Developmental Psych. Exam Two

Unit 7 & 8

Defining Adulthood

• 18-39

• rethinking and re-evaluating of secondary education

• expand work and volunteer opportunities life for young adults and their parents

  • expand opportunities in the workplace to make college a “bridge”

Physical Changes

Reproductive capacity

• declines with age, increases risk for women in their mid- to late 30s of experiencing difficulty conceiving

Average age of marriage in 2022?

• women: 30

• men: 32

Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood: Havinghurst

1. achieving autonomy

2. establish identity

3. developing emotional stability

4. establish a career

5. finding intimacy

6. becoming part of a group or community

7. establish a residence and learning how to manage a household

8. becoming a parent and rearing children

9. making marital or relationship adjustment and learning to parent

Erikson’s Stages of Development

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Why intimacy vs. isolation? 

because this is the age of forming deep relationships

What about Arnett’s perception on emerging adulthood

it’s a distinctive stage in lifetime

Erikson sees young adulthood as:

forming strong sense of self with a deep bonding as the main goal (20-30 aged)

Arnett breaks out a:

separate “emerging adulthood” period highlighting exploration expansion and delayed commitments before full adulthood (18-29 y/0, the 30-39 is an adult) 

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Focuses:

-broad life stages across lifespan

-Young adulthood: intimacy v isolation —forming close, committed relationships is a key task

-assume a fairly defined transition from adolescence to adulthood

Arnett’s Emerging Adulthood as a Distinct Transition Stage says:

-specifically on ages 18-19 as a distinct, in-between period

-key features: identity exploration, instability, self-focus

Arnett’s 5 Key Features: 1

1. ID. exploration - figuring out love, work, and worldview

2. Instability - frequent changes in jobs, relationships, living sit.

3. Self-focus - developing independence and responsibility

4. Feeling in-between - not fully adolescent, not fully adult

5. Possibilities/optimism - high hopes for the future

Variability in self-perceived adulthood:

-highlights diverse self-preceptions

-relates to common markers

-encourage critical reflection

Main causes of death in early adulthood:

-unintentional injuries

-suicide

-homocide

what is adolescence?

• a process of growing up

• a period of psychological and physiological development from the onset of puberty to early adulthood

Conceptual def of adolescence

-a developmental stage marking the transition from childhood to adulthood

operational def of adolescence

-the period ranging from 11-17 years of chronological age

puberty

a time of physical changes through which a child’s body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction

primary reproduction

body structures that make sexual reproduction possible (genitals)

secondary repro.

non-reproductive sexual characteristics (boobs, hips, body hair, etc)

biological process

changes in a person’s physical growth and nature

cognitive process

changes in a person’s thinking and reasoning

socioemotional process

changes in a person’s interactions and/or relationships with others, changes in a person’s emotions, feelings, and social contexts

Age range of gendered puberty 

-girls: 9-11

-boys: 11-13

Tanner Scale

a five-point scale that doctors use to measure progression of physical development in children, adolescents, and adults during puberty

Frontal Lobe

executive functioning, thinking and planning

motor cortex

movement

sensory cortex

sensations

parietal lobe

perception, making sense of the world

occipital lobe

vision

temporal lobe

memory, understanding, language

prefrontal cortex

responsible for thinking, reasoning, and logic. Not fully developed a

amygdala

responsible for emotions. rapidly developsT

Neocortex

not fully developed (executive functioning, empathy, planning, etc)

The amygdala…

relies on a more reactive, gut-instinct part of the brain

Teens aren’t

good at reading emotions on other’s faces

Intrinsic motivation

you do it because you want to do it

extrinsic motivation

motivated by external forces

myelination happens:

in the temporal and parietal lobes before it happens in the frontal lobe

Adolescents:

take more risks because their reward system is mature, but their self-control isn’t

The prefrontal lobe:

is the last part to develop (later myelination)

The frontal lobe’s late myelination: 

is why full maturity doesn’t happen until adulthood

Elkind’s Adolescent Egocentrism

-a concept that explains how teenagers often think that they are the center of attention and that everyone is watching or judging them

imagonary audience

teens believe that others are always noticing and thinking about them

personal fable

they feel their experiences and feelings are unique and no one else can truly understand them, sometimes leading to risky behavior because they think they’re invincible