3: Changes in social ecology across adulthood

Question 1

Career mystique

Answer 1

Phyllis Moen (2009a) recently described the career mystique , ingrained cultural beliefs that engaging in hard work for long hours through adulthood will produce a path to status, security, and happiness. That is, many individuals have an ideal concept of a career path toward achieving the American dream of upward mobility through occupational ladders. However, the lockstep career mystique has never been a reality for many individuals, especially ethnic minority individuals, women, and poorly educated adults.

Question 2

The impact of work

Answer 2

Work defi nes people in fundamental ways (Blustein, 2008). It is an important infl uence on their fi nancial standing, housing, the way they spend their time, where they live, their friendships, and their health (Hodson, 2009). Some people defi ne their identity through their work. Work also creates a structure and rhythm to life that is often missed when individuals do not work for an extended period. When unable to work, many individuals experience emotional dis-tress and low self-esteem.

Most individuals spend about one-third of their lives at work.

Question 3

Unemployment

Answer 3

Unemployment produces stress regardless of whether the job loss is temporary, cyclical, or permanent. Researchers have found that unemployment is related to physical problems (such as heart attack and stroke), mental problems (such as depression and anxiety), marital diffi culties, and homicide. A 15-year longitudinal study of more than 24,000 adults found that life satisfaction dropped considerably following unemployment and increased after becoming reemployed but did not completely return to the life satisfaction level previous to being unemployed.

Question 4

Single adults

Answer 4

Over a 30-year period, a dramatic rise in the percentage of single adults has occurred.

Advantages of being single include having time to make decisions about one’s life course, time to develop personal resources to meet goals, freedom to make autonomous decisions and pursue one’s own schedule and interests, opportunities to explore new places and try out new things, and privacy.

Common problems of single adults may include forming intimate relationships with other adults, confronting loneliness, and fi nding a niche in a society that is marriage-oriented.

Once adults reach the age of 30, there can be increasing pressure to settle down and get married. This is when many single adults make a conscious decision to marry or to remain single.

Question 5

Cohabiting adults

Answer 5

Cohabitation refers to living together in a sexual relationship without being married. It has increased dramatically as well.

Couples who cohabit face certain problems. Disapproval by parents and other family members can place emotional strain on the cohabiting couple. Some cohabiting couples have diffi culty owning property jointly. Legal rights on the dissolution of the relationship are less certain than in a divorce.

Question 6

Marital trends

Answer 6

Marriage rates have declined.

Is there a best age to get married? Marriages in adolescence are more likely to end in divorce than marriages in adulthood (Waite, 2009). However, researchers have not been able to pin down a specifi c age or age span for getting married in adulthood that is most likely to result in a successful marriage.

Question 7

Benefits of a good marriage

Answer 7

Are there any benefi ts to having a good marriage? There are. Individuals who are happily married live longer, healthier lives than either divorced individuals or those who are unhappily married.

What are the reasons for these benefi ts of a happy marriage? People in happy marriages likely feel less physically and emotionally stressed, which puts less wear and tear on a person’s body. Such wear and tear can lead to numerous physical ailments, such as high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

Question 8

Divorced adults

Answer 8

Although divorce has increased for all socioeconomic groups, those in some groups have a higher incidence of divorce (Amato, 2010). Youthful marriage, low educational level, low income, not having a religious affi liation, having parents who are divorced, and having a baby before marriage are factors that are associated with increases in divorce.

Question 9

Gottman: marriage principles that determine success of marriage

Answer 9

1) Establish love maps . Individuals in successful marriages have personal insights and detailed maps of each other’s life and world. They aren’t psychological strangers. In good marriages, partners are willing to share their feelings with each other. They use these “love maps” to express not only their understanding of each other but also their fondness and admiration.
2) Nurture fondness and admiration. In successful marriages, partners sing each other’s praises. More than 90 percent of the time, when couples put a positive spin on their marriage’s history, the marriage is likely to have a positive future.
3) Turn toward each other instead of away. In good marriages, spouses are adept at turning toward each other regularly. They see each other as friends. This friendship doesn’t keep arguments from occurring, but it can prevent differences from overwhelming the relationship. In these good marriages, spouses respect each other and appreciate each other’s point of view despite disagreements.
4) Let your partner infl uence you. Bad marriages often involve one spouse who is unwilling to share power with the other. Although power-mongering is more common in husbands, some wives also show this trait. A willingness to share power and to respect the other person’s view is a prerequisite to compromising.
5) Solve solvable confl icts . Two types of problems occur in marriage: (1) perpetual and (2) solvable. Perpetual problems are the type that do not go away and may include differences about whether to have children and how often to have sex. Solvable problems can be worked out and may include such things as not helping each other reduce daily stresses and not being verbally affectionate. In his research, Gottman has found that to resolve confl icts, couples should start out with a soft rather than a harsh approach, try to make and receive “repair attempts,” regulate their emotions, compromise, and be tolerant of each other’s faults. Confl ict resolu-tion is not about one person making changes; it is about negotiat-ing and accommodating each other.
6) Overcome gridlock . One partner wants the other to attend church; the other is an atheist. One partner is a homebody; the other wants to go out and socialize a lot. Such problems often produce gridlock. Gottman believes the key to ending gridlock is not to solve the problem, but to move from gridlock to dialogue and be patient.
7) Create shared meaning . The more partners can speak candidly and respectfully with each other, the more likely it is that they will create shared meaning in their marriage. This also includes sharing goals with one’s spouse and work-ing together to achieve each other’s goals.

Question 10

Parenting myths and reality

Answer 10

The birth of a child will save a failing marriage.

As a possession or extension of the parent, the child will think, feel, and behave as the parent did in his or her childhood.

Having a child gives the parents a “second chance” to achieve what they should have achieved.

Parenting is an instinct and requires no training.

Question 11

Trends in childbearing

Answer 11

Like marriage, the age at which individuals have children has been increasing (Morgan, 2009). In 2005, the average age at which women gave birth for the fi rst time was a record high 25.2 years of age, up from 21 years of age in 2001.

As birth control has become common practice, many individuals consciously choose when they will have children and how many children they will rear. The number of one-child families is increasing, for example. These childbearing trends are creating several trends:

• By giving birth to fewer children and reducing the demands of child care, women free up a signifi cant portion of their life spans for other endeavors.
• Men are apt to invest a greater amount of time in fathering.
• Parental care is often supplemented by institutional care (child care, for example).

Question 12

Rapport talk

Answer 12

Rapport talk is the language of conversation; it is a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships.

Question 13

Report talk

Answer 13

Report talk is talk that is designed to give information, which includes public speaking.

Question 14

Gender differences in relationships

Answer 14

In sum, Miller, Tannen, and other gender experts such as Carol Gilligan, whose ideas you read about in Chapter 10, believe that women are more relationshiporiented than men—and that this relationship orientation should be prized as a skill in our culture more than it currently is.

Critics of this view of gender differences in relationships contend that it is too stereotypical (Dindia, 2005; Hyde, 2007). They argue that there is greater individual variation in the relationship styles of men and women than this view acknowledges.

Question 15

Work in midlife

Answer 15

The role of work, whether one works in a full-time career, a part-time job, as a volunteer, or a homemaker, is central during middle adulthood. Many middle-aged adults reach their peak in position and earnings. However, they may also be saddled with multiple fi nancial burdens from rent or mortgage, child care, medical bills, home repairs, college tuition, loans to family members, or bills from nursing homes.

For many people, midlife is a time of evaluation, assessment, and refl ection in terms of the work they do and want to do in the future (Moen, 2009). Among the work issues that some people face in midlife are recognizing limitations in career progress, deciding whether to change jobs or careers, deciding whether to rebalance family and work, and planning for retirement.

Question 16

Career challenges and changes

Answer 16

The current middle-aged worker faces several important challenges in the 21st century (Blossfeld, 2009). These include the globalization of work, rapid developments in information technologies, downsizing of organizations, early retirement, and concerns about pensions and health care.

To improve profi ts, many companies are restructuring, downsizing, and outsourcing jobs. One of the outcomes of these changes is to offer incentives to middle-aged employees to retire early—in their fi fties, or in some cases even forties, rather than their sixties.

The decline in defi ned-benefi t pensions and increased uncertainty about the fate of health insurance are decreasing the sense of personal control for middle-aged workers. As a consequence, many are delaying retirement plans.

Some midlife career changes are self-motivated; others are the consequence of losing one’s job (Moen, 2009). Some individuals in middle age decide that they don’t want to do the same work they have been doing for the rest of their lives.

Question 17

Leisure

Answer 17

As adults, not only must we learn how to work well, but we also need to learn how to relax and enjoy leisure (Gibson, 2009). Leisure refers to the pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing—hobbies, sports, or reading, for example. In one analysis of research on what U.S. adults regret the most, not engaging in more leisure was one of the top six regrets.

Leisure can be an especially important aspect of middle adulthood (Parkes, 2006). By middle adulthood, more money is available to many individuals, and there may be more free time and paid vacations. In short, midlife changes may produce expanded opportunities for leisure.

Adults at midlife need to begin preparing psychologically for retirement. Constructive and fulfi lling leisure activities in middle adulthood are an important part of this preparation (Danigelis, 2007). If an adult develops leisure activities that can be continued into retirement, the transition from work to retirement can be less stressful.

Question 18

Historical contexts (cohort effects)

Answer 18

Some developmentalists conclude that changing historical times and different social expectations infl uence how different cohorts—groups of individuals born in the same year or time period—move through the life span. Bernice Neugarten (1986) argues that our values, attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are infl uenced by the period in which we live. For example, individuals born during the diffi cult times of the Great Depression may have a different outlook on life than those born during the optimistic 1950s, says Neugarten.

Neugarten (1986) holds that the social environment of a particular age group can alter its social clock —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. Social clocks provide guides for our lives; individuals whose lives are not synchronized with these social clocks fi nd life to be more stressful than those who are on schedule, says Neugarten.

Question 19

Gender contexts

Answer 19

Critics say that the stage theories of adult development have a male bias. For example, the central focus of stage theories is on career choice and work achievement, which historically have dominated men’s life choices and life chances more than women’s. The stage theories do not adequately address women’s concerns about relationships, interdependence, and caring.

The adult stage theories have also placed little importance on childbearing and child rearing. Women’s family roles are complex and often have a higher salience in their lives than in men’s lives.

Question 20

Cultural contexts

Answer 20

In many cultures, especially nonindustrialized cultures, the concept of middle age is not very clear, or in some cases is absent. It is common in nonindustrialized societies to describe individuals as young or old, but not as middleaged (Grambs, 1989). Some cultures have no words for “adolescent,” “young adult,” or “middle-aged adult.”

Question 21

Love and marriage at midlife

Answer 21

Two major forms of love are romantic love and affectionate love. The fi res of romantic love are strong in early adulthood. Affectionate, or companionate, love increases during middle adulthood. That is, physical attraction, romance, and passion are more important in new relationships, especially in early adulthood. Security, loyalty, and mutual emotional interest become more important as relationships mature, especially in middle adulthood.

A recent study revealed that marital satisfaction increased in middle age (Gorchoff, John, & Helson, 2008). Even some marriages that were diffi cult and rocky during early adulthood turn out to be better adjusted during middle adulthood. Although the partners may have lived through a great deal of turmoil, they eventually discover a deep and solid foundation on which to anchor their relationship. In middle adulthood, the partners may have fewer fi nancial worries, less housework and chores, and more time with each other. Middle-aged partners are more likely to view their marriage as positive if they engage in mutual activities.

Question 22

Empty nest syndrome

Answer 22

An important event in a family is the launching of a child into adult life. Parents face new adjustments as a result of the child’s absence. Students usually think that their parents suffer from their absence. In fact, parents who live vicariously through their children might experience the empty nest syndrome, which includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the home. For most parents, however, marital satisfaction does not decline after children have left home but rather increases during the years after child rearing (Fingerman & Baker, 2006). With their children gone, marital partners have time to pursue career interests and more time for each other.

Question 23

Sibling relationships and friendships

Answer 23

Sibling relationships persist over the entire life span for most adults (Dunn, 2007). Eighty-fi ve percent of today’s adults have at least one living sibling. Sibling rela-tionships in adulthood may be extremely close, apathetic, or highly rivalrous. The majority of sibling relationships in adulthood are close (Cicirelli, 2009). Those siblings who are psychologically close to each other in adulthood tended to be that way in childhood. It is rare for sibling closeness to develop for the fi rst time in adulthood (Dunn, 1984). A recent study revealed that adult siblings often provide practical and emotional support to each other.

Friendships continue to be important in middle adulthood just as they were in early adulthood (Antonucci, 1989). It takes time to develop intimate friendships, so friendships that have endured over the adult years are often deeper than those that have just been formed in middle adulthood.

Question 24

Grandparent roles and styles

Answer 24

The diversity of grandparenting also was apparent in an early investigation of how grandparents interacted with their grandchildren (Neugarten & Weinstein, 1964). Three styles were dominant—formal, fun-seeking, and distant.

In the formal style, the grandparent performed what was considered to be a proper and prescribed role. These grandparents showed a strong interest in their grandchildren, but were careful not to give child-rearing advice.

In the fun-seeking style, the grandparent was informal and playful. Grandchildren were a source of leisure activity; mutual satisfaction was emphasized.

A substantial portion of grandparents were distant fi gures. In the distant-fi gure style, the grandparent was benevolent but interaction was infrequent. Grandparents who were over the age of 65 were more likely to display a formal style of interaction; those under 65 were more likely to display a funseeking style.

Question 25

Work and retirement in other countries

Answer 25

What characterizes work and retirement in other countries? A recent large-scale study of 21,000 individuals aged 40 to 79 in 21 countries examined patterns of work and retirement (HSBC Insurance, 2007). On average, 33 percent of individuals in their sixties and 11 percent in their seventies were still in some kind of paid employment. As indicated in Figure 18.5, a substantial percentage of individuals expect to continue working as long as possible before retiring

Question 26

Adjustment to retirement

Answer 26

Retirement is a process, not an event. Older adults who adjust best to retirement are healthy, have adequate income, are active, are better educated, have an extended social network including both friends and family, and usually were satisfi ed with their lives before they retired.

Older adults with inadequate income and poor health, and who must adjust to other stress that occurs at the same time as retirement, such as the death of a spouse, have the most diffi cult time adjusting to retirement.

A recent study also found that individuals who had diffi culty in adjusting to retirement had a strong attachment to work, including full-time jobs and a long work history, lack of control over the transition to retirement, and low self-effi cacy.

Flexibility is also a key factor in whether individuals adjust well to retirement. When people retire, they no longer have the structured environment they had when they were working, so they need to be fl exible and discover and pursue their own interests. Cultivating interests and friends unrelated to work improves adaptation to retirement.

Individuals who view retirement planning only in terms of fi nances don’t adapt as well to retirement as those who have a more balanced retirement plan (Birren, 1996). It is important not only to plan fi nancially for retirement, but to consider other areas of your life as well (Sener, Terzioglu, & Karabulet, 2007). In addition to f i nancial planning, questions individuals need to ask about retirement include, What am I going to do with my leisure time? What am I going to do to stay active? What am I going to do socially? What am I going to do to keep my mind active?

Question 27

Married older adults

Answer 27

A recent study revealed that marital satisfaction was greater in older adults than middle-aged adults (Henry & others, 2007). In this study, older adults perceived their spouse to be less hostile than did middleaged adults.

Retirement alters a couple’s lifestyle, requiring adaptation (Higo & Williamson, 2009; Price & Nesteruk, 2010). The greatest changes occur in the traditional family, in which the husband works and the wife is a homemaker. The husband may not know what to do with his time, and his wife may feel uneasy having him around the house so much of the day. In traditional families, both partners may need to move toward more expressive roles. The husband must adjust from being the provider outside of the home to being a helper around the house; the wife must change from being the only homemaker to being a partner who shares and delegates household duties. Marital happiness as an older adult is also affected by each partner’s ability to deal with personal confl icts, including aging, illness, and eventual death.

Question 28

Divorced and remarried older adults

Answer 28

Many of these individuals were divorced or separated before they entered late adulthood. The majority of divorced older adults are women, due to their greater longevity and because men are more likely to remarry, thus removing themselves from the pool of divorced older adults.

Rising divorce rates, increased longevity, and better health have led to an increase in remarriage by older adults (Ganong & Coleman, 2006). What happens when an older adult wants to remarry or does remarry? Researchers have found that some older adults perceive negative social pressure about their decision to remarry (McKain, 1972). These negative sanctions range from raised eyebrows to rejection by adult children (Ganong & Coleman, 2006). However, the majority of adult children support the decision of their older adult parents to remarry.

Question 29

Cohabiting older adults

Answer 29

An increasing number of older adults cohabit (Mutchler, 2009). In 1960, hardly any older adults cohabited (Chevan, 1996). Today, approximately 3 percent of older adults cohabit.

In many cases, the cohabiting is more for companionship than for love. In other cases, for example, when one partner faces the potential for expensive care, a couple may decide to maintain their assets separately and thus not marry. One study found that older adults who cohabited had a more positive, stable relationship than younger adults who cohabited, although cohabiting older adults were less likely to have plans to marry their partner.

Question 30

Romance and sex in older adults’ relationships

Answer 30

Few of us imagine older couples taking an interest in sex or romantic relationships. We might think of them as being interested in a game of bridge or a conversation on the porch, but not much else. In fact, a number of older adults date. The increased health and longevity of older adults have resulted in a much larger pool of active older adults. And the increased divorce rate has added more older adults to the adult dating pool.

Regarding their sexuality, older adults may express their sexuality differently than younger adults, especially when engaging in sexual intercourse becomes diffi cult. Older adults especially enjoy touching and caressing as part of their sexual relationship. When older adults are healthy, they still may engage in sexual activities. However, companionship often becomes more important than sexual activity in older adults. Older couples often emphasize intimacy over sexual prowess.

Question 31

Friendship

Answer 31

In early adulthood, friendship networks expand as new social connections are made away from home. In late adulthood, new friendships are less likely to be forged, although some adults do seek out new friendships, especially following the death of a spouse.

Aging expert Laura Carstensen (1998) concluded that people choose close friends over new friends as they grow older. And as long as they have several close people in their network, they seem content.

Question 32

Social support

Answer 32

In the convoy model of social relations, individuals go through life embedded in a personal network of individuals to whom they give and from whom they receive social support (Antonucci, Birditt, & Kalinauskas, 2009; Antonucci & others, 2011). Social support can help individuals of all ages cope more effectively (Griffi ths & others, 2007). For older adults, social support is related to their physical and mental health (Cheng, Lee, & Chow, 2010). It is linked with a reduction in symptoms of disease, with the ability to meet one’s own health care needs, and mortality (Rook & others, 2007). Social support also decreases the probability that an older adult will be institutionalized and is associated with a lower incidence of depression.

Question 33

Social integration

Answer 33

Social integration also plays an important role in the lives of many older adults (Rohr & Lang, 2009; von Tilburg, 2009). Remember from our earlier discussion of socioemotional selectivity theory that many older adults choose to have fewer peripheral social contacts and more emotionally positive contacts with friends and family (Charles & Carstensen, 2009, 2010). Thus, a decrease in the overall social activity of many older adults may refl ect their greater interest in spending more time in the small circle of friends and families where they are less likely to have negative emotional experiences. Researchers have found that older adults tend to report being less lonely than younger adults and less lonely than would be expected based on their circumstances (Schnittker, 2007). Their reports of feeling less lonely than younger adults likely refl ect their more selective social networks and greater acceptance of loneliness in their lives .

Question 34

Gender

Answer 34

Do our gender roles change when we become older adults? Some developmentalists conclude that femininity decreases in women and that masculinity decreases in men when they reach the late adulthood years (Gutmann, 1975). The evidence suggests that older men do become more feminine—nurturant, sensitive, and so on—but it appears that older women do not necessarily become more masculine—assertive, dominant, and so on (Turner, 1982). Keep in mind that cohort effects are especially important to consider in areas such as gender roles. As sociohistorical changes take place and are assessed more frequently in life-span investigations, what were once perceived to be age effects may turn out to be cohort effects .

Question 35

Culture

Answer 35

What promotes a good old age in most cultures? A recent analysis indicated that these three factors are important in living the “good life” as an older adult: health, security, and kinship/support.

In one view, seven factors are most likely to predict high status for older adults in a culture:

• Older persons have valuable knowledge.
• Older persons control key family/community resources.
• Older persons are permitted to engage in useful and valued functions as long as possible.
• There is role continuity throughout the life span.
• Age-related role changes involve greater responsibility, authority, and advisory capacity.
• The extended family is a common family arrangement in the culture, and the older person is integrated into the extended family. Norma Thomas.
• In general, respect for older adults is greater in collectivistic cultures (such as China and Japan) than in individualistic cultures (such as the United States).

However, some researchers are fi nding that this collectivistic/ individualistic difference in respect for older adults is not as strong as it used to be, and that in some cases older adults in individualistic cultures receive considerable respect .

Question 36

How to age successfully (/well)

Answer 36

There are many robust, healthy older adults (Willcox & others, 2008). With a proper diet, an active lifestyle, mental stimulation and fl exibility, positive coping skills, good social relationships and support, and the absence of disease, many abilities can be maintained or in some cases even improved as we get older .

Being active is especially important to successful aging (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). Older adults who exercise regularly, get out and go to meetings, participate in church activities, and go on trips are more satisf i ed with their lives than their counterparts who disengage from society (Levin, Chatters, & Taylor, 2010; Venturelli & others, 2010). Older adults who are emotionally selective, optimize their choices, and compensate effectively for losses increase their chances of aging successfully.

Successful aging also involves perceived control over the environment (Bandura, 2010a; HSBC Insurance, 2007). In Chapter 17, we described how perceived control over the environment had a positive effect on nursing home residents’ health and longevity. In recent years, the term selfeffi cacy has often been used to describe perceived control over the environment and the ability to produce positive outcomes (Bandura, 2009, 2010a). Researchers have found that many older adults are quite effective in maintaining a sense of control and have a positive view of themselves.