PSYC 2314 Lifespan Development

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PSYC 2314Lifespan Development

• Chapter 17
• Early Adulthood
• Biosocial Development

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Growth, Strength and Health

• Full height is reached at about age 16 in females
  and 18 for males.
• Muscle growth and fat accumulation continue into
  the 20s.
• In both sexes, physical strength increases during
  the 20s, reaching a peak at about age 30.

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Grow, Strength and Health

• Digestive, respiratory, and sexual-reproductive
  systems function at an optimum level during early
  adulthood.
• Most visits to the doctor are necessitated not by
  disease but by injuries or normal pregnancy.
• Of the fatal diseases, cancer is the leading
  cause of death in young adults.

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Grow, Strength and Health

• Senescence age-related physical decline
• Genes
• Environment
• Personal choices

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Growth, Strength and Health

• Signs of aging
• Skin during the 20s
• Graying of the hair often begins around 30
• Body systems decline at different rate
• Kidneys-about 4 per decade
• Lungs-about 5 per decade

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Grow, Strength and Health

• Homeostasisthe adjustment of the bodys systems
  to keep the physiological functions in a state of
  equilibrium.
• The older the person is, the longer it takes
• Most bodies are capable of functioning very well
  until at least 70.

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Growth, Strength and Health

• Sexual Responsiveness
• Male and female bodies follow a similar sequence
  of sexual activation at every age arousal, peak
  excitement, orgasm, refraction and recovery.
• As men grow older, they often need more explicit
  or prolonged stimulation to produce sexual
  arousal. In addition, a longer time elapses
  between the beginning of sexual excitement and
  full erection, between erection and ejaculation,
  and between orgasm and the end of the refractory
  period.

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Growth, Strength and Health

• Women become more likely to experience orgasm as
  they mature from early adolescence toward middle
  adulthood.
• More prolonged stimulation provided as a
  consequence of the slowing down of the mans
  responses.
• With experience, both partners focus on those
  aspects of love-making that intensify the womans
  responses.
• Increasing sexual awareness and openness.
• Aging makes reproduction less likely for women,
  thereby their sexual passions can increase.

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The Sexual-Reproductive System

• Infertilitythe lack of a successful pregnancy
  after one year of regular intercourse without
  contraception.
• In males, low number of sperm and/or the sperms
  poor motility
• Senescence
• Anything that impairs normal body functioning
  (high fever, radiation, prescription drugs, drug
  abuse, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, etc.)

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The Sexual-Reproductive System

• Women can be infertile for many reasons
• Being underweight and being obese
• Failure to ovulate
• Blocked Fallopian tubes
• Endometriosis
• Infections and fibrous tumors

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Medical Treatment

• In vitro fertilization (IVF)
• Gamete intra-Fallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote
  intra-Fallopian transfer (ZIFT)

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Health Problems

• Drug Abuse
• Destructive Dieting
• Violence

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Drug Abuse

• Drug addiction is measured by the need for more
  of a drug, indicative of withdrawal symptoms.
• Women use and abuse drugs less than men
• College undergraduates are particularly
  vulnerable to drug abuse
• Late teens and early twenties are the time of
  heaviest alcohol and marijuana use
• Around age 23 is the time of heaviest use of
  other drugs, including cocaine.

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Drug Abuse

• Genetic Temperament
• An attraction to excitement
• A low tolerance for frustration
• A vulnerability to depression

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Drug Abuse

• Reasons for the high rate of drug use and abuse
  in the first years of adulthood
• Being in transition between families
• Several life stresses
• Lack of religious faith and practice
• Social surroundings

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Dieting

• Excessive concern with weight can become
  pathological
• Anorexia nervosa
• Bulimia nervosa

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Theories of Development on Dieting

• Psychoanalytic women develop eating disorders
  because of a conflict with their mothers.
• Learning for some people with low self-esteem,
  fasting, bingeing, and purging have powerful
  effects as immediate reinforcers.

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Theories of Development on Dieting

• Cognitive women compete with men in business
  and industry, they want to project a strong,
  self-controlled, masculine imagine antithetical
  to buxom, fleshy body of the ideal woman of the
  past.
• Sociocultural the contemporary cultural
  pressure to be slim and trim and model-like

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Theories of Development on Dieting

• Epigenetic girls who are overwhelmed with the
  stresses of puberty may discover that
  self-starvation makes their menstrual periods
  cease, their sexual hormones decrease, and their
  curves disappearall of which relieve the
  pressures to marry and reproduce.

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Violence

• Social values are at the root of the problem
• Manhood rituals
• Positive masculine tendencies turn into negative
  male traits

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Violent Death

• Presence of alcohol
• A weapon
• A lack of self-restraint