Psychosocial Theory of Human Development: Adult Development
Nurturing an Intimate Relationship
- A commitment to growth as an individual and couple - Effective communication a. Reciprocal relationship between interaction & happiness - Creative uses of conflict
Stagnation
- A lack of psychological movement or growth - Passive/Self-centered people - Chronically depressed people a. "I have done nothing for the next generation b. "The world is no better off because I existed" c. "This is the way we've always done it and I'm not changing"
Disdain
- A rejection of ideas and persons and an arrogance that implies that one's own opinions and views are superior. - Rather than becoming more patient, more compassionate and less critical in their later life, older adults who develop disdain are more likely to express contempt for others and detach from the world around them
Managing a career
- Achieving new levels of competence in the workplace a. Meeting new skill demands; Interpersonal skills - Midlife career changes - Work and family life a. Role overload, conflict, "spillover" - The impact of joblessness a. More stressful than any job stress
Psychosocial Theory
- Addresses growth across the life span - Assumes individuals contribute to their own psychological development - Considers the active contribution of culture to individual growth
A word about Divorce
- America has one of highest divorce rates among modern industrial countries - 20% of men and 26% of women born between 1960-64 had been married & divorced by 35 (2007) - Average age for marriage in US is 27.5yrs for men, 25.6 for women. (2007) - Median length of marriage is 7 years
Developmental Tasks at Successive Career Stages:
- Concerns about self: Competence, Professional identity - Concerns about career: How involved and committed to the organization do I want to be? Advance? Explore other options? - Concerns with interpersonal relationships: How can I establish effective relationships with peers and supervisors? Work effectively with others with whom I am in direct competition?
Coping Behavior
- Consists of active efforts to resolve stress and create new solutions to the challenges of each developmental stage. - In the face of threat, coping behavior allows for the individual to develop and grow, rather than merely maintain equilibrium or become disorganized.
Prime Adaptive Ego Qualities
- Develop from the positive resolution of the psychosocial crisis of a given stage and provide resources for coping with the next. - Mental states that form a basic orientation toward the interpretation of life experiences. a. Hope, Purpose, Competence, Love, and Wisdom,
Later Adulthood (60-76 yrs)
- Developmental Tasks: Accepting One's life - Psychological Crisis: Integrity Vs Despair - Central Process: Introspection - Prime Adaptive Ego quality and the core pathology: Wisdom vs. Disdain
Psychosocial Crisis
- Discrepancy between developmental competencies at the beginning of the stage and new societal pressures for more effective functioning - expressed as a polarity - drives the ego system to develop new capacities (growing pains)
Core Pathology
- Exclusivity "Shutting out of others" Beliefs about one's superiority May distort reality Limit access to new information
Wisdom
- Factual knowledge, procedural knowledge (strategies for approaching the management and interpretation of life matters, including linking past present and future - Reflects the flexibility of openness to new interpretations and a willingness to accept the complexity of life
Childbearing
- Impact of childbearing on intimate relationship - decision not to have children (current birthrate is lowest in recorded history) - over the last 2 decades, rate of non-marital childbearing rose from 22% in 1985 to 39% in 2006
Divorce
- In 2008, 46% of all marriages involve a remarriage for one or both spouses. It is estimated that 40% of all marriages have ended in divorce as of 2008. - On average, first marriages that end in divorce last about eight years. - Population studies found that in 2004 and 2008, liberal-voting states have lower rates of divorce than conservative-voting states, possibly because people in liberal states tend to wait longer before getting married.
The Prime Adaptive Ego Quality (Love)
- In the resolution of the crisis, it emerges as the capacity for mutuality and devotion that transcends the secure attachment of infancy. - Combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment.
Erikson's Psychosocial Stages
- Infancy: (Birth to 18 months) Trust vs. Mistrust. Feeding - Early Childhood (2 to 3 years) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. Toilet Training - Preschool (3 to 5 years) Initiative vs. Guilt. Exploration. - School Age (6 to 11 years) Industry vs. Inferiority. School. - Adolescence (12 to 18 years) Identity vs. Role Confusion. Social Relationships. - Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years) Intimacy vs. Isolation. Relationships - Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years) Generativity vs. Stagnation. Work and Parenthood - Maturity (65 years to death) Ego Integrity vs. Despair. Reflection on Life - Very Old Age (75 years-death) Immortality vs. Extinction.
Immortality
- Living on through children, afterlife or spiritual place of existence that extends beyond death, achieve a sense of immortality through creative achievements and their impact on others), participation in the chain of nature, experiential transcendence, cosmic transcendence
Exploring Intimate Relationship
- Marriage is usually the central context w/n which work on intimate social relationships takes place. - For most adults, happiness in life depends more on having a satisfying marriage/significant relationship than on any other domain of adult life.
Radius of Significant Relationships
- Our society is organized in such a way that age-related demands on individuals are communicated through their significant social relationships. - Families (Universal primary social context of CH) - Culture - Ethnic groups
Central process (middle adulthood)
- Person-environment interaction and creativity - Facilitative interaction between the individual and the social environment - Creativity - The willingness to abandon old forms or patterns of doing things in favor of new ways. This requires the generation, evaluation, and implementation of new ideas.
Ten Components of a loving relationship (Western Culture)
- Promoting the welfare of the loved one (LO) - Experiencing happiness with LO - High regard for LO - Being able to count on LO in time of need - Mutual understanding of LO - Sharing oneself and one's possession w/the LO - Receiving emotional support from LO - Giving emotional support to the LO - Intimate communication with LO - Valuing the LO in one's own life - These are present in loving relationships with parents, siblings, friends and lovers
Central Process for Resolving the Psychosocial Crisis
- Psychological efforts to adjust one's needs to the demands of the social/cultural environment at each life stage of development. - Results in a reworking of the psychological system, including a reorganization of boundaries, values, and images of oneself and images of oneself and others.
Developmental Tasks
- Psychosocial challenges that dominate a person's problem-solving efforts and learning during a given stage of life. - They change with age and culture - The tasks form a sequence. - Mastery is influenced by resolution of the psychosocial crisis of the previous stage.
Exploring Intimate Relationship 2
- Readiness to marry: Identity must be far enough along that a committed relationship is regarded as exciting vs. frightening - Selection of a partner a. Initial attraction, Similarity in race, religion, educ b. Deeper attraction: Compatibility, empathy - Adjustment during the early years of marriage - Adjustment in dual-earner marriages
Early Adulthood (24-34 yrs)
- Social Roles: Multiple and reciprocal - Social Clock: Age norms and age expectations that operate as prods and brakes upon behavior - Life Course: Influenced by the historical era - Cohort (medical advances, job opportunities etc) - Competence Motivation : a desire for new levels of mastery - Tendencies Toward Growth
Factors contributing to Divorce
- Socioemotional development of the partners - Family history of divorce - Age at marriage (In US, higher divorce rate for couples who marry before age 20) - Socioeconomic level (higher among couples with minimal education & low incomes)
Intimacy
- The ability to experience an open, supportive, tender relationship with another person without fear of losing one's identity in the process. - Built upon the ability to meet each other's needs and accept each other's weaknesses - Generally established within a marriage/ May also be established in a work setting
Isolation
- The negative pole of the crisis of early adulthood. - May result from childhood experiences of guilt, shame, inferiority or alienation. May also come from situational factors, divergent interests. - Isolation may be experienced as loneliness, depression, fragile identity, sexual disorders.
Cohabitation
- The number of cohabiting unmarried partners increased by 88% between 1990 and 2007. - The majority of couples marrying today cohabited first. - 55% of Americans approve of men and women living together without being married.
Why is this important?
- To understand that human development is an ongoing process and that individuals have different perspectives at different times in their lives which can affect the way they view and manage illness. - An individual's ability to successfully cope with and master developmental tasks builds self-efficacy, resilience, & contributes to positive health outcomes.
Issues in Studying Human Development
- What are the physical, cognitive and personality changes that occur during adulthood and aging? - How do you measure these changes? a. Longitudinal - follow one group over time b. Cross-Sectional - study several groups at once c. Cross-sequential - combination - Nature vs Nurture
Core Pathologies
- While most people develop prime adaptive ego qualities, a destructive force may also develop as a result of ineffective, negatively balanced crisis resolution at each stage. - Energy becomes directed toward resisting or avoiding change instead of mastering the developmental tasks of a stage.
Extinction
- fear that on'es life and its end amount to nothing
Psychosocial Crisis (24-34 years)
- intimacy versus isolation
Central Process
- mutuality among peers - empathetic awareness of one another, understanding of self & other, and the ability & willingness to regulate one's needs in order to respond to needs of one's partner
Lifestyle
- pace of life - investment in work - social network - competing roles - health & fitness - single or married lifestyle
Expanding caring relationships
- parenting - caring for one's aging parents - Managing the household a. building coalitions b. one-parent households c. people who live alone
Stages of Development
- period of life that is characterized by a specific underlying organization - Erikson's Psychosocial Theory vs Freud's Psychosexual Theory a. Development occurs in a series of 8 stages - New stages develop as a culture evolves
Human Development
- product of the interaction between individual biological & psychological needs and abilities & societal expectations & demands.
Psychosocial Crisis (generativity versus sagnation
A commitment to improving the life conditions of future generations. Generativity "encompasses procreativity, productivity, and creativity, and thus the generation of new beings as well as the new products and new ideas including a kind of self-generation concerned with further identity development,
The Prime Adaptive Ego Quality
Care - A widening commitment to take care of the persons, the products, and the ideas one has learned to care for.
Age 75 - Death
Central Process: Social Support Prime Adaptive Ego Quality and Core pathology: Confidence vs Diffidence
Very old age (75- death)
Coping with the physical changes of aging Developing a psycho-historical perspective Moving through uncharted territory
Developmental Tasks (early adulthood)
Developmental Task: Exploring Intimate Relationships Child-bearing Career Psychosocial Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Developmental Tasks (Middle Adulthood)
Managing a career Nurturing an intimate relationship Expanding caring relationships Managing the household
The Core Pathology
Rejectivity - The unwillingness to embrace certain individuals, groups or ideas in one's circle of care and at an extreme level to view these threats are targets for hostility
Basic Concepts of Psychosocial Theory
Stages of Development Developmental Tasks Psychosocial Crises Central Process for Resolving the Psychosocial Crisis Radius of Significant Relationships Coping Behavior
Average age of Marriage
USA Men - 27.5 Women - 25.6
Speculative Factors Contributing to Divorce
We have an overly romantic view of marriage We are too individualistic to make a commitment Men & women are socialized to distrust each other Need for both partners to work interferes Marriage is an outdated institution Women who work don't need to stay in an unsupportive marriage Men whose wives work don't feel obligated to stay in a marriage Smaller family size means less time devoted to childrearing & more time for messing around Longer life span makes marriage unrealistic
