The Main Challenges Associated With Adulthood - Essay Example

Considering the role of biological and social factors, discuss the main challenges associated with adulthood Introduction Apparently, there are three main phases that human beings go through in life namely: childhood, puberty and adulthood. Adulthood is described as the period in human beings when intellectual, emotional and social responsibilities are at the highest particularly due to career demand, marriage and children. Of importance to note is that the adulthood is characterized by the early, middle and late phase that work in reference to individuals. Nevertheless, adulthood is influenced by biological and social factors and their associated challenges. Moreover, the early and middle adulthood is associated with the nurture and nature concepts that are important in human life (CôTé, 2000). Adulthood Adulthood is one of the many concepts that have been described in difference ways in reference to the different scholars. However, one common definition for the concept adulthood is that it is the last phase in human life when physical maturity is achieved with regard mental, biological, cultural and individual characteristics with relation to other similar developments that are present in this stage. According to Birren & Schaie (2005), the concept adulthood is argued to begin immediately after the adolescence although the process is characterized by individual development. It is worth noting that, the two most important stages in adulthood is the early adulthood and the middle adulthood. Early childhood is argued to range from 20 to 40 years, and it is mostly characterized by the urge to develop the ability to share intimacy, seek to form relationship that could lead to marriage and children, and individuals are further concerned about their career development. Equally, the middle childhood ranges between 40 to 65 years and is mostly characterized by unique and honest concern on the welfare of the future generations and giving their contribution through work. Nature/ nurture in Adulthood Nature vs Nurture According to Stiles (2008), nature is a psychological concept that argues that the physical and personal characteristics of individuals are determined by the genes or hereditary factors that cannot be reversed. On the other hand, nurture is a psychological concept that argues that the physical and personal characteristics are mainly determined by the environmental or social factors. In reference to the nature, scholars have ascertained that nature’s strength is dependent on the fact that genes have the capacity to produce similar genes particularly in the case of fraternal twins who are argued to have similar physical characteristics in different environments. However, the nature concept has a weakness in that most critics have associated it with the argument that it is the source of genes such as gay genes, criminal genes among other genes that it is yet to prove the world wrong. In reference to the nurture concept, scholars have argued that it is relatively easy to train individuals into a given behaviour irrespective of their race and potentialities. The weakness of the concept nurture is present when the behaviour overlaps the hereditary factors. Notably, the main difference between nature and nurture is that while nature revolves around the biological and hereditary factors, nurture revolves around social and environmental factors. Nature and Nurture in Adulthood It is apparent that both nature and nurture have a huge impact in adulthood. Having ascertained that nature is determined by the hereditary factors, men and women in adulthood might be challenged by some of these factors when at their early and middle adulthood. For instance, an individual might have inherited a strong memory and /or strong eyesight. However, during this phase in life, they are at a higher risk of gradually losing their memory or eyesight. Hence, some of the hereditary factors become challenging when at adulthood and could differ in reference to both men and women. Conversely, the nurture concept is determined by both environmental and social factors that directly affect the general growth of individuals, and further cause challenges to them when they attain adulthood. For instance, an individual might be brought up in extreme wealth and be well educated but, as soon as, they enter the phase of adulthood, they find it challenging to cope with the social factors they have previously been accustomed to. Nature and Nurture in Gender Similarly, there is difference in gender roles when it comes to nature and nurture. According to Smith, Davidson, Christoffersen & Herzo (2011), heredity is the basis for physiological differences in both males and females, which are mostly present during birth. As a result, nature facilitates to the possibility of female attaining the age of puberty earlier as compared to male counterparts. On the other hand, nature ensures that once males attain puberty, they gain more muscle composition as compared to females and also grow taller in general. In addition, males are argued to be more aggressive physically due to the gradual increase in the levels of testosterone in their body. Nevertheless, some scholars have argued that males have higher visual –spatial abilities while their female counterparts have relatively higher verbal abilities in compensation. In relation to nurture, both females and males react to the environment and other social factors after they are conceived. As a result, most cultures and the environment have been confirmed as facilitators of gender specific behaviours. This perception is mostly utilized by parents, peers, teachers and other people. For instance, a substantial number of parents have been said to treat their sons and daughters differently. Thus, daughters are said to receive assistance upon request from their parents while the sons are encouraged and /or compelled to handle issues on their own. Similarly, the media and peer behaviour contribute to gender stereotypes in that the media portrays males as more aggressive and with better leadership traits while the females portrayed as being more domestic oriented and obedience. Peers also tend to associate with fellow boys and girl respectively. Importantly, nurture is also related to self socialization as children become aware of their behaviours to an extent of forming self constructed schemas, which are commonly known as gender schemas where the ‘ideal’ concept is practiced in reference to the perception of different individuals. Gender and Adulthood According to Birren & Schaie (2005), there is a close relationship gender and adulthood. In adulthood, both males and females are expected to take responsibilities in reference to their gender. For instance, females are expected to take mother figures and all the related responsibilities to their children. Similarly, males should take father figures and related responsibilities too. Nevertheless, individuals at this stage might at time become overwhelmed by the challenges that are related to marriage and children. Biological factors affecting Adulthood According to CôTé (2000), biological factors revolve around issues that directly affect the general functionality and behaviour aspects of human beings, and other living organisms. Moreover, biological factors can be physical, physiological, neurological or genetic conditions which are known to cause physiological effects to both males and females during the adulthood stage. It is worth noting that biological factors influence the behaviour of human beings. As such, when individuals attain the adulthood age, they are faced by challenges that are directly related to biological factors such as weight gain, depression, among other diseases. For instance, scholars have argued that the early adulthood is mostly related weight gain which might extend to middle adulthood as times. Nevertheless, the presence of weight gain in men and women calls for different reactions from the society. In most cases, women tend to receive higher levels of stigmatisation as compared to men. Research has confirmed that women who have low education levels have a higher probability of being stigmatised as compared to their counterpart. Additionally, those women who have issues with their weight are argued to have poorer body image, low self- esteem, anxiety, depression and further taught to have unhealthy eating habits. Similarly, the early and middle adulthood is associated with high levels of depression in both men and women. Smith, Davidson, Christoffersen, & Herzog (2011) argue that, depression especially in adult could result to great suffering and further cause the victims to experience impaired functioning in their daily life. For instance, unipolar depression occurs to approximately 7% of individuals in adulthood and is further likely to be directly associated with around 16% of the total disability. However, it has been argued that depression has received both under treatment and under diagnosis due to the inadequate knowledge on the disease. Hence, the adulthood stage receives more challenges when such diseases are associated with other factors. Biological factors might also cause challenges in adulthood especially when the men and women no longer experience their normal biological processes. For instance, women attain menopause which means that they are no longer capable of getting more children. On the other hand, men continue siring children, although they are faced by midlife crisis, which compel them to be more aggressive in most of their activities. Social factors affecting Adulthood According to CôTé(2000), social factors revolve around the functions and behaviour of individuals as a result of the social status, religion family among other factors. Nevertheless, there are numerous challenges that are associated to these factors. One social factor that poses challenges in adulthood is divorce. In most cases, divorce is seen as a permanent separation of spouses who had been living together for a while. These couple might go to an extent of denying each or either to opportunity to see their children. When this happens, the men or women are left with loneliness at this stage and this might lead to emotional and psychological torture and related issue such as ridicule from the society. Another social factor is results to employment. Basically, research has indicated that the modern job market requires individuals who are ‘young and energetic’. Thus, most companies have the tendency of employing individuals who are between 24-26 years, which means that only a section of the early adulthood individual would qualify while the middle adulthood would rarely get employment. In this regard, the main challenge in adulthood is that most of these individuals are no longer energetic, and as such can no longer compete in the job market, leaving them with a higher possibility of loss their job and living miserably for the rest of their life. Similarly, social status also has an impact in adulthood. Stiles (2008) argues that social status especially those that are achieved might be difficult to maintain since most of them requires involvement in various activities that might be challenging to the physical well being of the individuals concerned. Conclusion Actually, adulthood both early adulthood and middle adulthood, are important phases in the last stage of human beings life. As such, there biological and social factors that affect individuals when they attain adulthood. To begin with, adulthood could be facilitated by nurture or nature depending on the individuals through genetics or environmental factors. Nature and nurture impacts the human life, but posses more challenges in adulthood such as memory loss, poverty among other factors. Of importance to note is that both biological and social factors cause challenges in many ways. Additionally, there are numerous challenges that are associated with nature and nurture in gender such as having to cope with changes that happen to their bodies and trying to cope with the assumption of society members and the perceptions that is present in different media and other social activities that are worth engaging in. Besides, individuals in adulthood are highly likely affected by biological and social factors. Biological factors become challenging when they alter the normal body functions forcing the individuals to react physically, emotionally or even psychologically. Conversely, social factors become challenging when they can no longer influence the life of individuals when they attain adulthood. In a general sense, early adulthood and middle adulthood could be argued to have challenges that might be solved depending on the situation at hand. Reference list Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Birren, J. E., & Schaie, K. W. (2005).  Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. Burlington, Elsevier. CôTé, J. E. (2000). Arrested adulthood: the changing nature of maturity and identity. New York, New York University Press. Smith, C., Davidson, H., Christoffersen, K. M., & Herzog, P. S. (2011). Lost in transition: the dark side of emerging adulthood. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Stiles, J. (2008). The fundamentals of brain development: integrating nature and nurture. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More