Young adult (psychology)
Encyclopedia
A young adult, according to Erik Erikson
's stages of human development
, is generally a person between the age of 20 - 40, whereas an adolescent
is a person between the age of 13 - 19, although definitions and opinions vary. The young adult
stage in human development precedes middle adulthood
. A person in the middle adulthood stage is between the ages of 40 - 65. In maturity
, a person is 65 years old or older.
Some have suggested that, after ' Pre-adulthood...in the first 20 years or so...the second era, Early Adulthood, lasts from about age 17 to 45...the adult era of greatest energy and abundance and of greatest contradiction and stress.' Within that framework, 'the Early Adult Transition (17-22) is a developmental bridge between pre-adulthood and early adulthood', recognizing that 'the transition into adulthood is not a clear-cut dividing line'. One might alternatively speak of 'a Provisional Adulthood (18-30)...[&] the initiation to First Adulthood' as following that.
Despite all such fluidity, there is broad agreement that it is essentially the twenties and thirties which constitute ' Early adulthood...the basis for what Levinson
calls the Dream - a vision of his [or her] goal's in life which provide motivation and enthusiasm for the future'.
nor the problems of senescence
. Biological function and physical performance
reach their peak from 20–35 years of age, waning after 35. Strength peaks around 25 years of age, plateaus through 35 - 40 years of age, and then declines. Flexibility
also decreases with age throughout adulthood. However, there are large individual differences and a fit 40-year-old may out-compete a sedentary 20-year-old.
Women reach their peak fertility
in their early 20's. Assuming unprotected intercourse with a man of the same age, women aged 19–26 have about a 50% chance of becoming pregnant during a given menstrual cycle
, compared with 40% in the 27-34 age group and below 30% for women 35-39.
In developed countries, mortality rate
s for the 18-40 age group are typically very low. Men are more likely to die at this age than women, particularly in the 18-25 group: reasons include car accidents and suicide
. Mortality statistics among men and women level off during the late twenties and thirties, due in part to good health and less risk-taking behavior
.
Regarding disease, cancer
is much less common in young than in older adults. Exceptions are testicular cancer
, cervical cancer
, and Hodgkin's lymphoma
. In sub-Saharan Africa
, HIV
/AIDS
has hit the early adult population particularly hard. According to a United Nations
report, AIDS has significantly increased mortality of between ages 20 to 55 for African males and 20 to 45 for African females, reducing the life expectancy
in South Africa by 18 years and in Botswana by 34 years.
, 'the young adult, emerging from the search for and insistence on identity, is eager and willing to fuse his identity with that of others. He [or she] is ready for intimacy, that is, the capacity to commit...to concrete affiliations and partnerships.' To do so means the ability 'to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon: in the solidarity of close affiliations, in orgasms and sexual unions
, in close friendships and in physical combat'. Avoidance of such experiences 'because of a fear of ego-loss may lead to a deep sense of isolation
and consequent self-absorption'.
Where isolation is avoided, the young adult may find instead that 'satisfactory sex relations...in some way take the edge off the hostilities and potential rages caused by the oppositeness of male and female, of fact and fancy, of love
and hate'; and may grow into the ability to exchange intimacy, love and compassion
.
In modern societies, young adults in their late teens and early 20's encounter a number of issues as they finish school and begin to hold full-time jobs and take on other responsibilities of adulthood; and 'the young adult is usually preoccupied with self-growth in the context of society and relationships with others.' The danger is that in 'the second era, Early Adulthood...we must make crucially important choices regarding marriage, family, work, and lifestyle before we have the maturity or life experience to choose wisely.'
While 'young adulthood is filled with avid quests for intimate relationships and other major commitments involving career and life goals', there is also "a parallel pursuit for the formulation of a set of moral values". Erikson has argued that it is only now that what he calls the 'ideological mind' of adolescence gives way to 'that ethical
sense which is the mark of the adult.'
When 'the Age Thirty Transition' is a difficult one, 'in a severe crisis [s/]he experiences a threat to life itself, the danger of chaos and dissolution, the loss of hope for the future.'
, coming to the fore as priorities.
Gail Sheehy
, however, signposteds the same twenties/thirties division rather differently, arguing that nowadays 'the twenties have stretched out into a long Provisional Adulthood', and that in fact 'the transition to the Turbulent Thirties marks the initiation to First Adulthood.'
, in Far from the Madding Crowd
describes his hero as being at 'the time of life at which "young" is ceasing to be the prefix of "man"...In short, he was twenty-eight.'
Joseph Conrad
wrote of 'a shadow-line warning one that the region of early youth, too, must be left behind', with all that remains only 'a fading memory of light-hearted youth, something on the other side of a shadow.'
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
's stages of human development
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful...
, is generally a person between the age of 20 - 40, whereas an adolescent
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
is a person between the age of 13 - 19, although definitions and opinions vary. The young adult
Adult
An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....
stage in human development precedes middle adulthood
Middle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
. A person in the middle adulthood stage is between the ages of 40 - 65. In maturity
Old age
Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
, a person is 65 years old or older.
Time co-ordinates
For a variety of reasons, timeliness on young adulthood cannot be exactly defined - producing different results according to the different mix of overlapping indices (legal, maturational, occupational, sexual, emotional and the like) employed, or on whether 'a developmental perspective...[or] the socialization perspective is taken. 'Sub-phases in this timetable of psychosocial growth patterns...are not rigid, and both social change and individual variations must be taken into account' - not to mention regional and cultural differences. Arguably indeed, with people living longer, and also reaching puberty earlier, 'age norms for major life events have become highly elastic' by the twenty-first century.Some have suggested that, after ' Pre-adulthood...in the first 20 years or so...the second era, Early Adulthood, lasts from about age 17 to 45...the adult era of greatest energy and abundance and of greatest contradiction and stress.' Within that framework, 'the Early Adult Transition (17-22) is a developmental bridge between pre-adulthood and early adulthood', recognizing that 'the transition into adulthood is not a clear-cut dividing line'. One might alternatively speak of 'a Provisional Adulthood (18-30)...[&] the initiation to First Adulthood' as following that.
Despite all such fluidity, there is broad agreement that it is essentially the twenties and thirties which constitute ' Early adulthood...the basis for what Levinson
Daniel Levinson
Daniel J. Levinson , a psychologist, was one of the founders of the field of Positive Adult Development.-Early life and education:...
calls the Dream - a vision of his [or her] goal's in life which provide motivation and enthusiasm for the future'.
Health
'Young adulthood can be considered the healthiest time of life' and young adults are generally in good health, subject neither to diseaseDisease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
nor the problems of senescence
Senescence
Senescence or biological aging is the change in the biology of an organism as it ages after its maturity. Such changes range from those affecting its cells and their function to those affecting the whole organism...
. Biological function and physical performance
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
reach their peak from 20–35 years of age, waning after 35. Strength peaks around 25 years of age, plateaus through 35 - 40 years of age, and then declines. Flexibility
Flexibility (anatomy)
Flexibility or limberness refers to the absolute range of movement in a joint or series of joints, and length in muscles that cross the joints. Flexibility is variable between individuals, particularly in terms of differences in muscle length of multi-joint muscles...
also decreases with age throughout adulthood. However, there are large individual differences and a fit 40-year-old may out-compete a sedentary 20-year-old.
Women reach their peak fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
in their early 20's. Assuming unprotected intercourse with a man of the same age, women aged 19–26 have about a 50% chance of becoming pregnant during a given menstrual cycle
Menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is the scientific term for the physiological changes that can occur in fertile women for the purpose of sexual reproduction. This article focuses on the human menstrual cycle....
, compared with 40% in the 27-34 age group and below 30% for women 35-39.
In developed countries, mortality rate
Mortality rate
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
s for the 18-40 age group are typically very low. Men are more likely to die at this age than women, particularly in the 18-25 group: reasons include car accidents and suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Mortality statistics among men and women level off during the late twenties and thirties, due in part to good health and less risk-taking behavior
Recklessness (psychology)
Recklessness is disregard for or indifference to the dangers of a situation or for the consequences of one's actions....
.
Regarding disease, cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
is much less common in young than in older adults. Exceptions are testicular cancer
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system.In the United States, between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year. In the UK, approximately 2,000 men are diagnosed each year. Over his lifetime, a man's risk of...
, cervical cancer
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
, and Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma, previously known as Hodgkin's disease, is a type of lymphoma, which is a cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes...
. In sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
has hit the early adult population particularly hard. According to a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
report, AIDS has significantly increased mortality of between ages 20 to 55 for African males and 20 to 45 for African females, reducing the life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
in South Africa by 18 years and in Botswana by 34 years.
Early adulthood
According to Erikson, in the wake of the adolescent emphasis upon identity formationIdentity formation
Identity formation is the development of the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity in a particular stage of life in which individual characteristics are possessed and by which a person is recognised or known . This process defines individuals to others and themselves...
, 'the young adult, emerging from the search for and insistence on identity, is eager and willing to fuse his identity with that of others. He [or she] is ready for intimacy, that is, the capacity to commit...to concrete affiliations and partnerships.' To do so means the ability 'to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon: in the solidarity of close affiliations, in orgasms and sexual unions
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
, in close friendships and in physical combat'. Avoidance of such experiences 'because of a fear of ego-loss may lead to a deep sense of isolation
Solitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
and consequent self-absorption'.
Where isolation is avoided, the young adult may find instead that 'satisfactory sex relations...in some way take the edge off the hostilities and potential rages caused by the oppositeness of male and female, of fact and fancy, of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
and hate'; and may grow into the ability to exchange intimacy, love and compassion
Compassion
Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...
.
In modern societies, young adults in their late teens and early 20's encounter a number of issues as they finish school and begin to hold full-time jobs and take on other responsibilities of adulthood; and 'the young adult is usually preoccupied with self-growth in the context of society and relationships with others.' The danger is that in 'the second era, Early Adulthood...we must make crucially important choices regarding marriage, family, work, and lifestyle before we have the maturity or life experience to choose wisely.'
While 'young adulthood is filled with avid quests for intimate relationships and other major commitments involving career and life goals', there is also "a parallel pursuit for the formulation of a set of moral values". Erikson has argued that it is only now that what he calls the 'ideological mind' of adolescence gives way to 'that ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
sense which is the mark of the adult.'
Age 30 transition
Daniel Levinson suggested that the first phase of early adulthood comes to a close around twenty-eight to thirty, when 'at about 28 the provisional character of the twenties is ending and life is becoming more serious...the age-thirty crisis.' Others have spoken of 'the Catch-30 Passage...between age 28 and 32', stressing that 'it is not uncommon, at the approach to the thirties, to tear up the life structure one put together to support the original dream of the twenties,' and to start anew - 'to create the basis for the next life structure.'When 'the Age Thirty Transition' is a difficult one, 'in a severe crisis [s/]he experiences a threat to life itself, the danger of chaos and dissolution, the loss of hope for the future.'
Settling down
After the relative upheaval of the early 30's, the middle to late 30's are often characterized by settling down: 'the establishment phase', involving 'what we would call major life investments - work, family, friends, community activities, and values.' What has been termed 'the Culminating Life Structure for Early Adulthood (33-40) is the vehicle for completing this era and realizing our youthful aspirations.' People in their thirties may increase the financial and emotional investments they make in their lives, and may have been employed long enough to gain promotions and raises. They often become more focused on advancing their careers and gaining stability in their personal lives - 'with marriage and child-rearing,' starting a familyFamily
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
, coming to the fore as priorities.
Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy is an American writer and lecturer, most notable for her books on life and the life cycle. She is also a contributor to Vanity Fair magazine....
, however, signposteds the same twenties/thirties division rather differently, arguing that nowadays 'the twenties have stretched out into a long Provisional Adulthood', and that in fact 'the transition to the Turbulent Thirties marks the initiation to First Adulthood.'
The midlife transition
Young Adulthood then draws to its close with 'the Midlife Transition, from roughly age 40 to 45' - producing 'a brand-new passage in the forties, when the transition from the end of First Adulthood to the beginning of Second Adulthood begins.'Literary examples
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, in Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. Critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive...
describes his hero as being at 'the time of life at which "young" is ceasing to be the prefix of "man"...In short, he was twenty-eight.'
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
wrote of 'a shadow-line warning one that the region of early youth, too, must be left behind', with all that remains only 'a fading memory of light-hearted youth, something on the other side of a shadow.'