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EARLY ADULTHOOD:
Physical and cognitive development
Developmental Perspectives
Developmental Perspectives
 Demographic Aspects
of Adulthood
 Baby Boomers: 79 million Americans
 Generation X or Twentysomethings
Different experiences
 Conceptions
of Age Periods
Thirties: Best decade
“Only as old as you feel”
Age Norms and
the Social Clock
 Aging:
biological and social change across
the life span.
 Biological aging: the changes in the
structure and functioning of the human
organism over time.
Social aging
 Changes
in an individual’s assumption and
relinquishment of roles over time
 Transition points: relinquishing familiar
roles and assuming new ones.
Social norms

Standards of behavior that members of a
group share and to which they are expected
to conform
 Age norms: Social norms that define what
is appropriate for people to be and to do at
various ages.
Age grading
 The
arranging of people in social layers that
are based on periods in the life cycle
 Social Clock: Internalized concepts that
regulate our progression through the adult
years.
Age-Grade Systems
 Flexible
system in the U.S.
 Life Events
 Turning points at which individuals change
direction in the course of their lives
Periods in Adult Development
 Developmental
approaches
continuity or discontinuity
Physical Changes and Health
Physical Performance
 Different
peaks for different activities
 Shifts in vision
Physical Health
 87%
of Americans report their health as
excellent.
 Dieting, Exercise, and Obesity
 Physical Activity and Health Across
Cultures
HIV and AIDS
 Reported
Changes in Adult Sexual Behavior
over the Past Decade
 30% of those surveyed reported increase in
protection against AIDS.
 Practicing Safe Sex
 Many people still misinformed.
Socioeconomic Status,
Ethnicity, and Gender
 Higher
death rate for poor
 Women have longer life expectancy than
men
 Women more likely than men to experience
depression
Changes in Drug and Alcohol
Use Over Time
 College
students and singles more likely to
use drugs
Mental Health
 52
million adults in U.S. suffer from a
mental disorder.
 18 million suffer from depression.
 Alcoholism
 Stress: 6 in 10 feel great stress once a
week.
Gender Differences in Stress
 Married
women admit to feeling more stress
than men.
 Gender-role perspective for women: roles of
nurturers and caretakers more stress in
contrast to male roles.
 Stress Reported by Nontraditional versus
Traditional College Students
More stress for nontraditional students.
Stages of Stress Reaction
1. Alarm reaction
2. Stage of resistance
3. Stage of exhaustion
 Perception
of situation, social support
cushions stress.
Suicide in Young Adulthood
 Rates
of young black males committing
suicide have risen since the late 1980s.
Sexuality
 Heterosexuality
By age 22, 90% of young adults have engaged
in sex with multiple partners.
 Gay,
Lesbian, and Bisexual Attitudes and
Behaviors
Rigid gender roles have given way to
acceptance; more similarities than differences
in human relationships.
Cognitive Development
Post-Formal Operations
 Piaget
 Knowledge
is not absolute but relativistic
 Accept the contradictions in life and the
existence of mutually incompatible systems
of knowledge
 Must find some encompassing whole by
which to organize their experience
Thought and Information
Processing
 The
step-by-step mental operations that we
use in tackling intellectual tasks.
 Cognitive Development in College Students
Knefelkamp
 Developmental
Instruction Model
Structure
Diversity
Experiential learning
Personalism
Moral Reasoning
Moral Reasoning
 Different
approach for men and women
 Gilligan: Men and women have different
moral domains.
 Men: right and rules; “ethic of justice”
 Women: an obligation to exercise care and
avoid hurt; “ethic of care”