YOUNG ADULTHOOD

1
YOUNG ADULTHOOD

• 20 to 40-45
• organization
• physical
• cognitive
• psycho-social

2
Physical Development

• complete in most respects by end of adolescence
• exceptions
• late bloomers show continued height gain
• brain growth continues for all until about 24-25
• brain wave patterns keep changing until about 25

3
Sensory Development

• all senses about at their peak
• gender differences in hearing with women more
  able to hear high frequencies
• Men begin gradual hearing loss, typically left
  side first

4
Motor functioning

• For highly athletic youth, age 20 marks lifelong
  peak
• gradual loss of the edge as near age 30, loss
  highly noted in athletes, less likely to be noted
  in others, who often feel peak is at 30
• Reaction time, coordination, muscle strength all
  at better than at any other period

5
Physical fitness

• effects of exercise noted more clearly during
  this stage
• recent fitness awareness has more early adults
  exercising and more of their social life centers
  around fitness
• Still only about 10 exercise enough for optimal
  fitness and only about 25 do enough to meet
  minimum exercise standards

6
Advantages of regular exercise

• Increased
• cardiovascular fitness
• lung capacity
• endurance
• strength
• flexibility
• immune responses
• self-image and sense of well being

7
Health risks in early adulthood

• generally the healthiest time of life
• risks from high risk behaviors
• auto accidents
• HIV/AIDS
• cancer/heart disease
• suicide
• Age 35 is time that illness and disease overtake
  accidents as leading cause of death

8
Gender and Ethnic differences

• men more likely to die than women (high risk
  activities)
• minorities have a higher death rate than
  Caucasians
• males more likely to victims of violence
• murder rate in males.USA, 21.9 per 100,000, in
  Japan, .5 per 100.000, with risks higher in
  non-Caucasian males

9
Obesity as a Health Concern

• about 7 of men and 10 of women age 20-25 are
  obese
• numbers edge up through adulthood
• Causes unknown, generally believe to be a
  combination of genetic and social forces
• The weight-set-point the particular level of
  weight the body tries to maintain.
• Weight reduction efforts reasonably easy within
  /- 10, but very difficult beyond that.

10
Stress as a health concern

• Stress the response to events that threaten,
  challenge or change people
• Not always negative, determined more by cognitive
  appraisal processes
• Primary appraisal judging whether an event is
  positive, negative or neutral
• Secondary appraisal judging if your coping
  skills and resources are adequate to deal with
  the challenges posed by the stressor

11
Principles of stress appraisal

• stressors that produce negative emotions are more
  likely seen as problematic
• the less predication or control of circumstances
  the greater the perceived stress
• more ambiguous and confusing events are more
  stressful
• multiple stressors are worse than single stressors

12
Consequences of stress

• psychosomatic disorders medical problems caused
  by the interaction of psychological, emotional
  and physical difficulties
• associated with heart disorders, asthma,
  arthritis headaches, rashes, indigestion,
  chronic fatigue, and high blood pressure

13
Coping with stress

• problems-focused-coping directly meeting the
  stressful situation to make it less stressful
• emotion-focused-coping cognitive efforts to
  control the emotions associated with the stressor
• social support reliance on the aid and comfort
  of others at stressful times

14
Cognitive Development

• In Piagets formal operations stage, but that
  doesnt change from adolescence
• Alternate theories suggest additional sub-stages
  in adult thinking
• Lebouvie-Viefs Post formal thought, thinking
  that acknowledges that adult situations sometimes
  must be solved in relativistic terms
• the Mary and John story

15
Schaie A different stage theory

• The acquisitive stage all of childhood and
  adolescence, where the big job is to acquire
  information
• The achieving stage Young adult stage in which
  intelligence is applied to specific situations
  directed to long-term goals like career, family,
  social relations

16
More Schaie

• The responsible stage middle adulthood stage
  where major concerns are related to personal
  situations, including protecting and nurturing
  their families and careers
• The executive stage middle adulthood stage (not
  attained by all) where people take a broader
  perspective, including concerns about the world
  and wider social needs

17
Adult Intelligence

• traditional IQ test scores have less meaning and
  validity as people leave school
• Sternberg suggests a triarchic theory of
  intelligence is better for young adults
• componential, picking the right formula or
  problem-solving method,
• experiential relating what is already known to
  a new problem
• contextual using componential and experiential
  in a real world context

18
Sternbergs Practical Intelligence

• intelligence learned primarily form observing
  others and modeling their behavior
• notes that the most successful business leaders
  dont do well on traditional IQ tests, but are
  very good at observing, and applying broad
  principles

19
College as a cognitive milestone

• Who goes to college?
• mostly white kids (40), blacks about 29,
  Hispanics about 31
• absolute numbers of minority groups have gone up,
  but percentage of minority groups has decreased
  in last decade.
• Who finishes college?
• Overall drop-out rate is 60, closer to 70 for
  minorities

20
What is college?

• Huge variation in experience for the high status,
  Ivy League schools to the state universities,
  traditional small liberal arts schools, to the
  most mechanistic of the urban community and
  technical colleges
• What would you expect at
• Harvard or Yale
• UW, MSU, UA, UCLA?
• Dade County CC or NWC

21
What is Learned in college?

• Lots of specific, career focused stuff
• more importantly a switch from dualistic thinking
  to multiple view thinking
• gradual change to relativistic values and
  standards

22
Psychosocial Development

• Two Primary Tasks
• Relationships
• Careers

23
Erickson

• The Intimacy vs. Isolation Stage
• Success able to form intimate relationships on
  the physical, intellectual, and emotional level
• Failure Lonely, isolated, fearful, alienated

24
Falling In Lovethe theory

• Typical progression
• Interact more often and for longer
• Seek each others company
• Increase self-disclosure
• Share physical intimacy
• Share and emotions
• Agree on goals
• Reactions to stimuli grow more alike
• Tie their well-being to the other
• Define themselves as a couple

25
SVR Theory

• Stimulus (typically first meeting)
• Generally based on physical characteristics
• Value (2-7th meetings)
• Increasing similarity in beliefs
• Role ( 8 meetings) each person defines the
  role of self and other

26
Rubins types of love

• Passionate (or romantic)
• Intense physiological interest, arousal and
  caring.
• Companionate love
• Strong affection for those with whom our lives
  are deeply involved
• Love IS different than liking.

27
Sternbergs Triangular Theory of Love Three
components

• Intimacy component feelings of closeness,
  affection and connectedness
• Passion component motivational drives relating
  to sex, physical closeness and romance
• Decision/commitment component the initial
  cognition that one loves another and a long term
  determination to maintain that love

28
Sternbergs Eight combinations

• Non love.I-, P-, D-
• Liking.. I, P- D-
• Infatuated love I-, P,D-
• Empty love.I-, P- D
• Romantic love I, P, D-
• Companionate love.. I, P-, D
• Fatuous love. I-, P, D
• Consummate Love I, P, D

29
Choosing a partner

• Does love matter?
• Depends partly on where you are
• Cross culturally
• Males seek attractiveness
• Females seek ambition and industry
• Dependability, emotional stability, pleasant
  disposition and intelligence seem to be desired
  in all cultures too.

30
Marriage filters

• All possible Partners
• The residential filter
• The Similarity/ complementary filter
• The Interpersonal attractiveness filter
• The Compatibility Filter
• Marriage

31
The Marriage Gradient

• The tendency of men to marry woman who are
  slightly younger, and lower in status, vs. the
  tendency of women to marry men who are slightly
  older, larger and higher in status

32
Effects of the gradient

• Limits the number of mates, especially for women
• Some men cant find women of lower status (bottom
  of the barrel men)
• Some women cant find higher status men (cream of
  the crop women)
• Especially true in minority communities

33
Gay and Lesbian Relationships

• More like parallel (same age) heterosexual
  relationships than different in any important
  ways.
• Coming-out to others most likely in early
  adulthood, with men earlier than women.

34
Relationship Choices

• Cohabitation (the dread POSSLQ) about 4 of
  couples
• Tend to be young, more likely minority groups
  members,
• Rate highest in Scandinavian countries
• Motivations
• Not ready
• Practice for the real thing
• Political

35
Marriage

• The preferred alternative
• Motivations
• Right thing to do
• Economics
• Security, and financial
• Sexual
• Recreational
• Accepted way to raise children

36
Predicting Divorce Factors

• H low on displays of affection
• H or W high on negative communications
• H low in expressivity about the relationship
• H or W low on a sense of We-ness.
• H or W hold highly traditional gender roles
• W using negative attributions
• H feeling disappointment in marriage

37
Timing of divorce

• Peak at about 2 years
• Another smaller peak at between 15-19 years
• Effects of marketability on decision to divorce
• Effects of children in timing of divorce

38
Children

• Young married couples typically cite
  psychological reasons for decision to have 1st
  child
• Pleasure from the kids
• Self-serving (care for me when I am old.)
• Social norms (its time)
• The Oppps factor

39
Fertility rates

• Peaked in 1957 at 3.7 children per woman.
• Currently less than 2 children per woman
• Effected by
• Availability of effective birth control since the
  late 60s
• Increased number of women in the workforce
• Loss of traditional incentives (farm workers, old
  age pensions, etc)
• Cost of raising children

40
Effects of having children

• Marital satisfaction drops, especially among
  women
• Changes in spousal roles
• Decrease in time couples spend together
• Greater stress on women

41
Starting a life of Work

• Young adulthood called time of career
  consolidation, a stage between 20 and 40 where
  people become centered on careers

42
Picking a Career

• Ginsbergs stages
• Fantasy period choices made without regard to
  skills, abilities or opportunities
• Tentative period more pragmatic considerations
  of the requirements of jobs and how ones own
  abilities might fit with them
• Realistic period exploration of specific career
  options, including work trials.

43
Hollands Personality based Career choice theory

• Realistic down to earth, practical problem
  solvers
• Intellectual oriented toward the theoretical
  and abstract
• Social verbal and interpersonal skills
• Conventional preference for highly structured
  tasks
• Enterprising risk takers and leaders
• Artistic expressive and creative

44
Self vs. society

• Ego-enhancing jobs you became your job
• Most of the professions
• Law, medicine, Psychology, teaching
• Societal-maintaining jobs you do something that
  society needs to obtain the resources to do
  ego-enhancing behaviors
• Most of the jobs in the world.
• Assembly line, mechanical
• I work at the plant, but I am the best bowler in
  the county.

45
Worker Satisfaction

• Intrinsic motivation work for you own enjoyment
  (and sometimes surprised that people are willing
  to pay you for it.)
• Extrinsic Motivation work for tangible rewards
  such as money or prestige

46
Work is primary determinant of Status

• MD
• College teacher
• Dentist
• Pharmacist
• School teacher
• Bank teller
• Farmer
• Baker
• Janitor

47
Job Satisfaction

• Generally, the greater the autonomy, the greater
  the satisfaction
• Also influenced by status, degree of variety,
  amount of influence on other employees,
• One of those little things. Major increase if
  you have a phone.