Transition from the Early Adulthood Stage into the Middle Adulthood

As individuals transition from the early adulthood stage into the middle adulthood, they will engage in developmental tasks such as managing a career, nurturing intimate relationships, expanding caring relationships, and managing the household. It has been suggested by the psychosocial theory, that a new restructuring of personality is constructed during this stage of life (Newman &Newman, 2012). It is during the stage of middle adulthood that an individual assumes the most form of responsibility; becoming influential decision makers for their children, parents, and their communities.

As mention before, adults have multiple roles of responsibility; having a significant amount of authority and influence over others. Individuals, in this stage, must learn to balance the responsibilities of their career lives and their family life. Newman and Newman (2012) state there are three main concepts with balancing work and family life; role overload, role conflict and role spillover. Within the concept of role overload, the adult may feel overwhelmed with handling many demanding roles of responsibility. Another issue experienced with balancing roles within the middle adult hood stage is role conflict; occurring when the demands of a role conflicts with another. Role conflicts can leave an individual stressed about choosing between two important demands (Newman & Newman, 2012). For instance a mother who works might experience role conflict; having to choose between working late and being home to attend to her children. The last concept discussed was role spillover; when one role interferes with an individual meeting the demands in other role. Individuals who experience these issues with role responsibilities may experience a reduced satisfaction at work and within their family unit. They may also feel a decreased in their sense of well-being (Kinnunen, Feldt, Mauno, &Rantanen, 2010).

Within The Middle Adulthood stage, the psychosocial crisis is Generativity versus Stagnation; the pressure of an adult to improve the life conditions for not only their family but for future generations (Erikson, 1963). It is through generativity that adults become concern about their children's future and the well-being and the state of society that they will mature within; becoming increasing committed to social involvement and engaged in community affairs (Newman & Newman, 2012). The negative pole of this psychosocial crisis is Stagnation; the lack of psychological development. Individuals, who struggle in coping with managing multiple roles in their household, careers, and marriages, could possibly produce feelings of stagnation within their life. During stagnation adults may feel high levels of stress and destructively associated with the personality characteristics of openness to experiences; having issues in social relationships and achieving social acceptance (Newman & Newman, 2012).

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