Psychosocial Development in Emerging and

Young Adulthood
Emerging Adulthood: Patterns and Tasks
Varied Paths to Adulthood: Paths to adulthood are more varied now than in the past.
Influenced by gender, academic ability, attitudes toward education, race/ethnicity,
expectations, and social class.

1. Early families, no college: Associated with poverty and substance use. Early parenthood limits
prospects, especially for unmarried women.
Traditional Markers: Moving out, marriage, children, full-time employment, career.
Three Primary Pathways:
2. Delay children, full-time work: More children by thirties, work more hours, reach income
plateau, depend on government aid.
3. Delay parenthood, education/career goals: Most privileged, positive outcomes. High well-
being: unmarried, no children, college, live away from home.

Identity Development in Emerging Adulthood: Erikson saw the search for identity as a lifelong
task. Emerging adulthood allows experimentation.

1. Embedded in family, expectations for self-reliance increase.

Recentering: Shift to adult identity in three stages:
2. Connected but not embedded, exploratory involvements.
3. Independence from family, commitment to career/partner/children.

Contemporary Moratorium: Not everyone actively explores identity. Some regress, others
show no change. Many take a passive approach or follow parents' lead. Most settle on
occupational identity by late twenties.
Identity Confusion: Persists for 10-20%, lacking fidelity (faith in something larger than
themselves).
Ethnic and Cultural Factors in Identity Exploration:
Individualism vs. Collectivism: Identity achievement may be more adaptive in individualistic
cultures. In collectivist cultures, foreclosure may be beneficial.
Racial/Ethnic Minorities: Must understand themselves as part of an ethnic group and wider
society. Multiracial individuals face added challenges. Achieved and positive ethnic identity
has positive effects on well-being, coping, academic achievement, and acceptance of other
groups. May help weather discrimination.
Developing Adult Relationships with Parents:
Emerging adults need parental acceptance, empathy, support.
Financial support enhances success. Positive parent-child relationships in adolescence
predict warmer relationships at age 26.
Parents and adult children get along best when the young adult follows a normative life
course but defers parenthood.
Relationship between parents affects the parent-adult child relationship. "Caught in the
middle" can have negative consequences.
Failure to Launch: Economic and social changes make independent households difficult.
Young adults remain dependent for economic reasons and training/schooling. Staying home
 can threaten autonomy but allows occupational advancement.

Personality Development: Four Views

Normative-Stage Models: Adults follow a sequence of age-related psychosocial changes.
Erikson: Intimacy vs. Isolation: Strong sense of self during adolescence positions young
adults to fuse their identity with another. Intimacy requires sacrifice and compromise.
Resolution leads to the virtue of love. Criticism: excludes single, celibate, homosexual, and
childless people. Men and women may follow different developmental trajectories.
Timing-of-Events Model: Development depends on when certain events occur.
Normative Life Events: Marriage, parenthood, grandparenthood, retirement.
People are aware of their timing and the social clock (societal norms).
On-time events lead to smooth development; off-time events cause stress.
Typical timing varies by culture/generation. Social clocks are now more widely age-
graded.
Trait Models: Costa and McCrae's Five Factors: Focus on the measurement and examination
of traits.

1. Openness to experience (O)

Five-Factor Model (OCEAN):
2. Conscientiousness (C)
3. Extraversion (E)
4. Agreeableness (A)
5. Neuroticism (N)

Continuity and Change: Average personality changes are small. Normative developmental
change in all five dimensions between adolescence and age 30, with slower change
thereafter.
Change is generally positive (increases in social dominance, conscientiousness, emotional
stability, and agreeableness), with decreases in neuroticism, extraversion, and openness.
Big Five traits are linked to health and well-being. Openness to experience is related to verbal
intelligence, creative achievement, and better health. Conscientiousness has been linked
most strongly with health-related behaviors that contribute to long life. People low in
extraversion are prone to agoraphobia and social phobias, while those high in extraversion
tend to be high in well-being but are more likely to engage in more substance use.
Agreeableness has been associated with less negative responses to stress. People high in
neuroticism tend to be subject to anxiety and depression and are more likely to be dependent
on drugs and low in well-being.
Life experiences influence personality change.
Typological Models: Look at personality as a functioning whole.
Three Personality Types:

1. Ego-resilient: Well-adjusted, adaptable under stress.

2. Overcontrolled: Shy, quiet, anxious, dependable.
3. Undercontrolled: Active, energetic, impulsive, stubborn.

Ego resiliency interacts with ego control to determine adaptive/maladaptive behavior.

Positive effects are associated with positive emotions and self-efficacy.
Foundations of Intimate Relationships

Erikson saw the development of intimate relationships as crucial.

Requires self-awareness, empathy, communication skills, conflict resolution, commitment, and

sexual decision-making.

Friendship:
Young adults have large networks, but friendships are less stable due to relocation.
Center on work, parenting, confidences, and advice.
Single adults rely on friendships more than married adults/parents.
Number of friends and time spent with them decrease over time.
Women have more intimate friendships than men. Men share information and activities
more.
Close friendships can become fictive kin (treated as family).
Social networking sites are used to maintain/strengthen ties.
Love:

Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love: Three components:

1. Intimacy (emotional): self-disclosure, connection, warmth, trust.

2. Passion (motivational): physiological arousal, sexual desire.
3. Commitment (cognitive): decision to love and stay with the beloved.

Degree to which each component is present determines the type of love.

As adolescents move into adulthood, they tend to feel an increasing amount of intimacy,
passion, and commitment in their romantic relationships.
Identity achievement is associated with stronger feelings of companionship, worth, affection,
and emotional support within romantic relationships.
Women report greater intimacy, while men report greater passion.
Passion declines over time as commitment increases.

Marital and Nonmarital Lifestyles

Socially acceptable lifestyles are more flexible.

Single Life:
Proportion of single young adults has increased.
Reasons: haven't found right mate, choice, economic instability, desire to coordinate
career goals with long-term relationship goals, desire for self-fulfillment, sexual freedom,
fear of divorce.
"Friends with benefits" (FWB) relationships: blend of friendship and physical intimacy, little
 commitment.
Gay and Lesbian Relationships:
Greater social acceptance, but much discrimination still exists.
Mirror heterosexual relationships in many ways (satisfaction, predicting factors).
Differences: more egalitarian household chores, more positive conflict resolution, less
stable relationships.
Cohabitation:
Increasingly common lifestyle.
Prevalence varies widely across countries.
Cohabiters are likely to be less religious, less traditional, less confident in their
relationships, more accepting of divorce, more negative and aggressive in their
interactions with their romantic partners, and less effective communicators.
Less satisfying and less stable than marriages.
Rates of serial cohabitation are rising.
Marriage:

Affected by demographic and economic changes.

More women are economically successful.

Religious people endorse earlier marriage.

Most young adults plan to marry when ready.

Love, commitment, and companionship are important reasons to marry.

Entering Matrimony:
Marrying age has risen.
Most common way of selecting a mate has been through arrangement.

Transition brings changes in sexual functioning, living arrangements, rights, responsibilities,

attachments, and loyalties.

Sexual Activity after Marriage:

Estimates are that approximately 20 to 25 percent of marriages experience infidelity.
Marital Satisfaction:
Married people tend to be happier than unmarried people.
Positively affected by economic resources, equal decision-making, nontraditional gender
attitudes, and support for lifelong marriage.
 Negatively affected by premarital cohabitation, extramarital affairs, wives’ job demands,
and wives’ longer working hours.

Parenthood

People have fewer children and have them later.

Increasing proportion of couples remain childless.

Men's and Women's Involvement in Parenthood:

Most mothers work outside the home.
Women spend more time on child care than in the past.
Fathers are less involved than mothers, but involvement is increasing.
Fathers living with dependent children are less likely to be involved in their own
independent social activities.
Parenthood and Marital Satisfaction:
Results are mixed. Some studies show a decline in marital satisfaction.
New parents experience stressors (sleep deprivation, uncertainty, isolation).
Division of household tasks is a common issue.
Other studies find no differences or show greater happiness. Healthy relationships prior to
birth adjust more adaptively.
Dual-Income Families:
Increasingly common.
Combining work and family is good for mental/physical health.
Juggling multiple roles is difficult (time demands, conflict, rivalry, guilt).
Work stress affects family life.
Cross-cultural studies suggest the relationship between work-family balance and well-
being holds across countries.

When Marriage Ends

Average marriage ends in divorce after 7-8 years.

Divorce:
U.S. divorce rate has decreased since 1970.
Rates vary by age cohort and education.
Reasons for failure: incompatibility, lack of emotional support, spousal abuse.
Husbands’ unemployment is associated with a greater risk of divorce.
Ending even an unhappy marriage can be painful.
Divorce reduces long-term well-being, especially for the non-initiator.
Emotional detachment is important for adjustment.
Remarriage and Stepparenthood:
Remarriages are more likely than first marriages to end in divorce.
Remarriage rates have dropped in recent decades.
Stepparenting is challenging, especially with older stepchildren.
Healthy communication can mitigate conflict.