Critically discuss and analyse the key physical, cognitive and psychosocial changes which occur during midlife, placing this within a life course

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As per views given by Paine and et.al. (2019), physical changes are the changes which are clearly visible and could be noticed by individuals. It goes throughout the life course of an individual. As a result of passing of time, a middle aged person goes through a number of physical changes. However, age related changes can be based on number of factors such as cellular or molecular changes, biological factors and oxidative damage which all comes in the category of primary aging. The aging that comes due to regulatory factors like leading an unhealthy lifestyle due to lack of physical activities and poor diet is referred to as secondary aging. Going out of the shape is not actually a part of ageing, it is most probably due to the reason that middle aged person has experienced a lot of stress and has become less physically active. Some of the activities of the individuals like smoking, taking alcohol, low quality of diet, stress, anxiety along with the occurrence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, arthritis negatively affects the overall health of the individuals. Moreover, the physical changes which are most visible in a middle aged adult can be due to internal functioning of their body. Such as colour of Hair which is mostly due to the pigment called melanin developed by hair follicles. Due to ageing, the follicles of hair generate less amount of melanin content and thus cause the hair to become grey. Colour of hair generally starts to become light from the temple but eventually it causes he whole hair to become white. Skin of the middle aged people continues to dry and become prone to cause wrinkles mainly covering the sensitive area of face. Creases and wrinkles are mostly the common part of aging. Once an individual start to age, the skin dries out and loses the layer of the fat which makes the face dull and drooping. Genetics play a major role in causing of wrinkles, however exposure to sun and frequent smoking causes wrinkles to develop sooner even before the age. Blotchy skin and dark spots also appear as the individual grows up.

Blood vessels also become apparent due to constant drying of skin. Sarcopenia which is referred to loss of strength and muscle mass occurs in the mid-life of an individual. It is one of the most significant factor in the functional as well as frailty impairment which mostly occurs in middle aged people (Rentz and et.al., 2017). Decline of hormones like testosterones and low level of physical activity has been cause due to this particular factor. This loss of muscle mass usually occurs at the age of 40. It causes decrease of quality of life, increase in cost of health care and even death of middle aged adults. Changes which are related to age like change in muscles, weakening of diaphragm, can also results and reducing of lungs expansion and its capacity of supplying oxygen to the body. Such changes cause lower level of oxygen in the blood streams and can enhance the level of carbon dioxide which is very harmful for an individual to survive normally. Due to low level of lung expansion, individuals can experience feeling fatigue most of the time and shortness of breath.

In the midlifeof an individual, such changes are mostly minimal if the individual is a non-smoker and is physically active. However, in the individuals who are suffering some kind of chronic diseases such as frequent asthma, pneumonia and lung related medical conditions and those who are smokers, the effect could be more dangerous (Rodgers and et.al., 2016). These all physical changes appear when an individual reach at an age of 40-65 years and the effects could be increase throughout the life course and then eventually lead to declining. Individuals during midlife goes through stress and some sort of pressure due to burden of responsibility. Stress may result in occurrence of number of diseases along with a dynamic change in weight of individuals. As stress may cause a dis-balance of hormone in overall system of body which basically results in weight gain. Occurrence of some specific conditions like presbyopia and presbycusis are also common changes that occur during midlife of an individual. Presbyopia is a condition where individual experience difficulties in reading whereas, presbycusis is a condition where individual face difficulties in listening to high pitched sounds. Middle aged individuals compensate such situations by wearing glasses, taking care of themselves while engage in motor tasks and driving more carefully. Individuals also goes through some bio-physiological changes during the course of midlife. Menopause which is ceasing of menstruation in women and male climacteric which is male menopause in men are some specific bio physiological changes which is proved to be a turning point in life of midlife individuals. Menopause is a common thing which happen with both men and women at a certain age of midlife. However, the perceptions regarding menopause varies according to different cultures. Differences in cultures could shape how individuals experience this phase of their life. In a youth idolizing western culture, menopause is basically seen as ending of mensuration cycle. In many other cultures it is a time for new respect as well as freedom for women. Mayan women, experiencing some of the uncomfortable symptoms and looked forward for menopause and believes that it provide them a sense of freedom and respect. In certain regions of the country women who were kept private before menopause are now allowed to come forward and sit with men and could drink home brew. Men and women at the age of midlife feel themselves less attractive and appealing and because of such overthinking they gain some extra pounds around their waist, get bald and feel less energetic than they use to in their 20's. As society usually put more emphasis on physical appearance and youthfulness middle aged women and men often losses their self esteem. Development of some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis is often faced by individuals at 50's. Metabolism also slows down at this age.

During middle adulthood, two major kind of intelligence has been observed, namely, fluid and crystallized. The crystallized sort of intelligence is associated with the gathered acquaintance and experiences. Such type of intelligence is improved with the time and the amount of knowledge and skills which is gather by an individual during their life course. Whereas, fluid intelligence is much more associated with basic and normal cognitive processing qualities. Though, it has been observed through such intelligence, is that the power of solving issues and making decisions with the assistance of cognitive processing reduces in middle and later adulthood. There are number of changes in the individual’s cognitive ability in the mid-life. It also leads in loss of memory and concentration power. It also results in minimizing of processing of information in individuals. Comparing to younger and early age adults, the individuals who are at the age of mid adulthood are less likely to concentrate properly and there is a constant loss memory (Samuels and et.al., 2019). There are many changes that occur in the thinking power of the individuals, there is a dynamic change in the information processing and in the ways for seeing the world. There are number of elements of information processing process but the two most common aspects which has been facing by middle aged adults are memory and attention. Attention makes the individual to over loo the extra information and to just focus on what is most important. Middle adulthood is mostly presents a stage of stability, where hardly any changes of development can be observed. During midlife of an individual, there is a loss of self confidence and a feeling of anxiety which is often face by men and women. It is a normal phase which comes in the life of individuals in mid life when they transform from young people to older adults. At this time individuals, usually evaluate their achievements , dreams and goals against what they have pray for in their past life and what stage they are currently facing in their life. Men and women experience mid life crisis in a different manner from each other. Men tends to prove their success to others whereas women try to work on their physical appearance and make plans regarding what they can do when their responsibility of parenting will be end.

The ability of performing logical thinking and high cognitive skills alters withinj the life course. However, middle aged adults are generally observed to remember semantic memories due to the course of experience and practice. There is a change in crystallized and fluid intelligence which are used to determine the patterns of cognitive changes throughout the life course Crystallized intelligence can be define as ability, skills and knowledge which are over learned, familiar and well practiced. General knowledge and vocabulary are the examples of cognitive intelligence. Such practice are totally dependent on the experience level of an individual, hence this is reason why middle aged adults are able to perform good during tasks as compared to young individuals. Fluid intelligence can be defined as some activities such as problem solving and give reasoning about the things which are not properly familiar and are totally different from what an individual has learned (Thomas and Thurston, 2016). The ability of thinking drastically reduce during the third decade of the life and keep constant during the overall period of life. Number of cognitive changes has been noticed in the middle aged adults as a result of decline of memory and slows of processing speed. Thus, this decline of process can negatively impact on performances of the individuals.

The mind of a human being is much more dynamic and complex as it seems to observe, such complexity is been critically analyzed in various stages of life and ranges of experiences an individual accommodates. There are several variables which affects the individual’s personality formation as well as development. Such components may be categorized into internal as well as external factors. So as to monitor and evaluate the actions and behavior of people the identification of such factors are very essential. Middle adulthood has been considered as a crucial phase of life in every person. During this stage, an individual has been gone through various life changing and personality changing scenarios associating with the external and internal elements. Factors like family, schooling, family background, relation with society and family, social status are some internal factors which changes the psychosocial status of a person (Sharp and et.al., 2019). Occupation, relation with co workers, society or community attitude are few external variables which determines the personality and behavior of an adult throughout their life time. Psychosocial changes are related with the alteration in emotion and way adults socialize with other people. For the clearer understanding of psychosocial shifts in mid adulthood, theoretician have kept more highlighted the understanding the centres in Social Intellect and Social Expertise. Social Intellect can be defined in form of Social Intellect which is the ability to observe and distinguish a person in agreement with mood, nature, intentions and encouragement in order to play vibrant role in changing the behavior of an individual person and the manner they communicate or talk with other people (Kessler and Segler, 2017). In mid life a person relates the age of their adulthood and becomes publicly rational to sympathize and empathize with a person in the available environment. Social Expertise on the other hand can be explained as ability in order to communicate acclimatizing responses to various interpersonal requirements and to take social conduct in such a manner that aids oneself and agreement with norms and morals of the society. For the analysis of cognitive behavior of individuals during midlife, cognitive model can be utilized. This theory helps to identify how individuals thoughts and opinions may impact their lifestyle. Stress in the individuals at midlife may result in unhealthy behavior and emotions. Thinking ability of individuals at midlife seems to be differ as compared to adolescents and young adults. Number of individuals at mid life tends to attain Piaget stage of formal operations, which is categorized by ability to think in a abstract manner, give reasons logically and often engaged in solving theoretical problems. Middle aged persons develop and apply post-formalthinking which is categorized by use of practical common sense in order to tackle with unclear problems. According to the perspective of Zheng and et.al., (2019), collectively for Educational, Social and Poignant knowledge recognized various capabilities which give base for social advancement. Self Consciousness can be defined as the ability of a person to comprehend oneself. Founded on the base of confidence on oneself and self-consciousness is the true evaluation of own individuality which evolves during the midlife. Social awareness is the ability to understand the believes of others, interpretations and responses in each condition. It is efficiency of believing, insight and intermingling effectively which empower the person. Self supervision can be defined as the way to handle the emotions and responses in each condition. It is referred as the capability to enable oneself to achieve the targets in a difficult situation. Relationship building skills is the way to maintain good and longer relationships with the people. Keeping the proper communication, collaboration, and synchronization as base and handling oneself in difficult conditions, relationship building skills are formed. During midlife, both men and women suffer from empty nest syndrome. They experience a feeling of grief and loneliness as their children move out of the house. They felt like there is no further support for them and they have to survive without their children. The symptoms of empty nest can result in depression and loss of purpose for their parents because of departure of children from them which eventually leads to adjustments in parents life. Sand-which generation is also a major aspect which refers to a generation of individuals aged between 40 to 70 years. In this phase, individuals tends to support their aging parents and also care for their children. Individuals in midlife are also from a sandwich generation who raise their kids and care fro their parents from a long distance or may be in the same house. It develops a sense of responsibility in the life of individuals in the mid life. This generation is particularly refer to middle aged persons.

Majority of the adults around the globe recognize themselves in accordance of maintained relations with family, specifically with wife/husband, kids, and mother and father. A personal relation is a bond between people that can vary from short to long-term time period. Relationships also transform and enhance, the relation may either grow or disperse over a period. The relationship between two individuals can be dependent on different aspects – love, harmony, corporate, or any other reason which demands the two individuals to interact. Personal relations are vigorous practices that alter constantly till the time this interpersonal relationship exists. Like living beings, relations have an inception, a life expectancy and expiration (Ellis and et.al., 2019). In some circumstances people do not like the company of each other through which their relationship tends to deteriorate and finally people choose to separate their ways, but in most of the cases the relationship be likely to enhance and develop progressively as individuals talk to each other and get the opportunity to know each other during a span of time and gradually share a strong emotional connect. Erik Erikson's stages of development theory is related to psycho social focuses on various relationships so as to build high virtues in our life course. Various stages make up the theory which assist in developing hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, wisdom in an individual and such virtues are changes according to the situations and experiences of a person in our life course. 

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that the cognitive, physical and psycho-social changes are generally wide spread aspects of mid-life of a human being where they face numerous challenges and accumulate experiences which shapes the mental, social and physical health condition of a person. I have observed that Physical changes are the changes which are clearly recognizable and could be observed by other individuals. It naturally goes all the way through the existence course of all people. Further study have concluded that the performance of an individual cognitively deals with the changing or upgrading intelligence and knowledge of a person. I have highlighted the value of life course and evidenced that the psychosocial changes according to the report comprise of internal and external factors which affect the further life of a person and shape the behaviour of people in midlife.

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