LESSON 1: ADOLESCENCE
ADOLESCENCE
- is the passage from childhood to adulthood.
- Is a social construction.
- Is a time of opportunities and stress.
- Is a time of social change.
- Adolescents tend to form more complex
relationships and are more concerned with
social hierarchies (compared to children).
- Adolescents grapple with changes in identity
and feelings of self-consciousness, and they
become more sensitive to acceptance and
rejection from their peers.
PUBERTY
- is the process by which a person attains sexual
maturity and the ability to reproduce.
- Involves dramatic biological changes.
Adolescence as Social Construction
- There was no such concept in preindustrial
societies; there, children were considered
adults when they matured physically or began a
vocational apprenticeship. Not until the
twentieth century was adolescence defined as a
separate stage of life in the Western world.
Today, adolescence has become a global
phenomenon, though it may take differing
forms in different cultures.
Adolescence as a Time of Opportunities and Risks
- Adolescence offers opportunities for growth,
not only in physical dimensions, but also in
cognitive and social competence, autonomy,
self-esteem, and intimacy. Young people who
have supportive connections with parents,
school, and 356 Part 5 Adolescence community
tend to develop in a positive, healthful way.
- Avoidance of such risky behaviors increases the
chances that young people will come through
the adolescent years in good physical and
mental health.
Physical Development
How Puberty Begins
- Puberty results from heightened production of
sex-related hormones and takes place in two
stages: adrenarche, the maturing of the adrenal
glands, followed a few years later by
gonadarche, the maturing of the sex organs.
Puberty Onset
- Girls: Between age 8 and 10
- Boys: Between age 9 and 11
PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS
- Organs necessary for reproduction
Female
- Ovaries, Fallopian tubes, Uterus, Clitoris, and
Vagina
Male
- Testes, Penis, Scrotum, Seminal vesicles, and
Prostate gland
SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS
Female
- Breast of females, broad shoulders of males.
- Change in the voice and skin texture, muscular
development, growth of pubic, facial, axilliary,
body hair.
Adolescent Growth Spurt
- The adolescent growth spurt —a rapid increase
in height, weight, and muscle and bone growth
that occurs during puberty—generally begins in
girls between ages 9½ and 14½ (usually at
about 10) and in boys, between 10½ and 16
(usually at 12 or 13). It typically lasts about two
years; soon after it ends, the young person
reaches sexual maturity. Both growth hormone
and the sex hormones (androgens and
estrogen) contribute to this normal pubertal
growth pattern.
- Because girls’ growth spurt usually occurs two
years earlier than that of boys, girls between
ages 11 and 13 tend to be taller, heavier, and
stronger than boys the same age. After their
growth spurt, boys are again larger. Girls
 typically reach full height at age 15 and boys at
age 17. The rate of muscular growth peaks at
age 12½ for girls and 14½ for boys.
Girls
- 9 ½ and 13 ½ years old (15 years-full height)
Boys
- 10 ½ and 16 years old (17 years-full height)
Growth hormone and sex hormone contribute to this
normal puberty growth.
Adolescent Growth Spurt
- The adolescent growth spurt —a rapid increase
in height, weight, and muscle and bone growth
that occurs during puberty—generally begins in
girls between ages 9½ and 14½ (usually at
about 10) and in boys, between 10½ and 16
(usually at 12 or 13). It typically lasts about two
years; soon after it ends, the young person
reaches sexual maturity. Both growth hormone
and the sex hormones (androgens and
estrogen) contribute to this normal pubertal
growth pattern.
- Because girls’ growth spurt usually occurs two
years earlier than that of boys, girls between
ages 11 and 13 tend to be taller, heavier, and
stronger than boys the same age. After their
growth spurt, boys are again larger. Girls
typically reach full height at age 15 and boys at
age 17. The rate of muscular growth peaks at
age 12½ for girls and 14½ for boys.
Signs of Sexual Maturity
- The maturation of the reproductive organs
brings the beginning of menstruation in girls
and the production of sperm in boys. The
principal sign of sexual maturity in boys is the
production of sperm. The first ejaculation, or
spermarche, occurs at an average age of 13. A
boy may wake up to find a wet spot or a
hardened, dried spot on the sheets— the result
of a nocturnal emission, an involuntary
ejaculation of semen (commonly referred to as
a wet dream). Most adolescent boys have these
emissions, sometimes in connection with an
erotic dream.
- The principal sign of sexual maturity in girls is
menstruation, a monthly shedding of tissue
from the lining of the womb. The first
menstruation, called menarche, occurs fairly
late in the sequence of female development; its
normal timing can vary from age 10 to 16½.
Adolescent Brain
- A “work in progress”
- Immaturity of adolescent brain has led to
questions of legal responsibility
- Risk taking comes from two brain networks
Socioemotional network (i.e., peer influence)
Cognitive control network (responses to
stimuli)
Adolescent Brain
- Adolescents become more interests in and
influenced by their peers and social
relationships.
- They can think in more complex and
sophisticated ways and can imagine possible
futures and alternative realities.
- They show and increased tendency for
impulsivity and risk-taking and also find it hard
to focus on long term-goals.
- The frontal lobes are associated with problem-
solving, impulse control, goal setting. Planning,
and other similar behaviors generally associated
with monitoring social behavior.
PHYSICAL HEALTH
Physical Body
- Exercise in adolescence is usually much less
than in childhood.
Sleep Needs and Patterns
- Average sleep declines to less than eight hours
at age 16
- Still, many adolescents do not get enough sleep
- Changes in circadian timing and melatonin may
account for tendency to stay up late
- School schedules are out of sync with biological
rhythms
Body Image
- How one believes one looks
- Concern most intense during adolescence
 - Pattern is more intense with females
- Normal increase in girls’ body fat
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Bulimia Nervosa
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
- Most young people emerge from the teenage
years with mature, healthy bodies and a zest for
life. Their cognitive development has continued,
too. Adolescents not only look different from
younger children; they also think and talk
differently. Although their thinking may remain
immature in some ways, many are capable of
abstract reasoning and sophisticated moral
judgments and can plan more realistically for
the future.
Piagetian Cognitive Development
- Adolescents enter what Piaget called the
highest level of cognitive development— formal
operations —when they develop the capacity
for abstract thought.
- This development, usually around age 11, gives
them a new, more flexible, way to manipulate
information.
- They can understand historical time and
extraterrestrial space. They can use symbols to
represent other symbols (for example, letting
the letter X stand for an unknown numeral) and
thus can learn algebra and calculus.
- They can better appreciate metaphor and
allegory and thus can find richer meanings in
literature.
- They can think in terms of what might be, not
just what is.
- They can imagine possibilities and can form and
test hypotheses.
- The ability to think abstractly has emotional
implications, too.
Formal Operations
- Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development,
characterized by the ability to think abstractly.
- This development, usually around age 11, gives
them a new, more flexible way to manipulate
information.
- They can understand historical time and
extraterrestrial space.
- They can use symbols to represent other
symbols (for example, letting the letter X stand
for an unknown numeral) and thus can learn
algebra and calculus.
- They can better appreciate metaphor and
allegory and thus can find richer meanings in
literature.
- They can think in terms of what might be, not
just what is they can imagine possibilities and
can form and test hypotheses.
- The ability to think abstractly has emotional
implications too.
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
- Involves a methodical, scientific approach to
problem solving, and it characterizes formal
operations thinking.
Changes in Information Processing
- Changes in the way adolescents process
information reflect the maturation of the
brain’s frontal lobes and may help explain the
cognitive advances Piaget described. Which
neural connections wither and which become
strengthened is highly responsive to experience.
Thus, progress in cognitive processing varies
greatly among individual adolescents (Kuhn,
2006)
- Information-processing researchers have
identified two broad categories of measurable
change in adolescent cognition: structural
change and functional change (Eccles et al.,
2003).
Structural Change
- It includes (1) changes in working memory
capacity and (2) the increasing amount of
knowledge stored in long-term memory.
- Information stored in long-term memory can be
declarative, procedural, or conceptual.
Functional Change
- Among the most important functional changes
are (1) a continued increase in processing speed
(Kuhn, 2006) and (2) further development of
executive function, which includes such skills as
selective attention, decision making, inhibitory
 control of impulsive responses, and
management of working memory
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
- Adolescents can discuss abstractions: love,
freedom, justice
- Frequently use such terms as: however,
otherwise, therefore, anyway, really, probably
- They become more conscious of words as
symbols that can have multiple meanings; they
enjoy using irony, puns, and metaphors.
- They become more skilled in social perspective-
taking, the ability to understand another
person’s point of view and level of knowledge
and to speak accordingly.
- Vocabulary may differ by gender, ethnicity, age,
geographical region, neighborhood, and type of
school (Labov, 1992) and varies from one clique
to another.
Moral Reasoning According to Kohlberg's Theory
Heinz's Dilemma
- A woman is near death from cancer. A druggist
has discovered a drug that doctors believe
might save her. The druggist is charging $2,000
for a small dose—10 times what the drug costs
him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz,
borrows from everyone he knows but can
scrape together only $1,000. He begs the
druggist to sell him the drug for $1,000 or let
him pay the rest later. The druggist refuses,
saying, “I discovered the drug and I’m going to
make money from it.” Heinz, desperate, breaks
into the man’s store and steals the drug. Should
Heinz have done that? Why or why not?
(Kohlberg, 1969).
Kohlbergh described three levels of reasoning, each
divided into two stages.
Level Stage of Reasoning
Preconventional (ages 4 Punishment and
to 10) Obedience
Instrumental purpose
and Exchange
Conventional (ages 10 to Approval of others: “The
13 or beyond) Golden Rule”
Social Concern and
Conscience
Postconventional (early Contracts, Rights, and
adolescence, or not until Democratic Laws
young adulthood or Universal Ethical
never. Principles
Influence of Parents, Peers and Culture to Adolescents'
Cognitive Development
- More recent research emphasizes parents’
contribution in both the cognitive and the
emotional realms. Adolescents with supportive,
authoritative parents who stimulate them to
question and expand on their moral reasoning
tend to reason at higher levels (Eisenberg &
Morris, 2004).
- Peers also affect moral reasoning by talking
with each other about moral conflicts. Having
more close friends, spending quality time with
them, and being perceived as a leader are
associated with higher moral reasoning
(Eisenberg & Morris, 2004).
- Kohlberg’s system does not seem to represent
moral reasoning in non-Western cultures as
accurately as in the Western culture in which it
was originally developed (Eisenberg & Morris,
2004). Older people in countries other than the
United States do tend to score at higher stages
than younger people. However, people in non-
Western cultures rarely score above stage 4
(Edwards, 1981; Nisan & Kohlberg, 1982;
Snarey, 1985), suggesting that some aspects of
Kohlberg’s model may not fit the cultural values
of these societies.
Influence on School Achievement
 1. Self-efficacy beliefs and the development of a satisfying sexual
2. Parenting styles identity.
3. Ethnicity - During middle childhood, children acquire skills
4. Peer influences needed for success in their culture. As
5. Gender adolescents, they need to find ways to use
these skills.
- According to Erikson, the psychosocial
moratorium, the time out period that
adolescence provides, allows young people to
Factors that Promote Active Engagement at School search for commitments to which they can be
1. Family encouragement faithful.
2. Small class size - Adolescents who resolve the identity crisis
3. Warm and supportive school environment satisfactorily develop the virtue of fidelity:
4. Early education programs sustained loyalty, faith, or a sense of belonging
to a loved one or to friends and companions.
Influences on Students' Goals Fidelity also can be an identification with a set
1. Parental attitudes toward academics G of values, an ideology, a religion, a political
2. ender and gender stereotyping movement, a creative pursuit, or an ethnic
3. The educational system group (Erikson, 1982).

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT James E. Marcia: Identity Status

Four Stages of Ethnic Identity Identity achievement – crisis leading to commitment

1. Diffuse Foreclosure – commitment without crisis

- Juanita has done little or no exploration of her
ethnicity and does not clearly understand the
issues involved.
2. Foreclosed
- Caleb has done little or no exploration of his
ethnicity but has clear feelings about it. These
feelings may be positive or negative, depending
on the attitudes he absorbed at home.
3. Moratorium
- Emiko has begun to explore her ethnicity but is
confused about what it means to her.
4. Achieved
- Diego has explored his identity and understands
and accepts his ethnicity.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION and SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
- Understanding the origin and development of
sexual orientation, let us think of the concerns
which adolescents experience in relevance to
this topic.
Erikson: Identity vs Confusion
- Identity, according to Erikson, forms as young
people resolve three major issues: the choice of
an occupation, the adoption of values to live by,
Moratorium – crisis with no commitment yet
Identity diffusion – no commitment, no crisis
Identity Formation: Gender Differences
- Much research supports Erikson’s view that, for
women, identity and intimacy develop together.
Rather than view this pattern as a departure
from a male norm, however, some researchers
see it as pointing to a weakness in Erikson’s
theory, which, they claim, is based on male-
centered Western concepts of individuality,
autonomy, and competitiveness.
- According to Carol Gilligan (1982, 1987a,
1987b;L. M. Brown & Gilligan, 1990), the female
sense of self develops not so much through
achieving a separate identity as through
establishing relationships. Girls and women,
says Gilligan, judge themselves on their
handling of their responsibilities and on their
ability to care for others as well as for
themselves.
How do adolescents use their time?
- Time with family members declines dramatically
 - More time is spent alone and with opposite sex - More important than in any other life period
- what else? - More reciprocal and stable than in childhood
- Intimacy is increased
- Adolescents choose friends similar in:
Gender
Race/ethnicity
Academic attitude
Risky or problem behavior

Adolescents and Family Conflict

Individuation is adolescent’s struggle for autonomy and Adolescent Romantic Relationship

personal identity Most arguments over day-to-day - Contribute to development of intimacy and
matters: identity
- Chores - Include risk of STDs and pregnancy
- Schoolwork - Affects quality of relationship with parents and
- Dress peers
- Money
- Curfew
- Dating, friends

Adolescents and Siblings

- Teens are less close to siblings than to parents

or peers
- Less influenced by their siblings than when
younger
- Become more distant from siblings throughout
adolescence
- Sibling relations tend to reflect parents’ marital
relationship and parent-child relations

Adolescent Cliques

- Clique is a structured group of friends

- Become more common in adolescence
- Cliques can be harsh to outsiders
Membership types:
Member – ties are to one group
Liaison – ties to more than one group
Isolate – not connected to any group

Factors that Affect Adolescent Family Conflict

- Parenting style
- Family structure
- Mother’s employment
- Economic stress

Adolescent Friendship

LESSON 2: EMERGING AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD
3 Criteria Most People Use for Adulthood
- Accepting responsibility for oneself
- Making independent decisions
- Becoming financially independent
PHYSICAL ASPECT OF DEVELOPMENT
Nutrition
- In a 15-year longitudinal study of 18 to 30 year
olds, those who ate plenty of fruits, vegetables,
and other plant foods were less likely to
develop high blood pressure than those who
ate a diet heavy meat (Steffan et al., 2005).
Obesity/Overweight
- What explains the obesity epidemic? Experts
point to an increase in snacking (Zizza, Siega-Riz,
& Popkin, 2001), availability of inexpensive fast
foods, supersized portions, labor-saving
technologies, high-fat diets including highly
processed foods, and sedentary recreational
pursuits, such as television and computers
(Centers for Disease Control, 2017g; Pereira et
al., 2005). As in childhood and adolescence
development, an inherited tendency toward
obesity may interact with environmental and
behavioral factors (Choquet & Meyre, 2011;
Albuquerque, Stice, Rodriguez-Lopez, Manco 7
Nobrega, 2015).
Stress
- Stress may lead young adults to engage in risky
behaviors such as drinking or smoking to
manage that stress (Pedersen, 2017; White et
al., 2006; Rice & Van Arsdale, 2010), behaviors
that have consequences for their health.
- Stressed-out college students are more likely to
eat junk food and less likely to exercise (Hudd et
al., 2000), they tend to have poor quality or
insufficient sleep (Laud, Reider, Whiting, &
Prichars, 2010), and their grades and health
tend to suffer (Leppink, Odlaug, Lust,
Christenson, & Grant, 2016).
Sleep
- What could be the impact of sleep deprivation
in the life of young adults?
- High levels of insomnia
COGNITIVE ASPECT OF DEVELOPMENT
Reflective Thinking
- a type of logical thinking that may emerge in
adulthood
- involves continuous, active evaluation of
information and beliefs in the light of evidence
and implications.
Postformal Thought
- combines logic with emotion and practical
experience in the resolution of ambiguous
problems
- ability to deal with: uncertainty and
inconsistency, contradiction, imperfection and
compromise
- draws on: intuition, emotion, logic
Criteria of Postformal Thought According to Jann
Sinnott
Shifting gears
- Ability to think within at least two different
logical systems and to shift back and forth
between abstract reasoning and practical, real
world considerations. (“This might work on
paper but not in real life.”)
Problem definition
- Ability to define a problem as falling within a
class or category of logical problems and to
define its parameters. (“This is an ethical
 problem, not a legal one, so judicial precedents
don’t really help solve it.”)
Process-product shift
- Ability to see that a problem can be solved
either through a process, with general
application to similar problems, or through a
product, a concrete solution to the particular
problem. (“I’ve come up against this type of
problem before, and this is how I solved it” or
“In this case, the best available solution would
be . . .”)
Pragmatism
- Ability to choose the best of several possible
logical solutions and to recognize criteria for
choosing. (“If you want the cheapest solution,
do this; if you want the quickest solution, do
that.”)
Multiple solutions
- Awareness that most problems have more than
one cause, that people may have differing goals,
and that a variety of methods can be used to
arrive at more than one solution. (“Let’s try it
your way; if that doesn’t work, we can try my
way.”)
Awareness of paradox
- Recognition that a problem or solution involves
inherent conflict. (“Doing this will give him what
he wants, but it will only make him unhappy in
the end.”)
Self-referential thought
- A person’s awareness that he or she must be
the judge of which logic to use: in other words,
that he or she is using postformal thought.
Emotional Intelligence
- the ability to recognize and deal with one’s own
feelings and the feelings of others
- enables a person to harness emotions to deal
more effectively with the social environment
- requires awareness of the type of behavior that
is appropriate in a given social situation.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional intelligence affects the quality of
personal relationships.
- Studies have found that college students who
score high on MSCEIT are more likely to report
positive relationships with parents and friends
(Lopes, Salovey, & Straus, 2003), that college-
age men who score high on the MSCEIT engage
in less drug and alcohol use and score higher on
well-being measures (Brackett, Mayer, &
Warner, 2004; Lanciano & Curci, 2015), and that
close friends of college students who score well
on the MSCIET rate them as more likely to
provide emotional support in time of need
(Lopes et al., 2004).
- College-age couples in which both partners
scored high on MSCEIT reported the happiest
relationships, whereas couples who scored low
were unhappiest (Brackett, Cox, Gaines, &
Salovey, 2005). Generally, women score higher
on emotional intelligence than do men
(Lanciano & Curci, 2015).
- Emotional intelligence also affects effectiveness
at work. Among a sample of employee of a
Fortune 500 insurance company, those with
higher MSCEIT scores were rated higher by
colleagues and supervisors on sociability,
interpersonal sensitivity, leadership potential,
and ability to handle stress and conflict. High
scores also were related to higher salaries and
more promotions (Lopes, Grewal, Kadis, Gall, &
Salovey, 2006).
College to Work
Education and Work
- Educational and vocational choices after high
school may present opportunities for cognitive
growth. Exposure to a new educational or work
environment offers the opportunity to hone
abilities, question long-held assumptions, and
try out new ways of looking at the world. For
the increasing number of students of
nontraditional age (age 25 and up), college or
workplace education is rekindling intellectual
curiosity, improving employment opportunities,
and enhancing work skills.
Psychosocial Aspect of Development
Influences on Paths to Adulthood - Levinson's Stage Model

- Gender timing of events model

- Academic ability
- Theoretical model of personality development
- Early attitudes toward education
that describes adult psychosocial development
- Expectations in late adolescence
as a response to the expected or unexpected
- Social class
occurrence and timing
- Ego development
typological model

- Theoretical approach that identifies broad

personality types, or styles

Identity Development
trait models
Recentering
- Theoretical models of personality development
- is a proposed name for the process that that focus on mental, emotional,
underlies the shift to an adult identity. It is the temperamental, and behavioral traits, or
primary task of emerging adulthood. It is a attributes.
three-stage process in which power, - Five Factor Model
responsibility, and decision making gradually
shift from the family of origin to the
independent young adult (Tanner, 2006).

Stage 1 — Still embedded in family of origin

Stage 2 — Connected to family, but moving toward

serious commitments and gaining resources to support
them

Stage 3 — Independence from family of origin, with

increased commitment to career, partner, and possibly
children
Developing Adult Relationship with Parents
- One measure of how successfully emerging
adults handle becoming autonomous is their
ability to remain connected with parents
- Parents and children seem to get along best
when normative life course is followed
4 Views of Personality Development
normative stage models
- Theoretical models that describe psychosocial
development in terms of a definite sequence of
agerelated changes.
- Erikson's
- Valiant's 4 Patterns of Adaptation
Costa and MacCrae’s Five Factors of Personality
- Each factor or dimension of personality
represents a cluster of related traits. Use the
acronym OCEAN to remember the main five:
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Openness
- to experience has been related to verbal
intelligence and creative achievement as well as
better health.
- Imaginative or practical
- Interested in variety of routine
- Independent or conforming
Conscientiousness
- Organized or disorganized
- Careful or careless
 - Disciplined or impulsive
- Has been linked most strongly with health-
related behaviors that contribute to long life.
Extraversion
- Sociable or retiring
- Fun-loving or somber
- Affectionate or reserve
- People low in extraversion are prone to
agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and social
phobias, while those high in extraversion tend
to be high in well-being but are more likely to
engage in more substance use.
Agreeableness
- Softhearted or ruthless
- Trusting or suspicious
- Helpful or uncooperative
- Has been associated with less negative
responses to stress; however, it also appears
associated to greater declines in positive affect
following a stressor.
Neuroticism
- Emotional stability
- Calm or anxious
- Secure or insecure
- Self-satisfying or self-pitying
- People high in neuroticism tend to be subject to
anxiety and depression and are more likely to
be dependent on drugs and low in well-being.
 The Big Five factors appear to be linked to
various aspects of health and well-being.
 Big Five traits have been associated with marital
satisfaction, parent-infant relationships, work-
family conflict, and personality disorders.
 Openness to experience has been related to
verbal intelligence and creative achievement as
well as better health.
 Conscientiousness has been linked most
strongly with health-related behaviors that
contribute to long life.
 People low in extraversion are prone to
agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and social
phobias, while those high in extraversion tend
to be high in well-being but are more likely to
engage in more substance use.
- Agreeableness has been associated with less
negative responses to stress; however, it also
appears associated to greater declines in
positive affect following a stressor.
 People high in neuroticism tend to be subject to
anxiety and depression and are more likely to
be dependent on drugs and low in well-being.
Foundations of Intimate Relationships
- Erikson saw the development of intimate
relationships as the crucial task of young
adulthood. The need to form strong, stable,
close, caring relationships is a powerful
motivator of human behavior. An important
element of intimacy is self disclosure “revealing
important information about oneself to
another”
- People become intimate—and remain intimate
—through shared disclosures, responsiveness to
one another’s needs, and mutual acceptance
and respect
Friendship and Love
- Two expressions of intimacy to young
adulthood
Friendship in Young Adulthood
- Friendships during emerging adulthood may be
less stable than in earlier and later periods
because of the frequency with which people
this age relocate
- Friendships in young adulthood tend to center
on work and parenting activities and the sharing
of confidences and advice. Some friendships are
extremely intimate and supportive; others are
marked by frequent conflict. Young single adults
rely more on friendships to fulfill their social
needs than young married adults or young
parents do. The number of friends and the
amount of time spent with them generally
decreases in the course of young adulthood.
Still, friendships are important to young adults.
- Women typically have more intimate
friendships than men do. Men are more likely to
share information and activities, not
confidences, with friends
Love - Conflict management skills

Sternberg's Triangular Subtheory of Love PARENTHOOD

1. Intimacy - Today women in industrialized societies are

- Emotional element having fewer children and having them later in
- Involves self-disclosure life, and an increasing number choose to remain
2. Passion childless.
- Motivational element - Fathers are usually less involved in child raising
- Translates physiological arousal into sexual than mothers, but more so than in previous
desire generations.
3. Commitment - Marital satisfaction typically declines during the
- Cognitive element childbearing year.
- Decision to love and stay with the beloved - In most cases, the burdens of a dual-earner
lifestyle fall most heavily on the woman
- Family-friendly workplace policies may help
alleviate marital stress.

Marriage: Four Theoretical Perspectives

- The companionate model holds that egalitarian

marriages, in which both husband and wife
share work and family responsibilities, are likely
to be happiest and the most intimate.
- The institutional model suggests that women
are happier in marriage if they are committed to
the traditional institution of marriage.
- The equity model claims that a woman’s
perception of fairness in the marriage, and not
the actual division of labor, affects marital
quality.
- The gender model suggests that women are
happiest in marriages characterized by gender-
typical roles.

Factors in Marital SUCCESS or FAILURE

- Partners’ happiness with the relationship

- Sensitivity to each other
- Validation of each other’s feelings
- Communication
 - A gradual hearing loss
- Rarely noticed in early life
- Speeds up in the 50s
- Affects sounds at pitches higher than speech

Other Physical Losses

- Sensitivity to taste and smell

- Sensitivity of touch and pain
- Strength and coordination
- Endurance
- Decrease in basal metabolism
- Manual dexterity
LESSON 3: MIDDLE ADULTHOOD - Tasks that involve choice of response

Physical Aspect of Development Menopause and Its Meaning

- Most younger middle-aged adults see their lives
as still needing improvement
- Most older middle-aged adults are satisfied
with most areas of life: social, financial, health
Physical Changes
- takes place when a woman permanently stops
ovulating and menstruating and can no longer
conceive a child; it is generally considered to
have occurred one year after the last menstrual
period (average between 50 to 52 of age)

- Behavioral and lifestyle factors dating from

youth can affect physical changes Changes in Male Sexual Functioning
- People who are active early in life reap the - Men have no experience quite comparable to
benefits later in life menopause. They do not undergo a sudden
Changes in Appearance drop in hormone production at midlife, as
women do, and they can continue to reproduce
- Skin may become less taut and smooth until late in life. Men do seem to have a
- Layer of fat becomes thinner biological clock, however. Testosterone levels
- Hair becomes thinner decrease slowly after the thirties—about 1
- People sweat less percent a year, with wide individual variations
- Sweat glands diminish
- Gain weight and lose height Health Trends at Midlife
- Lower bone density - hypertension
- Vital capacity of lungs diminishes - heart disease
Age-related Visual Problems - diabetes

- Near vision Stress in Middle Age

- Dynamic vision - People early in middle age tend to experience
- Sensitivity to light higher and more frequent stress levels and
- Visual search different kinds of stressors than do younger or
- Speed of processing older adults.
- Loss of visual acuity
- Age-related Visual Problems Behavioral Influences on Health
- -Presbyopia - Longer lives and shorter periods of disability are
- -Myopia associated with:
Hearing loss - No smoking
- Avoiding overweight
 - Regular exercise
- Low stress levels
Cognitive Aspect of Development
Fluid Intelligence
- Ability to solve novel problems
- Requires little previous knowledge
- Discovering a pattern in a set of figures
- Tends to decline with age
Crsystallized Intelligence
- Ability to use information acquired over lifetime
- Often improves throughout lifetime
Expertise
- Mature adults show increasing competence
solving problems in their field
Encapsulation:
- In Hoyer’s terminology, progressive dedication
of information processing and fluid thinking to
specific knowledge systems, making knowledge
more readily accessible.
- Information processing becomes dedicated to
specific knowledge
- Captures fluid ability for expert problem solving
- Can help buffer age-related cognitive declines
Post-formal Thought: Integrative Thought
Mature adults are better at integrating:
- Logic with intuition and emotion
- Conflicting facts and ideas
- New and old information
Creative Performance
- Combination of forces:
- Biological
- Personal
- Social and cultural
- Specific contributions to creativity:
- Highly organized knowledge of subject
- Intrinsic motivation to work
- Strong emotional attachment to work
CREATIVITY develops over lifetime in a social context.
Age-differentiated Roles: Traditional Life Structure
- Young people are students
- Middle-aged people are workers
- Older adults organize their lives around leisure
and retirement
Age-Integrated Society: Many Roles
- Periods of education and leisure spread across
the life span
- Key roles open to anybody:
- Learning
- Working
- Playing
Work versus Early Retirement
 Phased retirement — Reducing work hours or
days and phasing out retirement over a number
of years
 Bridge employment — Switch to another
company or line of work
 Many more people continue to work for both
financial and emotional reasons
Carl Jung
- First to theorize about adult development
- Healthy midlife includes individuation
- Emergence of true self through balance of the
whole personality
- Two difficult but necessary tasks of middle age
- Giving up image of youth
- Acknowledging mortality
Erik Erikson: Generativity vs Stagnation Generativity
- Concern for guiding the next generation
- Virtue of “care”
Stagnation
- People who do not find an outlet for
generativity become self-indulgent or stagnant
Forms of Generativity
- Teaching and mentorship
- Parenting and grandparenting
- Productivity or creativity
- Self generation or self development
Midlife Crisis
- Stressful crisis of identity
 - Second adolescence
- Triggered by
- Review of one’s life
- Awareness of mortality

Midlife crisis is now considered an inaccurate

representation of what most people experience in
midlife. In fact, its occurrence seems to be fairly unusual
(Aldwin & Levenson, 2001; Heckhausen, 2001;
Lachman, 2004). Some middle-aged people may
experience crisis or turmoil, but others feel at the peak
of their powers. Still others may fall somewhere in
between—with neither a peak nor a crisis—or may
experience both crisis and competence at different
times or in different domains of life (Lachman, 2004).