3.0 socioemotional

• -          CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

  ·         organized or disorganized

  ·         careful or careless

  ·         disciplined or impulsive
• -          OPENNESS

  ·         imaginative or practical

  ·         interested in variety or routine

  ·         independent or conforming
• -          EXTRAVERSION

  ·         Sociable or retiring

  ·         Fun-loving or somber

  ·         Affectionate or reserved
• -          AGREEABLENESS

  ·         Softhearted or ruthless

  ·         Trusting or suspicious

  ·         Helpful or uncooperative
• • Neuroticism


  calm or anxious

  secure or insecure

  self-satisfied or self-pitying
• Ø  BERKELEY LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

  The results from early adolescence through a portion of middle did not support either extreme in the debate over whether personality is characterized by stability or change.
• Ø  HELSON’S MILLS COLLEGE STUDY

  -          Concluded that rather than being in a midlife crisis, the women were experiencing midlife consciousness.
• Ø  GEORGE VAILLANT’S STUDIES

  -          When individuals at 50 years of age were not heavy smokers, did not abuse alcohol, had stable marriage, exercised, maintained a normal weight, and had good coping skills, they were more likely to be alive and happy at 75 to 80 years of age.
• Ø  CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS

  -          The fires of romantic love are strong in early adulthood. AFFECTIONATE, OR COMPATIONATE, LOVE increases during middle adulthood
• -          MARRIAGE – a study revealed that marital satisfaction increased in middle age. Marriages that were difficult and rocky during early adulthood improved during middle adulthood.
• -          EMPTY NEST SYNDROME – includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the home. For most parents, marital satisfaction does not decline after 2 children have left home as they their time to pursue career interests and tis pen with each other.
• -          GRAY DIVORCE – occurs after 50 years of age, compared with earlier decades, divorce has less stigma for women and they are more likely to leave an unhappy marriage, thus then increase in midlife divorce.
• -          SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS – in adulthood may be extremely close, apathetic, or highly rivalrous, those siblings who are psychologically close to each other in adulthood tended to be that way in childhood, majority are close.
• -          “BOOMERANG KIDS” AND “B2B” (OR BACK-TO-BEDROOM) – young adults who return to their parent’s home to live after several years of college, after graduating from college, to save money after taking a full-time job, after an unsuccessful career or a divorce
• -          FRIENDSHIPS – are as important in middle adulthood as they were in early adulthood it takes time to develop initiative friendships, so friendships that have endured over the adult years are often deeper than those that are newly formed in middle adulthood.
• -          GRANDPARENTING – grandparents especially play important roles in grandchildren’s lives when family crises such as divorce, death, illness, abandonment, or poverty occur many adults become grandparents for the first time during middle age.
• -          THREE PROMINENT MEANINGS – are attached to being a grandparent:

  ·         Brings a sense of biological reward and continuity

   

  ·         Source of emotional self-fulfillment, generating feelings of companionship and satisfaction that may have been missing earlier adult-child relationships.

   

  ·         A remote role, providing a sense of purpose and a feeling of being valued.