Chapter 17                 Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

Comprehension and Application Essay Questions

 

We recommend that you follow either our guidelines for "Answering Essay and Critical Thinking Questions," or those provided by your instructor, when preparing your response to these questions. Your answers to these kinds of questions demonstrate an ability to comprehend and apply ideas discussed in this chapter.

 

1. Define middle age, and explain its changing nature.

2. Summarize the physical changes that occur during middle age.

3. Define and distinguish among Type-A behavior, Type-C behavior, and hardiness, and explain their relationship between these personality factors and health.

4. Summarize the evidence regarding the relationship between culture and health.

5. Explain how you can manage stress in your own life.

6. Describe the biological changes in sexuality that occur during middle age.

7. Describe the cognitive changes that occur during middle age.

8. Describe your own personal work pathway to date, and then project it into the future. Also incorporate a discussion of your projected (or past) job satisfaction and mid-life career change into your answer.

9. Discuss your present leisure interests. Also indicate and explain which of these interests will change and which will remain stable as you age.

 

 

Chapter 17                 Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

Summary

 

1.0 Images of Life-Span Development: Middle-Age Variations

 

The opening vignette portrays two rather different life paths that indicate middle age is the best period of life for some and the worst period of life for others. In either case, middle adulthood is a time of transition in which relationships change in response to life events and personality development continues.

 

2 .0 Close Relationships

 

One of the common themes of middle adulthood is close relationships.

 

Love and Marriage at Mid-Life. Love relations during middle adulthood continue to grow deeper and more intimate as long-term relationships build on an affectionate or companionate love. Mutual emotional intimacy is the foundation of such relationships along with respect and good communication. Divorce during this period is more positive or more negative than in the early adult period. Couples who have survived intact have often accommodated to changing goals and interests. This stage may be termed family life cycle stability or working through.

 

The Empty Nest and its Refilling. Adult children leave home to explore their adulthood, leaving the nest empty. This flight is accompanied by increases in marital satisfaction as couples now have more time for each other and more time for themselves. Current financial and educational trends have produced an increase in the number of adult children who return to live with their parents during difficult transition times in their life. The strain on both children and parents is apparent, but can be reduced with adequate space, mutual respect, and clear communication.

Most middle-aged adults have siblings who share the middle adulthood period with them. Those who were close to their siblings during their childhood will remain close, although some relationships become rivalrous or are strained so much as to break off. Most sibling relationships do remain close; however, if the relationships were strained throughout childhood they will continue to be strained. Like sibling relationships, friendships during this period are deeper and more intimate than in any previous developmental period.

 

Intergenerational Relationships. Contact among generations is an important role mediated by individuals in the middle adult period, particularly the women. Men are more likely to spend time with their wives' relatives, and mothers are likely to set the tone for the frequency and type of interactions that develop among her kin. The closest relationship among kin occurs between mothers and their daughters. Part of the continuing contact among generations may put middle-aged adults in the middle between caring for adolescent and adult children and caring for aging parents. The strains of the sandwich generation are numerous and need to be recognized.

 

3.0 Personality Theories and Development in Middle Age

 

The Adult Stage Theories. Personality development during this period is of particular interest to Erikson, Gould, Levinson, and Vaillant. Erikson's life-cycle view argues that personality development is the result of the resolution of the generativity versus stagnation psychosocial conflict. Gould's transformation view claims that mid-life is as turbulent as adolescence and handling the crises leads to a happier life for 40-year-olds who are beginning to develop a sense of urgency about their life. Levinson offers a description of the seasons of a person's life with special emphasis on the conflicts that middle-aged adults must resolve. Changes in middle adulthood focus on four conflicts: being young versus being old; being destructive versus being constructive; being masculine versus being feminine; being attached to others versus being separated from them. Vaillant expands Erikson's stages and focuses on career consolidation (age 23 to 35) and the search for meaning (age 45 to 55). Adult development begins with a change from identity to intimacy; then from career consolidation to generativity, and finally from searching for meaning to some final integration. Critics argue that not enough emphasis is placed on individual differences and the importance of life events.

 

Crisis and Cohort. Although several of the personality theorists argue that middle adulthood is a time of crisis, data indicates that most Americans do not experience a crisis nor do most other cultures. In fact, some cultures do not even have a middle adulthood period. The stereotypes about the mid-life crisis might be the result of a cohort effect, and should not be used to classify the middle adulthood period. Neugarten believes the social environment of a particular cohort can later its social clock—the timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life's tasks such as getting married, having children, or establishing a career.

 

Gender, Culture, and Middle Age. Critics of adult stage theories claim they have a male bias by emphasizing career choice and achievement. The stage theories do not adequately address women's concerns about relationships, interdependence, and caring. The stage theories assume a normative sequence of development, but as women's roles have become more varied and complex, determining what is normative is difficult. Midlife is a heterogenous age period for women, just as it is for men. Midlife is truly the prime of their life. Cultural differences are also missing from the stage theories and deserve some attention. In many nonindustrialized societies, a woman's status often improves in middle age. In many cultures, the concept of middle age is not clear. Some cultures do not have words for "adolescent," "young adult," or "middle-aged adult;" however, most cultures distinguish between the young and the old.

 

The Life-Events Approach. The life-event approach, unlike the stage approach, focuses on the impact of life events, stressful factors that forces individuals to change their personality. Contemporary life-event approaches incorporate mediating factors, individual variation, life-stage considerations, and sociohistorical factors into their explanations for developmental change. Life-event approaches have been characterized for ignoring the stability of development and the impact of daily experiences.

 

Individual Variation. One approach to adult personality development emphasizes similarities, another emphasizes differences. The adult stage approach emphasizes similarities. However, there is substantial individual variation in adult development.

 

4.0 Longitudinal Studies of Personality Development in Adulthood

 

There have been several longitudinal studies of personality. Neugarten showed that the most consistent characteristics were adaptive: styles of coping, attaining life satisfaction, and strength of goal-directed behavior. Two significant changes in middle age were increase in both passive mastery and inferiority. Costa and McRae report extensive stability in adult personality development with regard to neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience. The California Longitudinal Study indicated that characteristics associated with the self were more stable than those associated with interpersonal relationships. The Mills College study of adult women showed a shift toward less traditionally feminine characteristics from age 27 to the early forties; however, this may reflect societal changes. In their early forties, women experienced many of the concerns identified by Levinson and Gould for men; however, this change was described as mid-life consciousness rather than mid-life crisis. These longitudinal studies portray adults as becoming different but still remaining the same—amidst change there is still some underlying coherence and stability.

 

5.0 Contemporary Concerns

 

Sociocultural Worlds of Development 17.1: Intergenerational Relationships in Mexican American Families— the Effects of Immigration and Acculturation. Immigration from Mexico to the United States usually entails separation from one's extended family. After achieving stability in their lives, Mexican family members often sponsor immigration of extended family members. Although three levels of acculturation may exist within the Mexican American family, these families maintain considerable intergenerational contact and continue to have a strong family orientation.

 

Perspectives on Parenting and Education 17.1: When Adult Children Move Back In. Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine offer the following four recommendations for parents whose adult children move back home: (a) define your relationship, (b) allow young adult children to have an independent life style, (c) discuss how finances will be handled, and (d) establish a time limit on living at home.

 

Life-Span Practical Knowledge 17.1: Flow. This book is about experiencing life optimally. It suggests that happiness derives from mindful challenge and active rather than passive experience.

 

Life-Span Practical Knowledge 17.2: Man's Search for Meaning. This book presents an existentialist approach to the pursuit of self-fulfillment and life's meaning. This book examines questions such as:

Why do you exist? What do you want from life? and What is the meaning of your life?

 

Life-Span Health and Well-Being: Engaging in a Life Review. The process of life review can be beneficial because the activity establishes a future orientation. One way to perform a life review is to look at segments of one's life, one at a time. An alternative approach is a chronological one.

 

Key Terms

 

1.0 Images of Life-Span Development: Middle-Age Variations

 

2.0 Close Relationships

mutuality                            

family life cycle stability

working through                              

empty nest syndrome

intergenerational relationships

sandwich generation

 

3.0 Personality Theories and Development in Middle Age      

life-cycle view                                                     

transformations                                                               

seasons of a man's life                                        

generativity                                                                 

stagnation

career consolidation                               

keeping the meaning versus rigidity                

social clock

normative sequence of development

contemporary life-events approach                

daily hassles

 

4.0 Longitudinal Studies of Personality Development in Adulthood

longitudinal study

 

5.0 Contemporary Concerns

 immortality            

 immigration        

 acculturation       

 life review             

 existentialism

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