Lecture Notes/Outine: Chapter 15 Middle Adulthood - Personality & Socio-Cultural Development

Chap. 15 Middle Adulthood: Personality & Socio-Cultural Development

I. Personality Continuity and Change

A. The tasks of middle adulthood
1. The stage of middle adulthood is defined as much by tasks as it is by age

2. Friendships are established with people who are in the same stage even though they may not be the same age

3. Erikson
a. GENERATIVITY VERSUS SELF ABSORPTION – for Erikson, the overarching task of middle age where adults develop either the feeling that they have contributed in worthwhile ways or that their lives have not been worthwhile

b. People act within three domains
i. Procreative – giving and responding to the needs of their children
ii. Productive – integrating work with family life or by caring for the next generation
iii. Creative – contributing to society on a larger scale

c. When a sense of generativity fails to develop, stagnation and boredom are often the result

4. Extending Erikson’s view
a. Peck argued that Erikson’s eight stages placed too much emphasis on earlier stages of life
b. Peck developed new ideas about the conflicts that each person goes through
c. His ideas were focused on middle and older adulthood

B. Personal reactions to middle adulthood
1. Men’s reactions
a. Men have developed routines that allow them to successfully cope with problems
b. Men now realize that family relations are important and they don’t focus on their job roles
c. They have to cope with the idea that they may have not lived up to the standard that they wanted to

2. Women’s reactions
a. The types of adjustment women experience depends on the roles they adopt
b. The timing of key life events also defines their status, lifestyle, and options at middle adulthood
c. ROLE STRAIN – an overload of demands within a given role, such as being a mother or father

3. Goals and choices
a. Reassessment of priorities occurs and they reflect on whether their original goals have been met
b. Finding a way to contribute to other people allows a healthy adjustment

II. Family and Friends: Interpersonal Contexts

A. The generation that runs things
1. This new responsibility means people have to view their lives in a realistic focus
2. They must live in the present
3. KINKEEPER – the role assumed by middle aged people that includes maintaining family rituals, celebrating achievements, keeping family histories alive, reaching out to family members who are far away, and gathering the family together for holiday celebrations – all of which helps keep the family close

B. Relationships with adult children
1. Launching of adolescents and young adults
a. LAUNCHING OF ADOLESCENTS – parents letting go of older adolescent children so that they can assume responsible adult roles
b. Some families are better at letting go than others
c. Parents must learn to accept who their children are
d. This can sometimes violate parents’ expectations and lower their satisfaction, thus straining the relationship
e. It is often harder for single parents

2. Empty nest
a. EMPTY NEST – the period in the family life cycle that occurs after the last child has left home
b. This stage can be difficult if the partners have grown apart over the years
c. They still rely on each other for emotional support
d. Marital satisfaction is not based on the same things as earlier phases of the family phases

3. Mutually reciprocal relationships
a. As children reach adulthood they establish a reciprocal relationship with their parents
b. Children need to distance themselves to see their parents in a realistically; this can hurt parents

C. Relationships with aging parents
1. The reciprocal exchange of assistance
a. Data have revealed lasting social, emotional, and material exchanges between adult children and their parents
b. How children behave toward their parents depends on their stage in the family life cycle, life expectancy, gender, ethnicity, social class, and family history

2. Role reversals
a. Middle aged adults become the generation in charge
b. Their parents may be in poor health, retired, or in need of financial aid
c. Resentment can occur on both sides if realization that this role reversal is common and inevitable

3. caring for elderly parents
a. Most people think that care of the elderly is relegated to nursing homes, but only about 10% of caregivers use formal services
b. Middle aged caregivers hold the responsibility of parent care
c. This can create tension between the child and parent
d. Daughters are more likely than male family members to care for aging parents

D. Becoming a grandparent
1. Majority of people in the U.S. become grandparents during middle age
2. Grandparents can help raise a new generation without the daily responsibilities of being a parent
3. Grandparents are no longer the old person in a rocking chair, but are involved family members
4. Important roles of grandparents include:
a. Being there – they can be a calming presence in the face of disruption
b. Family national guard – actively managing the grandchildren in times of emergency
c. Arbitrator – imparting and negotiating family values, maintaining family continuity, and assisting in times of conflict
d. Maintaining the family’s biography – teaching grandchildren about the heritage and traditions of the family

E. Friendship: a lifelong perspective
1. Friends can serve as a central part of the lives of people who do not marry or have children by providing intimacy
2. Most complex friendships occurred in the late middle aged group
3. People at this stage are likely to appreciate the unique characteristics of their friends
4. Sex differences are also apparent since women are more deeply involved with friends and consider reciprocity to be their most important dimension

III. The Changing Family

A. Divorce and remarriage
1. Why couples divorce
a. When people at any stage of life want more from their marriage, divorce appears preferable to an unhappy relationship
b. Usually a gradual process of emotional distancing
c. Women are usually the initiators of divorce

2. Coping with life after divorce
a. Financial hardship affects both men and women
b. Women must enter the workforce if they were not already working
c. Men may need to work longer hours
d. Grief and mourning over the loss of an intimate relationship occurs
e. Disruption of normal routines also occurs
f. If it occurs in middle adulthood they may have to do things that were considered more appropriate for people in early adulthood like dating, going back to school or finding a new job

3. Starting a new life
a. May feel like they have a new chance at life after divorce
b. May have problems relinquishing their previous roles
c. May be unready to manage financial and legal matters
d. Within 2 or 3 years many individuals experience considerable improvement in well being
e. Men are 3 times as likely to remarry

4. Marriages that succeed
a. Both males and females list “my spouse is my best friend” as the primary reason for happiness
b. They are usually satisfied with their sex lives though it is not a primary factor
c. Marriage helps older people deal with stressful life events

B. RECONSTITUTED / BLENDED FAMILY – a family in which partners with children have remarried or formed a cohabiting relationship; also called a step family

1. Reconstituted families in perspective
a. Now a result of marriage-divorce-remarriage instead of marriage-death-remarriage
b. Contact with the former spouse can make it difficult to maintain appropriate distance between the parents
c. Characterized by more open communication and greater acceptance of conflict

2. Learning to live in a reconstituted family
a. Most parents list discipline as the greatest difficulty in being a stepparent
b. The stereotype of the stepchild as being neglected is widespread, but inaccurate
c. Taking time to develop mutual trust, affection, and closeness to the child helps form a workable relationship
d. Stepparents who try to compete with the stepchild’s biological parent are more likely to fail

IV. Occupational Continuity and Change

A. Job change and stress
1. It is difficult to find another job with comparable pay and benefits
2. Career changes are not welcome and may not go smoothly
3. This can increase stress and conflict both at home and on the job

B. Job loss
1. People who are forced to leave their job experience problems that may outweigh the loss of income
2. Emotional responses include anger, protest, bargaining, and depression
3. More difficult for middle aged adults
4. Those who cope best take loss in stride and don’t turn their anger inward

C. JOB BURNOUT – the emotional exhaustion that often affects people in high stress professions and trades
1. People in helping professions who experience job burnout are generally idealistic, highly motivated, extremely competent workers who realize they can’t make the difference they wanted to
2. General cause is lack of rewards
3. It is not the result of incompetence or personal failings

D. Midcareer reassessment
1. Occurs when workers find out they are not being promoted as rapidly as expected or a job is less desirable than expected

2. Since there is a greater tolerance for deviations from social norms, it has become easier for a wife to support her husband

3. As children grow older and more independent, people in middle adulthood may make changes to reduce their income or transform their way of living





V. Continuity and Change in the Structure of Personality

A. The five factor model
1. Personality can be well described by assessing five traits
2. Emotional stability
3. Extraversion
4. Openness to experiences
5. Agreeableness
6. Conscientiousness

B. Stability or change?
1. Personality seems to be established early in life
2. Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase through adulthood
3. Emotional stability increases more for women than men
4. Personality can be shaped by life events