Kathleen Stassen Berger

Part VII

Chapter Twenty-Two

Adulthood: Psychosocial Development

Ages and Stages Intimacy Generativity

Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield Tattoon, M.A.

Adulthood: Psychosocial Development

emotional reactions to events in adulthood are fluid marriage, parenthood, divorce, and the empty nest, each sometimes joyous and sometimes not, are ages and stages of adult development

Ages and Stages

Ages and Stages

The Social Clock
refers to the idea that the stages of life, and the behaviors appropriate to them, are set by social standards rather than by biological maturationfor instance, middle age begins when the culture believes it does, rather than at a particular age in all cultures
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Ages and Stages

Culture, Cohort, and SES
culture
the patterns of behavior that are passed from one generation to the next, groups have their own culture values, customs, clothes, dwellings, cuisine, assumptions--people are influenced by more than one culture

cohort
people born within a few years of one another--these people are affected by the same: values, events, technologies, culture

socioeconomic status (SES)

social class--more than money, occupation, education, place of residence--includes advantages and disadvantages
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Ages and Stages

The Midlife Crisis
a period of unusual anxiety, radical reexamination, and sudden transformation that is widely associated with middle age but which actually has more to do with developmental history than with chronological age

Ages and Stages

Personality Throughout Adulthood
personality is a major source of continuity providing coherence and identity, allowing people to know themselves and be known

Ages and Stages

The Big Five
the five basic clusters of personality traits that remain quite stable throughout adulthood openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism ecological niche
the particular lifestyle and social context adults settle into that are compatible with their individual personality needs and interests

Ages and Stages

Culture and Personality
personality variations are more evident between one person and another in the same nation than between one nation and another

Ages and Stages

Gender Convergence
a tendency for men and women to become more similar as they move through middle age

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Intimacy
intimacy needs are lifelong adults meet their social needs for social connection with relatives, friends, coworkers, and romantic partners
social convoy collectively, the family members, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers who move through life with an individual

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Intimacy
Friends
typically the most supportive members of the social convoy, because they are chosen research study found that friendships tend to improve with age

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Intimacy
Protection Against Stress
allostatic load
the total, combined burden, of stress and disease that an individual must cope with

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Intimacy
Gender Differences
linked lives
the notion that family members tend to share all aspects of each others lives, from triumph to tragedy

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Intimacy
Family Bonds
household
a group of people who live together in one dwelling and share its common spaces, such as kitchen and living room

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Intimacy
A Developmental View
familism
the idea that family members should support one another because family unity is more important than individual freedom and success or failure

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Intimacy
Adult Siblings
fictive kin
a term used to describe someone who becomes accepted as part of a family to whom he or she has no blood relationship

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Intimacy
Marriage
a public commitment to one long-term sexual partner adults seek committed sexual partnerships to help meet their needs for intimacy, to raise children, share resources, and provide care

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Intimacy
Marriage and Happiness
from a developmental perspective, marriage is useful adults thrive if another person is committed to caring for them; married people are a littler happier, healthier and richer than unmarried people

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Intimacy
Long-Term Marriage
long-term quality of a marriage relationship is affected by family relationships in childhood empty nest
a time in the lives of parents when their grown children leave the family home to pursue their own lives

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Intimacy
Homosexual Partners
everything that applies to heterosexual partners applies to homosexual partners who make a commitment to each other

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Intimacy
Divorce
marriages never ends in a vacuumthey are influenced by the social and political context

Divorce Rates
the power of the social context is evident in variations in divorce rates

Over the Years, Divorce and Remarriage

divorce is most likely to occur within the first five years for long-term marriages, divorce is less likely but more devastating when it happens
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Generativity
after intimacy comes generativity,
generativity versus stagnation
when adults seek to be productive in a caring way, usually through work or parenthood (Erikson)

generativity comes with maturityage is not a necessary marker

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Generativity
Caregiving
Erikson wrote, a mature adult needs to be needed some caregiving is physical but much is psychological kinkeeper
the person who takes primary responsibility for celebrating family achievements, gathering the family together, and keeping in touch with family members who do not live nearby

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Generativity
Caring for Children
bearing and raising children is labor intensive the insistence on dramatizing the dependence of children on adults often blinds us to the dependence of the older generation on the young one

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Generativity
Many paths to parenthood
a parental alliance assumes two cooperating parents children can develop well in any family 1/3 of North American adults become stepparents, adoptive parents, or foster parents at some point in their lives the social construction about real parents is misleading

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Generativity
Caregiving for Aging Parents
sandwich generation
a term for the generation of middle-aged people who are supposedly squeezed by the needs of the younger and older generationssome adults do feel pressured by these obligations, but most are not burdened by them, either because they enjoy fulfilling them or because they choose to take on only some of them, or none

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Generativity
Employment
Many benefits
extrinsic rewards of work
the tangible rewards, usually in the form of compensation, that one receives for a job (e.g., salary, benefits, pension)

intrinsic rewards of work

the intangible benefits one receives from a job (e.g. job satisfaction, self-esteem, pride) that come from within oneself

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Generativity
Human Needs
it is crucial to learn how new work conditions support developmentin the functions of family caregiving, personal creativity, satisfaction, and esteem and mentoring of other workers

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Generativity
Diversity
benefit of modern economy is increased diversity
more employed women and minority groups higher employment rates have helped with those once shut out

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