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Your Only As Young As You Feel

You Are Only As Old As You Feel
On the first day of class my professor asked me what it meant to be an adult. After thinking for several minutes and scribbling down several different sentences, I realized that I did not know what it meant to be an adult. I have always assumed that I was an adult because of my age, but am I really an adult?   Most people consider themselves an adult without ever thinking about what that means. It is not until someone asks what adult means, do we really take into consideration the definition of the word. Most people think that they become an adult when they reach the age of eighteen. As the semester went on, I was able to examine the concept of adulthood in several other cultures.   I realized that these cultures concepts of adulthood are nothing like what I thought adulthood was. After careful consideration, I now know that the concept of adulthood cannot be obtained just with a certain age. I know that the concept of adulthood and the effects of aging can be explained through four forces of development, which are biological forces, psychological forces, sociocultural forces, and life-cycle forces. These forces explain all of the changes that occur from the time a person reaches adulthood through old age.
The first of the forces of development is the biological force. This force includes all genetic and health related factors that affect your development (Cavanaugh 2002). Physical changes such as wrinkling, the loss of hair, the development of gray hair, and shrinking of the body can all be used to determine that the aging process has began. Menopause, changes in the major organ systems, and the loss of eyesight are also characteristics that help identify the biological force of development has begun. As people age your bodies range of functioning becomes smaller. People will discover that they are not able to run as fast they once could, they may not be able to walk as far, and they may not be able to move their body parts as...