Did You Know...?
Early Adult Development

Read each true/false statement and test your answers by placing your cursor over the question mark.

	Before middle age, women attain their full breast and hip size and men reach full shoulder and upper-arm size.
	Physical strength, such as that required to lift a heavy load, peaks at age 30.
	The older a person is, the longer it takes his or her body to adapt to, and recover from, physical stress.
	About 15 percent of all married couples in the United States are infertile.
	Most physicians recommend that women begin their childbearing before age 30.
	An obsession with weight is common in the United States but not among women of European descent.
	Of all the stages of life, the beginning of young adulthood is the time when problem drinking and illicit drug use are most common.
	Women actually use drugs more than men do.
	Depression is more common among men than women.
	Young adult males are less likely than any other age group to die a violent death.
	Compared to adolescent thinking, adult thinking is more practical, flexible, and integrative.
	Traditional models of mature thought stress objective, logical thinking and devalue the importance of subjective feeling and personal experience.
	Most developmentalists believe that thinking that considers two sides of an idea or argument to be an immature form of cognition.
	Virtually all adults eventually achieve postformal thinking.
	Developmentalists agree that postformal thinking is universal and builds on the accomplishments of formal operations.
	Some theorists believe that as people’s experience of life expands during adulthood, they begin to develop moral principles that are more relative and changeable.
	Life events such as parenthood can force people to think ore deeply about the meaning of their lives and thus further cognitive development.
	In matters of moral reasoning, males and females tend to be concerned with somewhat different issues.
	Years of education per se are less strongly correlated with cognitive development than either age or socioeconomic status.
	College education leads people to become more tolerant of political, social, and religious views that differ from their own.
	The higher a person’s socioeconomic status, the younger the age at which he or she is expected to leave school, begin work, marry, and have children.
	Gender differences in friendship are, statistically speaking, quite small.
	In some cultures, cohabitation is the norm throughout adulthood.
	Marriages that are preceded by cohabitation typically are happier and more durable.
	Most American adults spend about half the years between ages 20 and 40 single.
	Married adults are happier, healthier, and richer than single adults.
	Gay and lesbian couples generally have the same relationship problems as heterosexual couples.
	One reason divorce is so common is that spouses today expect a great deal more from each other than did spouses in the past.
	The size of a person’s friendship circle typically shrinks after marriage.
	Because of the changing fob picture, women and members of minorities no longer experience difficulty in breaking through the glass ceiling.