Development Issues in Early Adulthood

Early Adulthood: The Beginning

Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Early Adulthood: The Beginning

Individuals experience many changes in early adulthood which can be difficult and confusing. In early adulthood, an individual begins taking on new responsibilities and challenges as they begin to become fully participating members of society, as well as begin to form new relationships which further define their family and gender roles. While individuals experience changes and difficulties in all stages of adulthood, more changes are experienced in early adulthood because it is the time when an individual leaves home and is no longer dependent on family, which makes it the most challenging of the stages.

Erik Erikson believed that personality developed in a series of stages, he developed a model of these stages with separate stages for each period of life. Lesser et al (2011) explain, Erik Erikson believed early adulthood is the period when individuals either develop an intimate connection with another individual, building relationships, or risk becoming lonely. Erikson believed middle adulthood is the period when individuals must be productive in their work life, based on their development in earlier stages of life, or become stagnant, and late adulthood is the time when an individual is either prideful about the decisions and accomplishments they have made in their life, or look back on their life with regret about things they have not done (p. 67). Looking at the stages of development as compared to Erikson’s model of personality development, early adulthood is the most important stage of adulthood. Early adults have a responsibility to develop relationships and build a family, as well as develop their skills with things like post-secondary school, so they can be productive in their work life during middle adulthood and also be fulfilled later in life and not regret not doing more during their early...