Paper on Changes in Adulthood

Amylyn Thomas

University of Phoenix

Change is a word that is said often but not many realize how much it affects their lives. As people grow, they change in each stage. The changes that occur during early, middle, and late adulthood are physical, emotional, cognitive, and developmental. As people grow, these changes help them to form personalities, and views on life. They go to college, get married, have children of their own, work for many years, and retire. It is smart to remember that change is a part of life and development and without it we do not become the people that they become.

The first stage that will be discussed is early adulthood. There are many changes that occur during this stage because this is when the person goes from high school to college which is a new experience. This is the transition into adulthood because they start to think about their future. They decide on the degree that will impact what job field they will go into, start their finical stability and start to develop intimate and professional relationships.

The physical aspect of early adulthood is biological aging. Biological aging begins in early adulthood and continues until death. There are many theories to biological aging. One theory is that the existence of aging genes that control the biological changes. These genes can control menopause, gray hair and the determination of body cells. One physical aspect is cardiovascular and repistroy systems. There are not as many heart related changes as one can expect at this stage of life. The respistory system begins to fully expand and strengthen during this time because of the work it continues to do. Substance abuse becomes more prominent because the factors of alcohol and cigarettes along with the street drugs come into play. Many students who attend college experiment with alcohol and