Chapter 16: Emotional and Social Development in Middle Adulthood

Displaced Homemaker

- a woman whose primary activity has been homemaking and who has lost her main source of income because of divorce from or death of husband. -trauma greatest for older women, who have been married longer with two or more children, whose husband initiated divorce and who still have positive feeling for their husband or want to punish them.

Married couples

-71% of middle aged are married -sex less, but better -women still doing most of housework -men still liked power and dominance -women need "me" time

Jungs Stages: Middle Adulthood

-A change in principles or convictions. As a person approaches 50, the sacred principles and convictions established in the first half of life begin to be questioned. -Some cling even more and become rigid and inflexible. It is as if they believed that hanging on to their cherished beliefs would make them believe them again. -Others search for a new meaning in life and begin to realize that the second half of life is not to be lived as the first half.

Developmental Tasks of Middle Adulthood

-The RE- years -developmental tasks of midlife have been identified: 1.) Adjusting to the physical changes of middle 2.) Finding satisfaction and success in ones occupational career. 3.) Assuming adult social and civic responsibility. 4.) Launching children into responsible, happy adulthood. 5.)Revitalizing marriage 6.)Reorienting oneself to aging parents 7.)Realigning sex roles 8.)Developing social networks and leisure-time activities 9.)Finding new meanings in life

Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation

-The most obvious example: parenting. Adults need children as much as children need adults and that this stage reflects the innate need to create a living legacy. -Other generative activities: teaching, mentoring, writing, social activism, producing music or anything that satisfies the need to be needed.

The Sandwich Generation

-Traditional: those sandwiched between aging parents who need care and their own children -Club sandwich: those in their 50s or 60s, sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren or those in their 30s and 40s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents

Generativity

-ability to look outside oneself and care for others; a concern for the next generations. An extension of love into the future- mature and unselfish. During stage 6 intimacy had to be reciprocated. -Generativity is a love that is greater than that; it is a love that is given regardless of whether it is reciprocated.

Situational Models

-behavior as the outcome of the characteristic of the situation in which the person is momentarily located. -we are motivated to believe that the world around us is orderly and patterned because we want predictability.

Interactionist Models

-behavior is always a joint product of the person and the situation.

Caring for Elderly Parents

-daughters and daughters-in-law face most pressures -best scenario: financially independent generations with separate residences

Friendship

-friendships play a vital part in happiness and health -women in midlife have more friends -men have more acquaintances -women maintain family contacts, and friendships take up where marriages leave off.

Workplace

-job satisfaction is associated with the opportunity to exercise discretion, accept challenges and make decisions. -people thrive on occupational challenges, but suffer alienation or job burnout when their work is not fulfilling. -many people switch careers in midlife when they reassess where they are doing, what they are doing.

Theories of Self in Transition

-maturity: capacity to undergo continual change in order to adapt successfully and cope flexibly with the demands and responsibilities of life. -self-concept: the view we have of ourselves through time as "the real me".

Remarriage

-most divorced people eventually remarry -5/6 men remarry -3/4 women remarry

Jung's Stages: Middle Adulthood

-over time, men became more feminine and women more masculine in their approach to life. -This can often be seen in grandfathers who were strict with their own children, but are loving, nurturing, and gentle with their grandchildren. -Women who took the feminine role and raised a family often embark on an aggressive career during the second half of life. -May be due to a woman's lowered levels of estrogen and progesterone and increased influence of testosterone.

Midlife Careers

-people may be less concerned about making money, more concerned about finding meaning in their work. -or they may resign themselves to their job but look for meaning in their activities.

Successful couples

-positive attitude toward one's spouse -marriage is a long-term commitment and a sacred institiution

Single after Divorce

-returning to single life is a very difficult experience -divorce often enacts greater emotional and physical toll than any other life stressor, including the death of a spouse -higher rate of: psychological problems, accidental death, death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, pneumonia, and cirrhosis of liver (as compared to married, never married, and widowed).

Extramarital Relations

-sex not the lure for EMS -loneliness, emotional excitement, and wanting to prove "still young" -forces within the individual that pull them toward affairs: attraction (sex, companionship, admiration, power), novelty, excitement, risk, challenge, curiosity, enhanced self-image, falling in love -forces within the individual that push them toward affairs: desire to escape or find relief from a painful relationship, boredom, desire to fill gaps in an existing relationship, desire to punish ones partner, need to prove ones attractiveness or worth, desire for attention

Jungs Stages: Middle Adulthood Stage 4: The Middle of Life or the Second Half of life

-usually, somewhere between the ages of 35 and 40 a person reaches the middle of life and begins to live in what Jung termed the second half of life. -The second half of life is characterized by several changes. -The need to focus attention on the inner meaning of life -Jung indicates that the second half of life cannot be lived like the first. In the first half of life, acquisition was important. During the second part of life, reflection and one's inner, spiritual journey must be developed

Pecks 4 tasks at midlife

1.) Valuing wisdom versus valuing physical powers 2.) Socializing vs. Sexualizing 3.) Emotional flexibility vs. emotional impoverishment 4.) Mental flexibility vs. Mental rigidity

Female caregivers who are employed typically devote ______ hours per week to caring for a disabled aging parent

10 to 20

Self-acceptance, Autonomy, Environmental Mastery

3 qualities increased from early to middle adulthood and then leveled off

Which of the following is true about generativity?

A cultures belief in the species is a major motivator of generative action, according to Erikson.

Which possible self is the most likely to be desired by a middle-aged adult?

A person who is a good spouse and parent.

Young - old Destruction - creation Masculinity - femininity Engagement - separateness

According to Levinson, middle-aged adults must confront 4 developmental tasks, each requiring them to reconcile 2 opposing tendencies and attain greater internal harmony

parental imperative theory

After children reach adulthood, parents are free to express the "other-gender" side of their personalities, leading to the androgyny shift in mid-life A biological explanation for greater androgyny in midlife

Personality Trait Changes through Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies

Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase from the teens through middle age Neuroticism declines Extroversion and openness to experience are stable or may decrease slightly These changes reflect "settling down" and greater maturity

Trait Models

Behavioral traits that constitute the core of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Family ties protect against serious threats and losses, offering security within a long-term timeframe Friendships serve as current sources of pleasure and satisfaction, with women benefiting somewhat more than men

By midlife, family relationships and friendships support different aspects of psychological well-being

Generatively vs. Stagnation

Erikson's psychological conflict of midlife

Feminization of Poverty

For many women, marital breakup severely reduces standard of living and is a strong contributor to

Ginger, a female middle manager, and Geoffrey, a male middle manager, are both promoted to comparable positions. Which of the following can you predict?

Ginger probably has earned higher performance ratings than Geoffrey.

Jungs Stages: Middle Adulthood

Gutmann: later in life people begin to use androgynous responses, associated with increased flexibility and adaptability, not restricted to feminine or masculine characteristics.

Men's, Women's

Having children seems to foster ______ generative development more than _______

Which of the following is true about generativity and having children?

Having children seems to foster mens generative development more than womens.

Extroversion

High: Affectionate, talkative, active, fun-loving, and passionate Low: Reserved, quiet, passive, sober, and emotionally unreactive

Conscientiousness

High: Conscientious, hard-working, well-organized, punctual, ambitious, and persevering Low: Negligent, lazy, disorganized, late, aimless, and nonpersistent

Oppeness to Experience

High: Imaginative, creative, original, curious, and liberal Low: Down-to-earth, uncreative, conventional, uncurious, and conservative

Agreeablness

High: Soft-hearted, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, and good-natured Low: Ruthless, suspicious, stingy, antagonistic, critical, and irritable

Neuroticism

High: Worrying, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable Low: Calm, even-tempered, self-content, comfortable, unemotional, and hardy

More probably because their more comfortable economic circumstances make it easier to do so

Highly educated middle-aged adults are _______ likely to divorce

daughters, sons

In all ethnic groups, responsibility for providing care to aging parents falls more on ________ than on ________

whether they had children

In longitudinal research, college-educated women in the labor force became more independent by their early 40s regardless of

Which of the following adults probably has a sense of stagnation?

Jill, who takes little interest in her grown children.

Which of the following people probably provides more direct care and financial support than the others?

Johnna, a middle-income African American

Levinson's view on mid-life crisis

Levinson reported that most people in his samples experienced substantial inner turmoil during the transition to middle adulthood

_________ is common in middle adulthood.

Life evaluation

most enter new relationships and remarry within a short time

Little is known about long-term adjustment following divorce among middle-aged men, perhaps because

As people approach the end of middle adulthood, they focus on _________ goals.

Longer-term, less

Mid-Life Development in the United States

MIDUS

Androgyny Shift

Many studies report an increase in "masculine" traits in women and "feminine" traits in men across middle age, in diverse cultures and varying SES

Which grandparent is the most likely to report frequent visits with grandchildren?

Marion, a maternal grandmother

SIDE CHICKS LMAO

Men who initiate a split often already have another romantic involvement to turn to

Complex, Integrated

Middle aged adults tend to offer more ___________, ___________ descriptions of themselves (i.e., self-concept) than do younger and older individuals

more easily

Midlifers seem to adapt __________ to divorce than younger people

Stagnation

Negative outcome of midlife which occurs when people attain certain life goals such as marriage, children, and career success, but remain unsatisfied and become self-centered and self-indulgent

Probably because people become less willing to invest in non-family ties unless they are very rewarding

Nevertheless, for both sexes, number of friends declines with age

In midlife what you'll see is parents stop supporting middle age kids and middle age kids take care of their parents

Over the years, parent-to-child assistance declines, while child-to-parent aid increases

Unemployment and Forced Retirement

Painful experience, adverse effects on physical and mental health. Reaction in stages: 1. Sequence of shock, relief and relaxation 2.Concerted effort to find a new job. 3.Self-esteem begins to crumble, experience high level of self-doubt and anxiety. 4. resignation and withdrawal. -long term unemployment causes a family life to deteriorate.

Mental Health Problems

People who do not integrate the masculine and feminine sides of their personalities tend to have

viewing spouse as a bestfriend :)

Research indicates that ___________ contributes greatly to marital happiness

did not support the idea of a mid-life crisis

Results of the MIDUS study...

Separation and Divorce

Risk factors: low education level, married young, married recently, small family, rents home, wives economic independence, empty nest transition (impacts marital stability)

honest/humility (h factor)

SIXTH DIMENSION OF PERSONALITY High: Don't care about material objects, down to earth, etc Low: egocentric and care about material objects

And with fewer close friendships, middle-aged adults try harder to get along with friends

Selectivity of friendships also increases with age

decline

Sibling contact and support ________ from early to middle adulthood

neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

The "big five" personality traits

Stagnation

The exact opposite. It is caring for no-one and being self-absorbed.

Which of the following is true about middle-aged children and aging parents who core side

The greatest source of stress is problem behavior, especially for caregivers of parents who have deteriorated mentally.

Which of the following is true about possible selves?

They may be the key to continued well-being in adulthood.

Which of the following is true about grandparents who take full responsibility for raising grandchildren?

They often experience considerable emotional and financial strain.

Which of the following is true about people who flexibly modify their identities in response to age-related changes?

They score higher in self-esteem.

Vaillant's view on mid-life crisis

Vaillant found slow and steady change, with few examples of "crisis"

Which of the following is true about the midlife crisis?

Vaillants work indicated a slow and steady change, rather than a crisis.

Meanings/Roles of Grandparenthood

Valued Elder, Immortality through descendants, Reinvolvement with personal past, Indulgence

Which of these employees is most likely to encounter a glass ceiling?

Virginia, an African-American woman

fewer

With age, possible selves become ________ in number and more modest and concrete

and those who do fare somewhat better in psychological well-being

Women are more likely than men to initiate divorce

role overload, family network, and child-related stressors

Women report more frequent stressors with

Which of these factors can prompt parental strain as children depart from the home?

a child who is off-time in development

Empty-Nest Syndrome

a parent who has found her or his meaning in life primarily in the children often experiences a profound sense of loss when children are gone. -adjustment is gradual

Cross-cultural research on the big five personality traits has led researchers to conclude that

adult personality change is genetically influenced.

Sue is soft-hearted, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, and good-natured. She is high on which of these big five personality traits?

agreeableness

Raven is less concerned about others expectations than she was in her thirties. She is now more concerned with following her own standards. Raven exhibits

autonomy.

Because Thomas is highly generative, he is also likely to

be open-minded about differing viewpoints

Reinvolvement with personal past

being able to pass family history and values to a new generation

Valued Elder

being perceived as a wise helpful person

Gregor, an adolescent, can be characterized by the big five personality trait of conscientiousness. Gregor

can anticipate that this trait will increase through middle age.

role overload

conflict among employment, spouse, parent, and elder-care roles (more common in women)

Alan is hardworking, well-organized, punctual, ambitious, and persevering. He is high on which of these big five personality traits?

conscientiousness

In early adulthood, Angelina grew distant from her father. Now that she is approaching midlife, Angelina has started making an effort to repair the relationship. According to Levinson, Angelina is engaged in which developmental task?

destructioncreation

Womens work-related turning points peak in

early adulthood.

Kim devoted her early adulthood to raising her daughter. When Kim turned 45, she became active in community theater, which had been a passion in adolescence. She also volunteered in the community. According to Levinson, Kim is engaged in which developmental task?

engagement-separateness

Compared with grandchildren in intact families, grandchildren in single-parent and stepparent families report

engaging in more diverse, higher-quality grandparent - activities.

Bruce knows that he is able to manage a complicated array of tasks easily and effectively, which is what makes him such a good administrator. Bruce displays

environmental mastery.

Alex is reserved, quiet, passive, sober, and emotionally unreactive. He is low on which of these big five personality traits?

extroversion

Large companies spend less money on formal training programs for their ________ employees.

female

Lack of interest in young people

focus on what they can get from others rather than what they can give, and taking little interest in being productive at work, developing their talents, or bettering the world in other ways (includes their own children)

Possible Selves

future-oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one fears becoming

kinkeepers

gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch

Women who quit work in order to take care of aging parents

generally fare poorly due to social isolation and financial strain.

A(n) _________ adult combines the need for self-expression with the need for communion, integrating personal goals with the welfare of the larger social world.

generative

Jennifer, age 45, is a Girl Scout leader. She states that she really enjoys giving to and guiding the next generation. According to Erikson, Jennifer has developed a sense of

generativity.

Annette was successful throughout her career as an insurance underwriter. She received excellent job reviews and won two awards for service to the company. However, her third application for a promotion to supervisor was just rejected. Annette seems to have encountered

glass ceiling

Middle-aged adults who come to terms with life disappointments report

greater life satisfaction.

Stepfamilies

half of remarried people are parents and their new partners become stepparents -many stepparents feel stigmatized. -boys particularly benefit when mothers remarry -children see many negative images of stepparents and stepsiblings

The majority of adults who report experiencing a midlife crisis

have a much looser definition of midlife crisis than that of researchers.

Indulgence

having fun with children without major child-rearing responsibilities

temporal comparisons

how well we are doing in relation to what we had planned (i.e., did I achieve the possible self I wanted and avoid the possible self I feared)

Generativity

involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and guide the next generation

After all five of her children struck out on their own, Naomi made sure everyone stayed in touch by creating a family blog. She also took charge of gathering the family for celebrations. Naomi is her families

kinkeeper.

One way adults with a sense of stagnation express their self-absorption is through

lack of interest in young people.

Immortality through Descendants

leaving behind not just one but two generations after death

Maureen, an attorney, went to law school to become a child advocate. Instead, she accepted a high-paying job at a corporation and was a partner by age 45. When looking back on the last two decades of her life, she wishes she had made different career choices. Maureen is experiencing

life regrets.

Marcus, age 53, is spending a lot of time caring for his young grandson. His subordinates at work have noticed that he has become a kinder, more compassionate boss. According to Levinson, Marcus is engaged in which developmental task?

masculinity-femininity

work-related stresors

men report more stressors with

Autonomy

middle-aged adults saw themselves as less concerned about others' expectations and evaluations and more concerned with following self-chosen standards

Environmental Mastery

middle-aged people saw themselves as capable of managing a complex array of tasks easily and effectively

With age, possible selves become

more concrete.

Compared with Caucasians, African Americans

more often engage in certain types of generativity, such as involvement in religious groups.

Self-acceptance

more than young adults, middle-aged people acknowledged and accepted both their good and bad qualities and felt positively about themselves and life

Denyse is calm, even-tempered, self-content, comfortable, unemotional, and hardy. She is low on which of these big five personality traits?

neuroticism

Cynthia is imaginative, creative, original, curious, and liberal. She is high on which of these big five personality traits?

openness to experience

Empty Nest

period of life when children have grown up and leave home

Faith, age 46, tells her sister that she hopes to get a promotion at work and become a grandmother in the next 10 years. She says she is afraid of growing old alone, and plans to move in with an old friend if she does not find a partner before she is 65. Faith is discussing her

possible selves.

Sandwich generation (middle generation squeeze)

refers to the idea that middle-aged adults must care for multiple generations above and below them at the same time

In midlife, Janine, a successful dentist with a busy practice, is most likely to - scale back on her career and attend more to herself.

scale back on her career and attend more to herself.

Cate, age 49, acknowledges both her good and bad qualities and feels positively about herself and life. Cate exhibits

self-acceptance.

Mid-Life Crisis

self-doubt and stress especially great during the 40s that possibly prompt major restructuring of personality

The negative outcome of Eriksons midlife stage, stagnation, focuses on

self-indulgence.

Missy lives with her maternal grandparents, apart from her father and mother. Missy is growing up in a _________ family

skipped-generation

As people age, they may rely less on ________ comparisons in judging their self-worth and more on __________ comparisons.

social; temporal

OT Intervention for Midlife

stroke, heart attack, accidents, ms, ale, at risk for heart attack, high blood pressure

The most common reason that grandparents step in to raise grandchildren is parental

substance-abuse issues.

Possible selves are the __________ dimension of self-concept.

temporal

In many Mexican- and Chinese-American households, the maternal grandmother is

the preferred caregiver for young grandchildren

Jay, age 50, is finally comfortable with himself. He is more independent, assertive, and committed to his personal values than he was in early adulthood. Jay probably believes that midlife is

the prime of life.

temporal dimension

the self as persisting over time

living nearby

the strongest predictor of frequent, face-to-face interaction with young grandchildren

Destruction - Creation

they must counter destructive acts from the past with an urge to advance human welfare and leave a legacy for future generations With greater awareness of mortality, they focus on ways they have acted destructively and how others have done the same, they then turn to activities that will foster human welfare

Engagement - Seperatness

they must create a balance between engagement with the external world and separateness from it This may mean reducing concern with ambition and achievement and attending more fully to the self But women who have been devoted to child rearing or an unfulfilling job often feel compelled to move in the other direction

Masculinity - Femininity

they must reconcile the masculine and feminine parts of the self For men, this means greater acceptance of "feminine" traits of nurturance and caring For women, it means being more open to "masculine" characteristics of autonomy and assertiveness

Young - Old

they must seek new ways of being both young and old This means giving up certain youthful qualities, retaining and transforming others, and finding positive meaning in being older Compared with previous midlife cohorts, baby boomers are especially interested in controlling physical changes of aging

According to Levinson, middle adulthood begins with a

transitional period.

In his mid-forties, Edgar felt enormous turmoil, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness with his life. He decided to quit his job, leave his family, and start a new life on a communal farm in Colorado. Research on midlife crisis indicates that Edgar is

unlike the average middle-aged adult.

Parents who were __________ in _________ are more likely to experience contact and closeness with their child in early adulthood

warm and supportive; middle childhood

Vaillant's Longitudinal Research

well-educated men and women followed participants past age 50. The most successful and best adjusted entered a calmer, quieter time of life.

Most middle-aged adults asked to describe turning points in the past five years report ones concerning

work.

More Italian young adults reside with their parents until marriage than in other Western nations because parents believe that moving out without a justified reason signifies that something is

wrong in the family.

Betty just celebrated her fiftieth birthday. She celebrated by taking hang-gliding lessons and purchasing a more mature wardrobe. According to Levinson, Betty is engaged in which developmental task?

youngold