Adolescence and adulthood vary in a
couple ways. Here it will discuss how they vary starting with adolescence and ending with adulthood.
Adolescence
can be defined as the period between the normal onset of puberty and
the beginning of adulthood. Puberty
is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual
reproduction. Adolescence is not universal, but puberty occurs in all
human societies. There are five characteristics of adolescence, the
first is the biological growth and development as kids enter
adolescence. Second is undefined status, the adolescent expectations
are quite vague. Then comes the increase of decision making, many
make their own decisions. Then comes increased pressure, like from
those around them might expect things from them at a certain time, at
any time. And lastly the search for self, where they are mature
enough to think about themselves and about what they want out of
life. Anticipatory socialization
involves learning the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role
to prepare for assuming that role in the future.
Dating,
or the meeting of people as a romantic engagement, is most commonly
found in societies that allow individuals to choose their own
marriage partners. Courtship
differs from dating in that courtship's express purpose is eventual
marriage, while dating may lead to eventual marriage. Homogamy
is the tendency of individuals to marry people who have social
characteristics similar to their own. Dating has a couple different
functions, one is that it is a form of entertainment. Another is that
it is a mechanism for socialization. Dating also fulfills certain
basic psychological needs like conversation and companionship. It
also helps individuals attain status and finally spouse selection
becomes an important issue. Here are two types of basic dating
patterns. One is the traditional way, where the man asks the girl, he
was expected to pay for the expenses and set up the time and day of
the event. The second way is the contemporary dating pattern, where
there are no set stages of dating. The Amish begin dating at age 16
and around that time the Amish men received their own courting
buggy, of horse drawn
carriage. This is part of the contemporary pattern, for it can change
over time. As with so many other social phenomena, the norms
governing sexual behavior vary widely from society to society. Th
rate of teenage sexual activity has gone up, but has dropped a little
in this decade. There are influences on early sexual activity, mainly
by social factors. There are many consequences of early sexual
activity, like carrying around a child at age 15 for example.
A
drug is a substance
that changes mood, behavior, or consciousness. In the recent years
the public has become increasingly alarmed over the social
consequences of drug abuse. The rate of teen drug use in some areas
has gone up and other areas has gone down. The influence on drugs is
mainly people around them who do drugs as well. Teenage attitude
towards drugs are more negative than positive but they still do them.
The social problem of teenage drug and alcohol abuse has led to
another big problem: teen suicide. Social integration
is the degree of attachment people have to social groups or to
society as a whole. There are seven predictors of teenage suicide,
alcohol/drug use, triggering events, age, sex, population density,
family relations, and cluster effect.
Now
adulthood will be explained. The life patterns of adult males and
females in American society are somewhat different. A life
structure is the combination
of statuses, roles, activities, goals, values, beliefs, and life
circumstances that characterize an individual. There are three basic
eras of adulthood: early adulthood
ages 17-39, middle adulthood
40-59, and late adulthood
60-75+. The early adult transition occurs between the ages of 17-22.
Entering the adult world is between the ages of 23-27. Then the age
30 transition which is from 28-32. These first three periods of the
early adulthood era is called the novice phase.
The last stage of early adulthood is the settling down period between
33-39. a mentor is
someone who fosters an individuals development by believing in the
person, sharing the person's dreams, and helping that person achieve
those dreams. The midlife transition is between the ages of 40-44.
All of this was the male life pattern. There are three phases of the
female life pattern. First she leaves the family, then she enters the
adult world, where she might get married and have kids, and lastly
she enters the adult world again, where they may get a job again
after having sent her kids to school.
The
labor force
consists of all individuals age 16 and older who are employed in paid
positions or who are seeking paid employment. A profession
is a high-status occupation that requires specialized skills obtained
through formal education. Unemployment
is the situation that occurs when a person does not have a job but is
actively seeking employment. The unemployment rate
is the percentage of the civilian labor force that is unemployed but
actively seeking employment. There are many different occupations in
the United States, these different occupations include: executive,
administrative, managerial, professional specialty, technical
occupations, sales workers, administrative support occupations,
service occupations, precision production, craft and repair workers,
operators, fabricators, laborers, farming, forestry, fishing,
transportation and material working. The nature of work is changing,
for example, farming used to be 35 percent of the population, now it
is 27 percent are farmers and manufacturers included. Opinion polls
and social-science research indicate that the vast majority of
workers in the United States, regardless of what the do, are
satisfied with their jobs.
The
field of gerontology
studies the process and phenomena of aging. Sociologists are most
interested in social gerontology
which is the study of the nonphysical aspects of the aging process.
There are three different groups of older people, the young-old,
65-74, the middle-old,
75-84, and the old-old,
85+. As change continues, older people must adjust to retirement. As
an individual ages, body cells begin to die. So they body will start
to wrinkle and look older. The brain may not work as it used to.
Diseases can occur, including Alzheimer's disease,
an organic condition that results in the progressive deterioration of
brain cells. For middle-old and the old-old, the issues of dependency
and death take on increasing significance. For many older Americans,
retirement is accompanied by a feeling of freedom.
So as you can
see adolescence and adulthood are very different from each other. It
is all a matter of time before a person will go from an adolescent to
an adult. We must remember that as adolescents we have to respect the
adults around us no matter their age.
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