Adult Study Project: Biological, Physical, And Cognitive Functioning (Research Paper Sample)

An Adult’s Study Project Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Human development and functioning is a lifelong process that begins from birth and extends all the way to death. At each period in the lifespan of a human being, there is always a state of personal evolution. The processes can be categorized into physical functioning, Cognitive functioning, and psychosocial functioning. The primary work of the physical functioning is to drive the different processes, while the cognitive either advances or declines in response to the brain development experienced in children and reducing in function as one grows old. On the other hand, the psychosocial functioning is also influenced by the physical growth, since the changing needs of our bodies and brain in conjunction to our environment combine to shape our ultimate identity and relationships with other people around us. A case study of Sadia Mohamed of 28 years old has been used to bring on board the manifestations of the physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning of adults. Background Information Sadia Mohamed was born on 1st January 1990, making him 28 years old. Saida is of an African- American descent, who originally came from Somalia. Sadia is 125lbs and 5'0. He is a Muslim and comes from a middle-class family, made up of 5; three brothers and one sister. Sadia and his siblings can be described as living happily due to their close nature with his family all along from when they were in Arizona before moving to Minnesota in 2018 looking for a job. According to his education level, he is the first child to graduate in their family, with BS in Healthy lifestyle coaching (ASU 2016). According to his family life, Sadia has an absent relationship, where his grandfather passed away when he was still young. He described him as being his role model and he promised him to finish school and support him in his future dreams. Sadia’s personality is lively since he is an outgoing person, social, loves outside activities like basketball, shopping and hanging out with friends and family. He has no pets, does not abuse any substance, fit and no health issues and also his family has no any medical conditions. Sadia is single but was once in a two-year relationship that did not work, and he is not currently looking for anything serious, but is just having fun and dating with no sexual activity till marriage. He is also associated with some sleep issues. Biological/ Physical Functioning At the age between 20 and 40, it is referred to as early adulthood, a time where our physical functioning is somehow complete. The weight and height normally increase slowly, as one moves from adolescence to the early adulthood stage. This explains the 125lbs and 5'0 by Sadia, who is now fully fit. At this stage, the physical abilities are almost at their peak since there is muscle strength, the reaction time is also experienced, sensory and cardiac functioning are all present. During this stage in life, the body has generally grown and the disorders and other non-common diseases are vulnerable. The exercise activities also are at the peak, that is why at this stage, most of the professional athletes will top their game during this particular period. All of these attributed to the physical functioning and development of the body of an adult. Early adulthood especially from the age of 25-30 years of age, physical growth is immensely achieved particular the broadening of the shoulders, the chest size, and the entire muscular strength (Ward, 2016). However, at this age, the individuals will begin experiencing some signs of aging. One of the most conspicuous signs of the aging process is the change in the weight and height that goes up to 45 years of age. Sadia is now 5’0 but signs are that he still has more chances of still becoming taller than that. In addition to this, the acuity or the sharpness of the vision is also at its peak at this stage, where the males will develop better eyesight as compared to their female counterparts. Another aspect at this age also though minor is the steady increase in the decayed teeth or missing teeth. The individuals will also begin to experience periodontal disease during this period. The efficiency of the heart to pump blood at this age remains to be fairly stable, where the young adults are able to absorb more oxygen of up to four to five times than the older adults. Therefore, their skin will begin to show some signs of aging including the wrinkles in the facial area on the hand and the facial areas and the skin begins to lose its texture at the end of the period. During adulthood, the biological health and its role play a great part in the physical functioning of the individual sedentary lives. The decreasing levels of physical activity, make the weight of an individual increase. Individuals who are economically advantaged and those who are well-educated normally have a good health for most of their lives. The good health is mainly associated with regular exercise, habits and living conditions. This explains why Sadia is physically fit and of good health. The regular exercises performed by an individual will ensure that there are enough muscles that help prevent diseases and also enhance psychological well-being. Also, there are some stressful life events such as crowding, exercise, diet, substance abuse, and other social relationships will influence the health of an individual. The sleep problems experienced by Sadia can be associated with stress. There are different ways in which he can put in place to ensure that he gets enough to sleep and manage stress. One good advantage he has is the control of substance abuse which is one way of managing stress. Nevertheless, other things needed by him to put in place include social support especially at this time when he still looking for a job. A healthy life living for adults can be employed by engaging in healthy eating and engaging in responsible sexual acts just as Sadia is doing. Cognitive Functioning The adult stage is the stage that we spend most of the years than any other stage. Therefore, the cognitive changes are usually numerous and are termed as being so complex. The ever-changing processes of the mental behavior are changing gradually more actively than the cognitive functioning experienced by the infants in their early childhood. Unlike the physical activities that normally reach their climax at around the late 20s and then they begin to decline slowly; the cognitive abilities remain steady almost throughout the early and middle adulthood. The crystallized intelligence that is normally experienced like the skills, information and other strategies all tend to hold steady or even prove to increase with time as aging comes. Adults will show a relatively stable mind in the increasing scores on intelligence tests from 25 to mid-30s (HOW NORMAL COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING AND COGNITIVE DECLINE CAN IMPACT DECISION MAKING IN OLDER ADULTS, 2016). However, in their late adulthood, individuals will begin to experience a decline in most areas of cognitive abilities. Some of these cognitive abilities include fluid intelligence entailing memory, the information processing abilities, and reasoning. These processes thus become slower with time. However, there is a way in which the onset of the cognitive decline where the mental and physical activities plat major roles. The adults who engage in major mental and physical stimulation activities normally experience less cognitive decline together with reduced incidences of mild cognitive impairments. The prominent theory of the cognitive functioning was developed by Jean Piaget who was a Swiss psychologist. He broke down the cognitive stages into four that all run from birth to the adolescence period. Piaget’s theory is so exceptional since it provides detailed information about the scientific knowledge of the adults. The theory contains an incredible experimental data that covers the different periods in life. The theory is so wide that it covers other information that is normally ignored by other psychological theories. These include the relationship between the biological activity and the cognition, the overall relative role of the environment the person is living in, the connections that exist between the various aspects of the cognition such as the perception, reasoning, and memory. According to some aspects of the works by Piaget in the theory, it shows that his work was ahead of time hence could therefore easily come up with connections in conjunction with the emerging disciplines like the cybernetics. The artificial intelligence programs that are expressed in symbolic language and its expertise are involved in the mastery of the Piagetian concept of the mental structures. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary approach that came into existence in the 1980s known as the cognitive science links its work with the Piaget's approach between psychology, biology, logic, and physics. The lifespan theories of cognitive functioning pave the way to an integrated framework used for explanation, description, and optimization of the cognitive development found in different functional domains and their age periods. According to this, the LTCD is made of two major assumptions. The first one is that cognitive development usually reflects the operation of two components; the biological and the cultural. The second assumption entails the development where the biological component is incorporated into different cultural domains, hence, leading to the acquisition of the culturally transmitted bodies made up of knowledge. In the general lifespan dynamics that entails biology and culture, the biological component is required to increase with age while knowledge maintenance together with the knowledge acquisition is more advanced than the age-based losses in the potential of the biological acts. Great support has been given to the empirical su...