PSYC 2235 - Chapter 14 Social and Personality Development in Early Adulthood

Erikson’s Stage

Intimacy versus isolation, an individual must find a life partner or supportive friends to avoid social isolation

Intimacy - Erikson’s

The capacity to engage in a supportive, affectionate relationships without losing one’s own sense of self. Difficult to resolve if you haven’t resolved pervious issue of identity and role confusion 

Life Structure

A key concept in Levinson’s theory: the underlying pattern or design of a person’s life at a given time, which includes roles, relationships, and behaviour patterns

Consists of: Novice phase, Mid-era phase, and Culmination phase

Novice Phase

Period of adjustment when an adult enters a period in which a new life structure is required. Ex. Starting university, a lot of change

Mid-era Phase

Becomes more competent at meeting the new challenges through reassessment and reorganization of the life structure created in the novice phase. Ex. University after a year or 2, just starting to figure it out

Culmination Phase 

Life structure successfully created, and stability returns 

Emerging Adulthood

The period from the late teens to the early 20s when individuals explore options prior to committing to adult roles, this is not seen in all cultures. Most Canadians and Americans in this age range don’t consider themselves to have fully attained adulthood, if they have children they often feel more like an adult.

• Parts of the brain responsible for decision making, impulse control and self-regulation mature during this time.

Emerging Adults Need to Address Developmental Task in Five Domains:

1. Academic

2. Friendship

3. Conduct

4. Work (Newer task)

5. Romantic (Different in emerging adult relationships) 

Evolutionary Theories About Relationships

The need to produce children who will survive to reproduce may explain men’s preferences for physically attractive younger women, and women’s preferences for men of higher SES than themselves

Parental Investment Theory

The Theory that sex differences in mate preferences and mating behaviour are based on the different amounts of time and effort men and women must invest in child-rearing

• Similar across cultures because: similar gender roles and it is considered a biological need

Same-Sex Relationships?

Proposed that it may have evolved to increase prosocial behaviour and social integration. May promote the development of same-sex social bonds and group affiliation 

Social Role Theory

The idea that sex difference in mate preferences and mating behaviour are adaptations to gender roles

• Women’s emphasis on a mate’s earning potential and men’s emphasis on a mate’s domestic skills have decreased as women have gained more economic power

Women’s emphasis on earnings compared to men’s emphasis on attractiveness:

• Evolutionary - supports parental investment model

• Social role - women can take time off to raise children without significantly lowering their standard of living

Assortative Mating (Homogamy)

A sociologist’s term for the tendency to mate with someone who has similar traits to one’s own (Being similar)

Attachment Theory

Attachment Style in infancy often carries over to the adult’s attachment to marriage partner. Another potential issue in a marriage is being able to shift primary attachment from family of origin to marriage (Primary attachment bond is now shifting to spouse). In-laws are the second leading topic of arguments after money.

Commitment - Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Intention to maintain relationship even if it gets hard, usually increases over time.

Intimacy - Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Includes feelings that promote closeness and connectedness (Not physical). Usually increases then levels off

Passion - Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Includes a feeling of intense longing for union with the other person, including sexual union. Usually starts off high then declines through the years 

Cohabitation

Living together before being married, many couples see this as a final test to ensure compatibility before marriage but couples often show less marital satisfaction and have a higher rate of divorce.

• It is fundamentally different from marriage and requires the development of a different life structure.

• Usually involves couples seeing their relationship as ambiguous in terms of permanence so marriage involves a significant change in how they view themselves.

• Less homogamy, more likely to have affairs and be unhappy or depressed, increased risk for domestic violence

Distinctions of Cohabitation

1. Have firm plans to marry and move in together prior for conveniences and/or financial reasons (No increase in divorce rates, better communication, more equal division of labour)

2. More ambiguous future

Benefits of Marriage

Married adults are usually:

• Happier

• Healthier

• Live longer

• Have lower rates of various physical and mental health problems

Reasons for Marriage Benefits

• Healthier people may be more likely to get married

• Spouses may support each other in engaging in health behaviours

• Spouses may provide support in times of stress

Why Do Men Show These Benefits More in Heterosexual Marriages?

Some ideas that:

• Possible differences in stress responses

• Women encourage healthy behaviours more than men

• Men benefitting more than women from intramarital social support (men tend to make more superficial friends where women tend to make more deeper connections so they already have social support they need)

Relationship Quality

• Intimacy issues are seen as more important than material aspects

• Attitudes towards marriage are important - people who view marriage as important are more likely to have successful marriages (putting in more effort)

What Influences Relationship Quality 

• Higher levels of extraversion predict martial satisfaction 

• Higher levels of conscientiousness predict higher satisfaction in husbands

• Similar levels of openness to experience predict higher levels of satisfaction in husbands 

• Similar levels of agreeableness predict higher levels of satisfaction in wives

Types of Enduring Marriages

Validating couples, volatile couples, and avoidant couples

Validating Couples

Partners who express mutual respect, even in disagreements and are good listeners

Volatile Couples

Partners who argue a lot and don’t listen well, but still have more positive than negative interactions

Avoidant Couples

Partners who agree to disagree and who minimize conflict by avoiding each other, spending less time with each other

Types of Unsuccessful Marriages

Hostile/engaged couples and Hostile/detached couples

• Main difference is the level of eye contact

Hostile/Engaged Couples

Partners who have frequent arguments and lack the balancing effect of humour and affection.

Hostile/detached Couples

Partners who fight regularly, rarely look at each other and lack affection and support

Divorce

Considered a major stressor, increases risk of mental health problems, depression is a particularly big risk (Men more likely to be depressed 2 years after). Women are usually more impacted negatively economically possibly due to less consistent work histories, usually lower incomes, and more likely to retain custody of children. Men’s financial situation often slightly improves

Same-Sex Comparison

• Less likely to be married

• Equally affected by attachment security (Less likely to have family support)

• Less likely to be monogamous

• More likely to have egalitarian division of labour

Singlehood by Choice

• Often don’t value being part of a couple or a family as much as do singles who expect to marry 

• Show greater autonomy and capacity for personal growth than those who are single due to divorce or loss of a spouse 

• May be “partnered” much of the time but not married or cohabiting (Living apart together)

• More likely to use family of origin as an important source of psychological and emotional intimacy than are those who are married or cohabiting 

• Often come to see themselves as “single by choice” gradually 

Desires to Become a Parent

• Most people in Canada expect to have at least one child

• Those who choose not to because of pessimism about the future, fear of the climate crisis, concerns about costs

• Men are more likely to say they want children (Unknown reason why)

New Parents May Argue About

• Childrearing philosophy

• Division of labour

• Because they are tired and sleep deprived 

• Because of the stress of less time for conversation, sex, affection and even doing routine chores together

Postpartum Depression

Not just “Baby blues” which is common and mild, it can become extreme which usually lasts only a few weeks but occasionally a year or more. A mother who has PPD after first baby is likely to have it with subsequent babies

Postpartum Depression More Common in:

• Whose bodies produce unusually high levels of steroid hormones towards the end of pregnancy

• Whose pregnancies were unplanned

• Who were anxious about the pregnancy

• Whose partners where unsupportive

• Who have major life stressors during or immediately after pregnancy

• Who experience much fatigue after

• Whose babies have difficult temperaments

• Who are depressed during pregnancy

Parenthood Associated With:

• Decline in risky behaviour

• Increase in well-being, especially for men

• Decline in marital satisfaction (Does start to increase when the child moves out) 

Marital Satisfaction:

• Better if they’ve been married longer before having kids

• Better if they’re more educated

• Better if there’s good work-family balance

Reason why they tend to be older and more financially secure

New Single Parents:

• Larger decline in overall life satisfaction 

• More likely to suffer from health problems 

• Less likely to advance to management positions at work 

Childlessness (By Choice)

• More common among Canadians who place less value on the importance of marriage or couple hood

• Associated with a smaller drop in marital satisfaction

• In women - is associated with higher likelihood of full-time, continuous careers

Motherhood Earnings Gap

A measure showing how much the earnings of women with children are below those of women without children

Family 

• Most adults still feel close to their parents and see or talk to them regularly 

• Proximity - those who live within 2 hours of their parents see them more often 

• Culture - collectivist cultures often foster closer and more dependent relationships with parents for longer

Friends

• Important in their social network

• Often based on homogamy (similarities)

• Cross-sex friendships are more common than in childhood but less common than same-sex friendships

• Mutual openness and personal disclosure are important aspects of close friendships

Sex Differences in Relationship Style

Women - More close friends, more intimate friendships, more self-disclosure, more emotional support, often the “Kin keeper” maintain family relationships and news

Men - More friends, friendships based on shared activities, more friendly competitive, different forms of support (driving friend to airport)