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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.
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PSYC 2314Lifespan 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.
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
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
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.
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.)
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
Medical Treatment • In vitro fertilization (IVF) • Gamete intra-Fallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote intra-Fallopian transfer (ZIFT)
Health Problems • Drug Abuse • Destructive Dieting • Violence
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.
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
Dieting • Excessive concern with weight can become pathological • Anorexia nervosa • Bulimia nervosa
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.
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
Violent Death • Presence of alcohol • A weapon • A lack of self-restraint