Chapter 16

• According to Maslow (1968), the full realization of human potential, which he called self-actualization, can come only with maturity.
• Rogers held that full human functioning requires a constant, lifelong process of bringing the self in harmony with experience.
• Conscientiousness - being deliberate, organized, and disciplined—tends to be highest in middle age.
• Healthy midlife development calls for individuation, the emergence of the true self through balancing or integrating conflicting parts of the personality, including those parts that previously have been neglected.
• Two necessary but difficult tasks of midlife are giving up the image of youth and acknowledging mortality.
• Generativity versus stagnation - Erikson’s seventh stage of psychosocial development, in which the middle-aged adult develops a concern with establishing, guiding, and influencing the next generation or else experiences stagnation (a sense of inactivity or lifelessness).
• Generativity - concern of mature adults for finding meaning through contributing to society and leaving a legacy for future generations.
• Generativity , Age, and Gender - generativity was especially salient during midlife because of the demands placed on adults through work and family.
• Interiority - Neugarten’s term for a concern with inner life (introversion or introspection), which usually appears in middle age.
• Midlife crisis - In some normative-crisis models, stressful life period precipitated by the review and reevaluation of one’s past, typically occurring in the early to middle 40s.
• Turning point - Psychological transitions that involve significant change or transformation in the perceived meaning, purpose, or direction of a person’s life.
• Midlife review - Introspective examination that often occurs in middle age, leading to reappraisal and revision of values and priorities.
• Ego-resiliency - The ability to adapt flexibly and resourcefully to potential sources of stress.
• Identity process theory (IPT) - Whitbourne’s theory of identity development based on processes of assimilation and accommodation.
• Identity schemas - Accumulated perceptions of the self-shaped by incoming information from intimate relationships, work-related situations, and community and other experiences.
• Identity assimilation - Whitbourne’s term for eff ort to fi t new experience into an existing self-concept.
• Identity accommodation - Whitbourne’s term for adjusting the self-concept to fi t new experience.
• Identity balance - Whitbourne’s term for a tendency to balance assimilation and accommodation.
• Gender crossover - Gutmann’s term for reversal of gender roles after the end of active parenting.
• Positive mental health involves a sense of psychological well-being, which goes hand in hand with a healthy sense of self
• The first dimension of the model is self-acceptance, which involves a positive attitude toward the self that acknowledges both good and bad qualities.
• The second dimension is positive relations with others, warm, trusting relationships with others and an understanding of the dynamics of human relationships.
• Third dimension, autonomy, is about being independent and assured in interactions and beliefs.
• The fourth dimension is environmental mastery, the ability to manage the environment to achieve goals, perhaps by choosing or creating contexts to maximize opportunities.
• The fifth domain is purpose in life, having goals and a sense of directedness.
• Last is personal growth, a feeling of continued development and openness to new experiences.
• Social convoy theory - proposed by Kahn and Antonucci, people move through life surrounded by concentric circles of intimate relationships on which they rely for assistance, well-being, and social support.
• Socioemotional selectivity theory - proposed by Carstensen, that people select social contacts on the basis of the changing relative importance of social interaction as a source of information
• Middle-aged parents, usually women, who tend to be the family kin keepers, maintaining ties among the various branches of the extended family
• Empty nest - Transitional phase of parenting following the last child’s leaving the parents’ home.
• “chronic emergency of parenthood” - They can pursue their own interests as they bask in their grown children’s accomplishments.
• Revolving door syndrome - Tendency for young adults who have left home to return to their parents’ household in times of financial, marital, or other trouble.
• Filial maturity - middle-aged children, as the outcome of a filial crisis, learn to accept and meet their parents’ need to depend on them.
• Filial crisis - adults learn to balance love and duty to their parents with autonomy within a two-way relationship.
• Sandwich generation - competing needs to raise or launch children and to care for elderly parents.
• Caregiver burnout - Condition of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion affecting adults who provide continuous care for sick or aged persons.
• Kinship care - Care of children living without parents in the home of grandparents or other relatives, with or without a change of legal custody.