Chapter 10 - Constructing and Adult Life

Emerging adulthood

Time in one’s late teens to early twenties when they begin to construct an adult life

Primary task: identity vs. role confusion

Core challenges of emerging adulthood:

• Financially supporting oneself

• Entering an unstructured, unpredictable path in life

Classic “Benchmarks of adulthood”:

• Finished school

• Started career

• Gotten married

• had child

Marcia’s Identity Statuses

• Identity Diffusion

• Identity Foreclosure

• Moratorium

Identity Diffusion Status

Individual is aimless or feel blocked with no adult life path in sight

Identity Foreclosure Status

Individual decides on an adult life path without a thought ot active research

Moratorium Status

The zone of flow

Murstein

Mate selection in Western Society:

Bottom line in relationships

Secure adult attachment

• Capable of genuine intimacy in relationships

• Empathetic, affectionate, caring; balances own needs to their partner’s; probably long-term

Avoidant/Dismissive Insecure Attachment

• Unable to get close in relationships

• Uncaring, emotionally distant; unresponsive to loving feelings; abruptly disengages at signs of involvement; unlikely to be long-term

Preoccupied/Ambivalent Insecure Attachment

• Needy and engulfing in relationships

• Excessively jealous, suffocating; need continual reassurance of being totally loved; unlikely to be loving long-term relationship

Relationship Churning

Major turning points in a relationship