Chapter 15 & 16 - Middle Adulthood

Question 1

Generativity versus stagnation

Answer 1

Generativity involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and guide the next generation.

Question 2

Midlife Crisis

Answer 2

substantial inner turmoil during the transition to middle adulthood. Self-doubt and stress may prompt major restructuring of the personality.

Question 3

Possible Selves

Answer 3

Future-oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one is afraid of becoming. Possible selves are the temporal dimension of self-concept -what the individual is striving for and attempting to avoid.

Question 4

“Big Five” Personality Traits

Answer 4

Neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

Question 5

Neuroticism

Answer 5

Individuals who are prone to worrying, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable.

Question 6

Extroversion

Answer 6

People who are affectionate, talkative, active, fun-loving, and passionate.

Question 7

Openness to experience

Answer 7

People who are imaginative, creative, original curious, and liberal.

Question 8

Agreeableness

Answer 8

Individuals are soft-hearted, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, and good-natured.

Question 9

Conscientiousness

Answer 9

People are hard-working, well-organized, punctual, ambitious, and preserving.

Question 10

Feminization of Poverty

Answer 10

A trend in which women who support themselves or their families have become the majority of the adult population living in poverty, regardless of age and ethnic group.

Question 11

Kinkeeper

Answer 11

Members of the middle generation, usually take. on the role of gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch.

Question 12

Skipped Generation Families

Answer 12

Grandparents live and rear grandchildren but apart from children’s parents.

Question 13

Sandwich Generation

Answer 13

Widely used to refer to the idea that middle-aged adults must care for multiple generations above and below them at the same time.

Question 14

Burnout

Answer 14

A condition in which long-term job stress leads to mental exhaustion, a sense of loss of personal control, and feelings of reduced accomplishment.

Question 15

Glass ceiling

Answer 15

Or an invisible barrier to advancement up the corporate ladder.

Question 16

Presbyopia

Answer 16

Around age 60, the lens loses its capacity to adjust to objects at varying distances entirely - “old eyes.”

Question 17

Glaucoma

Answer 17

A disease in which poor fluid drainage leads to a buildup of pressure within the eye, damaging the optic nerve.

Question 18

Presbycusis

Answer 18

Hearing loss resulting from adult-onset hearing impairments.

Question 19

Climacteric

Answer 19

The midlife transition in which fertility declines

Question 20

Menopause

Answer 20

Apart of the climacteric phase including the end of menstruation and reproductive capacity; occurs on average in the early fifties among North Americans. Women who smoke or who have not borne children tend to reach menopause earlier.

Question 21

Osteoporosis

Answer 21

When age-related bone loss is severe during ages 50 and older; most of whom are women.

Question 22

Type A Behavior Pattern

Answer 22

Extreme competitiveness, ambition, impatience, hostility, angry outbursts, and sense of eagerness, hurriedness, and time pressure; a study found that Type As are more than twice as likely to developed heart disease.

Question 23

Hardiness

Answer 23

A set of three personality qualities - control, commitment, and change that enable people to try their best to turn life’s challenges into opportunities for resilience.

Question 24

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 24

Refers to skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery of social conventions – abilities acquired because they are valued by the individual’s culture.

Question 25

Fluid Intelligence

Answer 25

Depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills - ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory.

Question 26

Practical problem solving

Answer 26

Requires people to size up real-world situations and analyze how best to achieve goals that have a high degree of uncertainty.

Question 27

Expertise

Answer 27

An extensive, highly organized, and integrated knowledge base that can be used to support a high level of performance