Generativity
Drive toward contributing to others beyond oneself (identity) and life partner (intimacy, family community, society)
Can involve anything that can outlive the self and ensure societies continuity and improvement
Children, ideas, products, works of art
Associated with successful marriages, close friendships, workplace leadership, more effective child rearing
Generativity increases in midlife across SES, ethnicity etc
Higher generativity- more well adjusted
Stagnation
Self absorbed, self indulgent
Lack of involvement
Evaluating life
Wide individual differences in response
Life evaluation is common during middle age
“Turning points” reported: mostly positive, leading to personal growth
Interpretation of regrets greatly influences well-being:
Serves a positive function if people consider what went wrong and take corrective action
Crisis and major restructuring are rare
Is there a midlife criss
Key characteristics
Self doubt and reassessment
Individuals may re-evaluate career, relationships and personal goals, feeling dissatisfied or regretful about past decisions
Desire for change
People experiencing a midlife criss often feel a strong urge to make significant life changes such as changing careers, ending relationships or pursuing new interests
Emotional instability
Feelings of anxiety, depression or frustration are common, sometimes accompanied by impulsive or uncharacteristic behaviors
Causes
Awareness of aging and mortality
Realization of unmet goals or unfulfilled dreams
Major life transitions, like children leaving home or changes in health
Life evaluation in middle age
Common for individuals to assess their lives; most make minor adjustments (turning points) rather than drastic changes
Limitations recognized
By midlife, people acknowledge parts of their life paths that can no longer change
Positive outlook
Many find the “silver lining” in their circumstances
Crisis in a few
Midlife crises are rare and typically occur in those who faced early limitations due to strict gender roles, family pressures, or financial struggles
Possible selves
What one hopes to become (strives for) or fears becoming (tries to avoid)
Fewer in number, more modest and concrete with age
“Rich and happy- being competent at work
Strong motivator of action in midlife (and also in therapy)
Plays protective role in self-esteem
Need to seek balance between possibilities and disappointments
Increases in self acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery
“Prime of life”
Midlife gains in
Self-acceptance- acceptance of good and bad qualities
Autonomy- less concerned with others expectations
Environmental mastery- capable of managing complex array of tasks
More complex, integrated self-descriptions
Number of social roles typically peaks, and work and community status rises
Increase in overall life satisfaction; many feel close to fulfilling their potential
Coping
Effective coping strategies
Identify positives in difficult situations
Better anticipation and planning
Postpone action and evaluate alternatives
Humor
Plateau in frequency of daily stressors
Strong sense of personal control over outcomes
Gains in emotional stability and confidence
Positive changes in coping are not experienced by all
Suicide rates among midlifers are high
Personality
Relatively enduring patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving
Individual differences that are highly stable
Neuroticism
Extroversion
Openness to experience
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Enduring foundation, yet responsive to the pressures of life experiences
The big 5 personality traits
Neuroticism- individuals who are high on this trait are worrying, temperamental, self-pitying, emotional and vulnerable
Individuals who are low are calm, even-tempered, self content, comfortable, unemotional and hardy
Extroversion :Individuals who are high on this trait are affectionate, talkative, active, fun loving and passionate
Individual who are low are reserved, quiet, passive, sober and emotionally unreactive
Openness to experience: Individuals who are high on this trait are imaginative, creative, original, curious and liberal. Individuals who are low are down to earth, uncreative, conventional, incurious and conservative
Agreeableness: Individuals who are high on this trait are soft-hearted, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, and good-natured. Individuals who are low are ruthless, suspicious, stingy, antagonistic, critical and irritable
Conscientiousness: Individuals who are high on this trait are conscientious, hard-working, well-organized, ambitious, and persevering. Individuals who are low are negligent, lazy, disorganized, late, aimless, and nonpersistent
Most mean- level personality trait change occurs between the ages of 20 and 40
Personality traits continue to change even in old age
Time has a positive effect on personality-trait change
The direction of change is clearly in the positive direction
Relationships at Midlife
Most social connections at this age
45-54 years old most financially stable
Compared to other age groups and other generations of their age group
For many people, a liberating time
Sense of completion
Marriage in midlife
Middle-aged households typically well-off compared with other age groups
Contemporary view of midlife marriage: expansion, new horizons
Partly because of increased education and financial security compared to previous generations
Not clear if this remains or will remain the case
Need for review and adjustment of marital relationship
Marital satisfaction predicts psychological change
Divorce in midlife
Rate doubled over past 20 years for US ages 50 plus
8.7% in 1990 to 36% in 2019 of all us divorces
Contributing factors: longer life expectancy, greater social acceptance, and greater financial security
More likely among those highly educated or remarried
Midlifers adjust more easily than young adults
Practical problem solving
Effective coping strategies
Can bring relief when marriage is highly distressed
Contributes to feminization of poverty: Majority of adult population living in poverty are women who support themselves or their families
Why might divorce affect different genders differently?
Divorce in midlife
Divorce-forced independence among middle-aged women who weather divorce successfully
Both men and women evaluate what they consider important in a healthy relationship
Greater weight on equal friendship and less on passionate love than they had the first time
Different relationship arrangements in midlife
Cohabitating
Living apart together
One study found that dating, LAT and cohabiting relationships all associated with similar levels of happiness but lower happiness than marriage
Changing Parent-Child relationships
Most parents “launch” adult children
Decline in parental authority
Continued contact, affection, support to children
Adjusting to in-laws
Kinkeeper role, especially for mothers
Gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch
Affected by
Investment in non parental relationships and roles, especially work
Children’s characteristics “off-time” children stress parents
Cultural variations in social clock for children’s departure
Grandparenthood
On average, begins in early fifties; can spend one-third of life as a grandparent
Vital context for sharing between generations
Valued older adult
Being percieved as wise, helpful person
Immorality through descendants
Leaving behind not just one but two generations after death
Reinvolvemnet with personal past
Being able to pass family history and values to a new generation
Opportunity for indulgence
Grandparents rearing Grandchildren: The skipped-generation family
Increase in grandparents as primary caregivers
2.7 million US grandparents in skipped-generation families
Usually step in when parents have troubled lives
Many assume role under very stressful circumstances
Children with learning, emotional, behavioral problems
Parent interference
Financial hardship
Worries about child if own health fails
Need social and financial support and services
Middle-aged children and their aging parents
Increasingly likely to have living parents
Reassess relationships with parents
Proximity increases with age
Caring for aging parents
“Sandwich generation” expected to increase
Factors include, finances, location, gender, culture
Highly stressful
Time devoted to care is great, more for women
Challenges magnified for working women
Over time, parent’s condition declines, tasks escalate
Greatest stress for those sharing a household
Most help willingly and benefit personally
Consqequences of caring for aging parents
Emotional, physical, and financial
Risks include role overload, job absenteeism, exhaustion, inability to concentrate, depression, anxiety about aging, women more profoundly affected
Supportive measues
Positive experiences at work
Social support, team effort among family
Government-sponsored home helper systems (Denmark, Sweden and Japan)
Who provides care? ⅔ of caregivers are women
Siblings in Middle Adulthood
Contact and support decline due to demands of diverse roles
Many siblings feel closer, often in response to major life events
Affected by past and current parental favoritism, culture
Frienships in middle adulthood
Gender trends continue: Mens friendships are less intimate than women’s
Connecting regularly through social media has risen
Fewer friends: become more selective, try harer to get along with friends
Rely on friends more for pleasure, family for support and security
Vocational life and job satisfaction
Important for self esteem
Career development
Training and on-the job counseling less available
Personal characteristics
Priorities shift from growth to security
Rely on others for encouragement
Self-efficacy, affected by negative stereotypes of aging
Work characteristics
Challenging vs routine tasks affect motivation
Glass ceiling
Invisible barrier to career advancement for women and BIPOC
Contributing factors
Less access to mentors, training opportunities
Stereotypes about career commitment, managerial ability
For women, prejudices toward gender role deviation (leadership characteristics)
Many women deal with glass ceiling by leaving corporate environment
Retirement
Financial planning
Planning for an active life
Leisure and volunteer activities
Factors essential for psychological well-being
Structured time schedule
Social contract
Self-esteem