Adult Developmental Perspective

Superior Essays
Adult Developmental Perspectives and How They Impact Personal Adult Development Examining adult development is a vital process in which adult educators can become more knowledgeable and better equipped to handle the necessities of the adult learner. There is much research and many perspectives on how adults develop. As adult educators explore these perspectives they not only gain an enriched perspective on how they personally developed, they are afforded an even greater opportunity in discovering how these perspectives impact the adult learner’s development. After researching three key perspectives on adult development; biological (the nature in adult development); psychological (internal development), and sociocultural (society, human relations, …show more content…
These striking results suggest that on speeded tasks requiring central executive involvement, higher education may be associated with the equivalent of being 10 years younger in terms of performance (Tun & Lachman, 2008).
Consequently, in evaluating the perspectives of biological development, understanding how the biological development of the brain influences the collaborative link to personalities and behaviors as it relates to the psychological perspectives became observant. Upon studying the two most prominent psychosocial development models (Erickson, 1963; Levinson & Levinson, 1996; Levinson et al., 1978), I seem to relate with Levinson’s age-graded model to a certain degree. For example, Levinson & Levinson (1996) Age-Graded Model postulates that, an adult’s life structure has the propensity to be formed and maintained during stable periods and then doubted, examined, and lastly changed during transitional periods (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 307). Because my personal development has followed this life structure (marriage, family, occupation, friendships, religion, ethnicity, and community), while relating these central components to specific age periods, it is suggested that I am currently experiencing the era of late adulthood (p.
…show more content…
210). Due to the internal experiences and positive influences faced throughout these life stages, the ability to adjust attitudes, behaviors and circumstances (Howell & Beth, 2002) successfully during midlife realities has definitely influenced newfound values (p. 311). Subsequently, my learning profile has been enriched through each transition of life’s structure and experiences and is positively linked to the influence of sociocultural

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    This class has been a great experience for me and the most important thing that I learned in class came from the young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood interviews. Linking the interviews with the person I interviewed with the theories related to that age had help me become aware of how I will use these theories in practicing social work in all areas. Now that I am aware of the theories I seek out the person I am working with the past history of their life from childhood to now. Each human experience is different and important to know when working with an individual. For example, in the middle adulthood interview, Shawn had a good relationship with his children that were very important to him.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Introduction There are two theories in which this essay will investigate, reflect as well as discuss its relevance and limitations. The first theory is the life course perspective and the other is the strengths perceptive. Both of these theories will be analyzed and critiqued throughout the paper. This essay will be divided into subsections that will cover what the theory is, each theories strengths and limitations, the relevance and importance of each theory in relation to social work, how these theories overlap and lastly, its relevance through empirical research. Theories Life course perspective was developed in the 1960’s and primarily focused on analyzing the lives of people through social, structural and cultural contexts (Hutchinson,…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Three learning theories that will be addressed in this discussion are as follows, self-directed and optimized, transformative, and critical reflection. Chen (2014) investigates “adult learners are self-directed and their learning is optimized when their experience is recognized and utilized in the learning process” (p. 407). Adult students are not 'clear slates' and their background turns into the medium through which substance is found out and in which to rethink new objectives to achieve (Chen, 2014). Self-directed is appropriate for an adult due to the connection that is made with their life experiences, the adult is able to plan and implement learning based upon their desire and initiation to learn. Self-directed is inappropriate for children because children rely upon the teacher as the caretaker to their education and implementation of it.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Levinson (1986) through a series of thorough interviews with both men and women developed a comprehensive theory of adult development. He proposed a theory based on a series of phases that adults’ experience as they develop. The highlight of Levinson’s theory is the life structure, which is the fundamental pattern of a person’s life at any particular time. An individual's life structure is generally formed by the social and physical surroundings, where for most individuals, life is primarily structured by family and work in addition to religion, economic status and race. Levinson contends that the human life cycle comprises a sequence of four eras (lasting for approximately twenty-five years each).…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Biological Perspective The biological perspective is one of the major perspectives in psychology. It is the only approach in psychology that studies a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and physical stand point of view. Therefore, all that is psychological starts out as physiological. There are some biological aspects that can help explain human behavior.…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the factors that affect how a person grows and develops physically, mentally, and socially with age. The human body is constantly changing and adapting to new emotions and surroundings, but the foundations of how you respond to outside stimuli goes back to childhood and infancy. The aspect of nature and nurture also affect a person 's development and how they will respond in certain situations. The aspect of nature deals more with a person’s biological factors and nurture deals with how the person was raised, how they learned, and what they have gone through. Early childhood is when a person starts to develop an ability to think, morals, language, social patterns, and they start…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Often times, maturity is known to be heavily dependent with that of one’s age. However, this common belief is not necessarily true. Maturity is often gained through experiences and understanding, rather than seniority. Although being older does offer more time for enlightening experiences, this does not fully cancel out possibilities of younger individuals being exposed to the same instances in a shorter time.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    How to Read a Prescription Label Teaching Project As a nurse teaching is a part of everyday life. Learning to teach properly is essential. Clients, residents and patients alike all learn and receive information a little differently. Having skills and ways of covering these different ways of learning can decrease risks for more serious problems later. The overall outcome for the presentation and paper are the middle and late adults having the ability to correctly understand, use and benefit from the information on a prescription label.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Midlife Crisis

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Middle adulthood, commonly referred to as “mid-life,” is a normal development life stage. As adults, we go through many changes throughout our life, including physical, psychological, emotional and social changes. Regardless of age, change is inevitable. More than 25 percent of individuals over the age of 35 believe they have experienced a midlife crisis; however, research suggests that over half of these “crises” were no more than normal stressful life events. Midlife crisis, described by many, is a time of turmoil and reflection in adult’s ages 39 through 50 brought on by anxiety and fear of growing old.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Theory Adult Learning In Andragogy or adult learning theory, it is presumed that adults have specific learning requirements. The adult learning theory also suggests that the best learning environments are the ones that are collaborative and utilize a problem-based approach. It is important to note that not every student is in the adult learner stage. With this in mind, it is encouraged that students be made aware of the traits of adult learners, and aspire to gain a few of these characteristics.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever wondered how you learned to crawl and then walk? How about language? Child development theories explain all these types of questions. I learned that there are many different viewpoints and theories of childhood development. Education, culture, and religious views can affect a parent’s decision on how to raise their children.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Human development is an intriguing as well as complex process that compiles what happens genetically as well as what one experiences through the aging process. Biological, cognitive, and psychosocial perspectives are each vital to our development, and each are specialized towards our individual personalities. University of Utah(2016) states that some traits are genetic and passed down from our parents, and others through experience and learning. In this essay, we will be looking at how biological, cognitive, and psychosocial perspectives have shaped my development from birth up till now. Biological perspective is how one is genetically influenced by our parents.…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This was used so they could answer new questions while using previous reliable data. The previous studies tracked Erikson’s development as well as late life neuropsychological data and controlled for adolescent IQ and education levels. The researchers used 159 male participants, they chose them from a previous study titled the Study of Adult Development it spanned over seventy-five years. The participants were eighty-five Harvard college sophomores and seventy-four inner city males.…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Having how structural barriers in the emerging adulthood stage can impact an individual’s late adulthood stage. Because of certain life changing opportunities missed. Older Adulthood usually know what they want in life while emerging adults are at that in between stage in their life. I expected an adult in their late adulthood stage to have different views on love, parenting and education than an emerging adult. I thought the large age gap, would play a big factor in how both adult view the world, instead the views are somewhat similar.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The young adult’s developmental pathway is a stage of life that includes the challenges of independence, the reward for achievement, and the endurance of crises (Nagy, 2013, p. 422.) This essay will describe and discuss the physical, cognitive and psychosocial characteristics of the young adulthood lifespan stage. Two theorists that relate their developmental research to this life span, Erikson and Piaget, are described and the discussion of two health related behaviours applicable to the young adult. In young adulthood, physical development and abilities are at their peak between the ages of 20-30 years.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays