Chapter 13
Physical and Cognitive
Development in Early
Adulthood
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
The Transition
from Adolescence
to Adulthood
The Criteria for
Becoming an
Adult
The Transition
from
High School
to College
or University
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
The Criteria for Becoming an Adult
• The most widely recognized marker of entry into
adulthood is when an individual first takes a
permanent, full-time job.
• Economic independence may be considered a
criterion for adulthood.
• More than 70% of college students reported that
being an adult means accepting responsibility
for the consequences of one’s actions, deciding
one’s own beliefs and values, and establishing a
relationship with parents as an equal adult.
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The Transition from High School to
College or University
• Stress
• Happiness
• Education
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Stress
• Today’s postsecondary students
experience more stress and are more
depressed than in the past.
• Pressures include needing to succeed in
school, getting a good job upon
graduation, and making lots of money.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Negative Ways to Cope with Stress
•
•
•
•
•
•
Repress it
Take it out on other people
Keep your feelings to yourself
Tell yourself that the problem will go away
Refuse to believe what is happening
Reduce tension by eating and drinking
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Positive Ways to Cope with Stress
• See stress as a
challenge to be
overcome
• Develop an
optimistic outlook
and think positively
• Learn how to relax
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Happiness
• Happy university
students are highly
social, more
extroverted, and
have strong
romantic and social
relationships.
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Education
• Canada has the
highest rate of
university
attendance around
the world.
• 41% of 18–21 year
olds are enrolled in
university in
Canada.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Physical Development,
Health, and Wellness
The Peak and
Slowdown in
Physical
Performance
Eating and
Weight
Regular
Exercise
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Substance
Abuse
The Peak and Slowdown in
Physical Performance
• Most of us reach our peak physical performance
and are the healthiest between ages 19 and 26.
• Few young adults have chronic health problems.
• Hidden danger of peak performance and health
is that young adults can push their bodies too far
and bounce back quickly, leading to health
problems later in life.
• Muscle tone and strength usually begin to
show signs of decline around the age of 30.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Eating and Weight
• Obesity
• Weight
• A Word about
Dietary Fats
• Dieting
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Obesity
• Heredity
• Set Point and
Metabolism
• Environmental
Factors
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Heredity
• Estimates of the variance in body mass
that can be explained by heredity range
from 25–70%.
• Identical human twins have similar
weights, even when they are reared apart.
• Research has also found that animals can
be inbred to have a propensity for obesity.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Set Point and Metabolism
• Set point – the weight maintained when no effort
is made to gain or lose weight.
• Fat is stored in adipose cells that, when filled,
prevent hunger.
• When people gain weight, the number of their fat
cells increases, possibly for good.
• Basal metabolism rate (BMR) – minimal amount
of energy an individual uses in a resting state.
• BMR varies with age and sex: it is slightly
higher for males and it declines with age.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Environmental Factors
• Strong evidence of the environment’s influence on
weight is the doubling of the rate of obesity in the U.S.
since 1900.
• This increase is likely due to greater availability of food
(particularly food high in fat), energy saving devices, and
declining physical activity.
• Obesity is six times more prevalent among women with
low incomes than women with high incomes.
• Americans are more obese than Europeans and people
in many other areas of the world.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
A Word About Dietary Fats
• Dietary fats are both
necessary and
unavoidable parts of
our diet.
• Trans fats cause
problems with the
body’s ability to
regulate cholesterol
by actually increasing
the risk of heart
disease.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Dieting
•
•
•
•
Restrained Eating
Do Diets Work?
Exercise
Dieting: Harm or
Benefit?
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Restrained Eating
• Restrained eaters are individuals who
chronically restrict their food intake to control
their weight.
• They are often on diets, are very conscious of
what they eat, and tend to feel guilty after
splurging on sweets.
• When they stop dieting, they tend to binge-eat
large quantities of food in a short time.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Do Diets Work?
• Few people are successful at keeping
weight off long-term.
• Some critics argue that all diets fail.
• The majority of evidence indicates that some
people who go on diets do lose weight and
maintain the loss.
• The frequency to which this occurs, and whether
or not some diets are better than others, is still
open to question.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Exercise
• What is known about losing weight is that the
most effective programs include an exercise
component.
• Exercise burns up calories and continues to
elevate a person’s metabolic rate for several
hours after the exercise.
• Exercise lowers a person’s set point for
weight.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Regular Exercise
• Research suggests that both moderate and
intense activities produce important physical
and psychological gains.
• Aerobic exercise is sustained exercise that
stimulates heart and lung activity.
• The main focus of exercise’s effects on health
has involved preventing heart disease.
• In addition to physical benefits, exercise
improves self-concept and reduces anxiety and
depression.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Dieting: Harm or Benefit?
• Many people who are on diets should not be.
• Even when diets produce weight loss, they can
place the dieter at risk for other health problems.
• Researchers have found a link between frequent
changes in weight and chronic disease.
• Liquid diets and other very low-calorie strategies
are related to gall bladder damage.
• When overweight people diet successfully,
however, they become less depressed and
reduce their risk for many health problems.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Substance Abuse
• Alcohol
• Cigarette Smoking
• Addiction
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Alcohol
• 87% of university
students drink
• Problems reported by
almost half of binge
drinkers included:
– Hangovers
– Missed classes
– Regrets
– Unplanned sex
– Driving after
drinking
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Cigarette Smoking
• Smoking is linked to 30% of cancer deaths, 21%
of heart disease deaths, and 82% of chronic
pulmonary disease deaths.
• Second-hand smoke is implicated in as many as
9,000 lung cancer deaths a year.
• Children of smokers are at special risk for
respiratory and middle-ear diseases.
• Fewer people are smoking today but they are
starting to smoke at an earlier age.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Addiction
• Addiction is a pattern of behaviour characterized by an
overwhelming involvement with using a drug and
securing its supply.
• This can occur despite adverse consequences
associated with the use of the drug.
• There is a strong tendency to relapse after quitting or
withdrawal.
• Withdrawal symptoms consist of significant changes in
physical functioning and behaviour.
• Controversy continues about whether addictions are
diseases.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Disease Model of Addiction
• Describes addictions as biologically based,
lifelong diseases that involve a loss of control
over behaviour and require medical and/or
spiritual treatment for recovery.
• Addiction is either inherited or bred into a person
early in life.
• Current or recent problems in life are not
believed to be causes of the disease.
• Once involved in the disease, you can never
completely rid yourself of it.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
The Life-Process Model of
Addiction
• In the life-process model of addiction,
addiction is not a disease but rather a
habitual response and a source of
gratification or security that can be
understood only in the context of social
relationships and experiences.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Sexuality
Sexual Growth
and Development
Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Forcible
Sexual
Behaviour
and Sexual
Harassment
Sexual Orientation
• A large 1994 survey showed that Americans’
sexual lives are more conservative than
previously believed.
• Sexual behaviour is ruled by marriage and
monogamy for most North Americans.
• Married couples have sex the most.
• Adultery is the exception rather than the rule.
• Men think about sex far more than women do.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Homosexual Attitudes and
Behaviour
• Today, it is more accepted to view sexual
orientation along a continuum from exclusive
heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality
rather than an either/or proposition.
• Researchers have found no differences between
homosexuals and heterosexuals in a wide range
of attitudes, behaviours, and adjustments.
• An individual’s sexual orientation is most likely
determined by genetic, hormonal, cognitive, and
environmental factors.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases and
Infections
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gonorrhea
Syphilis
Chlamydia
Genital Herpes
HPV
AIDS
Protecting against
STDs
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Gonorrhea
• An STD commonly called the “drip” or the “clap.”
• Approximately 4,900 cases are reported
annually in Canada.
• The bacterium thrives in the moist mucous
membranes lining the mouth, throat, vagina,
cervix, urethra, and anal tract.
• It is spread by contact between the infected
membranes of one individual and those of
another.
• Gonorrhea can be treated with antibiotics.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Syphilis
• An STD caused by the bacterium Treponema
pallidum, a member of the spirochete family.
• Syphilis is transmitted by penile-vaginal, oralgenital, or anal contact.
• It can be transmitted from a pregnant woman to
her fetus after the fourth month of pregnancy.
• In its early stages it can be treated with
antibiotics.
• In its advanced stages, syphilis can cause
paralysis or even death.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Chlamydia
• The most common of all STDs.
• It is named for Chlamydia trachomitis, an
organism that spreads by sexual contact and
infects the genital organs of both sexes.
• Its incidence is much higher than that of
gonorrhea and syphilis.
• About 40,000 Canadians are affected each year
with chlamydia.
• Women run a 70% chance of contracting it in a
single sexual encounter.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Genital Herpes
• An STD caused by a large family of viruses with many
different strains.
• The virus can be transmitted through nonlatex condoms
and foams.
• Three to five days after contact, itching and tingling can
occur, followed by eruption of sores and blisters.
• Although certain drugs can alleviate symptoms, there is
no known cure for herpes.
• People infected with herpes often experience severe
emotional distress along with the physical discomfort.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
HPV
• HPV is a virus (human papillomavirus) that
causes warts on people.
• A few types of the virus cause warts on the
genitals.
• The most common way to contract HPV is by
having sex with or touching the genitals of
someone who already has the virus.
• Women with HPV are at a higher risk for cervical
cancer.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
AIDS
• An STD caused by the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
• This virus destroys the body’s immune system.
• A person with HIV is vulnerable to germs that a
normal immune system could destroy.
• Due to education and the development of more
effective drug treatments, deaths due to AIDS
have begun to decline in the Canada.
• AIDS is increasing in some parts of the world.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Contracting HIV
• Experts say that HIV can only be transmitted by:
–
–
–
–
–
sexual contact
sharing hypodermic needles
blood transfusion
other direct contact of cuts or mucous membranes
In utero, during the birth process, or during breast feeding
• Anyone who is sexually active or uses IV drugs is at risk
for contracting HIV.
• No one is immune.
• Once an individual is infected, the prognosis is illness
and death.
• The only safe behaviour is abstinence from sex.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Protecting against STDs
• Know Your Own and Your Partner’s Risk
Status
• Obtain Medical Examinations
• Have Protected, Not Unprotected, Sex
• Do Not Have Sex with Multiple Partners
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Forcible Sexual Behaviour and
Sexual Harassment
• Sexual Assault
• Sexual
Harassment
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Sexual Assault
• Forcible sexual intercourse with a person who
does not give consent.
• Legal definitions differ in different jurisdictions.
• Date or acquaintance rape is coercive sexual
activity directed at someone with whom the
individual is at least casually acquainted.
• Rohypnol, or the “date-rape drug,” is becoming
more popular on college and university
campuses.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Sexual Harassment
• Sexual harassment is a manifestation of power
and domination of one person over another.
• Sexual harassment can range from sexist
remarks and covert physical contact to blatant
propositions and sexual assaults.
• Millions of women experience sexual
harassment each year in work and educational
settings.
• It can result in serious psychological
consequences for the victim.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Cognitive Development
Cognitive Stages
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Creativity
Cognitive Stages
•
•
•
•
Piaget’s View
Realistic and Pragmatic Thinking
Reflective and Relativistic Thinking
Is There a Fifth, Post-Formal Stage?
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Piaget’s View
• Piaget believed that young adults are more quantitatively
advanced in their thinking in the sense that they have
more knowledge than adolescents.
• He also believed that adults especially increase their
knowledge in a specific area.
• Whereas adolescents may begin to plan and
hypothesize about intellectual problems, adults are more
systematic and sophisticated about it.
• However, many adults do not think at the formal
operational level.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Realistic and Pragmatic Thinking
• Other developmentalists believe that the idealism that
Piaget described as part of formal operational thinking
decreases in early adulthood.
• This especially occurs as young adults move into the
world of work and face constraints of reality.
• K. Warner Schaie concluded that it is unlikely that adults
go beyond the powerful methods of scientific thinking
characteristic of the formal operational stage.
• He does believe that adults progress beyond
adolescents in their use of intellect.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Reflective and Relativistic Thinking
• William Perry proposed various cognitive
changes that take place in early adulthood.
• He believed that adolescents view the world in
polarities: right/wrong, good/bad, we/they.
• As they move into adulthood, this absolute,
dualistic thinking gives way to reflective,
relativistic thinking of adulthood.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Is There a Fifth, Postformal Stage?
• Post-formal thought is qualitatively different than Piaget’s
formal operational thought.
• Post-formal thought involves understanding that:
– the correct answer to a problem requires reflective
thinking
– it may vary from one situation to another
– the search for truth is an ongoing, never-ending
process
– solutions to problems need to be realistic
• There also exists the understanding that emotion and
subjective factors can influence thinking.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Creativity
• Adult
Developmental
Changes
• Csikszentmihalyi’s
Ideas
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Adult Developmental Changes
• Research has found that creativity peaks in
adulthood, usually in the forties.
• A decline in creative contributions is often found
in the fifties and later, however, it is not as great
as commonly thought.
• Qualifying any conclusions about age and
creative accomplishments are:
– the magnitude of the decline in productivity
– contrasts across creative domains
– individual differences in lifetime output
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Flow
• Flow is a heightened state of pleasure we
experience when we are engaged in mental and
physical challenges that absorb us.
• Mihaly Csikzsentmihalyi proposed the concept of
flow after interviewing 90 leading figures in art,
business, government, education, and science.
• He believes everyone is capable of achieving
flow.
• The first step towards a more creative life is
cultivating curiosity and interest.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Csikszentmihalyi’s Ideas
• Try to be surprised by something every day.
• Try to surprise at least one person every day.
• Write down each day what has surprised you
and how you surprised others.
• When something sparks your interest, follow it.
• Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to
look forward to.
• Take charge of your schedule.
• Spend time in settings that stimulate your
creativity.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Careers and Work
Developmental Changes
Personality Types
Values and Careers
The Occupational Handbook
Finding the Right Career
Work
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Developmental Changes
• Children have idealistic fantasies about what
they want to be when they grow up.
• In high school, students begin to think about
careers on a somewhat less idealistic basis.
• In the late teens and early twenties, career
decision making has turned more serious.
• From the mid-twenties through the remainder of
early adulthood, individuals often seek to
establish their emerging career.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Personality Types
• Personality type theory is John Holland’s view that it is
important for individuals to select a career that matches
up well with their personality type.
• He believes that this will more likely result in their
enjoyment of work and longevity at a job.
• Holland acknowledges that individuals are rarely pure
types, most are a combination of two or three.
• Holland’s personality types are incorporated into the
Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Holland’s Six Types
•
•
•
•
•
•
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Values and Career
• An important aspect of choosing a career
is that it also match up with your values.
• When people know what they value most,
they can refine their career choice more
effectively.
• Some values are reflected in
Holland’s personality types.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
The Occupational Outlook
• Work InfoNet is an
excellent Canadian
Source for individuals
to keep up on
occupational outlook
in various fields.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Finding the Right Career
• Have several careers in mind rather than
just one.
• Develop skills that are important in a
variety of jobs and careers, such as
communication and computer skills.
• See a career counsellor.
• Engage in personal networking.
• Scope out Internet networks and
resources.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Work
• Work defines individuals in fundamental ways.
• Most individuals spend about one-third of their
adult lives at work.
• When unable to work, many individuals
experience emotional distress and low selfesteem.
• Some aspects of work create stress.
• New issues have arisen with the increasing
career commitment on the part of women.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.