1.1. Physical: Rapid growth in height and weight in both males and females. Generally females experience this two years earlier than boys. Also the development of secondary sex characteristics so growth of penis for boys and first menstrual period for girls. In 6th grade I was one of the shortest members of my class but 2 years later i grew to become average height.
1.2. Cognitive: Adolescence start to be able to think more complex by considering problems in abstract rather than concrete forms. So they start to reason and consider hypothesis and ways to solve their hypothesis. Essentially i was able to understand Geometry in 9th grade!
1.3. Socioemotional: Dating begins for majority of adolescence around age 16. Also social comparison becomes important through reference groups and belonging to a clique. I was always part of random clique in high-school that consisted of 3 guys and 2 girls.
2. Young Adulthood
2.1. Cognitive: Our prefrontal cortex becomes fully developed around age 20. Also many young adults are entering college then graduating college. Hopefully finding a job, they may be faced with marriage and pregnancy. Trying to enter the job market as a recent grad adds a lot of stress!
2.2. Socioemtional: Our friend circle starts to become smaller as we base friendships on proximity and we are also looking for a specific partner to spend the rest of our life with. Also we start to base our identity on our career.
2.3. Physical: Our bodies stop growing as much from puberty and our brains are fully developed. Our health also improves and we become less susceptible to illness. I haven't changed in the past 3 years in body size, however i notice it is becoming easier to gain weight.
3. Middle Adulthood
3.1. Physical: I obviously have not reached this period of my vision decreasing, bones start to become more brittle and our weight increase. Also our reaction time starts to decrease. I would like to stay active and eat healthy so i wouldn't have to worry about my declining body as much.
3.2. Cognitive: We start to become more expertise based off our many years of experience. Mainly our cognitve competence holds steady with every now and then an individual experencing a difficult time retrieving ong term memory.
3.3. Socioemtional: The term midlife crisis is common among individuals. However on the other side of the spectrum, marriage satisfaction is high and our views on our career become more of inner satisfaction or dissatisfaction. I hope that the decisions that i make will be for the good instead of the bad. I hope to be happy in my career and my marriage.
4. Prenatal
4.1. Cognitive: Any brain abnormalities start to become noticeable (so autistic brain) and some of these abnormalities can be based on mothers diet and use of drugs and or alcohol.
4.2. Socioemtional: At the time of birth we start to show evidence of mothers substance abuse. We may become irritable and we also start to form a kind of attachment, either avoidant, secure, ambivalent and or disorganized. As a baby i had a extreme secure style of attachment to my mother.
4.3. Physical: From conception to birth we go through 3 stages of development. The germinal stage, embryonic stage and the fetal stage. We go from a fertilized oocyte to a newborn baby 9 months later. Our bodies form and we develop some motor skills. I obviously don't remember any of this but my mamma said i was the cutest boy around!
5. Infancy and Toddlerhood
5.1. Physical: We start to have rapid growth in height and weight during the first 2 years of life. Our vision greatly improves to the point of 20/20 vision. We can grasp and pick up things ( growth of motor development).
5.2. Socioemtional: We start to show different kinds of attachment to other individuals besides the mother. We start to develop nonverbal decoding abilities which allows us to understand other peoples emotions.
5.3. Cognitive: We start to talk trough babbles and use of single words such as dadda or momma. We start to learn by putting things in our mouths and we become really curious and start to experience our surroundings.
6. Middle Childhood
6.1. Physical: Right before puberty our bodies slow down from growth and the biggest growth in motor skills is muscle coordination. We can ride a bike, ice skate and swim. Also our fine motor skills start to develop where we can write in cursive and type on a keyboard. I remember growing up learning to type on a keyboard and i hated it! Today i type with ease and i find it natural.
6.2. Cognitive: Our attention span starts to become more controllable. Our vocabulary continues to grow where we learn 5000 more words than being a 6 year old. They start to develop metamemory and can engage in control strategies and keyword strategies. Both of these help memory retrieval.
6.3. Socioemtional: Friendships start to develop based on gender. Boys play with other boys doing boys things and same with girls. They continue to develop a sense of self. Besides of having friendships based on gender, we have friendships based on trust, similar behaviors and psychological closeness. I remember growing up that playing with girls then all of the sudden it wasn't considered cool so i started to play with just boys. It was also weird to have a friend that was a girl. I could only have guy friends.
7. Preschool
7.1. Physical: Our bodies start to become more slender compared to round as a newborn and we start to look more adult like. We have also developed a variety of motor skills such as jumping, kicking, running and one foot jumping. I remember as a kid running around and playing hop scotch. Last but not least is the importance of potty training!
7.2. Cognitive: Our language improves quite a bit with the usage of correct grammar and expansion of vocabulary. Also our attention span starts to develop and also we enter ZPD. We are almost able to fully perform on our own.
7.3. Socioemtional: We start to realize our gender and how our genders behave and we start to develop a self-identity. Our play becomes constructive and our ability to be empathic continues to grow through preschool.
8. Late Adulthood
8.1. Physical: our hair turns into gray or silver and more wrinkles start to appear. Our brain starts to decrease in size and our reaction time continues to slow down. Heart disease and other chronic diseases have a higher rate of developing. I know i will have heart issues when i get older but i will hope to have looked back and remembered everything that i did.
8.2. Cognitive: Our cognitive ability can start to decrease without maintenance by practice. Our short-term memory declines dramatically after age 70. Once again, if i am over 70 I hope to just live life to the fullest every day!
8.3. Socioemtional: We start to think back and review our life and try to remember everything great and wonderful we experienced. For a few amount, retirement starts to happen where adjustment in daily lives have to happen. Our income may start to decease but as long as we are active and participate in other senior events, then we will continue to be happy! I know i will!
9. Death and Dying
9.1. Physical: Our bodies start to decline and our bodily functions may not operate correctly. When our bodies reach this stage it is a good sign that we are dying. When i am in this stage i hope that i wouldn't be kept alive if the pain was too much. Also for my family members to recognize that.
9.2. Cognitive: Our cognitive abilites have stayed the same since however once we are told that we are dying we go through the five stages of death with denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance of our death. Everybody will go through this stage and i hope that i accept death sooner than later.
9.3. Socioemtional: During the last moments of my life, i hope that i will be able to reflect all the memories that i have and for my family to be around me. After my time, my funeral will be a time for family and friends to go through the 3 stages of grief. I hope that my funeral will be a joyous cause instead of dark and gloomy!
