition of the same. Lastly, the geographic location of cultures also affects emerging adulthood. In this case, through urbanization, cultures located in rural areas have fewer opportunities in education and occupation and this can lead to early marriages, unlike the urban cultures hence influencing emerging adulthood period (Berk, 2009). Q. 6 College education enhances emerging adulthood in a number of ways. Firstly, it assists individuals to get more education skills which expand their occupational opportunities in the economy; therefore, enhancing emerging adulthood (Arnett 23). Secondly, it enhances emerging adulthood by enabling individuals to live independently from their parents by getting life experience away from home. It also enhances emerging adulthood by providing training of individuals in order to prepare them for their professions and careers. Lastly, college education enhances emerging adulthood by enhancing individual understanding of their personalities through learning and building relationships. References Arnett, J.J. (2004). Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Berk, L.E. (2009). Development Through the Lifespan. Exploring Lifespan Development. Pearson Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Tanner, J.L., Arnett, J.J and Leis, J.A. (2008). Emerging Adulthood Learning and Development During the First Stage of Adulthood. Retrieved from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~tmusumec/Tanner,%20Arnett%20%26%20Leis_Chapter%202%20in%20Smith%20Handbook.pdf Read More