Early Adulthood Flashcards
What ages are considered early adulthood?
18-40
Why is adulthood typically a time of physical wellbeing?
Young adults reach the peak of their physical functioning and they get used to their newly developed body
Define stress
Arousal of the mind and body in response to demands made on them by stressors.
How does stress contribute to illness?
It can have a direct physical affect as it wears down the physiological system
List the five stages of the sexual response cycle
Desire Excitement Plateau Orgasm Resolution
Define infertility
Inability to conceive a pregnancy after one year of sexual relations without contraception
What are the consequences of infertility to those in early adulthood?
It often leads to psychological reactions of grief, anger and guilt
Discuss the treatments that are available for infertility
Surgical and drug treatments are used for both male and female infertility, depending on the causes. e.g. IVF
Describe how adult thought differs from adolescent thought
Adults can accept and synthesise contradiction. Mature thought depends on the context of the event and the framework of the knower
Why is context important to adult moral development?
Context influences whether a justice or care orientation is used
List and describe the stages of adult thinking according to Schaie
- Acquisitive- build basic skills, including all of Piaget’s stages
- Achieving- meet personal goals
- Executive (people in roles of power)- meet needs of larger societal groups
OR - Responsible- integrate responsibility to others with personal goals
- Reintegrative- Refocus on personal interests and values
Which stage of Erikson’s theory are early adults in?
Intimacy vs isolation
Explain how attending university contributes to cognitive development
Fosters intellectual development. The biggest difference in cognitive growth is found between adults who attend university and those who do not
List and describe the career stages according to Greenhaus
- Preparation for work age: 0-25- Develop occupational self-image, develop initial occupational choice, pursue education
- Organisational entry age: 18-25- Obtain job offers from desired organisations and select appropriate job
- Early career age: 25-40- Learn job and organisational rules and norms, increase competence, achieve ‘dream’
- Mid-career age: 40-55- Reaffirm or modify ‘dream’, remain productive at work
- Late career age: 55-retirement- Remain productive in work, maintain self-esteem, prepare for effective retirement
What factors affect which jobs people are likely to attain?
Sex, race, education, socioeconomic status, how much they are paid and how far they advance in their chosen profession
What are social clocks?
Internalised age expectations that govern when people marry, become parents and retire.
Identify the various forms intimacy may take in early adulthood.
Friendships, love, marriage
According to Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, what are the three essential components of love?
Passion
Intimacy
Decision/commitment
How many types of love are there according to Sternberg?
7
List the 7 types of love according to Sternberg
Liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, companionate love, fatuous love, consummate love
List the top 10 qualities in a preferred marriage partner
- Warmth and kindness
- Expressiveness and openness
- Sense of humour
- Sexual passion
- Similarity on attitudes and values
- Exciting personality
- Ambition
- Intelligence
- Similar interests and leisure activities
- Similarity on social skills
List the top 10 qualities in a preferred casual sex partner
- Warmth and kindness
- Sexual passion
- Sense of humour
- Exciting personality
- Expressiveness and openness
- Physical attractiveness
- Similarity on attitudes and value
- Intelligence
- Ambition
- Similar interests and leisure activities
What is the current Australian diovorce rate? New Zealand?
46%
47%
List some factors influencing divorce
Legislative changes Personality (happiness) Living far away Lack of consensus- e.g. role-allocation Less expectation of life-long relationship
List some reasons for becoming a parent
Pressure to conform
Fulfilment, identity issues
Pregnancy both a biologcial and psychological event
Move focus from own needs
THIS IS THE SAME WITH SAME SEX MARRIAGE AS HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES
What percentage of Australian families are single parents? New Zealand?
22%
24%
What is considered to be the ‘social price’ of not having children?
Viewed negatively
Relatives view them more negatively than friends
Perceived as more harsh by other women
Define early articulator
Someone who knew from childhood that she did not want to have children.
Define postponer
someone who was less definite about whether to have children and made the decision to remain child-free after first delaying childbearing for a definite time and then for an indefinite time
List the four adaptive mechanisms (Vaillant’s term for the coping styles that people use to adapt to life events and that determine their levels of mental health)
Mature mechanisms
Immature mechanisms
Psychotic mechanisms
Neurotic mechanisms
Define general adaption syndrome
The pattern of physical response to stress identifed by Seyle, which has three stages; alarm, resistance and exhaustion
Define health beliefs model
A model that attempts to explain why people persist with unhealthy behaviour, despite knowing the consequences
List and describe the four parenting types
Authoritative- IDEAL
Authoritarian- Less nurturing, more strict
Permissive- More nurturing, less strict
Uninvolved- NOT IDEAL
