Occupational Balance During Young Adulthood

Voice over

What is Occupational Balance?

Is the right balance of occupations and the right balance between the occupations (activities, )

Physical Development:

During Young adulthood (around ages 20-40) you are at your peak physical performance!

General Physical Factors: 

• Coordination is at its best 
• Vinson should be fully fictional 
• Sex organs fully mature 
• Recovering from minor injurious still 
• Your body proportions are established 

Health: 

Young adults are healthy and will get less respiratory infections and colds compared to child hood.  

Direct Influences: 

• Diet/Nutrition 
• Over weight (Obesity) 
• Amount of Physical Activity 
• Sleep 
• Substance Use (Alcohol and Drugs) 

Indirect Influences:  

• Social Groups 
• Relationships 

Mental Health: 

• Transitions are stressful 
• Half of Americans will develop some type of mental illness sometime in their lifetime 
• 75 percent of mental health issues start by the age of 24 

To Keep this balance you will need 

1. Good Night sleep (7-8 Hours) 
2. Have Good Nutrition 
3. Get Excessive 
4. Do not use Drugs or Smoke 
5. Keep a good network for friends to socialize with 

Psycho social/ Emotional Development:

Identity Development: 

• A Psychologist named James Macia came up with the theory of the four stages of identity. 
• Achievement
• Moratorium 
• Foreclosure
• Diffusion 

Personality Development: 

During this time Young adults are entering Erickson sixth stage of psychosomatic development

We have four approaches to viewing the effects of personality develops during young adulthood.  They are the Normative stage model, Timing of events, trait model and the Topological model.

Normative Stage Model: 

• A Theoretical model describing the psychological development in seduce of the age-related changes.
• Developmental tasks/challenges should be close to mastered in order to have a successful life
• Tasks Include: 
• Leaving your childhood home 
• Finishing education (College, Trade school, GED) 
• Entering the work force 
• Being Financially independent 
• The model shows us that we are not done with personality development when we become adults we keep on changing

Timing of events: 

• Another Theoretical model that measures personality development based on the the response to expected or unexpected occurrences through the timing of important life events
• Using this model you can see people follow a social clock for cultural norms or expectations for certain events should occur 
• Events include 
• Marrage
• Parenthood 
• Entering into the workforce 
• Retirement 
• This sort of model causes stress on peoples lives where they end up rushing important life events to "catch up"

Trait model: 

• Theoretical mode that focuses on the metal, emotional, temperamental and behavioral traits, or attributes
• it is a Five factor model that was developed by Paul T Costa and Robert R McCrae that costs of universal traits

1. Nuroticism 
2. Extroversion 
3. Openness to Experience 
4. Conscientiousness 
5. Agreeableness 

• Under this model it shows that we change until age 30 

Topological model:

• Theoretical approach that concentrates on broad personality types/styles  as functioning as a whole.  
• The personality types show the continuity from childhood all the way though adulthood, this can change through certain life events 
• Three Basic Personality Types 
• Ego-resilient 
• Overcontrolled 
• Undercontrolled 

How it affects other parts of development 

• This affects the physical development where you could focus on how your body looks 
• Affects the Cognitive development you could pay more attention to friends than learning skills you need 
• This plays a huge part into relationships because this is the one that most changes around your friends and groups you are associated with.

Cognitive Development:

Cognitive development is our ability to learn, remember and solve problems.  This development develops more as we age.


Advanced Cognitive Abilities: 

• Dialectical thoughts- 

• Emotional intelligence- 

• Schaie's achieving period- 

• Erikson's intimacy versus isolation- 

• Levinson's life structure  

Reflective thinking: 

• This type of thinking may emerge in adulthood, it involves continuous, active evaluation of information. 

• Most adults develop the ability for reflexive thinking, be most do not attain peak performance in this skill 

• This will Emerge between the ages 20-25 this is due to the full myelination that happens at this time to the cortical region of the brain that can handle the higher level thinking

Post formal thought: 

• A mature way of thinking that relies on experience as well as the use of logic with dealing with uncertain conditions 
• This is brought about in young adulthood through higher level of education 
• This type of thought is less structured than than relativistic 
• Requirements for post-formal thought
• Shift from the abstract to the real world 
• Being able to define a problem 
• The Possess of product will shift 
• Parasitism 
• The ability to recognize there are more solutions than one 
• Being aware of the paradox of problems and solutions 
• Self referential thought 

Insight and Know how: 

• The Stern berg trarchic theory states that a person can improve his inelegance through experiencing knowledge in many ways. 
• There are three areas for this theory.  We do not all score high in all three we all have strengths and weakness 
• Areas: 
• Component intelligence 
• Experiential Knowledge 
• Contextual Knowledge 

Emotional Intelligence: 

• The ability to regulate emotions in an intelligent behavior 
• This effects the quality of relationships 
• This can be effective if worked on

Life Span Model of Cognitive Development:

• The Life span model was created and developed by K. Warner Schaie to look developing using intellect within a social context.
• The model Consists of seven stages that revolve around stages of life you hit naturally 

1. Acquisitive Stage
2. Achieving Stage
3. Responsible Stage 
4. Executive Stage
5. Re organizational Stage
6. Reintegrative Stage
7. Legacy-Creating Stage 

• The stages represent a shift from the Procrustes of seeking information to the seeking of the meaning of purpose 

Cognitive Developmental Balance:

• Young adults should look for things that are intellectually stimulating that also brings meaning into their life 
• Examples 
• College 
• Entering the workforce (Dream Job) 

How it affects other parts of development 

• Affects the personality/emotional development through you are developing your complex thoughts and you can channel your emendations and identity through this new learning process.  
• This can affect your relationships because you have to pick and chose who you want to hang out with. This would affect your identity through the groups you select. 

Relationship Development:

Peers:

• Peers will start the shift away from college friends 
• Will start hanging out with colleagues 

Partners:

• Women 
• Have more intimate friends then men 
• More likely to discuss problems and look for support 
• Tend to have more confidants than men 
• Men 
• Share activities that they do
• More commotion based with social interactions it is not about winning 
• 
  
• The stimulus-Value theory: This helps people evaluate if a relationship is worthwhile 
• Sternberg Triangular Theory of Love
• Romantic love = intimacy (reperducting) + passion (feelings for one another) 
• Compassionate love = intimacy (reperducting) + decision/commitment (Phase of in between relationships)
• Fatuous love = passion (feelings for one another) + decision/commitment (Phase of in between relationships)
• Consummate love = intimacy (reperducting) + decision/commitment (Phase of in between relationships)

Children& parents:

• Parents become less attached to their children about monitoring them 
• Children of the parents tend to communicate with the parents less and focused more on developing their own family 

Marriage/Divorce rates:

• More than 90 percent of US men marry someone at some point in their lives 
• Half of all marriage end up in divorce 
• The marriage age has had in increase fro young adults by 4-6 years 
• Factors for success or failure of a marriage incude 
• Happiness within the relationship 
• Emotional support 
• Conflict management skills 
• prescience of abuse 

Arranged Marriages:

• Common in Asia, India and the Middle East 
• Reasons for an Arranged marriage are 
• Religious reasons 
• Cultural 
• Financial goals 

Family Life Cycle: 

• Change on identity through inner life 
• Self changes 
• Assumptions of how a family should work 
• Shifting roles in a marriage 
• Division of labor
• Parenting 
• Alone time/self care 
• Shifting generational roles 
• Parents become grandparents 
• Changing relationships outside the family 
• Mother is more likely to put career on hold to care for the family
• Father has less bonding time but normally provides for the family  
• New parenting roles 
• Negotiate responsibility 
• How will help with homework 
• Taking care of the house 
• Who is driving the kids to their activities 
• Agreements on Family matters 

Non Marital Lifestyles: 

Single Life: 


More of the population of young adults in the United States have not been married has increased due to cretin factors

1. The change of social standard for dating have changed 
1. We have more freedoms to take risks (sexual freedom) 
1. Young adults have more financial independence 
1. In this society we have an extreme fear of marriages ending in divorce.

Cohabitation: 

1. Unmarried couple that is committed to a sexual relationship together.
2. This lifestyle has increased among all groups in the United States 
3. More than 1/2 of couples in the United states marry have lived together 

How it affects other parts of development 

• Relationships can affect your career path in a few ways 
• Hanging out with the wrong people can sidetrack your work 
• You could focused more on your friends then your education 
• Relationships can affect your physical development in a few ways 
• Body shamming 
• Having a work out buddy 

         

Career, Education and Leisure Development:

(YouTube Video) Work Life

College Transition 

College is becoming the pathway for young adults to enter into the workforce 

• We have an increase in the amount of enrollment in 2-4 year programs 
• We have more Women in colleges 
• Young adults take advantage of 2 year vocational colleges 

The Occupational Cycle 

• Most people have several jobs until they settle on one carrier 
• Jobs are now requiring more education 
• The Havinghurst Model in Young adults 
• Figuring out an identity as a worker 
• Developing as a productive worker

Havinghurst Model for One Career Work Cycle 

• Identifying with a worker (5-10 years) 
• Child identify with a working parent 
• Acquiring habits of the industries (10-25 years)
• Learn to give work a priority over play 
• Acquiring identity as a working (15-25 years) 
• People chose an occupation and prepare for it
• Becoming a productive person (25-40 years) 
• Adults prefect skills required for their chosen occupation 
• Maintain a productive society (40-70 years) 
• At the highest point in the carrier start to do civic duties 
• Contemplating a productive responsible life (70+ years) 
• Start to retire and start new occupations and routines 

Holland Theory of Careers 

• Realistic- Likes to work with hands and tools 
• Examples: Construction, Farming, architect,  
• Investigative - Biological and Physical sciences 
• Examples: Biologist, Chemist, Dentist, Veterinarian 
• Artistic- Creative and open 
• Examples: Artist, musician, poet, designer 
• Social- Teaching and helping others 
• Examples: Police officer and Teacher
• Enterprising- Leading or Influencing others 
• Example: Lawyer, Pollination, Producer  
• Conventional- Organize information in a clear way 
• Personal assistant and Manager 

Self as a worker 

• Extrinsic Factors 
• Motivates for a paycheck  
• Intrinsic Factors 
• Work allows for personal growth 

Conclusions of YA Occupational Balance:

• You must maintain balance of occupations through your life 
• Maintain a varied amount of occupations 
• Keep your Physical, Psychosomatic, Cognitive, Relationship and carrier all in balance 

References 

Brayman, T. 2020. YA Physical Dev s2020 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from URL: https://sakai.ithaca.edu/portal/site/187bdb56-7687-45b7-8e61-c87cf2ee04bc/tool/01b45a3d-279c-4c81-bbdf-bfc8fac72f1c

Brayman, T. 2020. YA Student work, Education &Leisure [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from URL: https://sakai.ithaca.edu/portal/site/187bdb56-7687-45b7-8e61-c87cf2ee04bc/tool/01b45a3d-279c-4c81-bbdf-bfc8fac72f1c

Talkingdementia. (2017, August 9). "Occupational Balance" what does it mean & why is it important? Retrieved from https://letstalkaboutdementia.wordpress.com/2017/08/10/occupational-balance-what-does-it-mean-why-is-it-important/

Image references 

Cognitive Processing: What It Is and Why It's Important. (2019, February 14). Retrieved from https://braincheck.com/blog/cognitive-processing-what-it-is-why-important

Dahhaj, Z. K. (2018, March 1). Here's Why Your Relationship With Yourself Is The Most Important Thing. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@zaiderrr/heres-why-your-relationship-with-yourself-is-the-most-important-thing-2232b547cbf6

Ford, B. (2018, November 5). Mental Health and Physical Health. Retrieved from https://ssnmentalhealth.co.uk/mental-health-and-physical-health/

Haran, R. (2017, July 12). 5 Things I Had to Give Up to Grow My Career. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@RaghavHaran/5-things-i-had-to-give-up-to-grow-my-career-9aa88153ec7b