Developmental Theories

     The development of adults never stops. The key point to be noted is that health and well-being generally improves as you get older, up until a certain point. Then you reach a point were you reach a physical peak, gain weight, lose height, and women enter menopause. Early in life, birthday cards are joyful and celebrate growing up, but when you start to get old people start to enter a stage of fear or denial about how old they really are. Most of their thoughts about growing up are negative and this is why as people get older the cards start to get more sincere or more of a joke, to comfort the receiver. When the person was young they got happy cards to celebrate them growing up, but now that they are getting old they no longer want to celebrate getting older, because it makes them remember that the end is that much closer. When we are kids we have momentum and don't even have the end in mind, but when you start to grow up death becomes a very common topic in life. When you get older, most of the time you will slow down your whole life and get ready for retirement and other events to try and soothe the thoughts of getting old. In the end, I think cards start to get more sincere or reassuring, because no one wants to be reminded how old they are getting and how they are slowing down, but if the card makes you laugh about it or feel a sense of pride about your age then that is always a positive. Some cards also talk about reaching milestones in life, like living to an unexpected age. People also start to lose their memory and other things relating to them, and cards will often make some sort of fun of that and this helps the people laugh about themselves. After all, no birthday card is made to actually hurt someone. They are constructed to celebrate or congratulate the many adventures you have or will endure in your lifetime.