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How Adulthood Can Be Broken Down Further Into Two Sub Stages

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Adulthood can be broken down further into two sub-stages: Early (eighteen to thirty-five), and Middle adulthood (thirty-five to sixty-five). In Early Adulthood, adults are in the “prime of their lives”, that is, they are in top physical and cognitive health (lime). When a person reaches Middle Adulthood, their cognitive abilities remain stable; and they tend to approach things more practically; the activities and tasks engaged in by midlife are generally not cognitively challenging. Perhaps this is due to experience, or having many years of practice on the task at hand, or they may be employing selective optimization-they focus on and do the things they do well as a way to compensate for the things they do not as well(brown). When healthy, …show more content…

Seeing the children grown and moved out is a milestone for middle adulthood, and is viewed as the completion of a long endeavor. Job satisfaction and the obtainment of personal goals are milestones for the middle-aged adult. Erikson’s sixth state is the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage for early adulthood, and the seventh is Generativity vs. Stagnation for middle adulthood. It states that young adults who fail to form intimate relationships with others will become isolated. Adults that did not successfully complete the identity crisis will fail to form these attachments, resulting in an inability to enter the workforce productively, leave home, and establish a committed relationship (GOLD). Middle adulthood is characterized by either successfully helping the younger generation through their work and child-rearing, or stagnation because they are not(GOLD). They confront the aging process and contribute to future generations. Successful stage completion results in well-adjusted adults, highly satisfied with their lives. As a person advances in years, they begin to question their lives. This can prompt a sudden change in direction, that is a, a new job, returning to school, or taking action to do things that were goals when younger (lime). Parents, in particular, begin to view their concept of life differently. The appreciate the job they did raising their families once grandchildren come along (brown). Early Adulthood tends to be more of a time

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