Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood

Early adulthood can be a very stressful, impressionable, and critical point in a person's life.
Cognitive development is literally a person's ability to perceive, understand, reflect, and react
appropriately to the world around them. Due to the implications of early adulthood, cognitive
development in this period can be the most integral in a person’s life due to emotional
development, an increase in ethical and moral decision making, as well as the development of
interpersonal skills that are necessary for social growth, as well as integration into modern
society.
This part in the developmental period, responsible for the full completion of the growth of the
frontal lobe which can radically alter the overall outcome for the good or for the bad. In adults,
cognitive growth can be stimulated by major events in ones life--the birth of a child, an increase
in necessary responsibility, as well as the interaction between nature and nurture.
Erik Erikson created a model to decipher how the brain develops during early adulthood. Erikson
believed this can be explained as a number of stages of crisis, with resolution necessary to move
on to the next stage in ones life. Erikson lists these stages as crucial:
trust vs mistrust

 autonomy vs doubt
 initiative vs guilt
 competence vs inferiority
 indentity vs role confusion
 intimacy vs isolation
 generativity vs stagnation
 ego-integrity despair

The resolution of each internal conflict is necessary to move on to the next conflict. The
resolutions of these internal conflicts can be a great gauge for the extent of cognitive
development. An inability to move from one conflict to each other can leave a child
developmentally deficient, immature, or unable to connect with peers.
Generally, the growth of the frontal lobe of a brain is completed in the early twenties. To parallel
this idea, development of both intelligence as well as fluid intelligence are also integral during this
period of development. Though fluid intelligence and intelligence are similar, they refer to two
totally different parts of human development.

 Intelligence is simply the "capacity for goal-directed behavior”, a broad and simple
concept. During early adulthood human beings are supposed to be able to develop the
skills to prioritize tasks--thereby meeting deadlines, expounding on time management
skills, and reaching the epitome of human efficiency.
 Fluid intelligence refers to something much more specific, and somewhat different
altogether. Fluid intelligence is defined as "fast and abstract reasoning"--while it declines
moving into adulthood, it is at its peak in the early adult time period. Nonverbal cues and
abilities, communication skills, problem solving, and basic logic are examples of fluid
intelligence. The people in which high fluid intelligence is seen most often include
mathematicians, poets, and scientists.

The frontal lobe and the cerebral cortex are areas of the brain are especially important with
regards to judgment and planning. With regards to intelligence and fluid intelligence, these two
skills cannot properly develop without thefoundation of judgment that comes with maturity of the
brain's cerebral cortex. Judgment and planning themselves are obviously necessary for
developing the ability to be goal-oriented, as well as for abstract reasoning, giving an application
to cognitive development models in early adulthood.Having this information can be very critical
for both students and for instructors.
Understanding the way development occurs can help us be much more aware of ourselves, as
well as our students. Someone who is developmentally deficient may excel in the classroom,
while frequently forgetting to do assignments. If this is you, than perhaps you now know what to
attempt to improve. More than knowing, but truly understanding your strengths as well as
weaknesses is critical to success in the classroom and beyond.