Lecture 22: Adulthood - what's it all about?

Question 1

what makes an adult?

Answer 1

it depends lol
like all stages of life and development

Question 2

what legally makes an adult?

Answer 2

in new zealand, the legal ages for justice system, marriage, drinking, voting, gambling, having a drivers license, signing a contract and leaving school are all different

the age of majority act 1970 states that for NZ law a person attains full age at age 20

however the UNCRoC is up to the age of 18

very blurry definition of an adult

Question 3

what are the external markers of adulthood?

Answer 3

• independence from family of origin
• financial independence
• completed education
• permanent paid work
• stable intimate relationship
• parenting
• owning property

however these may be outdated ?

Question 4

what are the origins of the normative markers of adulthood?

Answer 4

• Freud thought there were two basic psycho-social needs: work and love
• longitudinal research questions when where, with whom?
• how does history and biology relate to this?
• timing of event theorites: neugarten’s social clock theori
• normativ crisis theories e.g. levinsons seasons of life theory 1986

Question 5

what was eriksons psychosocial theory of adulthood?

Answer 5

• personality development is a psychosocial process which involves internal psychological factors and external social factors
• series of 8 stages of development, each with a dilemma or conflict (called a crisis) which requires resolution to develop a fully functioning personality
• biology and social demands push individuals into the next stage, whether or not they’ve resolved the crisis. the success of the crisis influences how the next stage plays out

Question 6

what is stage 6 of erikson’s adult stafes of psychosocial development?

Answer 6

stage 6 involves young adulthood - 19-40years old approx

• stage 6: intimacy vs isolation (love)
• builds on the previous stage of identity vs role confusion
• it is about forming intimate, loving relationships with a significant other (or friends)
• success at this stage means forming enduring satisfying relationships and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness and depression

Question 7

what is stage 7 of erikson’s adult stafes of psychosocial development?

Answer 7

stage 7 involves adulthood - 40-65 years old approx

• stage 7: generativity vs stagnation (care)
• building lives focusing on family and career. success at this age means actively contributing to the world via home and community. if not successful at this stage, feelings include unproductive and uninvolved.

Question 8

what are the internal markers of adulthood?

Answer 8

• feeling like an adult (does this ever happen though?)
• taking responsibility for ones actions
• making independent decisions
• establishing equal relations with parents

Question 9

can adulthood be considered as a stage of life?

Answer 9

adulthood has a very broad age range compared to the younger developmental stages, with a lot of differences occuring as adulthood progresses

• is biology less important that social, cultural and personal factors?
• there is diversity of experiences, timing of events and relationships
• encompasses young and older adulthood

Question 10

what feelings can occur when ‘emerging adulthood’?

Answer 10

maybe this could be considered a new stage of development?

• feeling in-between
• instability
• self-focused
• the age of possibilities!
• this is an alternative to or combination of concepts like transition to adulthood, late adolescence, erikson’s young adulthood stage

Question 11

what does this digure demonstrate?

Answer 11

across different domains you may feel different about your age.

human functioning are not the same for everyone.

e.g. now i feel like if i work i am an adult, but being a student at the same time make me feel more adolescent

Question 12

what are important things to consider about emerging adulthood?

Answer 12

is it actually a stage of development? or is it more limited to a particult group of privileged young people at a particular time?

• young adults may experience this is as ‘prevented adulthood’ or ‘early adulthood’
• social context and cultural context is important

Question 13

how helpgul and relevant are the theories about this stage?

Answer 13

always important to note that it is based on straight rich white males :)

• its descriptive - not potential for informing practice or interventions
• effects on those who do not conform to these norms creates expectations and influences law, policy and about ages we ‘should’ do thing e.g. student loans
• current rapid social change - applicable in current era? people nowadays are expected to have 17 jobs and 5 careers in their life time
• social and cultural expectations about the ‘right’ time to do things differ across cultures
• there is an assumption that adulthood is a ‘final destination’ of previous stages
• it may minimise continuity across life e.g. personality, temperament, attachment styles
• is it consistent with a lifespan development perspective?

Question 14

how can adulthood be defined?

Answer 14

adulthood is a complex phenomenon which resists geenralisation and about which we need to be able to hold in mind different perspectives at the same time

adult life is a process which need not involve a predetermined series of stages of growth. the stages through which they have to pass (age-specific transitions) can be shifted around an even discarded.

Question 15

what is this?

Answer 15

triangular theory of love.

theory of how people form all types of relationships

its based on western framing, but can apply to serveral different countries and cultures

Question 16

what makes successful adult intimate relationships? what stats exist to show how successful they are?

Answer 16

• 15% of women experienced partner violence from a previous partner
• about 1/3 of marriages end in divorce (number is declining though)
• married people report greater happiness than co-habiting or single people, delaying relationship may increase likelihood of successful relationships
• there is an overall decrease in happiness ocer time in marriage but it depends on several different factors: personality, challenges, family origin, relationship type and roles, work-family balance

Question 17

Answer 17

marriage rates are declining in NZ, divorce rates are declining too

Question 18

what is the importance of relationships between the genders?

Answer 18

expectations around relationship initiation, timing and longevity have changed.

females tend to look for loyalty, support, vulnerability, intimacy

while men tend to look for ‘parallel play’ or looking to do things with their friends

there are greater expectations on women than men in friendships

Question 19

what is the intergenerational impact of divorce?

Answer 19

young adults whose parents divorced did not want their own future cildren to grow up in a divorced family, feel more apprehensive and less positive about marriage, expressed an expectation that they would develay marriage

• but this depends on when parents divorced, ongoing relationship between parents, SES and numerous other factors

Question 20

what is the average age of women having thier first baby?

Answer 20

30.5 years old. in the 1970s it was 21!

Question 21

does parenting make people happy?

Answer 21

• many studies show lower level of emotional well-being found among parents compared to nonparents in the majority of emperical studies across industrialised societies
• however association varies according to personal and household characteristics and across countries
• this is because stress, sleep deprivation, balance of work/family, financial challenges with childcare and education all harm happiness
• also found that a new baby is correlated with reduction in happiness of relationship, parents in their 50s who have children at home are also less happy
• however it does depend on the social context

Question 22

how do young people go in education and work?

Answer 22

• young people with higher school performance and no experience of disengagement are much more likely than other young people to go on to tertiary education and to find full employment
• qualification are correlated with employment, young peole with NCEA level 2 or higher are more likely to be in employment
• young peoples earnings are largely determined by whether they work full or part-time. higher earning for those with tertiary qualification - but takes time to compensate for fees and loans

Question 23

what is a generation?

Answer 23

generations describe a group of individuals born during contiguous birth years who experience similar cultural contexts. these individuals both experience a shared historial and cultural environment and also shape culture in their own way

• usually 15-20 years

Question 24

what are the characteristics of gen z?

Answer 24

“the generation reaching adulthood in the second decade of the 21st century”

• between millennials (genY) who came of age at the turn of the century and generation alpha

characteristics:
- risk averse, savers not spenders
- realistic, inclusive, non-confrontational, pro-dialogue
- entrepreneurial
- less likely than GenYto get tertiary education
- social and environmentally conscious
- neo digital natives (more likely to video chat than text)

Question 25

what are key things to consider about adulthood?

Answer 25

• adulthood as been historically neglected as a ‘stage’ of life and seen largely as the endpoint of development
• adulthood encompasses a large age range, and individual and cultural experience vary hugely in this age bracket
• some theorists belives it is helpful to understand adult experience in overlapping age brackets across domains. emerging adulthood is a relatively new ‘stage’ of adult development but probably applies to only a limited numebr of people
• some adult experiences that lots of NZrs encounter are completing their education, beginning work, forming intimate relationships and having children. this may be at a range of ages or not at all
• a generation is a group of people born into a period of time who experience a similar social and historical context