The Identity Issues Inventory (I3) uses an Eriksonian framework to assess identity stage resolution among those experiencing a prolonged transition to adult- hood in terms of the developmental tasks of self-identity formation (integration and differentiation) and societal- identity formation (work roles and worldview). For this first analysis of this new measure, data were collected from two samples: (1) 196 people between the ages of 18 and 48 and (2) 1,489 participants between the ages of 18 and 41. Overall, the I3 yields good factorial validity and reliability, and scores increase with age toward the ''ceiling'' of each task subscale, which represent anchors of a stable adult identity. Structural equation modeling assessed the rela- tionships between these prominent identity issues and psychological health, revealing a positive relationship between the two constructs, providing evidence for pre- dictive validity. An analysis of the second sample of 1,498 people confirmed these findings. The I3 promises to be a useful tool in future investigations of identity stage reso- lutions for those aged 18 and above experiencing a pro- longed transition to adulthood.

Children's private speech has been widely studied among children, but it is clear that adults use pri- vate speech as well. In this study, illiterate adults' private speech during a ''school-like'' task was explored as a function of literacy level and task difficulty in a sample of 126 adults enrolled in a public literacy program. A main effect for literacy level was found—private speech was more internalized and less externalized among adults with higher literacy levels. Externalized private speech was more frequently observed among illiterate adults engaged in the most difficult task. Private speech served cognitive functions as indicated by the proportion of self-regulatory private speech and the proportion of private speech pre- ceding actions being higher in the advanced literacy group and among illiterate adults doing the easier task. Internal- ized private speech, self-regulatory private speech, and private speech preceding action were each positively cor- related with performance and negatively correlated with time to complete the task. The use of private speech in illiterate adults appears to be linked to the mastery of cultural experiences, such as literacy, similar to the self- talk of children.

The objective of the current study was to explore the structural, temporal and experiential manifestations of crisis episodes in early adulthood, using a holistic-systemic theoretical framework. Based on an analysis of 50 interviews with individuals about a crisis episode between the ages of 25 and 35, a holistic model was developed. The model comprises four phases: (1) Locked-in, (2) Separation/Time-out, (3) Exploration and (4) Rebuilding, which in turn have characteristic features at four levels—person-in-environment, identity, motivation and affect-cognition. A crisis starts out with a commitment at work or home that has been made but is no longer desired, and this is followed by an emotionally volatile period of change as that commitment is terminated. The positive trajectory of crisis involves movement through an exploratory period towards active rebuilding of a new commitment, but ‘fast-forward’ and ‘relapse’ loops can interrupt Phases 3 and 4 and make a positive resolution of the episode less likely. The model shows conceptual links with life stage theories of emerging adulthood and early adulthood, and it extends current understandings of the transitional developmental challenges that young adults encounter.

Familial aggregation and the effect of parenting styles on three dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at were tested. Nearly 100 families (parents, their adult children, and their siblings) completed subjective questionnaires to assess the presence of gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others). A positive relationship between fear of being laughed at in children and their parents was found. Results for gelotophilia were similar but numerically lower; if split by gender of the adult child, correlations to the mother’s gelotophilia exceeded those of the father. Katagelasticism arose independently from the scores in the parents but was robustly related to greater katagelasticism in the children’s siblings. Gelotophobes remembered punishment (especially from the mother), lower warmth and higher control from their parents (this was also found in the parents’ recollections of their parenting style). The incidence of gelotophilia was unrelated to specific parenting styles, and katagelasticism exhibited only weak relations with punishment. The study suggests a specific pattern in the relation of the three dispositions within families and argues for a strong impact of parenting styles on gelotophobia but less so for gelotophilia and katagelasticism.

We examined individuals’ retrospective accounts and personal analyses regarding how their emotional, motivational, and epistemological beliefs coalesced to affect their long-term coping and resilience following a critical life event. Analyses from interviewed subjects who had encountered significant life-changing events revealed three major themes that influenced their decisions, abilities for self-regulation, and life course paths: (1) types of unexpected events, (2) types and intensity of emotional responses to the critical event, and (3) beliefs about primary control (i.e., personal agency and self-efficacy) and mediated control (i.e., external sources of influence). Regarding the extent to which participants experienced resiliency and current satisfaction with their lives, a dominant theme was their ability to see their critical life events as part of a larger tapestry—involving issues of personal and externally mediated controls—that provided a framework for their positive redirections, perceptions of self-efficacy, and abilities for coping and self-regulation.

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ attitudes about and patterns of providing financial assistance to their children during college, and how varying levels of parental financial support were related to children’s beliefs (e.g., perceptions of adulthood), behaviors (e.g., work hours, drinking, and drug use), and identity development. The sample consisted of 402 undergraduate students (62% women) recruited from four college sites across the United States (M age = 19.89), and one of their parents (310 mothers and 92 fathers). Using cluster analysis, results suggested four distinct approaches to parental financial involvement and found that emerging adults’ beliefs, behaviors, and identity development differed as a function of parents’ cluster membership. Discussion focuses on implications for emerging adult children whose parents endorse varying levels of financial involvement.

Autobiographical memory research documents increased access in the number of memories recalled by emerging adults (ages 18–25) with stable, clearly defined self-concepts. Very little research has examined the relationship between self-concept clarity and the episodic and semantic components of emerging adults’ autobiographical recollections. This study examined the relationship between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory and self-concept clarity in 100 undergraduate students. Contrary to previous findings, which indicated that stable self-beliefs may be used to facilitate access to episodic memories, the results suggested that self-concept clarity may not be associated with memory specificity. Instead, self-concept clarity was associated with recall of events involving cooperative social interactions. Results further showed that older age was associated with higher SCC. The implications of these results are discussed within the context of the theoretical literature concerning the relation between autobiographical memory and the development of the self-concept during emerging adulthood.

The theories of Levinson (1986 Am Psychol 41(1):3–13) and Erikson (1959 Identity and the life cycle. WW Norton and Co, New York, 1968 Youth and crisis. WW Norton and Co, New York), Bandura’s (1986 Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs) Social Cognitive Theory, and the ethological attachment theories of Bowlby (1969 Attachment and loss, Vol. 1, attachment. Hogarth, London), and Ainsworth (1978 Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale) are used in a discussion of the para-social and social relationships that fans have with celebrities. Fans’ attachments to celebrities play primary and secondary roles in the developmental stages of adulthood and transitions between those stages. Celebrities are role models for adults, and attachment develops in much the same way it develops in face-to-face relationships, e.g. through proximity and familiarity with the face, voice, and manner of the celebrity. Included are examples from the fan research of the author. One conclusion is that fan attachments are often part of the normal course of adult development in the areas of identity, intimacy, and generativity. Additionally, application of Levinson’s concept of stage transitions suggested that this might be a time when relationships with celebrities are more likely to begin.

This investigation illustrates men’s and women’s change in femininity, and individual differences in change in femininity from early (age 33 or 35) to late (age 78 or 85) adulthood. Members of three long-term longitudinal samples (total N = 327) provided California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Femininity scale scores, collected a maximum of five times. Application of longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling indicates: (1) both men and women show significant variability in initial level and change in femininity, (2) gender predicts both individuals’ initial level and change in femininity—the average man, initially low in femininity, becomes significantly higher in femininity across the lifespan; the average woman, initially high in femininity, becomes significantly lower in femininity across the lifespan, (3) change in femininity is unconnected to marital or parental status, and (4) change in femininity is connected to psychological health level for women only—more psychologically healthy women show a decline in femininity, while less healthy women increase their femininity level. Overall, results support Jung’s androgyny hypothesis of a cross-over of gender roles in men and women, but do not support Gutmann’s hypothesis that such cross-over is tied to “parental emergency.” Additional exploration of the data indicates Gough and Bradley’s (1996) CPI-derived personality types also predict femininity initial level for women and femininity change for men.