You remember that each of Piaget’s four periods of child and adolescent development is characterized by major advances in cognition, with each advance representing a new stage. Adult thinking similarly differs from earlier thinking: It is more practical, more flexible, and better able to coordinate objective and subjective perspectives.

Many developmentalists believe that Piaget’s fourth stage, formal operational thought, is inadequate to describe adult thinking. Some propose a fifth stage, called postformal thought, a “type of logical, adaptive problem solving that is a step more complex than scientific formal-level Piagetian tasks” (Sinnott, 2014, p. 3). As one group of scholars explained, in postformal thought “one can conceive of multiple logics, choices, or perceptions … in order to better understand the complexities and inherent biases in ‘truth’” (Griffin et al., 2009, p. 173).

As you remember from Chapter 15, adolescents use two modes of thought (dual processing) but they have difficulty combining them. They use formal analysis to learn science, distill principles, develop arguments, and resolve the world’s problems; alternatively, they think spontaneously and emotionally about personal issues. They prefer quick reactions, only later realizing the consequences.

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Postformal thinkers are less impulsive and reactive. They take a more flexible and comprehensive approach, with forethought, noting difficulties and anticipating problems, not denying, avoiding, or procrastinating. As a result, postformal thinking is more practical, creative, and imaginative than thinking in previous cognitive stages (Wu & Chiou, 2008). It is particularly useful in human relationships (Sinnott, 2014).

As you have read, Piaget’s stage theory of childhood cognition is not accepted by all developmentalists. Many more question this fifth stage. As two scholars writing about emerging adulthood wrote, “Who needs stages anyway?” (Hendry & Kloep, 2011).

Piaget himself never labeled or described postformal cognition. Certainly, if cognitive stage means attaining a new set of intellectual abilities (such as the symbolic use of language that distinguishes sensorimotor from preoperational thought), then adulthood has no stages.

However, as described in Chapter 14, the prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until the early 20s, and new dendrites connect throughout life. As more is understood about brain development after adolescence, it seems that thinking may change as the brain matures (Lemieux 2012). Several studies find that adult cognition benefits from a wider understanding and greater experience of the social world (Sinnott, 2014).

Cognitive flexibility, particularly the ability to change childhood assumptions, helps counter stereotypes. Young adults show many signs of such flexibility. The very fact that emerging adults marry later than previous generations did suggests that, couple by couple, their thinking processes are not determined by their childhood culture or by traditional norms. Early experiences are influential, but postformal thinkers are not stuck in them.

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Research on racial prejudice is another example. Many people are less prejudiced than their parents, and they believe they are not biased. However, tests may reveal implicit discrimination. Thus, many adults have both unconscious prejudice and rational tolerance—a combination that illustrates dual processing. The wider the gap between explicit and implicit, the stronger their stereotypes (Shoda et al., 2014). Postformal reasoning may allow rational thinking to overcome emotional reactions, with responses dependent on reality, not stereotypes (Sinnott, 2014).

Unfortunately, many people do not recognize their own stereotypes, even when false beliefs harm them. One of the most pernicious results is stereotype threat, arising in people who worry that other people might judge them as stupid, lazy, oversexed, or worse because of their ethnicity, sex, age, or appearance. Even the possibility of being stereotyped arouses emotions and hijacks memory, disrupting cognition (Schmader, 2010). That is stereotype threat.

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A major reason why emerging adulthood has become a new period of development, when people postpone the usual markers of adult life (marriage, a steady job), is that many older adolescents seek further education instead of taking on adult responsibilities. However, some aspects of higher education are controversial.

There is no dispute that tertiary education improves health and wealth. Because of that, every nation has increased the number of college students—a phenomenon called massification, based on the idea that college could benefit almost everyone (the masses) (Altbach et al., 2010). The United States was the first major nation to endorse massification. That is why, among the over-age-60 population, the United States leads in the percentage of college graduates. However, other nations have increased public funding for college education while the United States has decreased it. Now, many other nations have higher rates of BA degree holders (see Figure EP.2).

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U.S. Census data and surveys of individuals find that college education pays off even more than it did thirty years ago, with the average college man earning $17,558 more per year than a high school graduate. Women also benefit from college, but not as much: Graduates earn $10,393 more per year (Autor, 2014).

The typical person with a master’s degree earns twice as much over a lifetime as the typical one with only a high school diploma (Doubleday, 2013) (see Figure EP.3). Parents almost universally want their children to go to college, and new college students expect to earn a degree. Only about half of them do so.

Perry found that the college experience itself causes this progression: Peers, professors, books, and class discussion all stimulate new questions and thoughts. Other research confirmed Perry’s conclusions. In general, the more years of higher education a person has, the deeper and more postformal that person’s reasoning becomes (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991).

For developmentalists interested in cognition, the crucial question about college education is not about wealth, health, rates, or even graduation. Does college advance critical thinking and postformal thought?

According to one classic study (Perry, 1981, 1970/1998), thinking progresses through nine levels of complexity over the four years that lead to a bachelor’s degree, moving from a simplistic dualism (right or wrong, yes or no, success or failure) to a relativism that recognizes a multiplicity of perspectives (see Table EP.2).

But wait. You probably noticed that Perry’s study was first published in 1981. Hundreds of other studies also found that college education deepens cognition, but most of that research occurred in the twentieth century. Since you know that cohort and culture are crucial influences, you may wonder whether those conclusions still hold.

Many recent books criticize college education on exactly those grounds. Notably, a twenty-first-century longitudinal study of a cross-section of U.S. college students found that students’ growth in critical thinking, analysis, and communication over the four years of college was only half as much as among college students two decades ago. This analysis of the first two years of college found that 45 percent of the students made no significant advances at all (Arum & Roksa, 2011).

The reasons were many: Students study less, professors expect less, and students avoid classes in which they must read at least 40 pages a week or write 20 pages a semester. Administrators and faculty still hope for intellectual growth, but rigorous classes are canceled or not required.

A follow-up study of the same individuals after graduation found that those who spent most of their college time socializing rather than studying were likely to be unemployed or have low-income jobs. What they had gained from college was a sense that things would get better, but not the critical-thinking skills or the self-discipline that is needed for adult success (Arum & Roksa, 2014).

Other observers blame the faculty, or the wider culture, for forcing colleges to follow a corporate model, with students as customers who need to be satisfied rather than intellectual youth who need to be challenged (Deresiewicz, 2014). Customers, apparently, demand dormitories and sports facilities that are costly, and students take out loans to pay for them. The fact that the United States has slipped in massification is not surprising, given the political, economic, and cultural contexts of contemporary college.

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Two new pedagogical techniques may foster greater learning, or may be evidence of the decline of standards. One is called the flipped class, in which students are required to watch videos of a lecture on their computers before class, using class time for discussion, with the professor prodding and encouraging but not lecturing. The other technique is classes that are totally online, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). Thousands of students enroll in MOOCs and do all of the work hundreds or thousands of miles away.

MOOCs are most effective for students who are highly motivated and adept at computers. They learn best if they have another classmate, or an expert, as a personal guide: Face-to-face interaction seems to help motivation and learning (Breslow et al., 2013). Most MOOC students drop out; sometimes only about 10 percent of enrollees complete all the work and pass the class. The MOOC saves money and commuting; educators disagree as to how much students learn.

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Motivation is crucial for every intellectual accomplishment. An underlying problem in the controversy about college education may be that people disagree about its purpose. Thus, students motivated to accomplish one thing clash with professors who are motivated to teach something else.

Developmentalists, most professors, and many college graduates believe that the main purpose of higher education is “personal and intellectual growth,” which means that professors should focus on fostering critical thinking and analysis. However, adults who have never attended college believe that “acquiring specific skills and knowledge” is more important.

In the Arum and Roksa report (2011), students majoring in business and other career fields were less likely to gain in critical thinking compared to those in the liberal arts (courses that demand more reading and writing). These researchers suggest that colleges, professors, and students themselves who seek easier, more popular courses are short-changing themselves for future maturity and success (Arum & Roksa, 2014).

However, many students attend college primarily for career reasons (see Figure EP.4). They want jobs with good pay; they select majors and institutions accordingly, not for intellectual challenge and advanced communication skills. Professors are often critical when college success is measured via the salaries of graduates, but that metric may be what the public expects college to provide.

In 1955, most U.S. colleges were four-year institutions, and most students majored in the liberal arts. There were only 275 junior colleges; in 2014, there were almost 1,920 such colleges, now called community colleges. (Some also offer four-year degrees, but their primary focus is on two-year associate’s degrees.)

Similarly, for-profit colleges were scarce until about 1980; now the United States has more than 752, a number reduced from over a thousand four years ago (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2014). Everywhere, fewer students major in liberal arts.

No nation has reached consensus on the purpose of college. For example in China, where the number of college students now exceeds the United States (but remember that the Chinese population is much larger), the central government has fostered thousands of new institutions of higher learning, primarily to advance the economy, not to deepen intellectual understanding. However, even in that centralized government, disagreement about the goals and practices of college is evident (Ross & Wang, 2013).

In 2009, a new Chinese university (called South University of Science and Technology of China, SUSTC) was founded to encourage analysis and critical thinking. SUSTC does not require prospective students to take the national college entry exam (Gao Kao); instead, “creativity and a passion for learning” are the admission criteria (Stone, 2011, p. 161). It is not clear whether SUSTC is successful, in part because people disagree about how to measure success. The Chinese government praises SUSTC’s accomplishments but has not replicated it (Shenzhen Daily, 2014).

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At least one characteristic of the twenty-first-century college scene in every nation bodes well for cognition—the diversity of the student body. The most obvious change is gender: In 1970, at least two-thirds of college students were male; now in every developed nation (except Germany), more than half are female. Most formerly single-sex colleges are now co-ed.

In addition, students’ ethnic, economic, religious, and cultural backgrounds are more varied. Compared to 1970, more students are parents, are older than age 24, are of non-European heritage, attend part time, and live and work off-campus, although most students are still 18 to 22 years old and attend college full time. This is true not only in North America but also worldwide.

Discussion among people of different backgrounds and perspectives leads to intellectual challenge and deeper thought. The benefits of a diverse student body last for years after graduation (Pascarella et al., 2014). Colleges that make use of their new diversity—via curriculum, assignments, discussions, cooperative education, learning communities, and so on—stretch student understanding, not only of other people but also of themselves (Harper & Yeung, 2013).

When 18-year-old high school graduates of similar backgrounds and abilities are compared, those who enter the labor market rather than pursuing higher education achieve less and are less satisfied by middle age than those who earned a college degree (Hout, 2012). The lifelong financial benefits of college seem particularly strong for ethnic minorities and low-income families, who actually are less likely to attend college. Of course there are always exceptions, but as Chapter 1 explains, scientific conclusions should not be based on one person.

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