Gould Adult Development Theory Gould's Adult Development Essay

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Gould Adult Development Theory

GOULD'S ADULT DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Roger Gould's (1978) theory examines the process through which a young adult leaves his childhood self and enters the world of reality where he sheds the protective shell of the past gradually. The theory charts the stages of consciousness that a person goes through to reach a higher level of understanding about himself and the world around. According to Gould, thus, adulthood is the stage in life that is all about "dismantling the protective devices that gave us an illusion of safety as children (p. 39)."

Gould initially argued that adulthood is composed of some predictable stages of development where a person learns about the myths and shatters them one by one as he goes through life. These sequential stages were as follows:

Leaving the Parents' World (16-22)

Getting into the Adult World (22-28)

Questioning and Reexamination (28-34)

Midlife Decade (35-45)

Reconciliation and Mellowing (43-50)

Stability and Acceptance (50 and over)

During these stages, a person needs to question the validity of his own beliefs that he had developed during childhood and adolescence. This need to be resolved before a person can successfully move to the next stage and they were mentioned in his first major work in 1978 (Gould, 1978, p. 39-40) as:

1. "We'll always live with our parents and be their child."

2. "They'll always be there to help when we can't do something on our own."

3. "Life is simple and controllable."

4. "There is no real death or evil in the world."

Gould was a psychiatrist who used one major study involving 500 young men and women to reach the conclusions that formed his adult development theory.

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The theory while it may appear simple was later revised and new dimensions were attached to it to make it more comprehensive and thorough. It must be noted that Gould and others later realized that adulthood is a far more complex process than what he had initially assumed. Based on his clinical experiences, Gould found that most adults do not go through these stages in a predictable manner and may not strictly follow the age brackets he had initially mentioned. They would roughly follow the development chart but those who had been through extraordinary life experiences as a child may have distorted picture of themselves and hence may experience delayed adulthood which basically means that they may not be able to resolve a certain stage to move on to the next.

An extension of his basic adult development theory was the epigenetic theory of adult development that precisely addressed the problem of psychology distortions that occurred as the result of going through traumatic events during childhood. A person who has had a negative childhood experience could face certain adulthood developmental delays as he stops himself from moving on to the next stage as he is unable to leave the world defined by his parents. "Psychiatrist Roger Gould's 'epigenetic' theory of adult development (1978, 1988) suggest that traumatic events in childhood can result in parental prohibitions that though submerged from consciousness continue to inhibit adult action by generating anxiety feelings when there is a risk of breaching them. This dynamic result in a lost function….....

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