Activity 6: My Life as a Young Adult
Chiew Chiaw Hui (69334)
My name is Chiew Chiaw Hui. I’m a female and currently 20 years old. I was born on 20th March 2000 in Timberland Medical Centre, Kuching, Sarawak. I come from a family of 6 which consists of my parents, my brother, my elder and younger sisters and me. I’m the third child in my family. My elder brother who is in his early twenties works as a consulting engineer and my elder sister is pursuing her degree in University of Malaya. My younger sister just finished her SPM and now she is waiting for her result. I studied in SJK(C) Chung Hua No.3. I have completed my secondary education in SMK Padungan. After that, I continued my study in Kolej Matrikulasi Labuan (KML). My motto is “Nothing is ‘impossible’ as the word says itself, ‘ I-m-Possible’.
For physical development aspect, I started walking around 1 years old. Started reading the newspaper at 7 years old. Reached puberty at 11 years old. My great accomplishments in life were getting pretty good results for SPM and PSPM. I like to explore and experience new things since I was small. I also actively participated the extra-curriculum activities during my school life. I was the senior assistant prefect and the chairman of both Kelab Bahasa Malaysia and Indoor Game Club.
My first view on issues that are frequently faced by young adults is career and work. I believed that most of the young adults have a doubt like ‘What am I going to be and do after completing my study?” Young adults often puzzled about their capabilities and potentials. They are usually pressured into having a dream. I personally think that they should seek for the advises from the professionals who are more experienced in particular field. My next view is on health and fitness. Nowadays, it is undeniable that the times for most of the young adults to exercise does not meet the demand of our body. Having an unhealthy lifestyle is one of the main causes of health issues. Unhealthy food like boba milk teas, burgers and French fries may cause obesities or cardiovascular diseases for the consumers. My third view is on identity crisis. Many young adults are plagued by the thought of, “Who am I?” as they are confused about their own values, believes and personalities. The crisis can be resolved by learning to accept themselves for who they really are.
Reflection
According to Erik Erikson’s theory, I am going through the psychosocial stage of identity vs. confusion. The adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood, and between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult (Erikson, 1963, p. 245). During this period, people explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. This is a major stage of development where the child has to learn the roles he will occupy as an adult. It is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is. I am still finding my real identity and often have questions such as “Who am I?” and “What do I want to do with my life?” Along the way, I try on many different selves to see which ones fit.
Conclusion
My milestones are all related to the theories and Erik Erikson’s psychosiocial stages.
Reference
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth: Change and challenge. New York: Basic books.
Jesynthia Wong anak Robert (69983)
Being born in year 2000 (31st of August) has qualified me as a young adult in year 2020 as I am turning 20 soon. I was born as a healthy female infant in Sarawak, in a town called Sibu. I am the eldest among my siblings which consists of my younger brother and a younger sister. Both of my parents work as secondary school teacher. I finished school in year 2017 and continued my pre-university study in Labuan Matriculation College. I am currently pursuing my degree in counselling in University of Malaysia, Sarawak. My life goals are to be happy with my achievement and lived life with no regrets. Being a young adult made me realised that I am slowly losing my youth hence the life goals and I am starting to aware of what brought me happiness and what my real passions are. My personal motto may be explicit but the other way to express it will be “Just do it.”
When I reached the opening to the world of adulthood, I tend to look back and reminisces on what I have went through and achieved in past years. I started pre-school at the age of 4 which is a little early compared to my peers. Therefore, I had 3 years of pre-school before entering primary school. I was a quiet child and the kindergarten teachers would try to put me to the front which leads to my first time performing in front of a huge crowd, which was during pre-school graduation. From there on, I started to join competitions and contests in primary school. The experience s of me going on stage has helped to get rid of fear of talking in public and some shyness. The memorable on-stage experiences that I have so far were Mandarin Public Speaking competition in Primary 4 and a narration contest in college. Those were the moments that my hardwork bore fruits that I believe that I somehow deserved.
I was an average student in terms of academic and I could not do sport at all. In secondary school, I surprised myself by doing well in my Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and I joined sport activity in school for at least once. After graduating, I continued my study in Labuan Matriculation College and that was my first time going to another state and being away from my family. It was quite an experience for me as I got to experience dorm life, night classes and all the activities that we were to join. That was my first-time making friends with people from different places. Even though I felt as if we were rushing the whole time, I made significant memories during my time in Labuan. I finished Matriculation programme with the pointer of 3.5 and months after that I pursue my degree in counselling in University of Malaysia, Sarawak. During the break between post-matriculation and before entering university, I worked for the first time as a relief teacher in my secondary school for two months. During my duty, it really shows how hard adult life is and how difficult it is to work as a teacher. Some of the ‘milestones’ that I described may be insignificant in others’ eyes, but they are mentioned here since they impacted my life and brought me to who I am today.
When I reach the point where I count myself as a young adult, I start to have reflective thinking more frequently than my adolescence years. I start to question a lot of things in life and have a lot of what-ifs in my mind without being aware of them occupying my thought. But now I am aware that this is called reflective thinking which occurs in the adulthood cognition. This is the age where our cortical regions are enriched with myelination.
At this age, I am equipped with postformal thought which is a new cognition development that occur to deal with contradictions, inconsistency, and compromise in life which all of those usually draws on emotion, intuition, and logic. At this stage, I can make my own independent decisions without much guidance from others. And since this is an age where I started my university life, I learned how to control my expenses and make decisions without having others to help me.
REFLECTION
Out of seven Schaie’s Life Span Model of Cognitive Development, I achieved two of them which are the acquisition stage and achieving stage. I went through acquisition stage throughout my infancy, childhood phase and adolescence. In this stage I acquired knowledge and intellectual skills. Now that I am a young adult, the achieving stage starts where my primary cognitive task is to achieve personal goals which in my case is to start my career after graduation. To complete this stage, I will need to apply the intellectual skills that I have acquired in the acquisition stage.
At the age of 20, I am starting to question a lot of things in life, including my own identity and the purpose of my life. According to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, I have come to a phase where I am vulnerable to identity crisis. In his theory, he stated that teens or young adult may be confused of who they are and trying to find the sense of self throughout their adolescence and young adulthood. This stage is important as it helped young adults to find their own ground in life and develop strong self-identity.
In conclusion, activity 6 which required us to talk about our experience as young adults is a very relatable topic to us considering our age. We can use our reflective thinking while finishing this eportfolio while learning about ourselves. I have written about my milestones from childhood to young adulthood and relates them with theories such as the Schaie’s Life Span Model of Cognitive Development and Erikson’s Psychosocial Development theory. I successfully reflected on my life as a young adult and learned what is happening to myself throughout this topic.
References:
Cherry K. (2019, December 7). Very Well Mind. Identity vs. role confusion in psychosocial stage 5. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/identity-versus-confusion-2795735
dictionary.apa.org. Schaie’s stages of cognitive development. Retrieved https://dictionary.apa.org/schaies-stages-of-cognitive-development
Agnes Anak Gawing (68919)
My name is Agnes Anak Gawing and usually people call me ‘nes’. I’m a female and will be 21 years old soon. I was born on 20th August 1999 in Hospital Miri, Sarawak. I’ am the third of five siblings which is all female. Both of my elder sister work as a clerk in their company, while both of my younger sister are still studying at SMK Baru Miri, Sarawak at the same school I study before. My mother is a full-time housewife and my father work as general worker at his company. During primary school, I studied at SK Pujut Corner, Miri. After that, for secondary school I continue my study at SMK Baru Miri which is the same place I take Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM). I’m further my study as a degree student at UNIMAS and taking Counselling course. My life goals are to be happy and positive person in every situation that I’ll going through. My motto is ‘Do as long as you can!’.
My milestone for physical development is normal BMI count, but for me it is not because I got a skinny body which is my height is 151 while my weight is 44 kg. This situation has influence me to find method on how to gain weight and also increase my height. As a young adult, I like to do physical activities together with my friends and also my siblings which can influence my physical development. If I’m not busy, I always go to jogging during my leisure time every weekend. However, I didn’t participate actively at my school’s activities. Since I’ve study at UNIMAS, I keep involving myself to participate any of run event that had organized. For instance, I join AMAR-RUN, and Colour-Run beside join citrawarna’s dances. For my cognitive development of health, I am the person who like to reading whether by book or from media social. For example when I was 18 years old where I become STPM student, I’ve downloaded the application of news because I like to know about the news of world. Moreover, I can prepare myself for a general knowledge what happen outside the country. During my study as a STPM student, I always be become top ten student and be one of the best STPM students in my school which is I get 3.50 pointer. For psychosocial development, I am in intimacy. I like to work studying while working as I did since I was 15 years old (work as part-time). All the while I was growing before studying at UNIMAS, I worked in several companies whether its only part-time or full-time. From that, I have met a lot of people that have various attitude. Every situation that I have been through make me more independent and careful when I want to build relationship with friends. My cognitive development is going well which is I can memorize the fact easily even though not clearly by using any method. Meanwhile, my psychosocial development at normal stage because I always become an active person since I was a kid. Mostly, people said that I’m friendly person and easily make friends with other which can influence my psychosocial development by the relationship that I try to build with other. I also agree with that because I can feel myself that I’m very talkative and cheerful person.
REFLECTION
As a result of my self-study, I’m in intimacy at my age. This is because based on the Piaget’s Theory, I had been through a capacity for abstract thought and more flexible way to manipulate information which is I always keep acknowledge myself for searching the information. I also find a way to become brain maturation. For instance, I had been in the situation where I’ve met a new people by working at my company and that make me become more matured or learn on how to deal with them. In my view on issues that are usually faced by young adults is career and relationship. It is because on this age, they had motivated to be a successful person and give the best for their family, while at the same time they want to make a relationship with other people that can give them a support. Based on Traits model (5 Factors of Personality), we must be open-minded and know how to handle the critical situation. I said so because we have to independent as a adult on how to make a decision for our best. It has shown on how the personality of young adulthood changing and depends on the environment.
In a conclusion, I’m in Erikson’s psychosiocial stages. As i know, human will be going through the difficulties in their life at the age as a young adult to middle adulthood. This is because they will faced a lot of obstacles and situation to chase their dream for their own future. Mostly nowadays, young adult already experience the job because they already can think and make a decision what should they do for their life.
Marshall Steve Jomi (70311)
Name is Marshall Steve Jomi. I am 21 years old this year and I was born on 19 November, 1999. 20 years ago I was born in Hospital Kudat, Sabah. I’m 1 of the twin boys in my family which is all my siblings are boy and the nicknames that my parents and acquaintances often use is Chon-chon or sometimes my middle name. I have 7 family members including my dad, mom and my 4 other siblings and the youngest one already reached 19 this year . My dad is 49 years old this year while my mom is 46 years old. My dad has his own business while my mom is a full time housewives. My parents did not pursue to higher education after SPM due to several factors. However, that did not stop my parents to be a successful person and even my dad is my idol for success in the future.
I did not clearly remember first my education background. All that I can recall is I attended my preschool for about 1 year and then attended the Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Telipok for 1 year and then my parents send us back to our hometown in Kudat and started my school at Sekolah Kebangsaan Barambangon which is located at our neighborhood village and it only take 15 minutes by walking. I took the UPSR in 2011 and got only 2A2B1C. Then I went to high school from form 1 until my STPM at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sikuati, Kudat, Sabah. My Batch was the first batch to take Pt3 and I only got 2A. at first, I took my major in science stream but I lost my interest in science world I decided to take sport science and geography subjects until 2016 where I took SPM. I am really glad and proud after the SPM’s result announced. I got 6A4B even though I was a really busy with my sports and my club activities. I was offered to pursue a diploma course but I was not interested in continuing in the program and decline every college invitation. Furthermore, I have continued my studies at STPM level and I am determined to make my name and face being listed at school’s STPM best student. It was my second success after my SPM with my STPM final pointer 3.67 cgpa and I am very grateful for the results I have received. Not only am I active in academics but I also have a deep interest in the curriculum. In high school and STPM levels, I was the captain of form 6 volleyball club and also vice coach for the school’s softball club which I have been appointed as Sabah national player fpr 2 years. After finished my STPM, I was offered the opportunity to pursue a degree levels in Bachelor of Psychology at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. This subject is very new for me because for 4 years I have been study about sports science and geography and I have the thought that I have been out of my expert subjects. However, I was very happy when I was offered in UNIMAS.
I have many goals in life. Every new year the list will increase with the goal of new year. Some of them I have been able to achieved. Among the goals of my life was to finish my degree on time and I want both of my parents to be proud of me when I finally end my degree and attend my convocation. Furthermore, my new goal is to spend 3 years with Kor Suksis and be successful with my beloved squad. I would also like to apply for police officer if I got the chance to do that . When I was younger and until now, I really hoped I could travel to Japan because I really love their culture, language, the people itself and the most important part is I love their Manga and Anime. Like everyone else, I also want to have a car purchased with my own pay salary and work in the sector that interests me a lot and it makes me happy when I work in that sector. If I given the opportunity, I would like to get married before I turn 35 and want to have cute twin kids after that and have happily ever after type of family. After marriage, I dream of traveling with my wife and family. As a man, I also want to look fit, healthy and stylish in the future. I wish I could reach my goals in my life now and in the future.
A motto is a slogan or favourite saying, like “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Every human being has a motto in their lives as well as me. The motto of my life has always been to achieve something as long as I can. If I can’t reach it now maybe some other day I will make it happens. I used to fail but in my next attempt I’ll make sure to try hard to not repeat the past. My motto is also to become someone who wants to learn and gain knowledge of something.
For physical development in health, I have a normal BMI count. But I considered it as abnormal.This is because as I grew older, my height has not increased event though my body got bigger bot not my weight because I love to do exercises. I am now trying to searching and trying methods on how to increase my height. Also, every Saturday I would work out in the morning and evening as it was a routine of Kor Suksis. Not only that, we also have marching training for up to 5 hours that day. I can adapt my discipline for the trainings and as I have under Soldier-like training during my days in national softball training. In terms of work and learning, I was offered to continue my studies in UNIMAS. Before continuing my studies, I worked as a coach and part time teacher at my old school. The scope of my work requires me to keep moving and keep talking as well I have to stand under the sun to train the softball club’s boyss. After 9 months of working, I furthered my studies in UNIMAS and stayed away from family. There, I feel like I am at my own home because I am an independent person and like to do everything by myself. In terms of identity crisis, as a normal person I have always had this problem. My emotions change often when I have a problem and I find it easy to feel sad when something happens to me. When I moved to Sarawak, I had no difficulty adapting to myself. However, that didn’t last long when I was having problems with my studies and always felt depressed with my time management and financial.
As for the cognitive development of health aspects, I am constantly adding knowledge in all forms of knowledge. For example, I always read information about psychology things and fitness in Facebook. I also do some exercise where I learned from YouTube at home. Various exercise apps are available in the Playstore. Through these applications, various exercises can be done on your own at home. In terms of career and learning, I was in the middle of nowhere where I was not very good in education but I always strived to make the best of it and make sure my efforts were worth it. I got 3.67 CGPA in STPM. For example, I once obtained a 2.14 pointer and was condiered as failed because I failed the core subject and the teachers looking down on my potential. However, I determined and promised my teacher to get an A when I repeated the the failed papers and I kept my promise until the end. In learning too I always try to seize the opportunity. I am not only active in academics but also active in co-curricular activities by joining the Police Cadets and Public Defense Cadets while in high school. Currently, I join the KOR SUKSIS in UNIMAS. For me, the process of learning never ends until we die. On the other hand, from aspects of identity crisis, sometimes as a student I didn’t realize my potential and often asked where I was when I grew up. When I was in high school, I still didn’t know where my future leads me after SPM. I just follow what happens next. However, after being in UNIMAS, I already knew what I wanted to achieve but I still followed the flow. In terms of relationships, I am still looking for opportunities to improve the relationships between my family, friends and acquaintances. I want a good relationship and get to know each of them well. I’m also looking for an opportunity to get to know someone that I can comfortably be friends with.
As for psychosocial development, I am in intimacy vs isolation. As for isolation, I am now continuing my studies at UNIMAS and my family are in Johor. Before becoming a UNIMAS student, I often live alone at my family’s home so when I had the opportunity to continue my studies, I have the ability to survive alone in the new surrounding. I had always dreamed of studying outside of Sabah but I never thought it would be Sarawak. In terms of intimacy, being away from family can be hard sometimes because you don’t have someone that you’re related to. I’ve always wanted to improve my relationship with my family. During the school holidays, my family and my best friend also came to Sarawak for a vacation and to spend some time together. In my family, we always communicate when there is a problem that needs to be resolved. In addition, my father has been in Sarawak for over 10 years, so it’s kind annoying when sometimes he suddenly appearing in front of my college gate.
REFLECTION
As a result of my self-study, I found that my age was more towards intimacy and isolation. This is because as we grow older we want a smaller circle of friends. We also expect to be able to build good relationships with everyone. In addition, we also want to create a good environment in the family and build closer relationships with them. From my milestone journey, I can conclude that it is we who determine the direction of our journey. What we do now will have an impact on our future lives. In addition, I find that my journey is long and that I will face many challenges in life to get something in the future. Next, we must cherish every memory we create so that it becomes a memory as we grow older.
CONCLUSION
Based on the observations and research done, I find that at this age of 20 to 40 years is where the point of life begins. This is because each person will begin to seek direction in their future life. It is during this phase that they form all aspects such as career, family, future and more. From the job aspect is that everyone will start looking for a job to cover their daily expenses. There are some individuals who start looking for a job as young as 18 while some individuals look for a job after graduation. In terms of relationships, all individuals want a life partner and a family. In this 20 years, everyone has been planning in that direction. Not only that, but some of them wants to improve relationship between family for the better future. In future terms, as normal human beings, we can only plan our life journey and only follow the direction of our future life. But some individuals are already planning their journey to be more organized but the planning is not what they expected.
Donna Torney (69516)
I am Donna Torney; 22 year old girl, born and raised in Tambunan, Sabah (also known as The Land Below the Wind). I was born on 14th of August 1998, in the year of the tiger. I still live with my parents, and I have an older sister, 2 older brothers, and a younger brother. My father is a pensioner, and my mother is still working for the government.
I lived in my little town all my life, so I went to schools in Tambunan from pre-school and all through high school. I pursued my studies in Sultan Idris Education University for a Diploma in English; for the sake of obtaining a diploma; done so regrettably because I did not give myself enough time to think my life through and study something that I would love. I breezed through it, not making any memories and graduated with a 3.86 CGPA. I worked part time before I got an offer from UNIMAS to study Psychology. Psychology is the one thing that I have always wanted to learn and hopefully make a career out of it.
I see goals as something that I can achieve and have control over. The only long term goal I have right now is to achieve financial freedom, and I am currently making plans on how I can achieve it. It is realistic and something that I can work toward even while studying. I would not consider happiness and good health as a goal, because these are things that can change over the course of our existence. I simply do not dream of working for others and marriage for now, but a life where I have the freedom to choose and feel secured. My short term goal is to finish my degree, because I have thought of dropping out several times this
Physically, I have grown into my body as a young 22 year old woman. I’m about 160cm and 52kgs, which according to my BMI; is normal. Cognitively, I am at the stage in my young adult life where I have no trouble comprehending abstract concepts entirely, and be mindful of implications and personal weaknesses. I have my own values and morals that I can stand by. I started reading way before I started pre-school. I quite like learning when it is at my own pace without restrictions, and I struggle to study on things that I have to because it is required. I enjoy reading about things that interest me; finances, psychology, philosophy, and about other people’s lives. I enjoy art; I draw and paint, and I love plants. Socially, I could do much better with how I present myself to the world without feeling like I have a mask on.
Growing up, I found myself feeling stuck on the past and on things I have no control over that has affected me mentally and affected how I view and interact with the world around me. This time in my life, I’m always trying to dive into my unconscious to make it conscious. I needed to be aware of why I behave and think the way and take the right measure to properly deal with in order to be content, because I have not reached that part of my life yet. Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind is something that I can relate to with my life. Freud believed that bringing the contents of the unconscious into awareness was important for relieving psychological distress.
REFLECTION
Intimacy versus isolation is the sixth stage of psychosocial development theory developed by Erik Erikson. This stage takes place between the ages of about 18 to 40 years, during young adulthood. The main conflict during this stage is focused on establishing close, romantic relationships with other people. For me, forming relationship is something that is personally challenging and I grow older I find myself wanting to have that close, intimate and loving connection with others. I cannot remember a time when I feel genuine about myself around other people; I always feel a disconnection with others.
Even with everything I have “achieved”, it never felt like achievements that I am genuinely proud of myself to have accomplished. One would say I am ungrateful, but it always felt like these achievements were things that I needed to do because it was expected of me. Doing it for others has caused me a lot of anxiousness and stress; however, I hope to able to find it within me to be independent of what others want of me as I go through life. As of now, I am only able to plan and try my best to follow through. I have the word “I live so I love” tattooed on me, which serves as a constant reminder that I as long I am alive and breathing, I am able to love and be loved.
KMF1043 Human Development Psychology Group 3 