Human Growth and Development

1
Human GrowthandDevelopment

• Chapter Eighteen
• Early Adulthood
• Cognitive Development

PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson,
Grossmont College Revised by Jenni Fauchier,
Metropolitan Community College
2
Three Approaches

• Postformal picks up where Piaget left off
• Psychometric analyzes components of intelligence
  (see Ch. 21)
• Information-processing studies the encoding,
  storage, and retrieval of information during
  lifetime (see Ch. 24)

3
Postformal Thought

• Adult thinking and adolescent thinking differ in
  3 ways, with adult thinking more
• practical
• flexible
• dialectical

4
A Fifth Stage of Cognitive Development?

• Postformal thought often viewed as fifth stage of
  Piagets theory
• In it, adults consider every aspect of a
  situation
• use intellectual skills for real lifework and
  relationships
• understand that conclusions and consequences
  matter

5
The Practical and the Personal

• During adulthood focus on skill application, not
  skill acquisition

6
Subjectivity Objectivity

• Arise from individuals personal experiences and
  perceptions
• Traditional models devalued subjective thought
• Objective thoughtabstract impersonal logic
• For adults combination of the two works best

7
Emotions and Logic

• Trying to combine both logic and emotions in
  dealing with an emotional issue is challenging
• but at each stage of adulthood, adults can
  achieve this balance in contrast to adolescents
  who believe in subjective or objective reasoning

8
Cognitive Flexibility

• Awareness that your perspective is not the only
  one
• Awareness that each problem has many potential
  solutions and knowledge is dynamic

9
Flexible Problem Solving

• Adult thought requires flexible adaptation, which
  allows adults to
• cope with unanticipated events
• come up with more than one solution to problem

10
Stereotype Threat

• The possibility that ones appearance or behavior
  will be misused to confirm another persons
  oversimplified, prejudiced attitude. For example,
• 3 ways young minority people cope with prejudice
• identification, or identifying with their own
  group
• disidentification, or deliberately refusing to
  identify with their own group
• counteridentification, or identifying with
  majority and believing stereotype to be accurate

11
Dialectical Thought

• Cognitive flexibility at its most advanced
• Every idea or truth(thesis) bears within it
  suggestion of the opposite idea or
  truth(antithesis)

12
Do Love Affairs Fail?

• Dialectical thinking involves considering the
  thesis and antithesis of an idea simultaneously
  and forging them into a synthesisa new idea that
  integrates the original idea and its opposite, or
  the thesis and its antithesis
• Dialectical thought gives one a broader and more
  flexible perspective

13
Culture and Cognition

• There are notable differences between Eastern and
  Western thought
• more polar right vs. wrong black vs.
  whiteWestern thought
• more of a combination or compromiseEastern
  thought

14
Culture and Cognition, cont.

• Developmentalists feel culture helps to shape
  thought
• Life-span perspective is multicontexual and
  multicultural, stressing adults change because of
• maturation
• experience

15
Adult Moral Reasoning

• Ethical issues often present themselves
• Taking responsibility for ones own actions
  perceived by young adults of all ethnic groups as
  marker of adulthood

16
Addressing Specific Dilemmas

• Life Choices
• parenthood
• life events
• New and different qualities of moral reasoning
  appear
• Gilligan took into consideration that life
  experiences contribute to a broader understanding
  of moral reasoning

17

• Every young adult must make choices about
• sexuality
• reproduction
• marriage and child rearing
• issues caused by increasing globalization and
  immigration
• Dilemmas also arise from popular culture
• television
• The Internet
• popular music

18
Measuring Moral Growth

• Defining Issues Test
• developed by James Rest
• respondents rank their priorities, from personal
  benefits to higher goals this in contrast to
  Kohlbergs open-ended questions
• ranking items leads to number score
• scores generally rise with age and education
  which make people less rigid and more flexible

19
Measuring Moral Growth, cont.

• The development of faith follows a similar path
• stage 1 Intuitive-projective faith
• believes in power of God and the mysteries of
  birth and death (3 -7)
• stage 2 Mythical-literal faith
• takes myths and stories of religion literally and
  believes in the power of symbols (8-13 and
  adulthood) prayers are banked for the future

20

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 3 Synthetic-conventional faith
• has tacit acceptance of cultural/religious values
  in the context of interpersonal relationships
• conformist stage of faith characterized by
  concern about others and what feels right

21

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 4 Individual-reflective faith
• detaches from values of culture and approval of
  others
• can be brought on by college or major life change
  such as divorce, etc.

22

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 5 Conjunctive faith
• incorporates power of unconscious ideas and
  rational conscious values
• willingness to accept contradictions

23

• Development of faith, cont.
• stage 6 Universalizing faith
• powerful vision of universal compassion, justice
  and love that compels people to live their lives
  in a way that seems saintly or foolish
• personal welfare is put aside a transforming
  experience can convert an adult to this stage

24
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education

• The relationship between college education and
  adult development
• healthier, wealthier, as well as deeper, more
  flexible thinkers

25
The Effects of College

• Education powerfully influences cognitive
  development
• improves verbal and quantitative skills, and
  specific subject knowledge while enhancing
  reasoning, reflection, and flexibility of thought

26
The Effects of College, cont.

• Educational influences, cont.
• year-by-year progression of students thinking
• end of college finds students have generally
  moved from simplistic either/or ideas to
  recognition of multiplicity of perspectives

27
Possible Factors in Cognitive Growth During
College

• Other Factors To Consider
• Change in Students
• Change in Institutions

28
Change in the Students

• The sheer numbers have increased greatly,
  worldwide
• In all nations, increased student diversity
• more women students
• more older students
• more culturally diverse students in United States
• more low-income students
• more working students

29
Changes in the Institutions

• Structure of higher education changing with
  student population changes
• Almost twice as many U.S. institutions of higher
  learning today than in 1970
• community college enrollment up 144 percent
• more career programs
• more part-time faculty
• more women and minority instructors

30
Evaluating the Research

• Factors that may prevent college education from
  being as powerful a force in producing cognitive
  growth as it could be
• cohort effects
• selection effects
• dropout rates

31
Evaluating the Research, cont.

• The weight of evidence suggests that college
• advances income
• promotes health
• deepens thinking
• increases tolerance of different political,
  social, and religious views