Lesson 9: Young Adulthood Flashcards
What are four ways to define adulthood?
- Cut-off age
- Set of role transitions (rites of passage, marrying, giving birth, etc)
- Assuming specific roles (financial independence, engaging in less risky behaviors, etc)
- Ask the person (are you an adult?)
Fluid Intelligence
consists of the abilities that allow one to think flexibly and adaptively (can make inferences and understand relationships among concepts)
–>reflected in timed performances on such tasks as mazes, puzzles, and relations among shapes
Crystallized Intelligence
knowledge and information that someone has acquired through experiences and education in a particular cultural context
–>remembering historical facts, certain aspects of how the legal system operates, and basic fundamentals of American government
plasticity
individuals’ abilities can be changed under the appropriate conditions at practically any time in adulthood
How does intelligence change over time?
- crystallized intelligence improves over time
- fluid intelligence worsens over time
- general IQ scores remain basically unchanged
Postformal thought
- an understanding that there may be more than one “truth” or “correct answer” in certain circumstances
- that the context needs to be considered when deciding how to make sense out of what is occurring in a particular situation
- that solutions need to be realistically possible for them to be reasonable
- that most cognitive tasks involve some ambiguity and complexity rather than being clear cut and simple
- that emotion needs to be taken into account in thinking
Reflective Judgement
way in which adults reason through real-life dilemmas (ex. current affairs, religion, science, etc)
–> developed by Kitchener and King
multidimensional
characteristic of theories of intelligence that identify several types of intellectual abilities
multidirectionality
developmental pattern in which some aspects of intelligence improve and other aspects decline during adulthood
interindividual variability
patterns of change that vary from one person to another
primary mental abilities
groups of related intellectual skills (ex. memory)
secondary mental abilities
broad intellectual skills that subsume and organize the primary abilities
Pre-reflective Reasoning
first three stages of reflective judgement
- can’t acknowledge that knowledge is uncertain, that there may not be a clear answer
- ->holds a firm position on controversial issues and cannot understand why others would hold a different viewpoint
Quasi-reflective Reasoning
4th and 5th stages of reflective judgement
- nothing can be known for certain
- change conclusions based on situation/evidence
- argue that knowledge is subjective
- know they can’t force their views on anyone
(True) Reflective Reasoning
6th and 7th stages of reflective judgement
- understand people construct knowledge using evidence/argument after careful analysis
- hold firm convictions only AFTER careful consideration of all viewpoints
- must reevaluate beliefs in view of new evidence
life story
a deeply personal account of one’s life that ties together the various incidents, experiences, and situations that one has confronted up to this point in one’s life
Sternberg’s triangular theory
He argued that love consists of three dimensions:
- passion (consisting of physical intimacy)
- intimacy (mutual sharing of thoughts and feelings)
- commitment (a willingness or desire to stay in a romantic relationship regardless of what may happen in the future)
assortative mating
suggests that people form romantic relationships with others who are perceived as being similar to themselves
Murstein’s SVR theory
–> “peeling away the layers of an onion”
S (stimulus) - people first notice physical appearance
V (values) - they then focus on basic views on aspects of life
R (roles) - explore whether they have similar or compatible views of their relationship/continuing relationship
intimate terrorism
Most serious types of violence are perpetrated by men whom the woman knows
situational couple violence
less invasive types of violence are fairly equally likely to be performed by men and women
companionate type of love
the partners became more like companions and less like passionate lovers
edgework
the desire to live more on the edge through physically and emotionally threatening situations
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Sixth stage in Erikson’s theory and the major psychosocial task for young adults
- establishing one’s identity to be ready to share an identity with another
- without a clear sense of identity one may be afraid to commit or become over-dependent
The most widely used criteria for deciding whether a person has reached adulthood are ________.
role transitions
Rituals marking initiation into adulthood are called _______.
rites of passage
Research indicates that Erikson’s idea of resolving identity followed by intimacy best describes men and ________________.
career-oriented women
consumption of alcohol
- tougher laws have decreased alcohol consumption –> except in college students
- binge drinking: consuming (men- 5+ drinks, women- 4+) drinks in a row
- alcohol related rape, DUI, assault by person who has been drinking
smoking
- biggest contributor to health problems in adults (400,000 US people die/year)
- can affect almost every area of the body (including fetuses)
nutrition
directly affects one’s mental, emotional, and physical functioning
metabolism: how much energy the body needs
BMI
a ratio of body weight and height, related to total body fat
-higher BMI = higher risks
cohabitation
people in committed, intimate, sexual relationships that live together but are not married
-lower education levels –> more cohabitation
What is the reasoning behind cohabitation?
- convenience: sharing expenses, sexual accessibility
- step towards marriage: “trial period”
- instead of marriage
gay/lesbian couples
- may differ more in demographic characteristics (age, race, etc)
- commit/cohabit faster
- less supported by families
Causes for divorce
- infidelity
- incompatibility
- drinking
- drug use
- growing apart
low-density lipoproteins (LDL)
chemicals that cause fatty deposits to accumulate in arteries, impeding blood flow
“bad cholesterol”
high-density lipoproteins (HDL)
chemicals that help keep arteries clear and break down LDL’s
“good cholesterol”
Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT)
proposes that intelligence comes from a distributed and integrated network of neurons in the parietal and frontal lobes of the brain
Most modern theories of intelligence are __________ in that they identify many domains of intellectual abilities.
multidimensional
Number, verbal fluency, and spatial orientation are some of the _______ metal abilities.
primary
__________ reflects knowledge you have acquired through life experience and education in a particular culture.
crystalized intelligence
Kitchener and King describe a kind of postformal thinking called _________.
reflective judgement
Life problems provide a context for understanding the integration of ________ and _________.
emotion and logic
life-span construct
a unified sense of the past, present, and future based on personal experience and input from other people
scenario
manifestation of the life-span construct through expectations about the future
social clock
tagging future events with a particular time or age by which they are to be completed
personal control beliefs
the degree to which you believe your performance in a situation depends on something you do
primary control
behavior aimed at affecting the individual’s external world
secondary control
behavior or cognition aimed at affecting the individual’s internal world
A ______ is a unified sense of a person’s past, present, and future.
life-span construct
A personal narrative that organizes past events into a coherent sequence is a __________.
life story
__________ reflect the degree to which a person’s performance in a situation is believed to be under their control.
personal control beliefs
Love relationships in which intimacy and passion are present, but commitment is not are termed _____________.
romantic love
marital success
an umbrella term referring to any marital outcome
homogamy
similarity of values/interests
exchange theory
relationship (such as marriage) based on each partner contributing something to the relationship that the other would be hard pressed to provide
vulnerability-stress-adaptation model
model that proposes that marital quality is a dynamic process resulting from the couple’s ability to handle stressful events in the context of their particular vulnerabilities and resources
nuclear family
most common form of family in Western societies, consisting only of parents and children
familism
the idea that the family’s well-being takes precedence over the concerns of individual family members
A new father who is invested in his parental role, but who may also feel ambivalent about time lost to his career, is probably over the age of ____.
30
collaborative divorce
a voluntary, contractually based alternative dispute resolution process for couples who want to negotiate a resolution of their situation rather than having a ruling imposed upon them by a court
Following divorce, most women suffer disproportionately in the _______ domain compared with most men.
financial
gay/lesbians as parents
- children don’t suffer
- equally adjusted behaviorally and sexually
- lower levels of homophobia