PSY C505: MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

• MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

   

  ·        A long period in the life span

  ·        Subdivided into early middle adulthood (40-50), advanced middle adulthood (50-60), physical and psychological changes that first began during the early forties
• 1.       Time of stress

  ·        Radical adjustments to changes roles and patters of life, especially when accompanies by physical changes, always tend to disrupt the individual’s physical and psychological homeostasis and lead to a period of stress- a time when a number of major adjustments must be made in the home, business and social aspects of their lives
• ·        Somatic stress – due to physical evidence of aging
• ·        Cultural stress – stemming from the high value placed on youth, vigor and success by the cultural group
• ·        Economic stress – resulting from the financial burden of educating children and providing status symbols for all family members
• ·        Psychological stress – result of the death of a spouse, departure of children from home, boredom with marriage, or a sense of lost youth and approaching death
• Dangerous age

  ·        Time of break down physically because of overwork, over worry or careless living. The incidence of mental illness rises rapidly in middle adulthood among both men and women, and it is also a peak age for suicides, especially among men
• Awkward age

  ·        Just as adolescents are neither children nor adults, so middle-aged men and women are no longer “young” nor are they yet “old”. continuously in the spotlight and suffers from the discomfort and embarrassments associated with both age group
• Time of achievement

  ·        According to Erikson, it is a crisis age in which either “generativity”- the tendency to produce or stagnation – the tendency to stand still-will dominate
• Time of evaluation

  ·        The peak of achievement, it is logical that it also would be the time when they would evaluate their accomplishments and the expectations of others, especially family members and friends
• Self-evaluation: Archer pointed out the mid years seem to require the development of a different, generally more realistic sense of who one is
• ·        A major task of the mid-life decade involves coming to terms with those fantasies
• Time of empty nest

  ·        Time when the children no longer want to live under the parental roof. It is the empty stage in marital lives. Except in cases:

  Ø  Men and women marry later than the average age

  Ø  Postpone having their children until they are well established in careers

  Ø  Have large families spread out over a decade or more of time
• ·        After years of living in a family-centered home, most adults find it difficult to adjust to a pair-centered home. This is because, during the child rearing years, husbands and wives often grew apart and developed individual interests
• ·        Unquestionably, the empty nest period is far more traumatic for women than for men. This is especially true of women who have devoted their adult years to homemaking and who have few interests or resources to fill their time when their homemaking jobs lessen or come to an end
• Time of Boredom

  ·        Many, if not most, men and women experience boredom during the late 30s and 40s

  ·        Men become bored with the daily routine of work and with a family life and offers little excitement

  ·        Women who spent most of their adulthood caring for the home and raising children, wonder what they will do for the next 20 or 30 years

  ·        The unmarried woman who has devoted her life to a job or career is bored for the same reason men are
• People start or increase their doctors’ visits for injuries that take longer to heal or for recurrent or worrisome symptoms. Many symptoms are reminders of the aging process:

  -       Facial wrinkles

  -       Graying or loss of hair

  -       Reading glasses and sleep disorders
• There may be weight management issues, especially obesity is linked with food intolerances and diseases

  -       Coronary artery disease

  -       Hypertension

  -       Diabetes

  -       Dyslipidemias and joint degeneration
• ·        Midlife is often a period for vocational evaluation
• ·        Retirement will be evaluated. For women who combined motherhood with their career, there may be a fatigue factor derived from a hectic “superwoman” lifestyle
• ·        Accentuated focus on financial planning
• ·        Changing taxation structures may affect disposable income and pensions
• ·        Anxious about planning for future living expenses. They are worried about:

  -       Inflation eroding life savings

  -       Possible future illness in themselves or family members
• ·        The reality of grandchildren touches grandparents differently and affects their comfort in their role as grandparents and the style and depth of their involvement in this role
• ·        Reorganizing living arrangements

  The departure of grown children from the family home may eliminate the need for existing space
• Adjusting to be a couple again

  ·        Emotional and physical intimacies are commonly found in newlyweds (a recently married person). This intimacy may decrease over years of marriage as children, recreational activities and vocational obligations compete for time
• ·        Empty nest situation may challenge the couple’s relationship since the absence of children as diversions may reveal changes in one or both members of the couple
• ·        Loss of intimacy may be accentuated. A challenge exists to re-0establish a relationship as a twosome by exploring communication and lifestyle needs and patterns
• Participating in the community

  ·        Women, especially homemaker, appear to be more involved in community activities than men

  ·        Recent trend towards both men and women working outside home, there is a concern that community voluntarism will suffer
• Ensuring adequate medical supervision for old age

  ·        There may be new or growing anxieties about health and aging. The extent of this concern may be related to whether one is a realist, pessimist, or optimist

  ·        There is generally an increase in doctor visits as a reassurance that there is a medical system in place that can respond to medical problems
• 1 Looking after aging parents

  ·        Healthier lifestyles, more efficient drugs and improved technology have extended lifespan

  ·        Are often torn between the needs of children and elderly parents. They assist the latter (elders) with food shopping, housekeeping, banking and finance, laundry, bathing and hygiene, transportation and accompaniment to medical appointments and medication supervision or administration
• Middle adults may be depressed about the

  -       Deteriorating health and quality of life of a parent

  -       At the failure to find solution

  About fatigue and burnout
• It has been found that the body organ of most persons show a 0.8 to 1 percent decline per year in the functional ability after the age of 30
• ·        Middle agreed adults still report good health and physical functioning. As a result of the passage of time, middle adults undergo various physical changes. Decades of exposure and use take their toll on the body as wrinkles develop, organs no longer function efficiently, and lung and heart capacities decreases
• presbyopia (farsightedness or difficulty reading)
• Presbycusis (difficulty hearing high-pitched sounds)
• People age at different rates, some 40 year olds may feel middle-aged long before their 50 year-old counterparts. Most people however describe feeling that they have reached midlife by their mid 50s
• Menopause (cessation of menstruation) in women
• Male climacteric (male menopause) in men
• -       Decreased estrogen leads to thinning of the vaginal walls, shrinking of the vagina and labia majora, and decreased vaginal lubrication. These conditions can be severe enough to cause the woman pain during intercourse