Chapter 13 Key Terms

Question 0

A developmental timetable based not on biological maturation but on social norms, which set the stages of life and the behaviors considered appropriate to each of them. For example, “middle age” begins when a culture believes it does, rather than at a certain age in all cultures.

Answer 0

social clock

Question 1

A period of unusual anxiety, radical self-reexamination, and sudden transformation that is widely associated with middle age but that actually has more to do with developmental history than with chronological age

Answer 1

midlife-crisis

Question 2

The particular lifestyle and social context that adults settle into because it is compatible with their individual personality needs and interests

Answer 2

ecological niche

Question 3

A tendency for men and women to become more similar as they move through middle ages

Answer 3

gender convergence

Question 4

Collectively, the family members, friends, acquantinces, and even strangers who move through life with an individual

Answer 4

social convoy

Question 5

The belief that family members should support one another, sacrificing individual freedom and success, if necessary, in order to preserve family duty

Answer 5

familism

Question 6

A term used to describe someone who becomes accepted as part of a family to which he or she has no blood relation

Answer 6

fictive kin

Question 7

The time in the lives of parents when their children have left the family home to pursue their own lives

Answer 7

empty nest

Question 8

A caregiver who takes responsibility for maintaining communication among family members

Answer 8

kinkeeper

Question 9

The generation of middle-aged people who are supposedly “squeezed” by the needs of the younger and older members of their families. In reality, some adults do feel pressured by these obligations, but most are not burdened by them, either because they enjoy fulfilling them or because they choose to take on only some of them or none of them

Answer 9

sandwich generation

Question 10

The idea that people compare themselves to others in their group and are satisfied if they are no worse off than the group norm

Answer 10

relative deprivation

Question 11

The tangible benefits, usually in the form of compensation (e.g. salary, health insurance, pension), that one receives for doing a job

Answer 11

extrinsic rewards of work

Question 12

The intangible gratifications (e.g., job satisfaction, self-esteem, pride) that come from within oneself as a result of doing a job

Answer 12

intrinsic rewards of work

Question 13

Any situation, event, experience, or other stimulus that causes a person to feel stressed

Answer 13

stressor

Question 14

The total, combined burden of stress and disease that an individual must cope with

Answer 14

allostatic load

Question 15

The capacity of human organs to allow the body to cope with unusual stress

Answer 15

organ reserve

Question 16

A strategy often used by younger adults to deal with stress in which they tackle the stressful issue directly

Answer 16

problem-focused coping

Question 17

A strategy often used by older adults to deal with stress in which they change their feelings about the stressor rather than changing the stressor itself

Answer 17

emotion-focused coping