This document discusses socioemotional development in middle adulthood, covering topics like personality theories, close relationships, and life events. It examines stages of adulthood according to Erikson and Levinson, exploring concepts like generativity versus stagnation. Relationships with spouses, children, siblings and other generations are analyzed, including the empty nest transition and grandparenting roles. The influence of life experiences on development is also assessed.

1. LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Sixteenth Edition
Chapter 16
Socioemotional
Development in
Middle
Adulthood
Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the
prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter Outline
• Personality theories and adult development
• Stability and change
• Close relationships

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(1 of 9)
• Stages of adulthood
• The life-events approach
• Stress and personal control in midlife
• Context of midlife development

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(2 of 9)
• Stages of adulthood
– Erikson’s generativity versus stagnation
 Generativity - Adults’ desire to leave legacies of
themselves to the next generation
o Developed in a number of ways
» Biological generativity
» Parental generativity
» Work generativity
» Cultural generativity

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(3 of 9)
– Levinson’s seasons of a man’s life
 Transition to middle adulthood lasts - Conflicts
o Being young vs. being old
o Being destructive vs. being constructive
o Being masculine vs. being feminine
o Being attached to others vs. being separated from
them
– How pervasive are midlife crises?
 The 40s are a decade of reassessing and recording
the truth about the adolescent and adult years
 Only a minority of adults experience a midlife
crisis

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(4 of 9)
– Individual variations
 Middle-aged adults interpret, shape, alter, and
give meaning to their lives
 In 1/3 of cases where individuals report
experiencing a midlife crisis:
 Triggered by life events such as job loss, financial
problems, or illness

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(5 of 9)
• The life-events approach
– Contemporary life-events approach: How life
events influence the individual’s development
depends on:
 Life event itself
 Mediating factors
 Individual’s adaptation to the life event
 Life-stage context
 Sociohistorical context

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Personality Theories and Development
(6 of 9)
• 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
o Daily experiences

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(7 of 9)
– Stress, personal control, and age
 Middle-aged adults experience more overload
stressors that involve juggling too many activities
at once
 Some aspects of personal control increase with
age while others decrease
– Stress and gender
 Fight-or-flight: Type of behavior men engage in
when they experience stress
 Become aggressive, socially withdraw, or drink
alcohol
 Tend-and-befriend: Type of behavior women
engage in when they experience stress
o Seek social alliances with others

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personality Theories and Development
(8 of 9)
• Contexts of midlife development
– Historical contexts (Cohort effects)
 Changing historical times and different social
expectations influence:
o How different cohorts move through the life span
 Social clock: Timetable according to which
individuals are expected to accomplish life’s tasks
– Gender contexts
 Stage theories have a male bias
 The demands of balancing career and family are
usually not experienced as intensely by men

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Personality Theories and Development
(9 of 9)
– Cultural contexts
 The concept of middle age is unclear or absent in
many cultures
o It is common in non industrialized societies to
describe individuals as young or old but not as
middle-aged

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Levinson’s Periods of Adult
Development (1 of 3)
Late adult transition: Age 60 to 65
Era of late adulthood: 60 to ?

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Levinson’s Periods of Adult
Development (2 of 3)
• Culminating life structure for middle
adulthood:55 to 60
• Age 50 transition: 50 to 55
• Entry life structure for middle adulthood:45 to
50
Middle adult transition: Age 40 to 45

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Levinson’s Periods of Adult
Development (3 of 3)
• Culminating life structure for middle
adulthood:33 to 40
• Age 50 transition: 28 to 33
• Entry life structure for middle adulthood:22 to
28
Early adult transition: Age 17 to 22

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Emotional Instability and Age

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Age and Well-Being

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
A Contemporary Life-Events
Framework for Interpreting Adult
Developmental Change

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The Ten Most Frequent Daily Hassles
Middle-Aged Adults over a Nine-Month
Period (1 of 2)
Daily Hassles
Percentage of Times
Checked
Concerns about weight 52.4
Health of family member 48.1
Rising prices of common goods 43.7
Home maintenance 42.8
Too many things to do 38.6
Misplacing or losing things 38.1
Yardwork/outside home
maintenance
38.1
Property, investment, or taxes 37.6
Crime 37.1
Physical appearance 35.9

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The Ten Most Frequent Daily Uplifts of
Middle-Aged Adults over a Nine-Month
Period (2 of 2)
Daily Uplifts
Relating well with your spouse or lover 76.3
Relating well with friends 74.4
Completing a task 73.3
Feeling healthy 72.7
Getting enough sleep 69.7
Eating out 68.4
Meeting your responsibilities 68.1
Visiting, phoning, or writing someone 67.7
Spending time with family 66.7
Home (inside) pleasing to you 65.5

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Individuals’ Conception of the Best Age for
Major Life Events and Achievements: Late
1950s and Late 1970s

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Stability and Change (1 of 4)
• Longitudinal studies
• Conclusions

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Stability and Change (2 of 4)
• Longitudinal studies
– Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study
 Focused on the big five factors of personality
– Berkeley longitudinal studies
 Intellectual orientation, self-confidence, and
openness to new experience were the more stable
traits
 Characteristics that changed the most
o Extent to which individuals were nurturant or hostile
o Whether or not they had good self-control

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Stability and Change (3 of 4)
– Helson’s Mills College Study
 Three main groups of women
o Family-oriented
o Career-oriented
o Neither path
– George Vaillant’s studies
 Conducted on sample of:
o 268 socially advantaged Harvard graduates born
about 1920
o 456 socially disadvantaged inner-city men born
about 1930
o 90 middle-SES, intellectually gifted women born
about 1910

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The Big Five Factors of Personality
(1 of 2)
• Openness
– Imaginative or practical
– Interested in variety or routine
– Independent or conforming
• Conscientiousness
– Organized or disorganized
– Careful or careless
– Disciplined or impulsive
• Extraversion
– Sociable or retiring
– Fun-loving or somber
– Affectionate or reserved

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The Big Five Factors of Personality
(2 of 2)
• Agreeableness
– Softhearted or ruthless
– Trusting or suspicious
– Helpful or Uncooperative
• Neuroticism(emotional stability)
– Calm or anxious
– Secure or Insecure
– Self-satisfied or self-pitying

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Close Relationships (1 of 8)
• Love and marriage at midlife
• The empty nest and its refilling
• Sibling relationships and friendships
• Grand parenting
• Intergenerational relationships

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Close Relationships (2 of 8)
• Love and marriage at midlife
– Security, loyalty, and mutual emotional interest
are more important in middle adulthood
– Most married individuals are satisfied with their
marriages during midlife
– Divorce in middle adulthood may be more
positive in some ways, more negative in others

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the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Close Relationships (3 of 8)
• The empty nest and its refilling
– Empty nest syndrome: Decrease in marital
satisfaction after children leave the home
 Parents derive considerable satisfaction from their
children
– Refilling of empty nest is a common occurrence
 Loss of privacy

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Close Relationships (4 of 8)
• Sibling relationships and friendships
– Sibling relationships may be extremely close,
apathetic, or highly rivalrous
– Friendships that have endured over the adult
years tend to be deeper

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Close Relationships (5 of 8)
• Grand parenting
– Grandparent roles and styles
 Three prominent meanings
o Source of biological reward and continuity
o Source of emotional self-fulfillment
o Remote role
– Three grand parenting styles
 Formal
 Fun-seeking
 Distant-figure

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Close Relationships (6 of 8)
• Grand parenting
– The changing profile of grandparents
 Most common reasons are divorce, adolescent
pregnancies, and parental drug use
 Full-time grand parenting has been linked to
health problems, depression, and stress

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Close Relationships (7 of 8)
• Intergenerational relationships
– Middle-aged adults express responsibility
between generations
– Midlife adults play important roles in the lives of
the young and the old
– Relationships between aging parents and their
children:
 Characterized by ambivalence

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Close Relationships (8 of 8)
• Intergenerational relationships
– Differences in gender
 Mothers and daughters have closer relationships
during their adult years
 Married men are more involved with their wives’
families than with their own
 Grandparent-grandchild relationships
o Mothers’ intergenerational ties were more influential