Course Code: HSS4U

Independent Study Unit

Sarim Raja

Q. Describe the various theories relating to

transition to adulthood. Remember to provide
examples.
Becoming an adult is not just a matter of physical growth but it relates to
some of the major psychological, economic, social and emotional changes
that a child undergoes while moving from childhood to adulthood stage. His/
her life changes completely as he/ she enters from the stage of enjoying
privileges as a child to the stage where he/ she needs to take responsibility
of various things as an adult. It can be said that transition to adulthood is
one of the major phases in ones life. This transition involves physical change
resulting to sexual maturity and physical strength, psychological change
resulting to mature understanding of the world, social change resulting to
changes social status and expected new roles and etc.
There are various developmental theories that attempt to describe the
various changes that occur during transition to adulthood. These theories
explain growth or development that identify this transition from childhood to
adulthood. The major theorists include Loevinger, Erikson, Levinson, Riegel,
Pearlin etc. The details are presented in the following paragraphs:

Eriksons Eight Stages of Development:

Erikson was the pioneer psychologist who defined probable stages of human
development from childhood through adulthood. He described eight stages in
which an individual's identity appears and ripens. According to him, each
stage presents a dilemma, in which the person is challenged by new
circumstances and settings in life and further that people are pushed through
these stages by their biological clock and the social clock of the society in
which they live. Whereas, identity is developed through psychological

process. When people resolve these dilemmas, they obtain the basic
strength desirable to meet the challenges of the next stage in life. And when
they fail to resolve a dilemma, it might lead them to face some difficulties
later in life. The summary of these stages is as follow:

Stage 1: Infancy (Birth to 18 months)

Conflict: Trust vs. Mistrust
Important issues include feeding and being comforted, teething, sleeping.
The outcome is that children develop a sense of trust when caregivers
provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.
Stage 2: Early childhood (2-3 years)
Conflict: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt
The basic functions include bodily functions like toilet training, muscular
control, walking. In this stage, children need to develop a sense of personal
control over physical skills and a sense of independence. Success leads to
feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.
Stage 3: Preschool (3-5 years)
Conflict: Initiative vs. Guilt
Important event includes exploration. Children need to begin asserting
control and power over the environment. Success in this stage leads to a
sense of purpose. Children who try to exert too much power experience
disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.
Stage 4: School age (6-11 years)
Conflict: Industry vs. Inferiority
The major activity is of going to school and learning. Children need to cope
with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of
competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
Stage 5: Adolescence (12-18 years)
Conflict: Identity vs. Role Confusion

The primary focus is on developing social relationships. Teens need to develop a sense of
self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure
leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.

Stage 6: Young Adulthood (19-40 years)

Conflict: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people.
Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and
isolation.
Stage 7: Middle Adulthood (40-65 years)
Conflict: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by
having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people.
Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure
results in shallow involvement in the world.
Stage 8: Maturity (65 years-death)
Conflict: Ego Integrity vs. Despair
The major activity includes reflection on life. Older adults need to look back
on life and feel a sense of fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings
of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.
To conclude, the responsibilities of early adulthood are to regulate first who
you want to be and what you want to do so that you are true to yourself, and
then who you want to be with so that you can share yourself with others.

Loevinger's Theory of Ego Development

Jane Loevinger also identified stages toward an advanced level of
development during transition to adulthood. According to her, there are ten
stages in the formation of the ego (a Freudian concept meaning the
understanding of self). Her theory explains ego development beginning in

infancy with the understanding that you are a distinct being separate from
your mother and gets fully developed by the end, as having an independent
self, a multifaceted concept that includes being a self-contained person who
accepts oneself and others as complex and inimitable. Like Erikson, she saw
the quest for an understanding of self as the focal point of human
development. Loevinger's stages are based on the person's psychological
clock as she proposed that few adults ever attain full ego development, but
struggle toward that goal throughout the life.
Following are the nine stages as explained by Loevinger:
Stage 1: Pre-social and Symbiotic
This is the stage that the ego is typically in during infancy. A baby has a very
id-like ego that is very focused on gratifying immediate needs. They tend to
be very attached to the primary caregiver, often the mother, and while they
differentiate her from the rest of the world, they tend experience a cognitive
confusion and emotional fusion between the caregiver and the self.
Stage 2: Impulsive
While this is the modal stage for toddlers, people can be in this stage for
much longer, and in fact a small minority of people remain in this impulsive
stage throughout their life.
Stage 3: Self-protective
While this stage is particularly common in early and middle childhood, some
individuals remain at this stage throughout their lives. The self-protective
ego is more cognitively sophisticated than the impulsive ego, but they are
still using their greater awareness of cause and effect, of rules and
consequences, to get what they want from others.
Stage 4: Conformist

This stage emerges at the time Freud said the superego first emerges,
around five or six, and is the most common stage later in elementary school
and in junior high school. However, a number of people remain at this stage
throughout their lives. Conformist individuals are very invested in belonging
to and obtaining the approval of important reference groups, such as peer
groups.
Stage 5: Self- Awareness
This stage is the most common stage among adults in the United States. The
self-aware ego shows an increased but still limited awareness deeper issues
and the inner lives of themselves and others. The being to wonder what I
think as opposed to what my parents and peers think about such issues as
God and religion, morality, mortality, love and relationships.

Stage 6: Conscientious
At this stage, tendency towards self-evaluation and self-criticism continues.
The conscientious ego values responsibility, achievement and the pursuit of
high ideals and long-term goals. Morality is based on personally-evaluated
principles, and behavior is guided by self-evaluated standards. Consequently,
violating ones standards induces guilt.
Stage 7: Individualistic
At this stage, the focus on relationships increases, and although achievement
is still valued, relationships tend to be more valued even more. The
individualistic ego shows a broad-minded tolerance of and respect for the
autonomy of both the self and others. But a wish gives others the autonomy
to be who they really are can conflict with needs for connection and intimacy.
Stage 8: Autonomous
At this stage, there is increasing respect for ones own and others autonomy.

Stage 9: Integrated
At the final stage, the integrated stage, the ego shows wisdom, broad
empathy towards oneself and others, and a capacity to not just be aware
inner conflicts like the individualistic ego or tolerate inner conflicts like the
autonomous ego, but reconcile a number or inner conflicts and make peace
with those issues that will remain unsolvable and those experiences that will
remain unattainable.
(Adapted from: Loevinger's Nine Stages of Ego Development.)

The Theory of Family Life-Cycle:

This theory defines early adulthood as a stage in which individuals are
launched from their families of origin. According to it, parents and children
must detach from each other so that young adults can accept emotional
obligation for themselves. Further, this theory takes in to account three
developmental tasks that must be happen for adults to achieve emotional
stability. These tasks include:
1. The adults must develop an identity that distinguishes them from their
family of origin. This course of individualization needs young adults to find
out emotionally what they will keep from the family of origin, what they will
quit, and further that what they will generate for themselves.
2. Young adults must develop fresh warm relationships with peers outside the
family to afford the social and emotional sustenance they need at this stage.
3. Young adults must make their first cautious obligation to a profession or
workplace role.
These three tasks permit young adults to become autonomous adults.

Levinson's Theory of the Seasons of Life:

According to Levinson, the period of early adulthood lasts 25 years,

beginning near the end of high school at about 17 years of age and ending
with the transition to middle age in the early forties.
There are 6 stages of adulthood in Levinson's theory:
Stage 1: Early adult transition (17-22)
This is the first stage in which a person leave adolescence, and make
preliminary choices for adult life.
Stage 2: Entering the adult world (22-28)
At this stage, an individual makes initial choices in love, occupation,
friendship, values, and lifestyle.
Stage 3: Age 30 transition (28-33)
Major changes occur in life structure, either a moderate change or, more
often, a severe and stressful crisis.
Stage 4: Settling down (33-40)
At this stage, a person establishes a niche in society, progresses on a
timetable, in both family and career accomplishments; and is expected to
think and behave like a parent so they are facing more demanding roles and
expectations.
Stage 5: Mid-life transition (40-45)
The life structure comes into question, usually a time of crisis in the
meaning, direction, and value of each person's life.
Stage 6: Entering middle adulthood (45-50)
At this stage, choices must be made and a new life structure should be
formed. A person must commit to new tasks.
(Adapted from Daniel Levinson)

Riegel's Interpretation of Development:

Riegel proposes that development in adulthood happens not in some obvious
or predictable stages but as an individual adjusts in reaction to the interface
of both internal and external changes. His theory focuses on an internal
biological clock and an altering external social clock. He identified four
consistent internal and external proportions of development:
1.

The

psychological

emotional

maturity

dimension

and

of

individuals

independence,

and

development

the

maturity

of

defines
mental

processes.
2. The biological dimension of individuals development defines physical and
sexual maturity.
3.

The

cultural-sociological

dimension

defines

the

prospects

and

opportunities that each society provides to its individuals.

4. The environmental dimension labels the physical, economic, and political
environment in which the individual lives.
Klaus theory explains that the pace an adult develops reflects the changing
social clock. In other words, if an individual is emotionally ready for marriage,
than they will get married, if they are old enough according to their culture.
He suggests that development does not happen in predictable stages. This
means that everyone matures at different times in ones life. Some people
could mature faster in some areas than others.

Pearlin's Theory of Psychological Distress:

Pearlin tried to vindicate how development can be an exclusive experience
for each individual however, it seems to occur in a shared pattern. He further
proposed that adulthood is not comprised of any series of transitions from
one stage of constancy to another, but in actual it is a lifetime of constant

change in which individuals might experience infrequent periods of stability.

The following four elements decide the path that individual lives will take:
1. Individual characteristics, like gender, family background, personality, and
education etc.
2. The kind of skills individuals have to handle stress or change
3. The accessibility of social sustenance networks
4. The nature and timing of stress that requires response
He approved that early adulthood might be the time for acting on the dreams
of adolescence. However, he believed that people are able to change the life
structure at any time.
Conclusion:
Transition to adulthood is not a short term process but a lifetime process that
changes an individuals life completely from childhood to death. This process
may have same pattern in majority of persons as Erikson and Levinson
proposes same stages for transition; however, it differs as well in the extent
of change that happens at different pace in different people.
References:
Daniel Levinson. http://humangrowth.tripod.com/id3.html
Loevinger's Nine Stages of Ego Development.
http://personalitycafe.com/general-psychology/7451-loevingers-9-stagesego-development.html