Week 3

I appreciate that the textbook chapter as well as the article are inclusive of the cultural variables that affect development into adulthood (Arnett, 2000; Corey & Corey, 2008). I understand that many individuals grow up calling family relatives grandpa, grandma, aunt, and uncle but the influence of Korean values and beliefs altered what I called people as I grew up. Within Korean language it is very important to show the relationship to a speaker as being superior or inferior in relation to yourself. In addition, friends of my mother were to be addressed using a familial relationship noun although I was not biologically related to them. There are seven different levels of speech depending on who is being addressed by the speaker. In addition, growing up in a biracial family led to a life script that combined values and beliefs of both my mother and father.

As I continued reading, it was interesting how my family fit in to the overview of early adulthood to late adulthood (Corey & Corey, 2008). Even more interesting is that my parents live right next to my grandfather, and the house that my father grew up in as a child. My sister and I are almost two years apart representing the early adulthood life stage, my parents were both born in the same year and represent late middle age, and my grandfather is in late adulthood at an incredible 90 years old.

I was totally surprised at how relevant the concept of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000) coincided with my life. At the age of 18 I began attending undergrad, but I would return home for winter and summer breaks for the first two years. I would do this mainly to work so that I could have a bit of a disposable income. During my last two years of undergrad I lived off-campus with a roommate throughout the whole year while working. After graduating, I immediately moved again to an apartment where I attended my first graduate school and lived by myself for a period of time. Now, I live with my fiancé and attend a new graduate school. There was a total of two dorms, four apartments, and a house in six years. I am definitely in agreement that I am now entering my transition into adulthood as I have taken on the sole responsibility of taking care of myself, making my own decisions, being financially independent, and I have also committed myself to a specific individual.  

References

Corey,G., & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Explorations in personal growth. (9th ed.). Belmont, California: Thompson Brooks/Cole.

Arnett, J.J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469-480.