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John Geis

Professor Jaclyn Tyler

Lifespan Human Development

21 Apr 2021

Midlife

I have a positive view on midlife because I have an overall positive view on life. Having

a negative view on life, or anything, has never made sense to me. Now, I’m not saying that I am

always optimistic, but I surely stay on the more optimistic side of feelings. Being 24, I am still in

the emerging adulthood, so I’m not technically in the 25-65 “Adulthood” phase. However, I

would argue I have equivalent life experience to someone who is in their late 30’s, so I’ll answer

these questions to the best of my knowledge, opinions, and facts from the book.

I think many people my age, who are transitioning into the “Midlife” age of around 25

years old, have a difficult time adjusting to responsibility. Often, I have heard my friends discuss

the difficulties of sticking to a self-assigned schedule. By “self-assigned” I mean setting a

schedule themselves, following it, and holding themselves accountable. People my age often talk

about how after they graduated high school, they found it difficult to stay to a schedule, due to

having no “adults” telling them what to do, or where to go, despite being “adults” themselves. I

think this drop-off, from the adolescent years of following instructions, to the confusing,

guideless emerging adulthood years, is what makes or breaks people. You either sink or swim as

they say.
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Another challenge with this phase, that I think is extremely prominent in my generation,

is a person’s attachment type, and how you were raised by your caretaker. I believe myself to be

the secure attachment type, which has made exploring the world, and independence, come

naturally to me. I believe my attachment type has aided me in striving towards Self-actualization.

I believe I am living the life I was meant to lead, and this is in a big part, thanks to my secure

attachment type. I am especially thankful of this, since I have friends and peers who do not share

my confidence and independence. These people I speak of are not a secure attachment type ad

tend to be more anxious attachment type. I believe this hinders people from achieving Self-

actualization.

For me, and many others, other peoples opinion on you, seems to fade. I find myself still

caring about what other people think of me, however, this is nothing like it was in my adolescent

years. One common event, that affects peoples development during midlife is the “sandwich

generation”. Having the stress of providing financially, and providing care for two groups of

people, sounds exhausting. This can lead to many negative symptoms. Such as weight gain, a

negatively hampered social life, and even mental health issues. Fortunately, for me, I will never

experience this as both of my parents are deceased. Which leads me to my next “event”, which is

a parent or guardians death. A loved one dying has a profound effect on a persons mental health.

People often feel lost and disoriented after a parent dies. A person usually experiences this kind

of loss during their midlife.

I believe marriage, or intimacy, to be more specific, provides great benefits for a persons

overall well-being. It is only natural for adults in this phase of life to seek out companionship,

most people do not want to be alone. Like Maslow said, people search for love and belonging!

From personal experience, I feel more social and mentally clear when I’m seeing friends and
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family on a regular basis… this is something I struggle with. I also belief that intimacy is an

improved area in this life stage versus the adolescent and late life years. People tend to date and

meet people more often. This is obviously subjective to the individual, but overall, I belief this

healthy for peoples emotional capacity to interact with other people intimately.

There are many other factors that affect ones psychological state during middle

adulthood. The countries economy is the biggest one that comes to my mind. Personally, the

economy in 2020 influenced me to sell my house and move into a rented duplex. I would have

made this move eventually, but the economy (which is being held together by glue, popsicle

sticks, and loans from the central banks to the government) could potentially collapse at any time

now, which indirectly affected me selling my house. Another factor, social media, can certainly

affect an adults psychological state. Social-Media can make a person a recognizable face in

hours, or it can be used for people to cyber-bully and degrade others in the same amount of time.

Social-media, for better or worse, is always affecting people of all ages.