As human beings, transitioning from childhood to adulthood encompass several changes. The well-being of middle-aged and older adults is anchored on the changing societal roles they are expected to perform based on their enhanced cognitive abilities as well as their emotional response mechanisms to scenarios and problems. The cognitive and emotional aspects of grown adult have a huge bearing on one's wellbeing. Cognitive abilities relate to one's mental functions that are based on logic, and this determines how people see situations and one’s ability to overcome situations. Principally, one’s ability to come up with solutions to problems at work is dependent on his or her cognitive abilities. Emotions are the internal state of being of a person and the involuntary physiological response to situations and scenarios.
Typically, emotional intelligence is a critical tool in navigating challenges in life. Failure or success at overcoming challenges has such a profound effect on a person’s wellbeing. Notably, there are physical changes, emotional growth, and mental development as a transition happens from childhood to adulthood. Numerous theories have been postulated to explain the growth and development of human beings. Most of the theories are keen and heavily weigh on certain aspects of human design to explain the changes that come along with growth and development. Ultimately, this paper evaluates some theories of human development, various aspects of growth, and how certain factors affect the wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults.
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Theories of Growth
Theories of human development provide a framework through which scholars perceive the process of growth and development. The theories are lenses through which people interpret various aspects of life. Developmental theories provide the frameworks, principles, and concepts to describe growth. The already existing theories of development highlight and explain why human beings do things the way they do at a certain stage of life, while others explain lifelong mannerisms. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development explains the formation of morals in humans. The theory postulates that certain morals are learned through given moments or processes in life, which are not necessarily meant to be lifelong processes. The theory was postulated by Lawrence Kohlberg as an advancement to Jean Piaget’s theory on how children develop moral reasoning (Girgis, 2018). The theory is keen to elucidate the reasoning behind each action, acknowledging the possibility that similar actions could be based on variant reasoning.
Erik Erickson developed the Erickson's theory of development. Erickson’s work is heavily influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud. The theory, unlike Kohlberg's, explains development throughout the entire life cycle of a developing human. Erickson argues that personality develops in stages from trust versus mistrust to integrity versus despair. Each stage builds upon the preceding stage, which focuses on growth in competency in given areas (Malone, 2016). Besides the developmental theories, there are also mini-theories as well as new theories, all who seek to expound on certain aspects of growth. Each theory and mini theory has an extensive history behind it; hardly do any theories exist in isolation (Gilleard, 2016). The theories endeavor to expound the works of others
Cognition and Emotions
Development of the emotional and cognitive facets of the human being is highly responsible for how adults live their lives. As one age, due to renewed understanding, they are conscious of what it takes to bring certain realities to pass. This aspect, when reasoned out, demystifies the fundamentals of the decision-making processes that have a bearing on one’s physical, emotional as well as social wellbeing. As a child, one's perception of responsibilities and the duties required of them is usually scanty. While a child may be expected to perform a certain chore at home, they hardly know why they have to do it and what the repercussions of not doing it are. When a child has no idea how to go about a chore, they are freely answered when they ask. The process of growth for most children involves training and sharpening of their cognitive abilities to be able to perform tasks and execute responsibilities. This is done after which the support structures initially accessible to children are withdrawn. While one will gladly show a child how to do something over and over again, he or she is bound to demonstrate resentment towards doing the same for an adult. One is expected by a certain age to be able to handle what is their responsibility with minimal help and supervision.
The expectation of being able to work out one’s life path, solve problems, and deal with the pains that stem from incompetence emotionally account for an adult’s wellbeing (Roeser, 2012). Most young adults, as well as middle-aged adults, define success in terms of being able to do what is expected of them successfully; fly the corporate flag, pay the bills, and be there for the family. Those that have career achievements are held in high regard. Career success is highly tied to one’s cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence (Llewellyn, 2008). While as a child fails to perform a chore merely is that, for an adult failure at the work, school or family means much more. The failure is interpreted as a statement on one’s intelligence and mental make-up results in emotional pain and could even impair one's relationship with colleagues at work. One can easily feel like a burden to others, and this gradually cascades into low self-esteem. To complement cognitive abilities, one's emotional state must be right for their wellbeing. The feelings of accomplishment, success, and failure are heavily emotional. Those that can control their emotions through emotional intelligence as postulated by Daniel Goleman have been known to be healthier, happier, and better through the journey of life.
The healthy social-emotional developments for the middle-aged and older adults plays a crucial role in determining the well-being of an individual. Adults who have difficulty understanding and managing their own emotions, as well as those of others, play a key role in determining how happy they live. Social life is an important aspect of the happiness of an adult. People who can relate and interact well with their colleagues and friends tend to be happy and healthy. However, those who cannot have a good social interaction with the people around them will have low self-esteem and an unhappy life. Emotional intelligence is an essential element for any adult as it helps determine how they interact with friends and colleagues. Identifying with what other people are feeling is important in understanding how to relate with other people. Learning how to develop the attachment towards others and to interact with them helps in making a person live a healthy and happy life. Social interaction is on the part of life that adults require to have positive and healthy well-being. Therefore, developing a strong relationship with the colleagues, friends and even family members is necessary to make an adult live a happy, positive and healthy life.
Physical Well-being
The physical domain covers the development of physical changes such as motor skills as well as the size. It also covers the development of the senses and using these senses to make decisions in life. Having the right body size and shape is important to both the middle-aged and older adults as it affects self-esteem. Nutrition and lack of illnesses influence physical development. When an individual has good physical health and the right body size, such people are more likely to be positive and live a happy life. Physical illnesses can affect the well-being of an individual ( Hall et al., 2013 ). For example, an adult who is suffering from some long term illness may not have a positive mind and happiness require to push through in life. Illness can impair the ability of an individual to achieve their goals and meet their targets in life. When this happens, a person ends up living a life of hopelessness. While physical development involves the biological changes that occur to an individual’s body, a person can have a role to play in ensuring that there is positive body growth. For example, monitoring the diet helps an individual to control the body size. This is important especially in maintaining self-esteem at such a time when a large number of the American citizens report not to be happy with their body size and weight. Having a physical body size where a person is not proud of can impair the self-esteem and morale of an individual and thus affect the overall well-being.
Stages of Development
Erikson developed eight stages of psychosocial development which was based on the psychosexual theory developed by Freud. In his theory, Erikson proposed what human beings need to remain motivated and live positively at every stage of their lives starting from childhood to adulthood. As people grow from infancy to adulthood, they experience the eight stages of development over their lifespan and at every stage, there is a crisis or a task that people need t to solve ( Malone et al., 2016 ). The successful completion of each of the tasks leads an individual to a sense of competency and healthy life.
The stage that affects the well-being of an individual is the generativity versus stagnation. This is a stage that comes when an individual is at their 40s, a stage known as middle adulthood. Generativity involves getting into one’s life work and making contributions to the development of others. It involves showing care and support for others to see them get successful. Any person who fails to master these tasks may experience a feeling of stagnation as they would be feeling that they are not leaving a mark in the society. The well-being and happiness of an individual are affected at this stage. Those who do not meet this task tend to live a life with the feeling of disappointment, little connection and little interest in matters of productivity as well as self-improvement ( Malone et al., 2016 ). At this stage, the middle-aged adults who fail to meet such tasks of helping the next generation will have low self-esteem and live an unhappy life throughout as the approach the elderly age.
The other stage, which is the eighth stage of psychosocial development by Erikson, is the integrity and despair. This happens at the older adult age when one is in the mid-60s to the end of life. At this stage, people tend to reflect on their lives and either feel a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure ( Malone et al., 2016 ). People who feel a sense of satisfaction tend to be happy and live with no regrets. They tend to show a lot of integrity for their accomplishment as they look back and feel that they have lived a life of purpose. Thus at this stage, such people tend to live a happy and social life. On the contrary, those who feel a sense of failure usually live a life of regrets as they feel that their lives have been wasted. They end up living their late-life full of regrets, bitterness, and despair. They usually reflect on their lives and feel like they did not do something right, yet they feel it is already late for them.
Cultural and Historical Perspective
The well-being of human has been viewed historically as a multidimensional phenomenon of which income is just a single facet. The human development which has been viewed as a system of enlarging the choices that people make, including the choice to live a better life and to learn and grow gives a view of human well-being. Despite the broader perspective, human well-being had been previously viewed to entail the income level of a person and that people with high income were regarded to be living a better and happy life. However, a study of human development has shown that well-being is made up of more facets other than economic stability.
The cultural background of a person can affect the way they respond and interpret life experiences. The way people behave and view various issues of life is heavily influenced by the cultural background. Cultures can be collectivism or individualistic ( Kagitcibasi, 2017 ). The collectivism cultures focus on society as a whole while the individualistic cultures promote individual rights and choices. Cultures that focus autonomy and values the ability to make individual choices rather than being restricted within the constraints of the society tend to promote happiness and feeling of achievement. Some restrictive cultures tend to limit the ability of individuals to make their own life decisions, and this makes people live a life denial as they feel the culture has barred them from making meeting their goals. At the same time, cultures that promote harmony, cooperation and respect tend to make people live happily and with unity.
At the same time, historical experiences tend to affect the well-being of a person. People who have a traumatizing past tend to live a life of isolation and disharmony as they reflect on their past. The past event has a role to play in how a person views life as adulthood. Those whose past life has been full of problems and challenges tend to live a life of withdrawal and lack of happiness even as they get to older adulthood.
Family and Environment
Family and personal environment play a key role in influencing the overall well-being of a person. Families who are supportive and who can make informed decisions together tend to provide harmony and leads towards a healthy and happy life. Family support and cooperation is important in reducing stress, promoting peace and increasing the ability of an individual to meet the set goals ( Fiksenbaum , 2014). Without a supportive family, however, one can experience low self-esteem, feeling of isolation and depression which affects the overall well-being.
The peaceful environment tends to have a direct positive effect on the moods of a person. Adults in an organized and cooperative environment tend to have a positive behavior and motivation.it also facilitate the relationship and the way people interact with each other. Therefore, the environment tends to play a crucial role in determining the behavior and motivation of a person and thus affects the overall moods.
Conclusion
Certainly, there is more besides cognition and emotions that affect the wellbeing of young and middle-aged adults. These two, however, are highly expressed during this stage of life and thus very conspicuous players in one's well-being. Other domains of development especially psychosexual could also play an important role, and more research on that axis would help evaluate the subject. The factors such as family, the environment and cultures have been found to have a direct effect on the well-being of both the middle-aged and older adults. The evidence reveals that these factors directly affect the overall life of a person and the social aspect part of life. To completely answer the question; however, further research is still required on areas such as the motivation and well-being throughout the lifespan of a person.
References
Hall, C. W., Row, K. A., Wuensch, K. L., & Godley, K. R. (2013). The role of self-compassion in physical and psychological well-being. The Journal of psychology , 147 (4), 311-323.
Malone, J. C., Liu, S. R., Vaillant, G. E., Rentz, D. M., & Waldinger, R. J. (2016). Midlife Eriksonian psychosocial development: Setting the stage for late-life cognitive and emotional health. Developmental psychology , 52 (3), 496.
Kagitcibasi, C. (2017). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications . Routledge.
Fiksenbaum, L. M. (2014). Supportive work–family environments: implications for work–family conflict and well-being. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 25 (5), 653-672.
