UNIT 8

• Middle adulthood


  The developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age
• Middle adulthood

  • Individuals increasingly think about time-left-to-live instead of time-since-birth
  • Middle-aged adults begin to look back to where they have been, reflecting on what they have done with the time they have had
  • They look toward the future in terms of how much time remains to accomplish what they hope to do with their lives
  • Older adults look backwards even more than middle-aged adults, not surprising given the shorter future in the life that they have
  • Emerging adults and young adults are more likely to look forward in time than backwards in time
• The Nature of Middle Adulthood

  • As more people lead healthier lifestyles and medical discoveries help to slow down the aging process, the boundaries of middle age are being pushed upward
  • Middle-aged is characterized by enjoying afternoon naps, groaning when you bend down, and preferring a quiet night in rather than a night out
  • Some individuals consider the upper boundary of midlife as the age at which they make the transition from work to retirement
  • Middle age is a window through which we can glimpse later life while there is still time to engage in prevention and to influence some of the course of aging
• Defining Middle Adulthood

  Middle adulthood is the developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age<|>Middle age is influenced more heavily by sociocultural factors<|>Although biological functioning declines in middle adulthood, sociocultural supports such as education, career, and relationships may peak in middle adulthood<|>Middle age as a pivotal period because it is a time of balancing growth and decline, linking earlier and later periods of development, and connecting younger and older generations
• MIDLIFE IS DEFINED AS


  • A time of declining physical skills and expanding responsibility
  • A period in which people become more conscious of the young old polarity and the shrinking amount of time left in life
  • A point when individuals seek to transmit something meaningful to the next generation
  • A time when people reach and maintain satisfaction in their careers
• Physical Changes in Middle Adulthood

  • Midlife physical changes are usually more gradual
  • Visible signs include skin beginning to wrinkle and sag, hair becoming thinner and grayer, and fingernails and toenails developing ridges and becoming thicker and more brittle
  • On average, men from 30 to 50 years of age lose about one inch in height, then may lose another inch from 50 to 70 years of age, and the height loss for women can be as much as 2 inches from 25 to 75 years of age
  • Obesity increases from early to middle adulthood
  • Muscle loss with age occurs at a rate of approximately 1 to 2 percent per year after age 50, with a loss of strength especially in the back and legs
  • The term sarcopenia is given to age-related loss of muscle mass and strength
  • The cushions for the movement of bones become less efficient in middle adulthood, leading to joint stiffness and more difficulty in movement
  • Middle-aged individuals begin to have difficulty viewing close objects, and hearing can start to decline by age 40
  • At about age 55, the proteins in lung tissue become less elastic, decreasing the lungs' capacity to shuttle oxygen
• Physical Changes in Middle Adulthood

  • Midlife is a time when high blood pressure and high cholesterol often take adults by surprise, and cardiovascular disease increases considerably
  • The level of cholesterol in the blood increases during the adult years and in midlife begins to accumulate on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease
  • In the beginning of 40s, wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of the deepest type of sleep
  • The cumulative effect of stress often takes a toll on the health of individuals by the time they reach middle age, with chronic stress or prolonged exposure to stressors having damaging effects on physical functioning
  • Chronic diseases are now the main causes of death for individuals in middle adulthood, and in middle age, many deaths are caused by a single, readily identifiable condition
  • The climacteric is a term used to describe the midlife transition in which fertility declines, and menopause is the time in middle age when a woman's menstrual periods cease
  • Male hypogonadism is a condition in which the body does not produce enough testosterone
• Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

  • John Horn argues that crystallized intelligence, an individual's accumulated information and verbal skills, continues to increase in middle adulthood, whereas fluid intelligence, one's ability to reason abstractly, begins to decline in middle adulthood
  • There is a decline in memory during middle age, with more time needed to learn new information, and this slowdown in learning new information has been linked to changes in working memory
• Careers, Work, and Leisure in Middle Adulthood

  • The role of work, whether one works in a full-time career, in a part-time job, as a volunteer, or as a homemaker, is central during middle adulthood
  • Many middle-aged adults reach their peak in position and earnings
  • Middle-aged workers face several important challenges in the twenty-first century, including the globalization of work, rapid developments in information technologies, downsizing of organizations, early retirement, and concerns about pensions and health care
  • Religion and spirituality are powerful influences for some adults but hold little or no significance for others
• Erikson's Stage of Generativity versus Stagnation


  Generativity encompasses adults' desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation<|>Stagnation (sometimes called "self-absorption") develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the next generation<|>Generative adults commit themselves to the continuation and improvement of society as a whole through their connection to the next generation<|>Middle-aged adults can develop generativity through biological generativity, work generativity, and cultural generativity
• Personality Theories and Adult Development

  • Levinson's view of the transition to middle adulthood as lasting about five years (ages 40 to 45) and requiring the adult male to come to grips with four major conflicts
  • Levinson views midlife as a crisis, arguing that the middle-aged adult is suspended between the past and the future, trying to cope with this gap that threatens life's continuity
  • George Vaillant has a different view, seeing the forties as a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about the adolescent and adulthood years
  • Many cognitive skills, such as vocabulary, verbal memory, and inductive reasoning, peak in midlife, and many individuals reach the height of their career success in midlife
  • Researchers have found that in one-third of the cases in which individuals have reported going through a midlife crisis, the "crisis is triggered by life events such as a job loss, financial problems, or illness"
• Stress, Personal Control, and Age in Middle Adulthood

  • Middle age is a time when a person's sense of control is frequently challenged by many demands and responsibilities, as well as physical and cognitive aging
  • In middle age, less attention is given to self-pursuits and more to responsibility for others, including those younger and older than they are
  • Women are more vulnerable to social stressors such as those involving romance, family, and work, and are more likely than men to become depressed when they encounter stressful life events
• Contexts of Midlife Development


  • Changing historical times and different social expectations influence how different cohorts—groups of individuals born in the same year or time period—move through the lifespan
  • The view that midlife is a negative age period for women is stereotypical, as midlife is a diversified, heterogeneous period for women, just as it is for men
  • In many cultures, especially nonindustrialized cultures, the concept of middle age is not very clear, or in some cases is absent
• Love and Marriage at Midlife


  • Marital satisfaction increased in middle age, with some of the marriages that were difficult and rocky during early adulthood improving during middle adulthood
  • Affectionate love increases in midlife, especially in marriages that have endured for many years, and a majority of middle-aged adults who are married say that their marriage is very good or excellent
  • Rather than decreasing marital satisfaction as once thought, the empty nest increases it for most parents, though an increasing number of young adults are returning home to live with their parents
  • Being a grandparent brings a sense of biological reward and continuity for some, a source of emotional self-fulfillment for others, and a remote role for yet others