Chapter Nineteen

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Chapter Nineteen

• Early Adulthood
• Psychosocial Development

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Tasks of Adulthood

• Two basic needs affiliation and achievement
• Maslows hierarchy of needs

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• Ages and Stages Patterns of the past
• by 20s ? identity
• by 30s ? intimacy
• by 40s ? generativity
• Todays adult lives are less orderly and
  predictable than stage models suggest

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• The Social Clock
• Culturally set timetable that establishes when
  various events and endeavors in life are
  appropriate
• What are some of the appropriate timetables for
  the United States?

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• Nation to Nation
• Industrialized nations - legal ages/requirements/e
  xpectations (teenage pregnancy not good)
• Underdeveloped nations - less age stratified
  because survival to late adulthood less certain
• Rich and Poor
• The lower the SES, the sooner a person is
  expected to reach lifes milestones

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Intimacy

• Need for intimacy
• Affiliation, affection, interdependence, love
• Two primary sources are close friendship and
  romantic partnership

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• Friendship
• Buffer against stress, guide to self-awareness
  and source of positive feelings
• Gateways to attraction for friendship
• physical attractiveness
• apparent availability (willingness to chat)
• absence of exclusion criteria
• frequent exposure

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• Gender differences in Friendship
• Conversations
• Women ? self-disclosure
• Men ? external matters - sports, politics, work
• Deborah Tannens work

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• Man and Woman, Just Friends
• cross-sex friendships allow learning about common
  humanity and help each other gain skills
• problems may arise when sexualizing a platonic
  relationship

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• The Best Friendships
• several close friendships, each meeting different
  needs
• Friendship and Marriage
• At marriage, friendships become less prominent
• Cross-sex friendships can cause problems
• Same sex can be rivals

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Development of Love and Marriage

• Intimate relationship with a mate creates a bond
• Living together
• Cohabitation increasingly common
• Cohabitation does not strengthen bond
• People who cohabitate are much less happy,
  healthy and less satisfied with financial status
  than are married couples

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• Cohabiting relationships are more abusive-
  abusetwice as likely as those not living
  together
• Cohabitaters who eventually marry are more likely
  to divorce

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• Living with Same Sex Partner
• Homosexual cohabitation is more common and open
  today
• 2-5 of all adults in US spend part of adulthood
  in gay or lesbian partnerships
• More similar than different to cohabiting
  heterosexual partnerships

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• Sternbergs Theory of love
• 3 components 1)passion 2)intimacy 3)commitment
• 7 types of love stemming from this theory

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• Marriage
• Not like it used to be
• Only 10 brides are virgins
• 32 of all births are to unmarried mothers
• 10 of first births are conceived before marriage
• Divorce rate is 49 of marriage rate
• The rate of first marriages in young adulthood
  lowest in 50 years

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• However, marriage remains the most enduring
  evidence of couple commitment, celebrated in
  every culture in the world by a wedding

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• Homogamy ? within group
• Heterogamy ? out of group
• Social homogamy ? similar interests and role
  preferences
• Marital equity
• exchange theory
• Marriage is a work in progress communication

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• Divorce
• Divorce rates differ by country- US highest rate
  of any major country
• Role of expectations
• Expect more from marriage partners than in the
  past
• Uncoupling
• How does it affect the development of husband,
  wife and children
• Initially worse in every way- health, happiness,
  self-esteem, financial stability and social
  interaction

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• Developmental Pattern of Divorce
• First year
• anger and conflict
• social circle shrinks
• prone to loneliness, disequilibrium-
• financial instability

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• Divorced with Children
• Children become more demanding, disrespectful or
  depressed
• Financial burdens
• Fathers often lose intimate bonds with children
  because of physical or psychic differences
• Likely to become less involved with children
  every passing year

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• Spouse abuse ? multiple causal factors
• social pressures, stress, cultural values,
  personality pathologies, and drug and alcohol
  addiction
• couple violence - yelling, insulting and physical
  attack but no domination
• patriarchal terrorism- one partner domination
  using isolation, degradation and punishment

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• Remarriage
• 3 times more likely for men in the first 3 years
• Adjustments to stepfamilies take a lot of time

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Generativity

• Importance of Work
• develops and uses personal skills and talents
• expresses unique creative energy
• contributes to larger community by providing
  product or service
• Volunteerism
• Family responsibilities
• Artistic Creation

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• Pattern of the 1950s
• Historical Context of work
• New Patterns of Work
• Context changing
• Work itself changing
• Industry to information
• Diversity in the workplace
• sex, nationality and ethnicity

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• Implications for development
• Flexibility and transferable skills- especially
  communication
• Need for sensitivity to cultural differences
• Glass ceiling
• Need for same human relations skills as
  friendship and marriage

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Gender Roles in Work and Family

• Shift in gender roles in the 20th century
• Benefits and problems
• Coparenting
• Role overload
• Role buffering
• Logistics in everyday life

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Parenthood

• Adult Development
• having children, nurturing them and launching
  them into the world has a major impact on the
  parents development
• birth of a child brings conflict and challenges
• Alternative forms of parenthood
• stepparents, adoptive parents, foster parents

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