Transcript Chapter 14

Chapter 14
Development
Development
Adolescence
Young and Middle Adulthood
Late Adulthood
Successful Aging
Adolescence
• Adolescence: The period of life
bounded by puberty and the
assumption of adult responsibilities.
• Adolescence presents mixed feelings
for many individuals.
Physical Changes
• One of the most noticeable physical
developments of adolescence is a growth
spurt.
• The adolescent growth spurt lasts for 2 to 3
years.
• In boys, the weight of muscle mass increases
notably.
Physical Changes
• Puberty: The period of physical development
during which sexual reproduction becomes
possible.
• Secondary sex characteristics:
Characteristics that distinguish the sexes, such
as distribution of body hair and depth of voice,
but that are not directly involved in
reproduction.
• Menarche: The beginning of menstruation.
Usually occurs between the ages of 11 and 14.
Cognitive Development
• Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage: The
stage of cognitive development
associated with abstract logical thought
and deduction from principles.
• Egocentrism: Placing oneself at the center
of one’s psychological world; inability to
view the world from the perspective of
others.
Egocentrism
• Adolescent thought is marked by the sort of
egocentrism in which they can understand
the thoughts of others but have difficulty
separating what is of concern to others
versus of concern to themselves.
• This gives rise to the Imaginary Audience and
Personal Fable.
Egocentrism
• Imaginary Audience: An aspect of
adolescent egocentrism: The belief that
other people are as concerned with our
thoughts and behaviors as we are.
• Personal Fable: The belief that our
feelings and ideas are special and
unique and that we are invulnerable.
Social and Personality
Development
• Adolescents typically experience stress
and conflict in three areas: parents,
mood and risky behavior.
• Adolescents with strong traditional roots
experience less stress and conflict than
those who are swayed by risk-taking
peers and media imagery.
Social and Personality
Development
• Minority youths experience stress over
whether or not they should (or are even able
to) adopt the attitudes and behavior patterns
of the dominant culture.
• Each year, 1 in 10 adolescent girls becomes
pregnant. Nearly 10% of teenage boys and
20% of teenage girls attempt suicide.
• Adolescents also strive to become
independent from their parents and often
engage in quite risky behavior.
Social and Personality
Development
• Ego Identity: Erikson’s life crisis of
adolescence, which is characterized by the
challenge of developing a clear commitment
to a set of personal beliefs and public role.
• Ego identity: Erikson’s term for a firm sense
of who one I and what one stands for.
• Role diffusion: Erikson’s term for lack of
clarity in one’s life roles.
Sexual Adjustment
• Adolescents often struggle with how and
when to express their awakening sexuality.
• Even though young people today hold more
lenient attitudes toward premarital sex, the
rates of sexual intercourse among teens have
been dropping in recent years.
• More teens are postponing sexual relations
due to fear of STDs.
Emerging Adulthood
• Emerging Adulthood: A hypothesized
period of development found in
wealthier societies that spans the ages
of 18 to 25 and is characterized by
prolonged role exploration.
• Many 20 and 30 year olds still live with
their parents.
Have you reached adulthood?
Physical Development in Adulthood
• People are living longer than ever before and are
freer than ever to choose their destiny.
• Physical development peaks in young adulthood.
Most people are at the height of sensory
sharpness, strength, reaction time, and
cardiovascular fitness.
• As we enter our middle years, we are likely to lose
some of our physical abilities. However, the years
between 40 and 60 are relatively stable in terms of
physical conditioning.
Menopause
• Menopause: The cessation of menstruation.
Usually occurs during the late forties or early
fifties. Menopause is the final stage of the
climacteric.
• Climacteric: The multiyear process triggered by
the falloff in production of sex hormones in which
menstrual periods become irregular and finally
cease.
• Osteoporosis: A condition characterized by
porosity, and hence brittleness, of the bones. This
condition is more common in women.
Manopause?
• Also referred to as andropause.
Characterized by a drop-off in androgens
that normally occurs in men starting in their
early 40s.
• This drop-off may lead to reduced muscle
strength, reduction of sex drive, and lack of
energy.
• Sexual performance may be impacted.
Cognitive Development
• People are also at the height of their cognitive
powers during early adulthood.
• Some aspects of cognitive functioning
(memory, for example) decline with age.
• But declines in memory are not usually as
large as people assume and can be reversed.
Cognitive Development
• Crystallized Intelligence: A person’s lifetime
of intellectual attainments, as shown by
vocabulary, accumulated facts about world
affairs, and ability to solve problems within
one’s area of expertise.
• Fluid Intelligence: Mental flexibility, as
shown by the ability to process information
rapidly, as in learning and solving problems in
new areas of endeavor.
• Fluid intelligence is more susceptible to the
effects of aging than crystallized intelligence.
Social and Personality Development
• Trying Twenties: Sheehy’s term for the
third decade of life, when people are
frequently occupied with advancement in
the career world.
• The dream: Levinson’s term for the
overriding drive of youth to become
someone important, to leave one’s mark
on history.
Social and Personality Development
• Intimacy versus Isolation: Erikson’s life
crisis of young adulthood, which is
characterized by the task of developing
abiding intimate relationships.
• Individuation: The process by which one
separates from others and gathers control
over his or her own behavior.
Social and Personality Development
• Age-30 transition: Levinson’s term for
the ages of 28-33, which are
characterized by reassessment of the
goals and values of the twenties.
• Catch thirties: Sheehy’s term for the
fourth decade of life, when many people
undergo major reassessments of their
accomplishments and goals.
Developmental Tasks
• According to Havinghurst, young adults
have the following tasks (how many of
these have changed?):
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Getting started in an occupation
Selecting and courting a mate
Learning to live with one’s partner
Starting a family
Assuming responsibility of home
ownership
• Assuming civic responsibilities
• Finding a congenial social group
Children
• The decision to have or not to have
children is a personal one. The
traditional motherhood mandate has now
come under reconsideration.
• In 1970, 40% of households were made
up of married couples with children.
Today, only 25% of households consist of
married couples with children.
Parenting
• Baumrind suggests that parents may be able
to foster instrumental competence in children.
• Instrumental competence: Ability to
manipulate the environment to achieve
desired effects. These children are energetic
and friendly, show self-reliance and
independence, maturity in formation of goals,
cooperation and self-assertion.
• This competence is developed via
authoritative parenting.
Parenting Styles
• Authoritative: Descriptive of parents who
demand mature behavior, reason with
their children, and provide love and
encouragement.
• Authoritarian: Descriptive of parents who
demand obedience for its own sake.
• Permissive: Descriptive of parents who do
not make demands of, or attempt to
control, their children.
Becoming an Authoritative Parent
• Be flexible, but not without limits.
• Set high but reasonable expectations.
• Explain to your children why you make
certain demands.
• Listen to your children’s opinions.
• Show warmth.
Child Abuse
• Factors contributing to child abuse include:
• Stress
• A history of child abuse in at least one of the
parents’ families of origin
• Parents with poor anger management skills
• Alcohol or substance abuse
• Acceptance of violence as a means of coping with
stress
• Failure to become attached to the children
• Rigid attitudes towards child rearing
• Unemployment and low socioeconomic status
Childhood Sexual Abuse
• An estimated 500,000 children in the United
States are abused each year.
• In most cases, the perpetrator has a
relationship either with the child or the child’s
family.
• Sexually abused children are more likely to
develop a wide range of physical and
psychological health problems.
Childhood Sexual Abuse
What to do?
• Give the child a safe environment in which to talk to
you or another trusted adult.
• Reassure that child that they’ve done nothing wrong.
• Seek mental health assistance for the child.
• Arrange for a medical examination for the child.
• Be aware of state reporting laws.
Challenges of Midlife
• Generativity versus Stagnation: Erikson’s
term for the crisis of middle adulthood,
characterized by the task of being productive
and contributing to younger generations.
• Midlife Transition: Levinson’s term for the
ages from 40 to 45, which are characterized
by a shift in psychological perspective from
viewing ourselves in terms of years lived to
viewing ourselves in terms of the years we
have left.
Challenges of Midlife
• Midlife Crisis: A crisis experienced by
many people during the midlife
transition when they realize that life may
be more than halfway over and
reassess their achievements in terms of
their dreams.
• Middlescence: Sheehy’s term for a
period of searching for identity that
occurs during middle adulthood.
Physical Development
• During late adulthood (starting at
age 65), the skins becomes less
elastic, the hair grows gray and hair
loss accelerates in men.
• Reaction time slows, our immune
system functions less effectively and
or organ systems begin to
deteriorate.
Changes
• Sensory changes: Older people see and hear
less acutely.
• Lung capacity decreases, metabolism slows and
muscle mass diminishes.
• Brittleness of bones due to osteoporosis can
increase the risk of serious fractures.
• While sexual functioning is impacted, physically
healthy people are capable enjoying sexual
experiences for a lifetime with the proper
adjustments.
Cognitive Development
• The rate of cognitive decline tends
to increase in the later 70s.
• While older adults typically have
problems with memory functioning
(such as remembering names),
tasks that require crystallized
intelligence remain intact.
Seattle Longitudinal Study
• Factors that contribute to preserved
intellectual functioning include:
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General health
Socioeconomic status
Stimulating activities
Marriage to a spouse with a high
level of intellectual functioning
• Openness to new experience
Alzheimer’s Disease
• An irreversible brain disease
characterized by gradual deterioration
in mental processes such as memory,
language use, judgment, and problem
solving.
• Alzheimer’s afflicts 4 million Americans
and has become the fourth leading
cause of death among adults in the
US.
Aging, Gender and Ethnicity
• Women in our society typically live longer
than men. One primary reason is that heart
disease develops later in women than in men.
• Many male deaths are due to unhealthy
habits more typical of men.
• Members of ethnic minority groups typically
die younger due to lower socioeconomic
status which leads to poorer diet and lower
quality health care.
Personality and Social
Development
• Ego Integrity versus despair: Erikson’s term
for the crisis of late adulthood, characterized
by the task of maintaining one’s sense of
identity despite physical deterioration.
• Contrary to the myths, older adults are not
typically dependent upon others. The
majority of heads of households 65 or older
own their own homes.
Retirement
• 6 phases of retirement:
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The preretirement phase
The honeymoon phase
The disenchantment phase
The reorientation phase
The stability phase
The termination phase
Kubler-Ross: 5 Stages of Dying
• Denial: “It can’t be me”
• Anger: “It’s unfair! Why me?”
• Bargaining: “God, just give me 6 more
months”
• Depression: Grief, loss, hopelessness.
• Final Acceptance: Ultimately, inner
peace may come…but it is not
contentment as it is usually devoid of
feeling.
Dying with Dignity
• Euthanasia: Causing a painless death of
someone suffering from and incurable and
painful disease or condition.
• Hospice: As generally used, a house or facility
providing supportive care to dying patients.
• Bereavement: The saddened, lonely state of
those who have experienced the death of a
loved one.
Components of Successful
Aging
• Reshaping one’s life to concentrate on
what one finds to be important and
meaningful.
• Maintaining a positive outlook.
• Seeking Challenges
• Developing healthy exercise and
nutrition habits.