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6.4 Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
- Review the physical and cognitive changes that accompany early and middle adulthood
Until the 1970s, psychologists tended to treat adulthood as a single developmental stage, with
few or no distinctions made among the various periods that we pass through between
adolescence and death. Present-day psychologists realize, however, that physical, cognitive, and
emotional responses continue to develop throughout life, with corresponding changes in our
social needs and desires. Thus the three stages of early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late
adulthood each has its own physical, cognitive, and social challenges.
In this section, we will consider the development of our cognitive and physical aspects that occur
during early adulthood and middle adulthood—roughly the ages between 25 and 45 and between
45 and 65, respectively. These stages represent a long period of time—longer, in fact, than any of
the other developmental stages—and the bulk of our lives is spent in them. These are also the
periods in which most of us make our most substantial contributions to society, by meeting two
of Erik Erikson’s life challenges: We learn to give and receive love in a close, long-term
relationship, and we develop an interest in guiding the development of the next generation, often
by becoming parents.
Psychology in Everyday Life: What Makes a Good Parent?
One thing that you may have wondered about as you grew up, and which you may start to think about again if you
decide to have children yourself, concerns the skills involved in parenting. Some parents are strict, others are lax;
some parents spend a lot of time with their kids, trying to resolve their problems and helping to keep them out of