What Have You Learned?

1. Question 17.1

   Why is maximum physical strength usually attained in emerging adulthood?

   Every human body system is at optimal physical functioning during emerging adulthood. Many serious diseases have not yet developed, and some childhood ailments are outgrown. Physiologically, the early 20s are considered the prime of life.

2. Question 17.2

   How are homeostasis and allostasis apparent in the human need for nutrition?

   Homeostasis is a balance between various parts of the body systems, whereas allostasis is a dynamic body adjustment that affects overall physiology. How much a person eats daily is affected by many factors related to appetite—that is the homeostatic “set point.” An empty stomach triggers hormones, stomach pains, digestion, and so on, all of which lead a person to eat again. Many people overeat when they are upset, and eat less when they have recently exercised—part of homeostasis. Over the longer term, allostasis adjusts to whatever the person eats, how he or she breathes and exercises, etc. If a person is hungry for several weeks, the body adjusts.

3. Question 17.3

   How does organ reserve protect against heart attacks?

   Organ reserve refers to the extra power that every organ is capable of producing when necessary. The heart is amazingly strong during emerging adulthood. The average maximum heart rate—the number of times the heart can beat per minute under extreme stress—declines as the organ reserve is reduced, beginning at about age 25.

4. Question 17.4

   What advantages do emerging adults have in their physical appearance?

   Partly because of their overall health, strength, and activity, most emerging adults look vital and attractive. Oily hair, pimpled faces, and awkward limbs of adolescence are gone, and middle adulthood’s wrinkles and hair loss have not arrived yet. Obesity is less common during emerging adulthood than in adulthood.

5. Question 17.5

   Why is the nutrition of emerging adults often better than that of other adults?

   Once emerging adults become independent, they can change childhood eating patterns. U.S. young adults consume more bottled water, organic foods, and nonmeat diets than do older adults, and many become more fit than their parents were at the same age.

6. Question 17.6

   How does exercise in early adulthood affect a person’s health in late adulthood?

   Exercise at every stage of life protects against serious illness, even if a person smokes and overeats. Exercise reduces blood pressure, strengthens the heart and lungs, and makes depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, arthritis, and even some cancers less likely.

7. Question 17.7

   What cohort differences are evident in people’s attitudes toward premarital sex?

   Most younger adults do not view premarital sex as wrong. A majority of older adults view premarital sex as wrong.

8. Question 17.8

   Why do so few 20-year-old men and women want to get married?

   Their hormones want sex but their minds know they are not ready for parenthood.

9. Question 17.9

   Biologically, what is the best age to have a baby?

   The sexual-reproductive system is at optimal functioning during the emerging adulthood years. Women at this age usually have the easiest time becoming pregnant.

10. Question 17.10

    Why are STIs more common today than they were 50 years ago?

    There is a consequence of sexual freedom: the rise of STIs. The single best way to prevent STIs is lifelong monogamy, but most emerging adults practice serial monogamy, beginning a new relationship soon after one ends. At times a new sexual liaison overlaps an existing one, and sometimes a steady relationship is interspersed with a fling with someone else.

11. Question 17.11

    What is the usual pattern of well-being during emerging adulthood?

    Average well-being rises, but so does the incidence of psychopathology.

12. Question 17.12

    Why do depressed people tend not to seek help?

    Failure to get treatment for depression is common among emerging adults. They distance themselves from anyone who might know them well enough to realize that professional help is needed. Furthermore, depressed people of all ages characteristically believe that nothing will help. For that reason, although effective treatment lifts most depression, sufferers are unlikely to seek it on their own.

13. Question 17.13

    What is one common anxiety disorder in the United States?

    In the United States, social phobia—fear of talking to other people—is a common anxiety disorder, one that keeps young adults away from college, unable to make new friends, and hesitant to apply for jobs.

14. Question 17.14

    What evidence suggests that schizophrenia is not based solely on genes?

    Women who are severely malnourished in the early months of pregnancy are twice as likely to have a child with schizophrenia. Extensive social pressure and drug use each increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.

15. Question 17.15

    What are the social benefits of risk-taking?

    Many occupations are filled with risk-takers—police officers, military recruits, financial traders, etc. Facing fear is exhilarating and transformative, improving the individual’s self-esteem without harming anyone. We would all suffer if young adults were always timid, traditional, and afraid of innovation.

16. Question 17.16

    Why are risk sports more attractive to emerging adults than to other adults?

    Emerging adults may take part in risky sports such as motocross or snowboarding because they seek an adrenaline rush. The desire to experience a thrill may also overwhelm their ability to evaluate the potential risks associated with the activity, making emerging adults less concerned with the possibility of injury or death.

17. Question 17.17

    Why are serious accidents more common during emerging adulthood than later in adulthood?

    Many emerging adults bravely, or foolishly, risk their lives. The reasons for such risk-taking are social (showing off and vying for status) and biological (hormones, energy, and brain development).

18. Question 17.18

    Who is more likely to abuse drugs: college students or emerging adults who are not in college?

    Drug abuse—particularly of alcohol and marijuana—is more common among college students than among their peers who are not in college. Being with peers, especially for college men, seems to encourage many kinds of drug abuse.

19. Question 17.19

    How does addiction differ from drug abuse?

    Drug abuse occurs whenever a person uses a drug that is harmful to physical, cognitive, or psychosocial well-being. Drug abuse can lead to drug addiction, a condition of dependence in which the absence of a drug causes intense cravings to satisfy a need. The need may be either physical or psychological. Withdrawal symptoms are the telltale signs of addiction.

20. Question 17.20

    Why are social norms particularly powerful in emerging adulthood?

    Social norms, which are customs for usual behavior within a particular society, exert a particularly strong influence on college students. They want the approval of their new peers.