1. Physical And Cognitive
Development In Early
Adulthood
Johari
Raja
Stephanie
Emyliana

2. The Transition From Adolescence To
Adulthood
 Referred as Emerging Adulthood – the transition from
adolescence to adulthood occurring from approximately 18
to 25 years of age, which is characterized by
experimentation and exploration.
 Key features (Jeffrey Arnett 2006) :
Identity exploration, especially in love and work.
Instability
Self-focused
Feeling in-between
The age of possibilities, a time when individuals have an
opportunity to transform their lives.

3. Markers of becoming an adult :
 In U.S :
- Holding a move or less permanent
- Full time job
- Graduate/profesional school
 Economic independence
 Taking responsibility for oneself
 In Developing Countries such India -> marriage.

4. The Transition From High School To College
 Positive Aspect
- Student are more likely to
feel grown up
- More time to spend with
peers
- Explore different lifestyle
and values
- Be challenged
intellectually by academic
work
 Negative Aspect
- Stress ( academic,
personal, economic,
emotional situation)
- Depressed

5. Mental Health
Difficulty
1-4 Times 5-8 Times 9 or More
Times
Felt things were
hopeless 39 11 13
Felt
overwhelmed
with all I had to
do
32 25 36
Felt mentally
exhausted 32 24 35
Felt so depressed
it was difficult
function
18 7 10
Seriously
contemplated
suicide
8 1 1
Attempted
suicide 1.2 0.2 0.2
Figure 13.1 college students’ mental health difficulties in the
past year.

6. Physical Development
Physical Performance and Development
 Average peak physical performance is between ages 19 and
26 (under 30), and this includes athletes.
 Usually during this time people are healthiest.

7. Health
 Emerging adulthood is not healthy as they seem
 Have more than twice the mortality rate of adolescence
 Inactivity, diet, obesity, substance abuse, ate more fast food
and less fruits/vegetables.

8. Eating
And
Weight
obesity
Heredity
Leptin
Set Point
Environmental
Factors
Dieting

9. Regular Exercise
 Main reasons that health experts want people to exercise is
to prevent chronic disorder - heart disease and diabetes.
 Recommend that young adults engage in 30 minutes or
more aerobic exercise – jogging, swimming, or cycling.
 Good for physical and mental health.

10. Substance
Abuse
Alcohol
Binge Drinking
Alcoholism
Cigarette
Smoking And
Nicotine

11. Sexuality
 Sexual activity in emerging adulthood
o Patterns of heterosexual behavior males & females
include (Lefkowitz&Gillen,2006):
 Males have more casual sexual partners & females report being
more selective about their sexual partners
 60% have had sexual intercourse with only 1 individual in past
year
 25% having sexual intercourse only a couple of times a rear or
not at all
 Casual sex is more common in emerging adulthood than in
young adulthood

12.  Sexual orientation and behavior
o Heterosexual attitudes and behavior
 Americans tend to fall into 3 categories – 1/3 have sex twice a
week or more, 1/3 a few times a month and 1/3 a few times a year
or not at all.
 Married (and cohabiting) couples have sex more often than non-
cohabiting couples
 Most Americans do not engage in kinky sexual acts
 Adultery is clearly the exception rather than the rule
 Men think about sex more often than women do
o Sources of sexual orientation
 Sexual orientation is a continuum from exclusive male-female
relations to exclusive same-sex relations.

13.  An individual sexual orientation > same-sex, heterosexual or
bisexual is most likely determined by- genetic, hormonal,
cognitive and environmental factors.
o Attitudes and behavior of lesbians and gays
 Many gender differences that appear in heterosexual
relationships also occur in same-sex relationships
 Example : heterosexual women, lesbians have fewer sexual
partners than gay men & lesbians have less permissive attitudes
about casual sex outside a primary relationship than gay men do
 Sexually transmitted infections
o Diseases that are primarily spread through sexual contact-
intercourse as well as oral-genital & anal-genital sex.

14. o Affect about 1 in 6 U.S adults
o STIs are bacterial infections such as gonorrhea, syphilis and
Chlamydia
o STIs caused by viruses- genital herpes, genital warts and
HIV which can lead to AIDS.

16.  Forcible sexual behavior and sexual harassment
o Rape
 Forcible sexual intercourse with a person who does not give
consent.
 Most victim are women and often reluctant to report the
incident
 Rape of men does occur – men in prisons are especially
vulnerable to rape, usually by heterosexual males who use rape as
a means of establishing their dominance & power.
 Males are socialized to be sexually aggressive, to regard women
as inferior beings & to view their own pleasure.
 Date or acquaintance rape – coercive sexual activity directed at
someone whit whom the perpetrator is at least casually
acquainted.

17. o Sexual harassment
 Manifestation of power of one person over another.
 Takes many forms – ranging from inappropriate sexual remarks
and physical contact (patting, brushing against another person’s
body) to blatant propositions and sexual assaults.
 62% reported having experienced sexual harassment while
attending college – involved noncontact forms such as crude
jokes, remarks and gestures.

18. Cognitive Development
 Cognitive Stages
- Piaget’s view: Adolescent
and an adult think
qualitatively in the same
way.
- Post formal stage:
reflective, relativistic,
contextual, provisional,
realistic and influence by
emotion.
 Creativity
- peaks in adulthood and
then decline, often occur
in forties.

19. Careers
and
work
Development
changes
Finding a path
to purpose
Monitoring the
occupational
outlook
The impact of
work
Diversity in the
workplace
Unemployment
Dual-earner
couples

20. Socioemotional
Development In Early
Adulthood

21. Stability and Change From Childhood To
Adulthood
Temperament
o Is an individual’s behavior style
and characteristic emotional
responses
o Temperament-childhood ,
Personality- adulthood.
o Types and dimensions-childhood
with characteristic of adult
personality:
- Easy and difficult temperaments
- Inhibition
- Ability to control one’s emotion
Attachment
o Romantic partner fulfill some of the
same needs for adults as parents
do for children.
o Adults may count on their romantic
partner to be a secure base.
o 3 styles of Attachment :
i. Secure attachment styles
ii. Avoidant attachment styles
iii. Anxious attachment styles

22. Attraction
Familiarity and Similarity Physical Attractiveness
 Necessary for close relationship.
 Friends or lover have similar
attitudes, values, lifestyles and
physical attractiveness.
 Opposite characteristic may
attract.
 Example: an introvert may wish
to be with an extrovert or
someone with little money may
wish to associate with someone
who is wealthy.
 Consensual validation > our
own attitudes and values are
supported when someone else
are similar to ours.
 Link between physical
beauty-attractions can differ :
 Standard of what is attraction
change over time and across
culture.
 Matching hypothesis – we
choose partner who match
our own level of
attractiveness.
 Women and men have a
different-seeking an intimate
partner.

23. The Faces of Love
o Intimacy
- Self-disclosure and the sharing of private thoughts .
- Erikson’s stage: intimacy versus isolation
• Enter the sixth developmental stage when they are well on their
way to establishing stable & successful identities.
• Describes intimacy as finding oneself while losing oneself in
another person & it requires commitment to another person.
• If a person fail to develop an intimate relationship in early
adulthood, isolation results
- Intimacy and Independence
• Balancing intimacy and commitment , independence and
freedom.

24. o Friendship
- plays an important role in development through the human life
span.
- adulthood brings opportunities for new friendships.
- Gender Differences in Friendships
• Women more close friends & their friendship involve more self-
disclosure & exchange of mutual support.
• Women share many aspects -> experiences, thoughts, & feelings
• Men friendships are more to engage in activities especially
outdoors
• Men find solution of their problems rather than sympathy and
more competitive than women.

25. - Friendships between women and men
• Cross-gender friendships are more common among adults than
children but less common than same gender friendship in
adulthood.
• Cross-gender friendship provide both opportunities & problems.
• Opportunities -> learning more about common feelings, interest
and shared characteristic, knowledge and understanding other
gender.
• Problems -> because of different expectations . 1 problem that
can plague an adult is unclear sexual boundaries – tension and
confusion.
o Romantic love
- Also known as passionate love or eros
- Has strong components of sexuality & infatuation.

26. - A complex intermingling of different emotions goes into romantic love ->
passion, fear, anger, sexual desire, joy and jealousy.
- Ellen Berscheid says that sexual desire is the most important ingredient of
romantic love.
o Affectionate love
- Also called companionate love .
- Love that occurs when someone desires to have the other person near &
has a deep, caring affection for the person.
o Consummate love
- Steinberg’s triarchic theory of love
• Love can be thought of as triangle with 3 dimensions :
• Passion -> physical & sexual attraction to another
• Intimacy -> emotional feelings of warmth, closeness and sharing in
relationship
• Commitment -> cognitive appraisal & intent to maintain relationship .

28. Falling Out Love
 The collapse of a close relationship may feel tragic.
 Ending a relationship may be wise if :
betray you repeatedly
Draining you emotionally or financially or both
 You are desperately in love with someone who does
not return your feelings .
 Depression, obsessive thoughts, sexual dysfunction,
health problems, inability to work effectively, difficulty
in making new friends and self condemnation.

29. Adult
Lifestyles
Single Adults
Cohabiting Adults
Married Adults
Divorced Adults
Remarried Adults
Gay and Lesbian Adults
Marital Trends
Cross-cultural
comparisons
Premarital Education
The benefits a good
married

30. Marriage and the
Family
Making marriage
work
Becoming a parent
Dealing with
divorce
7 main principles :
1) Establish love maps.
2) Nurture fondness and
admiration.
3) Turn toward each
other instead of away.
4) Let your partner
influence you.
5) Solve solvable
conflicts.
6) Overcome gridlock.
7) Create shared
meaning.
 Parenting myths and
reality
 Trends in childbearing
Women show an
increased interest in
developing a career
Married later and having
fewer children
6 common pathways in
exiting divorced:
1) The enhancers.
2) The good-enough's.
3) The seekers.
4) The libertines.
5) The competent loners.
6) The defeated.

31. Gender, Relationship, and Self-
Development
 Gender and communication
• communicating problems between women and men may
come in part from differences in their preferred ways of
communicating.
• Tannen distinguishes two ways of communicating:
- Rapport talk
- Report talk

32.  Women’s development
• Tanner’s analysis-rapport talk : women place a high value
on relationship and focus on nurturing their connection
with others .
• Miller- researchers examine what women have been in life,
a large part of it is active participation in the development
of others.
 Men’s development
• Male roles are contradictory and inconsistent.
• men not only experience stress when they violate men’s
roles , they also are harmed when they act in accord with
men’s roles.

33. • Areas where men’s roles can cause considerable strain:
1) Health - men die 5 years younger than woman.
- higher rates of stress-related disorders,
alcoholism, car accident and suicide.
1) Male-female relationships
2) Male-male relationships
 Ron Levant- suggest that every man should :
 Reexamine his beliefs about manhood
 Separate out the valuable aspects of the male role
 Get rid of those part of the masculine role that are
destructive