Slide PSI 203 Pertemuan IX

Life-Span Development

Twelfth Edition

Chapter 16:

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

•

Erikson’s

Generativity vs. Stagnation:

•

Generativity:

adults’ desire to leave legacies of

themselves to the next generation

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Biological generativity

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Parental generativity

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Work generativity

•

Cultural generativity

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Stagnation:

develops when individuals sense that

they have done nothing for the next generation

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

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Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life:

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20’s are a

novice phase

of adult development

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Exploring the possibilities for adult living; developing a

stable life structure

•

30’s are a time for focusing on family and career

development

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Becoming One’s Own Man (BOOM)

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By the 40’s, man has a stable career and now must

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

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Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life (continued):

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Transition to middle adulthood lasts about 5 years (ages 40

to 45) and requires that men come to grips with conflicts

existing since adolescence:

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Being young vs. being old

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Being destructive vs. being constructive

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Being masculine vs. being feminine

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Being attached to others vs. being separated from them

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According to Levinson, 70%

–

80% of men find the midlife

transition tumultuous and psychologically painful

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A successful transition rests on reducing the polarities and

L

EVINSON

’

S

P

ERIODS OF

A

DULT

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

•

How pervasive are midlife crises?

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Vaillant’s “Grant Study”:

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The 40’s are a decade of reassessing and recording the

truth about the adolescent and adult years

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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

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

•

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

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Adult developmental experts generally agree that

midlife crises have been exaggerated

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In general, stage theories place too much emphasis on

crises in development

S

TAGES OF

A

DULTHOOD

•

Individual Variations:

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Stage theories do not adequately address individual

variations in adult development

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Some individuals may experience a midlife crisis

in some contexts of their lives but not others

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In 1/3 of cases where individuals report

experiencing a midlife crisis, the crisis was

T

HE

L

IFE

-E

VENTS

A

PPROACH

•

The life-events approach is another major way to

conceptualize adult personality development

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Contemporary Life-Events Approach: how life

events influence the individual’s development depends

on:

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The life event itself

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Mediating factors

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The individual’s adaptation to the life event

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Life-stage context

T

HE

L

IFE

-E

VENTS

A

PPROACH

•

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

S

TRESS AND

P

ERSONAL

C

ONTROL

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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

C

ONTEXTS OF

M

IDLIFE

D

EVELOPMENT

•

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:

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Most stage theories are accused of male bias

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Women’s concerns and stressors are different from

those of men

C

ONTEXTS OF

M

IDLIFE

D

EVELOPMENT

•

Gender Contexts (continued):

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Early fifties brought a new prime of life for many

women

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More empty nests

•

Better health

•

Higher income

•

More concern for parents

C

ONTEXTS OF

M

IDLIFE

D

EVELOPMENT

•

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

C

ONTEXTS OF

M

IDLIFE

S

TABILITY AND

C

HANGE

•

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:

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Considerable stability in the five personality factors

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Agreeableness and conscientiousness increased in

early and middle adulthood

•

Neuroticism decreased in early adulthood

S

TABILITY AND

C

HANGE

•

Berkeley Longitudinal Studies: more than 500

children and parents studied in the 1920s

through midlife:

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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

S

TABILITY AND

C

HANGE

•

Helson’s Mills College Study: studied 152

women from the 1950s through their 30’s, 40’s,

and 50’s

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Three main groups:

•

Family-oriented

•

Career-oriented

•

Neither path

•

Between age 27 and early 40’s, women shifted toward

less traditional feminine attitudes

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Midlife crisis was really midlife consciousness

•

Similarities in concerns found between women in early

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:

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Regular exercise and avoiding being overweight

•

Well-educated and future oriented

•

Having a stable marriage and good coping skills

•

Being thankful, forgiving, and empathetic

S

TABILITY AND

C

HANGE

•

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

L

OVE AND

M

ARRIAGE

•

Romantic love is typically strong in early adulthood

•

Affectionate love increases during middle adulthood

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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

T

HE

E

MPTY

N

EST

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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

S

IBLING

R

ELATIONSHIPS AND

F

RIENDSHIPS

•

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

G

RANDPARENTING

•

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

G

RANDPARENTING

•

Three Grandparenting Styles:

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Fun-seeking style

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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

G

RANDPARENTING

•

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

I

NTERGENERATIONAL

R

ELATIONSHIPS

•

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

I

NTERGENERATIONAL

R

ELATIONSHIPS

•

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