Topic 10: Young Adulthood

Discussion 10: Attachment Style and Early Adulthood Relationships
COLLAPSE

(1) First, describe the main findings of the study. What were the cultural differences between the two groups? (2) What do the authors suggest are the implication for adult relatioships based on early attachment styles? (3) Thinking back through the semester, in what ways can you see previous readings supporting the difference in attachment styles between Caucasian American students and Korean Students? (4) Broadly speaking, how do these results inform us in terms of early adulthood and social development?

Remember to respond to your peers with questions and new content!

Welcome to topic 10!

Welcome to topic 10! This topic we will be covering Young Adulthood – a stage some of you might be in (if you weren’t in emerging adulthood!)

Young Adulthood

This topic we will be discussing young adulthood. As you might have learned from last topic’s content, young adulthood is marked by entry into more adult roles, like long term relationships, a career/job/profession and possibly children. As discussed in your texts, there is less of a delineation of ages in the adult stages, and more in terms of milestones, like those mentioned previously. Some people argue that they never feel truly like an adult, or at least how they would have expected to feel as an adult. But, research and developmental psychology will say its marked by accepting responsibility for oneself, making more independent decisions and becoming financially independent. This impacts our decision making, social experiences and even our physical health and well-being. This topic, we’ll find out specifically how.

First, review the slides here:

Young Adulthood Slides
Young Adulthood Slides – Alternative Formats

Next you will read this article by You and Malley-Morrison (2016). The authors are taking a cultural look at how attachment style impacts adult relationships and self-esteem. As you read think consider the importance of early relationships, as we are now seeing the implications for later relationships. Also consider the cultural differences. What do they mean for young adulthood across culture?

You and Malley-Morrison, 2016

I will upload the article above

Topic 10 Original Discussion post: 12/5 Topic 10 Peer Responses (2): 12/6

Below is peer response (1). I will send you peer response (2) as soon as it becomes available:

Huan Huan Lu
RE: Discussion 10: Attachment Style and Early Adulthood Relationships
COLLAPSE

Before starting this cross-sectional examination, we already had beforehand knowledge about the major differences in both cultures. Americans and Koreans are two very diverse people to understand further how relationship patterns work in different countries. They are starting from a wide gap between collectiveness and individualism. Americans are in great favor of individualism; Koreans are bound for collective culture among their families. They try to stay physically connected and don’t prefer individualism as a lifestyle. Whereas, Americans have a ‘moving out’ culture that teenagers or adults are expected to move out of the house and make it on their own, keeping the relations on the good side and balancing practical life on the other.

Considering our previous knowledge of 4 different attachments, secure, dismissing, preoccupied, and fearful depend on different human behaviors towards themselves and their loved ones. Secure individuals are the ones with positive views about themselves and others; they tend to be more confident in life and comfortable with intimate relations. People with dismissive behaviors are known for their positive thinking about themselves and negative views about others, usually neglects close relations. The remaining two are similar in that preoccupied and fearful both have negative thinking about their personalities. Still, they differ when preoccupied have positive values about others while fearful personnel has negative views about others. Preoccupied suffer from chronic anxiety regarding being rejected by closed ones, and fear of abandonment surrounds them.

Korean students got a higher score on their preoccupied behavior compared to Americans did. This means Koreans might have lower self-esteem and higher anxiety levels, and they fear rejection. Living in a collective culture could be why the person tends to be sensitive about what others in the family think about them, which gives way to fear of rejection. Whereas Americans get their own time of growing and learning about things while living alone, they get a chance to know themselves and find their way in life without fearing to be abandoned.

These results show how human behavior can differ from culture to culture depending on the environment a person is getting and how it builds up one’s mindset about themselves, others, and their society. This research shows how a person’s behavior can be judged and recognized by their thinking towards everything, and it can help to guess early signs of mental help.