© 2009 allyn & bacon publishers 14 social and personality development in early adulthood this...

© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

14Social and Personality Development in Early Adulthood

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Intimacy versus Isolation

• Intimacy: the capacity to engage in a supportive, affectionate relationship without losing one’s own sense of self

• Isolation: results from relationships that are inadequate, lack of self-disclosure, and unresolved identity crises

Theories of Social and Personality Development Erikson


• All the roles an individual occupies, all his or her relationships, and the conflicts and balance that exist among them

• Each period of life presents adults with new developmental challenges

• Like Erikson, he regards formation of an intimate relationship with another adult as a central developmental task of early adulthood

Theories of Social and Personality Development Levinson’s Life Structures


Figure 14.1 Levinson’s Model of Adult Development


Emerging Adulthood

• New stage proposed by Arnett – Covers ages 17-22

• Experiment with adult options

• Must address tasks such as academic, friendship, conduct, work and romance

• Parts of brain governing impulse control, decision-making not yet fully mature


Evolutionary Theory and Mate Selection

• Focus on survival value• Mating a selective process to insure survival of

the species• Cross-cultural studies suggest

– Men prefer physically attractive, younger women

– Men lower their standards on the basis of availability

– Women prefer men whose socio-economic status is higher than their own, who offer earning potential and stability


Evolutionary Theory and Mate Selection

• Parental Investment Theory– Men value health and availability in mates

– Men less selective because of minimum physical investment in conceiving or bearing offspring

– Women’s investment starts with a 9 month commitment and giving birth

– Men seek to maximize the number of their offspring while women seek to minimize the number of their offspring


Social Role Theory and Mate Selection

Sex differences are adaptations to gender roles resulting from present-day social realities rather than from natural selection

• High-income earning women select high-income earning males to provide economic support while they raise children and take a break from their careers

• Homogamy or assortive mating• People are drawn to similar others


Intimate RelationshipsMarriage

• 2.4 million formal weddings each year

• Longitudinal research suggests that most marriages endure– After 8 years of marriage, the probability that they

will divorce drops to nearly zero

– Married adults are happier, healthier, and live longer with a lower rate of psychiatric disturbances


Figure 14.2 Household Composition


Relationship Quality

• Influences on marital success– Values– Personality characteristics of the partners

• High degree of neuroticism in one or both partners leads to dissatisfaction

– Attitudes towards divorce • Couples unopposed to divorce report more

dissatisfaction with marriage

– The security of each partner’s attachment to his or her family of origin


Figure 14.3 Components of Marital Success by Ethnicity


Relationship Quality

• Emotional affection contributes to relationship quality.

• Robert Sternberg – love has 3 key components

– Intimacy – feelings that promote closeness and connectedness

– Passion – feeling of intense longing for union with the other person, including sexual union

– Commitment to a particular other – over a long period of time


Figure 14.4 Sternberg’s Theory of Love


Relationship Quality How a couple manages conflict is important

• Validating couples – Have disagreements but rarely let them escalate– Partners express mutual respect and listen to each

other

• Volatile couples– Squabble a lot, don’t listen BUT– More positive than negative with high levels of

laughter and affection

• Avoidant couples – Conflict minimizers; agree to disagree – devitalizing


Divorce

• Couples likely to divorce:– Hostile/engaged – frequent hot arguments with no

balancing forces– Hostile/detached – fight regularly, rarely look at

each other, lack affection and support

• Divorce associated with increased physical and emotional illness—higher rates of:– Automobile accidents– Suicide– Lost days from work– Depression


Divorce

• Often, divorce accompanies serious economic hardships, especially for women– Divorced men improve their economic base

– Divorced women have 40 - 50% decline in income• Hardest on working-class women with low levels of

education

• Affects sequence and timing of family roles.– Remarriage expands the number of years of

childbearing for many divorced women


Cohabiting Heterosexual Couples

• Those cohabiting before marriage “on average”– Less satisfied with their marriages– More likely to divorce

• Couples who cohabited are less homogamous or similar to each other

• Two types of cohabiting couples– Couples who are fully committed to a future

marriage and those where– Relationship between partners is ambiguous


Cohabiting Heterosexual Couples

• Teachman suggests– Married women whose premarital cohabitation and

sexual experience limited to a future husband no more likely to divorce than women who didn’t cohabit

– Prior sexual and cohabitational histories are major factors in divorce

• Cohabiting couples who intend to marry– Share work loads at home

– Happier during cohabitation

– May do a better job communicating


Gay and Lesbian Couples

• Attachment security is an important factor in same-sex unions

• Neuroticism in one or both partners threatens relationship quality and length

• Partners sharing similar backgrounds and equally committed to relationship length report high satisfaction levels


Gay and Lesbian Couples

• Gay and lesbian partners more dependent on each other for social support– May be isolated from original family– Build families of choice – a stable partner and a

circle of close friends for support

• Power and tasks are equally divided by the couple– More true of lesbians than of gay couples

• Lesbians insist on sexual exclusivity whereas gay men regard sexual fidelity as negotiable in most couples


Singlehood• Many adults single by preference

– Associated with greater autonomy and capacity for personal growth

• Many adults participate in intimate relationships that do not involve cohabiting or marriage—”partnered”

“

• Close relationships with families of origin likely to be a source of support

• Close friends play prominent role in social networks


Parenthood The Desire to become a Parent

• 9 out of 10 women aged 18 to 34 either are or expect to become a parent

• More men than women desire to be parents

• Expectant fathers become emotionally attached to their unborn children


The Transition Experience

• Even emotionally healthy mothers must adapt to parenthood

– New parents may argue about care-taking duties

– Many are sleep-deprived

– Less times for conversations, sex, simple affection or routine chores

• Extended families and cultural rituals may ease the transition.


Parenthood

Postpartum Depression

• 10 – 25% of new mothers– Feelings of profound sadness for several weeks after

birth

– More likely in women who produce large amounts of steroid hormones late in pregnancy

– More likely in unplanned pregnancies

– Presence of major life stressors increases the risk

– Depression during pregnancy is best predictor


Developmental Impact of Parenthood

• Sensation-seeking and risky behaviors decline.

• Marital satisfaction tends to decline and remain low until the last child leaves home

– Division of labor issues fuel dissatisfaction

– Support from extended family helps

– Effective conflict-resolution strategies increase satisfaction

• Single parents show greater drop in satisfaction with life


Figure 14.5 Marital Satisfaction through the Family Life Cycle


Childlessness

• Marital satisfaction fluctuates less over time

• Women are more likely to have full-time continuous careers (but not necessarily advance more)

• Married fathers whose wives were not employed were more likely to advance


Social NetworksFamily

• Most adults feel emotionally close to their parents and see or talk to them regularly

• Proximity influences contact

• Culture influences involvement with parents.– Hispanic young adults value family ties.

• African American value family connections highly– Young adults are less likely to marry– Live in multi-generational households– Report higher levels of warmth with parents than Whites


Questions to Ponder

• Are you looking forward to having children? Why or why not?

• What characteristics of a potential mate are most important to you? What characteristics would be problematic for you? Why?

• Do you have a good relationship with your parents today? How often do you talk? In what situations do you seek advice? What situations would you not discuss with your parents?


Friends

• Similar to us in education, social class, interests, family background and family life cycle stage

• Drawn from same age group

• Overwhelmingly same-sex

• May have more friends as young adults than later in life


Sex Differences in Relationship Styles

• Women have more close friends.– More intimate

– More self-disclosure

– More exchange of emotional support

• Women often the “kinkeeper” in family, correspondence, family news, etc

• Young men remain competitive with friends.– Do things together


The Role of WorkerChoosing an occupation

• Family influences– Choose occupations in the same social class

as parents– Educational goals influence choice– Families influence choice through value

systems• Valuing academic and professional achievement

influences professional-level job choices• Achievement in working class families is

associated with moving into middle class jobs


The Role of WorkerGender

• Sex-role definitions still designate some jobs as “women’s jobs” and “men’s jobs”

• Male jobs are more varied, technical, and higher in status and income

• Female jobs are concentrated in the service industry, and offer lower status and pay– 1/3 of women hold clerical jobs– 1/4 of women are in health care, teaching, or domestic

service


The Role of Worker Personality

• John Holland– 6 basic personality types– Each of us tend to choose and be most

successful at an occupation that matches our personality

• People whose personalities match their jobs are more likely to be satisfied with their work


Career Development

Donald Super’s Model

Several stages of career development

• Growth stage—learn about one’s abilities• Exploratory stage—decide on job or career• Establishment stage—early steps on the career

ladder• Maintenance stage—ends at retirement but may

need to learn new skills on the job


Job Satisfaction

• At its lowest at mid-career

• Uncertainty about job security, employment market and job opportunities


Quality of Work Life (QWL) Movement

• Importance of work-life balance• Assume happier workers are more productive• Innovations in how work is structured

– Telecommuting—connect to workplace through telephone, computer, fax

– Flextime schedules

– Job sharing

– On-site childcare


Sex Differences in Work Patterns

• Women’s work satisfaction goes up with age

• Most women move into and out of the labor market at least once during adulthood– Bear and rear children a key

• However, most mothers also have work force jobs

• Our culture thinks of a man as simultaneously a worker, a parent, and a spouse but has difficulty seeing a woman as all three

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