PSYC 2314 Lifespan Development

1. PSYC 2314Lifespan Development Chapter 19 Early Adulthood: Psychosocial Development

2. Tasks of Adulthood • Maslow’s • Love and belonging • Success and esteem • Erikson’s • Intimacy vs. isolation • Generativity vs. stagnation

3. Tasks of Adulthood • Social Clock: a culturally set timetable that establishes when various events and behaviors in life are appropriate and called for. • Age-stratified: society in developed regions • Less age-stratified: society in less developed regions • SES: primary influence

4. Intimacy • Two primary sources • Close friendships • Sexual partnership

5. Friendship • More important than family members as a buffer against stress • Guides to self-awareness • Sources of positive feelings

6. Friendship • Young adulthood is the prime time to solidify friendships and make new ones: • Most try to postpone the overriding commitments of marriage and having children. • Because today’s elderly are healthier, few young adults must provide care for aging parents.

7. Gateways of Attraction • Four factors for friendship as romance: • Physical attractiveness • Apparent availability • Absence of unwanted traits and other “exclusion criteria” • Frequent exposure

8. Gender Differences • Friendships between men are often based on shared activities and interests, and discussions center on external matters. • Friendships between women tend to be more intimate and emotional, based on shared confidences and practical assistance in times of crisis.

9. Gender Differences • Women are much more likely than men to reveal their weaknesses to friends. It may be primarily a way coping with problems. • Men tend to be more competitive. Hence, friendship for men may be largely a way of maintaining a favorable self-concept.

10. Gender Differences • Reasons why men’s friendships may be less intimate than women’s: • Mutual vulnerability is a characteristic that is discouraged in men. • The tendency of boys to be more active and girls more verbal may lay the groundwork for interaction patterns in adulthood. • Many men avoid any expression of affection toward other men for fear of its association with homosexuality.

11. Cross-Sex Friendships • Expand each partner’s perspective on many issues • Problematic • Men often try to sexualize a platonic friendship

12. Dimensions of Love • 3 components: • Passion • Intimacy • Commitment

13. Dimensions of Love • Liking—intimacy • Infatuation—passion • Empty love—commitment • Romantic love—passion and intimacy • Fatuous love—passion • Companionate love—intimacy and commitment • Consummate love—passion, intimacy and commitment

14. Development of Love and Marriage • Cohabitation: living together • A prelude to marriage • Cohabitants tend to be less happy, less healthy, and less satisfied with their financial status

15. Factors Influencing Marital Success • Maturity of the partners • Homogamy vs. heterogamy • Social homogamy • Marital equity

16. Divorce • Role of expectations • First emotional impact: increased hostility • Adjustments • Unhappy partners suddenly notice lost benefits that they did not know they had • Hadn’t realized the strength of their emotional dependence.

17. Divorced, with Children • Add financial pressure • Require ex-spouses to compromise about visitation • Visibly remind both parents what might have been (or what actually used to be) • Make remarriage less likely

18. Spouse Abuse • Contributing Factors • Social pressures that create stress • Cultural values that condone violence • Personality pathologies • Drug and alcohol addiction • History of child maltreatment

19. Spouse Abuse • Two Forms: • Common couple violence: yelling, insulting, and physical attack • Patriarchal terrorism: husband uses violent methods of accelerating intensity to isolate, degrade, and punish wife

20. Spouse Abuse • Prevention • Educating children and protecting them from violence • Counteracting the poverty and deprivation that underlies abuse • Treating the alcoholism • Family examples and family connections

21. Generativity • Four traditional stages of the career cycle: • Exploration • Establishment • Maintenance • Decline (retirement)

22. Today’s Workforce • Work path for individuals is much less linear and secure • Skills are quite specific, yet may be obsolete tomorrow • Much more diverse

23. Implications of Trends • Young adults should not plan, or train for, one job in one career that will last a lifetime • Workers today need greater sensitivity to cultural differences • Young adults should focus on developing basic skills communication, logical thought, and human relations.

24. Implications of Trends • Women, minority-group members, and those with a disability may continue to bump into a glass ceiling.

25. Dual-Earner Family Life • Myth: children suffer from neglect • Opportunities: higher family income, more active relationships with their fathers, and the opportunity to witness more flexible role models • Challenges: perception of marital equity, family logistics, salary inequity.

26. Alternative Forms of Parenthood • Stepparents, adoptive parents, foster parents • Strong bonds between parent and child are particularly hard to create when a child has already formed definite attachments to other caregivers who are still available to the child. • Because they are legally connected to their children for life, adoptive parents have an advantage over stepparents in establishing bonds with their children.