Understanding Adulthood Stage In Human Life Cycle: Psychological And Sociological Perspectives

Complementary to the workbook, submit a 750 word reflective essay commenting upon what has been learned and gained by watching the series, and what might be the implications for social work practice. This is a reflective piece of work that outlines what you learned from the 7 Up series and think about how this might be relevant in your work as a social worker. Think about how it might or might not be possible to predict the life trajectory of people. Think about how what you have seen in the series will help you in social work practice. You only need to use a couple of references to substantiate points made in the essay.

After you have chosen an age group discuss psychological and sociological theories that are relevant to that group in terms of understanding your chosen age group better. You need to use psychological theories to demonstrate development of the particular age group at that stage of the life course.

You also need to use sociological theory using structural functional perspectives or conflict perspectives or symbolic interactionist perspectives to help understand people in that particular stage of the life course.

Finally you need to demonstrate an understanding of how different perspectives and will help you work more effectively with service users within the chosen life course cohort.

Please have in mind that we’ll be paying particular attention to:

1. Your ability to use theoretical concepts accurately, to think in logical sequence and to organize ideas into a conceptual whole. It illustrates the ability to respond to contexts that shape practice.
2. Your ability to critique, evaluate and integrate ideas and multiple sources of knowledge.
3. Your ability to understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression, marginalization, and discrimination.
4. Your ability to adequately research and cite the subject.
5. Your ability to developing the skills to transmit ideas in a written form; in an organized and grammatically correct structure.

The Adulthood Stage

A life cycle defines the cycle of an organism growth, reproduction and eventually growth. Life cycle of human defines the journey of human from the stages of fertilization to the death of an individual. In this cycle, People not only develop with their height, weight but also develop with their skills such as social, emotional and intellectual across their life span. The people mind develop as per the time which is calculated in the terms of age. The skills are getting developed by their experience with the pass of time. The development of a child is stop in the adulthood stage and this is the last stage of physical change. There are eight stages of human development in which the life cycle of a human is described such as parental period, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood (Homans, 2017). In this paper, the discussion is made on the “Adulthood stage of Human life cycle”.

The changes that occur in human being in the terms of biological, psychological from the end of adolescence to the death of an individual is called the stage of Adulthood. Adulthood is a stage of great adjustment in an individual life. In this stage, the skills start getting developed with the height and weight of an individual. In this period, adults are facing new challenges and understand the new things as experience. According of Erikson theory, an individual start thinking logically and solve their problems as per the concepts and reasons. In this stage, an individual start getting understand the human behaviour and capable to understand the right or wrong for themselves. The concept of the Adulthood refers the age at which the individuals are responsible for their own actions. It is the age of majority which is lie between the 18 and although there is variation from 16 to 21 (Arnett, Žukauskien?, and Sugimura, 2014). The individuals also start to take up responsibility and extend their concern to caring for others. This stage of human development will be understandable with the help of different perspective and theories in the next phase of report.

Psychology theories are used to provide a model to understand the human thoughts, emotions and behaviours. This theory has two components such as describe behaviour, and prediction about future behaviour. There are many psychological theories which help to understand the human behaviour such as developmental theories, grand theories, mini theories and emergent theories (Holmes, 2014).

Adulthood is a period of optimum mental functioning when the individual is on the peak position to understand themselves and others behaviour. According to Piaget’s theory, at this stage people are able to think logically only about concrete ideas. Psychology theory helps the individual to understand the behaviour of human. As the time passes the theory is modified as the behaviour of an individual is change. It has been seen that the human behaviour is change with the passes of time. In the age of adulthood a human has the curiosity to learn and adapt the new things which change the behaviour. It is difficult to predict the human behaviour at this age of human development; but the psychological theories helps to understand the changes of behaviour (Holmes, 2014). This theory also helps an individual to understand the nature of them. The theory considers development in a wide range of issues like motor skills, emotional intellectual. The emotional intellectual includes the higher level of skills which affects the behaviour of people and set the mind to solve the problems, moral understanding and theoretical understanding. As per the Piaget’s theory, the people at this stage can use abstract thinking to solve the problems. Psychological theory describes the role of personality development and continues change in behaviour. In the age of adulthood, an individual meet different types of people and adapt their habits and nature which is the turning point (Schwartz, 2016). The theory refers the unhealthy personality certain issues are not resolve. This stage of human developments is very sensitive stage in which people are stuck just because of incidents. As per the Erikson theory, all good and bad memories are remembered by an individual who is happen in this stage of adulthood till the death (Rodríguez, and Ramos, 2015). Sometimes, people stuck in this stage due to bad incidents happen in this stage. People who did not get the success at this stage may feel their life has been wasted and who achieved the success always feel proud. It is necessary for an individual to understand themselves and identify the right or wrong things. If the things are not going correct then the fixation occur. The psychology theory states the development and changing behaviour of an individual with the different statement. The theory describes the stage of adulthood effectively with the different statements (Tyyskä, 2017).

Psychological Theories for Understanding Adulthood

Sociological theories state the aspects of social world and prediction about future events. This theory states the development of people and their perspective. According to theory, the social interaction is needed to understand the perspective of the others. In the age of adulthood of human development, an individual interact with the different types of people and understand their behaviour and habits (Denzin, 2017).

The theory is exist in the human development when the person start to use the self-related words such as I, me, my and myself.  The concept of self is not present from its birth; it arises in the process of social experience. The language, symbols and interaction with others are change due to social interaction. Social interaction of an individual changes the perspective for the others. As per the theory, an individual do not understand themselves until the individual do not interact with the others. In the age of adulthood, an individual start learning by interacting with the others. Social interaction of the people encourages the individual to do the different things. All the skills which are developing in this stage of adulthood are developed only through social interaction. The sense of self is also developed at this stage in adolescence as per the Piaget’s theory. The term social constructivism is emphasising the socially created nature of social life. The self-image of an individual form is self-image by interacting with the others. The human in this stage are more progressive for their image in front of others. This stage of human development describes the behaviour of an individual and the behaviour of future. As per the Erikson theory, the whole concept of sociological is relevant to the age of adulthood in which the people think about themselves as well as for the others. At this stage, people also contributing their life to the development of others through volunteering, mentoring and raising (Lindsey, 2015). Sociologist theory analyse the different phenomena from the different perspective. The theory consist the three perspectives which describe the others such as Conflict perspective, Functionalism, and Symbolic Interactionism. These perspective defines that how society influence the people for the work. Each and every perspective of an individual contain the factor of social forces, conceptualizes society and human behaviour.

The conflict perspective states that the social world is stuck with the stress and strife. The conflict perspective identifies the reasons behind the stress of human development (Jeong, 2017). There are some segments of human development which attract the human towards them but those segments raise stress and troubles in the human life. Power, money, prestige and the other segments are the reasons of stress and troubles in the life of human development. An individual understand the have and have not from these segments. This perspective of sociology helps the human to understand the right or wrong things for them. In the age of adulthood, an individual should ready to handle their own stress and troubles by taking the correct decision for them. Conflict perspective examines the changes which raised the tension and conflicts. The study of conflicts perspective states that the how interest of these factors produce tension, conflicts and eventual changes in the relation between owners and workers in the economy (Matthews, et al., 2016). In the age of adulthood people learn to handle the situation and analyse the reason for their stress. They are in the stage to take their own decision for the benefits without attracting towards these factors. The presence of an individual states the future. The individual in the relationship have different level of resources such as prestige, power, and attractiveness. According to Erikson theory, this stage is called despair versus integrity. With the passes of time, an individual get the experience which helps in solving their problems and reduces the stress level. The conflict perspective states that the people examine their resources of attractiveness (Buttimer, and Seamon, 2015). If the person is failed to analyse their problems then the chances of tension and conflicts are occur.

Sociological Theories for Understanding Adulthood

This perspective states the interconnection parts that work together in harmony to maintain the social life. The skills of human development is also includes the skill of unity which maintain the social life of a human. In the age of adulthood, people make the new relations with the different aspects. According the Erikson, in this stage a sense of self is developed in adolescence in which the people are ready to share their life with others. This sense is also developed the spirit of unity by marinating the relationship with the others. The skill of unity is developed with the experience of human development or by interacting with the different people. This is the stage where the people are more conscious for their image in the social life. The perspective of functionalism states the same situation that maintains the balance of social equilibrium for the whole by working together. An individual get these skills from the family by socialising the children, educated them (Kagitcibasi, 2017). The functionalist perspective focuses on the step of society that how each part influences and is influenced by other parts. The people exist around the human development also influence the individual and develop the skills of harmony (Savard, Tremblay, and Turcotte, 2015).

An individual starts learn of using symbolic language by interacting with the other people in the society. The symbolic Interactionism states that the intelligent thoughts express in a practical actions. Interaction and Interpretation is the part of communication and the learning of symbol communication is the part of human development. The symbolic interaction considers people as an active agent. In the period of Adulthood of human development, an individual wants to do the smart work instead of hard work. An individual learn the symbolic language by interacting with the others and the symbolic language is used as a smart work. The use of symbolic interaction helps in making the new and maintaining the relation in the society. It is a face to face activity which involving the others and help in interacting with others. It develops the communication skill by improving the symbolic language of a human in the society. As per the Erikson theory, an individual can also self-learn the communication skill as the sense of self is developed in this stage. The symbolic perspective states the interaction of a human in the society by using the symbols. In the age of adulthood, people learn to use the symbolic language to interact with other in the society. The symbolic perspective defines the human development stage of learning of using symbol by interacting with the others (Maines, 2017).

From the above analysis, it has been seen that the adulthood is the stage in which people learn new things (Tudge, et al., 2016). From the perspectives and theories, the stage of adulthood is easily understandable. The theories and perspective defines the behaviour of our-selves and the others. As per the Piaget’s theory, an individual has the responsibility to handle their own problems by taking the decisions logically. They can also deal with the new ideas and hypothetical situations to take the right decision for the particular thing. They also analyse the alternative solution and test these solution to take the right decision for their life. The sociologist theory states the social interaction and learning the new things by interacting with the others. An individual in the adulthood stage always like to interact with the others and try to adapt the new things. The sociologist theory defines the social interaction skill of a human which is developed in the adulthood period. The other perspective of sociologist also helps in understanding the age of adulthood in brief. The perspectives of sociologist help to understand the period of adulthood such as conflict, functionalism, and symbolic interactionism. Conflict perspectives state the skills which analyse the reason of tension and trouble. Functionalism perspective helps in understanding the skill of unity is developed in the period of adulthood (Sawyer, 2017). The last perspective which is used to understand the period of adulthood is the symbolic interactionism. It helps in understanding the intelligence of an individual by performing the action. In the age of adulthood, an individual use the symbol to interact with the society; this learning stage of human is easily understandable with this perspective.

Implications for Social Work Practice

From the above analysis, it has been concluded that an individual is in the sensitive stage where he learns new things. As the time passes, the skill of an individual is developed such as interaction skill, emotion, and many others. The psychological theory and sociological theory describe the stage with the different statements and helps to understand the stage. The sociologist theory helps in understanding the stage by the social interaction of people. The sociologist theory contains three perspectives such as conflict, functionalism, and symbolic interactionism. Conflict perspectives of sociology theory help in understanding the skills of a human to find the reasons behind the troubles of their life. Symbolic perspective is also useful to understand the stage of adulthood by understand the symbols language. And the last perspective of the sociological theory is functionalism perspective; this perspective resemble with the unity skill of an individual which is developed at this stage. These perspective states the stage of adulthood by explaining the development skill of an individual in the stage of adulthood. Theory of Erikson and theory of Piaget explain this stage by telling the changes of human body. These theories are also useful to clearly understand the adulthood stage because the changes and development of skills are happened in the human body at this stage is briefly explained. As per the theories and perspectives, it is easy to understand the stage with the different statements and logics. With the help of these theories a clear thought is developed about the stage of adulthood that is the main purpose of this paper. 

References

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Buttimer, A. and Seamon, D. (2015) The human experience of space and place. Oxon: Routledge.

Denzin, N. K. (2017) The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods. Oxon: Routledge.

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Jeong, H. W. (2017) Peace and conflict studies: An introduction. Oxon: Routledge.

Kagitcibasi, C. (2017) Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. Oxon: Routledge.

Lindsey, L. L. (2015) Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Oxon: Routledge.

Maines, D. (2017) The faultline of consciousness: A view of interactionism in sociology. Oxon: Routledge.

Matthews, T., Danese, A., Wertz, J., Odgers, C.L., Ambler, A., Moffitt, T.E. and Arseneault, L. (2016) Social isolation, loneliness and depression in young adulthood: a behavioural genetic analysis. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 51(3), pp.339-348.

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