1. Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition
Chapter 16:
Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Stages of Adulthood Erikson’s Generativity vs. Stagnation:
Generativity: adults’ desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation
Biological generativity
Parental generativity
Work generativity
Cultural generativity
Stagnation: develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the next generation
Research supports Erikson’s theory

3. Stages of Adulthood

4. Stages of Adulthood Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life:
20’s are a novice phase of adult development
Exploring the possibilities for adult living; developing a stable life structure
30’s are a time for focusing on family and career development
Becoming One’s Own Man (BOOM)
By the 40’s, man has a stable career and now must look forward to the kind of life he will lead as a middle-aged adult

5. Stages of Adulthood Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life (continued):
Transition to middle adulthood lasts about 5 years (ages 40 to 45) and requires that men come to grips with conflicts existing since adolescence:
Being young vs. being old
Being destructive vs. being constructive
Being masculine vs. being feminine
Being attached to others vs. being separated from them
According to Levinson, 70%–80% of men find the midlife transition tumultuous and psychologically painful
A successful transition rests on reducing the polarities and accepting each as an integral part of one’s being

6. Levinson’s Periods of Adult Development

7. Stages of Adulthood How pervasive are midlife crises?
Vaillant’s “Grant Study”:
The 40’s are a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about the adolescent and adult years
Only a minority of adults experience a midlife crisis
Reports of general well-being and life satisfaction tend to be high during mid-life
Another study found that 26% of adults experienced a midlife crisis
Most attributed this to negative life events rather than aging

8. Stages of Adulthood
Adults often experience a peak of personal control and power during middle age
Adults’ ability to master their environment, autonomy, and personal relations improve during middle age
Adult developmental experts generally agree that midlife crises have been exaggerated
In general, stage theories place too much emphasis on crises in development
There is often considerable individual variation in the way people experience the stages

9. Stages of Adulthood

10. Stages of Adulthood Individual Variations:
Stage theories do not adequately address individual variations in adult development
Some individuals may experience a midlife crisis in some contexts of their lives but not others
In 1/3 of cases where individuals report experiencing a midlife crisis, the crisis was triggered by life events such as job loss, financial problems, or illness

11. The Life-Events Approach
The life-events approach is another major way to conceptualize adult personality development
Contemporary Life-Events Approach: how life events influence the individual’s development depends on:
The life event itself
Mediating factors
The individual’s adaptation to the life event
Life-stage context
Sociohistorical context

12. The Life-Events Approach
Drawbacks:
Life-events approach places too much emphasis on change, not adequately recognizing stability
It may not be life’s major events that are the primary sources of stress, but our daily experiences
Focus on daily hassles and uplifts rather than major events

13. The Life-Events Approach

14. Stress and Personal Control
Overall, stress is highest in young and middle- aged adults; declines in older adults
Middle-aged adults experience more “overload” stressors that involve juggling too many activities at once
Middle-aged adults are more reactive to interpersonal stressors (but less reactive to work stressors) than younger adults
On average, a sense of personal control decreases as adults become older
Some aspects increase while others decrease

15. Stress and Personal Control

16. Contexts of Midlife Development
Historical Contexts (cohort effects):
Changing historical times and different social expectations influence how cohorts move through the life span
Social clock: the timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life’s tasks
Gender Contexts:
Most stage theories are accused of male bias
Women’s concerns and stressors are different from those of men
Cultural and social attitudes affect women’s roles

17. Contexts of Midlife Development
Gender Contexts (continued):
Early fifties brought a new prime of life for many women
More empty nests
Better health
Higher income
More concern for parents
Stereotype that midlife is a negative age period for women is largely false

18. Contexts of Midlife Development
Cultural Contexts:
In many nonindustrialized societies, the concept of middle age is unclear or absent
Midlife often brings about great change for women in nonindustrialized societies:
Often freed from restrictions placed on younger women
Right to exercise authority over specified younger kin
Eligibility for special status and the possibility of recognition beyond the household

19. Contexts of Midlife Development

20. Stability and Change
The Baltimore Study used the big five factors of personality to study 1,000 college-educated persons aged 20 to 96 starting from the 1950s and continuing today:
Considerable stability in the five personality factors
Agreeableness and conscientiousness increased in early and middle adulthood
Neuroticism decreased in early adulthood
Openness to experience increased in adolescence/early adulthood and then decreased in late adulthood

21. Stability and Change
Berkeley Longitudinal Studies: more than 500 children and parents studied in the 1920s through midlife:
No support that personality is characterized by changes or stability from adolescence to midlife
Intellectual orientation, self-confidence, and openness to experience were the more stable traits
Ability to nurture and self-control changed most

22. Stability and Change
Helson’s Mills College Study: studied 152 women from the 1950s through their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s
Three main groups:
Family-oriented
Career-oriented
Neither path
Between age 27 and early 40’s, women shifted toward less traditional feminine attitudes
Midlife crisis was really midlife consciousness
Similarities in concerns found between women in early their early 40s and Levinson’s findings

23. STABILITY AND CHANGE
Vaillant’s Studies: conducted three longitudinal studies from the 1920s through today:
Alcohol abuse and smoking at age 50 was the best predictor of death between ages 75 and 80
Factors at age 50 which are best predictors of “happy-well” between ages 75 and 80:
Regular exercise and avoiding being overweight
Well-educated and future oriented
Having a stable marriage and good coping skills
Being thankful, forgiving, and empathetic
Being active with other people

24. Stability and Change

25. Stability and Change Conclusions:
Evidence does not support the view that personality traits become completely fixed at a certain age
Change is typically small and limited; stability peaks in the 50’s and 60’s
Cumulative personality model: with time and age, people become more adept at interacting with their environment in ways that promote the stability of personality
Some change still characterizes personality in middle age and late adulthood

26. Stability and Change

27. Love and Marriage Romantic love is typically strong in early adulthood
Affectionate love increases during middle adulthood
Most married individuals are satisfied with their marriages during midlife
Divorce in midlife can be less intense due to increased resources and lessened child-rearing responsibilities
However, emotional and time commitment to a long-lasting marriage is typically not given up easily
Staying married because of the children is a common reason for waiting to get a divorce

28. The Empty Nest
Empty Nest Syndrome: a decline in marital satisfaction after the children leave the home
For most parents, marital satisfaction actually increases during the years after child rearing
Refilling of empty nest is becoming a common occurrence
Adult children are returning to live at home for financial reasons
Loss of privacy is a common complaint for both parents and adult children

29. Sibling Relationships and Friendships
Sibling relationships continue over the entire life span
The majority of sibling relationships in adulthood are close
Friendships continue to be important in middle adulthood
Friendships that have endured over the adult years tend to be deeper than those that have just been formed in middle adulthood

30. Grandparenting Many adults become grandparents during middle age
Grandmothers have more contact with grandchildren than grandfathers
Three prominent meanings:
Source of biological reward and continuity
Source of emotional self-fulfillment
Remote role
The grandparent role and its functions vary among families, ethnic groups, and cultures

31. Grandparenting Three Grandparenting Styles:
Fun-seeking style
Distant-figure style
Formal style
An increasing number of U.S. grandchildren live with their grandparents
2.3 million in 1980; 6.1 million in 2005
Most common reasons are divorce, adolescent pregnancies, and parental drug use
Tends to be more stressful for younger grandparents, when grandchildren have physical and psychological problems, and when there is low family cohesion

32. Grandparenting
Grandparents who take in grandchildren are in better health, are better educated, are more likely to be working outside the home, and are younger than grandparents who move in with their children
Concern over grandparent visitation of children has become more common

33. Intergenerational Relationships
Middle-aged and older adults typically express a strong feeling of responsibility between generations in their family
They share their experiences and transmit values to the younger generation
Family members typically maintain considerable contact across generations
When conflicts arise, parents most often cite habits and lifestyle choices, while adult children cite communication and interaction styles

34. Intergenerational Relationships
Differences in gender:
Mothers and daughters have closer relationships during their adult years than mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and fathers and sons
Married men are more involved with their wives’ families than with their own
Maternal aunts and grandmothers are cited as the most important or loved relative twice as often as their paternal counterparts