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Explore the intricate dynamics of relationships, work satisfaction, and personality development in middle adulthood. Understand the challenges and opportunities at this life stage for enhanced psychological well-being. Dive into the complexities of family dynamics, careers, and personal growth. Discover strategies to navigate this crucial phase of life successfully.
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Developmental Tasks • Emphasize securing what they have established • Generativity and stagnation • Adults at this stage have most skills and resources to contribute toward well-being of others. • Resolution of this stage contributes toward better psychological health.
Developmental Timetables and Regulation • Developmental Timetables • Middle-aged adults become aware of time left to live. • Become focused on achieving goals • Processes of Developmental Regulation • Elective selection • Loss-based selection • Optimization • Compensation
Figure 16.1: Life Goals that Involve Striving for Gains versus Avoiding Losses Across Age Groups
Marital Satisfaction in Midlife • Changes in marital satisfaction • Cross sectional studies indicate U-shaped pattern over time. • Longitudinal studies indicate slow, steady decline. • Decline indicated in couples with and without children • Enhancing marital satisfaction • Express affection toward each other • Sense of “we-ness” • Share adventures and stimulating activities together • Like very good friends • High level of commitment
Divorce in Midlife • Rising rates of divorce in midlife • Women’s economic status • Harmful to psychological and physical health • Gender differences • Remarriage in midlife • Majority of divorced remarry within 5 years • Marriage market for women and men differ • Divorced middle-aged adults may disengage from goal of remarrying.
Figure 16.3: Disengaging from the Goal of Finding a Partner in Late Midlife versus Early Adulthood as a Predictor of Psychological Well-Being Over a 15-Month Period
Friendship in Midlife • Friendship satisfies need for intimacy and companionship. • Decline in contact frequency in early and mid adulthood • As age choose to spend time with people enjoy the most
Figure 16.4: Ratings by Age of Interaction Frequency, Satisfaction, and Emotional Closeness with Close Friends
Family in Midlife • Relationships with Adolescent Children • Possible reasons for strained relationships • Teenagers’ desire for autonomy • Parents’ increased awareness of own aging • Parents’ evaluation of own life choices • Recognition that time horizon is limited for middle-aged adults and expansive for teens • Conflicts occur less often but with greater intensity
Family in Midlife • Relationships with adult children • Adjustment to children leaving home is generally not stressful for parents. • Boomerang children have become more common. • Quality of relationships with adult children • Quality of relationship related to psychological well-being of parents. • Parents’ well-being is associated with how children “turn out”.
Figure 16.5: Adult Children’s Problems and Parent’s Psychological Well-Being
Family in Midlife • Relationships with Grandchildren • Affected by gender and age of grandparent • Relationship between grandparent and grandchild complicated by divorce and remarriage • Skipped generation family – grandparents raising grandchildren • Off –time events
Family in Midlife • Relationships with Aging Parents • Contact and closeness with parents tend to increase from young adulthood to midlife. • Adult daughters provide bulk of care for aging parents. • The sandwich generation – squeezed between needs of younger and older generation • Death of a parent • Prompts self-reflection and re-examination of their own life goals • Confront own mortality
Work in Midlife • Satisfaction with work in midlife • Social contact • Personal needs • Financial needs • Generativity
Figure 16.6: Percent of Men and Women Employed in the Labor Force by Age
Work in Midlife • Challenges of work in midlife • Issues facing women and ethnic minorities • Patterns of career development among women • Regular career pattern • Interrupted career pattern • Second career pattern • Modified second career pattern • Age discrimination in the workplace • Challenges from changing nature of work
Figure 16.7: Ratio of Female Earnings to Male Earnings and Median Earnings of Full-Time Workers by Sex from 1960 to 2008
Figure 16.8: Charges Filed for Age Discrimination in the Workforce
Work in Midlife • Unemployment in midlife • Ways that quality of life and hopes for the future suffer • Financial status • Loss of self worth • Inability to use one’s talents and make a contribution • Loss of social contacts with peers • Impact on family relationships • Concerns about the future
Personality Development in Midlife • Big five personality traits • Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism • Personality becomes more consistent over time. • There is room for personality change as we age. • Individual differences in trajectories due to life events. • Self-regulatory capacities • Greater emotional control in midlife • Anticipatory coping
Self-Concept and Emotional Health in Midlife • Midlife crisis • Evidence suggests midlife crises are rare. • Middle-aged adults generally tend to be content with their lives.
