Kenneth Benton LIBS 101-02

November 17th Disciplinary Research Project Essay

My emphasis area is Social Sciences. My Emphasis pattern is Psychology. The discipline

I am researching is Developmental Psychology. I am interested in this topic because learning

how when people start to grow and develop differently than each other due to their time period

or situation is very intriguing to me. The scholar I am choosing to write on that is in my

discipline is Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett

Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, a Master’s degree in

Developmental Psychology and later received his Ph.D. in Developmental psychology. Dr.

Arnett completed his Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Michigan State University in 1980. He

also finished his Masters in developmental psychology at University of Virginia in 1986. He

later on finished his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 1989. Dr. Arnett currently is currently

a professor at Clark University in Massachusetts. Dr. Arnett’s Scholarly expertise is in

psychology and developmental psychology.

Dr. Arnett has published many articles throughout his life time one being the

,“Presidential Address: The Emergence of Emerging Adulthood: A Personal History”, which

he published in 2014 and can be found on JeffreyArnett/booksarticles.html under Emerging

Adulthood: Books and Articles. The articles focus on Developmental Psychology that Dr. Arnett

calls Emerging Adulthood as he speaks on the history of his works focus. Dr Arnett’s problem is

that he is trying to show that that a new life stage called Emerging Adulthood has arisen. Dr.

Arnett’s theory is that there is a new life stage between adolescence and adulthood which he calls
Emerging Adulthood. Dr. Arnett. States that this new life stage takes place between the ages of

18 to 25. He speaks on how he’s continued his studies on his theory since the 80’s and has

continued his work throughout the decades to see the changes of those from different time

periods. Dr. Arnett used data collection with his surveys to conduct his research throughout the

years of studying his theory. He would interview people from various age groups and not just

those who were in the age group that Emerging Adulthood was focused which was 18 to 25. He

would do questionnaires during his interviews that contained many different pieces of criteria

like psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Dr. Arnett doesn’t view his work on his theory as solving a problem but as a new

discovery in human life in the developmental stages of adulthood. He views it through a

psychological lens. His history in developmental psychology is key to his theory of emerging

adulthood because it allows how to connect his theories to what developmental psychology

focuses on which is why we as people grow, change, and adapt throughout our life stages. From

the beginning as infants all the way through our adult development stage Dr. Arnett’s

background information on human development helped him discover a new life stage between

adolescence and adulthood he named Emerging Adulthood.

In conclusion Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett’s work helped me understand developmental

psychology at greater level than I previously did. His theories on new stages of development

intrigued me as well. The idea of a new life stage between adolescence and adulthood is very

interesting as well as how Dr. Arnett went along with his studies for years and using interviews,

surveys, and questionnaires to help support his theory on Emerging Adulthood.