MIDDLE ADULTHOOD: Emotional and social development

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Chapter 16

• MIDDLE ADULTHOOD Emotional and social
  development

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Theories of Self in Transition

• Maturity and Self-Concept
• 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.

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Stage Models

• Generativity versus stagnation (Erikson)
• The concern in establishing and guiding the next
  generation.

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Peck

• Robert Pecks 4 tasks at midlife
• Valuing wisdom versus valuing physical powers
• Socializing vs. sexualizing
• Cathectic flexibility v cathectic impoverishment
• Mental flexibility v mental rigidity

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Trait Models

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

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Situational Models

• Behavior as the outcome of the characteristics of
  the situation in which the person is momentarily
  located.

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Interactionist Models

• Behavior is always a joint product of the person
  and the situation.

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Gender and Personality at Midlife

• Levinsons Theory of Male Midlife Development
• Midlife transition (40-45)
• Entry life structure for middle adulthood (45-50)
• Age 50 transition(50-55)
• Culminating life structure for middle adulthood
  (55-60)
• Late adult transition (60-65)

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Levinsons Theory of Womens Midlife Development

• Primarily Homemakers
• Women center lives in domestic sphere
• Traditional Marriage
• The women are homemakers and the men are
  provisioners
• Single Successful Career Woman
• Afraid of single stigma

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Women

• Midlife Transition Career Woman
• Compromise of work and family

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Women

• Ravenna Helson and the Mills Longitudinal Study
  Subjects at Midlife
• Women Turmoil in 40s, stability by 52
• Men greatest productivity after 50
• Homemaker women adjustments with empty nest.
• Blue collar workers both genders time of decline

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Women

• Continuity and Discontinuity in Gender
  Characteristics
• Men and women move in opposite directions across
  the life span with respect to assertive and
  aggressiveness.
• Unisex pattern emerges in later life.

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Personality

• Personality Continuity and Discontinuity
• Sandwich generation responsibilities for aging
  parents and minor children bridge across
  generations.

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The Social Milieu

• Familial Relations
• Married Couples
• (Lauer and Lauer) Successful couples
• Positive attitude toward ones spouse
• Marriage is a long-term commitment and a sacred
  institution.

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Extramarital Sexual Relations

• Sex not the lure for EMS.
• Loneliness, emotional excitement, and wanting to
  prove still young.

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Separation and Divorce

• College-educated wives less risk
• Married young higher risk
• Longer a marriage survives less risk
• Larger family, own home less risk
• Wifes economic independence higher risk
• Empty nest transition impacts marital stability

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Life as a Single

• 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.

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Remarriage

• 6 of every 10 divorced men remarry.
• 3 of every 4 divorced women remarry.
• Men more likely to remarry larger pool

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Stepfamilies

• 60 of remarrieds are parents.
• More than one-third of children will live in
  stepfamily before they are 18.
• The more complex the social system the greater
  opportunity for conflict.
• Opportunity for positive adaptation.

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Adult Children and Grandchildren

• Empty nest period of life when children have
  grown up and leave home.
• 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.

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Caring for Elderly Parents

• Daughters and daughters-in-law face most
  pressures.
• Best scenario financially independent
  generations with separate residences.

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Friendships

• 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.

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The Workplace

• Job Satisfaction
• Alienation a pervasive sense of powerlessnes,
  meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation and
  self-estrangement.

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Job Burnout

• The inability to gain a sense of
  self-actualization in their work.
• Older people more satisfied with jobs than
  younger people.

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Midlife Career Change

• Half of Americans polled had switched jobs at
  least once and 43 said a future switch was
  likely.

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Unemployment and Forced Early Retirement

• Unemployment has adverse effects on physical and
  mental health
• Stages of behavioral and emotional reactions to
  unemployment
• Shock, relief, relaxation
• Concerted effort to find new job
• Self-esteem begins to crumble
• Resignation and withdrawal conscious decision to
  change careers

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Dual-Earner Couples

• 61 of married couples are dual earners.