 Early
Adulthood Transitions and
the Social Clock
 Physical Changes and
Transitions
 Cognitive Changes and
Transitions
 Social Changes and Transitions
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Age identity exploration: deciding who you are
Age of instability: the time when you change
from place to place and from job to job.
Age of self focus: deciding who to be with,
where to go and what to do.
Age of feeling between: you still don’t feel like
an adult.
Age of possibilities: full of optimism and hopes
 The
concept of the social clock
describes societal expectations
for the time at which people are
expected to marry, have
children, and accomplish other
life tasks.
 The social clock differs for each
culture; it usually deals with
significant changes in life that
most people experience-
For example, 40% of brides in Jordan are in
their teens while they only constitute 3% of
brides in Hong Kong.
 Another example is the age for retirement;
the following is the percentage of men over
65 in the work force--Western Europe, 10%,
U.S., 16%, Japan, 36%, and Mexico, 69%.
 Another difference may be the time to
leave home; the U.S., most people leave
home after graduation from high school or
college, but in Korea, most people live in
their parents' homes until they get married
(some still don't leave after that).
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This term is
usually
connected to
age-linked
stages such
the "midlife
crisis". The
strange thing
is that events
associated
with the term
"midlife crisis"
do not
happen in
"midlife".
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The stereotype of a
man with a midlife
crisis is getting a
young girlfriend or a
sports car.
For example, divorce occurs mostly to
couples in their twenties while suicide is
committed by people in their seventies and
eighties.
 However, a survey taken by 10,000 men
and women between the ages of 33 and 54
shows that men experience an emotional
crisis around the age of 36 and 42 while
women do not experience a significant
change except a small emotional instability
in their early 50s.

Early adulthood is the period between the ages of
20-35 years. .
 Physical Functioning
 Peak of strength, energy, and endurance
 Body functions are fully developed by mid twenties
 Senses are sharpest
 Health
 Most have no chronic conditions or impairments
 Most medical visits are for injuries and pregnancy
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Death Rates
Men are more apt to die from accidents than
women
African-Americans have twice the death rate
of Caucasians.
U.S rate = 21.9 per 100,000 men
Japanese rate = 0.5 murders per 100,000 men
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Middle adulthood is the period between
the ages of 36-64 years.
Sensory and Motor Functioning
Sexual and Reproductive Functioning
Hearing loss for high-pitched sounds
Men have twice loss rate as women
Ability to focus declines
Loss of near vision
Decline in visual acuity-sharpness of vision
Need more brightness
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Motor Functioning
Strength and coordination decline
Due to loss of muscle mass, replaced by fat
Reaction time slows, especially for motor
responses
Experience makes up for physical changes
Decline of reproductive capacity
Women: ability to bear children ends
Men: can father children, but have reduced
fertility
Both experience decline in sex hormones
Menopause
 Cessation of ovulation and menstruation
 Occurs one year after last menstrual
period
 Less production of estrogen
 Periods become irregular
 Hot flashes due to expansion and
contraction of blood vessels
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Changes begin 10 yrs later than women
Enlargement of prostrate gland
Causes problems with urination
Testosterone levels decline gradually
Sperm count declines, slower motility of sperm
Less frequent erections & less powerful
ejaculations, takes longer to recover
Minority experience erectile dysfunction
(impotence)
Multiple causes due to illness, stress, health
habits
Late adulthood is the period between the age 65
and older.
 mental illness is less common among older adults
than younger adult
 Dementia: physiologically based cognitive and
behavioral deterioration
 Increases with age, but has many possible causes
 80% of dementia caused by disease, not reversible
 Hypertension, strokes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
 Alzheimer’s is fatal disease with no cure
 Progressive, degenerative brain disorder
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Fluid intelligence peaks during early adulthood and
then declines
Ability to apply mental powers to new problems
Perceiving relationships, forming concepts, drawing
inferences
Decline probably due to changes in brain
crystallized intelligence improves through middle age
and on
Ability to remember and use information acquired
over a lifetime
Depends on education and culture
Uses stored information and automatic processing
Fluid intelligence:
 Is our ability to reason speedily and
abstractly we use this type of intelligence
to solve logic problems like sudoku.
 This kind of intelligence tends to
decrease during late adulthood.
 Crystallized intelligence:
 Is our accumulated knowledge and
verbal skills and it tends to increase with
age.
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You have to choose a career and then a
job .
Intimate attachment is vital to a happy
adulthood.
Love last longer when you have
Shared emotional support(empathy when
things go wrong and material support)
intimate self-disclosure ( sharing
embarrassing moments or deep secrets)
Similar interests (leisure activities and
values.)
Many terminal ill patients end up in
hospice care instead of impersonal
hospital care.
 When death is sudden and unexpected,
grief and subsequent depression can be
particularly hard to handle for the
relatives
 The grief of women is five times greater
than men’s grieve.
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http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/Spectru
m/Bibliography/the-life-cycle.htm
http://theneuron.wetpaint.com/page/Psyc
h+M.D.+-+Social+Clock
http://blue.utb.edu/ecantu/Psyc%202314/F
eldman3Notes/MiddleAdultPhysCogFeldma
n3Notes.htm
http://blue.utb.edu/ecantu/Psyc%202314/F
eldman3Notes/EarlyAdultPhysCogFeldman
3Notes.htm
http://blue.utb.edu/ecantu/psyc%202314/n
otes/feldmannotes17.htm