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190 PILLAR 2 Development and LearningIf you scored 15 or higher on the test, you are above average in optimism. Among college students, those who are more optimistic are less likely to experience loneliness, stress, and depression.42 They are also less likely to experience physical illness.43 These psychological and physical benefits seem to persist throughout the life span. In fact, optimistic people live an average of 7.5 years longer than their pessimistic peers.44Developing IntimacyAccording to Erikson, young adults strive to achieve intimacy%u2014the ability to form close, loving, and open relationships with other people; relationships that involve honest self-disclosure of feelings, ideas, and activities. Many people have their most intense, intimate relationship with a spouse, but not all marriages achieve this type of closeness. Intimacy is not necessarily sexual by nature, and it often occurs outside marriage with close, trusted friends and family members.As noted earlier, Erikson realized that baggage from previous developmental stages would accumulate as we move from one stage to the next and that this baggage would affect our ability to negotiate current developmental challenges. Young adults facing the challenge of intimacy versus isolation cannot share themselves honestly and openly if they are still confused about their own sense of self.Independence from FamilyIn the United States and other Western cultures (such as those of Western Europe, North America, and Australia), separating from family to become more independent begins in childhood but picks up speed in adolescence.45 Children move from a primary attachment to their parents to a primary attachment to their peers. You can observe this in any store if you watch parents interacting with their preschool-age children and then watch parents or guardians interacting with their teenage children. Your first observation will probably be that not as many teenagers go shopping with their parents! In fact, when they hang out, teens mostly spend time with other teens, and their relationships may be cliquish.46Because of this teenage tendency to form cliques, some teenagers feel excluded; these teenagers are prone to depression and loneliness, and a few of them may even lash out violently.47When parents and adolescents are together, they will probably display less warmth and emotional closeness than you%u2019ll see in families with younger children.48 Figure 11.3 shows how this progression develops over time. As children become adolescents, arguments with parents tend to become both more frequent49and more intense.50Some families suffer as this move toward independence separates parents and children, but a much greater number adjust with a minimum of turmoil. Most of the time, parents and teenagers get along quite well, with 97 percent of U.S. teenagers reporting that they get along either %u201cfairly%u201d or %u201cvery%u201d well with their parents.51 In another study, more than half of all middle-class teenagers in a worldwide survey said that family relationships were the %u201cmost important%u201d intimacy In Erikson%u2019s theory, the ability to form close, loving, open relationships; a primary task in early adulthood.IntimacyYoung adults strive to develop intimate relationships based on open, honest communication.Dragon Images/Shutterstock Mike Baldwin/CartoonStock Ltd.%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.