Lesson 17: Early Adulthood

The Transitions from Adolescence to Adulthood

BECOMING AN ADULT

Emerging Adulthood : The transition from adolescence to adulthood (occurring from approximately 18
to 25 years of age), which is characterized by experimentation and exploration.

5 characteristics of emerging adults

Identity exploration

Instability

Feeling-in between

The age of possibilities, a time when individuals have an opportunity to transform their lives.

Self-focused

The Changing Landscape of Emerging and Early Adulthood

✓ Living with family or alone in dorms

✓ Better educated than their counterparts in the 1970s

✓ more young adults are working today than in 1975

✓ Provide them with opportunities to be contributors.

✓ Give candid, quality feedback to adolescents.

✓ Create positive adult connections with adolescents

✓ Challenge adolescents to become more competent.

Physical Development

Physical Development and growth are mostly complete.

Lifestyle disease usually has not had a chance to set at this point

Dangers related to high risk behavior drop off

Sexuality

SEXUAL ACTIVITY IN EMERGING ADULTHOOD

sexual script is a stereotyped pattern of role prescriptions for how individuals should behave sexually
(Whitaker & others, 2018; Willie & others, 2018).

✓ Sex Drive

✓ Physical and Emotional Sex

✓ Sexual Performance

✓ Initiation and Gateway

✓ Sexual Evaluation

Cognitive Development

✓ postformal thought:

✓ reflective, relativistic, contextual, provisional, realistic, and influenced by emotions.

Careers and Work:

✓ Developmental changes

✓ Finding a Path to Purpose

Socioemotional Development

Attachment

Secure attachment style. Securely attached adults have positive views of relationships, find it easy to get
close to others, and are not overly concerned with or stressed out about their romantic relationships.
These adults tend to enjoy sexuality in the context of a committed relationship and are less likely than
others to have one-night stands.

• Avoidant attachment style. Avoidant individuals are hesitant about getting involved in romantic
relationships and once they are in a relationship tend to distance themselves from their partner.

• Anxious attachment style. These individuals demand closeness, are less trusting, and are more
emotional, jealous, and possessive.

Attraction, Love, and Close Relationships

ATTRACTION

✓ First Impression

✓ Familiarity and Similarity

consensual validation: an explanation of why individuals are attracted to people who are similar to
them. Our own attitudes and behavior are supported and validated when someone else’s attitudes and
behavior are similar to our own.

✓ Physical Attractiveness

Matching Hypothesis: theory that although we prefer a more attractive person in the abstract, in the
real world we end up choosing someone who is close to our own level of attractiveness.

THE FACES OF LOVE

❖ Intimacy

❖ Friendship

❖ Romantic Love: passionate love or eros, romantic love has strong sexual and infatuation
components and often predominates early in a love relationship

❖ Affectionate Love: or companionate love, an individual desires to have the other person near
and has a deep, caring affection for the other person

Adult Lifestyles

✓ Single Adults

✓ Cohabiting adults

✓ Married Adults

Single Adults

Common challenges: forming intimate relationships with other adults, confronting loneliness, and
finding a niche in a society that is marriage-oriented.

Advantages: having time to make decisions about one’s life course, time to develop personal resources
to meet goals, freedom to make autonomous decisions and pursue one’s own schedule and interests,
opportunities to explore new places and try out new things, and privacy

COHABITING ADULTS

Cohabitation refers to living together in a sexual relationship without being married.

MARRIED ADULTS

Factor :

✓ Similar ideas about having and raising children

✓ A steady job
 ✓ Same moral and religious beliefs

✓ At least as much education

✓ Same racial or ethnic background

MAKING MARRIAGE WORK

7 practices that help marriages succeed:

✓ Establish love maps

✓ Nurture Fondness and Admiration

✓ Turn toward each other instead of away

✓ Let your partner influence you

✓ Solve solvable conflicts

✓ Overcome gridlock

✓ Create shared meaning