Youth, Middle age and Beyond
Adjustments of youth are effective and noticeable. Psychologically, youth is a period involving some agonizing indecisiveness in career planning. Youth is aware of change and welcomes it. It is the peak time for Wellness. On the job, youth must look for opportunities where anticipations can be realized and enthusiasms rewarded; where dissatisfaction with one job may be remedied by taking another; where physical strength and vitality to some degree make up for the lack of training and experience. Typically the college sophomore attempts to sort out the emotional problems from those that are intellectual.
Change - characterizes our society, with its positives and its negatives. The choice of ao vocation is not an event that happens suddenly, but rather is a process extending over a period of time. In youth, development is a compromise process in which the self concept is a product of the interaction of Inherited aptitudes, neural and endocrine makeup, and the opportunity to play various roles.
Middle age is a "crisis" stage for both male and female. For men it is a revolt centering on lost dreams and feelings of guilt, a period of taking stock of where they stand, a period of second adolescence . where one revolts both against one's spouse and against one's job. In terms of a statistical criterion, male revolt is normal.
Middle-age problems in the female center on both physiological and psychological changes; role change enhances the problems of muscular cramps, dizzy spells, and "hot flashes" Middle age in the female, as in the male, is characterized by periods of anxiety and depression, where status becomes very Important. The self concept in middle age develops gradually from negative revolt to positive realities.
Many people who pass the middle-age test find their most psychologically rewarding' years ahead. Others age without growing up. Middle age is a time to reevaluate the criteria of success and failure.
Beyond middle age one finds the positive as well as the negative; some compensations for losses accompany aging. With a decrease in muscular strength and psychomotor performance often comes an increase in social perception and wisdom. Preretirement brings on changing pattern of life-style marked by individual differences. Preparation for retirerr:cnt involves prethinking and preplanning related to three basic factors: personality, life-styles, and previous habits of coping with change. It is important to prepare for retirement psychologically as well as physically and economically. Personal questions center on doing things at a slower pace and planning for more leisur time and a change in life-style where there is less social interaction.
Problems in formal retirement range widely: from boredom to bucking attitudes against age; from loss of relatives and friends to loss of influence and independence. The problem of self concept relates closely to personality, changing role patterns, and a realistic evaluation of individual potentiality. At the positive level we can remind ourselves that at any age we can and should take stock of ou assets as well as our liabilities.
