Middle Adulthood

"Primetime" or "The Beginning of the End?"

Midlife - commonly believed to be a time of crisis and transition, when self-doubt, reevaluation of career goals, changes in family responsibilities, and a growing awareness of one’s mortality lead to turmoil

Middle Adulthood

• How do you define middle adulthood?
• If by chronological age, what are the boundaries?
• If by developmental tasks, what would they be?
• If by biological/physical changes, what are they?
• If middle-age is a state of mind, what characterizes it?

Major Issues of Midlife

• 1) Physical Changes
• 2) Health Status
• 3) Sexuality
• 4) Cognitive Development
• 5) Work & Leisure
• 6) Love & Marriage
• 7) Sibling Relationships
• 8) Intergenerational Relationships

• 1) Job Satisfaction
• 2) Career Ladders
• 3) Career Plateau
• 4) Burnout
• 5) Alienation
• 6) Mid-life Career Changes
• 7) Leisure

• 1) Wrinkles
• 2) Weight Gain
• 3) Hair Graying and Loss
• 4) Bone Mass - Osteoporosis

• role conflict 
• Role strain 

• Most men feel committed to both work and family and take one of four paths of dev.
• 1) Transcendent-generative man does not have a mid-life crisis because he has found
•     adequate solutions to most problems of life
• 2) Pseudo-developed man copes with problems by maintaining a facade that everything is
•     under control
• 3) Man in mid-life crisis is confused and feels that his whole world is disintegrating
• 4) Punitive-disenchanted man has been unhappy and alienated for much of his life and now is
•     in crisis

• Costa & McCrae’s Model of Personality
•   1) Neuroticism
•   2) Extraversion
•   3) Openness to experience
•   4) Agreeableness
•   5) Conscientiousness

• Middle adulthood is the bridge between two generations

• How do grandparents interact with grandchildren?
•   1) Formal Style (1/3)
•   2) Fun-seeking (Fairly Common)
•   3) Distant
•   4) Surrogate Parents
•   5) Dispensers of Family Wisdom

• Erikson - Middle adulthood
• Individuals become more aware of death
• They begin to question whether they are living well
• The crossroads of life
• A time for reevaluation
• Midlife crisis
• Core struggle - generativity vs stagnation

• Havinghurst
•   1) Achieving adult civic and social responsibility
•   2) Establishing and maintaining an economic standard of living
•   3) Developing adult leisure-time activities
•   4) Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults
•   5) Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person
•   6) Accepting and adjusting to the physiological changes of middle age
•   7) Adjusting to aging parents

• Potential Problems

•  1)  Ability to handle closeness and separation
•  2)  Ability to communicate emotions
•  3)  Ability to communicate perceptions
•  4)  Ability to communicate ideas
•  5)  Ability to use language
•  6)  Ability to experience bodily freedom and pleasure
•  7)  Ability to clarify reality and fantasy
•  8)  Ability to resolve interpersonal conflicts
•  9)  Ability to fulfill goals and complete projects
• 10) Ability to use memory effectively
• 11) Ability to use roles flexibly

• 1)  Consolidation of identity
• 2)  Humanization of relationships and values
• 3)  Experience in crisis resolution
• 4)  Generativity and the expansion of caring
• 5)  Self-transcendence and spirituality

• Factors that influence the ease with which the midlife transition occurs:
• 1) Health
• 2) Status
• 3) Personality
• 4) Prior Accomplishments