Chapter 14: Socioemotional dev in middle adulthood

Question 1

What are 2 prominent theories that define stages in adult development

Answer 1

• Erik Erikson’s life-span view
• Daniel Levinson’s seasons of a man’s life

Question 2

What’s Erikson’s Stage related to this stage

Answer 2

Generativity vs Stagnation

Question 3

What did Erikson propose in his Generativity vs Stagnation Stage

Answer 3

He proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue-

Generativity: encompasses adults’ desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation.
Through these legacies, they achieve some type of immortality.

Stagnation (or self absorption): develops when individuals sense that they have done little or nothing for the next generation.

Question 4

What do Generative adults commit themselves to

Answer 4

Generative (generativity) adults commit themselves to the continuation and improvement of society through their connection to the next generation.

Question 5

What are the several ways adults can achieve generativity

Answer 5

• Biological generativity: have offsprings
• Parental generativity: nurture and guide children
• Work generativity: develop skills that are passed down to others
• Cultural generativity: create, renovate, conserve some aspect of culture that ultimately survives.

Question 6

Does research support Erikson’s theory that generativity is an important dimension of middle age?

Answer 6

Yes it does.

Question 7

What does Levinson see the 20s as

Answer 7

As a novice phase of adult development.

Question 8

What is Levinson’s novice phase of adult development

Answer 8

It is a time of free experimentation and of testing the dream in the real world.

In early adulthood, the 2 major tasks to be msatered:
- exploring the possibilities for adult living
- developing a stable life structure

Question 9

What is BOOM for Levinson

Answer 9

After men go through a transition period, during their 30s, they usually focus on family and career development. Then in the later years of this period, they enter BOOM

BOOM: Becoming One’s Own Man

Question 10

According to Levinson, how much does the transition to middle adulthood last and what conflicts must the male come to grip with

Answer 10

About 5 years.
Ages 40 to 45.

4 Conflicts:

1. being young vs being old
2. being destructive vs constructive
3. being masculine vs feminine
4. being attached to other vs separated from them

Question 11

What does Levinson see midlife as

Answer 11

a crisis- believing that middle-aged adult is suspended between the past and the future

Question 12

What is Vaillant’s study

Answer 12

the Grant study

Question 13

What did the Grant study involve

Answer 13

Involved men in their early 30s and late 40s who initially were interviewed as undergraduates.

He said that just as adolescence is a time for detecting parental flaws and discover truth about childhood.

The forties are a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about adolescence and adulthood.

Question 14

Did Vaillant think midlife was a crisis

Answer 14

No, he though only a minority of adults experience a midlife crisis.

Question 15

Who believe that midlife is a crisis

Answer 15

Levinson

Question 16

Age-related stages represent one major way to examine adult personality development, but what’s a second major way to conceptualize adult personality development

Answer 16

=> to focus on life events.

Question 17

What’s the contemporary life-events approach

Answer 17

-> emphasizes that how life events influence the individual’s development depends not only on the life event itself, but also on:

MEDIATING FACTORS (physical health, family support, etc)
INDIVIDUAL’S ADAPTATION TO THE LIFE EVENT (coping strat, ..)
LIFE-STAGE CONTEXT
SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT

Question 18

What are the drawbacks of the Contemporary life-events approach

Answer 18

1. It places too much emphasis on change
2. Its failure to recognize that our daily experiences may be the primary sources of stress in our lives

Question 19

How does personal control change when individuals move into middle age

Answer 19

• middle age is a time when personal control is frequently challenged by many demands and responsibilities as well as physical and cognitive aging.

Question 20

Might health and aging be predicated by self-control in childhood

Answer 20

Adults who have shown better self control in childhood aged more slowly and showed fewer signs of aging in their brain during middle age

Question 21

How do women and men differ in response to stressors

Answer 21

Women - more vulnerable to social stressors

Men- more likely to attend support group meetings, have sex or use pornography, try to fix the problems themselves and not admit to them having problems

Question 22

How are men likely to respond when they face stress

Answer 22

In a fight or flight manner- to become aggressive, withdraw from social contact, drink alcohol.

Question 23

How are women likely to respond when they face stress

Answer 23

According to Shelley Taylor.

More likely to engage in tend-and-befriend pattern: seeking social alliances with other (friends usually)

When women experience stress, their bodies experience higher levels of the hormone OXYTOCIN (linked to nurturing in animals)

Question 24

What are 3 longitudinal studies to help us understand the extent to which there is stability or change in adult personality development.

Answer 24

• Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study
• The Berkely Longitudinal Studies
• Vaillant’s studies

Question 25

What is COsta and McCrae’s baltimore study’s FOCUS

Answer 25

The Big Five factors of Personality.

Question 26

As part of the Costa and McCrae’s baltimore study, how do the Big Five traits change or/and affect adulthood

Answer 26

• Openness to experience: high in it => tend to live longer, better cognitive functioning, achievement, IQ across life span
• Conscientousness: more likely to live longer, lower risk of dementia, better health and less stress
• Extraversion : more likely to be satisfied in rltps
• Neuroticism: More likely to die younger, to developp Alzheimer, worst health, drug dependant, heart disease, lower marital satisfaction

Question 27

What did the Berkley Longitudinal Studies show

Answer 27

Did not support either extreme in the debate about whether personality is characterized by stability or change.

But some characteristics were more stable than others.

MOST: degree to which individuals were intellectually oriented, self-confident and open to new experiences.

Question 28

What question do the longitudinal studies by George Vaillant explore ?

Answer 28

Does personality in middle age predict what a person’s life will be like in late adulthood?

he conducted 3 studies

Question 29

What were the findings of George Vaillant’s studies

Answer 29

• Alcohol abuse and smoking at age 50 were the best predictors of which individuals would be dead at 75 to 80.
• Factors linked to being ‘happy-well’: regular exercise, not overweight, well educated, stable marriage, future oriented, thankful and forgiving, good coping skills etc

Generativity was more strongly related to intimacy adn whether good marriage

Question 30

What can be concluded about stability and change in personality dev during adult years?

Answer 30

Evidence doesn’t support that personality traits become completely fixed at a certain age, but they argue that change is typically limited, and small.

Age is also positively related to stability and stability peaks in 50s or 60s.

these finding support the cumulative personality model.

Question 31

What does the cumulative personality model of development state

Answer 31

States that with time and age, people become more adept at interacting with their env in ways that promote stability.

Question 32

What relationships, what becomes important in middle adulthood relationships

Answer 32

Security, loyalty and mutual emotional interest.

Question 33

What is ‘gray divorce’

Answer 33

Recent increase in divorce among couples age 50 and older.

Question 34

What is empty nest syndrome

Answer 34

Includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave home

but for most parents, it doesn’t decline. it increases

Question 35

What are parents who dont let go of their children when they should called

Answer 35

permaparenting

Question 36

What’s a label that describes parents who hover too closely in their effort to ensure that their children succed

Answer 36

Helicopter parents

Question 37

What are lawn mower parents

Answer 37

goes to great lengths to prevent their child from experiencing adveristy, stress or failure,