Exploring Adulthood: Self, Society & Life Course Perspectives

This essay delves into the adulthood stage of human development, examining biological and psychological changes from adolescence to death. It explores various psychological theories, including Piaget's and Erikson's, to understand human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The essay also discusses sociological theories, focusing on social interaction and the development of self-perspective. It analyzes conflict perspective, functionalism, and symbolic interactionism to illustrate how society influences individuals. The paper emphasizes the importance of logical thinking, problem-solving, and understanding human behavior during adulthood. It concludes that adulthood is a crucial stage for learning, adapting, and making informed decisions, with theories providing a framework for understanding self and others. Desklib offers more resources for students, including past papers and solved assignments.

Self, Society and Life Course

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1
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, Žukauskienė, 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.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 2
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

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 3
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).
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

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 4
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

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 5
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.
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.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 6
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

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 7
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.
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.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 8
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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 9
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