Early Adulthood - Introduction & Physical Development Flashcards
Age range of Early Adulthood as a whole:
18 to 40 years
In early adulthood, it is the stage where individual transition from adolescence to adulthood
Emerging Adult; 18-25 years old
_____ & _____ characterize emerging adults
Experimentation & exploration
5 key characteristics in emerging adulthood:
- Feeling in-between (do not consider themselves as adolescents or adults)
- Instability in love, work & education
- Identity exploration
- Develop self-focus & autonomy
- Open to possibilities & opportunities
- Important aspect of emerging adulthood
- Ability to change their life in a positive direction following a troubled adolescence despite difficulties
Resilience
Physical Performance and Development in Early Adulthood:
- Reach peak levels of physical performance, between age 19 and 26 (before age 30)
- Muscle tone and strength begin to decline around age 30
- Sagging chins & protruding abdomens begin to appear for the first time
- Common complaint among just turned 30s = lessening of physical abilities; begin to decline
Health in Early Adulthood
- Higher death rate than adolescents; twice mortality rate of adolescents
- Fewer chronic health problems
- Fewer colds & respiratory problems
- Bad health habits that were engaged during adolescence increase in emerging adulthood
How can young adults improve their health profile?
- Reducing the incidence of certain health-impairing lifestyles
- Engaging in health-improving lifestyles
- A chronic complex disease defined by excessive fat deposits that can impair health
- Increased risk for: hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease
- Associated with mental health problems
Obesity
Obesity can be caused by:
- Heredity - Some inherit a tendency to be overweight
- Leptin - Consumption of the protein involved in satiety and released by fat cells
- Environmental factors - low income, greater availability of food, greater reliance on energy-saving devices, declining physical activity
- The weight maintained when you make no effort to gain/lose weight
- When filled, you do not get hungry
Set point
- An obsession of Americans
- Some do lose weight and maintain it
Dieting
Effects of Regular Exercise:
- Prevent chronic disorders like heart disease and diabetes
- Improves self-concept
- Reduce anxiety and depression
- Sustained exercise like jogging, swimming, cycling
- Stimulates heart and lung activity
Aerobic exercise
Behavior pattern characterized by an overwhelming involvement with a drug and a preoccupation with securing its supply
Addiction
Behavior under Alcohol Abuse
- Increases in college; Peaks at 21 to 22 years old
- Extreme when individuals have 10 or more drinks in a row
- Effects include: absence from classes, physical injuries, trouble with police, unprotected sex
Binge Drinking
Behavior under Alcohol Abuse
- Becomes common among students, drinking alcohol before going out
Pregaming
Behavior under Alcohol Abuse
- Disorder that involves longterm, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages
- Impairs the drinker’s health and social relationships
Alcoholism
Age when alcohol & drug use are reduced
By mid-20s
Problems involved with Smoking:
- Linked to 30% cancer deaths, 21% heart disease deaths, 82% chronic pulmonary disease deaths
- Secondhand smoke – 9,000 lung cancer deaths yearly
- Children of smokers are at special risk for respiratory and middle-ear diseases
- Stimulant drug
- Stimulates neurotransmitters (especially dopamine) that have calming or pain-reducing effect
Nicotine
Sexual Activity in Emerging Adulthood:
- 60% of individuals experience sexual intercourse
- Emerging adults – likely to have had sex with 2 or more individuals
- Most individuals are sexually active and unmarried
- Casual sex is more common
- As they get older = have sex less frequently
Sexual Activity of Males vs Females:
MALES
- have more casual sex partners
- think about sex more often than women
FEMALES
- more selective
- Women are likely to change their sexual patterns and desires
- It is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction to persons of either the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender
- It is determined by a combination of genetic, hormonal, cognitive, and environmental factors
Sexual Preference / Sexual Orientation