Chapter 9 Adulthood

When Does Adulthood Begin? Role Transition to… Completing education Full-time employment Independent household Marriage/serious relationship Parenthood

Other Cultures Boys Ability to provide Ability to protect Ability to impregnate Girls Menarche Rites of passage Tribal ceremonies Bah Mitzvah

Going to College Directly from high school Short respite – travel – then college Returning adults Looking for fulfillment Changing careers

People with Disabilities Intimacy vs. Isolation Identity before intimacy Most men Career oriented women Intimacy before identity House wives Many women

So when is someone an adult? Hard to say: some early, some late, some never!!

Physical Development/Health Early 20’s Peak of physical functioning Sensory activity Late 20’s to early 30’s Physical strength men and women Dexterity – coordination Visual activity – stays high to middle age

Physical Development Cont. Hearing starts to decline by late 20’s Boom-box syndrome By old age: hearing loss = inability to some degree to understand speech Smell, taste, feel pain and changes in temperature remain constant until late in life Health Status: 90% feel health is good or even better

Death Leading cause of death among year olds Accidents AIDS Cancer Young adult men are 2 times more likely to die than young adult women

Death Cont. African-American young adults are 2 times more likely to die than European American counterparts Hispanic Americans have more health problems than any other ethnic group

Life Style Factors Smoking – 1 st place problem 430,000 die each year Causes over ½ of all cancers Second hand smoke Children (300,000 suffer some problems) Cancer - Emphysema

Life Style Factors Drinking alcohol Liver Intestinal tract Brain Kidneys Dependence Episodic (binge)

Life Style Factors Nutrition Cholesterol LDL = Bad HDL = Good Triglycerides Gender Women healthier But women + heart attacks

Cognitive Development Multi-dimensional Multi-directional (over time) Individual variability Plasticity = medication under right conditions

Primary Mental Abilities Number Word fluency Verbal meaning Inductive reasoning Spatial orientation Deal with 3 dimensional world

Mental Abilities & Intelligence Secondary mental abilities Broader skills that subsume and organize primary abilities Fluid intelligence – flexible – adaptive Understand relations among concepts Crystallized intelligence Intelligence acquired through life

Going Beyond Formal Operations to Post Formal Thought Truth may vary from situation to situation Solutions must be realistic Ambiguity and conflict are the rule Reflective judgment Reason through dilemmas

Moral Reasoning - Kohlberg - Pre Conventional Level Stage 1. Obedience orientation (to authority) Stage 2. Instrumental orientation Nice behavior exchanged for future favors Conventional Level Stage 3. Interpersonal norms – live up to someone else’s expectations Stage 4. Social system morality – follow rules/maintain order

Post-Conventional Level Stage 5. Social Contract Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principles personal moral system

Alternatives to Justice -Carol Gilligan- Emphasis on caring and responsibility Stage 1. Children preoccupied with own needs Stage 2. People care for others particularly ones unable to care for themselves Stage 3. Unites caring for others & caring for self

What do you want to be? Personality in Young Adulthood Life Span Construct unified sense of past, present, future Scenario - Expectations of future Possible Selves could become want to become afraid of becoming Self Concept Personal control beliefs