A Reflection on Adult Development

As I reflect on adult development I think back to when I studied developmental psychology, many years ago, as I worked on my bachelor of nursing degree. That was probably when I last gave adult development much thought. Perhaps I have been too busy developing as an adult to consider the process and context for adult development but this course has made me consider it for the first time in a very long time.

Thinking back on what my understanding of adult development was as a young adult, I believed that when I became an adult I would have "become".In my mind my development would be complete. All the stages of life up until when I became an adult were preparing me to be this fully developed person. Reading from an old pediatric nursing textbook of mine, "Adolescence begins with the onset of physical maturity and ends when the individual has reorganized his personality, achieved the level of adult intellectual functioning and found satisfying, constructive and mature resolutions of his conflicts" (Blake, Wright, & Hectare, 1970, p.

22) helps me to understand where that thinking came from. Since adulthood follows adolescence it sakes me wonder if I will ever become an adult based on this premise! I can't imagine life without conflicts or struggles! My perception of adult development was influenced by studying Pigged and Erickson.Reflecting back on Pigged my interpretation of his cognitive developmental theory included the premise that as individuals reached a specific age they would have completed the task of the previous stage of development and eventually after passing through four stages evolve into an adult dense & Boobs, 1985; Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011). Sounds like the metamorphosis of the butterfly really. Okay now I understand where my understanding came from. Erickson theory of personality development is also discussed as life in stages with adulthood being the final stage dense & Boobs, 1985; Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011).

The focus of adulthood stages being intimacy versus isolation, generatively versus self-absorption, and ego integrity versus despair dense & Boobs, 1985; Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011) indicated to me that if I was successful in life I would meet someone, fall in love, marry, procreate, raise children to grow to be responsible adults, grow old, and eventually die, although that art seemed to be so very far offal never really gave it much thought. Now as I review these theories through an adult lens I realize these ideas weren't all in Pigged and Erickson theories dense & Boobs, 1985; Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011).My interpretation perhaps was somewhat skewed since when I studied nursing my recollection was not that adults developed but reached adulthood at a particular chronological age. Prior to studying developmental psychology, I was influenced in my thoughts of adult development by my family, community and society.

Growing up t home I learned that if I wanted to get anywhere I needed to go to college or university. Although my dad had not finished high school, my mother had attended Prince of Wales College for two years which seemed to be the typical length of college studies for those growing up in the late thirties.Despite not graduating from teachers college she was able to teach and made it her career. My mother provided my stability in my life and appeared to me to have the kind of choices that I wanted to be able to have as an adult. My dad on the other hand did not have fulfillment work ND at times had to travel to isolated locations for months at a time as a laborer.

I felt he did not have the choices my mother had available for dependable fulfillment employment.My mother also taught me about lifelong learning as along the way the Department of Education determined that all those practicing teachers who had not graduated with a teaching degree had to attend upgrading to earn a license to teach. If they didn't comply, at some time in the future they would not be allowed to continue to teach. For many years my mother and many of her teacher friends would ravel together to attend night courses during the week after working all day and then in the summer they would register for "block programs" which would be fulfillment course work for a large portion of the summer.Eventually after what seemed to be years of part time studies my mother received her teachers license and was able to continue in her career until she chose to retire.

Life could not have been easy for my mother when she went back to school with five young children but I don't remember her complaining. I do remember stories she would tell of particular subjects she took ND actually being asked to help her and a friend, Chris, who were struggling with a literature class they were taking.Since I was studying English literature in grade ten or eleven that year I remember spending an afternoon sharing what I knew about interpretations of poetry and prose. Although I can't imagine I helped them much they both made me feel as though I had.

Mary, widowed with two children, was a very good friend of my mothers who chose not to complete these requirements for her teaching license and so when that time in the future arrived she had to leave her caching position permanently.At the time I thought she simply chose not to go back to school but now as an adult I realize it may have been a choice she was not able to make due to her responsibilities at home. Interestingly, after her children moved away she sold her home and became a house mother at a university dormitory. She became involved with a theatre group and historical society through the university community.

Since retiring from her position at the university she has traveled extensively with the theatrical group, originating from her university connections, performing a play on aging.She also coauthored several historical books on local history. Although the original path she began became blocked for her, it is interesting to see how she made choices which nurtured her adult development in such diverse and interesting ways. Today I see this as adult development but at the time I did not internalize this as anything other than life circumstance. The life span perspective (Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011) which recognizes that people continue to develop and grow throughout life makes much more sense to me now, especially as I reflect on all that I have learned and continue to learn in my adulthood.I never really gave much thought to the societal impact on development but recognize now what a huge impact society has (Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011).

It isn't Just growth and development of the individual, the influence of the family, and community but society itself. Society can determine something as simple as sequencing of life events. When I was entering early adulthood I expected life events to happen in a certain sequence. For instance, I would graduate from high school, go to college, graduate, get a Job, leave home, marry, and have children.Most people I grew up tit did things in a similar sequence, although not all went to college.

In society today there is the emerging adulthood (Earnest, 2000) where young people are graduating from high school, perhaps going off to college or working for a few years. Those that graduate from college may continue to live at home or live with a boyfriend, try a variety of different Jobs and many chose to have a child or children before they marry or perhaps never marry.These were not options young adults wanted to choose or, in my mind, wanted to consider in the late sixties or seventies when my cohort was graduating from high school and college. Of my three children, two of them are choosing this sequencing as are many of their friends.

This influence hasn't come from their family as much as the society in which they grew and developed. Someone who has influenced me greatly as a developing adult is someone I met after having my second child. I was looking for a baby sitter for my two young children.Little did I know that Jan, who agreed to look after my children on a part time basis, would become one of my closest friends and also a sort of mentor who would charge me to develop in character, cognition, coping, and adaptation. Jan had chosen to stay at home since having her first child. As we became friends over the next twenty-seven years Jan taught me many things particularly regarding children and that those more vulnerable always come first.

Children's needs must be met and when parent's have a child they are responsible to ensure this.An example of one of these tenets learned was a time I earned her wrath. When I arrived to pick up my son Jan inquired when his bowels had last moved. Well I had no idea. My husband and myself both worked shift work so I couldn't tell her as perhaps my husband had changed a diaper.

That explanation as not acceptable to Jan and I learned very quickly and explicitly the great discomfort my ignorance resulted for my son as he was quite constipated. Jan demonstrated a great empathy for children, listened intently, and Just as she wouldn't take nonsense from their parent's she wouldn't take nonsense from them either.It was obvious she respected them and they respect her. I valued these attributes as she clearly became an advocate for my children.

She showed me the kind of relationship I wanted to have with my children and a strong friendship developed between us. Jan had quit school when she was thirteen because of her implies' circumstance. Her father suffered with mental illness; thought to be caused by postgraduates stress syndrome following World War II. Although her mother worked in a minimum paying Job outside the home she wasn't well either and Jan had nine brothers and sisters who needed to be cared for.

Although she wanted to stay in school she made the choice to obtain work so her brothers and sisters could remain in school while receiving some of the basic necessities such as food and clothing. Retrospectively she considered herself to be an adult at thirteen. Later she and her husband would provide a home for many of her brothers and sisters to alp support them as they went to university. Jan eventually took her GEED and received her high school diploma.

Goodman, as discussed in Jovial Ross-Cordon's chapter Gender Development and Gendered Adult development (1999) would probably have called Jan a survivalist.I would agree that this concern for personal survival and that of her family could lead to her difficulty of describing herself apart from her social role (Ross-Gordon, 1999). As I reflect on the many conversations and time spent with Jan I realize how she influenced my adult development, particularly as a parent mentor, friend and community member. This was not in an unrealistic, idealist way but in the everyday reality of our immediate world. We had many deep discussions on a variety of controversial topics: religion, spirituality, politics, education, and poverty were but a few.Our conversations would sometimes come back to "well what do you suppose can be done about that" and so we would strategies.

Other times we would wrap up after a long philosophical discussion with each of us appearing to have greater clarity on the issue; although many controversies were left unresolved. My experience with close friend and family lines p with the Interactions Model of development which acknowledges that although genetics and environment both play a part in our development ( Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011) we are active participants, making choices and interacting in a reciprocal way with our environment.Life does not unfold according to a straight single pathway but is altered by the interactions in the environment (Whitehorse & Whitehorse, 2011). My experience is that adults are products of their environment but that they also shape their life span by the choices they make and how they respond to their environment whether through adversity or through easier times. My initial impression when I heard of reflective writing in the graduate program was: well this is something I have always done, think about my practice or my day and consider how it went.

I would often reflect on what I could have done better or differently so initially I didn't get it. I thought well this is not new. Then in a previous course I learned of" premise reflection" (Roland & Earn, 2007, p. 82) and gained much greater insight into what everyone was talking about. Premise reflection is thinking about long held assumptions established by society, values, attitudes and life and how in relation to new information it can lead to restructuring of personal perspectives (Roland & Earn, 2007).

As I reflect on my formative years I realize I was nurtured to care for others by both my parent's. They were role models as they spoke of another's misfortune while preparing a casserole to take to them, canvassing for the Red Cross, helping the farmer next door get in the hay, and many other memories of working together to support one another. Perhaps this formative learning (Keen, 1998) was what created the seed for this connection with Jan to be made so readily, already nurtured by an earlier time. This course is allowing me to reflect on adult development.

It has answered some questions and left some unresolved, not unlike my conversations with Jan, although perhaps this course is more evidence based. I look forward to see where else my adult development will take me.