Middle Adulthood

1
Middle Adulthood

• Psychosocial Development

2
Erikson

• Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Concern for next generation and contributing to
  it.
• Develop virtue of care
• Expressed through parenting, teaching,
  mentorship, productivity, creativity
• Communal care of others
• Agentic personal contribution to society

3
Midlife crisis?

• Originally thought of as a crisis of identity
• Inaccurate representation of one of many turning
  points
• Life review
• May take new direction
• Crisis? depends on individual circumstances

4
Whitbourne Identity process

• Identity an organizing schema
• Identity assimilation
• Fit experience into current schema
• Identity accommodation
• Adjust schema to fit new experience
• Identity style persons unique balance between
  assimilation and accommodation

5
Relationships

• Marital satisfaction
• U shaped
• Divorce relatively uncommon
• Aging parents
• Sandwich generation
• Adult children
• Empty nest not difficult for most mothers
• Cluttered nest

6
Grandparenting

• What is your experience with grandparents like?
• How is this different from your parents
  experience?

7
Late Adulthood
8
Longevity

• How long will you live?
• Do you want to live to 100?
• Gender differences
• Women live longer
• Take care of themselves
• Seek medical care
• More social support
• Males are more biologically vulnerable

9
Aging theories

• Genetic programming
• Genes switch on or off at certain times
• Hormones regulate
• Decline in immune function
• Evolutionary reproductive purpose
• Variable-rate
• Wear tear
• Free-radical
• Rate of living
• autoimmunity

10
Physical change

• Vision
• Cataracts cloudy lens
• Commonly surgically removed
• Macular degeneration center of retina loses
  ability
• Glaucoma optic nerve damage due to pressure

11
Depression

• 11 men, 18 women
• Heredity
• 40-50 of risk
• Environment
• Stressful events
• Loneliness
• Chronic illness, disability
• Divorce, separation, widowhood

12
Dementia

• Physiological causes not normal aging
• Alzheimers disease memory impairment, language
  decline, personality change...
• Neurofibrillary tangles
• Amyloid plaques
• Education and cognitive stimulation assoc. with
  reduced risk
• Parkinsons
• Multi-infarct dementia

13
video
14
Erikson

• Integrity vs. Despair
• Evaluate and accept life so to accept death
• Virtue wisdom
• Defined as accepting ones life without regret
• Accepting imperfection in ones self, parents,
  children and life.

15
Successful aging

• Disengagement theory withdrawal from social
  roles and increased introspection
• Activity theory links activity with life
  satisfaction
• Revision frequency and social intimacy of
  activity important

16
Living arrangements

• Where would you want to live as an older adult?
• If you couldnt live independently?