PSYC 2314 Lifespan Development Chapter 17 Early Adulthood: Biosocial Development

Growth, Strength and Health Full height is reached at about age 16 in females and 18 for males. Muscle growth and fat accumulation continue into the 20s. In both sexes, physical strength increases during the 20s, reaching a peak at about age 30. The early 20s can be considered the prime of life in terms of physiological development. Whatever difficulties young adults experience in biosocial development are usu. not related to aging. Since more of their body mass is comprised of muscle, men are typically stronger than women.

Grow, Strength and Health Digestive, respiratory, and sexual-reproductive systems function at an optimum level during early adulthood. Most visits to the doctor are necessitated not by disease but by injuries or normal pregnancy. Of the fatal diseases, cancer is the leading cause of death in young adults.

Grow, Strength and Health Senescence: age-related physical decline Genes Environment Personal choices Sometime between 15 and 30, overall growth stops and senescence, or age-related physical decline, begins.

Growth, Strength and Health Signs of aging Skin during the 20s Graying of the hair often begins around 30 Body systems decline at different rate Kidneys-about 4% per decade Lungs-about 5% per decade At about 20, collagen, the connective tissue of the body begins to decrease in total quantity As a result, the skin becomes thinner and less flexible, and wrinkles become visible. Skin all over the body, particularly on the face is likely to show creases, discoloration, furrows, sagging, and loss of resiliency.

Grow, Strength and Health Homeostasis—the adjustment of the body’s systems to keep the physiological functions in a state of equilibrium. The older the person is, the longer it takes Most bodies are capable of functioning very well until at least 70.

Growth, Strength and Health Sexual Responsiveness Male and female bodies follow a similar sequence of sexual activation at every age: arousal, peak excitement, orgasm, refraction and recovery. As men grow older, they often need more explicit or prolonged stimulation to produce sexual arousal. In addition, a longer time elapses between the beginning of sexual excitement and full erection, between erection and ejaculation, and between orgasm and the end of the refractory period.

Growth, Strength and Health Women become more likely to experience orgasm as they mature from early adolescence toward middle adulthood. More prolonged stimulation provided as a consequence of the slowing down of the man’s responses. With experience, both partners focus on those aspects of love-making that intensify the woman’s responses. Increasing sexual awareness and openness. Aging makes reproduction less likely for women, thereby their sexual passions can increase. It is important to note that the individual differences in sexuality overshadow any solid biological trends.

The Sexual-Reproductive System Infertility—the lack of a successful pregnancy after one year of regular intercourse without contraception. In males, low number of sperm and/or the sperm’s poor motility Senescence Anything that impairs normal body functioning (high fever, radiation, prescription drugs, drug abuse, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, etc.) In each ejaculate, every normal man produces millions of sperm that are dead, malformed, or of low motility (active), but he also produces more than 80 million sperm that are alive and swimming. Even a man who produces as few as 20 million sperm per ejaculate, only 1/3 of which are normal in shape and movement, can usu. still impregnate a woman. As men grow older, the number, shape and motility of their sperm decline. Men over age 40 take 3x longer (measured by months of sexual activity before conception occurs) to produce a pregnancy than men under 25. Sometimes the solution to such age-related reductions in sperm count is actually less, rather than more, sex: waiting at least 3 days between ejaculations is advisable to allow the sperm count to rise.

The Sexual-Reproductive System Women can be infertile for many reasons: Being underweight and being obese Failure to ovulate Blocked Fallopian tubes Endometriosis Infections and fibrous tumors Being underweight and being obese contributes to the most common underlying reason: failure to ovulate—that is, to release an egg from the ovary. Blocked Fallopian tubes is often caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which occurs when infections of the female organs are not treated promptly. STDs, such as gonorrhea and chlamydia, can cause PID. Endometriosis, age-related but not age-caused, fragments of the uterine lining grow on the surface of the ovaries or the Fallopian tubes. Endometriosis can block the reproductive tract. Infections and fibroids can prevent implantation. It is recommend that would-be mothers begin their efforts at conception before 30 and would be fathers before 40. These recommendations are intended not only to increase the likelihood of conception but also to reduce the incidence of problems with pregnancy and birth.

Medical Treatment In vitro fertilization (IVF) Gamete intra-Fallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote intra-Fallopian transfer (ZIFT) IVF: sperm and ovum are united in a lab setting outside the womb and the fertilized egg then injected into the uterus. It sidesteps problems with ovulation and with low sperm count. In the lab a technician can insert one sperm into one ovum, thus avoiding the need for millions of sperm per ejaculate. The resulting zygotes are then inserted directly into the uterus (avoiding the journey through the Fallopian tube). GIFT/ZIFT: inserting either sperm and unfertilized ova or fertilized ova into a Fallopian tube. IVF has a success rate of 1 in 6. GIFT/ZIFT 1 in 4.

Health Problems Drug Abuse Destructive Dieting Violence These three problems are more prevalent in early adulthood than at any other age.

Drug Abuse Drug addiction is measured by the need for more of a drug, indicative of withdrawal symptoms. Women use and abuse drugs less than men College undergraduates are particularly vulnerable to drug abuse Late teens and early twenties are the time of heaviest alcohol and marijuana use Around age 23 is the time of heaviest use of other drugs, including cocaine. Although many drug abusers are addicts, some are not addicted, and some addicts are not drug abusers.

Drug Abuse Genetic Temperament An attraction to excitement A low tolerance for frustration A vulnerability to depression

Drug Abuse Reasons for the high rate of drug use and abuse in the first years of adulthood Being in transition between families Several life stresses Lack of religious faith and practice Social surroundings Family of origin and one of their own making—many young adults abuse drugs as a way of striving for independence. Finishing school, beginning a family, and establishing a career—cluster during early adulthood and create a need for escape. Young adults are the group least likely to be regularly exposed to one of the most powerful factors halting drug and alcohol abuse. The social surroundings of many young adults promote alcohol and drug use. Addiction and abuse generally increase from age 18 to 26.

Dieting Excessive concern with weight can become pathological Anorexia nervosa Bulimia nervosa Anorexia nervosa: self-starvation, BMI is below 18. Bulimia nervosa: compulsive binge eating followed by purging through either vomiting or inducing diarrhea. To warrant a clinical diagnosis of bulimia, bingeing and purging must occur at least once a week for 3 months, and the person must have uncontrollable urges to overeat and must show a distorted self-judgment based on misperceived body size. People who suffer from bulimia are usu. close to normal in weight and therefore unlikely to starve to death. However, they can experience serious health problems, including severe damage to the gastrointestinal system and cardiac arrest from the strain of electrolyte imbalance.

Theories of Development on Dieting Psychoanalytic: women develop eating disorders because of a conflict with their mothers. Learning: for some people with low self-esteem, fasting, bingeing, and purging have powerful effects as immediate reinforcers. Psychoanalytic: mothers provided their first nourishment and from whom the daughters cannot physically separate. Learning: relieving states of emotional distress and tension, thus setting up a destructive stimulus-response chain.

Theories of Development on Dieting Cognitive: women compete with men in business and industry, they want to project a strong, self-controlled, masculine imagine antithetical to buxom, fleshy body of the ideal woman of the past. Sociocultural: the contemporary cultural pressure to be “slim and trim” and model-like

Theories of Development on Dieting Epigenetic: girls who are overwhelmed with the stresses of puberty may discover that self-starvation makes their menstrual periods cease, their sexual hormones decrease, and their curves disappear—all of which relieve the pressures to marry and reproduce.

Violence Social values are at the root of the problem Manhood rituals Positive masculine tendencies turn into negative male traits When young men achieve masculinity through manhood rituals including violence, alcohol consumption, high-risk activities and sexual conquest, they obviously hurt other people, including other young men, but the victims are often themselves. A society that turns positive masculine tendencies such as courage, independence, and competitiveness into such negative male traits as recklessness, callousness, and an egocentric and often obsessive need to be dominant and to win is bound to suffer violent consequences.

Violent Death Presence of alcohol A weapon A lack of self-restraint Aggression is the result of an explosive combination of high self-esteem and dashed expectations. A sudden crash of the self-concept is more likely to result in violence when it coincides with the 3 listed above.