In the twentieth century, middle life has emerged as a prescriptive development period in life. According to Gomez-Pinilla, & Hillman (2013) development is described as the form of change in human capacities that starts at conception and extends throughout the lifespan. In this case, development means growth but also decline in the sense that the processing of one's information reduces. Physical development is the change that occurs throughout the lifespan such as in menopause and puberty, height and weight, and motor skills (Gomez-Pinilla, & Hillman, 2013). On the other hand, cognitive development involves the process of change in the own intelligence, conceiving, and language. Although development process continues in everyone's life, the change to middle adulthood life is commemorated by significant psychological development about familiarity, personality, work, parenthood. Additionally, Hopwood et al. (2011) maintain that these changes are also accompanied by steadiness and modification in the character attributes. Therefore, this paper discusses the influences on physical and cognitive development in the middle adulthood between 40-60 years of age. Separately, the paper shed light on the hereditary and environmental influences on both cognitive and physical development and factors that affect social, moral and personality development.
Genetic and ecological factors that influence physical development
Physical changes in middle adulthood are shaped by a different factor ranging from genetic to environmental and even social. At the age of early forties, the skin began to wrinkle and sag because due to less fat and collagen in the in the internal tissues. Jelenkovic et al. (2016) argue that genetic and environmental factors can affect physical development, especially height. Occasionally, individual in this period tend to lose height while many gain weight. Perhaps the signs of aging are highly visible when people become more worried about their health. Looking at the research conducted by Jelenkovic et al. (2016), the comparison between environmental-cultural regions designated that the height of the individuals in Europe was greater that in North America and Australia that were shorter. This explains both genetic and geographical variation of these populations. For instance, it can be conceived that it was the allelic regularities and effects of the genes indicated the height difference among these population groups (Jelenkovic et al., 2016). On the other hand, hereditary illnesses and chromosomal abnormalities will affect the growth at this stage conditional to the type of community one belongs (Jelenkovic et al., 2016). Besides, environmental factors such as drug addiction, alcohol, and smoking can have a significant effect on the physical development in the middle adulthood period.
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Hereditary and environmental factors affecting cognitive development
Looking at the genetic and ecological factors associated with cognitive development in the middle adulthood, Tucker-Drob, Briley, & Harden (2013) maintain that almost 70 percent cognition is roughly transmissible. This means that genetic modifications among individuals account for fifty to seventy percent distinction in the presentation of the investigation of cognitive abilities such as reasoning, knowledge, mental rotation, and thinking capacity. On the other hand, genetic influence on the psychological consequences can rely on the environmental factors. Existing research have suggested that numerous changes in psychology that happen during the middle adulthood incline to be in the position of increased mental adulthood (Hopwood et al., 2011). In this case, cognitive abilities tend to increase, while traits such as hopelessness, anger, and expressing problems appear to drop (Hopwood et al., 2011).
Separately, development growth in heritability denotes that there exist new genes that did not formerly affect cognition. These genes will later be activated during the middle adulthood period. For instance, the changes in adolescence and menopause can generate changes in gene appearance or genetic modifications that previously were not relevant for reasoning during the childhood (Tucker-Drob, Briley, & Harden, 2013). Consequently, the beginning of the new gene and gene-environment deals can result in an expansion of heritability of cognition. In this case, the changes in the intellectual capacities during the middle adulthood validate a high multidirectional, interindividual variability, and flexibility (Tucker-Drob, Briley, & Harden, 2013). On the other hand, it has been argued that environmental experiences such as the association with parents, negative life events, and involvement with peers will make an individual to adopt great models of cognitive development (Hopwood et al., 2011). Additionally, exceptional environmental factors have the abilities to promote superior stability in behavior attributes during the middle adulthood period .
Theoretical perspectives associated with factors affecting social, moral, and personality development
According to Diehl, & Hooker (2013) there exist several factors that affect moral, social, and personality development both in childhood and adulthood periods. For instance, the society norm shapes the social, moral, and personality development. In this case, social patterns such as drinking and drug consumption have affected the character development in middle adulthood. Separately, during this period, many individuals are mature and family oriented in the sense that they accept the values and ensures that they develop new social networks. Looking at the theory of Piaget, cognitive development is associated with a series of stages (Cherry, 2016). These steps are connected to the social, environmental, and genetic factors. For instance, the how an individual perceives, others, and the whole around them will shape their social, moral and personality development (Cherry, 2016). On the other hand, Erikson's theory of psychological development entails how social relationship affect behavior. In this case, the individual has to revolve around different stages to acquire a high sense of personality and well-being that is present in middle adulthood. In conclusion, the study has found that several factors are influencing cognitive and physical development in middle adulthood. For a better understanding of human development in this stage, it recommended that future studies should focus on personality process from childhood to adulthood.
References
Cherry, K. (2016). Personality Development: Major Theories of Personality Development. Personality Psychology. Internet resource.
Diehl, M., & Hooker, K. (2013). Adult Personality Development: Dynamics and Processes. Research in Human Development , 10 (1), 1–8. http://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2013.760256
Hopwood, C. J., Donnellan, M. B., Blonigen, D. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Iacono, W. G., & Burt, S. A. (2011). Genetic and environmental influences on personality trait stability and growth during the transition to adulthood: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 100 (3), 545–556. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0022409
Jelenkovic, A., Sund, R., Hur, Y.-M., Yokoyama, Y., Hjelmborg, J. v. B., Möller, S., Silventoinen, K. (2016). Genetic and environmental influences on the height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts. Scientific Reports , 6 , 28496. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep28496
Tucker-Drob, E. M., Briley, D. A., & Harden, K. P. (2013). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Cognition across Development and Context. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 22 (5), 349–355. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413485087
