Download Physical and Cognitive development in Early Adulthood

Physical development (442-455)
 Motor Functioning
 Health, nutrition, obesity
 Physical disability
 Stress (origin & consequences)and
coping
 PNI
 hardiness
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Peak is reached: Physical
development tends to be
complete by early adulthood, a
time during which physical
capabilities are at a peak.
 Strength: although young adults are
typically healthy, vigorous, and
energetic, senescence has begun.
 Senescence:the natural physical
decline brought about by aging.
 Growth in height and weight: late
maturers do tend to continue to
grow during this period; parts of the
body, such as the brain-which
grows in both size and weightcontinue to grow.
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Physical development and the
senses
Young adults tend to be at the
peak of their psychomotor
abilities:
The senses tend to be strong
throughout this period.
 Reaction time is quicker.
 Muscle strength is greater.
 Eye-hand coordination is better
than at any other period.
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Frequent exercise of moderate
intensity
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exercise increases cardiovascular fitness,
lung capacity increases,
muscles become stronger and the body is
more flexible and maneuverable;
the range of moment is greater and
muscles, tendons, and ligaments are more
elastic;
exercise helps reduce osteoporosis and
may optimize the immune system of the
body,
decrease stress and anxiety and reduce
depression;
exercise increases longevity.
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Health in early adulthood is
affected by:
› accidents,
› diseases (such as AIDS, cancer,
and heart disease)
› suicide;
Secondary aging is associated
with
› lifestyle choice,
› environmental influences,
› cultural factors such as gender
and race.
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To maintain proper/healthy
nutrition, young adults must
taper the amount of calories
they consumed during
adolescence and pay
attention to the types of foods
they eat.
 Young adults who do not
reduce their calorie intake and
eat foods high in fat are at risk
for becoming overweight and,
in some cases, obese.
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Individuals with disabilities face physical
barriers: They cannot have access to
many buildings, especially the old ones.
 And prejudice and discrimination:
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› They sometimes face pity or avoidance from
non disabled people.
› Sometimes they are treated as children.
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Stress: the physical and
emotional response to events
that threaten or challenge us.
PNI: Psychoneuroimmunology
- The study of the relationship
among the brain, the
immune system and
psychological factors.
Outcomes: biological reaction,
such as hormones, secreted
by adrenal glands, cause a
rise in heart rate, blood
pressure, respiration rate, and
sweating.
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Can be positive (eustress) or negative
(distress).
 Important to definition of stress is the
person’s appraisal of whether or not his or
her resources are sufficient to meet the
demands of the situation.
 Stress has been linked to a variety of health
problems.
 Young adults frequently deny stress and
turn to health compromising behaviors to
feel better.
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Evidence that stress causes illness, but
how?
› Direct
 Tight shoulders
 Fatigue
 Can lead to conditions such as headaches,
ulcers, high blood pressure, etc
› Indirect
 Stress influences health behaviors
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Whether or not people experience stress is
determined by if and how people move
through a series of stages;
 Primary appraisal is an individual's
assessment of an event to determine if the
implications are positive, negative, or
neutral.
 Secondary appraisal is an individual's
assessment of whether or not her coping
mechanisms are sufficient in face of the
stressor.
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Events that lead to negative emotions
are more likely to lead to stress.
 Situations that are uncontrollable are
more likely to produce stress.
 Events that are ambiguous and
confusing are more likely to cause stress.
 Having many tasks to accomplish at one
time is likely to cause stress.
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If enough stress is experienced, it can have
formidable costs:
 Stress may lead to psychosomatic disorders
(medical problems caused by the
interaction of psychological, emotional,
and physical difficulties.), like ulcers, asma,
arthritis, blood pressure, etc.
 Stress can increase the risk of becoming sick,
can cause sickness, can make it more
difficult to recover from sickness,
 Stress may reduce the ability to cope with
future stress.
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The effort to control, reduce, or learn to
tolerate the threats that lead to stress.
 The process of managing the
discrepancy between the demands of
the situation and the available
resources.
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Aimed at reducing the demands of the
situation or expanding the resources for
dealing with it.
 Often used when the person believes
that the demand is changeable.
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Aimed at controlling the emotional response to
the stressor.
Behavioural (use of drugs, alcohol, social support,
distraction/escaping from the source of stress)
and cognitive (change the meaning of the stress).
Often used when the person feels he/she can’t
change the stressor (e.g., bereavement); or
Doesn’t have resources to deal with the demand.
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Hardiness is a personality characteristic
associated with a lower rate of
stressrelated illness.
 Defensive coping involves
unconscience strategies that distort or
deny the true nature of a situation.
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Cognitive development (456-460)
 Postformal thought
 Intelligence
 College (463-470)
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Although Piaget explained in his theory
that cognitive development stops in the
formal operational stage, others find that
the adaptive thinking required of young
adult's signifies further advances in
cognitive capabilities.
Postformal thought: thinking that
acknowledges that adult predicaments
must sometimes be solved in relativistic
terms.
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Postformal Thought
 Adult
thinking is more personal,
practical, adaptable, and
integrative.
 Greater tolerance of ambiguity and
uncertainty.
 Combines formal operations with
subjectivity.
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Postformal Thought
Dialectical Thought : an interest
in and appreciation for
argument, counter-argument,
and debate.
› It accepts that issues are not
always clear cut, and that
answers to questions are not
always absolutely right or wrong
but must sometimes be
negotiated.
› Postformal thinkers can shift
back and forth between an
abstract, ideal solution and realworld constraints that might
prevent the solution from being
successfully implemented.
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Labouvie-Vief explains that
postformal thinking is more flexible,
allows for interpretive processes and
reflects an understanding of relativity
in interpretation of life events.
Ben is known t be a heavy drinker,
especially when he goes to parties. Tyra,
Ben´s wife warns that if he comes home
drunk one more time, she will leave him
and take the children. Tonight Ben is out
late at an office party. He comes home
drunk. Does Tyra leave Ben?
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Labouvie-Vief's Theory
Postformal thought is marked by
dialectical thinking which allows young
adults to search for the best resolution by
drawing on and integrating past
experiences.
 Pragmatic thought
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Structural advance in which logic becomes
the tool to solve real-world problems.
Pragmatic thinkers accept inconsistencies as
part of life and develop thinking that thrives
on imperfection and compromise.
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› Interviewed students at end of each year of
college.
› Younger students
dualistic thinking (dividing
information, values, and authority into right and
wrong, good and bad, we and they)
› Older students
multiple thinking (instead of the
experts know all the answers, their own thinking
has validity if their position was well thought-out
and rational), relativistic thinking ( able to
accept that different cultures, and individuals
could have different standards and values , and
all of them could be equally valid.
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› Acquisitive stage (childhood and adolescence)
 Knowledge acquisition, from concrete to formal
operational thought.
› Achieving stage (early adulthood)
 Adapt skills to situations for achieving long-term goals
applying knowledge to real life.
› Responsibility stage (middle adulthood)
 Responsibility to others on job, home, and community; most
advanced form.
 Executive stage, in which responsibilities have become
highly complex.
› Reintegrative stage (late adulthood)
 Reintegration of interests, attitudes, and values; personal
meaning; elderly more selective in expending cognitive
energies.
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EI is the set of skills that underlies the accurate
assessment, evaluation, expression and
regulation of emotions.
EI is what gives some people the ability to get
along well with others, to understand what
others are feeling and experiencing, and to
respond appropriately to the needs of others.
Creativity tends to peak during early
adulthood as young adults are at a place
where they can view problems that are
longstanding as novel situations.
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Major life events may lead to cognitive
growth.
 Life events that occur during early
adulthood often cause individuals to
rethink self and others which can lead to
cognitive advances.
 Rather than applying formal logic to
situations they use a broader perspective.
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