Given the opportunity to conduct interviews with two different life stages signifies how much one changes and grows developmentally and cognitively. It is fascinating to see how different experiences are dealt with in different stages of life. Being able to learn about the different life stages may give us a better understanding of how we came to be who we are in our latter years. Developmental psychology is important because it is said that development happens throughout life, it is multidimensional, as well as being multidirectional (Santrock, 2017). The following interviews were held to better understand the difference between adolescence and middle adulthood, as well as exploring the parallels and discrepancies in their various developmental stages. I chose to interview an individual in adolescence as well as an individual in middle adult hood because personally I consider myself in early adulthood. I thought it would be nice to gain an introspective view of these two different life stages.
Adolescence
Lily is a 13-year old young lady who identifies with the adolescence stage (L. Frawlin, personal communication, June 5, 2020). Lilly is my next-door neighbors daughter, who I have known for the past seven years. Lily has just graduated middle school and is so thrilled to be moving onto high school. I interviewed her the day of what her graduation would have been. Since the Covid -19 pandemic Lilly has had to finish the rest of her schooling online and they had a drive by graduation. Lilly considers herself to be and adolescent because she recently celebrated her thirteenth birthday and she is now a teenager (L. Frawlin, personal communication, June 5, 2020). The adolescent stage is described by being a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. during this stage there is magnitude of change physically, mentally, and socially (Santrock, 2017). Lilly agrees strongly with the this stage of life experiencing many different changes and transitions. For example she is really excited to start high school yet still is a little apprehensive about going to a new school and how her peers will receive her, because of her disability (L. Frawlin, personal communication, June 5, 2020). Lily has cerebral palsy and is a little apprehensive of being bullied by her peers when making the transition to high school. During our interview we discussed self-esteem. Self-esteem is the way we assess ourselves (Santrock, 2017). She described herself to be loving and caring sister, and daughter, who tries hard in regards to academics, however, struggles with her body physically due to her disability. She also noted that she does not view herself as narcissistic (L. Frawlin, personal communication, June 5, 2020). I asked Lilly what advice she would give someone who is moving onto to high school and she said for them to, “be positive have an open mind and embrace the new changes”(L. Frawlin, personal communication, June 5, 2020).
Middle Adulthood
Pari Azadi is a 64-year-old woman who considers herself to be in the middle adulthood stage (P. Azadi, personal communication, June 5, 2020). Middle adulthood is defined as individuals between the age of 40-65, and it is also a time where gains and losses as well as biological and sociocultural factors balance each other (Santrock, 2017). Pari discussed that she had recently retired from her job of 30 years of being a school nurse, and that she was ready to travel because both her daughters got married last year (P. Azadi, personal communication, June 5, 2020). She has defiantly noticed some changes in her physical appearance as well as her health. She mentioned that she recently has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, when she was younger she was able to eat whatever she wanted and now she feels with age she has been restricted. She thinks one of the reasons contributing to her diabetes would be her weight gain. She mentioned that when she was younger she never had to deal with her weight. It is also harder for her to exercise because she doesn’t have the same energy that she use to have which may also contribute to her weight gain and her diabetes (P. Azadi, personal communication, June 5, 2020). I asked her about some of her challenges that she is concerned about while entering this life stage or even moving on to the next life stage such as late adulthood is her fear of losing her memory. she has a family history of Alzheimer’s so she does whatever she can to keep her mind sharp. She mentioned that she’s waiting for her children to have children so she can keep busy with her grandkids (P. Azadi, personal communication, June 5, 2020). I asked Pari if she had any advice for people entering into middle adulthood and she said for people to embrace this stage of life and learn from past experiences, and to try to keep young and active mindset (P. Azadi, personal communication, June 5, 2020).
Conclusion
Learning about these two life stages through conducting interview with individuals who are living through it presently was really informative. It was fascinating to see how both interviewees were able to relate and find many similarities pertinent to their life stage. While interviewing Lilly I was able to gain some insight to what it is life to be an adolescent in this day and age. My interview with Lilly leads me to believe that she is a typically developing adolescent who was able to identify with many of the characteristics of the adolescent life stage. Pari also was able to identify with the characteristics of someone who is in middle adulthood. interviewing Lilly who is in adolescents and Pari who is in middle adulthood the differences are extremely apparent. It was interesting to see the difference in what’s important and how they deal with their stressors given there age and life stage they are in. however, I didn’t find too many parallels given the fact that their age gap was so vast but they both seemed to think that having a positive outlook will help you get through the challenges they may encounter in that given life stage.
