Adulthood

1
Adulthoods Ages and Stages
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Objective 11-5 Explain why the path of adult
development need not be tightly linked to ones
chronological age
3

• Midlife Transition a crisis or time of great
  struggle, regret, or of feeling struck down by
  life.
• Popular image 40-yr. old man who forsakes his
  family for a younger girlfriend and sports car
• Unhappiness, job dissatisfaction, marital
  dissatisfaction, divorce, anxiety, and suicide do
  not surge during early forties
• Social Clock the cultural prescription of the
  right time to leave home, get a job, get
  married, have children, and retire that varies
  from culture to culture and era to era.
• Rigid structure of women in western society has
  loosened.

4

• Life events mark transitions to new life stages,
  and occur at unpredictable ages.
• Marriage
• Parenthood
• Vocational Changes
• Divorce
• Nest Emptying
• Relocation
• Retirement
• People feel freer about being out of sync with
  their social clocks
• Repeated exposure to someone after childhood may
  lead to a bond (infatuation) with any available
  person who
• Has a roughly similar background
• Similar level of attractiveness
• Reciprocates your affections