Early Adult

1
Early Adult

• Cognitive Domain

2
Cognitive Development

• Life long process

3
Post Formal Thought

• Less abstract
• Relativism less absolute
• Accepts contradictions
• Integration - synthesizes conflicting views
• Toleration for ambiguity

4
Other characteristics

• Adaptive to real life
• relates abstract to actual
• Problem finding
• forms new questions
• catalyst for inquiry
• Dialectical thought
• every idea has within itself its opposite
• nondialectical - either / or

5
Factors Prompting Changes in Thinking

• College
• Life events

6
Schaies Stages of Thinking
Late Adult
Middle Adult
Child/Teen
Early Adult
Executive
Reintegrative
Acquisitive
Achieving
Responsible
7
Schaies Views on Stages (1)

• Acquisition
• gathering information/knowledge
• Achieving
• goal directed, focused, specialized
• What should I know?
• Responsible
• goals tempered by family and personal issues

8
Schaies views on Stages (2)

• Executive
• complex concerns for larger systems
• social consciousness
• How should I use what I know?
• Reintegrative
• making sense of life as a whole
• purpose
• Why should I know?

9
Perry - Adaptive Cognition

• Based on research on college students
• Dualistic thinking (younger students)
• sort information into right and wrong
• Relativistic thinking
• truth relative to context
• Developmental trend - one becomes less
  constrained by a search for the right answer and
  more accepting of the reality of multiple truths

10
Labouvie-Viefs View

• Adolescents focus on myriad possibilities
• Adults more grounded in practical
• Focus changes to solving real world problems

11
Expertise and Creativity

• Expertise - specialization in depth
• Impact - efficient problem solving
• apply underlying principles
• some facets of problem solving automatic
• effective analysis and planning
• Essential component of creativity
• movement toward problem finding
• not all experts are creative

12
Controversy Cross-Sectional Research

• Cross-sectional studies of mental abilities
• peak at about 35
• sharp decline
• Influence of the cohort effects
• educational differences
• health status
• Bottom line Sharp decline is an illusion
• Back to Unit 4