Kathleen Stassen Berger
Part VI
Chapter Nineteen
Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Identity Achieved
Intimacy
Emotional Development
Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield
Tattoon, M.A.
1
Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial
Development
“In psychosocial development, even
more than in physical or cognitive
development, the hallmark of
contemporary adult life is diversity.”
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Identity Achieved
• the search for identity begins at
puberty, and continues through
adulthood
• each stage’s crises provides the
foundation for each new era… as is
evident in the emerging adult
3
Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– in the U.S. and Canada 1/2 of the 18 – 25year-olds are either children of immigrant or
native-born Americas of African, Asian, Indian,
or Latino descent
– most individuals identify with very specific
ethnic groups, e.g. Vietnamese, Pakistani, or
Korean Americans, not simply Asian
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Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– emerging adults meet many more
people of other backgrounds
– European Americans also understand
the importance of their own ethnicity,
e.g., Ukrainian Catholic or Russian
Jewish
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Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– everyone struggles
to forge an identify,
but immigrants
combining their
parent’s past and
their future new
social context
often have
conflicts
6
Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– choices affect language, manners,
romance, employment, neighborhood,
religion, clothing, and values
7
Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– is reciprocal, both a personal choice and a
response to others
– it depends on context and therefore changes
with time and circumstances
– it is multifaceted… emerging adults choose
some attributes and rejects others
8
Identity Achieved
• Ethnic Identity
– the changing contexts of life require
ethnic identity to be reestablished at
each phase… with one identity in
adolescence, another in emerging
adulthood
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Identity Achieved
• Vocational Identity
– is a part of growing up
– college is considered an important step
towards a career
– a correlation between college education
and income has been evident… few
unskilled jobs have been created in the
21st century
10
Intimacy
– Intimacy versus Isolation
• the sixth of Erikson’s eight stages
• adults seek someone with whom to
share their lives in an enduring and selfsacrificing commitment
• without such commitment they risk
profound aloneness and isolation
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Intimacy
• Friendship
– friends defend against stress and
provide joy throughout life
– friends are chosen for understanding,
tolerance, loyalty, affection, humor
– friends are earned; they choose us,
unlike family
12
Intimacy
• gateway to attraction
– physical attractiveness (even in platonic
same-sex relationships)
– apparent availability (willingness to talk,
to do things together)
– frequent exposure
– absence of exclusion criteria (no
unacceptable characteristics)
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Intimacy
• Gender and Friendship
– men and women have the same
friendship needs
– humans seek intimacy, lifelong
– men tend to share activities and
interests
– women have friendships that are more
intimate and emotional
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Intimacy
• Gender and Friendship
– more men than women are homophobic
– male-female differences may be cultural
and seem to be less stereotyped among
contemporary emerging adults
– cross-sex friendships have potential
problems
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Intimacy
• Romance and Relationships
– couples are marrying later and divorcing
more often than earlier cohorts
– marriage is being postponed, not
abandoned
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Intimacy
• Romance and Relationships
– the relationship between love and
marriage depends on the culture
• In 1/3 of all nations, people fall in love
and then decide to marry, with the young
man asking the young woman
• North Americans and Europeans expect
to fall in love several times but not to
marry until they are financially and
emotionally independent
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Intimacy
• The Dimensions of Love
– love is not a simple emotion
– not something universally recognized as
the glue that holds a relationship
together
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Intimacy
• The Dimensions of Love
– Sternberg described three distinct
aspects of love
• passion
• intimacy
• commitment
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Intimacy
• Cohabitation
– an arrangement in which a man and a
women live together in committed
sexual relationship but are not formally
married
– more than ½ of all emerging adults
cohabit during emerging adulthood
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Intimacy
– Cohabitation
• many people think that living together is
a good prelude for marriage; researchers
suggest they are mistaken
• living together before marriage does not
preclude problems that might arise after
a wedding
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Intimacy
• What Makes Relationships Work
– marriage is not what it once was… a legal
and religious arrangement that couple
sought for sexual expression
– most adults aged 20 to 30 are not yet married
– compared to any year in the past, fewer adults
are married (58%) and more are divorced
– the divorce rate is ½ the marriage rate
22
Intimacy
• What Makes Relationships Work
– homogamy
• marriage between individuals who tend to be
similar with respect to such variables as attitudes,
interest, goals, socioeconomic status, religion,
ethnic background, and local origin
– heterogamy
• marriage between individuals who tend to be
dissimilar with respect to such variables as
attitudes, interest, goals, socioeconomic status,
religion, ethnic background, and local origin
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Intimacy
• What Makes Relationships Work
– social homogamy
• the similarity of a couple’s leisure
interests and role preferences
– social exchange theory
• the view that social behavior is a process
of exchange aimed at maximizing the
benefits one receives and minimizing the
costs one pays
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Intimacy
• Domestic Violence:
– common couple violence
• a form of abuse in which one or both
partners of a couple engage in outbursts of
verbal and physical attacks… also called
situational couple violence
– intimate terrorism
• spouse abuse in which, most often, the
husband uses violent methods of
accelerating intensity to isolate, degrade,
and punish the wife
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Intimacy
• Family Connections
– “It is hard to overestimate the
importance of the family at any time of
the life span.”
– families are “our most important
individual support system,” a “problemsolving system”
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Emotional Development
• during emerging adulthood people
are at their peak:
– strength
– sexual impulse
– health
– cognitive growth
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Emotional Development
• Well-Being
– allows emerging adults to
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
learn
explore
make friends
find lovers
take whatever job
journey
take risks
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Emotional Development
• positive emotions increase when adults
have close relationships with
–
–
–
–
friends
lovers
parents
undergo successful transitions
• leaving home
• graduating from college
• securing a good job
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Emotional Development
• Well-Being
– some of the depression and anxieties of
adolescence lift when young people
leave their high schools and distance
themselves from dysfunctional families
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Emotional Development
• Psychopathology
– not all young adults benefit from
independence… some adults have too many
choices and too little guidance
– diathesis-stress model
• the view that mental disorders, such as
schizophrenia, are produced by the interaction
of a genetic vulnerability (the diathesis) with
stressful environmental factors and life events
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Emotional Development
• Substance Abuse Disorders
– emerging adulthood is the most common time
for substance abuse
– 1 in 8 is addicted before age 27
– substance abuse can be a common interest
for friends and romantic partners
– most sufferers manage to put an end to abuse
without professional counseling
32
Emotional Development
• Mood Disorders
– before age 30, 8% of U.S. residents suffer
from a mood disorder
– major depression is the most common
– may be biochemical… imbalances in
neurotransmitters and hormones (can also
be triggered by a stressor
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Emotional Development
• Anxiety Disorders
– ¼ of U.S. residents below the age of
25, including
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• panic attacks
– age and genetic vulnerability shape
the symptoms of anxiety disorders
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Emotional Development
• Schizophrenia
– 1% of all adults experience at least one
episode of schizophrenia
– partly genetic
– malnutrition when the brain is developing
– symptoms typically begin in adolescence
• diagnosis is most common from ages 18-24
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Emotional Development
• Continuity and Discontinuity
– most emerging adults have strengths
as well as liabilities
– many overcome anxieties, substance
abuse, etc… through “self-righting,”
social support and ongoing
maturation
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