Adulthood Developmental Period Trajectory using Sociological and Psychological Theories

Adulthood Developmental Period Trajectory using Sociological and Psychological Theories
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Adulthood Developmental Period Trajectory using Sociological and Psychological Theories
Introduction
Understanding the different stages of the human developmental cycle is imperative for a successful evaluation of clients within the specific life cycle. Adulthood development period forms the later phase in the lifespan of individuals and in this phase, human beings reach physical maturity, although they continue to experience psychological and biological changes. According to Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2015), during this stage, changes in individuals are affected by their environment, and their adaptation to the environment continues to change as they go through life. As such, whereas there are limited physical changes regarding growth, other aspects of people’s life keeps on changing as their environment changes. Adult development is influenced by four forces, as noted by Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2015), which include biological, sociocultural, psychological and life cycle. These forces explain where individuals have varying experiences throughout the life cycle, and especially for adults who have attained some level of maturity.
Sociological and Psychological Theories
Several sociological and psychological theories explain the adult developmental period, and they provide perspectives on the different stages and experiences of adulthood.
Erik Erikson Psychosocial Development Theory
This is one of the earliest theories explaining the different stages that individuals undergo in the course of their life. Erikson, a psychologist in the field of human development, explains that individuals go through 8 stages in life. The focus of this paper is on the last three stages which explain the conflict that individuals undergo during their developmental period as adults. Adult development, as explained by Erikson in his theory, entails human development that covers the period from adolescent to end of life (Gilleard & Higgs, 2015). Thus, the three stages in adult development include early adulthood, midlife adulthood, and late adulthood. The adolescent period was also explained as a stage that involves the transitioning of an individual from childhood into adulthood (Gilleard & Higgs, 2015). This is the stage where an individual stops being concerned with childhood issues and starts embracing adulthood. This stage sometimes referred to as emerging adulthood, is characterized by the need to learn and experiment with different issues and can lead to risky behaviors (Sussman & Arnett, 2014). According to Erikson, each stage involves some crisis which must be resolved, failure to which, the individual is unable to resolve other crises that come in later stages.
In early adulthood stage, which begins at age 18 and ends at age 40, the individual’s major conflict revolves around forming a healthy relationship. The resolution of this crisis leads to the formation of healthy, intimate relationships while failing to resolve this crisis can result to isolation, and at times, individuals can end up being depressed (McLeod, 2018). The midlife adulthood stage, which is between the ages of 40 t...