Lecture 7 Flashcards
What is socioemotional selective theory
Our social goals and motivation change as we age.
- Older adults: aware of limited time, focus on emotionally meaningful relationships and experiences
Younger adults: focus on broadening their social circles or seeking out novelty.
What is the Positivity effect?
- Older adults focus more on positive information and experiences.
- Pay less attention to negative stimuli.
Shrinking circles
- social circles get smaller
- people die, move away….
Paradox of wellbeing
Despite declining cognitive/physical health, loss of loved ones, and reduced social networks, older adults often report being just as happy as young people
Why?
- older adults focus more on + experiences
- Prioritize more fulfilling goals
- perspective
Self perception of aging
Personal perception of aging process
What can they do compared to others their age?
What are the two different ways an individual can respond to being confronted by a stereotype of aging?
- Integration of stereotypes (labelling theory)
Listen to aging stereotypes and integrate it into self perception - Rejection of stereotypes / resilience theory
Avoid integrating negative steriotypes
✨ “I’m not like other old people (girls)”✨
💅
What is personal control?
The degree to which we believe we are in control of our performance within a given situation
Relates to many aspects of life & wellbeing
Too high = not adaptive
Culturally robust- relatively consistent across cultures
Emotional intelligence
- understanding your emotions and others emotions
- increases with age
- key role in wellbeing
Storytelling culture and memory
Older adults are more fluent and detailed in storytelling contexts compared to young adults
Collective or communicative memory
They are part of the field of collective memory, which focuses on how societies remember their past and pass it on to future generations.
- Shared long term memories of a group
- Tend to span 3-4 generations
- Older people are a big part of maintaining this collective memory
Collaborative cognition
Cognitive performance that results from the interaction of two or more individuals
(Working together to remember things)
*Cultural memory
Memory created through symbolic heritage
Erikson’s stages
Personality is determined by the interactions between inner maturation and external sociocultural demands.
Proposed life cycle has 8 stages of development
each stage must overcome a conflict (or else)
bumbumbummm!
- Infantry (trust vs mistrust)
- Early childhood (autonomy vs shame and doubt)
- Play age (initiative vs guilt)
- School age (industry vs inferiority)
- Adolescence (identity vs identity confusion)
- Young adult (intimacy vs isolation)
- Adult (generativity vs stagnation)
- old age (integrity vs dispair)
What is erikson’s 7ths stage?
Generativity (generate something that’ll benefit others) vs. Stagnation (self-absorption)
Age range: Adulthood 40s – 60s
Life purpose and “Midlife Crisis”
Higher generativity =positive emotion, higher life & work satisfaction
ex. having kids
What is Generativity? What are the five types?
Generativity: desire to “generate” positive outcomes that benefit others, reflecting a need to create or nurture things that will outlast the individual.
1. Biological/parental generativity (raising kids)
2. Technical “” passing specific skills to the next gen
3. Cultural “” being mentor
4. Agentic “” desire to do something that lasts after death
5. Communal “” drive to contribute to society
Strong predictor of emotional wellbeing in middle and old age
What kinds of things encourage generativity?
Commitment scripts: Life stories individuals tell themselves about their dedication to making a difference or creating positive change, often reflecting values of generativity.
*Redemption sequences: transforming negative events into positive outcomes. In these stories, personal hardships or challenges lead to growth, resilience, or the ability to help others.
*Going through difficult things doesn’t automatically make someone more mature, it depends on their outlook and take away
What is Erikson’s 8th stage?
Integrity vs. Despair
Age: 60s+
Integrity: Satisfied and glad to have lived the way they did, accepting life
-embracing aging without fear
Despair:
- view life as wasted
- fear of death
- lack of fulfillment
- depression
Growing awareness of the nearing end of life. Realization that you must live on through others “life-affirming involvement”
People ith higher integroty live longer
Sandwich Generation
Many middle-aged and older adults take care of both their adult children and their aging parents
Mostly aged 40-60, women, higher income, married
Why?
Increasing longevity in the elderly
Children moving out a little later
Effects of Caregiving on Sandwich
Generation
- More likely to feel like they have less time,
- more likely to report extreme stress
- Just as happy
- Much less financially comfortable (might have to financially support parent and kid)
What is the role of grandparent?
Mediation:Step in during times of family stress
Stability: Help keep the family close
Communication: Pass on family narratives and collective/cultural memory. Keep family updated on family news
What are the 5 grandparenting styles
Influential: Very involved, frequently perform parental roles
Supportive: Very involved, don’t perform parental roles
Authority-Oriented: Provides discipline, not super close or involved
Passive: Rare contact, holidays, video calls
Detached: Uninvolved
Benefits of grandparent relationship
Benefits for grandchild:
- Better adjustment during stressful social events
- Better support system
Benefits or grandparent:
- Increased generativity
- More physical activity
- Grandchildren can provide assistance
Caregiving grandparent:
How many people are grandparents? How many kids live in multigenerational houses? How many grandparents care for kids?
- 1/2 of Canadian adults aged 45+ are grandparents
- 1 in 10 children live in a multigenerational household with grandparents, 14% of indigenous/First Nations children
21% of grandparents reported providing care to their grandchildren in past year
How could a Grandparent gain custody in Canada? What are the effects?
- Parental Incompetence or Absence:
- Substance abuse
- Parent is incarcerated - Parental Death
- Grandparents could apply for custody - Child’s Best Interest
- Grandparents ability to meet child’s mental and physical needs
Effects of caregiving on grandparents:
- More difficult as they are older
What is the Tessera model?
Triggering Situations,
Expectancy,
States/State
Expressions,
ReActions Model
*Explains how personality traits evolve over time through repeated short-term experiences.
- A challenging situation happens
- There are expectations about how the person should action that situation
- The person may adapt to the situation in a short-term way
- They receive feedback from the environment/situation
- This repeats and can create long-term change over time
Personality factors affect our health
- neuroticism: worse health
- openesses and consciousness: Protect against Alzheimer’s and keep people cognitively sharp
Help people grow emotionally
Identity
Starts really forming in adolescence, but develops across the lifespan
Life stories change over time & interact with social, cultural, gender, racial/ethnic contexts & backgrounds
Major and minor life changes have an effect
What are the most common themes of Life stories?
Most common themes:
1. Agency: What has been done, where you have been, etc.
- Communion:
-Love, intimacy and sense of belonging
- Love life, groups they belonged to, etc - Beliefs and values
2SLGBTQ+
Identities
Cohorts
Why come out later?
Midlife may offer new period of introspection
Benefits
Three parallel levels of personality
Dispositional traits: Traits that are a consistent aspect of personality
Personal concerns: Things that are important to people (goals)
Life narratives: Everything coming together to create an identity
Three structural components to personality:
- State process: Bodily state causes short term changes in emotion (hunger)
- Self-regulatory process: self-control
- Cognitive process
What is the five main personality traits?
Neuroticism: Act anxious, hostile, self-conscious, depressed, impulsive, and vulnerable.
(declines with age)
- Reactivity to stimuli
Extraversion: thrive on social interaction, like to talk, take charge easily, readily express their opinions and feelings.
- Gets energy from being around others
Openness to experience:
- more likely to try new things
(Decreases with age)
Agreeableness: being accepting, willing to work with others, and caring.
(Increases with age)
- less argumentative
- ignore triggering things in the moment
Conscientiousness:
- Planning, following through on a plan
- Preparedness and organization
(Increases with age)
Jungs theory
- each aspect of a person’s personality must be in balance with all others
Two basic orientations of the ego:
1. extraversion
2. introversion - Age related trends in personality, development:
1. Emerging adults are generally more extraverted than older adults-old adults more introverted
2. In early adulthood, individuals often conform to gender-role stereotypes, but later, they integrate the opposite traits, leading to a more balanced personality.
Whitbourne’s identity theory
Lifespan construct: the way people build a perspective of who they are
Scenario: expectations for future
Life story: personal nartive history (makes past events into cohesive story)
Emotional wellbeing
Increases with age
Helpful for getting along with others, may play a key role in wellbeing
What is happiness?
Hedonic vs Eudaimonic
Hedonic happiness: the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, emphasizing immediate satisfaction and enjoyment.
Feeling good
Usually short term
Not highly related to generativity
Eudaimonic happiness focuses on finding purpose, meaning, and personal growth, aiming for a deep, lasting sense of fulfillment
Ex. Creating things that will outlive you
Purpose and Meaning
Highly related to generativity
Positive self-perceptions and wellness
View yourself positively = longer healthier life
Generativity in the 2SLGBTQ+ community
- Different
- Focus on helping younger generations (help make them feel safe and figure out identities)
Self-Beliefs and Generativity
Commitment scripts
Early memory of feeling blessed or fortunate in some way
Caring for others, seeing to others needs
“I knew from an early age….”
Redemption sequences
Bad experiences helped a person grow and become better
Going through difficult things doesn’t automatically make someone more mature, it depends on their outlook and takeaway
Grandparent & Grandchild relationship
Distance can make things difficult but technology can help
The age of the grandchild can affect the relationship
Family and cultural expectations around the role of a grandparent are important
Closeness and involvement factors
Personality and Aging
- Over time, personality traits tend to strengthen
- Age related personality changes
- Personality and neuroscience
- Mapping personality on the brain
- Interesting in studying dramatic personality changes after traumatic brain injuries
How can collaborative memories help shape life stories?
- Collaborative memory with others helps to shape life story
- We can be told stories about when we were an infant, that we don’t remember
- Other people sharing their perspectives on you
