Chapter 16
Which of the following statements about the empty nest syndrome is TRUE?
It involves a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the home.
Middle adulthood is referred to as the sandwich generation because:
middle-aged adults may have to care for their own adolescent children as well as their elderly parents.
According to Lachman, researchers have found that on average a sense of personal control peaks in _____ and then declines.
midlife
The researchers in the Mills College Study concluded that rather than being in a midlife crisis, the women were experiencing _____.
midlife consciousness
Matt and Sandra are not letting go of their children even though the children have become adults and are earning enough to live on their own. Matt and Sandra are engaging in _____.
permaparenting
The life-events approach to understanding adult development has been criticized because it:
placed too much emphasis on change.
Middle-aged Americans agree that a major component of their well-being involves:
positive relationships.
According to Levinson, by age 40, a man has:
reached a stable point in his career.
Cathy and Miguel have been dating for six months. Which of the following is likely to be LEAST important in their relationship considering that both are in early adulthood?
Loyalty
A common complaint voiced by both adult children and their parents when adult children return home is a(n):
loss of privacy.
When women experience stress, they are more likely to engage in:
a tend-and-befriend pattern.
The majority of sibling relationships in adulthood are _____.
close
Guillermo has taught his apprentices all the specialized techniques he has developed over the years as a carpenter. According to Erikson, he has achieved _____ generativity.
work
In a survey conducted by AARP (2004), _____ percent of the divorced women said they initiated the divorce compared with only _____ percent of the divorced men.
66; 41
_____ percent of the men Levinson interviewed found the midlife transition tumultuous and psychologically painful, as many aspects of their lives came into question.
70 to 80
Which of the following is NOT one of the main reasons that grandparents are thrust back into the "parenting" role they thought they had shed?
Filling the "empty nest"
According to Levinson, the transition to middle adulthood lasts about _____ years.
five
Most research studies indicate that the greatest change in personality traits occurs in:
early adulthood.
Middle-age partners are more likely to view their marriage as positive if they:
engage in mutual activities.
Stages of adulthood in the Gusii culture of Kenya are defined by:
events in a person's life.
From about the ages of 28 to 33, a man goes through a transition period in which he must face the more serious question of:
determining his goals.
Gerard and his sister were never close growing up. Now that they are adults, it is most likely that their relationship is _____.
distant
David and Tina have one grandson, Dillon. They see him almost every weekend and make it a point to go to a movie or a park with him. Both Dillon and his grandparents look forward to their time together. According to Neugarten and Weinstein, David and Tina have a(n) _____ style of being grandparents.
fun-seeking
Grandparents under 65 are more likely to display a _____ style.
fun-seeking
Which of the following is NOT one of the five big personality traits identified by Costa and McCrae?
Adaptability
According to the Big Five factors of personality, which of the following personality supertrait describes a person as either helpful or uncooperative?
Agreeableness
Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes an individual as either self-satisfied or self-pitying?
Neuroticism
Almost half of the grandchildren who move in with grandparents are raised by:
a single grandmother.
Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes a person as either disciplined or impulsive?
Conscientiousness
Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes whether an individual is fun-loving or somber.
Extraversion
Identify the term Erikson assigned to the seventh stage in his life-span theory.
Generativity versus stagnation
According to the Big Five factors of personality, which of the following personality supertrait describes whether an individual is either secure or insecure?
Neuroticism
Which of the following statements about intergenerational relations is true?
Similarity between parents and an adult child is most noticeable in religion and politics.
Mr. Chang works at a boring but tense job. Stress from his job keeps him up late on most nights. Mr. Chang is experiencing the stress of:
a daily hassle.
In a survey conducted by AARP (2004), divorced adults reported that they had generally stayed in their marriages and postponed their divorces because of:
their children.
Identify the supertrait that encompasses traits such as soft-hearted, trusting, and helpful, according to the Big Five factors of personality.
Agreeableness
Which of the following is one of the ten most frequent daily hassles for adults in middle age?
Concerns about weight
Identify the Big Five personality factor that classifies a person as either organized or disorganized.
Conscientiousness
Which of the following is the conclusion of the study conducted by Costa and McCrae on approximately 1,000 college-educated men and women aged 20 to 96?
Considerable stability occurs in the five personality factors.
Diana is fun-loving, sociable, and affectionate with all her friends and acquaintances. Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes this aspect of Diana's personality.
Extraversion
Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes whether a person is sociable or retiring?
Extraversion
Which of the following is one of the Big Five factors of personality?
Extraversion
Which of the following statement is true about George Vaillant's longitudinal studies of adulthood and aging?
Factors such as having good coping skills and being thankful were linked with 'happy-well' category.
Identify the main reason the middle-aged and older men cited for their divorce.
Falling out of love
Which of the following statements is true about Erikson's stage of generativity versus stagnation?
Generative adults develop a positive legacy of the self and then offer it as a gift to the next generation.
According to Erik Erikson, identify the term that refers to an adult's desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation.
Generativity
_____ encompasses adults' desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation.
Generativity
Identify the seventh stage of Erikson's life span theory.
Generativity versus stagnation
What did Levinson's research conclude about women in midlife transition?
Levinson reported that his stages, transitions, and the crisis of middle age hold for women as well as men.
Which of the following is true of middle-aged and older adults who had poor sibling relationships in childhood?
Men were more likely to develop depression by age 50.
According to the researchers in the Mills College Study, rather than being in a midlife crisis, identify what the women were experiencing.
Midlife consciousness
In the context of gender, which of the following statements about the midlife period?
Midlife is a diversified, heterogeneous period for women.
According to research by Rossi, which of the following were found to have the closest relationships during their adult years?
Mothers and daughters
Karen Fingerman studied the relationship between mothers and their adult daughters. Which of the following was NOT one of her findings?
Mothers were less invested in the relationships than the daughters.
Which of the following supertraits deals with emotional stability and describes an individual as being calm or anxious?
Neuroticism
In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, which of the following characteristics generally changed the most across time for an adult?
Nurturance or hostility
Which of the following acts as the focus of stage theories trying to explain midlife?
Universals of adult personality development
Which of the following is a major difference between Levinson's and Valliant's view on midlife?
Unlike Levinson, Valliant maintains that only a minority of adults experience midlife as a crisis.
According to the Almeida and Horn study, which of the following is the difference in the experience of stressors between young adults and middle-aged adults?
Unlike young adults, middle-aged adults experienced more "overload" stressors.
George Vaillant concludes that _____ is a time for detecting parental flaws and discovering the truth about childhood.
adolescence
Vaillant's research showed that at age 50, the best predictors of who would be dead at 75 to 80 years of age were:
alcohol abuse and smoking.
Factors at age 50 that were linked with being in the "happy-well" group at age 75 to 80 years of age included all of the following EXCEPT:
being wealthy.
Abdiel has had three children, according to Erikson, he has achieved:
biological generativity.
Becky is careless, impulsive, and disorganized. According to the Big Five personality factors, Becky is most likely to score low on _____.
conscientiousness
The _____ model of personality development states that with time and age people become more adept at interacting with their environment in ways that promote increased stability in personality.
cumulative personality
Joan has three grandchildren whom she loves dearly but she sees infrequently. Neugarten and Weinstein would classify Joan's grandparent style as _____.
distant
George Vaillant concludes that the _____ are a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about the adolescent and adulthood years.
forties
Saeko has committed herself to the continuation and improvement of society as a whole through her connection and relationship with their children and grandchildren. According to Erikson, she is _____.
generative
Erikson proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue which he termed _____.
generativity versus stagnation
Sandra's mother is concerned about Sandra's lack of interest in marrying and having children. She told Sandra, "When I was your age, I had already found a good husband and settled down." Sandra and her mother:
have different social clocks.
Karen, aged 21, is a senior in college but her mother calls her five or six times a day to "check in" and to ask Karen what she is doing, what she had for lunch, and so on. This type of parenting has been called _____ parenting.
helicopter
Lorenzo was born during the depression era in the U.S. Now he and others who were born at about the same time show greater cognitive decline than people born at later times. This illustrates that cohort effects are differences based on:
historical contexts.
According to the Mitchell and Helson study, conditions that distinguished the lives of women in their early fifties from those of women in other age periods included all of the following EXCEPT:
lower health.
Levinson sees the twenties as a(n) _____ phase of adult development.
novice
According to Lachman, researchers have found that in _____ of the cases in which individuals have reported going through a midlife crisis, the "crisis is triggered by life events such as a job loss, financial problems, or illness."
one-third
A meta-analysis conducted by Zhao, Seibert, and Lumpkin in 2010 revealed that _____ was linked to pursuing entrepreneurial goals such as starting a new business, and to success in those pursuits.
openness
A study by Sharp and others revealed that _____ was related to superior cognitive functioning and IQ across the life span.
openness
Jacqueline nurtures and guides her children. According to Erikson, she has achieved _____ generativity.
parental
Three prominent meanings are attached to being a grandparent. Which of the following is NOT one of those meanings?
A financial strain
According to Levinson, which of the following should occur at the end of one's teens?
A transition from dependence to independence
According to Levinson, the changes to middle-adulthood requires that the adult male come to grips with four major conflicts. Which of the following is NOT one of these major conflicts?
Being attractive versus being unattractive
Identify the term that is applied to young adults who return to their parents' homes to live.
Boomerang kids/Back-to-bedroom
Which theory is similar to the contemporary life-events approach in highlighting the importance of complex setting of people's lives?
Bronfenbrenner's theory
Identify the major task that must be mastered in early adulthood, according to Levinson.
Developing a stable life structure
Identify the term that refers to a decrease in marital satisfaction after children leave home, because parents derive considerable satisfaction from their children.
Empty nest syndrome
Identify the theorist who proposed that middle-aged adults faced the significant issue of generativity versus stagnation.
Erik Erikson
According to Levinson, which of the following is a major task that needs to be mastered in early adulthood?
Exploring the possibilities for adult living
Identify the theorist who conducted the "Grant Study" and suggested that only a minority of adults experience a midlife crisis.
George Vaillant
Which of the following statements is true about cultural contexts of adulthood?
In many cultures, especially nonindustrialized cultures, the concept of middle age is not very clear, or in some cases is absent.
According to research on intergenerational relationships, in which of the following ways is an adult child most likely to be similar to his or her parents?
In politics
Which of the following is a significant observation by Neugarten regarding social clocks?
Individuals whose lives are synchronized with the social clocks are less stressed.
Which of the following statements about sibling relationships is true?
It is rare for sibling closeness to develop for the first time in adulthood.
Across a 10-year period, which of the following Big Five personality factors did NOT predict health outcomes involving physical health, blood pressure, and number of days limited at work or home due to physical health factors?
Openness
Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes whether a person is independent or conforming.
Openness to experience
Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes whether an individual is imaginative or practical?
Openness to experience
Identify the theorists that studied adult personality by examining stability and change in the Big Five factors of personality.
Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
What are the two major forms of love?
Romantic and affectionate
Don and Ellie have been married for over 30 years. Which of the following is likely to be MOST important in their relationship?
Security
In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, which of the following characteristics was generally stable across time for an adult?
Self-confidence
Which of the following aspects of life do middle-aged adults feel they have less control over?
Sex life
Identify the term that refers to the timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life's tasks, such as getting married, having children, or establishing oneself in a career.
Social clock
_____ develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the next generation.
Stagnation
Which of the following statements is true about the stage theories of adult development?
The adult stage theories have also placed little importance on childbearing and child rearing.
Which of the following statements regarding grandparents providing full-time care for their grandchildren is NOT true?
The majority of grandparents who move in with their children and grandchildren are in poverty.
Which of the following is a shortcoming of stage theories of adult development?
They do not adequately address individual variations in adult development.
What is John Clausen's (one of the researchers in the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies) criticism about the adult stage theories?
Too much attention has been given to the discontinuities in life.
Which of the following is a factor that could undermine the influence of increases in longevity on the nature of grandparenting?
Trend in delaying childbearing
Which of the following is NOT one of the groups distinguished by Helson and her colleagues in the Mills College Study?
Women who were single mothers and had aged, dependent parents.
According to research by Donnellan, Larsen-Rife, and Conger, individuals high on _____ were more likely to have satisfying romantic relationships.
agreeableness
Middle-aged adults feel they have less control over their:
children.
A recent study by Specht, Egloff, and Schukle found that _____ showed a continuous increase from early adulthood to late adulthood.
conscientiousness
The _____ life-events approach emphasized the manner in which life events that influence an individual's development depends not only on these events but also on mediating factors.
contemporary
Daniel Levinson's studies suggest that most adults feel that middle age is a time of:
crisis.
It is common in nonindustrialized societies to:
describe individuals as young or old but not as middle-aged.
According to Helson's Mills College Study, women who did not commit themselves to one of the lifestyle patterns (family-oriented, career-oriented, and those who followed neither path):
faced fewer challenges and did not develop as fully as the other women.
In a survey conducted by AARP (2004), the primary reason middle-aged and older men cited for wanting a divorce was:
falling out of love.
When men face stress, they are more likely to respond in a:
fight-or-flight manner.
Jasper's grandparents show a strong interest in all their grandchildren but are careful not to give child-rearing advice. They are using the _____ style of grandparenting.
formal
According to Levinson, the transition from dependence to independence is marked by the:
formation of a dream.
According to George Vaillant's longitudinal studies, _____ in middle age was more strongly related than intimacy to whether individuals would have an enduring and happy marriage at 75 to 80 years of age.
generativity
In a longitudinal study of Smith College women, the desire for _____ increased as the participants aged from their thirties to their fifties.
generativity
Cohorts refer to:
groups of individuals born in the same year or time period.
Adult development experts are virtually unanimous in their belief that midlife crises:
have been exaggerated.
In Erik Erikson's theory, adults strive for generativity to achieve a sense of _____.
immortality
According to the contemporary life-events approach, the influence of life events also depends on all of the following factors EXCEPT the _____.
individual's cognitive capacity
Critics of the daily hassles approach argue that:
it does not tell how individuals perceive or cope with hassles.
As per the study conducted by Sakraida in 2005, it was found that women who initiated a divorce in midlife were characterized by _____ than were women whose husbands initiated the divorce.
more self-focused growth and optimism
The timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life's tasks, such as getting married, having children, or establishing themselves in a career is known as the _____.
social clock
As he looks back at life, Chris realizes that his work was not as important to him as he believed, and that he lost too much valuable time with his children. If he could do it over again, he would work less and spend more time with his children. According to Erikson, Chris is experiencing some degree of _____.
stagnation
According to Levinson, the _____ rests on how effectively an individual reduces the polarities and accepts each of them as an integral part of his or her being.
success of the midlife transition
Angelo and his wife just had their last child move out of the house. He and his wife had lived vicariously through their children, letting their sports activities and various achievements dominate their lives. Now they may experience _____, which includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the home.
the empty nest syndrome
Trevor and Michelle's last child has just left home to attend college. According to a research conducted by Gorchoff, John, and Helson in 2008, this will most likely be a time when:
they will have increased marital satisfaction.
In a survey conducted by AARP (2004), the primary reason middle-aged and older women cited for wanting a divorce was:
verbal, physical, or emotional abuse.
When men use fight-or-flight manner to respond to stress, they are most likely to:
withdraw from social contact.
Children who leave college and return to live home with their parents are on the cusp of _____.
young adulthood
