Lecture 6 - Middle Adulthood Flashcards
At approximately what age is middle adulthood?
40’s - 60’s (65).
What are the main features of middle adulthood?
Prime of life.
Stock-taking, what to do with the rest of your life.
Fidelity and commitments.
Accept natures course regarding body/time
communication and socialization.
What Erikson stage are people in during middle adulthood? What virtue emerges? What is a big part of gaining this virtue?
Generativity vs. stagnation.
Virtue of care.
Relationships with others such as children, spouse, friends; guiding the next vgeneration.
What are three ways that people in middle adulthood can be generative if they do not have children?
- Being creative
- Helping others
- Contributing to society
Important for mature people to feel needed.
What can occur if true generativity cannot be reached?
“pseudo engagement: in which one settles for restricted highly skilled aspects of roles instead of reaching for greater responsibility.
Stagnation that could result in escape behaviors (drugs and alcohol).
What is a midlife crisis?
Sudden and abrupt revolutionary turning point that involves changes in commitments to spouse or career and significant emotional turmoil.
Internal agitation leads to a flurry of impulsive actions.
What is a midlife transition?
Normal. Mental turmoil without impulsive action. Changes are thought out and deliberate.
Reappraisal of all life aspects precipitated by growing recognition that life is finite; usually decide to keep life structures: marriage and career.
What is it like when someone in mid adulthood is developing friendships?
Less urgent or less pressing need to make new relationships.
Easily able to initiate and sustain friendships with people of all ages.
What are some things that some to mind when someone in mid adulthood is reappraising their relationships?
Stay married or not?
Re-eval goodness of fit.
Dissolving marriage has impact on spouse, kids, family, and friends.
May need to take on new roles as children become independent.
The fact that divorce runs in families indicates what?
That poor conflict resolution strategies may play a role in poor relationships.
Divorce rates are highest in what type of couples?
Couples that marry as teenagers or come from different SES backgrounds.
What puts the greatest amount of strain on a marriage? What in particular about this is difficult?
Parenting.
Illness in child creates greatest strain: 50% of marriages in which a child has died from illness or accident end in divorce.
Describe the sexuality of people in middle adulthood?
They maintain intimacy in the face of physical, psychological, and environmental pressures.
For intimacy to continue, what are three things that partners must do?
- Accept appearance of mid-age body of partner
- Continue to find it sexually stimulating
- Accept normative changes that occur in sexual functioning
The diminished sexual ability of the years is compensating by what?
Feelings of love/tenderness generated over years.
What are some normative sexual changes that begin to occur in middle adulthood? What occurs specifically for men and women?
Decrease in sex drive and mechanical problems.
Men: greater difficulty getting and sustaining erection, longer refractory period after ejaculation.
Women: decreased estrogen > thinning vaginal mucosa, decrease secretions, fewer contractions at orgasm
What is climacterium? Describe this in men and women.
Period of life characterized by decease in biological and physiological functioning.
Women: menopause by ~50 with 80% having hot flashes.
Men: no clear demarcation, around 50 there’s a decline in healthy sperm and seminal fluid
What are physical changes that occur in middle adulthood?
Bone loss begins to exceed formation.
Vertebral compression after 40 y, lose 1cm after 10 years.
Lean muscle mass decrease
Energy requirements decline
What is the prevalence of coronary artery disease in men and women?
1 in 2 for men
1 in 3 for women
What is the prevalence of cancer in Americans? More than 75% of cancers are in people ____ and older.
4 in 10 Americans develop cancer at some point.
55 years of age.
What sensory changes occur in middle adulthood in terms of vision and hearing?
Decrease in near vision (presbyopia)
Decrease in ability to hear high pitched sounds (presbycusis)
What sensory changes occur in middle adulthood in terms of olfaction? What about other senses?
Decreased ability to detect odors and less taste discrimination (smell more preserved in women).
Decreased sensitivity to vibration, pain, temp, pressure, and light touch.
What are some cognitive changes that occur during middle adulthood (ie in the brain and in intelligence)?
Brain weight declines (atrophy)
Fluid intelligence declines: ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations (“street smarts”)
Crystallized intelligence improves: ability to use learned knowledge and experiences
What is explicit memory and what happens to it during middle adulthood?
Declarative memory (ie recall)
Declines with age.
