Developmental Psychology - Module 9: Early Adulthood PDF

Developmental Psychology 114 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY MODULE 9: EARLY ADULTHOOD ___________________________________________________________________________ The term adult comes from the Latin verb as the term adolescence, wh...

Developmental Psychology 114 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY MODULE 9: EARLY ADULTHOOD ___________________________________________________________________________ The term adult comes from the Latin verb as the term adolescence, which means “to grow to maturity.” However, the word adult is derived from the past participle of that verb – “adultus” which means “grown to full size and strength” or “matured”. Adults are therefore, individuals who have completed their growth and are ready to assume their status in society along with other adults. Different cultures have different ages at which children reach the adult status or the age at which the children reach the adult status or the age of legal maturity. In most of the older cultures, they reach this status when their puberty growth has completed or nearly complete and when their sex organs had developed to the point where they were capable of procreation. This is the period when people typically leave their parents’ homes, start jobs or careers, get married or establish other intimate relationships, have and raise children and begin to contribute significantly to their communities. They make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives, their, health, their happiness and success. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of all the topics and activities presented in this module you are expected to: 1. Characterize early adulthood. 2. Describe the physical development in early adulthood. 3. Explain the young adults’ adjustment to marriage, work, parenthood and other social adjustments. 4. Discuss cognitive and emotional development in early adulthood. 5. Identify and analyze changes in moral development of young adults. 6. Apply learned concepts in dealing with parents, teachers, neighbor, co-workers, employees and other adults. A. CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY ADULTHOOD Early adulthood is a period of adjustments to new patterns of life and new social expectations. The young adult is expected to play new roles, such as that of spouse, parent, and breadwinner and to develop new attitudes, interests and values in keeping with these new roles. These adjustments make early adulthood a distinctive period in the life span and also a difficult one. It is especially difficult because, up until now, most boys and girls have had someone - parents, teachers, friends or others – to help them make the adjustments they are faced with. Now as adults, they are expected to make these adjustments for themselves. To avoid being considered “immature”, they hesitate to turn to others for advice and help when they find the adjustments too difficult to cope with successfully alone. Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood Havighurst (1972) describes some of the developmental tasks of young adults. These include: 1. Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s own 2. Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies  Developmental Psychology 115 3. Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of maturing 4. Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and pursuing an education 5. Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships 6. Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved with various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.). This is especially true for those who participate in organizations as parents. 7. Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and keep a home maintained. 8. Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children. 9. Making marital or relationship adjustments and learning to parent. B. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD SUMMARY OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD Height Female: maximum height reached at age 18. Male: maximum height reached at age 20. Weight (age 20-30) Female: 14-lb weight gain and increase in body fat. Male: 15-lb weight gain Muscle structure and Internal organs From 19-26: Internal organs attain greatest physical potential. The young adult is in prime condition as far as speed and strength are concerned. After 26: Body slowing process begins. Spinal disks settles, causing a decrease in height. Fatty tissue increases, causing increase in weight. Muscle strength decreases. Reaction times level off and stabilize. Cardiac output declines. Sensory function changes: The process of losing eye lens flexibility begins as early as age 10 and continues until age 30. This loss results in difficulty focusing on close objects. During early adulthood, women can detect higher-pitched sounds than men. Nervous System The brain continues to increase in weight and reaches its maximum potential by the adult years. The Physiological Peak - The reproductive system, motor skills, strength, and lung capacity are all operating at their best. - The aging process actually begins during early adulthood. Around the age of 30, many changes begin to occur in different parts of the body.  Developmental Psychology 116 - The lens of the eye starts to stiffen and thicken, resulting in changes in vision (usually affecting the ability to focus on close objects). - Sensitivity to sound decreases; this happens twice as quickly for men as for women. - Hair can start to thin and become gray around the age of 35, although this may happen earlier for some individuals and later for others. - The skin becomes drier and wrinkles start to appear by the end of early adulthood. This includes a decline in response time and the ability to recover quickly from physical exertion. - The immune system also becomes less adept at fighting off illness, and reproductive capacity starts to decline. C. PERSONAL AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENTS 1. The Settling-down Age In the past generations, it was assumed that when the boys and girls reached the age of legal maturity, their days of carefree freedom were over and the time had come to settle down and assume the responsibilities of adult life. That meant settling into a line of work that would be the man’s career for the rest of his life, while the young woman was expected to assume the responsibilities of the homemaker and mother – responsibilities that would be hers for the remainder of her life. Today, it is recognized that “settling down” too early is often laying the foundations for discontent because of too early choices of careers or life-mates. Consequently, many young men try out different lines of work to see which meets their best and which will bring them lifelong satisfaction. In the same way, young women of today go through the trying-process before they are willing to consider settling down. They take jobs to see if they prefer working to marriage or if they want to combine work with marriage. They date and/or go steady with different men before they decide on the one they believe will make a satisfactory life-mate. This trying out of different life patterns and different individuals to share their life patterns take time. Consequently, young adults today usually start to settle down much later than their grandparents did. The average adult of today has chosen a lifestyle and an individual to share that lifestyle by the early thirties, through many do so before then. REASONS WHY YOUNG ADULTS REMAIN SINGLE: ❖ An unattractive or sex inappropriate appearance. ❖ An incapacitating physical defect or prolonged illness. ❖ Lack of success in the search of mate. ❖ Unwillingness to assume the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. ❖ A desire to pursue career that requires working long and irregular hours or much travelling. ❖ Residence in a community where the sex ratio is unbalanced. ❖ Lack of opportunity to meet eligible members of the opposite sex. ❖ Responsibilities for aging parents or younger siblings. ❖ Disillusionment as a result of unhappy marital experiences of friends. ❖ Sexual availability without marriage. ❖ An exciting lifestyle. ❖ Opportunity to rise on the vocational ladder. ❖ Freedom to change and experiment in work and in lifestyle. ❖ Belief that social mobility is easier when single than married. ❖ Strong and satisfying friendships with members of the same sex. ❖ Homosexuality.  Developmental Psychology 117 2. Reproductive and Parenthood Age Parenthood is one of the most important roles in the lives of most young adults. Those who were married during the latter years of adolescence concentrate on the role of parenthood during their twenties and early thirties; some become grandparents before early adulthood ends. Those who do not marry until they have completed their education or have started their life careers, do not become parents until they feel they can afford to have a family. This is often not until they feel they can afford to have a family. This is often not until the early thirties. Also if women want to pursue careers after marriage, they may put off having children until the thirties. For them, then, only the last decade of early adulthood is the “reproductive age.” For those who begin to have children early in adulthood or even in the closing years of adolescence and have large families, all of early adulthood is likely to be a reproductive age. SOME IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE SEXUAL ADJUSTMENT Attitudes towards Sex Attitudes towards sex are greatly influenced by the way men and women received sex information during childhood and adolescence. Once unfavorable attitudes have developed, it is difficult if not impossible to eradicate them completely. Past Sexual Experience The way adults and peers reacted to masturbation, petting, and premarital intercourse when men and women were younger and the way they themselves felt about them affect their attitudes towards sex. If a woman’s early experience with petting were unpleasant, for example, this may have colored her attitude toward sex unfavorably. Sexual Desire This develops earlier in men than in women and tends to be persistent, while that of women are periodic, fluctuating during the menstrual cycle. These variations affect interests in the enjoyment of sex. Which in turn affects sexual adjustments. Early Marital Sexual Experience The belief that sexual relationships produce states of ecstasy unparalleled by any other experience causes many young adults to be so disillusioned at the beginning of their married lives that later sexual adjustments are difficult or even impossible to make. 3. Problem Age The early adult years present many new problems, different in their major aspects, from problems experienced in the earlier years of life. With the lowering of age of legal maturity to eighteen years, in 1970, young adults have been confronted with many problems they are totally unprepared to cope with. While they are now able to vote, to own property, to marry without parental consent, and to do many things young people could do when the age of legal maturity was twenty-one years. There is no question about the fact that this “new-found freedom is creating unforeseen problems for the youthful adults and often for their parents too.” There are many reasons why adjustments to the problems of adulthood is so difficult. Three are especially common. First, very few young people have had any preparation for meeting the types of problems they are expected to cope with as adults. Education in high school and college provides only limited training for jobs, and few schools or colleges give courses in the common problems of marriage and parenthood.  Developmental Psychology 118 Second, just as trying to learn two or more skills simultaneously usually results in not learning any one of them well, so trying to adjust to two or more new roles simultaneously usually results in poor adjustment to all of them. It is difficult for a young adult to deal with the choice of a career and the choice of a mate simultaneously. Similarly, adjustment to marriage and parenthood makes it difficult for young adults to adjust to work if they marry while they are still students. Third, perhaps the most serious of all, young adults do not have the help in meeting and solving their problems that they had when they were younger. This is partly their own fault and partly that of their parents and teachers. Most young adults are too proud of their new status to admit that they cannot cope with it. So, they do not seek the advice and help in meeting the problems this new status gives rise to. 4. Social Isolation With the end of formal education and the entrance into the adult life pattern of work and marriage, associations with the peer groups of adolescence wane and, with them, opportunities for social contacts outside the home. As a result, for the first time since babyhood even the most popular individual is likely to experience social isolation, or what Erickson has referred to as an “isolation crisis”. Many young adults, having become accustomed throughout childhood and adolescence to depending on peers for companionship, experience loneliness when the responsibilities at home or at work isolate them from groups of their peers. Isolation is intensified by a competitive spirit and a strong desire to rise on the vocational ladder. To achieve success, they must compete with others – thus replacing the friendliness of the adolescence with the competitiveness of the successful adult – and they must also devote most of their energies to their work, which leaves them little tile for the socialization that leads to close relationships. As a result they become self-centered, which contributes to loneliness. 5. Time of Commitment As young adults change their role from that of student and dependent, characteristics of adolescents to that of independent adult, they establish new patterns of living, assume new responsibilities, and make new commitments. While these new patterns of living, new responsibilities, and new commitments may change later, they form the foundations on which later patterns of living, responsibilities, and commitments will be established. 6. Period of Dependency In spite of achieving the status of legal adulthood at age eighteen with the independence this status carries, many young adults are partially or totally dependent on others for varying lengths of time. This dependency may be on parents, on the educational institution they attend on part or total scholarship, or on the federal government for loans to finance their education. Some young adults resent this dependency, though they realize it is essential if they are to get the training needed for their chosen careers. Many, however take the financial support of their parents, of educational institutions or of the government for granted, but feel no obligation to be dominated in any way by those who have financed their training for their future careers. They expect and demand the same autonomy that their self-supporting age- mates have. 7. Time of work Work defines people in fundamental ways and is a key aspect of their identity. Most individuals spend about one third of their adult life at work. People often become stressed if they are unable to work but work also can produce stress, as when there is a heavy work load  Developmental Psychology 119 and time pressure. Some college students work while going to college. Working during college can have negative outcomes, especially when students work long hours, or positive outcomes when students have part time or summer work relevant to their field of study. Unemployment produces stress regardless of whether the job loss is temporary, cyclical, or permanent. 8. Time of Value Change There are many reasons for value changes in early adulthood, first, if young adults want to be accepted by members of the adult group, they must accept the values of the adult group just as, during childhood and adolescence, they had to accept the values of their peer group to win acceptance. Second, young adults soon discover that the most social groups hold conventional values about beliefs and behavior, just as they do about appearance. While the adolescent peer culture may have regarded premarital sex acceptable behavior, most adults do not and demand more conventional courtship and marriage as the price of acceptance into the social group. Third, young adults who have been parents not only tend to change their values earlier and more radically than those who are unmarried or childless, but they also shift to more conservative and traditional values. In general, the values of most young adults change from egocentric to social. CONDITIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR INTEREST CHANGES IN ADULTHOOD Changes in Health Conditions Many adults, as they approach middle age, find that their strength and endurance are not what they formerly were. As a result, they gradually shift to interests that require less strength, and endurance, especially in recreations. Changes in Economic Status When the economic status of adults improves, they tend to expand the range of their interests to include those that they previously could not afford. If, on the other hand, their economic status is strained, due to family responsibilities or lack vocational advancement, many interests must be abandoned. Changes in Life Patterns Young adults must reassess their old interests in terms of the time, energy, money, and companionship they entail to see whether they fit into their new life patterns or give as much satisfaction as they did earlier. Assumption of the Parental Role When young adults become parents, they usually do not have the time, money or energy to keep up their former interests, instead, their interests become family-oriented rather than self-oriented. Whether they will resume their former interest when their parental responsibilities end will depend largely on how much they missed opportunities to pursue their interests and partly on the prevailing conditions in their lives. Changes in Preferences Likes and dislikes, which have a profound influence on interests tend to become stronger with age, and this leads to increased stability of interests in adulthood. Changes in Cultural and Environmental Pressures Because at every age interests are influenced by pressures from the social group, as social-group, as social-group values change, so do interests.  Developmental Psychology 120 The Roles of Clothes in Early Adulthood Improvement of Appearance Young adults select clothes that enhance their good features and camouflage their less attractive ones, when telltale signs of aging begin to appear, they choose clothes that make them look younger than they actually are. Indication of Social Status Young adults, especially those who are socially and vocationally mobile, use clothes as status symbols that will identify them with a particular social group. Individuality Even though adults want their clothes to identify them with a particular social group, they also want them to have enough individuality to be noticed and admired by the group members. Socioeconomic Success Few things are able to proclaim economic success more quickly in a more subtle way than clothes. Expensive clothes, a large wardrobe, and clothes from name designers and manufacturers all tell that the wearer has enough money to have such clothes. 9. Recreational Interests Talking Talking, especially with those whose interests are similar, is a popular pastime of both young men and young women. It is especially popular among married women whose parental responsibilities keep them in the home for the major part of the day. Much of this talking must be done over the telephone because of the restrictions that children place on the mother’s activities. Men by contrast do much of their talking to friends outside the home – at work or at meeting places such as bars or recreation centers. Most young adults talk mainly about personal, day-to-day concerns relating their families, their work and social matters. Gossiping about friends and neighbors is common among women, while men are more apt to tell joke or discuss politics. In discussions with members of the opposite sex, women try to talk about matters of interest to men, while few men try to adapt their conversations to women’s interests. Dancing Dancing which is one of the most popular forms of recreation in adolescence, is engaged in only infrequently during early adulthood. When home and business responsibilities are assumed, young adults have fewer opportunities to dance than they did during their high  Developmental Psychology 121 school and college days. Many adults of all socioeconomic groups dance only infrequently during their early twenties or even less during their thirties. Thus the quality of their dancing deteriorates, and they derive less satisfaction from it than they did during adolescence. Sports and Games Active participation and athletic events of all sorts decreases during the adult years, not because adults are in poorer health or are less interested in sports, but they have less time and money to invest in these activities than they did when they were in school or college. Participation reaches a low point as the adult approaches middle age. This is truer of members of the lower socioeconomic groups than of the middle and upper classes, who have more places such as clubs and recreation centers. Entertaining Limited budgets and parental responsibilities restrict the amount of entertaining by young adults. Entertaining relatives is far more common than entertaining friends and neighbors. During the summer months, picnics or backyard barbecues, are the favorite forms of entertainment. Home entertainment may also include card parties, where simple refreshments are served and small dinners or cocktail parties.  Developmental Psychology 122 Hobbies Many adults do not pursue hobbies until their financial position is such that they have the necessary leisure time. Others who find their work boring and frustrating, take up hobbies as a form of compensation. Men and women of high intelligence have more hobbies than those of lesser abilities. Amusements These are activities where the individual is a passive participant which are enjoyed by individuals of all ages, they grow in popularity during adulthood’ some of the amusements men and women enjoyed when they were younger, such as going to the movies, become less appealing as they grow older. POPULAR AMUSEMENTS AMONG YOUNG ADULTS Reading Because of their many responsibilities, young adults have limited time for reading. As a result they must become more selective about what they read. They spend more time reading newspapers and magazines than books. Listening to Music Young adults listen to music on radio and television, often as a way of relieving feelings of boredom or loneliness. Movies Young unmarried adults often go to the movies on dates, as they did in adolescence. Married adults go to the movies less frequently, especially if they have children. Radio Many women listen to the radio while doing housework, and men may listen as they drive to and from work. The radio provides both news and entertainment. Television Television watching, especially in the evenings, is a favorite amusement of adults with children. The larger the family, the lower the income, the more time is spent watching television. Men, as a group, prefer sports programs while women prefer domestic comedies or reruns of well-known movies.  Developmental Psychology 123 D. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY ADULTHOOD The events of adult life pose new challenges and require that we continually refine our reasoning capabilities and problem-solving techniques. Be in the realm of interpersonal relationships, work, parenting, or household management, we confront new circumstances, uncertainties, and difficulties that call for decision making and resourceful thought. Piaget believed that an adolescent and an adult think qualitatively in the same way. He argued that at approximately 11-15 years of age, adolescents enter the formal operational stage which is characterized by more logical, abstract, and idealistic thinking than the concrete operation thinking of 7 to 11 year olds. they have more knowledge than adolescents. For Jean Piaget, the stage of formal operations constituted the last stage of cognitive development and it characterized adults as well as adolescents. Some theorists have pieced together cognitive changes in young adults and proposed a new stage of cognitive development, post-formal thought, which is qualitatively different from Piaget’s formal operational thought. Post-formal thought involves understanding that the correct answer to a problem requires reflective thinking and can vary from one situation to another, and that the search for the truth, is often an ongoing, never ending process. Post- formal thought also includes the belief that solutions to problems need to be realistic and that emotion and subjective factors can influence thinking (Kramer, Kahlbaugh, and Goldstron, 1992) Schaie: A life-span Model of Cognitive Development Schaie proposed a full life span model of cognitive development, his model looks at the developing uses of intellect within a social context. His seven stages of age-related cognitive development shift from the acquisition of information and skills (what I need to know) to practical integration of knowledge and skills (how to use what I know) to a search for meaning and purpose (what should I know). The seven stages are as follows: 1. Acquisitive stage (childhood and adolescence) children and adolescents acquire information and skills mainly for their own sake or as preparation for participation in society. 2. Achieving stage (late teens or early twenties to early thirties) young adults no longer acquire knowledge merely for its own sake; they use what they know to pursue goals such as career and family. 3. Responsible stage (late thirties to early sixties) middle aged people use their minds to solve practical problems associated with responsibilities to others, such as family members or employees. 4. Executive stage (thirties or forties through middle age). People in the executive stage which may overlap with the achieving and responsible stages, are responsible for societal systems (such as governmental or business organizations) or social movements. They deal with complex relationships on multiple levels. 5. Re-organizational stage (end of middle age, beginning of late adulthood). People who enter retirement reorganize their lives and intellectual energies around meaningful pursuits that take the place of paid work. 6. Re-integrative stage (late adulthood) older adults who may have let go of some social involvement and whose cognitive functioning maybe limited by biological changes are often more selective about what tasks they expend effort on. They focus on the purpose of what they do and concentrate on tasks that have the most meaning for them.  Developmental Psychology 124 7. Legacy-creating stage (advanced old age). Near the end of life once reintegration has been completed (or along with it), older people may create instructions for the disposition of possessions, make funeral arrangements, provide oral histories, or write their life stories as a legacy for the loved ones. Not everyone goes through these stages within the suggested time frames. E. EARLY ADULTHOOD EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Early adulthood, the period of time ranging from ages 17-24, consists of substantial changes in the daily life of an individual. Within these years, most young adults will finish school and choose to enter the workforce fulltime or pursue further education. Regardless of an individual’s choice, many aspects of their emotional development will be the same. Romantic Love Success or failure in the search for romantic love plays an important role in the emotional development of young adults. Those in satisfying relationships report improved self- esteem and well-being, while those who search unsuccessfully experience the opposite. Three types of generally recognized attachment exist in relationships with unpredictable changes. These individuals tend to have reduced self-esteem and show increased neediness in a relationship. Finally, avoidant attachments consists of mistrust and a cold emotional connection. This can result in other issues, such as infidelity and alcoholism. Leaving Home Young adults frequently make sacrifices, such as lower standard of living, for the opportunity to leave home. This allows a new level of independence and self-reliance. Despite this, most young adults move back home after a period away, whether it’s after college graduation or during times of financial hardship. Those in especially tense households tend to move out at an earlier age, while those in poverty leave later. Leaving home can result in strong emotional growth if done at the right time. Many young adults who choose to leave home too early are unable to attain as much education as their peers and find less success in their careers.  Developmental Psychology 125 Career Development Career development has a major impact on emotional changes in early adult hood. As young adults leave their parents home and become financially independent, the growth of a career or the pursuit of further education gain special importance. Men are more likely to put a heavy investment into these goals, while women are more often split between family and career development. Because of these investments, a successful career tends to result in healthy emotional development and high self-esteem, especially in men.  Developmental Psychology 126 Social Clock Theory A theory of emotional development argues that individuals create an internal calendar of goals that they hope to accomplish at various points in their life. In early adulthood, the feminine social clock often begins to urge marriage, childbirth and building a family. Alternatively the masculine social clock pushed for career development. Success in one’s attempt to meet the goals of a social clock can have a major impact on emotional development. Erikson’s Theory Early Adulthood Intimacy vs. Isolation (20 to 34 years) Body and ego must be masters of organ modes and of the other nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in situations that call for self-abandonment. Avoiding these experiences leads to openness and self-absorption The Intimacy vs. Isolation conflict is emphasized around the ages of 20 to 34. At the start of this stage, identity vs. role confusion is coming to an end, and it still lingers at the foundation of the stage (Erikson, 1950). Young adults are still eager to blend their identities with friends. They want to fit in. Erikson believes we are sometimes isolated due to intimacy. We are afraid of rejections such as being turned down but our partners or our partners breaking up with us. We are familiar with pain, and to some of us, rejection is painful; our ego cannot bear the pain. Erikson also argues that “Intimacy has a counterpart: “Distantiation” the readiness to isolate and if necessary, to destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to our own, and whose territory seems to encroach on the extent of one’s intimate relations” (1950). Once people have established their identities, they are ready to make long-term commitments to others. They become capable of forming intimate, reciprocal 3 3 relationships (e.g. through close friendships or marriage) and willingly make the sacrifices and compromises that such relationships require. If people cannot form these intimate relationships, perhaps because of their own needs, a sense of isolation may result. Here, Erikson calls the maladaptive form promiscuity, referring particularly to the tendency to become intimate too freely, too easily, and without any depth of ones intimacy. This can be true of the person’s relationships with friends and neighbors and the whole community as well as with opposite persons. Erikson’s calls this malignancy as exclusion, which refers to the tendency to isolate oneself from love, friendship, and community, and develop a certain hatefulness in compensation for one’s loneliness. Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends. F. MORAL DEVELOPMENT In Kohlberg’s theory, moral development of children and adolescents accompanies cognitive maturation. Youngsters advance in moral judgment as they shed egocentrism and become capable of abstract thought. In adulthood, however, moral judgments often become more complex. According to Kohlberg, advancement to the third level of moral reasoning – fully principles, post-conventional morality – is chiefly a function of experience. Most people do not reach their level until their twenties, if ever. Although cognitive awareness of higher moral principles often develops in adolescence, people typically do not commit themselves to such principles until adulthood.