Social and Personality Development in Early Adulthood

Chapter 14: Social and Personality Development in Early Adulthood
Overview of Chapter 14

  • Main Topics:

    • Forming Relationships

    • How Relationships Change Over Time

    • Work: Picking a Job and Starting a Career

01 Forming Relationships

Social Clock

  • What it is: A mental calendar based on society's expectations that tells individuals if they are meeting major life goals (like getting married, having kids, or starting a career) at the 'right' time compared to others their age.

  • Cultural Differences: These social timings vary from one culture to another, affecting when people typically experience life events.

  • Looking Back:

    • In the mid-1900s, social clocks were pretty similar for middle and upper-class people in Western countries.

    • Today's social clocks have changed due to societal shifts and are different for men and women.

The Social Clocks of Adulthood

  • Ravenna Helson's Ideas:

    • She suggested that people can choose from different social clocks, which then impact their growth and development later in life.

    • She studied women who focused on family, career, or individual goals.

Women’s Social Clocks: Helson’s Research

  • What She Found:

    • Women showed significant growth in their personality over time, becoming more self-disciplined, independent, and confident.

    • They also developed better ways to handle problems.

    • Women who put family first initially followed traditional roles (ages 21-27) but adopted less traditional roles as their children grew older.

    • Positive personality changes were seen in women focusing on family or career, while those not committed to either showed little to no positive changes.

Psychosocial Development Stages (Erikson)

  • Main Challenge: Trust vs. Mistrust (age 0-1) → Leads to Hope

  • Next Stages:

    • Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (1-3) → Leads to Willpower

    • Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6) → Leads to Purpose

    • Industry vs. Inferiority (7-11) → Leads to Competence

    • Identity vs. Confusion (12-18) → Leads to Loyalty

    • Early Adulthood:

    • Intimacy vs. Isolation (19-29) → Leads to Love

    • Middle Age: Generativity vs. Stagnation (30-64) → Leads to Care

    • Old Age: Integrity vs. Despair (65 onward) → Leads to Wisdom

Intimacy vs. Isolation

  • What it Means: This stage, from after adolescence into the early 30s, is about forming close relationships.

  • Key Parts According to Erikson:

    • Selflessness: Putting the needs of others before your own.

    • Sexuality: Physical expressions of love.

    • Devotion: A deep commitment to others.

    • Success: Leads to meaningful close relationships.

    • Failure: Leads to loneliness, feeling cut off, and being afraid of relationships.

Friendship

  • Meeting the Need to Belong: Friendships help people feel like they belong socially.

  • How Friendships Form:

    • Proximity: Being physically close makes friendships more likely.

    • Similarity: Sharing interests and values.

    • Personal Qualities: Traits that help people connect.

  • Cross-Race Friendships: These types of friendships tend to decrease during adolescence and remain less common later in life.

Types of Love

  • Psychological Views:

    • Passionate (Romantic) Love: A strong feeling of being captivated by someone, shown by physical excitement and caring deeply for each other.

    • Companionate Love: Deep affection for people you are very close to, involving emotional intimacy without the immediate strong feelings of passionate love.

Labeling Theory of Passionate Love

  • Idea: According to Hatfield and Berscheid, romantic love happens when two things occur at the same time: feeling strong physical excitement and having clues from the situation that make you interpret these feelings as love.

The Three Faces of Love: Sternberg

  • Parts of Love: Sternberg’s model breaks down love into three main parts:

    • Intimacy: Emotional closeness and feeling connected.

    • Passion: Strong urges related to physical closeness and romantic feelings.

    • Decision/Commitment: The conscious choice to love someone and the long-term determination to stay together.

Types of Love According to Sternberg

  • Nonlove: No intimacy, passion, or commitment.

  • Liking: Only intimacy is present.

  • Infatuated Love: Strong passion but no intimacy or commitment.

  • Empty Love: Commitment without intimacy or passion, often seen in arranged marriages.

  • Romantic Love: Intimacy and passion but no commitment.

  • Companionate Love: Intimacy and commitment but less passion.

  • Fatuous Love: Passion and commitment but no intimacy.

  • Consummate Love: All three — intimacy, passion, and commitment — are present, representing the ideal form of love.

Characteristics in Choosing a Spouse

  • Main Things Adults Look For:

    • Love is the main reason for choosing a partner in Western cultures.

    • Other important factors include:

    • Mutual attraction

    • Being reliable

    • Emotional stability

    • A pleasant personality

    • Intelligence

Seeking a Spouse: An Evolutionary Perspective

  • David Buss's Theory: Suggests that men and women naturally prefer partners who will ensure they have successful offspring and enough resources.

    • This view has been criticized for being too focused on predetermined outcomes.

Partner Selection Mechanisms

  • Filter Explanation: People screen potential partners using increasingly specific criteria.

  • Homogamy: The tendency to choose partners with similar backgrounds or traits is becoming less common.

  • Marriage Gradient: Explains that men often marry women who are younger or have lower social status, and women often marry men who are older or have higher social status.

Gay and Lesbian Relationships

  • Research Findings:

    • Gay and lesbian relationships are similar to heterosexual ones in what makes them successful and stable.

    • People of all sexual orientations strongly desire meaningful, long-term partnerships.

Attachment Styles in Romantic Relationships

  • How Early Attachment Affects Later Relationships: The types of attachments we form as babies affect our romantic relationships as adults.

  • Secure Attachment:

    • Trait: Comfortable with closeness and confident in relationships.

    • Statistics: About 50\% of young adults have a secure attachment style.

  • Avoidant Attachment:

    • Trait: Finds it hard to trust partners and uncomfortable with closeness.

    • Statistics: About 25\% of young adults are avoidant.

  • Ambivalent Attachment:

    • Trait: Too invested in relationships and fears their partner will leave them.

    • Statistics: About 20\% of young adults show ambivalent attachment.

02 The Course of Relationships

Cohabitation Trends

  • Current Facts: Living together without being married has increased over the last 50 years, with big changes in who is doing it.

  • Why People Prefer It:

    • Feeling that marriage isn't necessary.

    • Not feeling ready for commitment.

    • Financial benefits.

    • Seeing cohabitation as a test run for marriage.

  • Statistical Link: Cohabiting is linked to higher divorce rates.

Reasons for Marriage

  • Eventually Leading to Marriage: Often seen as a natural next step in a loving relationship.

  • Factors Affecting Marriage:

    • Pressure related to age.

    • Financial advantages.

    • Moral and religious beliefs.

    • Trends: Marriage rates are falling due to high divorce rates and people waiting longer to marry because of career goals.

Characteristics of Successful Marriages

  • Identified Traits:

    • Showing affection, having strong open communication, and sharing responsibilities.

    • Agreeing on duties and interests.

  • Divorce Statistics: About half of all marriages end in divorce, with problems often starting early in the marriage.

Early Marital Conflict

  • Sources of Disagreement: Initial perfect ideas about marriage clash with real-life problems.

  • Life Changes: The move from being children of parents to independent adults causes misunderstandings and arguments, especially for newlyweds.

Parenthood Decisions

  • Reasons for Having Children: Personal happiness; the close bond formed, potential support in old age, or no specific reason tied to money or society's expectations.

  • Unplanned Pregnancies: How well birth control works affects the number of planned versus unplanned births.

Trends in Family Size

  • Statistics: The average number of children per U.S. family has dropped from a peak of 3.7 to an average of 1.6 children.

  • Replacement Level: The current birth rate is below what is needed to replace the population for the next generation.

Factors Contributing to Decline in Family Size

  • Key Improvements: More use of birth control, women working more outside the home, delaying having children, changes in benefits for the elderly, and the high costs of raising children.

Dual-Earner Couples

  • Statistics: In about two-thirds of families, both partners work, but women still do most of the housework and childcare, showing an unequal distribution of tasks.

  • Workload Difference: Women, on average, spend much more time on unpaid care and household chores than men.

Transition to Parenthood

  • Effect of Childbirth: Both good and bad changes happen — marital happiness depends on how well couples communicate and manage their roles during this time.

Gay and Lesbian Parenthood

  • Parenting in Same-Sex Couples: Figures show more same-sex couples are becoming parents, and their successful sharing of household tasks can lead to good development for their children.

03 Work: Choosing and Embarking on a Career

Vaillant’s Career Consolidation

  • Meaning: A crucial stage between ages 20-40 where young adults focus on building their careers.

  • Parental Influence: Ranged from relying on parents in their early 20s to gaining independence in their late 20s/early 30s.

  • Discussion: His ideas about career consolidation have received mixed reactions.

Ginzberg’s Career Choice Theory

  • Three Stages of Career Selection:

    • Fantasy Period: Up to age 11, children pick jobs without thinking about practical things.

    • Tentative Period: In adolescence, people start thinking more realistically about careers, considering their skills and job availability.

    • Realistic Period: Young adulthood is about exploring and committing to specific jobs.

Holland’s Personality Type Theory

  • Matching Personalities with Jobs: Identifies types of personalities and the jobs that suit them:

    • Realistic: Practical people good for hands-on jobs.

    • Intellectual: Abstract thinkers who excel in scientific fields.

    • Social: People-oriented roles like counseling and teaching.

    • Conventional: Prefer structured jobs like administrative work.

    • Enterprising: Leadership roles in business or politics.

    • Artistic: Creative jobs in the arts.

Gender and Career Choices

  • Traditional Views: Women often focus on roles that involve helping others, while men focus on roles involving action and achievement.

  • Differences: Women are still not as common in higher-status jobs, and there are still wage gaps, especially for women of color.

Reasons for Working

  • Main Motivations: Beyond just earning money, many people work for personal satisfaction, social connections, and a sense of identity.

    • External vs. Internal Motivation: A balance of external rewards (like pay) and internal rewards (like enjoyment) leads to job satisfaction, with internal needs being increasingly valued.

Job Satisfaction Variables

  • Based on Job Level: Higher job positions are linked to greater job satisfaction.

  • Factors for Satisfaction: Things like having control over tasks, variety in work, meaningful feedback, and minimal supervision make a job more satisfying.