Chapter 8: Well-being across the Lifespan

Question 1

Life changes

Answer 1

1. Life events: consists of normative and non-normative events
   a. Normative: expected life changes, easier to prepare for/anticipate
   b. Non-normative: unexpected life changes, harder to prep for/anticipate
2. Adaptation to change: consists of assimilation and accommodation
   a. Assimilation: minor tweak to your life goal, may need to change the process and not the outcome
   b. Accommodation: bigger adjustments are necessary, you may need to change the goal/outcome and possibly change how you perceive yourself as well
3. Ego resiliency: Flexibility in how people adapt to change. High ego resiliency associated with higher well-being

Question 2

Stage models - Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

Answer 2

At each stage, you face a task/crisis that you must resolve. How you handle this crisis directly influences your development and can lead to the development of certain virtues.

1. Crisis Resolution
2. Develop Virtues
3. Dynamic Balance
4. Generativity
   - Well-being
   - Commitment script

Question 3

Generativity

Answer 3

The propensity and willingness to engage in acts that promote the wellbeing of younger generations as a way of ensuring the long-term survival of the species (The Psychology of Mattering, 2018). Your positive influence outlives you, has a lasting impact. Particularly prominent in women. High generativity increases well-being.

Question 4

Commitment script

Answer 4

Story of one’s life: I’ve been through tough times, someone helped me so I want to help others, or increased empathy/motivation to help others. This life story of overcoming difficulties is associated with generativity.

Question 5

Life span/Course models

Answer 5

1. Positive Youth Development: Consists of personal traits and environmental support/assets
   a. Individual strengths: character strengths and virtues
   b. Developmental assets: boy scouts, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, church, colleges, etc.
2. Five Cs: Competence, confidence, connection, character and caring. 6th C: compassion. These are outcomes of positive youth development and indicators that these kids are thriving.
3. Penn Resiliency Program: Developed by Seligman, uses learned optimism model, ABCDE approach.
   Follow-up has demonstrated that these kids have higher rates of resiliency, better health, less mental health issues

Question 6

Components of emerging adulthood

Answer 6

1. ID exploration: figuring out who you are/will be (ID confusion can lead to decreased well-being)
2. Instability: job changes, relationship changes, moving
3. Self-focus: really working on themselves at this life stage, time/money is their own
4. Feeling in-between: not fully children but not fully “adults”
5. Possibilities: lots of different opportunities to explore various possibilities (job, work, home)

Question 7

Midlife crisis

Answer 7

Differences in happiness between ages, seems to be a dip in well-being around 40-50 age range (early 40s for women, late 50s for men).
Effect size of change in avg. life satisfaction score is about 6/10ths, small effect size but still meaningful. After midlife point, men tend to report better well-being than women.

Question 8

Younger well-being

Answer 8

Normative events: social & leisure
Strengths: exploring & hope
Self-discrepancy: Larger
PWB & SWB: PWB > SWB (If less educated, then likely to be low on both)

Question 9

Middle-aged well-being

Answer 9

Normative events: Relationships
Strengths: Love/be loved
Self-discrepancy: Larger
PWB & SWB: PWB = SWB

Question 10

Older well-being

Answer 10

Normative events: Education & work
Strengths: Self-regulation
Self-discrepancy: Smaller
Psychological WB: + Autonomy 
\+ Mastery 
\+ Self-acceptance 
- Life Purpose
- Personal growth (Relationships) 
PWB & SWB: High on both

Question 11

Successful aging characteristics

Answer 11

Positivity effect (result of experincing less NA).
Frequency & intensity of emotion - tend to be more even-keeled, less fluctuation in emotions.
Environmental selection - have the perspective that their time is precious (wisdom), can be more selective, easier to say no to unwanted activities.
Temporal realism - more realistic affective forecasting, more realistic view of past.
Emotional complexity - more nuanced view/understanding of emotions.
Relatedness - focus on important relationships.
Mindfulness - more inclined towards being present in the moment.
Accommodation of goals - being able to change goal/outcome to be more realistic in the process.
Accept & compensate - relates to accommodation, ability to accept change and compensate accordingly.
Self-regulation - ability tends to increase w/ age, assoc. w/ greater w/b.

Question 12

Socio-emotional selectivity

Answer 12

Basic psychological goals remain throughout the lifespan, but their salience changes depending on one’s place in the life cycle.
Adolescence/early adulthood: focus on knowledge trajectory
Middle age/old age: focus on emotional trajectory (relationship quality/support)

Question 13

Individual differences approach

Answer 13

Helson & Srivastava (2001): Longitudinal study on college women. Maturity criteria:
1. Competence
2. Wisdom
3. Ego development
4. Generativity
Positive development paths:
1. Achievers: high-achieving, career-focused, max +/min -
2. Conservers: traditional, moderate +/-
2. Seekers: explore, differ from norm/break mold, high +/-
4. [depleted] - negative outcome not assoc. w/ maturity

Labouvie-Vief & Medler (2002)
Theory: People regulate their emotion by primarily using two strategies -
1. Affect optimization: attempts to maximize positive emotions and dampen negative emotions.
2. Affect complexity: attempts to coordinate positive and negative emotions into cognitive-emotional schemas that are both flexible and integrated.
Four regulation styles were found:
1. Integrated: emphasize + emotions and emotional complexity
2. Defended: emphasize + emotions, low affect complexity
3. Complex: moderate + emotion, high emotional complexity
4. Dysregulated: low on both + emotion and emotional complexity

Question 14

Life narratives approach

Answer 14

Creative constructions and story themes.

Question 15

Creative constructions

Answer 15

1. Coherent positive resolution: main character has conflict, works on conflict toward resolution (all’s well that ends well)
2. Exploratory narrative processing: messier story, more details on emotions and more emotional processing, more time including the negative aspects (than coherent)
3. Transformational processing: combo of exploratory narrative processing and coherent positive resolution - work through the messy emotions and then resolve w/ + resolution

Question 16

Story themes

Answer 16

1. Redemptive sequence: common in US, rise to the occasion, gain insight/learn lesson
2. Myth of the hero: learn a lesson and then share it with others!
3. Goal pursuit: how we go after our goals/frame them influences our goal attainment and well-being
4. Age identity: story you tell yourself about your age has a major impact on your well-being

Question 17

Responses to trauma

Answer 17

1. Struggling to adjust: PTSD, depression, anxiety, possibly suicide, left-tail of curve
2. Resilience: how most people respond to a negative experience, middle of curve
3. Post-traumatic growth - personal growth that stems from how you process a traumatic exp. right-tail of curve

Question 18

Resilience

Answer 18

“Ordinary magic”, ability to bounce back from a negative event, good outcomes/Absence of psychopathology following adversity.

Question 19

Werner’s Kauai study

Answer 19

Longitudinal study started in 1955 of approx. 700 at risk families
Approx. 1/3 of kids were resilient (same # of dogs that showed resilience in Seligman’s learned helplessness experiment)
At age 40: 5 out of 6 were doing well - more of them had developed resiliency!

Question 20

Characteristics of resilience

Answer 20

1. Positive adult relationships: Nurturing surrogate parent, role model/mentor
2. Positive Peer Relationship(s): Good social & communication skills, at least one good friend
3. Creative outlet/Area of competence
4. Optimistic/Internal locus of control
5. Religious beliefs

Question 21

Newer perspective on resilience

Answer 21

Resilience is the result of an interaction between child and environment.

1. Child factors (e.g., competence, optimism)
2. Family factors (e.g., function, income, consistent care)
3. Community factors (e.g., schools, churches, neighborhood)
4. Cultural factors (e.g., social conditions, economic patterns)

Question 22

Fixed mindset

Answer 22

Praise qualities

1. Avoid challenges - believe that intelligence is fixed, unchangeable
2. Give up easily - give up on challenges that you don’t think you can achieve
3. Equate effort with failure
4. Don’t like criticism
5. Feel threatened by others’ success (see them as smarter than you)

Question 23

Growth mindset

Answer 23

Praise effort (much better outcome for well-being)
Be careful how you praise children for what they do! Praise them for how hard they worked, engagement, enthusiasm, encourage them for how their effort paid off and resulted in the outcome.

Question 24

Cultivating resilience

Answer 24

1. Moderate levels of adversity (you need some adversity to help you build resilience)
2. Positive relationships
3. Positive emotionality
4. Life narrative of “doors opening” (as one closes, another opens)
5. Accept change as part of life
6. Work toward goals
7. Use problem- & task-focused coping
8. Self-discovery
9. Positive self view
10. Keep events in perspective (gets easier w/ age)
11. Maintain hopeful outlook
12. Self-care

Question 25

Sense of coherence

Answer 25

Unique set of personality traits that create an orientation to life allowing people to interpret life stressors in a positive and adaptive way, that is, as coherent and understandable despite adversity.

1. Meaningfulness
2. Comphrehensibility
3. Mangeability

Question 26

Post-traumatic growth

Answer 26

Significant changes in life goals in life commitments that require major alterations in one’s sense of identity or life narrative.

1. Goal disengagement
2. Action to new goals
3. Meaning and purpose

Question 27

The Harvard study

Answer 27

Mature defense mechanisms: Deal with anxiety by attempting to maximize gratification but simultaneously allow awareness of underlying feelings, impulses, ideas and consequences of behavior.
Benefits perceived health, well-being, relationships, and job/income.
Predictors of thriving: Don’t smoke cigarettes and maintain quality relationships!

Question 28

Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson (2003) study summary (Making sense/benefitting)

Answer 28

Participants were people with family members in hospice care. Conducted interviews at pre-loss, then at 6 and 13 months post-loss (of loved one). Supporting their hypothesis, the age of deceased at death (older), religious beliefs and pre-loss distress level predicted making sense of the loss. Optimism-pessimism levels predicted benefit-finding, with people high in trait optimism most likely to report
a benefit-finding response.
Both forms of finding meaning were associated with decreased distress at the 6 and 13 month post-loss interviews.
Making sense and benefit finding are independent forms of finding meaning that help people adjust to loss (no association between being able to make sense and benefit finding!) Results indicate that making sense of the loss is associated with less distress, but only in the 1st year post-loss, whereas reports of benefit finding are most strongly associated with adjustment at interviews 13 and 18 months post-loss.