1.1. Physical: In my current stage in life, I am supposed to be in the best physical shape in my life, but I admit that I struggle to get enough exercise. On the positive side, I refrain from using alcohol and tobacco to avoid negative effects on my health. Like most people in early adulthood, I can no longer eat whatever I want like I could in adolescence without having physical consequences on my body. One physical aspect that I have also noticed is that I am sick a lot less than I was in adolescence, a typical characteristic of early adulthood. One other aspect of early adulthood that I currently deal with is stress. I find that I am stressed often about school, work, relationships, and future plans. I just hope that the stress I feel doesn't have long term negative consequences on my health. Cognitive: Cognitively, I believe I have moved into postformal thought process, like most people in early adulthood, I am able to think about things as more than right or wrong, black or white - moving beyond dualistic thinking. I think I demonstrated this recently, answering my professor's question of "what causes war?" with multiple possible answers, whereas in adolescence I think I might have given one simple answer like "the need to protect ourselves against bad peoples' threats." I believe I have also moved into Schaie's achieving stage in life, as I have begun to make major life decisions about my future such as deciding to return to college at 25 and finish my bachelor's degree so that I can find a career in my field. Social/Emotional: I believe I have moved past Erikson's stage of identity vs. identity confusion since I know generally who I am and what I want to be in life. I think I am finally starting to make it into Erikson's intimacy vs. isolation, as I am taking my current relationship more seriously than I ever have any other relationship, and we are talking about marriage and children. Unlike in adolescence where I had lots and lots of friends from different groups, I have fewer intimate friendships that are more important to me. Like a lot of people in early adulthood, I am cohabiting with my boyfriend, and we are starting to make decisions about getting married and having children. I have also made some important decisions about my career recently, and I believe I am driven heavily by intrinsic motivation as I pursue a career in early childhood education.
2. Middle Adulthood
2.1. Physical: I hope to maintain good health and age gradually during middle adulthood by eating right and getting enough exercise. I plan to keep getting enough calcium to avoid osteoporosis. I also hope to maintain a positive sex life with my partner. In addition, I hope to prepare myself and have realistic expectations for menopause. Cognitive: I hope by this time I will have completed my master's degree. I also want to keep continuing my education with trainings in my field. Since memory loss seems to run in my family, I want to maintain mental sharpness by continuing to exercise my brain and practicing mnemonics. Social/Emotional: I hope to transition positively into Erikson's generativity vs stagnation and give back to the younger generation. By this time, I hope to send my kids off to college and eventually have grandchildren. I hope to have celebrated many anniversaries with my partner and still be in love. I also wouldn't mind caring for my aging parents and having them live with me.
3. Late Adulthood
3.1. Physical: Because of the possible health issues involved in growing older, I think it would be most beneficial to attempt to stay mentally aware and maintain an active lifestyle. Since I have good eyesight and hearing now, I hope that my eyesight and hearing do not deteriorate greatly over time. Since I have always had low blood pressure, I hope that I will not be at risk for hypertension. Because in the past I have had problems with depression, I worry that those problems will return in late adulthood. There is no history of dementia in my family, so I hope to avoid this common illness for the elderly.
3.2. Cognitive: I hope to maintain my cognitive strength by being a lifelong learner. I want to continue to read books, solve problems, and maybe even continue to take courses. I worry about losing my memory as a few older people do, but I will work to keep my mind strong.
3.3. Social/Emotional: I hope to continue to have good relationships with my children and grandchildren. As I enter Erikson’s stage of ego integrity versus despair, I hope to be able to look back on my life with satisfaction and pride for my life’s accomplishments. I predict that my late adulthood will be consistent with disengagement theory where I mostly withdraw from the outside world. Since I am somewhat unsocial and introverted now, I will probably continue to be so throughout life. I hope to have saved enough throughout life that I can afford to live in a comfortable retirement home and not have to live with my children.
4. Death
4.1. By the time I am ready to face death, I hope to look back on my life and be happy with how I lived it. I plan to have made a living will to make my partner my health care proxy. I will also make a will to leave my assets to my partner as well. I will wish to be cremated and have a simple memorial instead of an expensive funeral. I hope to die at home with my family surrounding me rather than in a hospital.
5. Infancy & Toddlerhood
5.1. Physical: At birth, I weighed just above average at 7 lbs, 6 oz. I grew into a very chubby infant, and my feet were so fat that I couldn't wear shoes! I took my first steps at 9 months, a normal time for this milestone. Cognitive: I established an early awareness of cause and effect. My favorite toy in late infancy/early toddlerhood was named "Wormie", and I learned that squeezing him would make him light up and play music. Social/Emotional: Thanks to my parent's warm and responsive care-giving, I established a secure attachment with them. According to my mom, I hardly ever cried, and I smiled and laughed a lot - especially when my two older sisters talked to me or played with me, contributing to my awareness of others.
6. The Preschool Years
6.1. Physical: Like most children, as I moved into the preschool years, I lost a lot of my "baby fat" and my body become leaner. I was toilet trained by age 3, but I still had relatively frequent "accidents" which my doctor said was caused by an over-active bladder. As my fine motor skills grew stronger, I developed an early love for drawing and painting. Cognitive: My autobiographical memory began to develop at this time, and I can still remember parts of a certain camping trip that my family went on when I was 4. I didn't attend preschool, but my mom would read to me often, and I enjoyed memorizing and reciting parts of my favorite stories, like "The Pokey Little Puppy". Social/Emotional: Like a lot of children at this age, I developed a strong sense of gender identity and insisted on wearing dresses and jewelry almost every day. At this time, my empathy continued to develop, as my mom reports me being a caretaker to my baby sister, comforting her when she cried and offering her toys.
7. Middle Childhood
7.1. Physical: It became apparent during middle childhood that I would be a bit of an "early bloomer". By age 9, I had already had my menarche, and by age 11, I was already 5'4'' - 6 inches taller than the average 11-year-old girl. My gross motor skills continued to develop, and I became skilled in riding a bike, and playing kick ball and wiffle ball. My fine motor skills also continued to strengthen, and my artistic ability and penmanship became more skilled. Cognitive: As I entered Piaget's concrete operational stage, I continued to do well in school and master more abstract and logical thinking. I become a near expert at memorizing spelling words, and like most children during this time, I increased my vocabulary rapidly. Social/Emotional: I think that attending a school of less than thirty children (K-8th) and having no other children in my grade had an affect on the development of my social competence. Although I had my sisters and a few other children to play with, I didn't have any very close, intimate friendships. As is common, sibling rivalry also became apparent among my sisters and I as we competed with each other and our parents would sometimes compare us to one another.
8. Adolescence
8.1. Physical: By the time I reached adolescence, I had already been through most of the changes of puberty. By my freshman year, I had already reached my current adult height, 5'8'', so I was taller than many of the boys in my class, which is normal for this time in adolescence. I remember being embarrassed about being so tall compared to boys, especially when people would mention my height. Looking back now, I can see the lack of development in my pre-frontal cortex typical in adolescence. I remember engaging in risky activities such as riding in my friend's car when he was driving way too fast - something I would certainly not be interested in doing now. I also remember acting impulsively in general, rather than thinking about the consequences of my actions. Cognitive: My transition into Piaget's formal operational stage became apparent with my ability to think abstractly, such as being able to pick out themes, symbols, and motifs in the novels I read in English classes. I also can see myself being egocentric in my thinking and developing an imaginary audience. It makes me laugh when I specifically remember sitting in class and not knowing what I should be doing with my arms... should I keep them crossed, rest my chin on one arm, keep them in my lap? I was sure that everyone was judging and paying attention to what I was doing. I also remember having conflicts with my parents and thinking there was no way that they or anyone else could ever understand what I was going through - evidence of the typical adolescent personal fable. Social/Emotional: Beginning with puberty and throughout adolescence, I dealt with quite frequent episodes of depression. Like many adolescent girls, I had issues with self-esteem and not liking the way I looked. Still, I made my first close friends during freshman year, and like many adolescents, used them as a source for social comparison and turned to them to help me make decisions. Instant messaging with my friends became very important to my social life, and like a lot of teens, I would be online almost every day. As I struggled to figure out my identity, I hung out with different cliques and groups throughout adolescence, and I would define myself as a "controversial adolescent" since I was liked by some peers and not by others. I think I was pretty good at resisting peer pressure most of the time, but I did succomb to it a couple times to drink with my friends.
