CH13: Early Adulthood - Physical & Cognitive Development Flashcards
Emerging Adulthood
A theoretical period of development spanning the ages of 18 to 25, when young people in developed nations engage in extended role exploration.
* Most people do not feel they have fully attained adulthood until age 25
* Young adults are at their height of sensory sharpness, strength, reaction time,
and cardiovascular fitness
* Young adults are at their tallest
Adaptive Thermogensis
The process by which the body converts food energy (calories) to heat at a lower rate when a person eats less because, for example, famine or dieting.
Substance Abuse
A persistent pattern of use of a substance characterized by frequent intoxication and impairment of physical, social, or emotional well-being.
Substance Dependence
A persistent pattern of use of a substance that is accompanied by physiological addiction.
Tolerance
Habituation to a drug requires increasingly higher doses to achieve similar effects.
Abstinence Syndrome
A characteristic cluster of symptoms that results from a sudden decrease in the level of usage of a substance.
Hallucinogenics
Drugs that give rise to hallucinations.
Dysmenorrhea
Painful menstruation.
Prostaglandins
Hormones that cause muscles in the uterine wall to contract, as during labour.
Amenorrhea
The absence of menstruation.
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
The discomforting symptoms that affect many women during the 4- to 6- day interval preceding their periods.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
A condition similar to but more severe than PMS.
Dating Violence
Assaults such as verbal threats, pushing, and slapping are committed by an individual in an intimate relationship and often leading to injuries that require first aid.
Sexual Harassment
Deliberate or repeated unwanted comments, gestures, or physical contact.
Crystallized Intelligence
One’s intellecutal attainments, as shown, for example, by vocabulary and accumulated knowledge. Crystallized Intelligence refers to the ability to utilize skills and knowledge acquired via prior learning (Horn, 1969). The use of crystallized intelligence involves the recalling of pre-existing information as well as skills.
Fluid Intelligence
Mental flexibility; the ability to process information rapidly.
Dualistic Thinking
Dividing the cognitive world into opposites, such as good and bad, or us verses them.
Relativistic Thinking
Recognition that judgements are often not absolute but are made from a certain belief system or cultural background.
Pragmatic Thought
- Labouvie-Vief’s Theory
- Decision-making is characterized by a willingness to accept reality and compromise.
- Cognitive-affective complexity: harbour positive and negative aspects at the same time
Cognitive-affective Complexity
A mature form of thinking that permits people to harbour positive and negative feelings at the same time about their career choices and other matter.
What happens to fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence with aging?
On average, fluid abilities decline throughout adulthood, whereas crystallized abilities show gains into old age. Around ages 35-40.
Crystallized intelligence is your stored knowledge, accumulated over the years. The two types work together and are equally important. They both increase through childhood. Fluid intelligence decreases with age and crystallized intelligence remains stable or continues to increase with age.
“Big Five” adult role transitions
- Left home
○ Completed education
○ Started a career
○ Married
○ Had kid(s)
Contributing factors that cause people to “take long growing up”
Technological revolution, sexual revolution,
feminist movement, youth movement
The brain and nervous system in young adulthood
- Functional and structural connectivity can still be strengthened (thro cognitive training & exercise)
- Brain maturation is reached around age 30
- The developmental process reaches a balance
- Most functions have specialized in specific areas of the brain
- Integration of brain functions becomes fully developed
Reproductive capacity in young adulthood
- Risk of miscarriage and other complications starts to increase after age 30
- Fertility drops steadily after the 20s (more slowly for men)
Immune System in young adulthood
- Adults produce fewer antibodies than children and adolescents
- Highly responsive to psychological stress and depression
Determinants of health in young adulthood
- Biology and genetics: organs and body systems, DNA
- Socioeconomic: early childhood development, education, socioeconomic status, personal
health behaviours, culture, gender, employment, and social support - Health care system: medical services, hospital and medical clinics, community and
home-based health care services, medical and health care professionals - Physical environment: adequate housing, safe workplace and communities, and clean air,
water and soil
Primary Aging
Changes associated with normal aging that are inevitable and caused by intrinsic biological or genetic factors. Examples include the loss of melanin, which causes gray hair, and decreased skin elasticity.
Secondary Aging
The aggravated causes of ageing can be called as secondary causes. For example, secondary ageing processes result from degenerative diseases (mentioned above) and poor health practices (lack of exercise, smoking, excess fat ingestion, and other forms of self-damage).
Prevalence of obesity in young adults
In the rise (30% of adults)
* Possible cause: Adaptive thermogenesis: survival strategy that does not always help
Common causes of death in young adults
- Injuries and poisons (intentional or unintentional) are the most common cause of death (70%)
- Followed by cancer (8%)
Exercise recommendation
30 minutes a day, 5 times a week
Depressants
- Slow down nervous system
- Alcohol, narcotics, sedatives
Stimulants
- Speed up heartbeat and other bodily functions
- Nicotine, cocaine, and amphetamines
- Depress appetite
Locus of control
Within psychology, Locus of Control is considered to be an important aspect of personality. The concept was originally developed Julian Rotter in the 1950s (Rotter, 1966). Locus of Control refers to an individual’s perception about the underlying main causes of events in his/her life.
Locus of control: High Internal
People with a high internal locus of control believe that they control their own success or failure; that success or failure is not the result of chance or fate. People who develop an internal locus of control believe that they are responsible for their own success.
Locus of control: High External
Having a high external locus of control would mean that one attributes success or failure to factors outside of their control. Those with an external locus of control believe that external forces, like luck, determine their outcomes.
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one’s own motivation, behavior, and social environment.
Menstrual Problems
- Dysmenorrhea
- Menstrual migraines
- Amenorrhea
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - exercise and diet
- Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)
Prevalence/Stats Sexual Orientation
- LGBTQ2S+ experience 3x more discrimination than heterosexuals
- Homophobia is still present despite changes in legislation
Sexual Activity Peak
- Combination of youth and opportunity
- “Canadians have more sex partners in a lifetime than people in most other countries, and we
are also more sexually adventurous, spending more time on foreplay and intercourse.”
Prevalence of Dating Violence
- The most common form of violence against women in Canada, particularly Indigenous women
- Higher risk in dating partners than spouses and in rural than urban settings
Prevalence of Sexual Harassment & Sexual Assault
- Women are at higher risk
- 37/1000 women
- 5/1000 men
- 1 in 12 college men commit acts that are legally defined as rape
- Most occur in the context of established social and romantic relationships
- 1/4 of sexual assauts are commited by strangers
Postformal Thought & Development
- Young adults are more cognitively complex than adolescents, with fluid and crystalized intelligence increasing.
- Labouvie-Vief’s theory of pragmatic thought notes that “cognitively healthy” adults are more willing than egocentric adolescents to compromise and deal with the world as it is, not as they would like it to be; the develop cognitive-affective complexity that enables them to harbour both positive and negative feelings about their choices.
Dialectical thinking
refers to the ability to view issues from multiple perspectives and to arrive at the most economical and reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory information and postures.
Post-secondary Education prevalence
Almost ⅔ of Canadians aged 25 to 64 have a post-secondary education
- More Canadian women than men
Intrinsic reasons for working:
- Work ethic: this view believes that we are morally obligated to avoid idleness.
- Self-identity: Our occupational identity because intertwined with our self-identity
- Self-fulfillment: We often express our personal needs and interests through our work.
- Self-worth: Recognition and respect for a job well done contribute to self-esteem.
- Socialization: The workplace extends our social contacts.
- Public roles: Work roles help define our functions in the community.
Extrinsic reasons for working:
- Earning a living
- Fringe benefits
- Future security
Developmental tasks when beginning a job
- Accepting the subordinate status
- Learning to get along with co-workers and supervisor
- Finding a mentor
- Showing progress
Career development stages
- Fantasy/growth stage
- Unrealistic, based on social status
- Until the end of elementary school (until age 11)
- Tentative choice/exploratory stage
- Base choice on abilities, interests, and status
- Throughout high school
- Realistic choice/established stage
- Narrow choices as they weigh job requirements
- Take into account rewards, requirements, and skills
- Throughout university
- Maintenance stage
- Settling, sense of moving forward
- Late 30’
