May Huang
Mrs. Chocos
Seminar 126
10,12,2015
My Life Stage
Steven Mintz, a professor of history at the University of Houston, proposes a theory, which
was praised by the majority of historians and used currently to define a person’s stage in article
“Life Stage”. “The life stages such as infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old0age
are developmental phases, each with its own biological, psychological, and social characters”,
writes by Mintz (29). In other words, people in different life stage would have its particular and
corresponding characteristics such as adolescence are generally energetic, emotional, turmoil,
and more aware social life. I do not quite pro this viewpoint since the social and psychological
growth may not coincide with the biological maturity. Consider the following, there are a number
of people like Bill Gates who takes responsibility for self and starts business at the school period,
while lots of adults still choose to live off their parents. Therefore, the inner maturity plays a
more vital role in defining a person’s life stage. I am basically in the adolescent stage in social,
cognitive and moral areas.
Adolescence is the preparatory period before people engage in society. Roger Gould, a
psychologist mentioned in Early Adulthood: Roles and Issues written by Grace J points out,
“growth is the process of casting off childish illusions and false assumptions in favor of selfreliance and self-acceptance” (47). In other words, people who are in a particular stage would
hold a corresponding comprehension about self-reliance, which primarily reflect in their assumed
relationship with society, especially for family and will later be overturned. These previous false
assumptions are cornerstone that help people to jump to a more mature stage.
According to Gould, people from age 16 to 22, which is the age group I belong to, generally
assume they are always belong to parents and believe in their world. I think I am more mature
than people in this stage since I began to discard this assumption by taking responsibility for
myself. Choosing to study in the United States is the primary factor that pushes me to a more
mature stage by dealing everything with own effort, from daily trivial such as cook and assemble
furniture to conquer difficulties. I still remembered the first night after assembled furniture.
Having immersed myself in the joy of success directly bring about insomnia in that evening
when I laid on the bed- also one of the labor fruit. Then a question lingered in my mind. Why
feel so proud about this? Because I was used to waiting for my parent to prepare and arrange
everything, and made me subconsciously regarded assembling furniture as thing extraneous thing
that I should not do. But I cannot be completely out of parents’ help. When I meet difficulties, I
will try to think about solutions first, then consult with my parents to seek for support and
encouragement.
In spite of social areas, the cognitive ability is another crucial standard used to define life
stage. Guould views cognitive ability as “an individual’s system of meaning making”. It means
that one object or circumstance may make various sense for people in different age. Consider the
following, a traffic light refers to regulations to an adult, while a child may consider it as a
magical lamp with constantly changed colors. The development of a person’s cognitive system
helps them move to next life stage. Being an adolescent for me is equivalent to have a relative
comprehensive cognitive ability, which refers to constantly raising ability to accept information,
and process it to make decisions. The raising ability to accept information can briefly evident in
understanding more complex knowledge. In the childhood, primer physical knowledge such as
vaporize and liquefy was baffled me a lot, which is easy when I review it currently after learn
more profound knowledge. Generally, the critical thinking ability is strengthened during the
process. After receive information, I would doubt weather it is credible or not rather than
certainly believe it like a child. “The Farmer and the Viper”, a well-known Aesop’s Fables I
listened in my childhood, talks about a farmer who finds a viper freezing in the snow, picks it up
and places it within his coat. The viper, revived by the warmth, bites his rescuer. Based on a view
of the child, I would say the famer is kind, and the viper is evil. One question I think about is the
viper is naturally aggressive, which gives an interpretation of why it bites the famer. Also people
normally would not put viper in their coat.
Another embodiment of cognitive abilities is how people make decisions. I usually think
about the trade-off when make decision. Taking the election of courses as an example. The
primary factor I considered to choose minor courses in the junior school is my friends. We just
like the sticky candy that want to go along with each other in every class. Currently, I become
more mature by figuring out what are priorities. Coerces I choose usually support my broad
outline of life.
Finally, in the moral aspect, I adapt to the norms of the society, and take some
responsibilities without supervision such as care of public property and do not cause unnecessary
troubles to others. The moral concept for adolescents is not only performance in considering the
morality, judging and choosing what is right or wrong is more crucial. When I was in childhood,
right and wrong is two absolute opposite aspects as I assumed. This perspective is waving a lot
by understanding the line between right and wrong is ever a thin and shifting one. I have read a
real story about a mother who prosecuted for scam as she wanted to treat her son. The victim
may think she is bad while she did be a good mother for her son.
I am currently in the adolescent life stage with a series of assumptions about society,
cognitions, and mortality, which may be penetrated and overturned that indicates I jump to
another life stage.