Sliding vs.
deciding: Commitment, ambiguity, and
relationship formation
Scott Stanley
Department of Psychology, University of
Denver, Colorado
Dr.
Stanley is a Research Professor in the
Department of Psychology at the
University of Denver (view his faculty
page
here).
From hooking up, to living together, to
bearing children prior to clarity about
having a future together, relationship
and family development has changed. New
paradigms have important implications
for how we understand the romantic and
sexual relationships of young adults.
Ambiguity has fully arrived as a
preferred condition, seemingly motivated
to protect against rejection by making
it easier to finesse intentions and
commitment. These changes arose in the
context of deep fears of relationships
failing and worries over settling down
prior to meeting “the one.” While the
new paradigms make intuitive sense when
the mate selection stage of life has
stretched deeper into adulthood,
relationships nevertheless develop on
common paths that can constrain life
options before one has decided what is
most deeply wanted, resulting in the
risk of giving up options before making
a choice. In this talk, Stanley will
explain the ways motivated ambiguity
intersects with types of commitment
(e.g., constraint and dedication) to
impact mate selection and lasting love.
The themes include the role of
commitment in securing attachment,
asymmetrical commitment, and research on
how common types of relationship
transitions can impact long-term
outcomes.
Identity
formation in emerging adulthood: A
dynamic process
Elisabetta Crocetti
Department of Psychology, Alma Mater
Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy
Dr. Crocetti is a Senior Assistant
Professor at the University of Bologna
(view her website
here).
Emerging adulthood is a key period for
identity formation. It represents a
crossroad, in which young people can
continue the identity work started in
adolescence in the process of
transitioning to adulthood. In emerging
adulthood, in fact, young people can
explore a large array of alternatives in
multiple life domains (e.g..,
educational, work, and relational
domains) to find and consolidate
meaningful identity commitments. How do
emerging adults approach the identity
formation task? Which factors can
promote achievement of a stable
identity? Which are the effects of
identity formation? How does the context
influence this process? In this master
lecture, I will provide an overview of
how different models inspired by
Erikson’s psychosocial theory have
progressively provided new answers to
these core questions, improving our
understanding of identity-in-context.
The caring
motivation and its development during
emerging adulthood – a neglected,
fundamental facet of our human nature
Ofra Mayseless
Faculty of Education, University of
Haifa, Israel
Ofra Mayseless is a full Professor of
Developmental Psychology at the Faculty
of Education, University of Haifa (view
her website
here).
The lecture will discuss our innate,
fundamental and encompassing caring
motivation, its centrality and
comprehensiveness in our being and its
connection to our self-actualization and
meaning in life. The lecture, based on
Mayseless recent book (“The Caring
Motivation” published by Oxford
University Press) will then focus on the
developmental course of this motivation
with a particular focus on emerging
adulthood as a central period for
learning new caring skills and embarking
on creating the major caring bonds in
our life. Finally, findings from
research on caring in its diverse forms
(e.g., volunteering, social support,
generativity, altruism, pet adoption and
caring in intimate relations) will be
discussed and a general model of the
enactment of the caring motivation
during emerging adulthood will be
presented.
Trajectories of flourishing and floundering: The good, the bad, and the lonely
Larry J. Nelson
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Dr. Nelson is Professor in the School of
Family Life at Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah. (view his faculty
page
here).
Despite the tendency to categorize all
young people into the overarching
category of "emerging adults" we know
there is a wide range of paths that
young people take as they make their way
through the third decade of life. The
work that my colleagues, students, and I
have undertaken in our research is to
identify some of the characteristics of
the trajectories that might be
indicative of flourishing and those that
might be characterized as floundering.
The purpose of this presentation is to
address some of what our work has
demonstrated regarding flourishing and
floundering including introducing some
of our most recent work on this topic.
In the lecture, a particular emphasis
will be placed on socially withdrawn
young people as they receive very little
scholarly attention in emerging
adulthood but they may experience some
of the largest challenges in making
their path towards adulthood. Taken
together, the lecture will shed light on
some of the most recent findings on
factors, including social withdrawal,
that appear to lead to flourishing or
floundering during the third decade of
life.