Chapter 13: Exam 5 Flashcards
Emerging Adulthood
Theoretical period of development, spanning the ages of 18 to 25. In which young people in developed nations engage in extended role exploration.
[in between adolescence and young adulthood]
Jeffrey Arnett 5 features that distinguish the stage of emerging adulthood
- Identity exploration
- Instability
- Self-Focus
- Feeling in-between
- Sense of the possibilities
Identity Exploration
Ages 18 or 20 to about 25 to 30 are on paths to making vital choices in terms of their love lives and career lives [experimenting with romantic partners and career possibilities]
Instability
Americans have, on average about 7 different jobs during the years between 20 and 29. Over this period they frequently change romantic partners, living arrangements, and education direction.
Self-Focus
Not egocentric as in childhood and adolescence. They are freer to make decisions than they were as children or adolescents. More mature and more independent from parental influence.
Feeling In-between
Swimming between adolescents and “real” adulthood.
[Arnett reported what people say when they are asked whether they think they have become adults. Most common answer of 18-to 25-year olds was something like “In some respects yes and in other respects no.”]
Fig 13.1 For Responses
Sense of Possibilities
Have the feeling that they have the opportunity to make dramatic changes in their lives. Many of them leave home for good; others return home for financial reasons, some have a “revolving door.”
Physical Development
*Peaks in early adulthood
[Physical Strength peaks in the 20’s and early 30’s, then slowly declines]
- Most at heights of sensory sharpens strength, reaction time, and cardio vascular fitness.
- Tallest as young adult, remain stable until middle adulthood and decline in late adulthood
- Visual Acuity remains stable until middle adulthood [when decline leads to farsightedness they begin to need reading glasses]
- Hearing begins to decline when reach late 20’s and early 30’s [particularly for tones that are high in pitch]
- Heart muscles becomes more rigid, decreasing max heart rate and reducing ability of the heart to pump enough blood providing oxygen [regular exercise increases cardiovascular and respiratory capacity.]
- Immune System produces fewer white blood cells and disease-fighting ability of those that remain declines
- Fertility in both genders declines, after age 35, women are advised to have fetuses checked for down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities
*May find hair thinning and graying by the end of early adulthood
Leading death for late teenagers and early adult stage
Leading death for late teenagers and early adult in US is accidents, followed by suicide, and homicide.
Truth or Fiction
HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death of young adults in the US today
Fiction
Accidents are the prominent cause of death for young men and women
A poll by CDC of 18,000 young adults, 18 - 24 years olds
- 43% report either no or insufficient physical activity
- 29% (1 in 4) were smokers
- 30% binge drinkers (5 drinks in a row on a single occasions)
- 26% overweight (BMI 25.0 - 29.0)
- 14% obese (BMI 30.0 or above)
- 13% eat recommended amt of fruit
- 9% eat recommended amt of vegetables
Diet and Weight - Biological factors
- Runs in families - hereditary (Biological)
- Efforts by dieting [maintaining a slender profile] may be sabotaged by a mechanism that would help preserve.
Adaptive Thermogenesis
The process by which the body converts food energy (calories) to heat at a lower rate when a person eats less because of, for example, famine or dieting.
[Fatty tissue in the body metabolizes (burns) foods more slowly than muscle.]
Exercise
- CDC recommends 18 and older get 30 minutes or more of vigorous physical activity five days a week.
[substantially reduces the risk of developing or dying from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers (such as the colon.) Also, benefit the brain and cognitive performance and help psychological disorders like anxiety and depression.]
Substance Use and Abuse
*Americans (ages 19-28) are most likely to use alcohol [Table 13.2]
Young adults use alcohol more than teenagers because:
a.)They are more likely emancipated from parental and school rules
b.) Have simply had several years of greater opportunity to experiment with and use drugs
*12th graders use marijuana more than young adults [Table 13.3 & 13.4]
Stress and Health
National Poll by American Psychological Association reports one-third of Americans report living with “extreme stress.”
18-to-32-year-olds reported experiencing stress from:
*money 80%
*work 72%
*housing cost 49%
*the economy 54%
*relationship 63%
*housing cost 49%
Age group most likely to report stress over past 5 years
Sexuality
Sexual activity with a partner usually peaks in the 20s.
Age group has sex most frequently due to some degree of the flood of sex hormones that affected them as adolescents.
Menstrual Problems
50-75% of woman experience discomfort prior to or during menstruation, including:
* dysmenorrhea,
* menstrual migraines
* amenorrhea
* premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
* Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Table 13.5
Early Adulthood Health Problems in the Future
Many are concerned about their careers or college or their social lives and think of health issues – diet, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, excessive drinking – as something they can get to later on.
Dysmenorrhea
Painful menstruation
Prostaglandins
Hormones that cause muscles in the uterine wall to contract, as during labor [cramping] (fluid retention in pelvic region may cause bloating)
Truth or Fiction
Menstrual discomfort is abnormal
Fiction
Some degree of menstrual discomfort is the norm
Amenorrhea
The absence of menstruation (sign of infertility)
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Discomforting symptoms that affect women during the 4-6 week day interval preceding their periods.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
A condition similar to but more severe than PMS
Symptoms:
* tension
* mood changes
* feeling overwhelmed
* irritability
* anger
* difficulty concentrating
* fatigue
* physical discomfort
* changes in appetite
* sleeping too much or too little
Reasons for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Symptoms
- Body responses to changing levels of sex hormones
- Imbalances in neurotransmitters such as serotonin and GABA, which are connected with appetite, anxiety, and mood changes.
Treatments Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
- Exercise
- Dietary Control
- Hormone Treatments
- Medication: reduce anxiety, or increase activity of serotonin in the nervous system.
Rape
The definition varies from state to state but is usually defined as sex with a non-consenting person by the use of force or the threat of force.
[Most states permit the prosecution of husbands who rape their wives.]
[About 5% of victims are men, and their assailants are generally men.]
Truth or Fiction
The majority of rapes are committed by strangers in deserted neighborhoods or darkened alleyways.
Fiction
The great majority of rapes are committed by an acquaintance of the victim.
Types of Rape
US Dept of Justice reports more than 90% of rapes are committed by acquaintances of the victims, including classmates, coworkers, dates, or family members.
a.) Acquintances - less likely to be reported to the police because survivors may not perceive the sexual assault by acquaintances as rape. Even reported, they may be treated as “misunderstanding” or “lovers” quarrels rather than crimes.
b.) Date - a form of acquaintance rape, more likely to occur when a couple has had too much to drink and then parks in the man’ car or goes to his residence.
Social Attitudes Encouraging Rape
Myth
“Women say no when they mean yes” and “The way women dress, they are just asking to be raped.”
Cultural Factors Encouraging Rape
Reinforced
Males are reinforced from childhood for aggressive and competitive behaviors, leading them to reject “feminine” traits such as tenderness and empathy that might restrain aggression.
Sexual Harassment
Deliberate or repeated unwanted comments, gestures, or physical contact.
[In colleges, workplaces, military, and online, 40% to 60% of working women and similar %s of female students in College Universities]
Cognitive Development
People are at the height of their cognitive powers during early adulthood.
Crystalized intelligence
One’s intellectual attainments, as shown, for example, by vocabulary and accumulated knowledge. [generally increasing with age]
Fluid intelligence
Mental flexibility and the ability to process information rapidly.
Truth or Fiction
Piaget proposed a fifth stage of cognitive development, the postfrontal stage
Fiction
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development ended with formal-operational thinking. Having said that, some followers of Piaget have proposed a postfrontal stage.
Cognition Across Age Groups and Gender
K. Walter Schaie introduced a developmental model of a study of age-related changes above simple longitudinal and cross-sectional studies across decades, finding:
a.) Late adolescents are likely to have the broadest knowledge of the sciences, but young adults become more focused in their use of scientific expertise.
b.) Girls remain with boys and keep pace with them in algebra, geometry, precalculus, and calculus classes.
Epistemic Cognition
The thought process is directed at considering how we arrive at our beliefs, facts, and ideas.
[Cognitive Development in college life rests not only on exposure to “great books” but also fostered by being challenged by students from different backgrounds and professors who have views that differ]
Dualistic Thinking
Dividing the cognitive world into opposites, such as good and bad, or us versus them
Relativistic Thinking
Recognition that judgments are often not absolute but made from a certain belief system or cultural background.
- Adults may become capable of commitment within relativistic thinking. That is, the more cognitively mature person can say, “Yes, I understand where you are coming from when you say you’re putting women on pedestals by preventing them from going outdoors unless they are chaperoned, but my bottom line is that you’re treating them like second-class citizens and would never allow them to do the same to you.”
Pragmatic Thought
Decision making characterized by a willingness to accept reality and compromise. [The “cognitive healthy” adult is more willing than the egocentric adolescent to compromise and cope within the world as it is, not the world as she or he would like it to be]
Cognitive-Affective Complexity
A mature form of thinking that permits people to harbor positive and negative feelings about their career choices and other matters.
[Adults function best when they accept reality, but choose goals that allow them to experience positive feelings]
Post Formal Thinking
Most Developmentalists agree that the cognitive processes of young adults are in many ways more advanced than the cognitive processes of adolescents - at least in our cultural setting.
- What they don’t agree on is whether they should consider the cognitive abilities of young adults to be a fifth stage of cognitive development, perhaps called a post formal stage.
College & Cognitive Development
Why a higher percentage of men enter STEM fields:
1.) Women who are proficient in math are more likely than math-proficient men to prefer careers that do not require skills in math.
2.) More males than females obtain extremely high scores on the SAT math test and the quantitative reasoning sections of the Graduate Records Exam
3.) Women who are proficient in math are more likely than men with this proficiency to have higher verbal competence as well, which encourages many such women to choose other careers.
Career Development
Extrinsic Motives [External Benefits] - earning a living, fringe benefits, ensuring future security.
Intrinsic Motives [Internal Benefits] - Work ethics, self-identity, self-fulfillment, self-worth, socialization, public roles.
Truth or Fiction
Million-dollar lottery winners often feel aimless and dissatisfied if they quit their jobs after striking it rich
True
Work can have social, emotional, and cognitive rewards, not simply financial rewards.
Choosing a Career & Stages of Career Development
Psychologist Donald Super’s Theory of Career Development
a. Fantasy Stage
b. Tentative Choice Stage
c. Realistic Choice Stage
d. Maintenance Stage
e. Retirement
Fantasy Stage
Child’s unrealistic conception of self-potential and of the world of work [early childhood until age 11]
Tentative Choice Stage
Children base their choices on their interests, abilities, limitations, and glamour. [From about 11 through high school]
Realistic Choice Stage
Choices become narrowed as students weigh job requirements and rewards against their interests, abilities, and values [beyond age 17]
Maintenance Stage
We begin “settling” into our career roles, which often happens in the second half of our thoughts.
Retirement
Individual severs bond with their work place
