12 Young Adulthood Physical and Cognitive Development Chapter

12 Young Adulthood Physical and Cognitive Development Chapter 12 Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Young Adulthood Physical and Cognitive Development • Perspectives on Adult Development • General Physical Development • Sex and Sexuality • Cognitive Development in Adulthood • Frameworks for Understanding Adult Development Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Perspectives on Adult Development • Many key events are normative, occurring at predictable times for most people in an age cohort • Idiosyncratic events are not anticipated and generally cause stress and readjustment Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Perspectives on Adult Development • Age Clocks and Social Norms – age clock: our internal sense of time for when major life events are supposed to occur – influenced by cultural factors and more flexible today than in times past • Three Components of Age – biological age: physiological perspective – social age: one’s status compared to cultural norms – psychological age: one’s ability to adapt to social and environmental demands Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Perspectives on Adult Development • Contextual paradigms – examine effect of multiple factors interacting together that influence adult development – Contextual approaches are complex, but contextual considerations become very important in young adulthood Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

General Physical Development • Strength and Stamina – Peak time for vitality, strength, and good health, as most biological systems begin to decline in the 30 s and 40 s • Fitness and Health – peak performance in physical abilities – leading cause of death in early adulthood is accidents – men three times as likely as women to die from accidents – Other diseases that may cause later problems may begin at this time (e. g. , heart disease) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Average Declines in Biological Systems SOURCE: Adapted from Vitality and aging, by J. Fries and Crapo, 1981. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Percent of U. S. Population Reporting Weekly Physical Activity, 2006 SOURCE: From Health, United States, 2007 with chartbook on trends in the health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

General Physiology Across Lifespan for Active and Sedentary Persons SOURCE: From Figure 11. 5, in Lifelong motor development, by C. P. Gabbard, 2004 ( p. 368). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Reprinted by permission. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Major Causes of Death in United States, 2005, for Youths, Ages 15– 24 SOURCE: From Health, United States, 2007 with chartbook on trends in the health of Americans, Vol. 53. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Major Causes of Death in United States, 2005, for Young Adults, Ages 25– 44 SOURCE: From Health, United States, 2007 with chartbook on trends in the health of Americans, Vol. 53. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sex and Sexuality • Fertility – Women’s fertility declines after age 38 and ends with menopause – Men remain fertile from puberty on • Sexually Transmitted Diseases – HIV/AIDS – Chlamydia – Gonorrhea – Herpes – Syphilis Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Video Clip CNN report on rising STD rates and the disproportionate effects on women and minorities: http: //www. cnn. com/video/#/video/health/2009/01/1 3/cohen. std. rates. up. cnn Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Video Clip CNN report on rising rates of HIV/AIDS in Washington D. C. : http: //www. cnn. com/video/#/video/politics/2009/03/ 17/verjee. aids. report. cnn Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Video Clip Overview of the AIDS epidemic in Africa from the video Hope in the time of AIDS: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=mog. Twwepces Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors • Since the 1970 s, sexual attitudes and behavior have continued to shift • Most U. S. adults are monogamous • Three patterns of sexual relations • Married couples have the most sex and are most likely to have orgasms during sex • Only minor variations in sexual activity across ethnic groups • People in 20 s and 30 s report highest frequencies of sexual activity Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sexual Identity and Orientation • Realizing an attraction to one’s own sex is often accompanied by a self-questioning process • Gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons often experience social prejudice and discrimination • Sexual orientation is a complex interaction of heredity and environment • Sexual orientation is not “either-or, ” but exists along a continuum • Homophobia is prejudice, aversion, fear, or negative attitudes directed toward persons of same-sex orientation Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Video Clip Excerpt from 60 Minutes nature vs. nurture sexual orientation debate: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=_Osw 05 HGe 5 I& feature=Play. List&p=75 A 12 E 1782 A 4 D 814&playnex t=1&playnext_from=PL&index=23 Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Three Measures of Sexual Satisfaction with Primary Partner SOURCE: Figure 9, “Three measures of sexual satisfaction with primary partner, ” From Sex in America, by R. T. Michael, E. O. Laumann, and G. Kolata, copyright ｩ 1994 by CSG Enterprises, Inc. By permission of Little, Brown and Co. , Inc. , and Brockman, Inc. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Continuum Approach for Understanding Sexual Orientation Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Demographics of Same-Sex Orientation SOURCE: Table, from The social organization of sexuality, by Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels, Copyright ｩ 2004. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Development in Adulthood • Cognitive skills involving response speed and rote memory are at their peak • Some researchers suggest adults reach a level of cognitive development beyond Piaget’s formal operations stage, that of dialectical thought – Includes being able to consider ambiguous situations, involves judgment and decision making • Postformal thought is heavily contextualized and includes social, interpersonal, cognitive, and emotional aspects Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Development • Emotional intelligence (EQ) – Aspects of the intellect that relate to the way people manage their own and others’ emotions and emotional responses • Schaie’s concept of cognitive flexibility – The ability to use intelligence in different ways during different periods throughout the lifespan Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Goleman’s Four Areas of Emotional Intelligence Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Schaie’s Life-Span Model of Cognitive Development Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frameworks for Understanding Adult Development • Stages and Contexts – The stage approach is the idea that we all progress through stages in an orderly way; specific life events play relatively minor roles – Context models focus on the specific experiences in one’s life • Havighurst’s Developmental Tasks – Adulthood consists of three periods during which a series of tasks must be accomplished Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Havighurst’s Developmental Tasks Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frameworks for Understanding Adult Development • Erikson – Young adulthood is the age of intimacy versus isolation – Resolution in each stage rests on the preceding stages • Levin – Identified three major eras in the male life cycle – Women experience adult development much the same way as men, but the tasks are different Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Levin’s Developmental Tasks for Man’s Entry Into Adulthood Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Men’s and Women’s Entry into Careers (Levinson) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frameworks for Understanding Adult Development • Normative Models – organized around major life events – reflect the experiences of culture and gender – less useful in times of rapid cultural change or when people have multiple roles • Gould’s model focuses more on cognitive view than social changes – Adults of different ages look at the world differently. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gould’s Transformations in Early Adulthood Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frameworks for Understanding Adult Development • Limitations of stage theories of adult development – They tend to ignore the uniqueness of individual lives – They undervalue the interactive nature of multiple contexts – They often reflect the values and experiences of a particular cohort group Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Selected Theorists’ Views of Major Tasks of Early Adulthood Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary • Compared to earlier periods, changes in adulthood are less predictable and individuals vary more in the paths their lives take • Age is a complex concept that represents biolgoical, social, and psychological age • Most people enjoy peak vitality, strength, and good health systems during young adulthood, with peak performance in many physical abilities occurring in the decade of the 20 s • The leading cause of death at this age is accidents Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary • Early adulthood is the time during which people are most sexually active • STDs affect millions of young adults • Sexual orientation issues may emerge • Cognitive skills are at their peak in early adulthood, and cognitive flexibility is apparent • Postformal thinking, which is highly contextualized, may be manifest at this time • Social and emotional intelligence may enhance young adult cognition Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.