Exam 5 - Early & Middle Adulthood / Chapter 10, 11, & 12 Flashcards
Emerging adulthood only for
People living in developed world
The goal for emerging adulthood
- Exploring different possibilities
- Exuberant optimism about what lies ahead
Internal terms of reaching adulthood
- Financially support themselves
- Adults accept responsibility for their actions
- Make independent decisions about life
Emerging adulthood is defined by
variability
- as we set sail on our own
What created emerging adulthood in the 20th century
- Longer life expectancy
- Education - college crucial to career success
- Western culture stressed self-exploration
Constructing a career can take until
mid-20s+
S. Europe main barrier in reaching adulthood
high youth unemployment rates
- Social norms discourage cohabitation
People from where spend the 20s - 30s in parents house
- Portugal
- Italy
- Greece
- Spain
Cohabitation
living together without being married
Nest-leaving
moving out of a parent’s home to live independently
What makes Scandinavia unique for emerging adulthood
- Jobs plentiful for youth
- Marriage is an optional choice
- Gov. Funds university in Norway, Sweden, & Denmark
In N. European countries nest-leaving begins at
brink of emerging adult years
Nordic nations 20s stress-free interlude exploring life before children or deciding to marry
US route to emerging adulthood vs. European
- Marriage important life goal
- Move out at 18
- Focus on self-reliance - gov. Doesn’t pay for college
- Trouble finding decently paying jobs
Colliding conceptions + dramatic income inequalities =
sharp social-class differences in how U.S. emerging adults contract an adult life
Differences of emerging adulthood within the US
- Marriage is a middle-class achievement
- Low-income adults without a spouse
- Children of well-off parents have trouble moving out parents’ house
The US and N. Europe see leaving the nest as
an important rite of passage
2 benefits of leaving home
- Produce more harmonious family relationships
- Force young people to “grow up”
Does Leaving House Produce Better Parent-Child Relationships?
yes
Does Leaving Home Make People More Adult?
yes
Less conflict between children and parents happens when
children leave nest
Not true in Italy - young people prize family closeness over friendships
Close mother-child relationships and calling each other frequently correlated with
well adjusting to college and homing in on a satisfying career
“Nest residers” less likely to
- Be in a long-term relationship
- Felt more emotionally dependent on parents
- Less satisfied with life
Social clock
The concept is that we regulate our passage through adulthood by an inner timetable that tells us which life activities are appropriate at certain ages.
Age norms
Cultural ideas about the appropriate ages for engaging in particular activities or life tasks.
Off time
Being too late or too early in a culture’s timetable for achieving adult life tasks.
Identity
In Erikson’s theory, the life task of deciding who to be as an adult.
Role confusion
Erikson’s term for a failure in identity formation, marked by the lack of any sense of a future adult path.
Identity diffusion
According to James Marcia, an identity status in which the person is aimless or feels totally blocked, without any adult life path.
Identity Foreclosure
According to James Marcia, an identity status is in which the person decides on an adult life path (often one spelled out by an authority figure) without any thought or active search.
Moratorium
According to James Marcia, an identity status in which the person actively explores various possibilities to find a truly solid adult life path.
Identity achievement
A fully mature identity status in which the young person chooses a satisfying adult life path.
Ruminative Moratorium =
When a young person is unable to decide between different identities, becoming emotionally paralyzed and highly anxious.
Barriers in leaving home depend on:
- being able to afford to live on their own
- For immigrant & ethnic minority youth - values
Feeling off time in a late direction can cause
young people distress
General social-clock guidelines
set by
- society
- personal goals
How can one predict a given undergrad’s social clock timetables
by using “is having a family your main passion?”
Marriage top-ranking = marriage & kids at younger ages
Pros and cons of emerging adulthood
- Pros:
- Emerging adulthood exhilarating
- emotionally challenging time - Sense of being out of control
- Cons:
- anxiety disorders reach peak
Marcia’s 4 identity statuses
- Identity diffusion
- Identity foreclosure
- Moratorium
- Identity achievement
Marcia’s categories framework for
what is going wrong and right inline
Marcia - as teens grow they pass through
- Diffusion
- Moratorium
- Achievement
In real life people identity statuses
fluid throughout adulthood
What is vital to living fully
revising identity
Ruminative moratorium produces
- poor mental health
- identity achievement
Ethnic Identity
How people come to terms with who they are as people in relation to their unique ethnic or racial heritage.
Ruminative Moratorium
When a young person is unable to decide between different identities, becoming emotionally paralyzed and highly anxious.
Biracial or multiracial
How people of mixed racial backgrounds come to terms with who they are as people in relation to their heritage.
Efficacious teens “workers”
Csikszentmihalyi and Schneider term of young people who enter emerging adulthood upbeat and competent
Emotional advantages of feeling positive about identity are underscored by
ethnic identity
If part of the dominant culture - rarely think of your ethnicity
Being proud of ethnic background provides
a sense of meaning in life
- Identifying with Chinese or Cambodian = buffer from becoming depressed or risk-taking more
- Doing well in middle school
Firmly connecting with mainstream culture
sign ethic minority young person has skills to reach out fully in love
Pros & cons of emerging adulthood in biracial people
- Cons:
- Particularly poignant
- Pros:
- Pushes people to think in more creative ways
- Promotes resilience
Sigmund Freud definition of ideal mental health
ability to love and work
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Barbara Schneider study
of teenagers’ career dreams using the experience-sampling method
Emerging adults vs. their parents
- Face a more difficult economy than parents
- Students feel more driven to work hard than their parents
- Career disappointment is faced when young people enter college and confront the real world
Self-esteem changes
dips dramatically during the first semester of college and gradually rises over the next few years
Set to flourish when confronting demands of college life
young people who enter emerging adulthood upbeat and competent
Growth most occurs in the personality dimension called
conscientiousness
- More resilient
- Reason in more thoughtful ways
Flow
Csikszentmihalyi’s term for feeling total absorption in a challenging, goal-oriented activity.
School-to-work transition
The change from the schooling phase of life to the work world.
Rise in executive functions during emerging adulthood due to
- fully developed frontal lobes
- powerful inner state
Life’s most uplifting experiences occur when
we connect deeply with people
When we enter flow
during activity that stretches our capacities
Flow depends on being
intrinsically motivated
when working towards a goal
Why finding flow can be hard
depends on person-environment fit
US high school graduates enrolled in college
2 out of 3
Money of degree
- with master’s degree $70,000/ year
- Only high school degree $30,000/ year
- 1 of 10 non-college graduates unemployed
Why do many emerging adults drop out of school?
- Not “college material”
- Uninterested in academics
- Poorly prepared in Highschool
- Low SES - less likely to graduate
Emerging adults average money in loans after graduating
$20,000 or more
Colleges focus on freshmen can
lead to neglecting the role of “academic integration” during subsequent years
Qualities of good professors
- Love subject
- Committed to communicating passion to students
Professors’ mission
excite students in their field
Intimacy
Erikson’s first adult task, which involves connecting with a partner in a mutually loving relationship.
Homophobia
Intense fear and dislike of gay people.
Sexual Orientation
Our sexual and romantic attraction to other people
Stimulus-value-role theory
Murstein’s mate-selection theory that suggests similar people pair up and that our path to commitment progresses through three phases (called the stimulus, value-comparison, and role phases).
Role phase
In Murstein’s theory, the final mate-selection stage, in which committed partners work out their future life together.
Value-comparison phase
In Murstein’s theory, the second mate-selection stage, in which we make judgments about a partner on the basis of similar values and interests.
Rate of couples that met online
1 in 3
20th-century lifestyle revolution produced
remarkable expansion in kind of partners
Limits to the assumption we live in the golden age of diverse partner choices
People are now less likely to select partner of different social class
People reject boys who don’t stick to standard gender roles in
elementary school
During teen years trans and gay youth
undergo emotional turmoil
Most difficult coming out as gay
black and Latino LGBTQ
Once identity is embraces
sense of self-efficacy and relief follow
Romantic moratorium built into west societies why
the phase of mate selection so long
- 1 in 2 couples break up then get back with exes
Young people frame romantic disappointments as
learning experiences
After-effects of romantic disappointments of young people
- More likely to binge drink
- Health declines
- Losses in self-esteem last a full year
Prices of stimulus-value-role theory
- Stimulus phase
- Value-comparison phase
- Role phase
Equal-reinforcement-value parter explains why
we expect the couple to be similar in “social value” and class
Driving force in love relationships
homogamy
Identical twins more than fraternal twins to
select similar “bonding style” partners
Humans may be biologically primed to gravitate to a specific mate
Homogamy enhanced by
people with identical passions gravitate to similar zones of low
Why are attachment styles stable
Operate as self-fulfilling prophecy
Securely attached adults are more
- Successful in love
- More satisfying romances
- Hang in during the difficult time
- Support parter in times of need
- Excel at being emotionally in tune
Homogamy
In Murstein’s theory, the initial mate-selection stage, in which we make judgments about a potential partner based on external characteristics such as appearance.
Stimulus phase
In Murstein’s theory, the initial mate-selection stage, in which we make judgments about a potential partner based on external characteristics such as appearance.
Adult attachment styles
The different ways in which adults relate to romantic partners, based on Mary Ainsworth’s infant attachment styles. (Adult attachment styles are classified as secure, preoccupied/ambivalent insecure, or avoidant/dismissive insecure.)
Preoccupied/ambivalent
An excessively clingy, needy style of relating to loved ones.
Avoidant/dismissive
A standoffish, excessively disengaged style of relating to loved ones.
Securely attached
The genuine intimacy that is ideal in love relationships.
Exceptions to homogamy drive love
- The relationship works best when 1 partner is more dominant than other
- One strong personality, not two
- Unpleasant traits that are common
We choose people who
embody our “ideal self”
Charting love in stages showed
people often felt good in relationships the more homogamous they were.
Different Cindy Hazan & Phillip Shaver adult attachment styles
- Preoccupied/ambivalent
- Avoidant/dismissive
- Securely attached
Classified as Securely attached if
- describe pulses and minuses of relationship
- Talk about the desire for intimacy
- Adopt other-centered perspective
- Nurturing other’s development as the primary goal
Classified as Avoidant/dismissive if
- Describe relationship in formal stilted ways
- Emphasize autonomy issues
you are giving a toast to your friend Sarah’s 20th birthday party and you want to offer some predictions about what the next years might hold a store for her. Given your understanding of emerging adulthood which would be a safe prediction?
- Sarah may not reach the standard markers of adulthood for many years
- Sarah might need to move back into the nest or might still be living at home
Which emerging adult is least likely to be in the nest?
Silvia, who lives in Stockholm
Staying in the nest during the 20s today is a symptom of a child refusing to grow up – true or false
False
Which person is most apt to worry about a social-clock issue:
- Martha, age 50, wants to apply to nursing school
- Lee, age 28, who has just become a father
Martha, who is starting a new career at age 50; will be most worried about the ticking of the social clock
You overheard your psychology professor say that his daughter Emma shows symptoms of Erickson’s role confusion. Emma must be _____, which in Marcia’s identity status framework is a sign of ____
Drifting
Diffusion
Joe said, “I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was a little boy.” Kayla replied, “I don’t know what my career will be, and I’ve been obsessing about the possibilities day and night.” Joe’s identity status is _______, whereas Kayla’s status is ______. According to the latest research, who is apt to have an emotional problem?
Foreclosure & moratorium
Kayla more apt to emotional problems
Your cousin Clara has enrolled in nursing school. To predict her feelings about this decision, pick the right question to ask:
- Have you explored different career possibilities?
- Do you feel nursing expresses your inner self?
Do you feel nursing expresses your inner self?
Having a biracial or multiracial identity makes people think in more rigid ways about the world?
True or False
False
Your 17 Y.O cousin is graduating from high school. Given what you learned in the text, you might predict that she has overly high/overly low expectations about her academic abilities and that she will become more mature/remain exactly the same as she travels through her 20s.
Overly high
Get more mature
Lisa loves her server job. When the restaurant is hectic, time flies by. She feels like a multitasking whiz! Lisa is describing a ____ experience
Flow
Josh says the reason his classmates drop out of college is that they can’t do the work.
Joan says, “Sorry, it’s the need to work incredible hours to pay for school”.
Make each person’s case using the information from text
Josh: Prior academic performance predicts College completion, with low odds of finishing high school grads with a C average or below.
Joan: money is critical because academically talented low-income kids are far less likely to finish college than their affluent peers, and dropouts cite financial issues as the main reason for leaving
Juan, a freshman, asks for tips about how to succeed in college. Pick the advice you shouldn’t give:
- Get involved in Campus activities
- Select friends who have exactly the same ideas as you do
- Get the best professors and reach out to make connections with them
- Select friends who have exactly the same ideas as you do
Latoya is discussing how 21st-century relationships have changed. which of the following statements is incorrect?
- Today young people are more likely to marry outside of their social class
- Today same-sex relationships are much more acceptable
- Today homophobia no longer exist
- Today young people are more likely to marry outside of their social class
- Today homophobia no longer exist
Today, more/fewer people are open to interracial dating, and people who meet on the internet are less/more apt to be happily married than their counterparts who meet in traditional ways
Today, more people are open to interracial dating, and people who meet on the internet are more apt to be happily married than their counterparts who meet in traditional ways
Nat and Ash met at a friend’s new years eve party and just started dating. They are about to find out theater they share similar interests, backgrounds, and worldviews. This couple is in Murstein’s ____ phase of romantic relationships
- Stimulus
- Value-comparison
- Role
Value-comparison phase
Cat tells kelly, “to have a happy relationship, find someone as similar to you as possible.” why is Cat somewhat wrong
- People with dom personalities better off with more sub mate
- We gravitate to people with good personalities
- Rather than looking for a clone, best to find a mate who is similar to one’s ideal self
- Overinflating person’s virtues helps
Kita is clingy always feels rejected
Rena runs away from intimate relationships
Sam is affectionate and loving
Match attachment status of each person to one of the following:
Secure, avoidant-dismissive, or preoccupied
- Kita
- Preoccupied
- Rena
- Avoidant-dismissive
- Sam
- Secure
According to Marcia’s identity statuses framework, a teen experiencing Erikson’s role confusion would be labeled:
diffused
_____ devised four identity statuses.
Marcia
Deinstitutionalization of marriage
The decline in marriage and the emergence of alternate family forms during the last third of the twentieth century.
Serial Cohabitation
Living sequentially with different partners outside of marriage.
Arranged Marriages
unions in which parents choose their child’s spouse
Elopements
when young people run away and get engaged without their parents’ consent.
Marriage before 21st century
- Only lasted a decade or two
- Practical arrangement to cement family relationships
Marriage after 21st century
In West: marriage in the 20s to death
1960s lifestyle revolution and marriage
- stressed personal fulfillment
- increase divorce
Symptom of Deinstitutionalization of marriage
steady rise in cohabitation rates
Serial Cohabiters are less likely
to get married and more likely to give birth w/o spouse
Unmarried parenthood throughout years
The 1950s: women shipped off or forced to marry
Today: More un-educated women having babies is expected
Difference between India and west
arranged marriages
Change in Indian marriages
more elopements
Most favor elopements - especially well-educated people
Fundamentalist Sharia (Muslim law) on marriage
only acceptable path
Power Dynamics before marriage in the Middle East
- Males total power over a woman’s life
- Women: must remain Virgin
- Dates chaperoned
Power Dynamics after marriage in the Middle East
- Women must obey their husband
- Husband can forbid wives from going to school or work
- Females’ role is caregiver
Traditional Islamic marriage practices
- Marry first cousins
- Marry right after puberty
Changing middle eastern standards
- More women enrolled in universities than men
- Women free to initiate divorce
- Women can draw up prenups
Is Being Married Better than Living Single?
yes in US
Pros of couples that are happily marriage
- Richer - economic security
- Live longer
- Healthier in old age - having loving person care for you
- Sharing parenting
People in unhappy marriages
Less happy than single counterparts
Marriage market for poverty-level women and men
dismal
Is Being Married Better than Cohabiting for Life?
no not if you’re happy
The U-shaped curve of martial satisfaction
The most common pathway of marital happiness in the West, in which satisfaction is
highest at the honeymoon
declines during the child-rearing years
then rises after the children grow up.
Consummate love
In Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, the ideal form of love, in which a couple’s relationship involves all three of the major facets of love:
- passion
- intimacy
- commitment
Triangular Theory of Love
Robert Sternberg categorization of love relationships into three facets: passion, intimacy, and commitment. When arranged at the points of a triangle, their combinations describe all the different kinds of adult love relationships.
Martial satisfaction at peak during
honeymoon then decreases
Real flag for divorce
wives distress
The downside of marriage deepest during
first four years
John Bowlby’s attachment phases and marriage
1-2 years of marriage = in clear-cut attachment
After = Working model - develop separate lives - risk divorce
Middle age vs. elderly couple
- Elderly couples fight less
- Relate in kinder & less combative ways
- Idealize partners
Women who believe “my marriage is different we are going to live happily ever after”
more at risk of being turned off in the next few years
Their comments of the triangular theory of love
shows different kinds of relationships
- Pasion = sexual arousal
- Crush
- Intimacy = feelings of closeness
- Best friend
- Commitment = exclusive
- “Empty marriages”
Intimacy + commitment =
companionate marriages
Best friend relationships long-married couples have after passion fades
Why is consummate love fragile?
- Passion dwindles - married couples show lower testosterone than single counterparts
- Intimacy wanes - as a couple enter the working model phase
When we fall in love we feel
- efficacy
- Powerful
- Competent
- Capable
- Self-expansion - boosts testosterone
To stay passionate for decades people should
engage in flow inducing activities that brought couples together in the beginning
Glue of marriage
commitment - inner attitudes that keep couples together
Qualities of committed spouses
- The value system won’t allow them to consider divorce
- Dedicated to partners inner growth
Feeling compassion for his spouse
cemented once attraction to a mate
During disagreements women in happy relationships
regulate emotions
Psychologists that can tell whether a marriage is becoming unglued
John and Julie Gottman
4 communication styles that distinguish thriving relationships from those with serious problems
- Happy couples engage in a high ratio of positive to negative comments
- Happy couples don’t get personal when they disagree
- Happy couples are sensitive to a partners need for space
- Happy couples listen non-defensively to complaints
How to stay together happily for life
-
Be fully committed
- Be devoted to person development
- Take joy in sacrificing for your mate
-
Preserve intimacy and passion
- Share arousing and exciting activities
- Avoid getting personal when fighting
- Be very very positive after you get negative
If relationship totally one-sided
time to consider divorce
Negative changes after divorce
- May need to move
- Perhaps find better-paying job
- Housework burden rises - more for men
- Legal hasseles
Positive changes after divorce
- Produce emotional growth
- Enhance efficacy
- The welcome feeling of relief
- The burst of testosterone = Women rediscover sexuality
Two groups of divorced couples
- Spouses who had reported being miserable in marriage
- Couples who divorced even though they had previously judged marital status as “ fairly good “
Unhappy marriages after divorce versus happy marriages
Unhappy marriages = much happier
Happy marriages = decline in well-being
Paul Amato on divorce
The fantasy of finding a soulmate lure people into leaving marriage too soon
US remarriage rates
- 1 in 4 involving previously divorced partners
- 1 in 2 involving spouse married before
- Women 60% lower odds of remarrying
Unique barriers remarried couples
- Seem less committed
- Stepparent syndrome
Fertility rates
The average number of children a woman in a given country has during her lifetime.
Breadwinner
The traditional concept is that a man’s job is to support a wife and children.
Nurturer Father
A husband who actively participates in hands-on child care.
Fertility rates in developing countries today
declining
Childless adults that chose this path
equally as happy as adults with children
Conclusions of studies exploring the transition to parenthood
- Parenthood makes couples less intimate and happy
- If a couple is heterosexual, parenthood often produce more traditional marital roles
Which couples are most likely to see babies as a good thing to marriage?
- Pre-baby attachment dance important
- If a couple able to relate well before Child
- Your father involved with child
The downside of motherhood
can top balance from pleasure to pain
- Lack of sleep
- Financial strain
- Spending hours in boring activities
- Messy house
Parenthood up to
decrease in mothers feeling of self-esteem
Mothers versus non-mothers happiness
mothers no happier on daily basis
The main factor that affected her closely a woman fit her motherhood image depended on
attachment with given child
21-century mothers vs. past
Spend more time with children
Badge of honor when women entered working force for fathers
Nurturer father became masculine ideal - being the breadwinner and caring for children
Traditional stable career
A career path in which people settle into their permanent life’s work in their twenties and often stay with the same organization until they retire.
Boundary-less career
Today’s most common career path for Western workers, in which people change jobs or professions periodically during their working lives.
Father spend more time with who
sons than daughters
Fathers hands-on nurturing
most done by moms but dads involvement more towards play activities
How to tell how involved a father will be?
Depends on man’s attitude -
- men who regulate emotions
- feel they got more care from fathers
- Feeling efficacious at child care
- Whether the pregnancy was wanted
Men with greater decline in testosterone during wife’s pregnancy
more satisfied with being dad
Changes in careers over 21st century
Traditional stable career now atypical
More boundary fewer careers
Work separation change
People now work on weeks or nights
Pros and cons of online revolution of careers
- Pro:
- Flexibility
- Cons:
- Disappearing barrier between work and family
- Longer hours
- Accelerate pace at which they must perform
Workers increasingly function as
free agents
Pros and cons of gig work
- Pros:
- Be own boss
- Explore numerous career passions
- Cons:
- No health insurance or retirement benefits
- No job security
- No training included
- Overall income declines
Occupational segregation
the fact that men and women gravitate to different kinds of jobs, ensures that gender pay gaps endure.
Role Conflict
A situation in which a person is torn between two or more major responsibilities—for instance, parent and worker—and cannot do either job adequately.
Intrinsic career rewards
Work that provides inner fulfillment and allows people to satisfy their needs for creativity, autonomy, and relatedness. Most ideal to people
Extrinsic career rewards
Work that is performed for external reinforcers, such as pay.
Role overload
A job situation that places so many requirements or demands on workers that it becomes impossible to do a good job.
Work-life balance
A situation in which people feel a perfect balance energized and happy at work and fulfilled with other aspects of their lives.
What evaluation predicts work success in early midlife
Core self-evolution
weather a person had high self-esteem, optimistic, felt control of life
Why do attitudes matter over academic success?
people who feel better about themselves:
- gravitate to more rewarding fields
- shape their jobs
Developing a feeling of “career is life calling”
grew out of time committed to career
John Holland work happiness
key to work happiness is to find the best personality-career match
Holland’s 6 personify types and jobs
- Realistic type
- Investigative type
- Artistic type
- Social Type
- Entrepreneurial type
- Conventional type
What makes an optimal workspace?
- Autonomy to exercise creativity
- Sense of control over work conditions
- Employee friendly
- Bosses warfare and sensitive to the needs
As people transition from emerging adulthood to families what motivates career
extrinsic career rewards
Organizational psychologists believe adult happiness
depends on work and nonwork satiation
3 Enduring Difficulties Women Face at Work
- Women have more erratic (especially when married), less continuous careers than men
- Male-dominated professions pay more than female-type jobs
- Employers don’t look kindly on people taking “family time.”
Jared is describing marriage around the world today. Which 2 statements can he make?
In Saudi Arabia, divorced women are still social shunned
In India, traditional arranged marriages are in decline
Couples who cohabit are
more likely to be poor
Why does sharing mutually exciting activities and commitment help promote marital happiness
- Sharing mutually exciting activities = cements passion
- Commitment grows out of = feeling devoted to partner’s well-being
What can happen when one remarriage
- More quick to contemplate leaving partner when disagreeing
- Children are more apt to feel threatened by a new relationship
- May place barriers to your getting along
The deinstitutionalization of marriage was an outcome of the:
Lifestyle revolution of 1960s
Which movement reflects the “lifestyle revolution” that occurred in Europe and North America during the last third of the twentieth century that contributed to the deinstitutionalization of marriage?
Women’s movement
How does marital satisfaction change after a baby? What force predicts coping well with this change?
Martial satisfaction declines. If the couple communicates well before the baby and the dad is involved and caring should be fine.
New mothers feeling unexpectedly stressed and unhappy would cope better if?
Had less rosy, more accurate picture about motherhood from the media
Had less pressure placed on them from outside world to “be perfect”
Questions to predict how involved in child care a man is likely to be
- Are you a mellow person
- What was your relationship like with your own father
- Do you feel content about providing hands-on childcare
- Do you really want this baby
- How committed are you to being the primary breadwinner
Compared to women who stay home, women who work for money spend less time:
Cleaning home and being alone with spouse
Parenthood tends to produce traditional marital roles, which can:
lead to conflicts related to marital equity.
Years of middle age
40 to 60-65
In the US people identify as middle age
early 70s
Feeling physically appealing is essentially important to
happiness at every age
Female body dissatisfaction at middle age
doesn’t increase
- women don’t give up sexuality
Body-image issues of midlife women
impair sexual desire
- Feel deficient by comparing images to other “older” movie stars
- 50-something thin idea
Menopause
The age-related process, occurring at about age 50, in which ovulation and menstruation stop due to the decline of estrogen.
Perimenopause
sexual winding down.
In women, the menstrual cycle becomes more irregular. Physical symptoms such as night sweats and hot flashes
Age-related sexual findings for men and women,
different
- Men:
- more time to develop erection
- More likely to lose before ejaculation
- Ejaculation less intense
- Erection is not as frequent
- Women:
- Orgasm the same
- More apt to turn off to sex
Defining marker of menopause
not menstruating for a year
After menopause women report sex lives
improve
- liberated from anxieties about getting pregnant
Older couples description of sex
All about:
- Intimacy
- Communication
- Authenticity
Sex experts on old age
Focus on what’s physically wrong
- believe sex is automatically more dissatisfying with age
Seattle Longitudinal Study
The definitive study of the effect of aging on intelligence, involving simultaneously conducting and comparing the results of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.
Crystallized Intelligence
A basic facet of intelligence, consisting of a person’s knowledge base, or storehouse, of accumulated information.
Fluid Intelligence
A basic facet of intelligence, consisting of the ability to quickly master new intellectual activities.
Allostatic load
An overall score of body deterioration, gained from summing how a person functions on multiple physiological indexes. Allostatic load predicts cognitive performance during adult life.
Selective optimization with compensation
Paul Baltes’s three principles for successful aging (and living):
- Focus on our most important activities
- Work especially hard in these top-ranking areas
- Rely on external aids when we cannot cope on our own.
The solution to contrasting biases of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of aging
- Conduct both studies simultaneously
- Compare results to get a true picture of intelligence changes with age
Seattle study is unusual because
researchers used intelligence tests measuring separate kinds of abilities
Findings of Seattle study
- Intelligence peek at the late 40s and early 50s
- On test measuring knowledge base improve into the 60s
- On tests involving doing some thing new fast worsen at the early 40s
Psychologist categories of intelligence
- crystallized
- fluid
Fluid intelligence at highest point during
The 20s then declines
- depends on the nervous system being at a biological peak
Crystallized intelligence at highest peak during
increases well into late middle age
- depends on knowledge that we get over years
The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence accounts for
why people in fast pace jobs worry about being over the hill in their 40s
When creative activity depends on being totally original
people perform best in their 30s
When creative activity depends on just crystallized skills
perform best in 60s
How to stay mentally sharp as we age
- Staying physically young
- Exercise mental capacities
How to exercise mental capacities
- Work and complex, challenging jobs
- Careers that involve people
Challenging life experiences promote
resilient minds
The peak of mental powers
The 40s and 50s
- trouble mastering new cognitive challenges when under pressure though
Postformal thought
A uniquely adult form of intelligence that involves being sensitive to different perspectives, making decisions based on one’s inner feelings, and being interested in exploring new questions.
Big FIve
Five core psychological predispositions
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Openness to experience
- Neuroticism
- Extraversion
that underlie personality.
Aristotle and wisdom
believes one component of wise thinking is the ability to thoughtfully direct our lives
Wise people effectively tailor their responses to situations
4 defining qualities of being wise
- Wise thinkers embrace uncertainty
- Wise thinkers are sensitive to others’ perspectives
- Wise thinking involves self-transcendence
- Wise thinking demands humility
Pros and cons of vignette measured wisdom
- Pros:
- Well adjusted
- Prosocial
- Being open to life
- Cons:
- More emotionally involved in a situation less likely to reason wisely
Way psychologists measure personality
ranking people according to five basic temperamental qualities
Neuroticism
the tendency towards mental health versus psychological disturbance
Extroversion
outgoing attitudes
Openness to experience
passion to seek out new experiences
Conscientiousness
kind of efficacious
Agreeableness
kindness, empathy, ability to compromise
Robert McCrae & Paul Costa
big five
A core component of wise thinking
openness to experience
What might help protect us against Alzheimer’s
- openness to experience
- conscientiousness
Core of conscientiousness
having good executive functions
Related to most real-world achievements
conscientiousness
- More stable marriages
- Less likely to be unemployed
- Healthier
- Live longer
Who thinks there is a burden of parent care
- If siblings no
- Alzheimer’s disease yes
Frail older adults in china are in trouble because
- No longer obey care for one’s elders
- No form of government-sponsored system
Generativity
In Erikson’s theory, the seventh psychosocial task, in which people in midlife find meaning from nurturing the next generation, caring for others, or enriching the lives of others through their work. According to Erikson, when midlife adults have not achieved generativity, they feel stagnant, without a sense of purpose in life.
Hedonic happiness \
Well-being is defined as pure pleasure.
Eudaimonic happiness
Well-being is defined as having a sense of meaning and life purpose.
Commitment Script
In Dan McAdams’s research, a type of autobiography produced by highly generative adults that involve:
- childhood memories of feeling special
- being unusually sensitive to others’ misfortunes
- having a strong, enduring generative mission from adolescence
- redemption sequences.
Redemption sequences
In Dan McAdams’s research, a characteristic theme of highly generative adults’ autobiographies, in which they describe tragic events that turned out for the best.
Family watchdogs
A basic role of grandparents, which involves monitoring the younger family member’s well-being and intervening to provide help in a crisis.
Caregiving grandparents
Grandparents who have taken on full responsibility for raising their grandchildren.
Parent care
Adult children care for their disabled elderly parents. Seen as burden
Sandwich generation
women pulled between caring for their young children and disabled elderly parents
is fairly rare
Because our nature shapes specific life experiences
people become more like ourselves as we age
Personality gets less hereditable as we age
Early influence fostering maturity is
confronting normal challenges of adult life
Close adult encounters - the especially romantic kind
Force us to mature faster
As age humans feel more
- in control of life’s
- self-assured
- Less egocentric
- More altruistic attitude towards life
McAdam on genertivity
to understand development we need to get close and personal and talk to people about the mission and goals
Generativity is the key to
happiness in adult life
Life stories of highly generative adults had themes of
- commitment script
- redemption sequences
What produces generatively adults
- Presents of caregiving adults in past
- Critical incidents involving family members and teachers more frequently
Ethnic group high in generative community-minded adults
African American
Tips for brightening your day
- Act in harmony with the inner self
- Buy time in experiences rather than material things
- Reach out to very different kinds of people
How to flourish during middle age
- Having a positive body image
- Keep mind fine-tuned
- If lack life balance - establish priorities
- Practice thinking wisely
- Develop generative mission
Grandmas function to
help species survive
In Africa presence of grandmothers reduces mortality rates in early life
Grandparents in western societies
- Help younger family members cope
- Mediators
- Cheerleaders and advocates
Forces that determine how involved a grandparent is likely to be
- Gender = Women more than men
- If their upper-middle class
- Physical proximity
- Grand children’s age
Grandparents take pride in
free to be there in loving listening and leave discipline to parents
Paternal grandparents in danger of
not being there as much as they would like
If the wife gets custody and remarries
lock ex-husband’s family out of child life
The rate of caregiving grandparents in the US
doubled in decades
Burdens of caregiving grandparents
- Financial issues
- Fear social services will take grandchildren
- Devastating emotions
Elderly spouse is find caregiving far less burdensome then
children
Caregiving for ill parents typically causes
Women to cut back work hours or leave a career
The intergenerational commitment of parent care
caring for an elderly parents and watching grandchildren
For the following age and sexuality statements, select the correct gender
Males/Females decline the most physiologically
Male/Female sexuality is most affected by social issued such as not having a partner.
Males decline most physiologically
Female sexuality is most affected by social issues such as not having a partner
Andrés is an air traffic controller, and Mick is a historian. Pick which man is likely to, and explain the reason why.
Andrés reach first. Because the job is heavily dependent on fluid skills
Identify each type of intellectual skill involved and describe how my abilities in each of these areas are likely to have changed now that I am 70 Y.O
- Learning a new video game
- Writing a textbook
- Textbook
- crystalized skill
- Same as young
- Video Game
- Fluid skills
- Worse than when young
Risk says, “I’ve got too much on my plate. I can’t do anything well.” Identify the theory that would be most helpful in addressing this problem, and explain what this theory would advise.
Baltes’s Selective optimization with compensation
- Prioritize and shed less important jobs
- Work harder in his top-ranking areas
- Use external aids to help him cope
People typically reach a creativity peak in their:
40
Men’s sexual difficulties in midlife mostly relate to:
blodd flow
“Women whose menstrual cycles have stopped for 12 consecutive months are considered to have entered menopause.” This statement offers a(n) ______ definition of menopause by specifying how to measure it.
operational
Which type of study introduces the LEAST amount of bias into the study of changes in intelligence with age?
Longitudinal study
Because of homogamy, a conscientious young adult is likely to marry someone who is:
conscientious
When friends and family are asked to describe 28-year-old Tracy, they say she is hardworking, self-disciplined, and reliable. On the Big Five, Tracy ranks high on:
conscientiousness