Early Adulthood:

1
Chapter Seventeen

• Early Adulthood
• Biosocial Development

2
Growth, Strength, and Health

• Young adults are strong, healthy, and disease free

3
Norms and Peaks

• 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

4
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

5
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

6
Gender Differences in Health and Senescence, cont.

• Two ways females are at a health disadvantage
• undernourishment
• reproductive systems problems

7
Gender Differences in Health and Senescence, cont.

• 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

8
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

9
Reserve Capacity

• Bodies that are maintained adequately can have
  greater capacity to respond to stressful events
  or conditions
• if not, our organ reserve capacity declines
• organ reserveextra capacity for responding to
  unusually stressful events or conditions that
  demand intense or prolonged effort
• Serious reductions are not normally reached until
  late adulthood

10
Sports Stars and the Rest of Us

• Athletic performance peaks between ages 15 and 35
• Within a sport, skills peak at different ages
• super stars more likely to peak later
• Impact of aging on skills depends on lifestyle

11
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

12
Sexual Responsiveness, cont.

• Explanations of male and female differences in
  sexual responsiveness
• both partners learn to match timing in love
  making to prolong mans excitement and intensify
  womans sexual responses
• cultural
• men expected to be rapid in sexual response, and
  women to repress desire and emphasize control

13
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

14
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

15
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

16
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

17
Emotional Problems in Early Adulthood

• Dieting, Drugs, Violence

18
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

19
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

20
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

21
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

22
Theories of Eating Disorders

• Psychoanalytic Women have conflict with mothers,
  cannot separate
• Behaviorism For people with low self-esteem,
  bingeing and purging relieve states of distress
  and tension
• Cognitive Women competing in business against
  men want to project masculine image

23
Theories of Eating Disorders, cont.

• Sociocultural Women feel cultural pressure to be
  slender
• Epigenetic Girls who are overwhelmed by
  development find that anorexia stops growth and
  decreases presence of sexual hormones

24
Drug Abuse and Addiction

• Drug addictionphysiological or psychological
  drive to ingest more of a drug
• addiction begins with use
• Young adults more likely to be addicts

25
Drug Abuse and Addiction, cont.

• 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

26
Drug Abuse and Addiction, cont.

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

27
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

28
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

29
Psychopathology, cont.

• 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

30
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

31
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

32
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

33
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

34
Chapter Eighteen

• Early Adulthood
• Cognitive Development

35
Three Approaches

• Postformal picks up where Piaget left off
• Psychometric analyzes components of intelligence
  (see Ch. 21)
• Information-processing studies the encoding,
  storage, and retrieval of information during
  lifetime (see Ch. 24)

36
Postformal Thought

• Adult thinking and adolescent thinking differ in
  3 ways, with adult thinking more
• practical
• flexible
• dialectical

37
A Fifth Stage of Cognitive Development?

• Postformal thought often viewed as fifth stage of
  Piagets theory
• In it, adults consider every aspect of a
  situation
• use intellectual skills for real lifework and
  relationships
• understand that conclusions and consequences
  matter

38
The Practical and the Personal

• During adulthood focus on skill application, not
  skill acquisition

39
Subjectivity and Objectivity

• Arise from individuals personal experiences and
  perceptions
• Traditional models devalued subjective thought
• Objective thoughtabstract impersonal logic
• For adults combination of the two works best

40
Emotions and Logic

• Trying to combine both logic and emotions in
  dealing with an emotional issue is challenging
• but at each stage of adulthood, adults can
  achieve this balance in contrast to adolescents
  who believe in subjective or objective reasoning

41
Cognitive Flexibility

• Awareness that your perspective is not the only
  one
• Awareness that each problem has many potential
  solutions and knowledge is dynamic

42
Flexible Problem Solving

• Adult thought requires flexible adaptation, which
  allows adults to
• cope with unanticipated events
• come up with more than one solution to problem

43
Stereotype Threat

• The possibility that ones appearance or behavior
  will be misused to confirm another persons
  oversimplified, prejudiced attitude. For example,
• 3 ways young minority people cope with prejudice
• identification, or identifying with their own
  group
• disidentification, or deliberately refusing to
  identify with their own group
• counteridentification, or identifying with
  majority and believing stereotype to be accurate

44
Dialectical Thought

• Cognitive flexibility at its most advanced
• Every idea or truth(thesis) bears within it
  suggestion of the opposite idea or
  truth(antithesis)

45
Do Love Affairs Fail?

• Dialectical thinking involves considering the
  thesis and antithesis of an idea simultaneously
  and forging them into a synthesisa new idea that
  integrates the original idea and its opposite, or
  the thesis and its antithesis
• Dialectical thought gives one a broader and more
  flexible perspective

46
Culture and Cognition

• There are notable differences between Eastern and
  Western thought
• more polar right vs. wrong black vs.
  whiteWestern thought
• more of a combination or compromiseEastern
  thought

47
Culture and Cognition, cont.

• Developmentalists feel culture helps to shape
  thought
• Life-span perspective is multicontexual and
  multicultural, stressing adults change because of
• maturation
• experience

48
Adult Moral Reasoning

• Ethical issues often present themselves
• Taking responsibility for ones own actions
  perceived by young adults of all ethnic groups as
  marker of adulthood

49
Addressing Specific Dilemmas

• Life Choices
• parenthood
• life events
• New and different qualities of moral reasoning
  appear
• Gilligan took into consideration that life
  experiences contribute to a broader understanding
  of moral reasoning

50
Addressing Specific Dilemmas, cont.

• Every young adult must make choices about
• sexuality
• reproduction
• marriage and child rearing
• issues caused by increasing globalization and
  immigration
• Dilemmas also arise from popular culture
• television
• The Internet
• popular music

51
Measuring Moral Growth

• Defining Issues Test
• developed by James Rest
• respondents rank their priorities, from personal
  benefits to higher goals this in contrast to
  Kohlbergs open-ended questions
• ranking items leads to number score
• scores generally rise with age and education
  which make people less rigid and more flexible

52
Measuring Moral Growth, cont.

• The development of faith follows a similar path
• stage 1 Intuitive-projective faith
• believes in power of God and the mysteries of
  birth and death (3 -7)
• stage 2 Mythical-literal faith
• takes myths and stories of religion literally and
  believes in the power of symbols (8-13 and
  adulthood) prayers are banked for the future

53
Measuring Moral Growth, cont.

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 3 Synthetic-conventional faith
• has tacit acceptance of cultural/religious values
  in the context of interpersonal relationships
• conformist stage of faith characterized by
  concern about others and what feels right
• stage 4 Individual-reflective faith
• detaches from values of culture and approval of
  others
• can be brought on by college or major life change
  such as divorce, etc.

54
Measuring Moral Growth, cont.

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 5 Conjunctive faith
• incorporates power of unconscious ideas and
  rational conscious values
• willingness to accept contradictions
• stage 6 Universalizing faith
• powerful vision of universal compassion, justice
  and love that compels people to live their lives
  in a way that seems saintly or foolish
• personal welfare is put aside a transforming
  experience can convert an adult to this stage

55
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education

• The relationship between college education and
  adult development
• healthier, wealthier, as well as deeper, more
  flexible thinkers

56
The Effects of College

• Education powerfully influences cognitive
  development
• improves verbal and quantitative skills, and
  specific subject knowledge while enhancing
  reasoning, reflection, and flexibility of thought

57
The Effects of College, cont.

• Educational influences, cont.
• year-by-year progression of students thinking
• end of college finds students have generally
  moved from simplistic either/or ideas to
  recognition of multiplicity of perspectives

58
Possible Factors in Cognitive Growth During
College

• Other Factors To Consider

59
Change in the Students

• The sheer numbers have increased greatly,
  worldwide
• In all nations, increased student diversity
• more women students
• more older students
• more culturally diverse students in United States
• more low-income students
• more working students

60
Changes in the Institutions

• Structure of higher education changing with
  student population changes
• Almost twice as many U.S. institutions of higher
  learning today than in 1970
• community college enrollment up 144 percent
• more career programs
• more part-time faculty
• more women and minority instructors

61
Evaluating the Research

• Factors that may prevent college education from
  being as powerful a force in producing cognitive
  growth as it could be
• cohort effects
• selection effects
• dropout rates

62
Evaluating the Research, cont.

• The weight of evidence suggests that college
• advances income
• promotes health
• deepens thinking
• increases tolerance of different political,
  social, and religious views

63
Chapter Nineteen

• Early Adulthood
• Psychosocial Development

64
Theories of Adulthood

• Many theories describe, analyze, and predict the
  transformations that occur during adulthood
• Different theories about psychological needs
  reach similar conclusions

65
Love and Work

• Two basic needs affiliation and achievement
• or affection and instrumentality
• Maslow hierarchy of needs
• Erikson intimacy vs. isolation

66
Ages and Stages

• Patterns of the Past
• by 20s identity
• by 30s intimacy
• by 40s generativity
• Adult lives today are less orderly and
  predictable than stage models suggest

67
The Social Clock

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

68
The Social Clock, cont.

• Developed vs. Developing Nations
• developed nations now permit grandmothers to be
  college graduates, while developing nations do
  not
• developing nations encourage teens to be mothers,
  while developed nations discourage this practice
• Rich and Poor
• the lower the SES, the sooner a person is
  expected to reach lifes milestones

69
Intimacy

• Need for Intimacy
• meeting it depends on affiliation, affection,
  interdependence, love
• Two primary sources are close friendships and
  romantic partnerships

70
Friendship

• Better than the family in buffering against
  stress, as guide to self-awareness, and as a
  source of positive feelings like joy

71
Choosing Young-Adult Friends

• Physical attractiveness
• Apparent availability (willingness to chat)
• Absence of exclusion criteria
• Frequent exposure to each other

72
Gender Differences in Friendship

• Conversations and Expectations
• women ? self-disclosure
• men ? external matterssports, politics, work
• female-female pattern may better reduce
  loneliness and self-absorption
• male-male pattern may be more effective and
  efficient, especially in work situations

73
Gender Differences in Friendship, cont.

• Friendships Between Men and Women
• cross-sex friendships allow learning about common
  humanity and let people help each other gain
  skills
• problems may arise when a platonic relationship
  is sexualized or there are conflicts of
  expectations
• Same sex friendships may be most effective and
  efficient
• especially in the workplace

74
Development of Love and Marriage

• Sternbergs Theory of love
• 1) passion 2) intimacy 3) commitment
• 7 forms of love based on presence or absence of
  three components above
• in West, consummate love a combination of all
  threeis the ideal form
• difficult to achieve consummate love
• familiarity and security diminish passion

75
Contact and Courtship

• Throughout history marriages commonly arranged
• still common today in many nations and certain
  cultures
• Typical U.S. pattern todayinitiated and
  sustained by the two people involved
• duration and seriousness increase until, couples
  marry, typically 10 years after their first love
  affair
• Courtship follows predicable patternfrom passion
  to intimacy

76
Living Together

• Cohabitation a couples living together in a
  committed sexual relationship without being
  formally married
• increasingly common
• cohabitation not just for young adults
• slightly more than half of all women aged 25-40
  years have cohabited

77
Living Together, cont.

• Cohabitation does not necessarily benefit the
  participants
• one study found people who cohabitate much less
  happy and healthy, and less satisfied with
  financial status than are married couples
• in another study, cohabiting relationships were 3
  times as likely to be abusive than marriages
• in a third, compared to single adults,
  cohabitants are likelier to have alcohol problems

78
Marriage

• Not like it used to be
• proportion of unmarried adults is higher than at
  any time in the past century
• 10 percent of brides are virgins
• nearly one-half of all births are to single
  mothers who are increasingly unlikely to marry
  the fathers of their babies

79
Marriage, cont.

• Not like it used to be, cont.
• 20 percent of first births conceived before
  marriage
• divorce rate is 49 percent of marriage rate
• the rate of first marriages in young adulthood
  lowest in 50 years

80
Marriage, cont.

• Marriage, still most enduring evidence of couple
  commitment, is celebrated in every culture in the
  world by a wedding
• hoped-for-results a love that deepens over the
  years, as bond cemented by
• birth of children
• weathering economic and emotional turbulence
• surviving serious illness or other setbacks
• sharing social and financial commitments

81
Marriage, cont.

• Worldwide research says married people are
  happier, healthier, and richer

82
What Makes Marriages Work

• Developmentally, marriage is a useful institution
• children generally thrive when two parents are
  committed to their well-being

83
What Makes Marriages Work, cont.

• One developmental factor affecting success of
  marriage is maturity of the partners
• A second factor is degree of similarity, or
  homogamymarriage within same group
• heterogamymarriage outside of group
• social homogamysimilarity of couples interests
  and role preferences

84
What Makes Marriages Work, cont.

• Marital Equity
• social exchange theory
• in modern marriages, what matters most is
  perception of fairness, not absolute equality

85
Same-Sex Partners

• Long-term homosexual partnerships are more common
  and open today
• 2-5 percent of all U.S.adults spend some part of
  adulthood in such relationships
• Homosexuals generally have same relationship
  issues as heterosexuals

86
Divorce

• Influenced by social and political context
• affects many lives for years
• United States has highest divorce rate
• almost 1 in 2 first marriages end in divorce
• Historically, an increase, but stabilizing
• one reason lower marriage rate

87
The Role of Expectations

• People today expect more from marriage partners
  than in the past, but expectations are not always
  as well defined

88
The Developmental Impact of Divorce

• Initially worse than expected in
• health
• happiness
• self-esteem
• financial stability
• social interaction
• achievement

89
Domestic Violence

• Violence in intimate relationships has multiple
  causes
• social pressures that create stress, cultural
  values, personality pathologies, and drug and
  alcohol addiction
• common couple violence1 or both partners engage
  in verbal and physical attack
• intimate terrorism1 partner systematically
  isolates, degrades, and punishes the other

90
Domestic Violence, cont.

• Intimate terrorism less prevalent than common
  couple violence
• Perpetrator usually anti-social and violent in
  many ways
• Leads to battered-wife syndrome, with woman not
  simply physically beaten but broken socially and
  psychologically

91
Domestic Violence, cont.

• Similarities Between 2 Types of Domestic Violence
• jealous male partner doesnt want female partner
  to talk to other men
• male partner tries to limit female partners
  contact with family and friends
• male partner insists on knowing who female
  partner is with and where she is at all times
• Difference Between 2 Types of Domestic Violence
• But in intimate terrorism, partner seeks to exert
  violent control over the other

92
Generativity

• Defined as the motivation to achieve or the drive
  to be generative

93
Importance of Work

• Develops and uses personal skills and talents
• Provides structure for daily life
• Work can help a person to
• develop and use personal skills
• express unique creative energy
• aid and advise coworkers, as a mentor or friend
• contribute to larger community via product or
  service

94
New Patterns of Employment

• Restructuring
• work
• workers
• employers
• schedule
• teamwork
• typical career sequence
• Manufacturing estimated to shrink by 1/3 between
  1995-2005

95
New Patterns of Employment, cont.

• Workplace characterized by ongoing reorganization
  and growing automation
• Timing and pace of jobs are changing
• Burden of these new work patterns falls
  especially on young adults

96
Diversity in the Workplace

• A major social change is most adult women are
  employed
• motherhood no longer considered impediment to
  employment
• Gender and ethnic diversity are increasing in
  every developed nation
• glass ceiling (invisible barrier impeding rise of
  both groups)

97
Diversity in the Workplace, cont.

• Work teams function best when they are diverse
• Work requires same relationship skills as
  friendship or marriage

98
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
  and begins the lifelong process of interdependence

99
Children Affect Their Parents

• The bond is reciprocal
• Challenges emerge at every stage of childs
  development
• Few young adults anticipate the time required for
  parenting

100
Employed Parents

• Benefits and Problems
• role overload
• role buffering
• Logistics in Everyday Life

101
Children and Divorce

• Children make divorce more complicated
• Financial burden of child rearing on custodial
  parent
• Only one-half of fathers pay full child support

102
Alternative Routes to Parenthood

• Roughly one-third of North American adults become
• stepparents
• adoptive parents
• foster parents