The Developing Person
Through the Life Span 8e
by Kathleen Stassen Berger
EMERGING
ADULTHOOD:
(CHAPTERS 17 -19)
BIOSOCIAL
COGNITIVE
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Emerging Adulthood
The period between the ages of 18 and 25, which is now
widely thought of as a separate developmental stage.
Growth and Strength
Strong and Active Bodies
 Emerging adults are usually in good health.
 Traditionally, ages 18 and 25 were a time for hard
physical work and childbearing.
 Physical work and parenthood are no longer
expected of every young adult in the 21st century.
Because of food availability, most emerging adults have
reached full height
(girls usually by age 16, boys by age 18).
Muscle growth and fat accumulation continue
into the early 20s, when women attain adult breast and
hip size and men reach full shoulder width and upperarm strength.
Bodies Designed for Health
By age 20, the immune system is well-developed
Usually…
blood pressure is normal
heart rate is steady
the brain is fully grown
and lung capacity is as large as it will ever be.
Senescence [si-nes-uhnts]
– The process of aging, whereby the body becomes less strong
and efficient.
– Begins in late adolescence
Bodies in Balance
Homeostasis
•
•
•
The adjustment of all the body’s systems to keep physiological
functions in a state of equilibrium.
As the body ages, it takes longer for these adjustments to occur,
so it becomes harder for older bodies to adapt to stress.
Nutrition and exercise underlie health at every age.
Organ reserve
The capacity of organs to allow the
body to cope with stress, via extra,
unused functioning ability.
Maximum strength potential
Begins to decline by age 25
Sexual Activity
•
The sexual-reproductive system is especially
vigorous during emerging adulthood.
•
The sex drive is powerful, infertility is rare,
orgasm is frequent, and birth is easy, with
fewer complications in the early 20s than at
any other time.
•
Sexual-reproductive characteristics are
produced by sex hormones, which peak in
both sexes at about age 20.
Emotional Stress
 One consequence of current sexual patterns may be
emotional stress as relationships begin and end.
 Attitudes about the purpose of sex (Laumann &
Michael):
Reproduction
 Relationship
 Recreation

 If partners have differing ideas about the purpose of
sex or the nature of gender, emotional pain and
frustration can occur.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
 STIs have always been present but the rate has
reached epidemic proportions due to sexual
patterns.
 Best way to prevent STIs is lifelong monogamy.
 Worldwide, globalization fuels every contagious
disease.
Psychopathology
 Incidence of psychopathology increases in emerging
adulthood.
 Rate of serious mental illness is almost double that for
adults over age 25.
Diathesis-stress model
[dahy-ath-uh-sis]

View that mental disorders are produced
by the interaction of genetics (diathesis)
and a stressful environment and life
events.
Mood Disorders
Bipolar Disorder
 May begin in childhood but becomes more severe
in adulthood.
Depression
 Most common mood disorder
 A loss of interest or pleasure for 2 weeks or more.
 May be rooted in imbalances in neurotransmitters
and hormones
Anxiety Disorders
 Evident in ¼ of all U.S. residents below 25
 Panic attacks, PTSD, and OCD
 More common, worldwide than depression
 Age and genetics shape the symptoms
 Hikikomori
 Common among
young adults in Japan
 Victims isolate themselves
for months or years
Schizophrenia
 About 1% of adults have schizophrenia
 Disorganized and bizarre thoughts, delusions,
hallucinations, and emotions
 Risk factors: genetic, malnutrition when brain is
developing, social pressure.
 Symptoms usually begin in adolescence
Exercise
 Reduces blood pressure,
strengthens the heart & lungs.
 Makes depression, osteoporosis,
heart disease, arthritis and some
cancers less likely.
 Those who are not fit during
emerging adulthood are 4
times more likely to have
diabetes and high blood
pressure 15 years later.
Eating Well
At every stage of life, diet affects future development
Set point
A certain body weight that a person’s homeostatic processes
strive to maintain.
Body mass index (BMI)
The ratio of a person’s weight in kilograms divided by their
height in meters squared.
Body Mass Index Calculator:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm
Taking Risks
Emerging adulthood is marked by a greater willingness to take risks
of all sorts, not just sexual ones.
- drive without seat belts, carry guns, try addictive drugs.
Edgework
Occupations, recreational activities, or other ventures that involve a
degree of risk or danger.
The prospect of “living on the edge” makes edgework compelling to
some individuals.
•Extreme sports
– Forms of recreation that include
apparent risk of injury or death and
that are attractive and thrilling as a
result.
Drug Abuse
 Drug abuse
 The ingestion of a drug to the extent that it impairs the user’s
biological or psychological well-being.
 Drug addiction
 A condition of drug dependence in which the absence of the given
drug from the individual’s system produces a drive—
physiological, biological, or both—to ingest more of the drug.
Drug Abuse
A Way to Curb Alcohol Abuse in
College
Social norms approach
•
•
A method of reducing risky behavior among emerging adults
that is based on their desire to follow social norms.
This approach publicizes survey results to make emerging
adults aware of the actual prevalence of various behaviors
within their peer group.
Cognitive Development
Emerging Adulthood
Postformal Thought
 A proposed stage of cognitive development, after
Piaget’s 4 stages
 Extends adolescent thinking by being
more practical, flexible, and dialectical
 Characterized by “problem finding”
 Person is more open with ideas and less concerned
with absolute right and wrong
Delay Discounting
Delay discounting
Tendency to undervalue, or ignore, future
consequences and rewards in favor of
immediate gratification

i.e. texting while driving
Is Postformal Really a Stage?
 Piaget’s post-formal thought
stage is controversial
 Prefrontal cortex is not mature
until one’s early 20’s
 Adult qualitatively different from
adolescent thought
Labouvie-Vief investigated age differences in self-descriptions.
• protective (high in self-involvement, low in self-doubt)
• dysregulated (fragmented, overwhelmed by emotions or
problems)
• complex (valuing openness and independence above all
• integrated (able to regulate emotions and logic)
Postformal Thought
Ability to combine subjective and objective reasoning
Subjective thought
 Thinking that is based on personal
qualities of the individual thinker
(i.e. experiences, culture, goals)
Objective thought
 Thinking that is not based on
thinker’s personal qualities but
instead based valid facts and
numbers
Postformal Thought
Cognitive Flexibility
The hallmark of postformal thinking
Ability to be:
 practical
 to predict
 to combine subjective/objective thinking
 Helps people deal with unforeseen events
 Helps avoid retreating into emotions or intellect
 A characteristic more common in emerging adults than
younger people
 Listening to others and considering diverse opinions
Postformal Thought
Working Together
“If a card had a vowel on one side, then it always has an even
number on the other side.”
E
7
K
Students working alone 91% picked E and 4 (wrong)
Working together 75% picked E and 7 (right)
4
Dialectical Thought
 Most advanced cognitive process
 Ability to consider a thesis and its antithesis and arrive at a
synthesis
 Being able to see the pros and cons, advantages and
disadvantages, possibilities and limitations
 Dialectical thinking is rare in adolescents, more often found
in middle-aged people
Countering Stereotypes
Stereotype Threat
•
•
The possibility that one’s appearance or behavior will be
misread to confirm another’s oversimplified, prejudiced
attitudes.
The mere possibility of being negatively stereotyped
arouses anxiety that can disrupt cognition and emotional
regulation
Morals Emerging Adults
Gender differences
 Morality of care

Tendency of females to be socialized to be reluctant to judge
right and wrong in absolute terms
 Morality of justice
 Tendency of males to be socialized to emphasize justice over
compassion and judging right and wrong in absolute terms
Psychosocial Development
Emerging Adulthood
Intimacy vs. Isolation
•
Erikson’s sixth psychosocial stage emphasizes that humans
are social creatures. 19 – 40 year olds.
•
Intimacy progresses from attraction to close connection to
ongoing commitment.
•
Marriage and parenthood, as emerging adults are discovering,
are only two of several paths to intimacy.
Continuity and Change
Identity Achieved?
•
•
•
The search for identity begins at puberty and continues much
longer.
Most emerging adults are still seeking to determine who they are.
Erikson believed that, at each stage, the outcome of earlier crises
provides the foundation of each new stage.
Identity
Emerging Adulthood:
two important focuses are ethnicity & vocation
Ethnicity
• Most emerging adults identify with very specific ethnic
groups.
• Ethnic identity may affect choices in language, manners,
romance, employment, neighborhood, religion, clothing, and
values.
Vocation
College and Temporary Jobs: Moratorium and preparation
Vocational Identity
Personality in Emerging Adulthood
 Rising Self-Esteem
 continuity and improvement in attitudes of young adults
 Worrisome Children Grow Up
 children with high aggression and those with extreme
shyness grew up with little pathology
 Plasticity
 open to new experiences which allows personality shifts
and eagerness for more education
Friendships
Friendship
Throughout life, friends defend against stress and provide joy.
• Friends, new and old, are particularly crucial during emerging
adulthood.
• Most single young adults have larger and more supportive
friendship networks than newly married young adults once did.
Male-Female Friendships
Not usually prelude to romance
Problems arise if others assume it is sexual
Most heterosexual committed partners tend to have less opposite
sex friendships
•
Romantic Partners
 Relationship between love and marriage depends on
era and culture.
 3 patterns occurring roughly in thirds:
1. Arranged marriages
2. Adolescents meet a select group and
man ask woman’s parents for permission
3. People socialize with many and then fall in love and marry
when they are able, the most common in Western cultures
Intimacy
The Dimensions of Love
Robert Sternberg (1988) described three distinct aspects of love:
Passion- an intense physical, cognitive and emotional
onslaught characterized by excitement, ecstasy, and euphoria.
Intimacy- knowing someone well, sharing secrets as well as sex.
Commitment- grows gradually through decisions to be
together, mutual care giving, kept secrets, shared
possessions, and forgiveness.
Intimacy
Emerging Adulthood: Intimacy
 Hookups
A sexual encounter with neither intimacy nor commitment
 Social networks
A Web site that allows users
to publically share their lives
and connect with large
numbers of people
 Choice overload
Having so many possibilities that a thoughtful choice
becomes difficult
Cohabitation
Cohabitation
Cohabitation
Living with an unrelated person—typically a romantic partner—
to whom one is not married
Most young adults in the U.S., England, and northern Europe
cohabit rather than marry before age 25.
Half of all cohabitating couples in the U.S. plan on marrying eventually.
Similarities and Differences
 Homogamy

Marriage between people who tend to be similar (SES,
goals, religion, attitudes, local origin, etc.)
 Heterogamy

Marriage between people who tend to be dissimilar
(interests, etc)
 Social Homogamy
The similarity of a couple’s
 leisure interests and role preferences.

Conflict
Learning to listen
 Demand/Withdraw Interaction
A situation in a romantic relationship wherein one person
wants to address an issue and the other refuses
Research shows that person with the most power tends
to withdraw / person with less power (wanting more
change) tends to demand. Evident in both hetero- and
homosexual couples.
Intimate Partner Violence
 Emerging adults experience more partner violence
than those over 25.
 Alcohol and drugs make violence more likely and
more severe.
 Rates are high and would be higher if self-deception
and dishonesty were not factors but would be lower
if preventative measures were in place.
Intimate Partner Violence
• Situational couple violence
 Fighting between romantic couples that is brought on more by
the situation than by personality problems
• Intimate terrorism
 A violent and demeaning form of abuse in a romantic
relationship where the victim is too scared to fight back, seek
help, or withdraw
Emerging Adults and Their Parents
 Linked Lives
Where the success, health, and well-being of each family
member are connected to those of other members.
 Financial Support
 Parents of all income levels in
the U.S. help their adult children.
 A Global Perspective
 Parental support and linked lives
are typical everywhere.
In some countries, it is valued more than in others
