SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

1. Chapter 16 SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

2. Learning Objectives

3. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

4. How does personality development occur in middle adulthood?

5. Two Perspectives on Adult Personality Development Normative-Crisis • Views personality development in terms of fairly universal stages, tied to a sequence of age-related crises Life-Events • Suggests particular life even determine course of personality development • Changes in society call into question normative-crisis models that are closely tied to age

6. Two Perspectives on Adult Personality Development Life Events: RevennaHelson • Suggest that timing of particular events in adult's life, rather than age per se, determine course of personality development

7. Erik Erikson Generativity versus stagnation • Generativity= looking beyond oneself to continuation of one's life through others • Stagnation = focusing on the triviality of their life • Critics argue that normative-crisis models are outdated; model came from time when gender roles were more rigid

8. Building on Erikson's Views: Gould, Vaillant, and Levinson

9. Psychiatrist Roger Gould Adults pass through series of seven, age-related stages • People in late 30s and early 40s begin to feel sense of urgency in attaining life's goals • Descriptions not research supported

10. Gould's Approach

11. George Valliant Keeping meaning versus rigidity • Occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 • Adults seek to extract meaning from their lives by accepting strengths and weaknesses of others • Those who are rigid become increasingly isolated from others

12. Levinson: Seasons of Life Theory Most people are susceptible to fairly profound midlife crisis • Late 30s • Early 40s • Between 40 and 45

13. Midlife Crisis Stage of uncertainty and indecision brought about by realization that life is finite • Gender differences • Despite widespread acceptance, evidence for midlife crisis does not exist

14. Non-Midlife Life Crisis Non-midlife crisis • For majority of people, transition is smooth and rewarding • Many middle-aged people find their careers have blossomed • They feel younger than they actually are

15. What Age Do You Feel Most of the Time?

16. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT Does personality change or remains stable over course of development? • Erikson and Levinson = substantial change • Paul Costa and Robert McCrae = stability in traits across development

17. Middle Age: In Some Cultures It Doesn't Exist Model of aging of Oriyan women • High caste Hindu women • Life course based on nature of one's social responsibility, family management issues, and moral sense at given time  not on basis of chronological age • Domestic work is highly respected and valued

18. Same ol’…same ol’?

19. Stability and Change in the Big Five Personality Traits Big Five traits are relatively stable past age 30 with some variations in specific traits • Neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience decline somewhat from early adulthood through middle adulthood • Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase to a degree • Findings are consistent across cultures

20. What makes you happy?

21. If You’re Happy and You Know It… • Sense of subjective well-being or general happiness remains stable over life span • Most people general “set point” for happiness • Regardless of where they stand economically, residents of countries across the world have similar levels of happiness

22. Review and Apply

23. Review and Apply

24. Review and Apply

25. RELATIONSHIPS: FAMILY IN MIDDLE AGE

26. Middle Age Marriages • Most frequent pattern of marital satisfaction is U-shaped • Marital satisfaction begins to decline after marriage and falls to its lowest point following the birth of children • Marital satisfaction begins to grow after children leave adolescence and reaches its highest point when kids leave home

27. Do you know about U?

28. After the Vows: Changes in Marital Satisfaction Over Time • Older research establishing U-shaped pattern used cross-sectional research, surveying different people at different points in their marriages • Current research employed longitudinal methods confirmed marital satisfaction decline but failed to find evidence of a subsequent upswing after the childbearing years • Over time, marriage quality continues to decline over course of marriage

29. What do the newer findings suggest? • Unhappy marriages tend to terminate so earlier cross-sectional methods not representative • Long-married couples were older and were married during time when marriage was more highly valued • Different couples have different levels of marital satisfaction even at outset

30. And so… • Why might couples who have children tend to experience better marital satisfaction later in life than do childless couples? • Given these findings, how might you advise a newlywed couple on what to expect as their years of marriage progress?

31. Coping • Many couples state that their spouse is their “best friend” • They also view marriage as a long-term commitment • They believe their spouse has grown more interesting over the years • Most feel their sex lives (although frequency goes down) are satisfying

32. Struggling Marriages • About 1 woman in 8 will get divorced after 40 • People are more individual, spending less time together • Many feel concerned with their own personal happiness and leave an unhappy marriage • Divorce is more socially acceptable • Feelings of romantic, passionate love may subside over time

33. Divorce Although the overall divorce rate has declined in the last two decades, divorce among couples during midlife is actually rising • One woman in eight who is in her first marriage will get divorced after the age of 40, and one in four of all divorces were by people 50 and older • Divorce rate for people 50 and over has doubled in the last 20 years and is expected to increase

34. Rising Divorces in Middle Adulthood

35. Why Do Marriages Unravel? Whatever the causes, divorce can be especially difficult for men and women in midlife • Middle-aged couples spend less time together • In individualistic Western cultures, people feel concerned with their own personal happiness and self-fulfillment • Divorce is more socially acceptable • Financial costs are not as high for many couples • Feelings of romance and passion may subside • Strain and stress caused by both parents working • Infidelity

36. Marriage Gradient The marriage gradient pushes men to marry younger women • Older women are victims of the harsh societal standards regarding physical attractiveness • A major reason many remarry is that being divorced carries a stigma

37. Second Time Around • Older couples are more mature and realistic • Roles are more flexible • Couple looks at marriage less romantically and is more cautious • Divorce rate is higher for second marriages • More stress especially with blended families • Once divorce experienced it is easier to walk away a second time

38. Family Evolutions: From Full House to Empty Nest Empty Nest Syndrome • When parents experience feelings of unhappiness, worry, loneliness, and depression resulting from their children's departure from home • More myth than reality

39. When children leave home… • Parents can work harder • More time alone • House stays cleaner • Phone does not ring as often

40. Boomerang Children: Refilling the Empty Nest Young adults who come back to live in homes of their middle-aged parents • Men are more likely to do it than women • Parents tend to give sons more freedom than daughters • Unable to find a job • Difficulty making ends meet

41. More Boomerang Children: Enjoying It Less

42. Sandwich Generation Fulfill needs of both their children and their aging parents • Couples are marrying and having children later • Parents are living longer

43. Caring for Aging Parents • Care of aging parents can be psychologically tricky • Significant degree of role reversal • Range of care varies • Financial • Managing household • Providing direct care • Influenced by cultural norms and expectations

44. Becoming a Grandparent: Who, Me? • Involved • Companionate • Remote

45. Are All Grannies the Same? • Marked gender differences in ways people enjoy grandparenthood • Grandmothers are more interested and experience greater satisfaction than grandfathers • African American grandparents are more apt to be involved

46. Family Violence: The Hidden Epidemic Prevalence • Between 21 and 34 percent of women will be slapped, kicked, beaten, choked, or threatened or attacked with a weapon at least once by an intimate partner • Close to 15 percent of all marriages in the United States are characterized by continuing, severe violence • Estimates suggest that one in three women throughout the globe experience some form of violent victimization during their lives

47. Factors That Put a Family at Risk for Abuse • Low SES • Growing up in a violent home • Families with more children have more violence • Single parent families with lots of stress

48. Stages of Violence Walker • Marital abuse by a husband occurs in three stages: • Tension-building stage where a batterer becomes upset and shows dissatisfaction initially through verbal abuse • Acute battering incident when the physical abuse actually occurs • Loving contrition stage where the husband feels remorse and apologizes for his actions

49. Cycle of Violence Hypothesis Abuse and neglect of children leads them to be predisposed to abusiveness as adults • About one-third of people who were abused or neglected as children abuse their own children • Two-thirds of abusers were not abused as children

50. Why Women Stay • Wife feels somewhat at fault • This explains why women stay in abusive relationships • Some stay out of fear