PSYC 290N Week 5 Course Project II: My Virtual Life – Young/Middle/Late Adulthood: Section 1-19 to 22 years

Document Content and Description Below

WEEK FIVE 19 years = 4 Points 1. What are some behaviors or choices that you have a tendency to do (habits, perceptions, stress or other health-detrimental aspects of your life) that you might need ... to work on? How might these serve as obstacles to later life success? I tend to not think about money so much and make some bad decisions in regards to finances. Instead of staying home and getting an associate’s degree first, I decided to do a year at a community college and then go away to school and live off-campus in a house with some friends. Down the road, I am going to really understand the value of a dollar when I am struggling for money based off of my financial decisions as a young adult. It will take a while to pay off debt, even while working and attending school at the same time. I also chose to go on vacation with my family because family is super important to me. I understand that life is short, and that it is extremely important to spend as much time as possible with family. This being said, I do not regret the decision to go on the summer vacation with my family, but it may add onto my financial hardships down the road. For example, because of all of these decisions, when I want to buy a house of my own or a new car, I might struggle with making a decent down payment, I might have a high interest rate, or I might get denied. It will be hard to pay off school and make payments on a house or a car because of the decisions I made early on regarding money. 21 years = 4 Points 2. What kinds of social behaviors in your pre-college days do you see as related to the behaviors you display now, in college? Make a list of "good behaviors" and "bad behaviors". Do these map onto "good outcomes" and "bad outcomes?" How or why? Pre-college I partied, and didn’t care too much about my grades as I had already gotten accepted into the schools I wanted to go to. I didn’t let my grades slip too low, but they could have been better had I stayed home more often and studied. I was very serious about my body image pre-college. I did my hair and makeup every day before high school and tried dressing nice. Part of this was because I was a cheerleader, and I wanted to feel good about myself. I ate right, and exercised, and was in incredible shape. I also let myself get consumed with one guy in particular and that took over my life. I started changing and just let him control me. My pre-college party days turned out to actually have good outcomes because I got a lot of my partying out of my system before it really mattered. When I started college and when I eventually went away, I still partied every once in a while, but my grades always came first. If I had a homework or studying to do, I would make sure that was all done before I went out for the night. If I had a ton of stuff to do, I would pass and stay back to study and do homework. I still worry about my appearance because that is how I’ve always been (and that was only a few years ago as I’m only 22 now), and I think that also had a good outcome because I am a very healthy person because of it. I make sure I work out as often as I can and I try to eat right as well so I like the way I look; thus, making me healthy. Finally, I dated the guy I let control my life for about 4 years. He was controlling the entire time and I eventually fell into a pretty bad depression and was put on mood stabilizers and antidepressants because of it. The outcome was bad at first because I let him control me for so long and agreed to move in with him and live with him for a year while we were away at college and far from family back home. Eventually, however, it all worked out. I realized my self-worth and that he was doing nothing but dragging me down and turning me into someone I didn’t want to be, so I broke up with him and never looked back. 22 years = 4 Points 3. What are some good decisions that you can make in your life NOW that you hope will continue to lead you to good outcomes down the road? Think about enhancing health, emotional well-being, relationships and social behaviors, and even identity choices and personal values that would play a role in later stages of your development At this point, I have a good GPA, and on the track to graduation. Some good decisions I can make now would be to keep my GPA up and spend enough time studying and doing homework to make sure my grades are high. I will also keep up a good routine at the gym so I don’t get out of the flow of things when I graduate, and stop going to the gym. The gym is important to me because it helps me stay in shape and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I would also like to have a good relationship with my sister and my new nephew, as I want to stay involved in my family life because family is so important to me. I will have to make sure I made enough trips home, and am always there for my sister when she needs me, especially when she gets overwhelmed with parenting. Finally, in regards to my breakup with my first ‘real’ boyfriend, I will learn how to cope with it, and try new coping mechanisms while hanging out with my friends and doing homework to get my mind off of the pain. I have to keep reminding myself that while it may hurt now, I’m one heartbreak closer to my last, and the right guy is out there somewhere for me. 36 years, 6 months = 4 Points 4. What parts of development do you predict might stay the same as you move into and through your adulthood years? What might influence this stability as you mature? Some obvious parts of development that will stay the same as I move through my adult years would be my bone shape and size. Bones stop growing around age 20 for women, so my height and bone characteristics will be the same for the most part. Some not so obvious parts of development, however, that I think will stay the same is my drive, dedication, and stress level. I have always been driven and focused, and I don’t think I will have an issue with this as I continue to mature. At this point, I have two children and a husband that I need to stay driven and focused for to provide a stable and healthy life and lifestyle for, so I believe they are my motivation and will keep me focused and driven. Finally, I have always had a high stress level from a young age, and it seems to have followed me into my adult life. I believe this is just who I am and have come to terms that this won’t change. As of now, I have the stress of raising two young children, a new promotion, and possibility of being laid off. This is all stressful, and will hopefully subside in the future, although I will most likely always have high stress. 36 years, 6 months = 4 Points 5. Think of some aspects of personality or cognition and development that might change as you grow older. Do you expect more influence of nature/genetics or nurture/experience in these areas of your development? How would one know whether nature or nurture plays more of a role in these aspects of change over time? In regards to nature versus nurture, nature is something that has been present from the instant one was conceived. Nurture has to do with how one was raised, what they experienced, and who they hung around with. As I grow older, I don’t think my personality will change very much. I believe personality is a mixture of both nature and nurture, and that by 36 years old and onward, your personality is pretty much set in stone. When it comes to my cognition, however, I believe I will get smarter as I get older based on personal experiences, thus, nurture. I believe to realize whether nature or nurture plays more of a role over time, you have to really sit back and think about how you acted and thought as a child, what type of grades you received, how your parents raised you, and how these aspects did and did not change as you aged. 36 years, 6 months = 4 Points 6. In your Virtual Life, you had two children; what sorts of factors might lead individuals to NOT raise children in their lifetime, whether by personal choice or not? Regarding intentional choices to not have children, what sorts of variables within your control would you take into consideration? Plenty of people choose to not have children for various reasons. Personal choices include not wanting children, not being financially stable, wanting to travel and experience life, not wanting the responsibility of children, one’s partner does not want children, and not wanting children to experience pain and hardships the parent faced. Some reasons people do not have children for reasons that are not personal choices include infertility, deciding to start a family at an older age that makes conception and carrying more difficult, and having an illness or a disease that would harm the baby, kill the baby, or kill the mother, such as HIV, STDs, or being a carrier for certain diseases. I have always wanted to have kids, so the only thing I would ever take into consideration to not have a child is if I would pass on a genetic disease to the baby or knew I could not financially support the child. Fortunately, neither of these problems should be an issue for me within the next few years when I start having children. [Show More]

Last updated: 2 years ago

Preview 1 out of 4 pages