Early Adulthood Cognitive Development - Essay Example

Early adulthood refers to the late stages of the adolescent stage. According to scholars, this stage of development is characterized by the individuals’ resilience and ability to bring their life under control after the tumultuous adolescent stage. The person starts to clearly understand the consequences of their actions and risky behavior that characterize the previous stage- adolescent stage; they start developing lasting mutual relationships especially with the opposite sex. According to Arnett (66), early adulthood cognitive development is characterized by five features.

These attributes include instability, identity exploration, self-focus, divided feeling, and a feeling of possibilities.Under instability, individuals in this stage experience divided commitment towards education, work, and love; they face the challenge of adequately allocating their available time to the relationships/activities signifying their transition to adulthood. Under identity exploration, an individual start detaching themselves from peer groups to personal life; they value self-focus more than peer-focus that is they abandon social obligations to autonomy.

The fourth feature, age of possibilities, indicates that the person begins comprehending the prospects of transforming their lives from adolescence to adulthood; however, they may experience the fifth feature- divided feeling. The double feeling leaves the person perplexed of their exact stage; as much as they consider themselves as not fully-fledged adults, they never view themselves as adolescents. This is very much similar to the students in college: they fantasize about having a family, securing a stable job, and achieving excellent academic scores; they start valuing autonomy more than group life knowing that soon they will be on their own without the support of their parents or friends.