Chapter Seventeen

1
Chapter Seventeen

• Early Adulthood
• Biosocial Development

Dr. M. Davis Brantley
2
Norms and Peaks

• Young adults are strong, healthy, and disease
  free
• Men typically stronger than women
• For both sexes, physical strength increases until
  30, then declines
• All body systems functioning at optimum levels
• Death from disease is rare
• violent death more likely

3
Signs of Senescence

• Occurs when growth stops but ongoing throughout
  adulthood
• Physical decline related to age
• varies markedly from person to person, organ to
  organ
• Organs First visible changes are in skin--looses
  elasticity
• Graying hair and male pattern baldness begin
  around age 30
• Variability in senescence appears

4
Gender Differences in Health and Senescence

• Appearance seems more important for women than
  for men
• in some ways, women slower to become old
• women generally healthier and have better health
  habits
• few fatal diseases, live at least 5 years longer
  than men, on average
• Two ways females are at a health disadvantage
• undernourishment
• reproductive systems problems

5
Gender Differences in Health and Senescence

• Three explanations why twice as many women than
  men live to after age 80
• biological protective evolutionary biology
• cognitive less risk taking
• psychosocial marriage, family life, friendship,
  and help-seeking are all protective of health,
  and women are more likely to engage in these

6
Homeostasis

• Bodys attempt to keep systems in balance
  homeostasis
• set point is affected by genes, diet, age,
  hormones, and exercise
• Aging makes it more difficult to recover from
  physical stress
• What a 20-year-old can do is more difficult for a
  35-year-old

7
Sexual Responsiveness

• Typical male sexual response
• sexual arousal and excitement
• orgasm
• refractory period (time between responses) is
  short
• overall slowing down over time
• Typical female sexual response
• sexual arousal and excitement and orgasm take
  longer than for men
• from early adolescence to middle adulthood,
  arousal and orgasm become more likely

8
Sexual Responsiveness, cont.

• Explanations of differences in sexual
  responsiveness, cont.
• evolutionary psychology
• promiscuous males produce more offspring and pass
  on their genes more often, which is an
  evolutionary goal
• women reproduce and create safe haven for
  children

9
Fertility

• Peak time of fertility for women before age 30
  for men before age 40
• Between 2 percent and 30 percent of all couples
  experience infertilityaverage of 15 percent
• infertilityfailure to conceive after a year of
  intercourse without contraception

10
Fertility, cont.

• Male Infertility
• 1/4 of cases related to sperm/sperm count
• Female Infertility
• pelvic inflammatory disease may block fallopian
  tubes
• endometriosis
• infections, fibroid tumors
• uterine health affected by other health factors

11
Fertility, cont.

• Medical Advances
• in vitro fertilization (IVF)ova surgically
  removed, fertilized by sperm in lab, and allowed
  to divide until zygote reaches 8- or 16-cell
  stage
• assisted reproductive technology (ART)
  collective name of different technologies that
  aid in fertility

12
Emotional Problems in Early Adulthood

• Dieting, Drugs, Violence

13
Dieting as a Disease

• Set pointparticular body weight that an
  individuals homeostatic process strives to
  maintain
• Dieting is common among girls, not unusual for
  boys
• One in 20 teenagers takes dieting too seriously
  and has an eating disorder

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Dieting as a Disease, cont.

• Culture and diet industry messages (via media)
  tell us to be thin so we will be happy and
  successful
• almost 50 percent of women in North America have
  a BMI of less than 25, so they are not overweight
  at all
• many young women connect self-concept with body
  image

15
Anorexia Nervosa

• Restriction of eating to the point of emaciation
  and possible starvation
• Four Symptoms
• refusal to maintain body weight of at least 85
  percent of normal weight for age and height
• intense fear of gaining weight
• disturbed body perception and denial of problem
• in females, absence of menstruation

16
Bulimia Nervosa

• Repeated episodic binge eating followed by
  purging
• To be clinically diagnosed,
• bingeing and purging must occur at least once a
  week for three months
• the person must have uncontrollable urges to
  overeat
• the person must show distorted self-judgment
  about body image

17
Drug Abuse and Addiction

• Marked gender, ethnic, and national variations in
  rates of drug addiction
• men more likely than women
• European Americans and Hispanic Americans more
  likely to use than are Asian-Americans or African
  Americans
• English-speaking countries more likely to use
  drugs

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Drug Abuse and Addiction, cont.

• College students particularly vulnerable
• more to alcohol
• Social context encourages use and abuse
• on their own
• spectator sports
• other group activities

19
Drug Abuse and Addiction, cont.

• Consequences of drug use often serious
• avoid, drop out of, or flunk out of college
• work below potential
• lose or quit jobs
• involved in transitory, uncommitted sexual
  relations
• die violently
• experience serious psychological difficulties

20
Psychopathology

• Many young adults struggle with serious emotional
  difficulties
• 12 percent experience at least one episode of
• depression, schizophrenia, or pathological rage
• made worse if using drugs or alcohol
• Some difficulties may originate in childhood
• parents abusive, neglectful, or erratic
• death of mother or alcoholism of father
• Typically, childhood disturbances, biological
  problems, and environmental stress are all
  involved

21
Depression

• Between ages 20 and 35, at least 15 percent of
  women and 8 percent of men suffer from at least
  one severe episode of depression
• Major depression is fueled biochemically
• neurotransmitters
• hormones
• Remission is likely with treatment that includes
  cognitive therapy and medication

22
Schizophrenia

• 1 percent of all adults experience at least one
  episode of schizophrenia
• Caused by genes and severe early trauma such as
  anoxia at birth
• Medication seems to be most effective if person
  understands disease

23
Violence

• In U.S., 1 male in every 100 between the ages of
  15 and 25 dies violently
• motor vehicle accident, homicide, or suicide
• Worldwide, young men more likely to die violently
  than women (especially between ages of 20 and 25)
• 4 times as many commit suicide
• 6 times as many are murdered
• by nation or ethnic group, male-to-female ratio
  varies from 31 to 101

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Violence, cont.

• Developmentalists suggest two reasons
• biologicalunlike females, in males, higher
  levels of testosterone correlate with impulsive,
  angry reactions
• psychologicalhigh self-esteem and dashed
  expectations more likely to result in violence in
  the presence of alcohol, a weapon, or lack of
  self-restraint