Chapter 17:
Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood
Personality Theories and Development
• Many personality and development theories of middle age have adult stages:
– Erikson’s “generativity versus stagnation”
• Generativity is highly related to intimacy
• Middle-aged adults develop generativity through parenting, work, and culture
– Levinson’s “seasons of a man’s life” emphasizes developmental tasks
• Levinson’s research: middle age lasts about 5 years
– Adult men face reality about aging and midlife crisis
– Personal worth of one’s life is questioned
• Smooth midlife transition brings acceptance of past and adjustment may include memory distortion
• Vaillant’s Grant Study: a minority of adults experience midlife crisis – Sheehy’s results rarely observed in men
• Other studies:
– Middle-age adults feel a growing sense of control in work and personal life
– Individuals’ emotional instability did not significantly increase through middle-age years
– Environmental mastery and self-determination increased in middle-age
– Midlife crisis has been exaggerated – individuals vary in middle adulthood development
• The contemporary life events approach is an alternative to age-related stage development
– Life events like death of spouse, marriage, and divorce cause varying degrees of stress
– Mediating factors like physical health and family support can reduce stress effects and allow more effective coping strategies
– Weaknesses of life events approach include too much emphasis on change and what are primary sources of stress
• Overall, stress is highest in young and middle-aged adults; declines in older adults
• Middle-age development appears to be influenced by historical contexts, gender, and culture
• Historical changes have affected values, attitudes, behaviors, and expectations of cohort groups
• Cohorts can alter the “social clock” that guides our lives
• Each cohort decides what is the “right age” for major life events and achievements
• Most stage theories are accused of male bias – focusing on career choices and work achievement with little attention to women’s family roles
• Female experiences are qualitatively different from those of men, and men and women do not enter all of the developmental stages at the same time
• Cultural and social attitudes affect women’s roles
Stability and Change
• The Kansas City Study was a longitudinal study on people ages 40 to 80, over a 10-year period
– Styles of coping characterized stability in aging
– Most change in aging comes from becoming more passive and being threatened by the environment
• The Baltimore Study used 5 factors of personality to study college-educated persons aged 20 to 96 starting from the 1950s and continuing today
– Age trends were consistent across cultures surveyed
– Younger adults were more extraverted
– Older adults were more agreeable and conscientious
• Comparing Chinese and Americans adults ages 20 to 87 using the CPI
– Age changes less pronounced for Americans
– All younger adults were more flexible and open
– All older adults showed more self-control
• Berkeley Longitudinal Studies: 1920s through today
– No support that personality is characterized by changes or stability from adolescence to midlife
– Intellectually oriented, self-confidence, and openness were the more stable traits
– Ability to nurture and self-control changed most
• Vaillant’s studies: 1920s through today
– Alcohol abuse and smoking at age 50 was 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 empathic
• Being active with other people
• Mills College Study: late 1950s to 1980s
– Midlife crisis was really midlife consciousness
– Similarities in concerns found between women in early 40s and Levinson’s findings
– Between ages 27 and early 40s, women shifted toward less traditional feminine attitudes
–
Menopause, caring for aging parents, and empty nest were
not linked to increased self-control
and responsibility
Close Relationships
• Middle-age well-being includes good relationships with family and friends
• Affectionate love increases during middle adulthood
• Those still married report being “satisfied,” while those in process of divorcing are alienated and avoidant, with a sense of “emptiness”
• Many who divorce in their 40s or later, had stayed together for the children – one study showed more women than men initiating the divorce
• Some of the main reasons men and women seek divorce in middle adulthood:
• Women
• Verbal, physical, or emotional abuse
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• Cheating
• Men
• No obvious reason; just fell out of love
• Cheating
• Different values or lifestyles
• Divorce can have both positive and negative effects and reasons greatly vary among individuals
• Contrary to what would be expected from the empty nest syndrome, marital satisfaction may increase after the children have left
• In today’s world, stress often results when the empty nest refills with adult children returning home to live for various reasons
• The most common complaint from children returning to refill the nest is “loss of privacy” and parents’ restrictions on behaviors
• Relationships between adult children and mothers appear to be closer than those with fathers
• Many middle-aged parents regret not spending more time with their children when those children were younger
• Research suggests that adults restructure perceptions of their parents during middle adulthood
• Sibling relationships continue over the entire life span – the majority appearing to be very close in adulthood
• Intimate friendships that have developed over a long time deepen in middle adulthood
• The majority of grandparents say grandparenting is easier than parenting – lack of frequent contact with grandchildren was the worst aspect of the role
• The grandparent role and its functions vary among families, ethnic groups, and cultures
• How grandparents interact with their grandchildren varies greatly:
• Fun-seeking style
• Distant-figure style
• Formal style
• Grandmothers have more contact with grandchildren than grandfathers
• There is an increasing number of grandchildren living with their grandparents:
– 5.6 million in 2000
– Half of all U.S. children living with grandparents were raised by a single grandmother
– The majority of homes where both grandparents raise the grandchildren are those of White families
• As divorce and remarriage become more common, visitation rights for grandparents have become an issue
• Intergenerational relationships are affected, as each generation changes in attitudes, values, and personality
• Overall, most family members maintain considerable contact across the generations
• Similarity between parents and an adult child is often most noticeable in religion and politics
• Differences between parents and an adult child are most noticeable in gender roles, lifestyle, and work orientation
• Sometimes middle-aged adults are the “sandwich generation” – caring for their own children and their parents