Introduction
The subjected interviewed is Anna, a 32 year old woman in the early adulthood stage of life. She is of medium build, approximately 5 feet tall, and weighs 50 kilograms. The fair-skinned and round-faced Anna is proud of her long auburn tresses. Her brown round eyes sparkle with vitality and happiness, her smile is bright and vivacious, and her gestures and body language as she speaks show that she is an expressive person. Anna hails from a middle-class family that values a disciplined lifestyle and traditions. Studious that she is, Anna has completed her doctoral program in chemistry and is at present working as a research assistant in a reputed university. She is a loving mother to a naughty 5-year-old son, and an affectionate spouse to a hard-working businessman. Anna’s life at present revolves around her family, which includes her parents, in-laws and other relatives, and her career. Anna loves painting, reading, and singing, although she finds little time to engage in her hobbies owing to her busy schedule. She is also spiritually inclined and likes to spend her spare time practicing meditation and reading spiritual literature.
Anna has been my friend since our college days and currently is my neighbor. We reside in the same locality and meet each other quite often. Her interview was conducted on a pleasant spring evening in the garden outside her home. The beautifully clear blue sky was speckled with white clouds, the neighborhood was lush with greenery thanks to spring rains, and Anna’s garden was dotted with colorful flowers. The environment around was absolutely calm with no one to disturb the interviewer and the interviewee. The interview proceeded unhindered in such a serene setting.
“What do you best like about being your age?”
“What I like best about my age is that I feel quite settled and stable in my life. This is because I am on a career path that seems less like work and more like an interesting discovery every day. When I completed college, I was not sure whether to work or study further. Since I was always interested in research, I decided to earn my Ph.D. degree, and while working towards it, I realized that I had the skills required for becoming a research assistant. So, this is the profession that I have chosen to be in. What also makes me feel settled is the fact that I am married to an individual with whom I know I want spend my entire lifetime, and I have a son who completes my family. Also, I have a close knit circle of friends and relatives on whom I know I can rely in times of need. I must say that around 15 years back my situation was entirely the opposite with umpteen career choices confusing me, peer pressure consuming me and relationships breaking and bonding on and off. All these put a lot of stress on me and at that time I wished that I could make sound decisions quickly. Really, now I am glad that I have crossed that tempestuous stage!”
“What do you least like about being your age?”
“What I least like about being my age is that I have to shoulder plenty of responsibilities in my personal and professional lives. Yes, I did mention earlier that I feel stable and settled as far as these two are concerned, but this does not mean that there is no stress. In fact, stress is very much there even now, just as it was there some 15 years back; it is just that the factors causing the stress have changed. For example, earlier I was fretting over my professional choices, finding my soul mate, and living up to peer expectations all the time. On the other hand, today I am worried that I may not be performing well enough at work and that I may not get the pay raise or promotion I deserve. I also fuss over my family members, their health and daily routine, just to make sure that the family remains happy- after all in their happiness lays my happiness. In fact, I would say that I am sandwiched between taking care of a growing child and ageing parents and in-laws. To an extent, I am still worried that people around me, be it in my neighborhood or those at my workplace, may talk ill of me and so I watch my behavior constantly. Also, I am always conscious of the fact I have to set a positive example to my child through my behavior, which I feel is a very huge responsibility in this stage of life.”
“What changes do you foresee in your life in the next five/ten years?”
“In the next five or ten years, I foresee that I have become a full-time researcher and a Ph.D. guide at the university I work in. Certainly, I do expect the hard work I put in at the university to pay me off by way of promotions and I must mention a pay raise. I expect to buy a bigger home and a better car as a way of improving my standard of life. My son would have grown up to become independent enough to do his own work, giving me some extra free time to catch up on my hobbies, such as painting, reading all sorts of books, and music, that at present I have given up. I also imagine that I would start showing the first signs of graying and perhaps my health may not be at the peak that it is today- vision problems, a few wrinkles on the face, and an ache or two may begin to bother me.”
“What do you think are the three most important things in your life at this time?”
“I think that the three most important things in my life at this time are a happy family, stable career and sound health, which lets me multi-task when performing routine chores and engage in enjoyable activities such as walking and camping. My family forms the crux of my life at present- truly I cannot imagine my life without them, and so keeping my family happy is extremely important to me. I think stability in a career is important because it implies that one is happy with their nature of work. Since I am stable and happy in my career that happiness spreads to the other spheres in my life, be it if I am working at home, enjoying some time out with my friends or spending time with my family, and to a great extent keeps me stress-free. Remaining stress-free to the extent possible ensures that I keep up my health. So in a way, for me all the three i.e. happy family, stable career and sound health are linked together. Perhaps, I should say that to me each one is as important as the other. Of course, what is also important to me is the proper growth and development of my son so that he may lead a happy and stable life as an adult. This is why I ensure that my actions and behavior are such that I set a positive example to him.”
Analysis
Link # 1- According to the Career Choice Theory put forth by Eli Ginzberg, “in early adulthood, people enter the realistic period (of selecting a career), in which they explore specific career options either through actual experience on the job or through training for a profession.” (Feldman, 2015, p. 353). During the interview Anna said, “When I completed college, I was not sure whether to work or study further. Since I was always interested in research work, I decided to earn my Ph.D. degree, and while working towards it, I realized that I had the skills required for becoming a research assistant”. This shows that in her early adulthood years, keeping her passion for research in mind, Anna explored her career option as a research assistant, and trained for it indirectly by enrolling herself for a Ph.D. program. Thus, Ginzberg’s Career Choice Theory holds quite true in Anna’s case.
Link # 2- John Holland’s Personality Type Theory states that “if the correspondence between personality and career is good, people will enjoy their careers more and be more likely to stay in them.” (Feldman, 2015, p. 354). Holland’s theory also mentions that intellectual people grasp abstract and theory-based concepts easily and are suited to the science and math professions (Feldman, 2015). This theory holds very true in Anna’s case because she says that she is “on a career path that seems less like work and more like an interesting discovery every day.” As someone who has always scored top grades in tests, Anna is definitely studious and intelligent. Given that her profession is related to the field of science, it can be said that Anna’s intellectual personality matches well with her career choice. Thus, in light of Holland’s theory and Anna’s career choice, it is of little wonder to find that she has settled happily in her profession.
Anna’s responses to the interview questions seem quite typical for her stage in life. In early adulthood, particularly between the ages of 30 and 40, individuals are expected to be career oriented, be married and have children, all of which Anna has gone through. K. Warner Schaie, a developmental psychologist states that people in the later part of early adulthood become very responsible and fret over protecting and promoting their career and families (Feldman, 2015). This is exactly what Anna is doing in her early adulthood years when she says that she has several responsibilities to shoulder in her personal and professional lives such as taking care of her spouse, child, and ageing elders in the family, working responsibly at the university so that she may earn a good name, and behaving responsibly before her son that she may set the right example for him. Since Anna’s responses are in line with what is expected of individuals in her life stage, they come as little surprise. By conforming to the society’s expectations, Anna is hardly raising eyebrows around her, which could be helping her enjoy a “stable and settled” life.
References
Feldman, R.S. (2015). Early adulthood. In Discovering the life span (3rd ed.) (pp. 308- 359). NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
