Ch 10: Constructing an Adult Life Flashcards
What are the features of emerging adulthood?
Testing out adult roles, taking responsibility for your life
What are the challenges of emerging adulthood?
Social clock pressures
What are the 3 crucial emerging adult concerns?
College, career, and finding love
What historical forces have shaped emerging adulthood?
Longer life expectancy, education and the perceived need for college to be successful, uncertain modern life, Western perspective changes of self expression and “doing your own thing”
How does emerging adulthood vary across southern Europe, Scandinavia, and the US?
Southern Europe- young people live with their parents into their 30s due to religious and financial restraints
Scandinavia- cohabitation is accepted, marriage optional, better economy and emphasis on independence and government assistance so early nest leaving is normal
US- class differences, most people plan to marry but low income adults struggle to marry
What are nest-leaving changes?
Staying in the nest is often a practical adult choice
What are social clock issues?
Age norms, boundaries of emerging adulthood
Do most college students finish college within 4 years?
No
What are the different identity statuses?
Diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement
What is ethnic identity?
Unique ethnic or racial heritage
What stages are in emerging adulthood?
Identity vs role confusion, intimacy vs isolation
How is happiness predicted in emerging adulthood?
Finding a career that expresses the inner self
What impact does having a strong ethnic identity have on the individual?
Depends on whether a young person engages productively in society, generally positive
What self esteem changes do young people face after entering college?
Self esteem drops as teens often overinflate their abilities
What emotional growth do young adults experience?
Become more mature
What are the features and functions of flow states?
Can alert people to their ideal careers
What are the strategies for having a fulfilling college experience?
Get involved in campus activities, get the best professors and make connections with them, reach out to students of different backgrounds
What issues are related to completing college and transitioning to work?
Students with GPAs lower than 3.0 have less than a 50/50 chance of graduating college, money is crucial since low income students are less likely to finish college than their affluent peers and they often cite financial issues as the main reason for leaving, lack of a real school to work transition in the US
What changes in the search for love have occurred in the twenty first century?
Same sex relationships are much more acceptable, most young people meet through the internet and are more Apt to be happily married than those who meet traditionally, more likely to marry outside their ethnic group, dating phase lasts longer
What is Murstein’s theory?
Stimulus value role theory
What is the adult attachment theory?
Secure, avoidant/dismissive, preoccupied
What tips does the text suggest for finding fulfilling relationships?
Find someone who is similar to your ideal self
How does social media affect the passage to adulthood?
Depends on how the young person uses social media
What are Murstein’s phases of romantic relationships?
Stimulus, value comparison, and role phase
What is cohabitation?
Sharing a household in an unmarried romantic-relationship
What is nest-leaving?
Moving out of childhood home and living independently
What is the social clock?
We regulate our passage through adulthood by referring to our society’s timetable that tells us which life activities are appropriate at certain ages
What are age norms?
Cultural ideas about the appropriate ages to engage in certain activities or life tasks
What is being on time?
Being on target in a culture’s time table for achieving adult life tasks
What is off time?
Being too early or late in a culture’s time table for achieving adult life tasks
What is role confusion?
Failure in identity formation, lack of any sense of a future adult path
What are Marcia’s 4 identity statuses?
diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement
What is identity diffusion?
Aimless, feels totally blocked, without any adult life path
What is identity foreclosure?
Person decides on an adult path (often spelled out by authority figure) without thought or active search
What is moratorium?
Person actively explores different possibilities to find solid adult life path
What is identity achievement?
fully mature identity, person decides on a satisfying adult path
What is biracial or multiracial?
People of mixed racial backgrounds
What is flow?
Feeling in total absorption in a challenging, goal oriented activity
What is relationship churning?
On and off again romantic relationships where couples repeatedly get together and break up
What is the stimulus value role theory?
Similar people pair up and commitment happens through 3 phases
What are the 3 phases of the stimulus value role theory?
Stimulus, value comparison, role
What is the stimulus phase?
Initial stage, make judgments about a potential partner based on external characteristics like appearance
What is the value comparison phase?
Second stage, make judgments about a partner based on values and interests
What is the role phase?
Final stage, committed partners work out their future life together
