Chapter 9

Adulthood

When Does Adulthood Begin?

Role Transition to…Completing educationFull-time employment Independent householdMarriage/serious relationshipParenthood

Other Cultures

Boys Ability to provide Ability to protect Ability to impregnate

Girls Menarche

Rites of passage Tribal ceremonies Bah Mitzvah

Going to College

Directly from high school

Short respite – travel – then college

Returning adultsLooking for fulfillmentChanging careers

People with Disabilities

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Identity before intimacyMost menCareer oriented women

Intimacy before identityHouse wivesMany women

So when is someone an adult?

Hard to say: some early, some late,

some never!!

Physical Development/Health

Early 20’s Peak of physical functioningSensory activity

Late 20’s to early 30’sPhysical strength men and womenDexterity – coordination

Visual activity – stays high to middle age

Physical Development Cont.

Hearing starts to decline by late 20’sBoom-box syndrome

By old age: hearing loss = inability to some degree to understand speechSmell, taste, feel pain and changes in temperature remain constant until late in lifeHealth Status: 90% feel health is good or even better

Death

Leading cause of death among 25-44 year oldsAccidentsAIDSCancer

Young adult men are 2 times more likely to die than young adult women

Death Cont.

African-American young adults are 2 times more likely to die than European American counterparts

Hispanic Americans have more health problems than any other ethnic group

Life Style Factors

Smoking – 1st place problem430,000 die each yearCauses over ½ of all cancers

Second hand smokeChildren (300,000 suffer some problems)

Cancer - Emphysema

Life Style Factors

Drinking alcoholLiver Intestinal tractBrainKidneys

DependenceEpisodic (binge)

Life Style Factors

NutritionCholesterolLDL = BadHDL = Good

TriglyceridesGenderWomen healthierBut women + heart attacks

Cognitive Development

Multi-dimensional

Multi-directional (over time)

Individual variability

Plasticity = medication under right conditions

Primary Mental Abilities

Number

Word fluency

Verbal meaning

Inductive reasoning

Spatial orientationDeal with 3 dimensional world

Mental Abilities & Intelligence

Secondary mental abilitiesBroader skills that subsume and organize

primary abilities

Fluid intelligence – flexible – adaptive Understand relations among concepts

Crystallized intelligence Intelligence acquired through life

Going Beyond Formal Operations to Post Formal

ThoughtTruth may vary from situation to situationSolutions must be realisticAmbiguity and conflict are the rule

Reflective judgmentReason through dilemmas

Moral Reasoning- Kohlberg -

Pre Conventional Level Stage 1. Obedience orientation (to authority) Stage 2. Instrumental orientation

Nice behavior exchanged for future favors

Conventional Level Stage 3. Interpersonal norms – live up to someone

else’s expectations Stage 4. Social system morality – follow

rules/maintain order

Post-Conventional Level

Stage 5. Social Contract

Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principlespersonal moral system

Alternatives to Justice-Carol Gilligan-

Emphasis on caring and responsibility

Stage 1. Children preoccupied with own needs

Stage 2. People care for othersparticularly ones unable to care for

themselves

Stage 3. Unites caring for others & caring for self

What do you want to be?Personality in Young Adulthood

Life Span Constructunified sense of past, present, future

Scenario - Expectations of future

Possible Selvescould becomewant to becomeafraid of becoming

Self Concept

Personal control beliefs