Emerging adulthood

Young adulthood is a critical developmental period.

The world has changed in ways that place greater demands on young adults.
Economic restructuring, advances in information and communication technologies and
changes in the labor market have radically altered the landscape of risk and
opportunity in young adults.

Young adults follow less predictable pathways than those in previous generations.
Pathways are more diverse now in timing and sequencing of leaving home, completing
school, entering the workforce, forming a romantic relationship, becoming a parent.
 Health needs of young adults
The majority of young adults, are satisfied with their health.
Only a small percentage of young adults report a long-term illness or disability.

• Increasing focus is given to this important age of transition from adolescence to adulthood,
• because ways in which this psychological and social transition is negotiated may affect current
• future well-being.
• Adolescence and early adulthood are times of taking on responsibilities and frequently,
rebelling
• against them.
• With recent advances in medicine, disability caused by physical ill health has reduced.

• Factors associated with physical activity among young adults with a disability.
• Saebu and Sørensen (2011).
• Examined total physical activity and (2) the relative importance of functioning and
• disability, environmental and personal factors for physical activity among young adults with
• disability (age 18–30).
Findings revealed that personal factors demonstrated more power in explaining the variance in

physical activity.

• The personal factors were identity as a physically active person (being an exerciser),
• personal factors about self and experience and intrinsic motivation.

• The strongest association was demonstrated by having a self-schema as an exerciser.

• The other personal factor strongly associated with
• higher physical activity level was intrinsic motivation.

However the same indices linked to mental ill health remain the same.
The most frequent mental health problems in young adults are:
• Rates of depression, suicidal behaviours, eating disorders and substance abuse.
• Mental health problems and obesity are the most common health complaints.
Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults. Berryman et al. (2018).
Social media use is an important interactive tool for youth and young adults.

The quality rather than quantity of use is more crucial.

• One phenomenon that has received little research interest thus far is vague-booking.
• Vague-booking refers to social media posts that contain little actual and clear information,
• but are worded in such a way as to solicit attention and concern from readers.

• Vague booking may be considered a form of cry for help.

• Berryman et al. examined several aspects of social media
• among young adults and their relationship with various
• mental health problems: loneliness, suicidal thoughts,
• decreased empathy, social anxiety and overall mental health.

• The results revealed that, overall, social media use is a poor predictor of mental health problems.
• The exception was vague-booking, which predicted loneliness and suicidal thoughts.
 Inequality can be magnified during young adulthood.

Important social influence predictors in health are SES, ethnicity and education.

• Many adolescents and young adults participate in civic life by joining with others to address
• social issues, caring for others in their communities, and fighting for social change.

• Civic engagement in late adolescence and early adulthood were associated with higher
• educational attainment and income in adulthood suggesting that civic engagement may have an
• important function in social mobility.

• Voting, volunteering, and activism are forms of civic engagement. Ballard et al., (2018).

Activism is a unique and powerful context for youth, especially from low- income
backgrounds.
They join with like-minded peers and mentors to focus a critical eye on real-world
problems.
 It is well-known that high SES is linked with positive functioning

and that there are widespread disparities in life trajectories by SES.

Although relatively little is known about the role activism plays in development, it is theorized to
facilitate positive development especially among marginalized youth.
Activism predicted more risky health behaviours, but positively predicted SES.

Voting and volunteering were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in adulthood.
Voting and volunteering may be considered as a potential disruption to these processes.
Evidence from adult samples suggests that engaging in community as a volunteer or a voter can
boost mental health among younger samples.

• Helping others can boost healthy functioning through the psychological benefits
• of giving support to others.
Offering youth a chance to exert voice and exercise control,
• and providing the opportunity for role fulfilment and an emotional outlet,
• might lead youth to fewer health-risk behaviours and better mental health.
 Cognitive development in young adults.

Intelligence is multidimensional (Sternberg, 2008).

• Baltes et al. (2006) introduced three concepts as being vital to intellectual development in adults.
• multi-directionality, interindividual variability, and plasticity in a life span perspective.

• Over time changes occur in intelligence. These patterns of change vary and get modified over time.
• Intelligence may be studied by formal testing and assessing practical problem-solving skills.

• The psychometric approach focuses on the interrelationships among intellectual abilities and its
organization is termed the structure of intelligence.

Researchers believe there is a theoretical hierarchy in intelligence.

People’s performances on many types of problems are obtained and the results are examined to
determine whether performance on one type of problem, such as counting predicts performance
on another type of problem, like addition to get a sum.
If the performance on one test is highly related to the performance on another, the abilities

measured by the two tests are interrelated and called a factor.

• Intelligence is considered to be of primary abilities (number, word fluency) and clusters of

• primary abilities known as secondary abilities.

• Two secondary mental abilities have received attention in adult developmental research:
• fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

Fluid intelligence consists of the abilities that makes one a flexible and adaptive thinker.
Abilities to understand and respond to any situation, but especially new ones:
inductive reasoning, integration, abstract thinking.

Crystallized intelligence is the knowledge that has been acquired through life experience and
education- breadth of knowledge, comprehension of communication, judgment and
sophistication.
 adult intelligence

• These different developmental trends indicate that performance or learning that depends on basic
• underlying skills becomes more difficult with age,
• whereas performance or learning that is based on what is known continues to improve.
• Intellectual development varies a great deal from one set of skills to another.
• Whereas individual differences in fluid intelligence remain relatively uniform over time,
• Individual differences in crystallized intelligence increase with age, in situations that require it.
 Spatial ability in adolescence and young adults

Consistency of spatial ability performance in children, adolescents, and young adults

Morawietz et al., (2024).

• Spatial abilities are essential cognitive skills for many aspects of our everyday life.
• They are involved when we need to find a way to a distant destination, when we have to orientate
• ourselves in unknown environments or when we need to remember where we left our keys .
• Good spatial abilities have been associated with higher academic achievements, particularly
in
• STEM-subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).
• Spatial abilities refers to spatial perception, mental rotation, and spatial visualization.

• There are small scale and large-scale spaces, i.e., the spatial layout that requires one to
• apprehend from multiple vantage points while moving, reveals information on real-world
• spatial orientation behaviour,
• as opposed to virtual reality tests, which are frequently used nowadays to perform reproducible
• large-scale spatial assessments.
Effects of internet and smartphone addiction on cognitive control in adolescents and young
adults: Mendez et al (2024).

• Internet Addiction (IA) refers to excessive or

• uncontrolled behaviours related to Internet access,
• causing impairment or distress.
• Similarly, Smartphone Addiction (SPA) involves the
excessive use of smart- phones, disrupting users’ daily lives.
• Cognitive control plays a relevant role in the development
• of IA and SPA, with executive functions and rewards processing being particularly
important.
• IA has been linked to anxiety disorders, depression, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders,
• stress, low self-esteem, social anxiety, and poor psychological well-being.
• Similarly, SPA has been described as the excessive use of smartphones that disrupts daily life.
• However, the debate continues as to whether this excessive use of technology qualifies as an
• addictive behaviour or meets the criteria for recognition as a disorder under the DSM-5
(2013).
Neuroimaging techniques, particularly fMRI, provide a valuable tool for improving our

understanding of the neural correlates of different addictive disorders.

• Cognitive control mechanisms refer to those processes that allow the individual to encode
• information and select the most appropriate response as well as to inhibit less appropriate ones.
• From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, executive functions may be adversely affected by IA
and SPA.
• Such addictive behaviours may induce permanent changes in the neural network and impair the
• functioning of the prefrontal cortex, particularly in terms of top-down control.
• Executive dysfunction is increasingly observed in people with addictive behaviours .
• Literature identifies the age range of 13 to 25 as critical for the formation of habits and behaviours
• related to technology, including IA and SPA.
• IA and SPA may appear similar, as they refer to the full range of activities that can be
• performed via the Internet but IA and SPA may have different effects on the development or
• maintenance of behavioural addictions and different patterns of addiction risk factors.
The review has shown differences in functional activity in people

with excessive internet and smartphone use compared to controls.

• In addition to the frontal lobe,

• changes were found in the parietal and occipital lobes.
Compared to controls,
• young adults with IA had decreased functional connectivity.

• Adolescents and young adults with higher levels of IA and SPA

• tend to have impaired executive function, including a set of
• cognitive processes (adaptive thinking, planning, self monitoring).
They are understood as disorders that combine brain and contextual aspects, as proposed by
Biopsychosocial model- a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social elements.

• Internet addiction has been found to be associated with alterations in the prefrontal cortex
and a decreased inhibitory control that affects decision-making.
Beyond formal operational thinking.

People face dilemmas where decisions need be taken. They need to retrospect on situations.

• Decisions may be taken after considering aspects of the situation that go well beyond the
• information given in the problem.
• This thinking represents a qualitative change beyond formal operations.
• Thinking goes into postformal thought. The correct answer may vary in situations.
• There may be ambiguity and contradiction. Emotion and subjectivity play a role in thinking.

• In general, research indicates postformal thinking has its origins in young adulthood.
• Thinking in adulthood has been described in different ways.
• When reasoning through dilemmas that may contain personal relations, current affair, religion,
• they go into reflective judgement.
• Reflective judgement goes through a series of stages, pre-reflective thought, subjectivity and
• finally reflective judgement following careful consideration of several points of view.
Integrating emotion and logic

• Emotional development parallels intellectual development.

• Adult thinking is characterized by the integration of emotion with logic.
• These parallel processes create tension, resulting in the cognitive- emotional integration and
• interplay that adults use when confronted with real-life problems.
• As they mature, adults tend to make decisions and analyse problems more on pragmatics and
• emotions than on logic.
• Rules and norms are viewed as relative, not absolute.
• Mature thinkers realize thinking is an inherently social enterprise that demands making
• compromises with other people and tolerating contradiction and ambiguity.
• Such shifts mean one’s sense of self also undergoes a fundamental change.
 As people grow older, their experience enables them to tackle difficult tasks

without displaying much emotion.

• Under task demands, the arousal that is created narrows their ability to bring emotions to bear.
• Neuroimaging evidence
• Evidence from neuroimaging research indicates
• emotion and logic processing is integrated in adults.
• This integration occurs in the prefrontal cortex
• and the anterior insula.
• these interconnections are different in some forms
• of mental disorders, indicating intellectual and
• emotion processing share common brain pathways
• in healthy adults.
 Emotional intelligence

The increased integration of emotion and thought across young adulthood provides a way of
examining how cognitive abilities operate in social situations .

• A key ability in social contexts is emotional intelligence.

• People’s ability to recognize their own and others’ emotions, to correctly identify and and use this
• information to guide their thinking and behaviour.

• Emotional intelligence consists of two aspects. EI can be viewed as a trait that reflects a
• person’s self-perceived dispositions and abilities.
• EI can be viewed as an ability that reflects the person’s success at processing emotional
information and using it appropriately in social contexts.

• EI may be an underlying factor in social cognitive situations, such as impression formation.

Older adults may rely more on life experiences and social rules of behaviour,
whereas younger adults may be more concerned with situational consistency.
Search for identity. Are there many selves?

• Young adults plan their future. Based on their own and others experiences they create a life span
• construct that involves identity, values, society, that represent the past, present and future.

• They have expectations of the future. They make possible plans and develop a social clock.

• According to MacAdam (2015) identity is not just a collection of traits, plans, or goals.
• It is based on a story of how the person came into being and who he or she will become.

• McAdams argues that people create a life story or an internalized narrative.

• Two common themes are agency (reflecting power, autonomy) and communion (intimacy,
• belongingness).
Life stories indicate one’s beliefs and values are used to set the context for ones actions.
• Every life story contains episodes that provide insights into perceived change and continuity in
life.
The roles we play, in our lives represent idealizations of the self, such as “the good student.”

• Integrating these various aspects of the self into a coherent whole begins in emerging adulthood,
• and continues to be a major challenge of midlife and later adulthood.

• Autobiographical memory is a method for examining the development of life stories.

This co-construction of identity is a good example of conversational remembering.

• McAdams believes the model for change in identity over time is a process of refashioning one’s
• life story.
• This process appears to be strongly influenced by culture.

Possible self

When we speculate as to what we would like to be, we create a possible self.

• What we could or would like to become often reflects personal goals.
• Our possible selves are powerful motivators. Can have hoped for and feared possible selves.
Personal control beliefs reflect the degree to which one believes that
ones performance in a situation depends on personal initiative.

• Does one generally believe that outcomes depend

• on the things one does. Or are they due to factors
• outside oneself, such as luck or the power of others?
• Answers requires the integration of several different
• sources of information, including emotions.
• The result of this integration are various conclusions
• about how much control one has in any specific situation.
• A high sense of personal control implies a belief
• that performance is ones own,
• whereas a low sense of personal control implies
• that performance is under the influence of forces
• other than oneself.
Personal control is an extremely important idea in a variety of settings and cultures because of

the way it guides behaviour.

• Personal control is an important concept that can be applied broadly to several domains, including
• social networks, health, and careers.
• It is related to the desire to make a difference in one’s life.
• People experience four types of personal control:
• control from within oneself, control over oneself, control over the environment,
• and control from the environment.
• Despite its importance, we do not have a clear picture of the developmental course of personal
• control beliefs.
• Younger adults are more satisfied when attributing success in attaining a goal to their own
efforts,
• whereas older adults are more satisfied when they attribute such success to their ability.