Chapter 16 Middle Adulthood: Social and Emotional Development Flashcards
generativity
Ability to generate or produce; based on instinctual drive to leave something of meaning behind for future generations (e.g., being grandparents)
stagnation
Rejection of generativity; state of no longer developing, growing, or advancing
social clock
guides our judgment regarding the “appropriateness” of certain behaviours, life events, and trajectories.
bommerang generation
Children in early adulthood are returning home to live with their parents due to social isolation, unemployment, rising housing and rental costs, and increased gas and food prices from the COVID-19 pandemic.
midlife transition
The years from 40 to 45; a psychological shift into middle adulthood is often accompanied by a crisis during which people fear they have more to look back upon than to look forward to.
midlife crisis
This is a time of dramatic self-doubt and anxiety during which people sense the passing of their youth and become preoccupied with concern about the imminence of their own mortality; menopause, death of a parent, divorce, or a child’s leaving home could all cause a crisis.
midlife crisis
The transition to midlife at age 40 is considered a midlife crisis due to unrealized dreams and life losses; psychotherapy during this time should not be overlooked.
midlife crisis
For First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, the Medicine Wheel represents middle adulthood with the western doorway.
“empty nest syndrome”
(when children leave the home); they take advantage of their new time by being in the workplace and finding life satisfaction in other activities besides child rearing and homemaking.
McCrae and Costa (2006)
Five basic factors of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience)
Are There Sudden Shifts in Personality?
People undergo sudden changes or shifts in personality, which is partly due to environmental experiences such as getting married or vocational goals, but the “big five” personality traits tend to show a good deal of stability over time, at least after age 30.
Are There Sudden Shifts in Personality? cont..
Neuroticism declines over time.
Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase over time.
Extraversion and openness to new experience decline slightly over time.
evolving parent-child relationships
Parents are stressed when adolescents do not exert self-control and they have to direct them in multiple areas of their life; they feel “sandwiched” between their parents and their children or grandchildren
“glass ceiling “
Women still balance home and work; experience the “glass ceiling” on the job; and have a hard time advancing. Most women and blue-collar workers reported more satisfaction, similar to white-collar men.
grandparents in charge
Some grandparents end up as the custodial parent to their grandchildren; this is perhaps caused by extenuating circumstances like the death of a parent, or a parent in the military, or the attempt in a new career in a new location, etc.
