What Have You Learned?

1. Question 18.1

   Why did scholars choose the term postformal to describe the fifth stage of cognition?

   The term postformal thought originated because several developmentalists agreed that Piaget’s fourth stage, formal operational thought, was inadequate to describe adult thinking.

2. Question 18.2

   How does postformal thinking differ from typical adolescent thought?

   In contrast to typical adolescent thought, postformal thought is more practical, more flexible, and is dialectical. It engages in problem finding in addition to the problem solving of adolescent thought, and has the ability to combine emotion and logic. Emerging adults tend to be more practical, creative, and innovative in thinking than adolescents. Emerging adults, in contrast to adolescents, combine both emotions and logic in thought.

3. Question 18.3

   Why is time management a cognitive issue?

   Good time management requires balancing conflicting demands on one’s time. Using logic to balance personal priorities and external demands is a characteristic of postformal thought. Emerging adults struggle with procrastination; time management is a challenge that adults gradually master as their cognition matures.

4. Question 18.4

   How does delay discounting relate to eating or exercising?

   Delay discounting is an example of the difficulty of postponing immediate gratification. Even though an adult might know the benefits of a healthy diet, for example, he or she might choose to eat junk food, underestimating the delayed consequences. Similarly, he or she might fail to exercise reliably, underestimating the delayed consequences.

5. Question 18.5

   How does the maturation of the prefrontal cortex affect social understanding?

   The prefrontal cortex seems particularly connected to social understanding. As the prefrontal cortex matures in emerging adulthood, there is an advancement in social understanding, which includes knowing how best to interact with other people—making and keeping good friends, responding to social slights, helping others effectively, and so on.

6. Question 18.6

   What is the relationship between subjective and objective thought?

   Subjective thought arises from personal experiences; objective thought follows abstract, impersonal logic. Solving the complex problem of combining emotion and logic is the crucial practical challenge for adults. Postformal thinkers are better able to balance personal experience with knowledge.

7. Question 18.7

   How does listening to opposing opinions demonstrate cognitive flexibility?

   Cognitive flexibility allows the adult to avoid retreating into either emotions or intellect. A hallmark of postformal cognition is intellectual flexibility, which comes from the realization that each perspective is only one of many, that each problem has several solutions, and that knowledge is dynamic, not static. Emerging adults begin to realize that there are multiple views of the same phenomenon. Listening to others, considering diverse opinions, is a sign of flexibility.

8. Question 18.8

   How could stereotype threat affect a person’s cognition?

   The mere possibility of being negatively stereotyped arouses emotions that can disrupt cognition as well as emotional regulation. The worst part of stereotype threat is that it is self-handicapping. People alert to the possibility of prejudice and discrimination are not only hypersensitive when it occurs, but they also allow it to hijack their minds, undercutting their ability. Eventually they disengage, but their initial reaction may be to try harder to prove the stereotype wrong, and that extra effort may backfire.

9. Question 18.9

   Which groups of people are vulnerable to stereotype threat and why?

   Stereotype threat has been shown with hundreds of studies on dozens of stereotyped groups, of every ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and age.

10. Question 18.10

    Why does the term “broken home” indicate a lack of dialectical thought?

    “Broken” implies that one partner is at fault, or that the relationship was a mistake because the two were a bad match, which is consistent with a nondialectic thinker. Dialectical thinkers see people and relationships as constantly evolving; partners are changed by time as well as by their interaction. Therefore, a romance becomes troubled because they have changed without adapting to each other. Marriages do not “break” or “fail”; they either continue to develop over time (dialectically) or they stagnate as the two people move apart.

11. Question 18.11

    What differences are apparent in characteristically Asian and Western thinking?

    Asians tend to think holistically, about the whole rather than the parts, seeking the synthesis. Western thinkers use analytic, absolutist logic.

12. Question 18.12

    Why do adults make more decisions involving morality than adolescents do?

    More older than younger people think that various issues are moral ones, a position that allows them to stick to an outmoded opinion on moral grounds.

13. Question 18.13

    Why do people disagree about whether or not something is a moral issue?

    The evolved human brain has provided humans with cognitive capacity that is so flexible and creative that every conceivable moral principle generates opposition and counter principles.

14. Question 18.14

    How does Carol Gilligan differentiate between male and female morality?

    Gilligan believes that decisions about reproduction advance moral thinking, especially for women. The two sexes think differently about parenthood, abortion, and so on. Girls are raised to develop a morality of care—they give human needs and relationships the highest priority. Boys develop a morality of justice—they are taught to distinguish right from wrong.

15. Question 18.15

    Why would decisions about reproduction be a catalyst for moral thought?

    Concern about caring for the next generation as the primary caregiver fosters a morality of care. Instead of judging right and wrong in absolute terms, a person concerned with caring for offspring would be nurturing, compassionate, and nonjudgmental.

16. Question 18.16

    How are Fowler’s stages similar to Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s stages?

    Fowler developed a sequence of six stages of faith, building on the work of Piaget and Kohlberg. Stages 1 and 2 roughly overlap the ages associated with the preoperational and concrete operational stages in Piaget’s model. Fowler’s assumed that faith, like other aspects of cognition, progresses from a simple, self-centered, one-sided perspective to a more complex, altruistic, and many-sided view. This increase in complexity and sophistication is very similar to Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s models.

17. Question 18.17

    Why might a devout person criticize Fowler’s concept of the stages of faith?

    According to Fowler’s stages, faith, like other aspects of cognition, progresses from a simple, self-centered, one-sided perspective to a more complex, altruistic, and many-sided view. Some adults remain in Stage 2, “mythic-literal faith.” They take the myths and stories of religion literally and may not agree with Fowler’s concept of other stages.

18. Question 18.18

    What do most students hope to gain from a college education?

    Most students attend college primarily to secure better jobs and to learn specific skills. Among the “very important” reasons students in the United States enroll in college are to get a better job and to make more money.

19. Question 18.19

    According to Perry, what changes occur in students’ thinking during their college career?

    Perry argued that thinking progresses through nine levels of complexity over the college years due to social interaction and intellectual challenge. In general, there is a positive association between higher education and postformal thinking. The greater the number of years of higher education individuals pursue, the greater the likelihood their thinking is characterized as postformal, probably due to factors including academic exploration, exposure to professors and peers, class discussions, increasing independence, and the experience caused by living away from home.

20. Question 18.20

    How do current college enrollment patterns differ from those of 50 years ago?

    College is no longer for the elite few. There is more gender, ethnic, economic, religious, and cultural diversity in the student body. Courses of study—and reasons for attending college—have changed, reflected in the fact that 50 years ago most colleges featured four-year liberal arts-focused programs, and today business is the most popular major. More students who are over age 24 now attend college, and many students attend college part-time.

21. Question 18.21

    How do public and private colleges differ in the United States?

    Private colleges outnumber public colleges 3 to 2, but most U.S. students attend public colleges. They are less expensive than private colleges.