CHAPTER 13
PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
RESOURCES-AT-A-GLANCE
Detailed Outline
Learning
Objectives
Instructor’s Resources
Test Bank
MyPsychLab Connection
Chapter Introduction pp. 321-322
PowerPoint Slides
1-4
Sketchnote Video
Emerging Adulthood
Early Adulthood
Physical Functioning pp. 322-328
Primary and Secondary Aging
13.1
PowerPoint Slides
5-21
MC 1-28
FI 75–78
Watch
Early Adulthood: Social
22–48
Common Misconceptions
about STDs: Michael Bailey, p.
331
Nightmare on AIDS Street: Taking
an HIV Test, p. 332
Phobias, p. 336
Gender, Ethnicity, and Disability
13.11
13.12
SA 102-104
ES 111
Cognitive Changes pp. 340-342
Formal Operations and Beyond
13.9
PowerPoint Slides
49–52
MC 70-73
FI 86
Early Adulthood: Robert Sternberg:
Culture Influences, p. 342
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Young adulthood, the period from 20 to 40, is the time in life when individuals’ developmental pathways
begin to diverge significantly.
Primary aging is caused by basic biological forces. Secondary aging is the result of illness and lifestyle
choices. There is a major growth spurt in the brain across the late teens and early twenties. Some
Young adults more often exhibit formal operational thinking than do adolescents, and many psychologists
believe there are even more advanced levels of thought than Piaget’s final stage of cognitive
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing Chapter 13, students should be able to answer the following questions:
13.1 What is the difference between primary and secondary aging?
13.2 What changes in the brain take place in early adulthood?
13.3 How do other body systems change during early adulthood?
13.10 How do the concepts of crystallized and fluid intelligence help to explain age-related changes in
IQ scores?
13.11 What are some of the ways in which college attendance affects individual development?
13.12 What is the impact of gender, ethnicity, and disability on the college experience?
KEY TERMS
crystallized intelligence (p. 342)
dialectical thought (p. 341)
fluid intelligence (p. 342)
intimate partner abuse (p. 333)
limbic system (p. 324)
locus of control (p. 330)
maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) (p. 324)
pelvic inflammatory disease (p. 331)
personality disorder (p. 337)
phobia (p. 336)
INTEGRATED CHAPTER TEACHING NOTES
PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING (pp. 322-328)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Early Adulthood: Social Networking, p. 322
Watch: Early Adulthood: Happiness and Attitude Toward Aging, p. 322
Primary and Secondary Aging
LO 13.1 What is the difference between primary and secondary aging?
Researchers distinguish between two types of aging:
▪ The basic, underlying, inevitable aging process is called primary aging (senescence) by most
developmentalists.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.1, p. 322)
Give examples of primary and secondary aging.
Age interacts with social class such that differences among young adults across social class groups are
fairly small. With increasing age, however, the differences become much larger. Social class differences
in health may be due to group variations in patterns of primary aging, but most developmentalists believe
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.1, pp. 322-323)
Give examples of cultural and economic factors that might affect your health. How could you change
them to prevent or even reverse the effects of aging?
The Brain and Nervous System
LO 13.2 What changes in the brain take place in early adulthood?
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 13.2, p. 324)
Research Report: Gender Differences in the Brain
Ask students to give examples of their perceptions of brain differences in the brain. Does the research
support their perceptions?
No matter what age an individual is, new synapses are forming, myelinization is occurring, and old
connections are dying off. There is recent evidence that some parts of the brain produce new neurons to
replace those that die, even in the brains of older adults. As is true in childhood and adolescence, a
challenging environment probably supports brain development. At some point in development, usually in
the late teens, developmental processes reach a balance, and the brain attains a stable size and weight. By
early adulthood, most functions have become localized in specific areas of the brain.
There are two spurts in brain growth in early adulthood:
▪ A major spurt occurs in the frontal lobes; it begins at about age 17 and continues until age 21 or 22. It
is believed to be strongly connected to the increases in the capacity for formal operational thinking
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.2, p. 324)
Give examples of a loss of speed that becomes noticeable in people around you.
Other Body Systems
LO 13.3 How do other body systems change during early adulthood?
Declines in Physical Functioning
After the peak, there is a gradual decline on almost every measure of physical functioning through the
years of adulthood. These changes reflect primary aging and not secondary aging, and most begin in
early adulthood. Most people notice little or no drop in everyday physical functioning until middle age.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.2, pp. 324-325)
Give examples of how the balance between physical demand and physical energy changes as we age.
Heart and Lungs
The most common measure of overall aerobic fitness is maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) which
reflects the ability of the body to take in and transport oxygen to various body organs. When this is
measured at rest, there are only minimal detriments associated with age, but when VO2 max is measured
during exercise, it shows a systematic decline with age of about one percent per year beginning at about
age 35 or 40.
Strength and Speed
The collective effect of the changes in muscle and cardiovascular fitness is a general loss of strength and
speed with age. Strength is at its peak in the 20s and 30s and then declines steadily. Such a difference
may be the result of the fact that younger adults are more physically active or more likely to be engaged
in activities or jobs that demand strength. Studies of physically active older adults, however, show loss of
muscle strength as well.
Reproductive Capacity
The risk of miscarriage and other complications of pregnancy is higher in a woman’s 30s than in her 20s.
An equivalent change occurs in fertility—the ability to conceive—that is at its highest in late teens and
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.3, p. 326)
Find out about the causes and effects of pelvic inflammatory disease, and report the answers to the class.
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 13.3, p. 327)
No Easy Answers: Assisted Reproductive Technology
Ask students to debate the pros and cons of assisted reproductive technology.
Immune System Functioning
The two key organs in the immune system are the thymus and the bone marrow. Between them, they
create two types of cells, B cells and T cells, each of which plays a distinct role. B cells fight against
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.3, pp. 326-327)
If an increase in the risk of disease is a normal part of aging, then why does it make sense to study normal
aging by studying only healthy adults?
It is not entirely clear whether the changes in the immune system are primary or secondary aging. The
changes found in healthy adults indicate primary aging. There is evidence, however, that the functioning
of the immune system is highly responsive to psychological stress and depression.
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 13.1-13.3, pp. 322-328)
Elite swimmers reach their peak in their early twenties, while the best amateur and professional golfers
are at their best in their 30s. How do the physical changes that you have learned about in this section
explain this?
HEALTH AND WELLNESS (pp. 328-340)
MyPsychLab Connections
Simulate: General Model of Drug Addiction, p. 338
Health Habits and Personal Factors
LO 13.4 What habits and personal factors are associated with good health?
Health Habits
The Alameda County Study in California provides evidence for the long-term effects of various health
practices. Researchers conducted a random sample of a large number of residents and then tracked their
health, as well as their death records for 18 years. They initially identified the following seven health
practices they thought might be critical:
▪ getting physical exercise
▪ not smoking
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.4, pp. 328-329)
Think about your own less-than-ideal health habits. What rationalizations do you use to justify them to
yourself?
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 13.4, p. 330)
Developmental Science in the Clinic: Smoking Cessation
Social Support
There is abundant evidence that adults with adequate social support have a lower risk of disease, death,
and depression than do adults with weaker social networks or less supportive relationships.
The link between social support and health was revealed in some of the findings from the Alameda study.
In this study, the social network index reflected an objective measurement: number of contacts with
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.4, p. 329)
Give examples of how social support enhances health.
A Sense of Control
Another personal characteristic that affects physical and mental health is an individual’s level of self-
efficacy, the belief in one’s ability to perform some action or to control one’s behavior or environment, to
reach some goal or make something happen.
One particularly important component of self– and other-understanding that appears to work in
combination with personality traits to shape adolescents’ development is called locus of control.
Psychologists use this term to signify a person’s beliefs about the causes of events.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.4, pp. 329-331)
Give examples of behaviors of persons with internal locus of control and persons with external locus of
control.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.4, pp. 329-331)
Why do you suppose this cluster of personality traits (external locus of control, low self-esteem,
introversion, and neuroticism) is associated with such negative outcomes?
Both self-efficacy and locus of control are related to yet another control-related psychological
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.4, pp. 329-331)
Why does having control over simple aspects of a person’s daily life make a difference in mortality rate?
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
LO 13.5 What are some of the viral and bacterial STDs that afflict young adults?
Bacterial STDs
Bacterial STDs are those that are caused by microorganisms that can be eradicated through the use of
antibiotic medication.
▪ The most prevalent is chlamydia, a bacterial infection that can be transmitted through many kinds of
physical contact involving the genitals, as well as actual intercourse. Women are about three times as
Viral STDs
Unlike STDs caused by bacteria, those that are viral cannon be treated with antibiotics and are considered
incurable.
▪ Genital herpes can be acquired through either intercourse or oral sex. Attacks of the disease, which
HIV/AIDS
The most feared STD is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immune
Prevention
Young adults have higher rates of these diseases than those who are older primarily because they engage
in more sexually risky behavior. Specifically, many young adults engage in casual, unprotected sex with
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.5, pp. 331-333)
Why are young adults as likely as adolescents to engage in high-risk behaviors?
Intimate Partner Abuse
LO 13.6 What are the causes and effects of intimate partner abuse?
Intimate partner abuse is defined as physical acts or other behaviors intended to intimidate or harm an
Prevalence
Rates of intimate partner abuse vary across ethnic groups within the United States. As many as half of all
African American women in the United States have been physically abused by an intimate partner at
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.6, pp. 333-334)
What factors might contribute to the higher incidence of abuse of low-income women?
Causes of Partner Abuse
Cultural attitudes contribute to rates of abuse. Specifically, in many societies, women are regarded as
property, and a man’s “right” to beat his partner may be protected by law. Gender-role prescriptions may
also contribute to abuse. In addition to cultural beliefs, a number of characteristics of abusers and their
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.6, p. 334)
Why might men who are high school drop-outs or who are frequently unemployed be more likely to
abuse their partners than other men?
Abuse victims are more likely to have been abused as children than are their peers who are not involved
in abusive relationships. Age is also a factor, with younger women being more likely to be abused. This
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.6, p. 334)
Could an abused woman’s belief that she has no choice but to remain in the abusive relationship be false?
What factors might influence her belief?
Effects of Abuse on Individuals
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 13.6, p. 334)
What kind of social support might help abused women learn to believe in their abilities to cope on their
own?