middle adulthood

• Middle-Aged people


  • In their prime
• Characteristics of individuals who scored highest in Schaie's study


  • High educational levels
  • Flexible personalities
  • Intact families
  • Pursue cognitively complex occupations and other activities
  • Married to someone more cognitively advanced
  • Satisfied with their accomplishments
• Fluid Intelligence


  Ability to solve novel problems, such as problems that require little or no previous knowledge
• Fluid Intelligence peaks in young adulthood
• Many older adults perform in the real world at high levels despite declines in fluid intelligence
• Crystallized Intelligence


  Ability to remember and use information acquired over a lifetime, such as academics
• Crystallized Intelligence increases through middle age and often until the end of life
• Mature adults


  • Show increasing competence in solving problems in their chosen field
• Specialized Knowledge or Expertise

  Form of crystallized intelligence that is related to the process of encapsulation
• Adults do not usually depend on the brain's information-processing-machinery because some adult's fluid intelligence becomes encapsulated (dedicated in handling specific kinds of knowledge)
• Expert thinking


  Often seems automatic and intuitive
• Postformal Thought


  Characteristic of intuitive, experience-based thinking
• Postformal thought


  Integrative nature - adults interpret what they read, see, or hear in terms of its meaning for them
• Phased Retirement


  People reduce works hours or days, gradually moving into retirement over a number of years
• Bridge Employment


  Switching to another company or new line of work
• If work, both on job and home, could be made meaningful and challenging, more adults might retain or improve cognitive abilities
• Employers see benefits of workplace education in improved morale, increased quality of work, better teamwork and problem solving, and greater ability to cope with new technology and other changes in workplace
• Literacy


  Fundamental requisite for participation not only in the workplace but in all facets of a modern, information-driven society
• 5 Emotional Stages of Retirement

  • Pre-Retirement: Planning the retirement
  • Honeymoon Phase: Freedom
  • Disenchantment Phase: What to do next?
  • Reorientation: The New You
  • Stability Phase: Retirement Routine
• Religion


  Organized set of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols that increases an individual's connection to a sacred or transcendent other
• Religiousness


  Degree of affiliation with an organized religion, participation in its rituals and practices
• Spirituality


  Involves experiencing something beyond oneself in transcendent manner
• Women have consistently shown stronger interest in religion and spirituality than men
• Viktor Frankl's view of spirituality


  Refers to a human being's uniqueness of spirit, philosophy, and mind
• Having a sense of meaning in life can lead to clearer guidelines for living one's life and enhanced motivation to take care of oneself and reach goals
• Four main needs for meaning that guide how people try to make sense of their lives

  • Need for Purpose - goals and fulfillments
  • Need for Values - enable people to decide whether certain acts are right or wrong
  • Need for a sense of efficacy - belief that they can control their environment
  • Need for Self-Worth
• Generativity


  Involved finding meaning through contributing to society and leaving a legacy for future generations
• Examples of Generativity


  • Parenting
  • Teaching
  • Mentorship
  • Productivity
  • Self-generation or self-development
• Midlife Review


  Involves recognizing the finiteness of life and can be a time of taking stock, discovering new insights about the self, and spurring midcourse corrections in the design and trajectory of one's life