{"id":328,"date":"2014-09-28T01:21:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T01:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/lifespandevelopment1x1\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=328"},"modified":"2016-03-16T18:40:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T18:40:39","slug":"lecture-lesson-8","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/chapter\/lecture-lesson-8\/","title":{"raw":"Lecture: Early Adulthood","rendered":"Lecture: Early Adulthood"},"content":{"raw":"<iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dK24UYmocj8\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\r\n<h2>Lecture\u00a0Transcript<\/h2>\r\nHere we are in early adulthood. This is the period of life when we are in our 20s and 30s.\r\n\r\nFirst, a look at physical development.\r\n\r\nIf you are in your early 20s, you are enjoying your physiological peak. You may have more energy, endurance, and reproductive ability than at any other time in your life. Enjoy!\u00a0In our 30s, we experience a slow, gradual decline in some abilities. One of the first noticeable signs of this is a loss of lung reserve capacity. If you exert yourself, you may notice that it takes longer to reach your normal breathing and heart rate than before.\u00a0Most of this decline is due to a lack of exercise rather than aging alone, however. Busy lives in early adulthood sometimes means less time for working on physical fitness.\r\n\r\nMen may reach their peak of sexual responsiveness in their late teens and early 20s. They can achieve an erection more easily at this period of life.\u00a0Women may become more sexually responsive as they move through early adulthood. This may be because they become less self-conscious or more confident or comfortable than before.\r\n\r\nAbout 10 to 15 percent of people who are of reproductive age experience infertility.\u00a0Half of the time this may be due to the male having a low sperm count or not producing enough healthy sperm with enough motility to reach the egg.\u00a0Half of the time the reason for infertility is because the female doesn\u2019t ovulate or has pelvic inflammatory disease or some other blockage in the reproductive tract.\u00a0About a third of couples conceive eventually without treatment.\u00a0Treatment helps couples conceive about half of the time.\r\n\r\nMost fertility treatment is the use of drugs to stimulate ovulation.\u00a0Five percent of fertility treatment involves in vitro fertilization where sperm cells fertilize the egg outside the body and the zygote is transferred to the uterus. In vitro fertilization has about a 5 to 30 percent success rate.\u00a0The more closely the procedure can mimic normal fertilization, the higher the success rate. Gamete intra-fallopian transfer involves transferring sperm and egg into the fallopian tube where conception typically occurs.\u00a0A small percentage of couples use zygote intra-fallopian transfer in which the fertilized egg is transferred to the fallopian tube to continue its journey to the uterus.\r\n\r\nEven though early adulthood is a peak for physiological condition, it\u2019s also a time vulnerable to societal risks.\u00a0Drug abuse peaks between 19 and 22 as people transition into adulthood. Rates fall after these years.\u00a0However, the use of intoxicants is associated with acquaintance rape and contracting sexually transmitted infections.\u00a0It also increases the risk of death due to homicide, motor vehicle accidents, and suicide.\r\n\r\nHere are some comparisons of violent deaths by sex and ethnic category taken from the National Center for Health Statistics.\u00a0We can see first that risk is higher for males than for females in all ethnic categories.\u00a0Homicide rates are particularly high for black males and suicide rates are particularly high for Native American males.\r\n\r\nThe brain continues to develop during early adulthood. How does thinking change in this period?\r\n\r\nHave you ever heard a conversation between a 14 year old and someone in their mid-thirties? If it\u2019s a parent and child, you may have heard the 14 year old enthusiastically describe a plan of action while the 35 year old was quick to explain why the plan was unreasonable.\u00a0This practical, realistic approach is the hallmark of postformal thinking.\u00a0Postformal thinking is abstract, realistic, and personal. In early adulthood, we become less concerned with what our peers think and experience reveals what is likely to happen. Not just what is possible.\r\n\r\nDialectical thought is another feature of adult thought.\u00a0While an adolescent may tend to think in either\/or categories, the adult may begin to understand that there are strengths and weaknesses in both sides of an argument. Being able to take what is salient from both sides of opposing viewpoints and to synthesize the two into a personalized view is referred to as dialectical thought.\u00a0Education promotes this when it entails exploring various positions on a topic. In our personal life, dialectical thought may result in greater tolerance of others with the recognition that no one is perfect.\r\n\r\nOne concern over higher education is its relationship to the workplace. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, suggests that colleges and the workplace should be more closely aligned. The workplace needs people who are aware of global issues, who have effective communicative skills, and who have a sense of integrity or moral reasoning to offer the workplace. Universities and colleges need to address these issues.\u00a0Higher education has also been criticized for graduating students who do not have critical thinking skills or adequate writing skills.\r\n\r\nNow we take a look at the social world of early adulthood.\r\n\r\nHavighurst provides a list of developmental tasks in early adulthood. These include achieving a sense of independence or learning how to be on one\u2019s own, achieving a sense of identity, emotional stability, beginning a career, engaging in intimate relationships, learning how to participate in the community, establishing one\u2019s own residence, and perhaps becoming parents.\u00a0If you are in this age group and you find you days quite busy or even exhausting, it\u2019s certainly understandable!\r\n\r\nOne reason for engaging in such busy demands is because we feel that in the future, all will pay off. Many of our decisions are designed to show benefits later in adulthood. Young adults hope to be taken seriously as mature individuals and therefore may emphasize how old or experienced they are.\u00a0They may also make decisions in order to earn the respect of others and to be viewed as adults.\r\n\r\nDaniel Levinson offered one of the first studies of adult transitions. In the late 1970s, he published his work entitled Seasons of a Man\u2019s Life in which he described the transitions men faced as they launched as young adults and moved through midlife.\u00a0The early 20s was a time of adult transition and making plans for the future.\u00a0These plans were implemented for the duration of the 20s, but were reevaluated as they approached their 30s. Some revisions might occur during this transition and carried out through a settling down period that followed.\u00a0At midlife, these men compared what they thought their lives would be like, referred to as the dream, and how it really was. During the midlife transition, further adjustments such as career changes or changes in personal relationships could be made as well.\r\n\r\nErikson views early adulthood as a time of focusing on intimate relationships. Intimacy versus isolation.\r\n\r\nFriendships can be one source of intimacy.\u00a0Teens often have collections of friends of both sexes. But having opposite sexed friends becomes a bit more problematic once an intimate relationship has been established.\u00a0As a result, males and females tend to have same-sex friendships. It\u2019s been suggested that the friendships that males share are focused on information sharing, debate, and problem-solving. But females are more likely to discuss personal problems and relationship issues. Do you think this is true in all cultures?\r\n\r\nCohabitation refers to partners living together in an intimate relationship without being married.\u00a0It\u2019s estimated that there are about 7.5 million cohabiting couples in the United States. This reflects a 10 fold increase in the last 40 years.\u00a0Of those, just under 800,000 are same-sex couples. In general, cohabiting relationships do not last as long as marriages. Cohabitation is a more permanent relationship in Europe. And with the decrease in remarriage rates and increase in cohabitation rates, the U. S. may become more similar to Europe in this regard.\u00a0Younger partners tend to have shorter cohabiting relationships.\u00a0Cohabitation continues to increase in the United States.\r\n\r\nWhy do people cohabit?\u00a0Many cohabiting relationships are considered to be a temporary arrangement prior to marriage. These premarital cohabiting couples do intend to marry, but are living together prior to marriage for practical or emotional reasons.\r\nDating cohabitation does not last very long. This cohabiting relationship is more like a long date where partners continue to spend time together as long as it is enjoyable.\u00a0The trial marriage pattern is one in which partners try out a marital type of relationship by moving in together. They\u2019re not really evaluating a particular partner; rather they are trying out the relationship of marriage.\u00a0Some couple substitute cohabitation for marriage and have no intentions of marrying. Cohabitation is their preference, perhaps because they\u2019ve had failed marriages in the past, are philosophically opposed to marriage, or do not want to marry for other practical or financial reasons. These relationships tend to last longer.\r\n\r\nSame-sex couples can legally marry in Spain, Canada, Belgium, Argentina, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Denmark.\r\nThey can also legally marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia.\u00a0The issues facing same-sex couples tend to be similar to those of heterosexual couples: concerns about money, household chores, leisure time, sex, and children. But they do have to face additional stressors of stigma from others.\u00a0Same-sex partners tend to have a more equal distribution of power within the relationship than in heterosexual couples.\u00a0And when couples break up, there is a greater likelihood of still having contact with the ex because of a closer same-sex community of friends.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s explore mate selection. Although the age at first marriage has been steadily increasing in the United States, 25 for females and 27 for males, many do still marry while in early adulthood.\u00a0One way to look at the mate selection process is to think of the marriage market as a place where social currency is exchanged. You bring with you a certain amount of social currency or qualities that make you a good potential make. And these are weighed against those things that might make you a less than ideal partner. This is taken into account when looking for a partner. Most of us do not want a \u201cgood deal\u201d when making the exchange. Rather, we look for a fair exchange. This is because in relationships, the person with the least interest in the relationship has the most power. So if you want an equal distribution of power, you want both parties to need the relationship equally.\u00a0The majority of marriages are homogamous with respect to social class, race, age, and religion. This similarity of social characteristics is referred to as homogamy. This selection is guided by social rules of endogamy (the expectation that you will marry within certain groups such as race and class), exogamy (the expectation that you will marry outside of other groups such as your sex), and propinquity or nearness. We tend to marry those who are near because those are the people we meet and with whom we socialize.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s explore a few theories of love. Sternberg offers a triangular approach to love. Love has three elements, intimacy or psychological closeness, passion or physical attraction, and commitment or the conscious decision to stay together.\u00a0Most of the problems people have in love relationships are about either intimacy, \u201cWe don\u2019t talk.\u201d passion, \u201cWe never hold each other anymore.\u201d or commitment, \u201cI can\u2019t count on my partner to stay with me.\u201d\r\n\r\nWe can analyze love relationships as having one or more of these elements.\u00a0Liking is intimacy only. Infatuation is a relationship based on passion alone. Empty love is based solely on commitment.\u00a0Romantic love includes both intimacy and passion.\u00a0Companionate love is based on commitment and intimacy.\u00a0Fatuous love is characterized by passion and commitment, but no intimacy.\u00a0What do we want? The ideal in the west is consummate love. We want passion, commitment, and intimacy.\r\n\r\nJohn Lee explored types of love or love styles found in literature. You can look at your own style by taking the questionnaire at the end of this lesson.\r\n\r\nPragma is practical love based on sensible qualities.\u00a0Agape is a selfless love that has the other\u2019s best interest at heart.\u00a0Mania is possessive and insecure.\r\n\r\nEros is erotic love in which a person feels consumed.\u00a0Ludus is carefree, nonpossessive, and based on seduction.\u00a0Storge is based on friendship.\u00a0What\u2019s your love style?\r\n\r\nAnother way to look at relationships is to examine the extent to which partners are dependent or independent of one another.\r\nIn the A frame relationship, partners lean on one another and there is little room for growth or change.\r\n\r\nThe H frame relationship finds partners quite independent of one another. Their lives are parallel and there is little connection between the two.\u00a0The M frame relationship is marked by interdependence. Partners have a close couple connection, but also a sense of self or individuality.\r\n\r\nIra Reiss suggests that love is not stagnant. Rather, it depends on continuous interaction and renewal to be sustained.\u00a0As a relationship begins, partners find out about one another and their common interests as they establish rapport. This is deepened with mutual sharing of more personal information through self-revelation.\u00a0The relationship progresses as partners become more dependent on one another in day to day life.\u00a0Eventually, the partners begin to rely on one another to fulfill their needs.\u00a0But it doesn\u2019t stop there. For love to continue, partners need to repeat the cycle and continue to establish rapport, engage in self-revelation, and be part of one another\u2019s lives. When partners break up, the wheel begins to turn in the other direction. Partners talk less and gradually become disengaged.\r\n\r\nKirsten looks at the process of disaffection or the psychological experience of breaking up.\u00a0Before breaking up, couples may engage in \u201clittle fictions\u201d or in maintaining little lies about one another in order to help the person feel good about themselves and the relationship. Flaws are seen as endearing. We\u2019re often quite forgiving and positive about our partners in the beginning. And what could be better than having someone love your flaws!\u00a0But when undergoing the process of disaffection, partners become disenchanted with one another. Or perhaps, only one partner is becoming disappointed. In the beginning phase, this partner may begin to pull away psychologically or start to try to change the partner\u2019s flaws. There may still be optimism about the future of the relationship . . . as long as the partner makes corrections.\u00a0But in the middle phase, disappointment builds and there\u2019s less optimism about the future of the relationship.\r\nIn the end, a sense of hopelessness creeps in and the disappointed partner may begin to plan their departure.\r\n\r\nIn our next lesson, we will look at middle adulthood and expand upon adult relationships.","rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dK24UYmocj8\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Lecture\u00a0Transcript<\/h2>\n<p>Here we are in early adulthood. This is the period of life when we are in our 20s and 30s.<\/p>\n<p>First, a look at physical development.<\/p>\n<p>If you are in your early 20s, you are enjoying your physiological peak. You may have more energy, endurance, and reproductive ability than at any other time in your life. Enjoy!\u00a0In our 30s, we experience a slow, gradual decline in some abilities. One of the first noticeable signs of this is a loss of lung reserve capacity. If you exert yourself, you may notice that it takes longer to reach your normal breathing and heart rate than before.\u00a0Most of this decline is due to a lack of exercise rather than aging alone, however. Busy lives in early adulthood sometimes means less time for working on physical fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Men may reach their peak of sexual responsiveness in their late teens and early 20s. They can achieve an erection more easily at this period of life.\u00a0Women may become more sexually responsive as they move through early adulthood. This may be because they become less self-conscious or more confident or comfortable than before.<\/p>\n<p>About 10 to 15 percent of people who are of reproductive age experience infertility.\u00a0Half of the time this may be due to the male having a low sperm count or not producing enough healthy sperm with enough motility to reach the egg.\u00a0Half of the time the reason for infertility is because the female doesn\u2019t ovulate or has pelvic inflammatory disease or some other blockage in the reproductive tract.\u00a0About a third of couples conceive eventually without treatment.\u00a0Treatment helps couples conceive about half of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Most fertility treatment is the use of drugs to stimulate ovulation.\u00a0Five percent of fertility treatment involves in vitro fertilization where sperm cells fertilize the egg outside the body and the zygote is transferred to the uterus. In vitro fertilization has about a 5 to 30 percent success rate.\u00a0The more closely the procedure can mimic normal fertilization, the higher the success rate. Gamete intra-fallopian transfer involves transferring sperm and egg into the fallopian tube where conception typically occurs.\u00a0A small percentage of couples use zygote intra-fallopian transfer in which the fertilized egg is transferred to the fallopian tube to continue its journey to the uterus.<\/p>\n<p>Even though early adulthood is a peak for physiological condition, it\u2019s also a time vulnerable to societal risks.\u00a0Drug abuse peaks between 19 and 22 as people transition into adulthood. Rates fall after these years.\u00a0However, the use of intoxicants is associated with acquaintance rape and contracting sexually transmitted infections.\u00a0It also increases the risk of death due to homicide, motor vehicle accidents, and suicide.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some comparisons of violent deaths by sex and ethnic category taken from the National Center for Health Statistics.\u00a0We can see first that risk is higher for males than for females in all ethnic categories.\u00a0Homicide rates are particularly high for black males and suicide rates are particularly high for Native American males.<\/p>\n<p>The brain continues to develop during early adulthood. How does thinking change in this period?<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever heard a conversation between a 14 year old and someone in their mid-thirties? If it\u2019s a parent and child, you may have heard the 14 year old enthusiastically describe a plan of action while the 35 year old was quick to explain why the plan was unreasonable.\u00a0This practical, realistic approach is the hallmark of postformal thinking.\u00a0Postformal thinking is abstract, realistic, and personal. In early adulthood, we become less concerned with what our peers think and experience reveals what is likely to happen. Not just what is possible.<\/p>\n<p>Dialectical thought is another feature of adult thought.\u00a0While an adolescent may tend to think in either\/or categories, the adult may begin to understand that there are strengths and weaknesses in both sides of an argument. Being able to take what is salient from both sides of opposing viewpoints and to synthesize the two into a personalized view is referred to as dialectical thought.\u00a0Education promotes this when it entails exploring various positions on a topic. In our personal life, dialectical thought may result in greater tolerance of others with the recognition that no one is perfect.<\/p>\n<p>One concern over higher education is its relationship to the workplace. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, suggests that colleges and the workplace should be more closely aligned. The workplace needs people who are aware of global issues, who have effective communicative skills, and who have a sense of integrity or moral reasoning to offer the workplace. Universities and colleges need to address these issues.\u00a0Higher education has also been criticized for graduating students who do not have critical thinking skills or adequate writing skills.<\/p>\n<p>Now we take a look at the social world of early adulthood.<\/p>\n<p>Havighurst provides a list of developmental tasks in early adulthood. These include achieving a sense of independence or learning how to be on one\u2019s own, achieving a sense of identity, emotional stability, beginning a career, engaging in intimate relationships, learning how to participate in the community, establishing one\u2019s own residence, and perhaps becoming parents.\u00a0If you are in this age group and you find you days quite busy or even exhausting, it\u2019s certainly understandable!<\/p>\n<p>One reason for engaging in such busy demands is because we feel that in the future, all will pay off. Many of our decisions are designed to show benefits later in adulthood. Young adults hope to be taken seriously as mature individuals and therefore may emphasize how old or experienced they are.\u00a0They may also make decisions in order to earn the respect of others and to be viewed as adults.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Levinson offered one of the first studies of adult transitions. In the late 1970s, he published his work entitled Seasons of a Man\u2019s Life in which he described the transitions men faced as they launched as young adults and moved through midlife.\u00a0The early 20s was a time of adult transition and making plans for the future.\u00a0These plans were implemented for the duration of the 20s, but were reevaluated as they approached their 30s. Some revisions might occur during this transition and carried out through a settling down period that followed.\u00a0At midlife, these men compared what they thought their lives would be like, referred to as the dream, and how it really was. During the midlife transition, further adjustments such as career changes or changes in personal relationships could be made as well.<\/p>\n<p>Erikson views early adulthood as a time of focusing on intimate relationships. Intimacy versus isolation.<\/p>\n<p>Friendships can be one source of intimacy.\u00a0Teens often have collections of friends of both sexes. But having opposite sexed friends becomes a bit more problematic once an intimate relationship has been established.\u00a0As a result, males and females tend to have same-sex friendships. It\u2019s been suggested that the friendships that males share are focused on information sharing, debate, and problem-solving. But females are more likely to discuss personal problems and relationship issues. Do you think this is true in all cultures?<\/p>\n<p>Cohabitation refers to partners living together in an intimate relationship without being married.\u00a0It\u2019s estimated that there are about 7.5 million cohabiting couples in the United States. This reflects a 10 fold increase in the last 40 years.\u00a0Of those, just under 800,000 are same-sex couples. In general, cohabiting relationships do not last as long as marriages. Cohabitation is a more permanent relationship in Europe. And with the decrease in remarriage rates and increase in cohabitation rates, the U. S. may become more similar to Europe in this regard.\u00a0Younger partners tend to have shorter cohabiting relationships.\u00a0Cohabitation continues to increase in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Why do people cohabit?\u00a0Many cohabiting relationships are considered to be a temporary arrangement prior to marriage. These premarital cohabiting couples do intend to marry, but are living together prior to marriage for practical or emotional reasons.<br \/>\nDating cohabitation does not last very long. This cohabiting relationship is more like a long date where partners continue to spend time together as long as it is enjoyable.\u00a0The trial marriage pattern is one in which partners try out a marital type of relationship by moving in together. They\u2019re not really evaluating a particular partner; rather they are trying out the relationship of marriage.\u00a0Some couple substitute cohabitation for marriage and have no intentions of marrying. Cohabitation is their preference, perhaps because they\u2019ve had failed marriages in the past, are philosophically opposed to marriage, or do not want to marry for other practical or financial reasons. These relationships tend to last longer.<\/p>\n<p>Same-sex couples can legally marry in Spain, Canada, Belgium, Argentina, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Denmark.<br \/>\nThey can also legally marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia.\u00a0The issues facing same-sex couples tend to be similar to those of heterosexual couples: concerns about money, household chores, leisure time, sex, and children. But they do have to face additional stressors of stigma from others.\u00a0Same-sex partners tend to have a more equal distribution of power within the relationship than in heterosexual couples.\u00a0And when couples break up, there is a greater likelihood of still having contact with the ex because of a closer same-sex community of friends.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s explore mate selection. Although the age at first marriage has been steadily increasing in the United States, 25 for females and 27 for males, many do still marry while in early adulthood.\u00a0One way to look at the mate selection process is to think of the marriage market as a place where social currency is exchanged. You bring with you a certain amount of social currency or qualities that make you a good potential make. And these are weighed against those things that might make you a less than ideal partner. This is taken into account when looking for a partner. Most of us do not want a \u201cgood deal\u201d when making the exchange. Rather, we look for a fair exchange. This is because in relationships, the person with the least interest in the relationship has the most power. So if you want an equal distribution of power, you want both parties to need the relationship equally.\u00a0The majority of marriages are homogamous with respect to social class, race, age, and religion. This similarity of social characteristics is referred to as homogamy. This selection is guided by social rules of endogamy (the expectation that you will marry within certain groups such as race and class), exogamy (the expectation that you will marry outside of other groups such as your sex), and propinquity or nearness. We tend to marry those who are near because those are the people we meet and with whom we socialize.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s explore a few theories of love. Sternberg offers a triangular approach to love. Love has three elements, intimacy or psychological closeness, passion or physical attraction, and commitment or the conscious decision to stay together.\u00a0Most of the problems people have in love relationships are about either intimacy, \u201cWe don\u2019t talk.\u201d passion, \u201cWe never hold each other anymore.\u201d or commitment, \u201cI can\u2019t count on my partner to stay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We can analyze love relationships as having one or more of these elements.\u00a0Liking is intimacy only. Infatuation is a relationship based on passion alone. Empty love is based solely on commitment.\u00a0Romantic love includes both intimacy and passion.\u00a0Companionate love is based on commitment and intimacy.\u00a0Fatuous love is characterized by passion and commitment, but no intimacy.\u00a0What do we want? The ideal in the west is consummate love. We want passion, commitment, and intimacy.<\/p>\n<p>John Lee explored types of love or love styles found in literature. You can look at your own style by taking the questionnaire at the end of this lesson.<\/p>\n<p>Pragma is practical love based on sensible qualities.\u00a0Agape is a selfless love that has the other\u2019s best interest at heart.\u00a0Mania is possessive and insecure.<\/p>\n<p>Eros is erotic love in which a person feels consumed.\u00a0Ludus is carefree, nonpossessive, and based on seduction.\u00a0Storge is based on friendship.\u00a0What\u2019s your love style?<\/p>\n<p>Another way to look at relationships is to examine the extent to which partners are dependent or independent of one another.<br \/>\nIn the A frame relationship, partners lean on one another and there is little room for growth or change.<\/p>\n<p>The H frame relationship finds partners quite independent of one another. Their lives are parallel and there is little connection between the two.\u00a0The M frame relationship is marked by interdependence. Partners have a close couple connection, but also a sense of self or individuality.<\/p>\n<p>Ira Reiss suggests that love is not stagnant. Rather, it depends on continuous interaction and renewal to be sustained.\u00a0As a relationship begins, partners find out about one another and their common interests as they establish rapport. This is deepened with mutual sharing of more personal information through self-revelation.\u00a0The relationship progresses as partners become more dependent on one another in day to day life.\u00a0Eventually, the partners begin to rely on one another to fulfill their needs.\u00a0But it doesn\u2019t stop there. For love to continue, partners need to repeat the cycle and continue to establish rapport, engage in self-revelation, and be part of one another\u2019s lives. When partners break up, the wheel begins to turn in the other direction. Partners talk less and gradually become disengaged.<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten looks at the process of disaffection or the psychological experience of breaking up.\u00a0Before breaking up, couples may engage in \u201clittle fictions\u201d or in maintaining little lies about one another in order to help the person feel good about themselves and the relationship. Flaws are seen as endearing. We\u2019re often quite forgiving and positive about our partners in the beginning. And what could be better than having someone love your flaws!\u00a0But when undergoing the process of disaffection, partners become disenchanted with one another. Or perhaps, only one partner is becoming disappointed. In the beginning phase, this partner may begin to pull away psychologically or start to try to change the partner\u2019s flaws. There may still be optimism about the future of the relationship . . . as long as the partner makes corrections.\u00a0But in the middle phase, disappointment builds and there\u2019s less optimism about the future of the relationship.<br \/>\nIn the end, a sense of hopelessness creeps in and the disappointed partner may begin to plan their departure.<\/p>\n<p>In our next lesson, we will look at middle adulthood and expand upon adult relationships.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-328\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Laura Overstreet. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/opencourselibrary.org\/econ-201\/\">http:\/\/opencourselibrary.org\/econ-201\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Early Adulthood. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Laura  Overstreet. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/dK24UYmocj8\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/dK24UYmocj8<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: OCL. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":74,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"Early Adulthood\",\"author\":\"Laura  Overstreet\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/dK24UYmocj8\",\"project\":\"OCL\",\"license\":\"other\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube license\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology\",\"author\":\"Laura Overstreet\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/opencourselibrary.org\/econ-201\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-328","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":309,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/328\/revisions\/882"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/309"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/328\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-lifespandevelopment2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}