Chapter 14: Early Adulthood

Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Chapter 14:Early Adulthood

Module 6Social and Personality Development

in Early Adulthood



SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY

ADULTHOOD



Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood

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• Let’s look at Table 6.4 to review these tasks



Table 6-4



INTIMACY, LIKING, AND LOVING DURING EARLY ADULTHOOD

FORGING RELATIONSHIPS

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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

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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)

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Seeking Intimacy: Erikson’s View of Young Adulthood

INTIMACY-VERSUS-ISOLATION STAGEIntimacy = Close, intimate relationship with

others

Isolation = Feelings of loneliness and fearful of relationships

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Friendship

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• Important part of adult life need for belonging• Filters• Personal qualities



The Friends We Choose

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Falling in Love: When Liking Turns to Loving

How does love develop?

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Falling in Love

• STIMULUS-VALUE-ROLE (SVR) THEORY (Murstein)– Stimulus stage – Value stage– Role stage

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Passionate and Companionate Love: Two Faces of Love

• PASSIONATE (ROMANTIC LOVE)

• COMPANIONATE LOVE

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LABELING THEORY OF PASSIONATE LOVE

If it hurts…it really love?

How do you know?

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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



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

Attachment and Love



Sternberg’s Triangular Theory: Three Faces of Love

• Robert Sternberg – Intimacy– Passion– Decision/Commitment

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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

Attachment and Love



Sternberg’s Triangle of Love

Fig. 10.12



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



Choosing a Partner: Recognizing Mr. or Ms. Right



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



Filtering Models of Mate Selection

• Louis Janda and Karen Llenke-Hamel– Broad determinants of attractiveness– Specifics– End result

353



353



Do you think you will use the principle of homogamy to select

a mate?



What happens when the marriage gradient faces the

cougar?



Attachment Styles and Romantic Relationships

• Infant attachment style is reflected in adult romantic relationships (Shaver)– Secure– Avoidant– Anxious-ambivalent

353



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



Should marriage be a legal option for lesbians and gays?



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



Review and Apply

REVIEW• In general, the values applied to

relationships by heterosexual, gay, and lesbian couples are more similar than different.

356



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



THE COURSE OF RELATIONSHIPS



Are you a POSSLQ?



To Marry or Not to Marry: That is the Question

356



Why do people choice cohabitation rather than marriage?

• Not ready for lifelong commitment

• “Practice” for marriage

• Reject institution of marriage

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Why marry?

• Preferred alternative during early adulthood

• Desirability of spouse roles

• Legitimatization of children

• Legal benefits and protections

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Why do people wait?

358



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

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Why?



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

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Parenthood: Choosing to Have Children

• Statistics

• Costs

• Reasons

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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

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Dual-Earner Couples

Working Parent Statistics and Distribution of

Chores

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Two’s a Couple, Three’s a Crowd?

• Dramatic shift in spouse's roles

• Challenges to marital satisfaction

• Successful coping

360



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

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Singlehood

• Statistics

• Rationale

• Societal view

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From Research to Practice

Majority of American Women Are Living Without Spouse

• What do the numbers say?• What do the numbers mean?

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Something to ponder…

Why do you think that women are less inclined to remarry after a divorce than

men are?



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.

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Review and Apply

REVIEW• Couples overwhelmingly desire to produce

children, although the availability of contraception and changes in women’s roles in the workplace have combined to decrease average family size.

363



Review and ApplyAPPLY• In what ways do you think cognitive changes in

early adulthood (e.g., the emergence of postformal thought and practical intelligence) affect how young adults deal with questions of marriage, divorce, and childrearing?

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WORK: CHOOSING AND EMBARKING ON A CAREER



Why Do People Work?

• Motivation– Extrinsic – Intrinsic

• Personal identity

• Status

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What is the status of…?

• What is the status of the career you hope to enter?

• Were you surprised?

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Satisfaction on the Job

• Satisfaction related to job status

• Worker satisfaction also associated with:– Nature of job– Amount of input one has into one’s duties– Influence employees have over others

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The Informed Consumer of Development

Choosing a Career: Beginning Guidelines• Systematically evaluate a variety of choices. • Know yourself. • Create a “balance sheet,” • “Try out” different careers through paid or

unpaid internships. • Remember that if you make a mistake, you

can change careers. • It is reasonable to expect that careers may

change throughout life.368



Review and Apply

REVIEW• Choosing a career is an important step in early

adulthood.

• Gender stereotypes are changing, but women still experience subtle prejudice in career choices, roles, and wages.

• People work because of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors.

369



Review and Apply

APPLY• If Vaillant’s study were performed today on

women, in what ways do you think the results would be similar to or different from those of the original study?

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Chapter 14: Early Adulthood