The Relationship between Stress and Middle Adulthood Essay Example

The Relationship between Stress and Middle Adulthood Paper Stress and Middle Adulthood Relationship Stress affects individuals physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally on every level of human development. This essay will focus mainly on stress during middle adulthood and discuss how stress affects individuals at this stage during human development. This stage spans from 40 years of age to 65. Individuals do not possess the strength, coordination, and stamina that we had during our twenties and thirties. But during this period we remain pretty stable, there is only a slight physical decline. Personality development and adjustment theories, such as Erikson’s give a way of defining life crisis of the middle years. He regarded this level as generativity versus stagnation. A period of striving to having and raising our children well and making our mark in the world or we do things that are worthwhile. We do this to enhance and maintain our self-esteem. With Eriksonians it is the ideal of shaping the new generation. This could be the raising of their children or working to make the world a better place. Levinson’s theory, midlife transition, is a dramatic shift in psychological perspective. This is a marked time of thinking how much time we have left. Individuals will think more of what they could have accomplished rather than what the future can bring (Cronin Mandich, 2005). Whatever the theory they may be experiencing the crisis that arises produces stress. Defining stress is â€Å"the mental and/or physical strain resulting from adjustive demands or challenges† (Abascal, Brucato Brucato, 2001). Most people must adjust to a life that is less than perfect. We need to adapt to stress not just the stress of crises or unexpected good fortune, but also the stress of everyday minor demands. We will write a custom essay sample on The Relationship between Stress and Middle Adulthood specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Relationship between Stress and Middle Adulthood specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Relationship between Stress and Middle Adulthood specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Every adjustment is an attempt to balance our desires against the demands of the environment, to weigh our needs against the reality of achievement. How we adjust to the stress that we endure is crucial to our health and the quality of our lives. Stress can hurt you psychologically and physically. All major life changes involve a certain amount of stress. This is because major life changes typically bring strong emotions, and even joy or elation that can cause arousal in the body and begin to take a toll on its resources (Johnson, 2000). Major life events are stressful because any new experience requires some adjustment. Change is one of the most common event that causes stress. Middle adulthood has middle life crisis for dealing with this stressor. Most people crave order, continuity and predictability in their lives. So anything that disrupts this order, good or bad, will cause stress (Cronin Mandich, 2005). But there are other factors to look at when looking at stress. Pressures, Frustrations, conflict and self-imposed stressors are events that give individuals stress. Pressures happen when we feel forced to speed up, intensify, or shift directions in our behaviors. It can happen when we feel compelled to meet a higher standard of performance. This can come internally or externally. Frustration happens when a person is prevented from reaching a goal because of something or someone who might stand in their way. Individuals must adjust to this by modifying goals or finding a way around the block. Conflict is the most common. Conflict arises when we face two or more incompatible demands, opportunities, needs or goals (Cronin Mandich, 2005 p. 481). These conflicts can never be resolved completely so individuals must give up some of their goals, modify them, or delay going after them. And sometimes individuals create problems for themselves apart from stressful events in their environment. Many people carry with them a set of irrational, self-defeating belief that adds unnecessarily to the normal stresses of life as with mid-life crisis. The transition to midlife can cause a crisis that is referred to as mid-life crisis and entrapment and loss of purpose is marked by this point in life. The midlife crisis is composed of feelings of personal mortality, emotional instability, loss of meaning, and dissatisfaction with life at home and on the job (Johnson, 2000). Cognitive interaction is continuous between the physiological, emotional, and cognitive aspects of human nature. Emotions include physiological, emotional and cognitive â€Å"components† (Abascal, Brucato Brucato, 2001). High levels of bodily arousal in response to stress heighten our emotional responses and influence our cognitions. Even the emotional effects of stress can cause physical symptoms in individuals. Positive emotions such as love and desire can fill us with pleasure, but negative emotions like those induced by stress can cause problems. There are three emotional responses that come from stress Anxiety, anger and depression. Anxiety is in response to threats, anger to frustration and social provocation. Depression, something middle adulthood sees more often, arises to the response of stressors like death, failure, inactivity or lack of stimulation (Cronin Mandich, 2005). Health psychology has become a big topic when dealing with stress. The relationship between psychological factors and prevention and treatment of physical illness has become big business for pharmaceuticals and middle adulthood. Many studies point to a correlation of stress and certain illnesses including cancer (Johnson, 2000). Science is looking at how stress and the immune system interact and this has helped with relief for physical disorders ranging from headaches to heart disease. Examining the ways in which our behavior patters, like smoking, contribute to or can help us prevent and cope with physical disorders with many affecting us in middle age. One thing that has been shown to reduce or buffer the effects of stress is social support. Research shows that social support moderates the impact of stress in situations ranging from problems at work to disasters† (Johnson, 2000). It is useful for people who have stress to get together and talk about their feelings or ideas to support one another are useful. And studies of Alameda County, California have found that people who receive social support may even live longer (Cronin Mandich, 2005). So when looking at stress and middle adulthood one should keep in mind the effects of stress and how it relates to them and their level of development.

or Taboo essay

buy custom Experiment on Folkways, Morality and/or Taboo essay Folkways are unwritten rules and regulations that govern social human behavior in Christian life. Folkways vary on bases of gender from one generation to the other or from society to society. In this regard, Folkways are established standards of behavior which is maintained and observed by a society. As a matter of fact, Folkways are important to the society since they help to maintain the required standards in the society. Thus norms are standard and values for any group which is organized socially. Folkways which defines what expectations and what behavior thoughts or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context is more common (Deborah 2000).This research paper seeks to explore what are Folkways, violation of Folkways across gender, culture and its effect. Further, it focuses on the experiences that are associated with violation folkways. Literature review Deborah (2000) argues that Folkways are the agreed expectations and rules which guide the behavior of its members of certain society in all aspect of life. For this reason, Folkways differ widely across cultural societies. For instance, Americans are expected to maintain consistent direct eye contact when talking with other people. In contrast Asians, avert away their eyes contact as a sign of being polite and respectful. Moreover, folkways are referred to as conventions and they are accepted standards of behavior that are socially approved and are morally very important to the society .on the other hand , they differ from Mores which are define as norms of morality while certain behaviors are regarded as taboo, meaning that the culture does not allow them completely. Cynthia (2001) puts the matter under discussion to light by pointing out that Folkways are regarded as a formal set of rules that are governed and enacted by the state. For this reason, Members of a certain culture are needed to abide to its Folkways so as to promote its existence and function. Folkways are often influenced by factors such as religion, the environment they live in, the kind of government people abide by. Anticipation According to Deborah (2000) Folkways are prospects that determine how people reason, think, make judgments and behave. For this reason, our daily lives are guided and directed by Folkways so we are bound to take social norms for conducting ourselves in a modest way. Violation of Folkways I will use my primary school as an example of violation of Folkways experiment. I once undertook the task of breaking some Folkways rules in my school. One day, I waited in class until every body went for lunch. I collected all the pens and any other valuable necessity which pleased me from the other students which were lying on the bench. I packed them self and left for home. In the following day, every body in my class was furious with me since some of the lost items were recovered from me. The matter was reported to my class teacher who latter gave me some punishment. Latter on, after the teacher guided me on how to make right decision and evade away from wrong doing whille in school I learned that it was wrong to take away other students belonging without their knowledge of consent. I learned that different students have different reaction if they were crossed. In addition it came to my knowledge that students have different understanding in regard to Folkways since most of them came from different, races. The matter was forwarded to my parents; my mother enquired why I did it. She sounded so offended and disgusted at me. At one time she showed clearly her negative attitude. I told her that it came to my knowledge that I had done wrong. For that reason I apologize to my mother, so I did not feel like l was an outcast. In addition I learned that, the school is an essential place where students can be modeled the student can be led to decide what is normal and abnormal, It came to my knowledge that stealing for whatever reason is not socially accepted and it does not match to school Folkways . Judgment From that day it comes to my knowledge that every single thing we do in school is jud governed by Folkways. We are taught by our parents and teachers of what to do and what not to do. In this regard, school I understood that folkways are ideals for better living in school. In conclusion school students should develop a culture of good Folkways where student are given guidance in making logical decision based on Folkways values. When Folkways are broken we should learn to correct the offender by condemning the offender without humor, panic, anger or emotions. Buy custom Experiment on Folkways, Morality and/or Taboo essay