Adult lifespan development - Essay Example

Adult lifespan development (middle years) s of Learning Introduction Adult lifespan in the middle years occurs between the ages of 30-60 years. In this age bracket, there are many changes in our lives. The changes are specifically related to the general lifestyle of individuals, which include health and physical development, career developments, finances, marriage and finally leisure activities (Santrock, 1999). It is during this period when people think of their whole life and how much is left, depending on the anticipated life expectancy.

This is the period when people have greatest responsibility and control in the society. The stage is very important, since before reaching the late adult stage everyone must experience the changes in the lifestyle. It makes an individual understand life and what it means to survive in this world. This is where mid-life crisis arises. The crisis is due to the various challenges in life that affect a person. As a psychologist, Erikson puts it as one of the stages of development: this is the period of generativity versus stagnation (Santrock, 1999).

Generativity means that an individual tries to create an idea to make a difference in the society. In physical development, there are biological and physical changes in the body in terms of hearing and seeing, which start to decline at this stage. There could be sight problems for some people, while the others might grow gray hair or skin wrinkling. At this stage there are some noticeable changes on how an adult weighs the success of his or her career. In most cases, people in this age bracket experience job satisfaction by the age of 40-45, which also reflects on the financial satisfaction (Santrock, 1999).

There is high job commitment in these age brackets. The adults have goals to meet and make various adjustments to achieve them. In fact, the major concern is the retirement planning. They do this with hope that when they save money, they can secure a safe financial future, as they plan for retirements. The high job commitment is also due to more family responsibilities that an individual has. The responsibilities need financial commitments, thus there are even possible cases of financial planning and readjustments.

Adults demonstrate variations in intimate lifestyles. They are mostly married people with family and intimacy as their greatest concerns in life. There are only two options for these families, they either deteriorate or improve, depending on the level of the responsibility of the individuals. This stage of development calls for leisure as an important activity in dealing with life experiences. All the stresses of life are dealt with through leisure time as a way of enhancing their well being.

In terms of exploring the middle life crisis felt in the stage of development, the issues that may facilitate this crisis include divorce, death of a partner, serious illness, retrenchment in the job or just being not contented with what you have accomplished (Santrock, 1999). Due to this, there are feelings that the individual may have which may include personal failure, need for more affection and novelty, being worried on the future prospects and, lastly, inability to find time for leisure enjoyment.

In making the connection and the additional study of the middle life crisis, it can be learned that this is the important stage of development, because success of an individual is directly depending on how an individual handles the challenging conditions at the middle age. This includes how one balances finances and leisure activities and, generally, how one prioritizes the optional tasks that determine successful life. The implication of this information to me is that I will definitely plan well to be a successful person in future, especially for the middle adult period.

My priorities have changed to understand the fact that life without financial planning and management at all levels of adult development may lead me into a crisis. Finally, the challenges can be averted through understanding the developmental stages effectively and putting them in practice. Reference Santrock, J. (1999). Life-Span Development, Seventh Edition Copyright. McGraw-Hill: the Hill Companies Inc: McGraw Publishers.