THE PRESENT GENERATION

What age group is most prominently represented in this class?

What usually occurs at ages 18/19?

  -development of physical aspects of adulthood
  -legal adult status
  -right to vote
  -in many countries military service
  -driving privilege
  -responsible by law/can be put in prison
  -eligible for death sentence
  -separation from home
  -attendance of college/university
  -legal consumption of alcohol in most societies
  -job/career
  -marriage (without consent of parents)
  -establishment of own life-style.

   At age 18/19, increased responsibility is today taken by many individuals, and they begin to recognize certain points about themselves and their future. Thus people make value decisions and judgements, and different maturity levels are recognized by others. Such levels of maturity are closely related to one's background, upbringing, and environment. At this age some people begin to realize limits (such as the inevitability of death and decline of health) and adopt realistic goals and expectations. Today many of these goals pertain to work and marriage.
   During earlier times, people were considered adults when they took responsibility, for example, in a work situation. Adults were not classified by age, as we are today, but by the more nebulous idea of independence. Usually independence meant financial independence. Once a person became totally independent, s/he was considered an adult. In this setting, many persons never really became independent, adult, because they did not inherit property or money, and thus they could not marry, living out their lives as servants of others, as dependent on others.
   In earlier periods of history, too, and in some areas of the world today, people of this age did not/do not have the choices we have today. Sons usually took up their fathers' jobs and, if there was a choice to be made for his future, parents made it. Daughters usually served in other households, unless they inherited, which was rare, or they were married. The lack of choice was true in regard to
marrige partners as well. Families ordinarily lived on farms, most people married in that setting, and it was very important to parents and partners for a mate to be healthy and willing to do the work needed in that environment.
  Thus marriage was determined by:
  -similar family background,
      in part because they married only with parents'
         consent
  -similar physical location and inability to travel
  -similar economic status
  -similar or same religion.

   Today there is a vast difference in how we choose marriage partners. We are mainly influenced by our own personal, individual, wants and needs and by looks. Ever since the late eighteenth century, people have also been more concerned about "falling in love" before making a life-time commitment. Older sayings, maybe still familiar here and there, said that one can "fall in love" with anyone, preferably someone wealthy.

Who is in the job market at age 18/19?

 -Those who did not go to college.
 -Those who did not inherit lots of money.
 -Those who decided that making money now is better than
       investing now for income in the future.
 -Those who married, for whatever reasons.
 -Usually the poorer persons in our society.

What is happening to these individuals?

 -They are making some money.
 -They are establishing their own households.
 -They are marrying or entering semi-permanent
       relationships.
 -They are having children.
 -They are considered adults.

   Two separate groups emerge at this critical age. One group consists of you, with a future as professional persons, but now in what almost seems like a holding pattern. The other group consists of those who take on non-professional jobs and (must) make decisions about permanent commitments.

What would happen if all of you were to hit the job market this year?

   A disaster.
   From the society's point of view, it is a good idea not to have all young adults hit the job market at the same time.
   It is better for only some to do so and for others to drift away from their parents more gradually, for example, by entering a college or university.
   But these are only externals. Internal consequences often build a bridge between parents and children. There is a stage, after the conflicts of growing up, that real friendship can occur between offspring and parent.
Parents may react to the division in the family, caused by their children's leaving, with many mixed feelings and conflicts. There is great tension in the knowledge that family relationships will irrevocably change.

GOING BACK TO THE PARENTS' GENERATION

What are your parents concerned about now (age 40/45)?

 -children leaving home
 -feeling the first effects of aging
 -planning for retirement
 -fretting about health (insurance)
 -catching up, going on vacation, etc.
 -considering a second career (for some women perhaps a
       first career).

What are some parental concerns with regard to their children?

 -their education
 -their future and health
 -their mate
 -grand children, and
 -dependance on children.

   In earlier periods of history, people around the age of eighteen were working and considered responsible adults, and people at age forty or fifty were considered old or were already dead, at least statistically. Today, because people are living longer, concerns about aging have emerged and even this concern has gradually passed into a much older age group.
   Parents in their forties will have passed the mid-life crises (around age 35-40), but must still head toward decisions on some critical issues, like what to do with their lives now that they have an "empty nest"? They may get to know each other again as husband and wife, as lovers, not only as mother or father of children. Students often report that they do not really know their parents, what they want, what they need, what they are talking about.
   Of course, most parents remain concerned about their children as well as themselves.
   Some concerns about their children include their health, future, sexual activity, religious values, finances, and most importantly, "happiness."

What are some of the concerns parents have about themselves?

   -they are growing older and closer to death
   -they, if their children have left the nest, must
         learn to relate to each other in new ways
   -they may look to persons outside the marital frame of
         reference for reassurance, i.e., lovers, etc.
   -they may become lonely and may feel self-pity and
         uselessness
   -they may make plans for the future
   -they may buy a trailer or take long vacations
   -they may get involved in public/community activities,
         but not necessarily as mother or father of
         children
   -they may look to and write about past events from their
         own perspectives (tell of the past and write
         memoirs and autobiographies.

GOING FURTHER BACK TO THE GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION

What are your grandparents doing now (age 60/70)?

  -politics
  -health
  -religion
  -death.

What are some questions that may concern us here?

   Does the brain change with time?
   Do we remember things accurately or do we remember things          inaccurately as time passes?
   Do we remember only the things of the long gone past and           forget recent events?

   The greatest problems of this age:
To integrate one's life with what one actually did or did not do and to cope with the actuality of death. When we are young, death is not of real concern. Young men run into a field of fire thinking that the bullets will not hit them. Young men and women drive a car, a deadly weapon, at speeds that they assume will not destroy them at impact. In later years, the subject of surviving emerges as paramount.

CYCLES OF LIFE

   A person, like a nation, has a history too; of course, we must be around to have that history, both in a physical and a mental sense.
   Today, we divide this individual history into cycles.
These cycles (they are almost like stages) in life have been recognized and studied since ancient times. One recent prominent theoritician who has outlined an approach to the life-cycles is Erik Erikson.  He has listed eight stages:

1. Trust vs Mistrust--
   from birth to approximately age two.

   Erikson argued that food, protection, love, touching are the things critical for proper early development. The child which receives these essentials has a better chance of becoming a well-adjusted adult, seeing others as dependable and worthy of trust. The child who is not provided these basic needs may exhibit hostility, distrust, apathy, and futility.
   Several issues uppermost in analysts' and historians' minds have been breastfeeding and swaddling. Breastfeeding has of course again become the preferred method in many industrialized societies, but in many societies it was and is viewed, especially by certain upper social strata, as a demeaning chore that is better performed by lower-placed persons. For those who did not breastfeed, say in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it is said that mother and child did not gain a "natural" closeness, did not bond well, and that children suffered through a lesser ability to gain trust. This lack of trust emerged especially if children were given out to be nursed. Several historians/anthropologists/psychologists see it as particularly stunting to emotional stability when children undergo several maternal figures by age two.

2. Autonomy vs Shame, Doubt--
   age two to four.

   The child grows rapidly during this stage and begins to want to do things on his/her own. The child should be allowed to gain a certain feeling of autonomy. This can be accomplished by assisting in a child's eagerness to walk, giving constructive criticism, and allowing for his/her own decisions and for carrying out some tasks alone (examples: peeling a banana, figuring out that a stool is needed to reach a toy). These tactics promote a sense of responsibility in the child and a feeling of self- confidence. The child who receives harsh criticism and is never allowed to make any decisions on his/her own becomes afraid to try new things. S/he feels doubt and shame, and progress may be hampered.

3. Initiative vs Guilt--
   age four to six.

   This is an exploratory stage of development. Girls and boys are now fully mobile; they inquire about many things around them; they play more serious games. Adults often do not know how to handle them because of these greater expressions of a distinct personality. Male/female roles and anatomy are now identified by the child. Erikson urged that the child should be allowed to explore freely and ask questions. He argued that this freedom promotes intellectual growth, and the child can proceed with confidence and tackle problems productively. If the child is repeatedly made to feel ashamed when initiative is demonstrated, then the spirit is weakened and intellect is repressed. The child will not attempt anything challenging, and thinking may be stunted.
   In the past, other issues were also very important at this stage. What if a sibling of a child died during this age? We must assume that such deaths were permanently engraved in a child's mind. This would be especially so since in the many settings where they could not have found help in the community to resolve uncomfortable memories. For example, in the opening of the film Dr. Zhivago, the view of the descending clumps of dirt from inside the grave is especially poignant. In many settings, children saw their siblings both dead and being buried. By contrast, in today's America, we hardly see death.
   One could ask, how did children and adults react to the frequency of infant death in earlier periods of history and how do they react to it in societies in which death is still common? Potentially both sets may have felt/may feel guilt because they may have wished, even if only on occasion, the death of a sibling/child; they may have felt/feel a sense of helplessness; they may have blamed/blame both good and evil unknown/undetermined forces for their loss; they may have deemed/deem it necessary to make children stronger through hardening. If nothing else, fear and acceptance of one's own death would have to have been more prevalent than it is today.

4. Industry vs Inferiority--
   beyond age six.

   This is a learning stage. Responsibilities become real, and acceptance of them is important. In traditional societies, children now performed certain minimal tasks, like milking, herding goats and cows, running errands. Erikson again argues that the child who is responsible for certain tasks and actions, and receives constructive criticism, gains self-confidence, feels rewarded, and is
ready to tackle ever more difficult responsibilities. The child who is not allowed to assume responsibilities and is constantly criticized becomes reluctant to assume any task that could be subject to criticism. This can be carried on throughout life, and the person never becomes fully capable of accepting responsibility.

5. Identity vs Identity Conflict--
   age eleven to sixteen.

   At this stage, a young person begins to look at the world in a broader sense. S/he thinks about other societies, families, personal relationships, and what other people think of him/her. The maturing person at this point begins to idealize. Parents gradually become less of a direct influence. The person who can put together all the various roles of his/her life (as a farm hand, babysitter, scout, daughter, son, paperboy, waitress, student, etc.) sees how those roles are essential to her/his progress, how the roles fit together, and can obtain a sense of continuity and see where her/his priorities are, thus preparing for the future. The person who has never or seldom held a position of responsibility, a role in which the feeling of confidence could emerge, cannot assume another role comfortably or at all. No meaning can be found for him or her, or s/he may, therefore, resort to antisocial behavior in order to establish identity.
   Today we speak of persons in this age group as being adolescents, i.e., playing with adulthood. The journal literature today argues that this stage did not exist until the late eighteenth century. The main reason for the lack of this period before then was that most people by that age were working, even if not yet as fully contributing members of their families or communities. Other reasons are that, even if most people could not get married, there was neither leisure nor adjustment to the stage of adulthood.

6. Intimacy vs Isolation--
   from young adulthood to middle-age. The stage begins when
   many people become college students.

   The adult who has engendered trust and confidence, and is comfortable in his/her life role, will be confident in a relationship with another person. This individual may be classified as a mature adult. The isolated person is unable to share her/himself fully with another person and is uncomfortable being close to others. The person who has difficulty establishing long-term relationships has not progressed well through the previous stages. The reason for such disjointedness may, for example, be the aftereffects of a parental divorce.
   It is easy to imagine that people in previous periods of history when they could not inherit and thus get married would have had a difficult time traversing this stage successfully. In the statistics I developed over the last few years of one area in Europe, women and men who did not inherit and marry tended to achieve a life-expectancy of ten years less than those more fortunate. The same kinds of statistics are now emerging for people in this country who are serving in subserviant positions in factories, etc.

7. Generativity vs Stagnation--
   middle years. Your parents' generation.

   Today we say that the person who expresses generativity shows concern for others, shows concern for the next generation; his/her priorities are socially based. This person desires to improve the community and make it conducive to growth in others. Stagnant, self-absorbed people, by contrast, see only themselves. Their needs are all that matter in life.

8. Integration vs Despair--
   later years. Your grandparents' stage.

   Integrity is expressed by those individuals who have a feeling of accomplishment in their lives. They have gained wisdom, love, and satisfaction. Most of their goals were attained and they see life as a blessing. They intend to continue the learning experiences that they initiated in their youth, while giving of themselves to a younger generation. Adults who feel despair look upon their later years with regret. They have not accomplished all that productive human beings are capable of accomplishing. They have missed their opportunities and now feel a sense of helplessness.

   Others who have established life stages are
        S. Freud,
        J. Comensky, and
        Plato;
but only since Comensky (in the second half of the seventeenth century) do we, as a group, know of the stages of childhood.
   Most recently, Nancy Chodorow argued in Mothering that Erikson's above stages have overemphasized the male experience; her point is that girls and boys react quite differently to parents. Part of the reaction has to do with the parents' gender. The fact that most children have a mother as their initial guide means that it is easier for girls to copy mothers and to find the way into the world of women. By contrast, the absent father cannot be an equally
persuasive guide to the boy. Somewhat later the task of boys is to free themselves from mothers, from the women's section of a household, and join the men. In the process, they tend to become more aggressive than women. In the agricultural setting, these differences were not and would not have been as great as in modern urban settings.
 

IMPORTANT TERMS

maturity
legal adulthood
financial independence
inheritance
marriage
family strategy
job market
household
mid-life crisis
parental concerns
societal concerns
"empty nest"
aging
retirement
values
death
life cycles
life cycles in history
Erick Erikson
eight stages
swaddling
breast-feeding
bonding
Plato
Jan Amos Comensky
Sigmund Freud
Nancy Chadorow
aggression
agricultural setting
industrialized society
 
 

NOTES