Chapter 13
Physical & Cognitive Development
in Young Adulthood
Emerging adulthood: ongoing process; late teens
to early twenties
• Legal ages of consent (17; 18; 21)
• Considered adult when self-sufficient and selfsupportive, have career,, formed significant
romantic relationship, or started a family
• Psychologically: maturity, achieved identity,
independent of parents, developed system of
values, forming relationships, autonomy, self
control, personal responsibility
• Therefore, some people never truly become
adults
Health
Young adults: at peak of health; visual keenest
from 20-40; senses undiminished until at least
45; loss for high pitch sounds begins during
adolescence and apparent after age 25
Most common health concerns: arthritis and
muscular and skeletal disorders
Concerns: sleep, physical activity, whether engage
in risk behavior (smoke, drink), poverty
Genetics
Cancer, obesity, alcoholism, depression, AIDS
(preventative gene), arthritis,
atherosclerosis, cholesterol (HDL)
Interrelatedness between physical, cognitive,
and emotional aspects of development
Diet & nutrition
Poor diet causes medical concerns and even
death
Obesity
• 65% of population is overweight
• Younger people less likely to be overweight,
until mid twenties
• Snaking, fast foods, large portions
• Leptin- hormone that tells the brain when
satiated; some people may lack this
• Obesity can lead to emotional problems, high
blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes,
arthritis, gallstones, skeletal disorders, cancers,
and other diminished life issues
Physical activity
Maintain desirable body weight, builds
muscles, protects against disease, stroke,
diabetes, colon cancer/cancers,
osteoporosis, relieves anxiety and
depression, lengthens life
Sleep
Problems interfering with sleep: working abnormal
hours, eating before bed, stress, tv in bedroom
Can lead to:
• Premature aging, cognitive, emotional, physical,
and social impairments
• Drowsy driving, impairs learning, increases
aggressiveness, poor parenting, irritability
• Less than 6 hours sleep for three days in a row can
seriously impair cognitive performance even when
not aware of it.
• Short naps are good
• 7-10 hours
Smoking
• Leading preventable cause of death
• Increased risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer,
osteoporosis, other health concerns
• 30 minutes of passive, secondhand smoke can
cause problems
• ¼ men, 1/5 women, smoke
• 18-25, more likely to smoke
• addictive, difficult to quit, media encourages
Alcohol
• Peaks in emerging adulthood
• 70% of 21-25 year olds report using alcohol
• 48% of 21 years old binge drinkers
• College students drink the heaviest
• 31% of 18-24 years old report driving while
under the influence
• 1,700 college students die yearly from alcoholrelated injuries
• 70,000 cases of date rape/rape reported related
to alcohol consumption
Alcohol
• Light to moderate use- reduce rate of fatal heart
disease and stroke, and also dementia in later
life
• Heavy drinking: gastrointestinal diseases,
cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatic disease, cancer,
heart failure, stroke, damage to nervous
system, psychosis, other medical problems,
psychological/emotional problems.
Comorbidity between drinking and smoking
Illicit drug use
• Peaks between ages 18-20- 23% use
• 6% adults continue to use drugs
• marijuana most common: impairs
cognitive functioning, significant losses of
memory and attention, amotivational
syndrome
Substance use disorders
• 10% of adults have substance use disorder
• alcoholism: impairment in social, familial,
personal, occupational, physical and cognitive
functioning
• long lasting changes in patterns of neural signal
transmission; creates euphoric state causing
neurological adaptations that produce
withdrawal symptoms and cravings
• tolerance- requiring more and more alcohol to
get same effect
• 20% also have mood disorder
Substance use disorders
• Indirect Influences on Health and Fitness
• Income, education, race/ethnicity, gender
• Less schooling, poorer health and awareness, less
financial resources, less support, poor nutrition
and housing
• Protective gene in women: longer life than men;
less likely to die; estrogen significant for health
• Women more likely to seek medical/psychological
help than men; men have more chronic problems
• Men may avoid seeking help- macho- seeking
help equates with loss of control
Substance use disorders
• Social networks influence emotional wellbeing (exercise, eating right, less substance
abuse), lower mortality, survive heart
attacks, less reoccurrence of cancer, sleep
better, less distressed
• Marriage usually improves health
Sexual & Reproductive Issues
Menstrual disorders
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)- (usually 30’s and
older) physical discomfort and emotional tension
during two weeks prior to menstrual cycle
Includes fatigue, headaches, swelling and
tenderness of breasts, hands and feet,
abdominal bloating, nausea, cramping,
constipation, food cravings, weight gain,
anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings,
difficulty concentrating or remembering
Sexual & Reproductive Issues
Menstrual disorders
• 85% of women have some symptoms; only
5-10% warrant diagnosis
• Likely caused by abnormal response to
monthly surges in estrogen and
progesterone as well as levels of
testosterone and serotonin; linked to
ovulation
Sexual & Reproductive Issues
Menstrual disorders
• Dysmenorrhea (adolescents and young
women)- painful menstruation (cramps).
• 40-90% suffer; 10-15% severe
• Caused by contractions of uterus ; treated
with meds
Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs)
• 15 million people infected each year; half are
lifelong infections (Herpes & Gonorrhea rising)
Cognitive Development
Piaget- Formal Operations Stage (begins age 11)
• Higher levels of abstract thinking (reflective
thinking)
• Postformal thought - logic with emotion and
practical experience in the resolution of abstract
and ambiguous problems.
Dewey- reflective thinking- active, persistent,
and careful consideration of information or
beliefs in the light of the evidence that
supports them and the conclusions to which
they lead
Continually question supposed facts, draw
inferences, make connections, create
complex intellectual systems that reconcile
apparently conflicting ideas or
considerations.
Emerges age 20-25- when cortical regions of
brain that handle higher-level thinking fully
mylenate. At same time brain is forming
new neurons and synapses and dendritic
connections. Environmental support can
also stimulate the development of thinker,
denser, cortical connections.
All adults develop capacity for becoming
reflective thinkers, few attain it proficiently.
Postformal thought
• Ability to deal with uncertainty, inconsistency,
contradiction, imperfection, and compromise.
• Flexible, adaptive, individualistic; helps cope
with chaotic world
• Transcends single logical system
• Immature thinking sees black and white;
postformal sees gray
Sinnott- Criteria for Postformal thought
• Shifting gears (ability to think within two
different logical systems)
• Problem definition (ability to define a
problem within a class or category of
logical problems and define its parameters)
• Process-product shift (ability to see
problem can be solved either through a
process or through a product- concrete
solution)
Sinnott- Criteria for Postformal thought
• Pragmatism (ability to choose best of several
possible logical solutions and recognize criteria
for choosing)
• Multiple solutions (awareness that most problems
have more than one cause, solution, and people
have differing goals; variety of methods can be
used to arrive at more than one solution)
• Awareness of paradox (recognition that a problem
or solution involves inherent conflict)
• Self-referential thought (awareness that they must
be the judge of which logic to use- using
postformal thought)
Schaie- A life-Span Model of Cognitive
Development
• Defines by intellect
• Shift from acquisition of information and
skills to practical integration of knowledge
and skills to search for a meaning and
purpose
• Not necessarily achieve all stages
Schaie- A life-Span Model of Cognitive
Development
• Acquisition stage (childhood and adolescence)
acquire information and skills mainly for own
sake to participate in society.
• Achieving stage (late teens/early 20’s to early
30’s)- No longer acquire knowledge merely for its
own sake; use what know to pursue goals
• Responsibility stage (late 30’s to early 60’s)- Use
minds to solve practical problems associated with
achieving and responsibilities to others (family,
employer)
Schaie- A life-Span Model of Cognitive Dev
• Executive stage (30’s/40’s through middle
age)- Responsible for societal systems or
social movements; deal with complex
relationships on multiple levels
• Reorganizational stage (end of middle age,
beginning of late adulthood)- People who
enter retirement reorganize their lives and
intellectual energies around meaningful
pursuits that replace work.
Schaie- A life-Span Model of Cognitive Dev
• Reintegration stage (late adulthood)- May have
let go of some social involvement, cognitive
functioning limited by biological changes, more
selective about what tasks they spend energy on;
taks most meaningful to them.
• Legacy stage (advanced old age)- Near end of life,
create instructions for disposition of belongings;
funeral arrangements, provide oral/written
histories.
Sternberg: Insight & Know-How
Triarchic theory of intelligence:
Creative insight (experimental element) and
practical intelligence (contextual element)
are important in adult life.
Problem solving remains stable until midlife
but ability to solve academic problems
declines
Tacit knowledge: (unrelated to IQ; predicts
job performance; common sense not taught
but acquired on own)
self-management (how to motivate self and
organize time and energy)
management of tasks (how to do things)
management of others (knowing how and
when to reward or criticize)
Emotional intelligence (EI)
• Ability to recognize and deal with one’s
feelings and the feelings of others
• More important for success than IQ
Those who succeed:
Self-awareness (emotional awareness, accurate selfassessment, self-confidence)
Self-management (self-control, trustworthiness,
conscientiousness, adaptability, achievement
drive, initiative)
Social awareness (empathy, service orientation,
organizational awareness)
Relationship management (developing others,
exerting influence, communication, conflict
management, leadership, being catalyst for
change, building bonds, teamwork and
collaboration)
Those who succeed:
Excelling in at least one of the competencies
seems to be a key to success in any job!
Emotional intelligence plays role in ability to
acquire and use tacit knowledge.
Related to Gardner’s intrapersonal and
interpersonal intelligences
However, difficult to measure the concept of
emotional intelligence
Moral Reasoning- Kohlberg
Level 3- postconventioanl morality (early
adolescence, young adulthood, if ever)
Recognize conflicts between moral standards and
make own judgment on principles of right/wrong,
fairness, justice.
Stage 5: morality of contract, individual rights,
democracy of accepted law (rational, value will of
majority, welfare of society)
Stage 6: morality of universal ethical principles (do
what think is right, regardless of legal restrictions
or opinions of others; use internalized standards)
Moral Reasoning- Kohlberg
Kohlberg proposed a 7th stage: adults reflect
on moral question: “Why be moral?” a
sense of unity with cosmos!
Culture & Moral Reasoning
Cultural contexts must be taken into considerationsnot all of development theories are universal,
perhaps Kohlberg is not fully universal.
Gender & Moral Reasoning
Gilligan:
• Most research based on male norms
• Women’s central moral dilemma: conflict between
own needs and needs of others
• Expect women to self-sacrifice and to be
concerned for others
• Kohlberg’s dilemmas found to be applicable to
both men and women
Education & Work
College- limited by factors (SES, family history,
parental support)
Factors supportive of Adjusting to college
• Family and financial support
• Adaptable
• High aptitude
• Good problem solving
• Actively engaged in studies
• Enjoy autonomous relationships with parents
• Independent
• Achievement orientated
• Ability to build peer relationships
Cognitive Growth in College
Intellectual discovery & personal growth,
especially verbal and quantitative skills,
critical thinking, moral reasoning
Change in new ways of thinking:
• To curriculum- new insights and ways of
thinking
• Other student’s beliefs may challenge own
set of values
• Student culture
• Faculty members- new role models
Cognitive Growth in College
¼ in two-year colleges and ½ in 4 year
colleges complete. Some may simply take
longer than 5 years or switch from 2 to 4
year colleges
Work
Reciprocal relationship between Substantive
complexity of the work, degree of
forethought and independent judgment it
requires, and person’s flexibility in coping
with cognitive demands.
Spillover hypothesis
Cognitive gains at work carry over into
nonworking hours and influence
intellectual activities