Social & Emotional Development in Early Adulthood

All 6 Terms & Definitions

Intimacy vs. Isolation (Erikson)

Erikson's sixth psychosocial stage, the developmental task of early adulthood. Intimacy involves the capacity to commit to relationships that demand sacrifice and compromise — to fuse one's identity with another's without fear of losing oneself. Isolation results when the individual avoids or withdraws from intimacy, either because identity is insufficiently consolidated or because the vulnerability of intimacy feels too threatening. Intimacy need not be romantic; it encompasses deep friendship, creative collaboration, and committed community membership.

Adult Attachment Styles

Individual differences in the organisation of the attachment behavioural system in adulthood, first described by Hazan and Shaver (1987) and elaborated by Bartholomew (1990). Secure: comfortable with closeness, neither anxious about abandonment nor avoidant of intimacy. Anxious/preoccupied: highly desirous of closeness, fearful of abandonment, hyperactivated attachment concerns. Dismissive-avoidant: self-reliant, uncomfortable with closeness, deactivated attachment concerns. Fearful-avoidant: desires closeness but fears rejection, simultaneous high anxiety and high avoidance.

Emerging Adulthood

Jeffrey Arnett's developmental period proposed for ages 18–25 in industrialised societies, characterised by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and a sense of possibility. Emerging adulthood is culturally specific: it reflects delayed entry into stable employment and marriage, extended education, and the prolonged identity exploration made possible by economic development. It is not universal — in many cultural and economic contexts, adult roles are assumed much earlier.

Internal Working Models

Bowlby's concept of the cognitive-affective representations of self and others that develop through attachment experience and guide behaviour in close relationships. In adulthood, internal working models represent beliefs about whether the self is worthy of love and care, and whether others can be trusted to provide it. They are revised — though with some resistance — through new relationship experiences. Assessed in adults using the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main).

Identity Consolidation

The process, initiated in adolescence and continuing into early adulthood, by which the individual arrives at a stable, integrated sense of self — values, commitments, and self-understanding that are experienced as continuous across contexts. Marcia's identity statuses (see Identity Development) describe four possible states; identity achievement (commitment following active exploration) is associated with better psychological outcomes in early adulthood. Identity consolidation is a prerequisite for Eriksonian intimacy.

Social Network Characteristics

Early adulthood social networks are typically large, diverse, and include many weak ties (acquaintances, professional contacts) alongside close relationships. This breadth serves information-gathering and social capital functions suited to the exploration and establishment tasks of early adulthood. Network size peaks in the late 20s to early 30s and then begins the selective pruning that accelerates with age — a pattern explained by Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory.