CHAPTER 13

Physical and Cognitive

Development in Early
Adulthood
 Chapter Outline
• The transition from adolescence to adulthood
• Physical development
• Sexuality
• Cognitive development
• Careers and work

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 The Transition From Adolescence to
Adulthood
• Becoming an adult
• The transition from high school to college

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 The Transition From Adolescence to
Adulthood
• Becoming an adult
– Emerging adulthood: Transition from adolescence
to adulthood
• Occurs from approximately 18 to 25 years of age
• Characterized by experimentation and exploration
– Key features
• Identity exploration, especially in love and work
• Instability, self-focused, and feeling in-between
• The age of possibilities, a time when individuals have an
opportunity to transform their lives

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 The Transition From Adolescence to
Adulthood
– Suggestions for helping adolescents become more
mature on their way to adulthood
• 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

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 The Transition From Adolescence to
Adulthood
– Markers of becoming an adult
• Holding a full-time job
• Economic independence
• Taking responsibility for oneself
• The transition from high school to college
– Top-dog phenomenon
– Movement to a larger school structure
– Increased focus on achievement and assessment
– Several positive features

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 Physical Development
• Physical performance and development
• Health
• Eating and weight
• Regular exercise
• Substance abuse

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 Physical Development
• Physical performance and development
– Peak physical performance typically occurs
between 19 and 26
– Muscle tone and strength usually begin to show
signs of decline around age 30

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 Physical Development
• Health
– Emerging adults have twice the mortality rate of
adolescents
– Few chronic health problems
– Increase in bad health habits
– Positive health behavior equals positive life
satisfaction

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 Physical Development
• Eating and weight
– Obesity
• Factors involved in obesity
– Heredity
– Environmental factors
– Dieting

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 Countries with the Highest and Lowest
Percentages of Obese Adults

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 Physical Development
• Regular exercise
– Helps prevent chronic disorders
– Aerobic exercise: Sustained exercise that stimulates heart
and lung activity
– Exercise benefits both physical and mental health
– Strategies
• Reduce screen time
• Chart your progress
• Get rid of excuses
• Imagine the alternative

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 Physical Development
• Substance abuse
– Addiction: Pattern of behavior characterized by an
overwhelming involvement with using a drug and
a preoccupation with securing its supply
– Alcohol
• Binge drinking increases in college
• Alcoholism - Disorder that involves long-term,
repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use
of alcoholic beverages
– Impairs the drinker’s health and social relationships

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 Binge Drinking in the Adolescence-
Early Adulthood Transition

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 Physical Development
– Cigarette smoking and nicotine
• Smoking linked to cancer deaths, heart disease deaths,
and chronic pulmonary disease deaths
• Though adult smokers would like to quit, addiction to
nicotine makes quitting a challenge

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 Sexuality
• Sexual activity in emerging adulthood
• Sexual orientation and behavior
• Sexually transmitted infections
• Forcible sexual behavior and sexual
harassment

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 The Sex in America Survey

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 Sexuality
• Sexual activity in emerging adulthood
– Patterns of heterosexual behavior:
• Males have more casual sex partners, while females
report being more selective
– Approximately 60% percent of individuals have
experienced sexual intercourse by the end of
emerging adulthood
– Casual sex is more common in emerging
adulthood

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 Sexuality
– Heterosexual attitudes and behavior
• Americans fall into three 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 the exception rather than the rule
• Men think about sex far more often than women do

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 Sexuality
– Sources of sexual orientation
• Sexual orientation is a continuum from exclusive male-
female relations to exclusive same-sex relations
• Most likely a combination of genetic, hormonal,
cognitive, and environmental factors

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 Sexuality
– Attitudes and behavior of lesbians and gays
• Many gender differences that appear in heterosexual
relationships occur in same-sex relationships
• Lesbians have fewer sexual partners and less permissive
attitudes about casual sex than gay men
• Hate crimes and stigma-related experiences are a
special concern

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 Sexuality
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs): Diseases
contracted primarily through sex
– Effective strategies for protecting against HIV
• Know your risk status and that of your partner
• Obtain medical examinations
• Have protected sex
• Do not have sex with multiple partners

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 Sexually Transmitted Infections

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 Sexually Transmitted Infections

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 Sexuality
• Forcible sexual behavior and sexual
harassment
– Rape: Forcible sexual intercourse with a person
who does not consent to it
• Characteristics of male rapists
– Aggression enhances their sense of power or masculinity
– Angry at women in general
– Want to hurt and humiliate their victims

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 Sexuality
• Date or acquaintance rape: Coercive sexual activity
directed at someone with whom the perpetrator is at
least casually acquainted
– Sexual harassment - Manifestation of power of
one person over another

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 Cognitive Development
• Cognitive stages
• Creativity

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 Cognitive Development
• Cognitive stages
– Piaget’s view:
• Adolescents and adults think qualitatively in the same
way
• Individuals consolidate their formal operational
thinking during adulthood

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 Cognitive Development
• Cognitive stages
– Piaget’s view
• Formal operational thought is the final stage in
cognitive development and it characterizes adults as
well as adolescents
– Is there a fifth, postformal stage?
• Postformal thought
– Reflective, relativistic, and contextual
– Provisional
– Realistic
– Recognized as being influenced by emotion

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 Complex Postformal Thought
Questionnaire

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 Complex Postformal Thought
Questionnaire

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 Cognitive Development
• Creativity
– Qualifying any conclusion about age and creative
accomplishments are:
• Magnitude of the decline in productivity
• Contrasts across creative domains
• Individual differences in lifetime output
– Impressive array of creative accomplishments
occur in late adulthood

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 Careers and Work
• Developmental changes
• Finding a path to purpose
• Monitoring the occupational outlook
• The impact of work
• Diversity in the workplace

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 Careers and Work
• Developmental changes
– From mid-twenties on, individuals often seek to
establish their emerging career in a particular field
• Finding a path to a purpose
– Only 20% of 12 – 22-year-olds had a clear vision of
where they want to go in life
– Students focus only on short-term goals
• Don’t explore the big, long-term picture of what they
want to do in life

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 Careers and Work
• Monitoring the occupational outlook
– Be knowledgeable about different fields and companies
• The impact of work
– Most spend 1/3 of their lives at work
– Important consideration is how stressful the work is
– Work during college
• Cooperative (co-op) programs - Paid apprenticeships in a field one
interested in pursuing

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 Careers and Work
– Unemployment
• Produces stress and is related to physical problems, mental
problems, marital difficulties, and homicide
– Dual-earner couples
• Face special challenges in balancing between work and family life
• Diversity in the workplace
• Women have increasingly entered the labor force
• Increasing ethnic diversity requires a sensitivity to cultural
differences and an appreciation of the cultural values that workers
bring to a job

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