Chapter 14: Early Adulthood

1. Chapter 14:Early Adulthood Module 6Social and Personality Developmentin Early Adulthood

2. SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

3. Let’s look at Table 6.4 to review these tasks Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood 346

4. Table 6-4

5. INTIMACY, LIKING, AND LOVING DURING EARLY ADULTHOOD FORGING RELATIONSHIPS 345

6. What makes young adults happy? • Happiest memories = psychological needs rather than material needs satisfied • Unhappiest memories = basic psychological needs left unfulfilled • Culture influences which psychological needs are most important in determining happiness 347

7. What makes us tick? Social Clocks of Adulthood • Definition • Cultural influence • Helson’s research (women’s social clock, deciding whether to pursue a career first or family first) 347

8. Seeking Intimacy: Erikson’s Viewof Young Adulthood INTIMACY-VERSUS-ISOLATION STAGE Intimacy = Close, intimate relationship with others Isolation = Feelings of loneliness and fearful of relationships 348

9. Important part of adult life need for belonging Filters Personal qualities Friendship 348

10. The Friends We Choose 348

11. Falling in Love: When Liking Turns to Loving How does love develop? 348

12. Falling in Love • STIMULUS-VALUE-ROLE (SVR) THEORY (Murstein) • Stimulus stage • Value stage • Role stage 349

13. Passionate and Companionate Love: Two Faces of Love • PASSIONATE (ROMANTIC LOVE) • COMPANIONATE LOVE 349

14. LABELING THEORY OF PASSIONATE LOVE If it hurts…it really love? How do you know? 349

15. LABELING THEORY OF PASSIONATE LOVE If you label negative emotions as positive (jealousy, rejection, etc) and pair them to feelings of passion or love, then the strong physiological arousal and reaction lead to misperception that you are in love, and that the behavior of the other was indications of love. 349

16. Attachment and Love Romantic Love • Also called passionate love or eros • Complex intermingling of emotions • Strong components of sexuality and infatuation • Often predominates early part of a love relationship • Affectionate love or companionate love • Have deep, caring affection for person

17. Sternberg’s Triangular Theory: Three Faces of Love • Robert Sternberg • Intimacy • Passion • Decision/Commitment 350

18. Attachment and Love Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Love • Theory that love includes three types • Passion: physical, sexual attraction • Intimacy: warmth, closeness, and sharing • Commitment: intent to remain together

19. Sternberg’s Triangle of Love Fig. 10.12

20. Do as I say…not as I do! • Relatively high number of people report close friend of a different race • Relatively low number actually name someone of another race or ethnicity 351

21. Choosing a Partner: Recognizing Mr. or Ms. Right

22. Seeking a Spouse: Is Love All That Matters? • U.S. – love as a major factor • In other cultures, love may be a secondary • Emotional maturity, health, similar education, chastity 351

23. Filtering Models of Mate Selection • Louis Janda and Karen Llenke-Hamel • Broad determinants of attractiveness • Specifics • End result 353

24. 353

25. Do you think you will use the principle of homogamy to select a mate?

26. What happens when the marriage gradient faces the cougar?

27. Attachment Styles and Romantic Relationships • Infant attachment style is reflected in adult romantic relationships (Shaver) • Secure • Avoidant • Anxious-ambivalent 353

28. Developmental Diversity Gay and Lesbian Relationships: Men with Men and Women with Women • Research findings suggest that gay and lesbian relationships are quite similar to relationships between heterosexuals • Most gays and lesbians seek loving, long-term, and meaningful relationships that differ little qualitatively from those desired by heterosexuals 355

29. Should marriage be a legal option for lesbians and gays?

30. Review and Apply REVIEW • According to Erikson, young adults are in the intimacy-versus-isolation stage. • Types of love include passionate and companionate love. Sternberg’s triangular theory identifies three basic components (intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment). 356

31. Review and Apply REVIEW • In general, the values applied to relationships by heterosexual, gay, and lesbian couples are more similar than different. 356

32. Review and Apply APPLY • Consider a long-term marriage with which you are familiar. Do you think the relationship involves passionate love or companionate love (or both)? What changes when a relationship moves from passionate to companionate love? From companionate to passionate love? In which direction is it more difficult for a relationship to move? Why? 356

33. THE COURSE OF RELATIONSHIPS

34. Are you a POSSLQ?

35. To Marry or Not to Marry: That is the Question 356

36. Why do people choice cohabitation rather than marriage? • Not ready for lifelong commitment • “Practice” for marriage • Reject institution of marriage 357

37. Why marry? • Preferred alternative during early adulthood • Desirability of spouse roles • Legitimatization of children • Legal benefits and protections 357

38. Why do people wait? 358

39. What makes marriage work? • Successful married partners: • Show affection • Communicate relatively little negativity • Perceive themselves as interdependent • Experience social homogamy, similarity in leisure activity. and role preferences • Hold similar interest • Agree on distribution of roles 358

40. Why?

41. But the news is not all bad! Most married couples: • View early years of marriage as deeply satisfying • Find themselves more deeply in love than before marriage • Report newlywed period as one of happiest in entire married life 358

42. Parenthood: Choosing to Have Children • Statistics • Costs • Reasons 359

43. What produced the decline in the US fertility rate? • Availability of more reliable birth control methods • Increasing numbers of working outside the home • Choosing to have children later • Cost of raising and educating children • Fear of not being good or accessible parent 359

44. Dual-Earner Couples Working Parent Statistics and Distribution of Chores 360

45. Two’s a Couple, Three’s a Crowd? • Dramatic shift in spouse's roles • Challenges to marital satisfaction • Successful coping 360

46. Gay and Lesbian Parents • About 20% of gay men and lesbian women are parents • No difference in psychological adjustment from children raised in heterosexual homes • Specialization of roles develop • For children, no differences in terms of eventual adjustment from those raised in heterosexual households 361

47. Singlehood • Statistics • Rationale • Societal view 361

48. From Research to Practice Majority of American Women Are Living Without Spouse • What do the numbers say? • What do the numbers mean? 362

49. Something to ponder… Why do you think that women are less inclined to remarry after a divorce than men are?

50. Review and Apply REVIEW • Cohabitation is an increasingly popular option for young adults, but most still choose marriage. • Divorce is prevalent in the United States, particularly within the first 10 years of marriage. 363