Lifespan Development- Middle Adulthood

Stress & Personal Control

- "overload" stressors peak in middle age but MA adults are more adapted to handle them - developmental change in perceived personal control (some increase; some decrease)

"Launching" Children in Midlife

- *Launching* culminates "letting go" process: decline in parental authority; continued contact & support to children - Parental response to "launching" affected by: investment in non-parental roles & relationships; children's characteristics; parents' marital & economic circumstances; cultural forces

Big 5 Personality Traits

- Openness - Conscientiousness - Extraversion - Agreeableness - Neuroticism Cumulative: With age you become more adept at interacting with the environment in order to cope with change

Age of Middle Adulthood

- Starts between 40-45 - Ends around 60-65 - 39.5 is statistically dead-center

Changes in Body Composition

- fat gain in torso (men gain more in gut/abdomen; women gain more in waist/butt) - very gradual muscle declines

Health & Disease

- fewer accidents (women less than men) - less susceptible to cold and allergies (the best age for not having colds) - disease and persistent health problems are more common (chronic: arthritis and hypertension/ killer: heart disease and cancer)

Middle Age Adults have:

- greater sense of control - greater sense of environmental mastery - more autonomy - more power - greater financial security

Changes in Vision

- have a hard time seeing up close - need more lighting to see

Changes in Hearing

- high frequencies are harder to hear - men lose more hearing than women (may not be biological)

Symptoms of Menopause

- hot flashes (can last from 30 secs. to 10 mins.) - weight gain - loss in muscle - nausea - vaginal health changes - bladder control problems - sleep disturbances (brought on by hot flashes) - sex changes (pain) - mood swings

Changes in Sleep

- hours asleep stay the same - more wakeful periods - less REM (deep) sleep

Changes in the Cardiovascular System

- increased blood pressure and cholesterol

Issues in Work

- is a job change wanted - recognizing limitations - planning for retirement - rebalance of work & family

Changes in Lung Function

- loses elasticity (more so in late 50s)

Perimenopause

- menopausal transition (7-14 year transition) - gradual end of fertility - drop in estrogen/progestin

Leisure

- more time and money for leisure - may affect life outcomes - one of the top 6 regrets people have is not spending enough time participating in leisure activities

Changes in Skeletal System

- people reach max bone density in 30s & then start declining more in middle age - men lose less height than women

Male Reproduction

- reduced sperm & semen at 40 - gradual testosterone loss - erection problems

Menopause

- the point in time that is 12 months after your last period - avg. age is 51

Assessing High Generativity

- turning bad events into good ones - giving back/redemption - personal renewal and enlightenment (interpretation of life events affects level of generativity)

Changes in Skin

- wrinkles - sagging - age spots sun exposure increases and affects all skin changes

4 Major Conflicts in Seasons of a Man's Life

- young vs. old - destructive vs. constructive - masculine vs. feminine - attached vs. separated

Grandparenthood

-Becoming a grandparent generally occurs in early fifties can spend one-third of life -Highly meaningful to most -Grandparenting styles vary -Geography, age, gender, SES, and ethnicity are factors. -Trends in grandparenting extended family household raising grandchildren (skipped generation family) coping with divorce of grandchildren's parents -maternal grandparents are often favored, with the maternal grandmother being especially close to her granddaughters

Siblings in Middle Adulthood

-Contact and support decline during middle adulthood. demands of diverse roles -Still, often feel closer baby-boom cohort more expressive share similar events -Affected by: earlier relations culture Parents relations with each sibling -often grow closer with launching and marriage of their children -grow close after 70

What are the 3 ways in which quality of creative works change?

-creative works after age 40 tend to appear more deliberately thoughtful -creators shift from generating unusual products to combining extensive knowledge and expertise into unique ways of thinking -creativity frequently reflects a transition from a largely egocentric concern with self-expression to more altruistic (unselfish) goals

Highly Generative Adults

-well adjusted: low in anxiety, depression; high in autonomy, self-acceptance, life satisfaction

Middle Age

35/40-65

What age does visual acuity decline?

40 years (presbyopia) changing in the eye's elasticity and shape

What age is diabetes most likely to occur?

50 and 60

Return to college- who and reasons

60 % are women Facilitated by major life events Reasons- Divorce Widowhood Returning from military service Job layoff Rapid job market change Children leaving home Family move Young children entering school

Midlife crisis

A time of dramatic self-doubt and anxiety during which people become preoccupied with their own mortality.

Why are there increases in cognitive abilities in recent generations?

Advances in technology, education, healthcare, environmental stimulation Flynn affect- As our living standards -- involving nutrition, education, safety, and many other factors -- steadily improved over the past 100 years, our ability to solve cognitive problems likewise increased.

Types of Generativity

Biological: having a child Parental: teaching and guiding children Work: mentoring & passing on expertise Cultural: helping or assisting the overall culture

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Erikson's stage of social development in which middle-aged people begin to devote themselves more to fulfilling one's potential and doing public service

Theories of Development

Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation Levinson: Seasons of a Man's Life Life Events Framework

Erikson's Generativity vs. Stagnation Stage

Generativity: the desire, in middle age, to use one's accumulated wisdom to guide future generations Stagnation: a discontinuation of development and a desire to recapture the past (self-centered & self-indulgent) People are well-adjusted, more open-minded, and better at child rearing if they are high in generativity

Age Identity

How old or young a person feels instead of calculating biological age A lot of older adults feel like they ae younger than they actually are

Relationships with Adult Children

Launching: children leaving the house (empty-nest syndrome doesn't affect many middle aged adults) Kinkeeper role: keeping contact with family in order to keep them together

How are midlife turning points different than crises?

Levinson reported that the majority of 35-45 year olds experienced substantial inner turmoil. Valliant and others have found much less evidence for midlife crises; instead they report slow and steady change during middle adulthood. Many turning points in middle adulthood are seen as positive rather than negative.

Individual & Group Factors in High IQ

Lifestyle: - high education complex jobs & leisure - lasting marriage - high SES Personal: - flexibility - healthy - gender (women better at perceptual skills & verbal memories; men better at spatial orientation) - cohort effects (Flynn Effect)

divorce in middle adulthood

Midlifers adjust more easily Overall divorce rate has declined in US over last 2 decades, but divorce over 50 has more than doubled Women report more end happiness than men Women also suffer more in unhappy marriages Women suffer more from poverty post divorce

Relationships with Aging Parents

More likely in today's climate to have living parents (longer life expectancy) Are the Sandwich/Pivot generations (as children leave the house, focus goes to aging parents) Provide more help to parents than children

climacteric

Physiological changes that occur during the transition period from fertility to infertility in both sexes

What are the major physical declines that occur in middle adulthood?

Presbyopia ("old eyes"), increased risk for glaucoma, presbycusis ("old hearing"), skin begins to wrinkle and spot, weight gains for both men and women and muscle mass decline, bones broaden and they lose density, fertility declines

Information Processing

Speed: - declines (but small ones) - tested by button pressing when seeing a light Memory: - decline in working memory (especially when strategies aren't used) - not really much change in long-term Expertise: - increases (10-year rule) - rely on experience - process information automatically & analyze it more efficiently - better problem solving strategies & more creativity Practical Problem Solving (Postformal Thought): - increases through 40s & 50s

Levinson's Seasons of a Man's Life

Teens - Transition from dependence to independence 20s - a novice phase of adult development 30s - a time for focusing on family and career development By 40s - man has a stable career and now must look forward to the kind of life he will lead as a middle-aged adult middle adulthood transition is critical for deciding whether radical changes need to be made

Seattle Longitudinal Study

The first cross-sequential study of adult intelligence. This study began in 1956; the most recent testing was conducted in 2005.

Possible Selves Theory

Views about the self guide choices and pursuits of future endeavors People are motivated to strive for hoped-for possible self and attempt to avoid feared possible self With age, the things on the list become fewer, more modest, and concrete May become time oriented (comparing what you have now and had planned; permits reaffirmation) May help with adjustment and self-esteem

Work

Work is central - peak in position, earnings, & efficiency

kin keeper

a family role, usually occupied by a woman, which includes responsibility for maintaining family and friendship relationships

Mid-life transition (40-45) Levinson

a psychological shift into middle adulthood theorized to occur between the ages of 40 and 45 as people begin to believe they have more to look back upon that to look forward to

Burnout

a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lowered performance and motivation. -Occurs in unsupportive work environments -big in helping professions -need sleep/work-life balance/time with family+friends to combat -depends on employer to create healthy environment

problem-focused coping

a type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor

emotion-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction

Masculinity/Femininity

becoming more androgynous- men become more nurturing, women more assertive

destruction-creation

becoming more aware of how we have acted towards others to correct it

Leading cause of death in middle adulthood

cancer first and then cardiovascular disease

Affects on creativity in middle adulthood?

creativity accomplishment tends to peak in the late thirties or early forties and then decline

Which type of intelligence increases with age? What type decreases with age?

crystalized; fluid

Affects on attention in middle adulthood?

declines in attention due to the slowdown of info processing, which limit that amount of info a person can attend to at once

presbyopia

farsightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring typically in middle and old age.

young-old

finding positive meaning in being older; men (health), women (body issues)

The Seattle Longitudinal Study (Schaie)

focused on stability in intelligence across 6 skills: - vocabulary - verbal memory - number skills - spatial orientation - inductive reasoning - perceptual speed

Glaucoma

increased intraocular pressure results in damage to the retina and optic nerve with loss of vision

Hormone therapy

low daily doses of estrogen, either alone or in combination with progesterone, aimed at reducing the physical discomforts of menopause Estrogen alone is more dangerous Both come with increased risk of cancers and cardiovascular issues + stroke

What are the sandwich generations?

middle aged parents findings balance between their returning children, and caring for their own parents

MIDUS study

midlife development in the US, studied adults aged 25-75, experience of mid age varies with things like health, gender, race/ethnicity, SES, culture, personality, marital and parental status, employment

climacteric

midlife transition in which fertility declines the term used to describe the adultperiod during which reproductivecapacity declines/is lost (ex.menopause in women)

Fluid Intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly (how you apply your crystallized intelligence); tends to decrease during late adulthood cross-sectionally but is more even across the lifespan according to longitudinal research

Crystallized Intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills "cold hard facts"; tends to increase with age

engagement-separation

resolving issues of work & family: women move towards career, men away

Well-Being

subjective well-being increases with age

Midlife Crisis

supposed phase of adulthood characterized by emotional distress about the aging process and an attempt to regain youth - the idea of a midlife crisis have been exaggerated - MIDUS study shows only 25% of people experience a midlife crisis (gender roles, family pressures, low income, and poverty in young adulthood may predict who will "experience a midlife crisis" - most people report a "turning point" (women earlier when having children; men later on with work)

What is Andropause?

testosterone production declines with age in men, possibility of impotence, quantity of semen diminishes after age 40

Affects on memory in middle adulthood?

the amount of info people can retain in working memory diminishes from the twenties through the sixties; this change is largely due to a decline in use of memory strategies on these tasks

menopause

the cessation of monthly menstrualcycles in middle-aged women

Generativity

the desire, in middle age, to use one's accumulated wisdom to guide future generations

What is Menopause?

the end of menstruation and reproductive capacity in women (occurs on average in the early fifties) and includes a drop in estrogen

What can occur during a males climacteric period?

the prostate gland can enlarge in 10% of males by age 40

Life Events Framework

the view that a person's state of well-being can be threatened by major life changes

What do people's reactions to midlife physical changes depend in part on?

their self-concept

How is vocational life still important during this time?

they are vital contexts for maintaining previously acquired skills and learning new ones; it is shown that those in their fifties and sixties gain as much as those in their twenties and thirties in their careers; also cognitive flexibility is responsive to vocational experience

When is menopause completed?

when a women has not had her period for an entire year (generally it lasts around 4 years)