1. Early adulthood spans ages 18 to 30 and involves significant life transitions including marriage, parenthood, and career establishment. 2. Key developmental tasks include achieving autonomy, developing identity and intimacy, and establishing independence. 3. Physically, early adulthood is a time of peak performance, but cognitive and physical abilities begin declining in late 20s.

1. Occupational Therapy Lifespan
Early Adulthood

3. Life events and emergent adulthood
- Markers of fully fledged maturity are uncertain and
constantly changing
- Early adulthood: 18 to 30 years of age
- Timing of two key critical life-events occurs
- Marriage and Parenthood
- Emergent adulthood: recognizes that full adulthood
rarely now achieved in 20’s

4. Early Adulthood
- Transition from adolescence
- Physical development
- Sexuality
- Cognitive development
- Careers and work
- Temperament Attachment
- Attraction Love
- The family life cycle
- Marriage
- Parenting
- Diversity of lifestyles
- Gender and self- development

5. Developmental tasks Early Adulthood
- Achieving autonomy
- Establishing identity
- Developing emotional stability
- Establishing a career
- Finding intimacy
- Becoming part of a group or community
- Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a
household:
- Becoming a parent and rearing children

6. Physical development
- In early adulthood, the rapid growth of youth has well
and truly finished and people have taken on adult body
proportions.
- Early adulthood is usually the stage of the lifespan
where people are able to perform physically at their best.
Young adults have good strength and coordination skills
(including fine motor skills), and quick reaction times.
- The senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch are
at their best, and people are at their sexual peak. It is
also the period during which many people become
parents.

7. - For women who choose to have children, motherhood
and giving birth to a child is a very significant aspect of
their physical development.
- Early adulthood includes the time when women’s bodies
are best able to conceive and carry a healthy baby to full
term. By the late twenties and early thirties however,
these peak abilities begin to diminish.

8. Cognitive Development
- The brain continues to develop into the mid twenties.
- Intellectual peaks are usually reached around this point.
- Young adults still find it easy to learn new skills and
information.
Relativistic thinking emerges:
- Adults engage in more thinking about complex issues
and are able to see gray areas and multiple levels of a
problem in an abstract way.

9. Neurocognitive growth and functioning
- Brain growth continues throughout adult life
- Continued growth and plasticity lead to enhanced
capacity for reasoning, flexible learning, and capacity
to recover from brain injury and disease
- Motor skills form new connections e.g., musicians,
athletes
- Cognitive skills form new connections e.g., blind people
learning Braille, London taxi drivers
- Neurocognitive “growth spurts” occur in early
adulthood – sometimes from synaptic pruning

10. Theory of emerging adulthood
Emerging adulthood is a completely separate and distinct
developmental perform from adolescence and adulthood •
Five dimensions
1. Identity exploration
2. Instability
3. Feeling in-between
4. Possibilities
5. Self-focus
6. Less other focus – added during development of the
scale

11. 10 signs you might be a 20 something
- You take the phrase “Permanent residence lightly”
- You feel like you’re in a second adolescence
- You’ve cohabitated
- You can practically recite the script at H.R. orientations
- You’ve considered moving home to live with your
parents- or currently do.
- Sometimes you react, then think
- You’re still on the parental payroll.
- You consider all your life options still open
- You secretly crave a year to live out your own “Eat,
Pray, Love” fantasy
- Your friends are as confused by where their lives are
going as you are

12. Life events and emergent adulthood
Women Explore transitions across 4 domains of life
‐ Residents
‐ Relationships
‐ Work and study
‐ Motherhood
Changes over 3 years were examined Findings:
- Cohabitation and marriage
- Improved mental health
- Divorce or traditional ‘feminine roles’ – declining
mental health
- Overall, women cope well with transitions at this life
stage

13. Pathways to relationship maturity
- Emotional independence from parents
- Identity crisis resolved and being implemented
- Understanding of contraception, reproduction and safe
sex achieved
- Mutual trust and understanding developed through
communication and sharing of experience
- A shared identity as a couple developed, building on
secure individual growth
- Skills learnt for resolving conflict and dealing with
life’s problems

14. Early Romantic Love
- Passion: physiological sexual attraction
- Commitment: strength of investment in relationship
and confidence in its future
- Intimacy: degree of mutual affection, confiding and
emotional closeness
Gender differences in experience of love – women
precipitate more relationship breakups; men cling to
declining relationships longer and report more intense
suffering following breakup

15. Adult attachment and romantic love
Attachment style influences early romantic relationships
Secure (Type B)
- Most likely to have fallen in love by age 20; more
satisfying and longer relationships
Anxious Ambivalent (Type C)
‐ Multiple, brief relationships; surprised by breakups
Anxious Avoidant (Type A)
- Fewer interactions with same- and opposite-sex
friends; relieved by breakups

16. - Longitudinal studies show quality of dating
relationships affects attachment style, but not vice versa
- Attachment styles can develop in adulthood

17. Attachment to love and work
Securely attached
- High job satisfaction
- Friendly relations with colleagues, share ideas
- Trust in boss/supervisor
- Confident of career future
- Minimal work versus love conflict, though love comes
first
- Enjoy group work, but also comfortable working solo
- Confident in job skills

18. Insecure attachment
- Low to moderate job satisfaction
- Poor relations with colleagues; little communication
- Distrust praise from others
- Sense of job insecurity
- Work conflicts with family life on a daily basis (Type C)
- Dislike boss and dislike group work (avoidant
attachment)
- Worry about own performance (Type C)

19. Developmental Tasks (Erikson)
Intimacy Vs. Isolation
- Self identity is established, but evolving
- Young adults seek connection with similar minded peer
group
- Differs from adolescence (peers shape you)
- Pursue romantic partner to establish “family”
- Learns commitment (based on trust and self confidence
learned in childhood)

20. Socioemotional Development in Early Adulthood:
Kohlberg’s Moral Development
Most young adults stay in the Conventional Stage of moral
reasoning.
- Review: internalize social ideas of morality, understand
the function of morality and law/order in maintaining a
society.

21. Socioemotional Development in Early Adulthood:
Kohlberg’s Moral Development
Some adults (at any stage of adulthood) may graduate to a
Post-Conventional moral reasoning.
- This incorporates a deeper and more complex
understanding of universal rights and wrongs.
- This individuals have a strong moral compass and
confidence to stand up to pervasive injustice.

22. Relationship Skills: Compatibility
Compatibility is a combination of social, emotional, and
physical factors that create a situation where partners “fit”
together.
- May include things such as physical attractiveness,
similar hobbies and interests.
- Most important (statistically): similar world view, life
goals, intelligence, beliefs about faith and politics,
temperament.
- Sometimes, opposites attract and it all comes down to
the individual.

23. Adjusting to Roles and Finding Happiness
Marriage/Co-living: the young adult must adjust and learn
commitment and compromise to obtain this state of
intimacy.
- Adults who lack a clear vision of their own identity will
struggle here due to low self confidence, issues with
jealousy, rigidity, etc.
Career Pathway: At some point, must make choices and
take steps to establish a vocation (or will end up
“drifting”).
- Same issues with identity.

24. Adjusting to Roles and Finding Happiness
Adjusting to Parenthood: Whether single parenting or co-
parenting, taking on the care of another is challenging.
- Must learn to adjust expectations of independence,
control of schedule, and priorities

25. Marriage
- Another developmental milestone of early/middle
adulthood
- Marriage stimulates adult cognitive development
through new challenges, conflicts and pleasures
- Couples’ approach to division of household labor can
be source of contentment or continuing friction

26. Division of household labor
Traditional approach
- Husband and wife have distinct spheres of influence
and Responsibility
Egalitarian approach
- Equal sharing of household and marital roles
Colleague partnership
- Specialize in particular roles, but these reflect personal
preference

27. What predicts divorce?
- Ratio of positive to negative communications predicts
marital well-being, not amount of negative
communication per se
- Absence of positive affect takes its toll
- Couples who divorced later rarely displayed anger, but
positive feelings were also lacking

28. Transition to parenthood
- Parenthood only one option for achieving generativity
- Deliberately childless couples lack social approval
- Transition to parenthood stressful
- Highest stress associated with more positive
expectations- Also baby’s temperament
- Marriage also undergoes upheaval
- Passing and brief phase for most couples

29. The aging process
- The aging process, although not overt, begins during
early adulthood. Around the age of 30, many changes
begin to occur in different parts of the body.
- For example, the lens of the eye starts to stiffen and
thicken, resulting in changes in vision (usually affecting
the ability to focus on close objects).
- Sensitivity to sound decreases; this happens twice as
quickly for men as for women.
- Hair can start to thin and become gray around the age
of 35, although this may happen earlier for some
individuals and later for others.

30. The aging process
- The skin becomes drier and wrinkles start to appear by
the end of early adulthood.
- The immune system becomes less adept at fighting off
illness, and reproductive capacity starts to decline.
- Aging factors: As an individual progresses through
adulthood, a variety of factors can affect the aging
process.
- This includes primary factors like decline of cellular
function and oxidative damage, and secondary factors
like an unhealthy lifestyle.

32. Beyond Piaget’s Theory
- According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development, the establishment of formal operational
thinking occurs during early adolescence and continues
through adulthood.
- Unlike earlier concrete thinking, this kind of thinking is
characterized by the ability to think in abstract ways,
engage in deductive reasoning, and create hypothetical
ideas to explain various concepts.

33. Beyond Piaget’s Theory
- Since Piaget’s theory, other developmental psychologists
have suggested a fifth stage of cognitive development,
known as post formal operational thinking
- In post formal thinking, decisions are made based on
situations and circumstances, and logic is integrated
with emotion as adults develop principles that depend on
contexts.
- This kind of thinking includes the ability to think in
dialectics, and differentiates between the ways in which
adults and adolescents are able to cognitively handle
emotionally charged situations.

34. Early Adulthood
- During early adulthood, cognition begins to stabilize,
reaching a peak around the age of 35.
- Early adulthood is a time of relativistic thinking, in
which young people begin to become aware of more
than simplistic views of right vs. wrong.
- They begin to look at ideas and concepts from multiple
angles and understand that a question can have more
than one right (or wrong) answer.

35. Early Adulthood
- The need for specialization results in pragmatic
thinking—using logic to solve real-world problems
while accepting contradiction, imperfection, and other
issues.
- Finally, young adults develop a sort of expertise in
either education or career, which further enhances
problem-solving skills and the capacity for creativity.

36. Socioemotional Development in Adulthood
- Early and middle adulthood is influenced by a number
of social and emotional factors, such as work and
interpersonal relationships.
- Most adults identify themselves through their
relationships with family—particularly with spouses,
children, and parents.
- While raising children can be stressful, especially when
they are young, research suggests that parents reap the
rewards down the road, as adult children tend to have a
positive effect on parental well-being

37. Socioemotional Development in Adulthood
- A lack of positive and meaningful relationships during
adulthood can result in what Erikson termed the crisis
of intimacy vs. isolation in his theory of psychosocial
development.
- In young adulthood (i.e., 20s and early 30s), people tend
to be concerned with forming meaningful relationships;
young and middle-aged adults are subject to loneliness
if they are unable to form meaningful relationships with
family, friends, or community.

38. Crises of Adulthood
- Both early and middle adulthood come with particular
challenges; these challenges are at times referred to as
“quarter-life crises” and ” mid-life crises,” respectively.
- A quarter-life crisis typically occurs between the ages of
25 and 30. It often revolves around the challenges that
arise from young adults newly living life on their own
and feeling overwhelmed with new responsibilities;

39. Crises of Adulthood
- It can also happen after the birth of a child or if a
person graduates from college and cannot find a job in
their chosen field.
- In this stage of life, young people may worry about
their future, wonder if they’ve made poor choices, or
wonder what life might hold for them now.

40. Crises of Adulthood
- Some who experience a quarter- or mid-life crisis
struggle with how to cope and may engage in harmful
behaviors, such as abuse of alcohol or drugs or
excessive spending of money.
- Others may experiment with different aspects of their
personality, explore new hobbies, or otherwise seek out
change in their lives.

41. Finding Meaning Through Work
- Many adults find meaning in and define themselves by
what they do—their careers.
- Earnings peak for many during adulthood, yet research
has found that job satisfaction is more closely tied to
work that involves contact with other people, is
interesting, provides opportunities for advancement,
and allows some independence than it is to salary

42. Work/Jobs
- Violating normative sequence is associated with lower
earnings
- Satisfaction with job depends on person’s values, needs
and personality
- Occupational identity
- Unemployment poses serious threat to lifespan identity
development
- Males show more rigid adherence to traditional sex-
role stereotypes than females

43. Interpersonal Relationships in Adulthood
- Positive relationships with significant others in our
adult years have been found to contribute to a state of
well-being
- Most adults identify themselves through their
relationships with family—particularly with spouses,
children, and parents.

44. Interpersonal Relationships in Adulthood
- An interpersonal relationship is a strong, deep, or close
association or acquaintanceship between two or more
people that may range from brief to enduring in
duration.
- Like people, relationships change and grow; they may
either improve or dissipate over time.
- The association between two people can be based on
various factors—love, solidarity, business, or any other
context that requires two (or more) people to interact.

45. Interpersonal Relationships in Adulthood
- Interpersonal relationships are dynamic systems that
change continuously during their existence.
- Like living organisms, relationships have a beginning,
a lifespan, and an end. They tend to grow and improve
gradually as people get to know each other and become
closer emotionally, or they gradually deteriorate as
people drift apart.

46. Levinger’s Model of Relationships
- One of the most influential models of relationship
development was proposed by psychologist George
Levinger.
- This model was formulated to describe heterosexual,
adult romantic relationships, but it has been applied to
other kinds of interpersonal relationships since then.
- According to the model, the natural development of a
relationship follows five stages:
.

47. Levinger’s Model of Relationships
.

48. 1. Acquaintance and Acquaintanceship:
- Becoming acquainted depends on previous
relationships, physical proximity, first impressions, and
a variety of other factors.
- If two people begin to like each other, continued
interactions may lead to the next stage, but
acquaintance can continue indefinitely. Another
example is association.

49. 2. Buildup:
- During this stage, people begin to trust and care about
each other.
- The need for intimacy, compatibility, and such filtering
agents as common background and goals will influence
whether or not interaction continues.

50. 3. Continuation:
- This stage follows a mutual commitment to strong and
close long-term friendships, romantic relationship, or
even marriage.
- It is generally a long, relatively stable period.
Nevertheless, continued growth and development will
occur during this time.
- Mutual trust is important for sustaining the
relationship.

51. 4. Deterioration:
- Not all relationships deteriorate, but those that do tend
to show signs of trouble. Boredom, resentment, and
dissatisfaction may occur.
- Individuals may communicate less and avoid self-
disclosure.
- Loss of trust and betrayals may take place as the
downward spiral continues, eventually ending the
relationship.
- Alternately, the participants may find some way to
resolve the problems and reestablish trust

52. 5. Termination:
- The final stage marks the end of the relationship, either
by breakup, death, or spatial separation and severing
all existing ties of either friendship or romantic love.

53. Knapp’s Theory of Relational Development
- Another theory, developed by M. L. Knapp, is known as
the model of relational development.
- This theory consists of two main stages, each with
several parts.
- The first stage is known as the coming together phase,
and the second stage is known as the coming apart
phase.

54. Coming Together
Coming together consists of five phases—initiating,
experimentation, intensifying, integration, and bonding.
During initiating
- First impressions are made; physical factors play a
large role in this phase.
- People often want to portray themselves as easy to talk
to, friendly, and open to discussion.
- This phase tends to be superficial as people are trying
to make a good first impression

55. During experimentation
- The two people attempt to find some common ground
between each other’s lives, such as common interests
and hobbies.
- People start to open up more and ask more personal
questions as they get to know one another.
- During the intensifying phase, people open themselves
up fully in the hope of being accepted by the potential
mate.
- During this phase, people may reveal secrets about
themselves or others in order to test the trust level of
potential partners.

56. The integration phase
- Involves people merging their lives together and
solidifying a relationship status.
Finally, During the bonding phase
- People recognize a commitment to one another
(traditionally through marriage, though many
alternative forms of commitment exist) and the
relationship lasts until death, breakup, or divorce.

57. Coming Apart
Coming apart consists of five stages as well—
differentiating, circumscribing, stagnation, avoidance,
and termination.
Differentiation
- Involves focusing more on differences rather than
similarities. This can lead to an increasing emotional
distance between the parties involved.

58. During circumscribing,
- The primary focus of the relationship shifts from
differences to setting limits and boundaries on
communication between the two people. This further
pushes two people apart.
Stagnation
- Is when two people have reached a “stand-off” phase—
nothing changes and neither party is willing to change

59. Avoidance
- Occurs when people engage in limited communication
and take steps to distance themselves from one another.
Finally, during termination
- The relationship is ended.