Psychology

One of the fundamental characteristics of life is the fact that change is inevitable as age advances. A primary change occurs in the duties and responsibilities that individuals have to contend with as they grow. For people getting into adulthood, they are faced with social compulsory roles of forming families, caring for their aging parents, catering for their children as well as strategizing for an imminent retirement. As one grows, change occurs in all the facets of the individuals life including the physical, emotional, cognitive and social facets.  Some of the changes that occur to the physical being include the decline in the functional ability of body organs as age advances. For an average person, there is a 0.8 to 1 decline in the biological cells function ability per year once a person reaches age 30. Although a great percentage of the decline is normal, a good percentage of the decline is associated with life factors such as diseases, stress, nutritional factors, environmental factors and other socio-environmental issues.  Some of the physical changes that are evident in the physique of average persons going through adulthood include graying hair, wrinkled skin, change in body posture as well as an aging skin.  Some of the internal changes that accompany the growth to adulthood include changes in the gastro-intestinal system, respiratory system, central nervous system and the cardiovascular systems. Growing into adulthood is also associated with a biological loss of the sensory and cognitive abilities.

The concern in this study is to analyze some of the ways through which individuals respond to the changes that accompanies their transition and general life in adulthood.   There is general evidence to show that the coping mechanisms among different genders and social classes may significantly be different especially considering the resources available at an individuals disposal during this period of adulthood. Most of the coping mechanisms adopted by individuals involvers the application of physical resources and materials to relieve life pressures in the different faculties of a person. For instance, the adoption of sports as a recreation tool by most adults is a response to physical fatigue or it can be a conscious effort to avert fatigue accumulated through lifes multiple struggles. An important feature that accompanies the different changes in growth is the accumulation and change in the roles that individuals are expected to participate in. According to Burr (1972) individuals accumulate diverse roles at every stage in their development process.  Individuals moves and transfers into different roles, leaving some and keeping others and beginning new roles that are demanded by their biological, economic and social lives.  For instance, it is socially expected that young people joining adulthood should form families in almost all the societies of the world. Biologically, a young man joining adulthood is under biological pressure to find a partner who would fulfill his sexual needs that are fully developed following adolescence.

Rodgers and White (1993) assert that role transitions are not always smooth and that they are affected by social context and the timing of transitions.  It is also noted that movement into different roles may produce direct effect on concurrent transitions in other important aspects of life. For instance, it is observed that women in European countries, especially Germany delays entry into motherhood due to educational responsibilities. Their stage in student hood directly affects their entry into adulthood (Blosfeld  Huinik, 1991).At each stage of life, an individual holds different roles. In most cases, individuals hold multiple social roles that are expected by the society and that are equivalent to an individuals social status. For instance, when a girl goes into marriage, she eventually takes the role of being a wife, a mother while at the same time continues playing he role of a daughter and daughter in law. All the roles that she acquires are accompanied by conscious and unconscious social, behavioral and economic expectations by the social circles that every role places her (Merton, 1957).It is to be noted here that the different roles that accompanies an individual automatically due to growth requires distinct skills and attention which is expected of the individual. For instance, a mans role in the house is crucial and different from the roles that is expected of him in the workplace either as a worker, a manager etc. As such, one crucial coping mechanism by adults is in the acquisition of skills that enables them play their roles effectively. The skills can be acquired formally in structured learning or informally through interactions with other peers faced with similar challenges.  According to Lopata (1991) the different roles an individual finds himself in the process of growth forms the persons role cluster and all roles in the cluster are interconnected considering that all of them are dependent on the individual.

Due to an increasing number of roles as a person goes into adulthood, individuals consciously or unconsciously develop coping mechanisms that enable them to handle the increased responsibilities that they are not familiar with. Some of the theories that are used to explain the transition to adulthood in regard to roles include the role conflict theory and role overload theory. Role conflict refers to an incongruity between expectations demanded by one role as compared to the other. In role conflict, the roles an individual is supposed to attend to normally conflict and results to strain on the part of the individual. Role overload on the other hand refers to an overload of roles on an individual who does not have all the necessary resources required to meet the expectations required by the role.  According to Goode (1960) both role overload and conflict results to a situation where the individual is unable to satisfy the demands of each role. The result is what is described as role strain where an individual generally struggles to satisfy conditions imposed upon him by the roles.

Due to the strain, there is a great likelihood for individuals to develop physical, emotional and social problems as a direct reflection of the strain they are going through. Women in many cultures such as Japan and China experience burnout, distress and stress as a result of combining family roles and work responsibilities.  How individuals respond to the strains and challenges presented by different roles in great way affects the psycho-social development that accompanies their life development. According to Marks and MacDermid (1996) individuals who manage to participate actively in a variety of roles are able to reduce strain associated with their expected roles and this helps them to foster high self esteem in their lives and reduce chances of depression and the associated health and medical consequences. Individuals who participate in multiple roles are in a great way active and time occupied and this helps them to cope with the social and emotional strains associated with adulthood roles. Women with multiple roles such as that of a mother, paid worker and a wife manages better health than women who have fewer or no roles.

It is important to point out here that there are no universally expected coping mechanisms for individuals who take up adult roles, but that there are general mechanisms that are developed either consciously or unconsciously by individuals as a response to the roles expected of them. Some individuals develop a flexibility attitude that allows them to handle the pressures that comes along with roles. Most young people especially in the developing countries enter adulthood with little or no formal knowledge of the challenges that abides in such age. As such, their response to challenges is based on flexibility and efforts to handle every challenge that emerge. For many people in developed countries, a great percentage is consciously aware of some of the challenges associated with adulthood and as such, they engage in information seeking and participation of activities that assists them to effectively handle their adult responsibilities.  Such includes participation in formal adulthood classes, counseling sessions, physical exercises etc.

According to Hanan (2000) the transition of young people into adulthood is often marked with an identity crisis in regard to the role they are expected to play in their society. The role normally rotates around their sexuality and gender identity. From their peer influence in their teenage, young people are able to isolate some of the roles expected in regard to their sexes. For instance, boys in most societies grow up with a psychological orientation towards being fathers and in most cases being breadwinners. Crisis normally revolves around their gender expectations considering that sexuality is not necessarily the same as gender. (p. 2). In regard to their gender orientations, young people graduating to adulthood cope with adult roles through role sharing.  In role sharing, the growing young men and women unconsciously shares out roles that they play in their social units such as the family. For instance, a man in the house is expected to cater for specific roles and the woman is expected to cater for other roles. When these roles are shared, they induce a feeling of cooperation between partners that reduces the build up of stress associated with individualism and isolation.

According to Drew, Emerek and Mahon (1998) role sharing is common across all stratas of the society and it cuts across the class divides.  In both the high and low classes, men and women share common roles implying that there is a similarity in coping mechanism irrespective of socio-economic status. For instance, the roles of fathers in China and Europe are primarily that of a disciplinarian, teacher and breadwinner while that of the mother is primarily that of a caregiver to the children. In a situation where these roles are clearly cut among partner adults, there is limited likelihood of too much role strain and therefore acts as a coping mechanism. A more recent trend among a good number of older adults especially in the western societies is the adoption of simple lifestyles such as adopting pets which serves to fantasize them during their lonely moments. In conclusion, the pressures in life demands for a mechanism that can reduce their effects and this can successfully be acquired through personal activities as well as involvement in social active duties.