Middle Adulthood Social & Emotional Flashcards
Jung’s Stages: Middle Adulthood
Jung’s Stages: Middle Adulthood
●Stage 4–The Middle of Life or the Second Half of Life
●Usually, somewhere between the ages of 35 and 40 a person reaches the middle of life and begins to live in what Jung termed the second half of life.
●The second half of life is characterized by several changes.
The need to focus attention on the inner meaning of life.
●Jung indicates that the second half of life cannot be lived like the first. In the first half of life, acquisition was important. During the second part of life, reflection and one’s inner, spiritual journey must be developed.
Over time men became more feminine and women more masculine in their approach to life.
●This can often be seen in grandfathers who were strict with their own children, but are loving, nurturing, and gentle with their grandchildren.
●Women who took the feminine role and raised a family often embark on an aggressive career during the second half of life.
May be due to a woman’s lowered levels of estrogen and progesterone and increased influence of testosterone
●Gutmann: later in life people begin to use androgynous responses, associated with increased flexibility and adaptability, not restricted to feminine or masculine characteristics
A change in principles or convictions. As a person approaches 50, the sacred principles and convictions established in the first half of life begin to be questioned.
Some cling even more and become rigid and inflexible. It is as if they believed that hanging on to their cherished beliefs would make them believe them again.
Others search for a new meaning in life and begin to realize that the second half of life is not to be lived as the first half.
Gutmann:
later in life people begin to use androgynous responses, associated with increased flexibility and adaptability, not restricted to feminine or masculine characteristics
Trait Models
Behavioral traits that constitute the core of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Situational Models
Behavior as the outcome of the characteristics of the situation in which the person is momentarily located.
We are motivated to believe that the world around us is orderly and patterned because we want predictability.
Interactionist Models
Behavior is always a joint product of the person and the situation
Theories of Self in Transition
Maturity and Self-Concept
Maturity: capacity to undergo continual change in order to adapt successfully and cope flexibly with the demands and responsibilities of life.
Self-Concept: The view we have of ourselves through time as “the real me.”
Stage Model of Middle Adulthood
Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Generativity: ability to look outside oneself and care for others; a concern for the next generation(s). An extension of love into the future- mature and unselfish. During Stage 6 intimacy had to be reciprocated.
Generativity is a love that is greater than that; it is a love that is given regardless of whether it is reciprocated.
The most obvious example: parenting. Adults need children as much as children need adults and that this stage reflects the innate need to create a living legacy (Erikson & Erikson, 1987).
Other generative activities: teaching, mentoring, writing, social activism, producing music or anything that satisfies the need to be needed
Stagnation the exact opposite. It is caring for no-one and being self-absorbed.
Four Paths to Developing generativity
see slide
Robert Peck’s 4 tasks at midlife:
Robert Peck’s 4 tasks at midlife:
- Valuing wisdom versus valuing physical powers
- Socializing vs. sexualizing
- Emotional flexibility vs. emotional impoverishment
- Mental flexibility vs. mental rigidity
Developmental Tasks of Middle Adulthood
The RE- years
Developmental tasks of midlife have been identified (Beckham):
- Adjusting to the physical changes of middle
- Finding satisfaction and success in one’s occupational
career. - Assuming adult social and civic responsibility.
- Launching children into responsible, happy adulthood.
- Revitalizing marriage.
- Reorienting oneself to aging parents.
- Realigning sex roles.
- Developing social networks and leisure-
time activities. - Finding new meaning in life.
Family and Marriage
Married Couples:
- 71% of middle aged are married - sex less, but better - women still doing most of housework - men still liked power and dominance - women need “me” time
Successful couples (Lauer and Lauer):
- Positive attitude toward one’s spouse - Marriage is a long-term commitment and a sacred institution.
Extramarital Relations
- Sex not the lure for EMS.
- Loneliness, emotional excitement, and wanting to prove “still young.”
-Forces within the individual that PULL them toward affairs:
Attraction: sex, companionship, admiration, power Novelty Excitement, risk, or challenge Curiosity Enhanced self-image Falling in love
Forces within the individual that PUSH them toward affairs:
- Desire to escape or find relief from a painful relationship
- Boredom
- Desire to fill gaps in an existing relationship
- Desire to punish one’s partner
- Need to prove one’s attractiveness or worth Desire for attention
