Transcript Chapter 12

Chapter 16
Psychosocial Development in
Middle Adulthood
Cohort, gender, ethnicity, culture, and
socioeconomic impact loss/continued skills
Maslow & Rogers
Viewed middle age as an opportunity for positive
change
Maslow- self-actualization (realizing full human
potential) only comes with maturity.
Rogers believed that full human functioning
requires a constant, lifelong process of bringing
the self in harmony with experience
Women emphasize expressiveness and nurturance;
men emphasize achievement
Erikson
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
• Characterized by concern with what is generated,
and establishing and setting forth guidelines for
up-coming generations. As aspect of identity
formation.
• This push for values is generated by the
psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of
personality enrichment.
• When generativity is weak or not given expression
the personality regresses, takes on a sense of
impoverishment and stagnation
Erikson
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
• Virtue of CARE develops here.
• Care is expressed by one’s concern for others, by
wanting to take care of those who need it and to
share one’s knowledge and experience with others
• This is accomplished through childrearing and
teaching, demonstrating, and supervising.
• Humans have an inherent need to teach.
• Humans achieve satisfaction and fulfillment by
teaching children, adults, employees, and even
animals.
Erikson
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
• Facts, logic, and truths are preserved throughout
generations by this passion to teach.
• Caring and teaching are responsible for the
survival of the cultures, through reiteration of their
customs, rituals, and legends.
• Teaching also instills a vital sense of feeling needs
by others, a sense of important, which deters them
from becoming too engrossed and absorbed with
themselves.
Erikson
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
• Teaching also instills a vital sense of feeling needs
by others, a sense of important, which deters them
from becoming too engrossed and absorbed with
themselves.
• “CARE is the widening concern for what has been
generated by love, necessity, or accident; it
overcomes the ambivalence adhering to
irreversible obligation”.
• Ritualization: generational: ritualization of
parenthood, production, teaching, healing, etc. the
adult acts in the role of transmitter of ideal values
to the young
Erikson
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle
adulthood)
• Distortions: expressed by the ritualism of
Authoritism: the seizure or encroachment
of authority incompatible with care.
• Genital Stage
******Adults develop useful lives by helping
and guiding children. Childless adults must
fill this need through adoption or other close
relationships with children.
Vaillant & Jung- lessening of gender
differences
• Men become more nurturing and expressive
• Less obsessed with personal achievement
and more concerned with relationships
• Become mentors
• Also turning inward and introspection
Timing of Events: The Social Clock Theory
• Focus on important life events
• Restructuring of social roles
• Launching children
• Becoming grandparents
• Changing jobs/careers
• Retirement
• Women now focus less on childcare,
entered workforce
The Self
• Midlife Crisis- triggered by review and
reevaluation of one’s life
• May not actualize all of their dreams
• May want to change life’s direction
• Some experience this crisis, others feel at peak of
their power
• Really just a turning point, psychological
transitions
• Changes in meaning, purpose, or direction of
one’s life
• May be positive or negative
Midlife review- new insights into the self,
spurring corrections, some regret
• Depends on individuals circumstances and
personal resources
• People high on neuroticism likely to
experience more crisis
• People with ego-resiliency (ability to adapt
flexibly and resourcefully) and those with
sense of mastery do better (see Table 16-1
(page 593))
Piaget
Identity assimilation- attempt to fit new
experiences into existing schema
Tends to maintain continuity of the self
Identity accommodation- adjustment of
schema to fit new experience
Tends to bring about needed change
Whitbourne
How deals with assimilation/accommodation
is their identity style- balanced identity style
results with flexibility to make changes but
new experience does not cause the person to
question fundamental assumptions about the
self.
Deal with physical, mental, emotional
changes associated with aging same as they
deal with other experiences that challenge
the identity schema
Erikson saw gender identity as being closely related
to social roles and commitments. Changing roles
and relationships at midlife may affect gender
identity, but the most profound midlife revisions
may be internal, how understands and thinks about
himself.
Studies suggest that men become more open about
feelings, more interested in intimate relationships,
more nurturing (more feminine characteristics)
Women become more assertive, self-confident,
achievement orientated
Jung saw these changes as part of the process
of individuation, or balancing the
personality.
Gender crossover- role reversals to some
degree
Psychological Well-Being
• Emotionally and life satisfaction tended to be
good
• Social support and religiosity are important factors
Ryff- Multiple Dimensions of Well-Being
• Self-acceptance
• Positive relations with others
• Autonomy
• Environmental mastery
• Purpose in life
• Personal growth
Generativity
Erikson- a sign of both psychological
maturity and psychological health
Challenges of this period require generative
responses
Theories of Social Contact
Social convoy theory- people move through
life surrounded by convoys of people
This is stable over life-span
Carstensen’s socioemotional theory
• How people choose whom to spend time
with:
• Social interaction has three main goals:
• Source of information
• Helps people develop and maintain sense of
self
• Source of pleasure and comfort, or
emotional well-being
Marriage & Cohabitation
• Marriage offers major benefits:
• Social support
• Encouragement of health-promoting
behaviors
• Greater socioeconomic resources
• Wealth accumulation
• Better physical and mental health
Marriage & Cohabitation
• Divorced and noncohabitating men/women- more
negative emotionality
• The longer a couple married, the less satisfied they
are (20-24 years of marriage)
• At 35-40 years of marriage, more satisfied
• Reason: teenage children have grown and in
careers; satisfaction increases when children are
grown.
• Cohabitating men over 50 are more depressed,
same as single men
• Women may enjoy it more, without commitment
of marriage to care for elderly spouse
Midlife divorce
• More emotionally devastating than losing a job;
same as major illness; more so for women
• Marital capitol may be why long-term marriages
survive
• Primary reason for divorce- abuse; then differing
values or lifestyles, infidelity, substance abuse, or
falling out of love
• Most do bounce back.
• Emotional problems follow divorce
Gay/Lesbian Relationships
• Due to earlier stigmas, may now be able to
search for partners
• May have guilt, prolonged search for
identity, conflicted relationships with both
sexes, other barriers
• Same principles for maintaining
heterosexual relationships apply
• If known to their support network,
gay/lesbian relationships tend to be
stronger, more egalitarian than heterosexual
Friendships
• Strong source of support, especially for
women
• Quality of relationships makes up for lack
in quantity of time spent
• Friends offer a lot of emotional support
Empty nest
• Most parents, even mothers, adjust just fine!
• Depends on quality of marriage
• If strong marriage, children leaving fosters a
second honeymoon
• If shaky marriage, especially if remained
together for the children’s sake, may
divorce
• For some women, empty nest brings relief
from the chronic emergency of parenthood.
• Continue to parent adult children,
supportive.
Empty nest
• Revolving door syndrome: young
adults returning to live at home. More
men than women
• Creates tension, impedes growth
• Most middle-aged parents and their
children have warm and supportive
relationships
Filial maturity- new proposed stage:
middle-aged children learn to accept
and meet their parents’ dependency
needs
Filial crisis- adults learn to balance love
and duty to their parents with
autonomy within a two-way
relationship
Some problems with caring for one’s
parents
Caregiver burnout- physical, mental,
and emotional exhaustion that can
affect adults who care for their aged
relatives
Sandwich generation: caring for own
children while having to care for own
parents- stresses resources
Grandparent role
• Some continue to work
• Some play integral role in child raising
and family decisions
• Grandmothers tend to keep in touch
with everyone
• Spend grandparents money on the
grandchildren
Cohort, gender, ethnicity, culture, and
socioeconomic impact loss/continued skills
Maslow & Rogers
Viewed middle age as an opportunity for positive
change
Maslow- self-actualization (realizing full human
potential) only comes with maturity.
Rogers believed that full human functioning requires
a constant, lifelong process of bringing the self in
harmony with experience