changes that happen during this time again we're talking about the same period 40 to 65 so one of the key things we'll see when we talk about Ericson's psychosocial stage is that uh kind of what becomes important during this time is Shifting attention to Future generations and to community and how someone can like leave a legacy behind basically um we'll also talk about some of the shifts that middle-aged adults have in things like their personality their gender identity um shifts a little bit in some ways you might not realize um and then we'll end by talking a little bit more about career and how important that is to you know middle adults like self-image the way that they identify and view themselves so first starting off with Ericson's psychosocial stage we're almost to the end I want to say this is either the sixth or seventh stage out of eight um so we're almost at the end of Ericson's cycle uh and this stage is actually what most people refer to whenever you hear the phrase midlife crisis um that term actually comes out of this stage and sort of Ericson's view of it um so Ericson called this stage generativity versus stagnation um and the idea is that during middle adulthood the focus is really on Guiding the younger generation the most common way this is done is through parenting um but it doesn't have to be done through that so someone who maybe doesn't have children uh they can also guide the younger generation through work with like nieces and nephews if they have them or working you know with people in schools volunteering in the community um you know getting involved in maybe like coaching or anything like that teaching another good example of a way that you can help guide the younger generation um so it doesn't have to come through parenting but that's usually the most common way that it's done uh so generativity involves making commitments that are Beyond yourself in your lifetime so trying to accomplish things that are going to last even after you have passed away and moved on um and so again often that involves contributing to the community in some way through volunteering or trying to you know build some sort of Legacy that's going to outlast you um let's see so the opposite side of generativity is called stagnation and so that's really stagnation is kind of what we think of when someone's having a midlife crisis and all the stereotypes that come along with that um that really comes out of falling from you know on the side of stagnation so people who fall on this side they tend to have very little interest in the younger generation beyond what they can use or get out of them um so generativity is all about giving to the Next Generation stagnation is more about taking from the Next Generation and getting what you can out of them um so people who are in stagnation they tend to be much more selfish self-centered um they may have a lot of resentment towards younger people um so this is you know sort of that stereotype of like the older generation the things the younger generation is entitled and you know that they're lazy um so a lot of that resentment comes out of this stagnation part um and they really just don't care that much to contribute to the Future it's more like what can I get out of the life you know the time that I have left um they don't care about what they leave behind for the Next Generation so sometimes that can come out as also like a jealousy where they're almost trying to relive their youth so that's where a lot of that like midlife crisis stereotype like to me when I think of the midlife crisis stereotype I think of like a guy who's buying a motorcycle or like a sports car and dating a woman that's like 30 years younger than him um so that stereotype kind of comes out of this idea that like they just want to take whatever they can from the younger generation um maybe jealous of some of the ways of you know that younger people still have their youth and so they cling on to you know kind of superficial things that represent youth basically um some other kind of emotional and social changes that are happening during this time uh people in middle adulthood tend to have a rise in what's called androgyny so androgyny is where you're embracing both sides of the gender Spectrum like masculinity and femininity um and so this tends to be true regardless of the person's gender so whether someone is male or female whether they're cyst or trans um doesn't seem to matter very much once we get into this sort of middle adulthood in general most people tend to have this kind of integration of more masculine and feminine features um so for example women might take on more masculine traits where they feel more you know like a leadership role at work or um they might take on masculine Hobbies um you know maybe get into like working on cars or woodworking or things that we typically ascribe to like a male stereotype uh and similarly men might take on more feminine qualities they might be more vulnerable more open to talking about their emotions they might get into something like gardening or cooking or things that we again tend to ascribe to a more like feminine um hobbies and there's all kinds of evidence that this integration of masculinity and feminity has a lot of benefits um so it helps with like mental health um it can help form better connections between people that we have relationships with um because you start to share perspectives and hobbies with people outside of your gender um so just makes people more flexible um it also has been shown that there's sort of this correlation between this rise in androgyny and a rise in creativity um so people tend to be you know because they're more open uh to other perspectives that can also increase creativity um potentially yeah there I will say there's some research that shows that with recent Generations recent cohorts there's less rise in androgyny but that's probably because people are starting from a place of higher androgyny to begin with so it's kind of like with newer Generations this process happens a lot earlier um so people are more likely to embrace their femininity and masculinity from like adolescence and so if they're already starting androgynous then you're not going to see an increase in androgyny during middle adulthood so in addition to shifting gender identity there's also some evidence that personality can shift a little bit during middle adulthood which is kind of counterintuitive because the whole idea of personality is that it's supposed to be something that's stable across your lifespan um and is to some extent but it's also maybe more flexible uh than previous research would have suggested um I don't think we've talked too much about personality in this class before but kind of the most um the most agreed upon model of Personality suggests that our personality is composed of these five traits um neuroticism basically refers to like emotional stability so people who are high in neuroticism they have very unstable emotions they're kind of emotionally erratic extrovert you guys probably all know that one that's to the extent like how outgoing or sociable you are so people who are highly extroverted tend to be very social they like to be around people the opposite of that obviously would be introverted so people who are maybe more reserved they like to be to themselves or small groups um openness refers to how like open someone is to a new experience um so people who are high in openness they like to seek out new activities try new foods listen to new music um they're also open to like talking about their emot ions um agreeableness is like how trusting you are of other people How likely are you to say yes to doing something um how well do you get along with other people basically and then conscientiousness is more like how hardworking you are so people who are high in conscientiousness they tend to be really hardworking they meet deadlines um they're very like uh um like they seek out goals and you know accomplish those so again kind of the idea is that those are the five basic traits of Personality that you can sum up a person's personality based on where they fall on the spectrum of each of these five traits so there's evidence that you know most people are fairly stable in these five traits throughout the lifespan but there are some actual predictable changes that happen kind of during middle adulthood um so in General Studies show that agreeableness and conscientiousness increase as we get older so we become more agreeable more trusting of other people and more hardworking more prompt at deadlines Etc and there's pretty good evidence that neuroticism for most people decreases as you get into middle adulthood so our emotions become a little bit more stable and then the other ones extroversion and openness those tend to be the most stable like they say pretty much the same throughout your entire lifespan you said there a decrease in just neur correct so that's kind of the general average at least um there's some there's some evidence that depending on your experience you know it can be different um so for example people who are in stable relationships tend to show that pattern I just described the most so people who are in like a stable long-term relationship they've been married to the same person for you know the entire lifespan or something close to that um then they're the ones that are going to have the most decrease in neuroticism and increase in agreeableness and conscientiousness so our sort of gender identity personalities are shifting to some extent there's also changes in social dynamics happening during this middle adulthood period um so uh the parent child relationship now we're kind of looking at this through the other lens like we talked about this a little bit from the lens of the Adolescent leaving the home now we're talking about it from the parent who is having their child leave and go off to college or move off to somewhere um so that process usually is going to happen when the person is in middle adulthood there's obviously a range depending on when you have your child and how old they are when they move out but for the most part most people experience that kind of like empty nest where their children are leaving during this middle adulthood um um so you know the parent is experiencing this sort of loss of authority loss of control they have to learn how to just let go and let their child take on more autonomy more control for themselves um there can also be some disruptions in the parent child relationship whenever the child goes off to you know form a new relationship um and you're having especially like if the child goes and gets married then now you're having the marriage of two families and so is a parent you might be dealing with like the in-laws of your child um and trying to you know be peaceful and keep everything happy in that Dynamic which can be very difficult um some parents might have to take on what's called a k keeper role so the K keeper is the person who like gets everybody back together for the holidays um that usually is going to be the mother in a parent child relationship um but not always so you know all of you might be experiencing that right now your moms or whoever might be calling up and saying like are you coming home for Thanksgiving and trying to arrange like where are people going to stay and um who all's coming and how much food do we need and uh so a lot of times during middle childhood the parent child relationship revolves around that Dynamic um during this time people are also likely to become grandparents especially as we get towards the end of middle adulthood uh grandparenthood can be an extremely rewarding time um um depending on the dynamic obviously between the parent and the child and the grandchild uh so on average most people will become a grandparent in their early 50s um so they'll end up spending about a third of their lifetime as a grandparent so it can be a pretty large chunk of someone's life uh the relationship between grandparent and grandchild is going to be influenced by a huge number of factors one of the biggest ones is just proximity so if the grandparent lives close to their child and their grandchild then there's a much higher chance that they're going to develop a relationship and form a bond if they live you know geographically far apart that's obviously going to be much more difficult um but there's all kinds of other things that influence it so the gender of the grandparents and the grandchild plays a role um typically grandmothers tend to be more involved in their grandchildren's lives than grandfathers and that's a generality obviously not true of everybody but in general um but also things like socioeconomic status ethnicity and culture um all those also play a role in the relationship between grandparent and child as well so a lot of times middle adults are referred to as the sandwich generation because in addition to them taking care of their own children they also are usually caring for their aging parents at the same time um so this always gets a little difficult to talk about because the verb like the terminology like parent child Grant like all of that becomes tricky but you can imagine like you know me for example I have a 15-year-old son I also have parents who are like getting to retirement age and starting to have health issues and so you're sort of sandwiched in between those two generations where you're expected to take care of your kids and also take care of Aging parents um which can become very stressful and a lot of work um so that's very common for people in this middle adulthood to be in sort of that sandwich generation situation um some of the difficulties that come from that that uh one is like Financial um so it can be very financially difficult if the older parents the grandparents in this case um are retiring they're not making as much income especially if they haven't saved up a lot for retirement then it might fall on that middle sandwich generation to fill that Gap in income while they're also still taking care of their children um and then also just like the logistical challenges that come with trying to make decisions about should my aging parent move in with me or should I put them in like an a isted living facility or you know some other option um making all those decisions can be very difficult and stressful in general women are more likely to take on that role of caring for their aging parents um compared to men so that adds again layers of complexity and difficulty um all right so last thing to talk about in middle adulthood are changes in career or vocational life so last time we talked about how when you usually when you first start a job in early adulthood there's kind of some disappointment in the career choice no matter what the career choice is um so during middle adulthood we kind of see a shift where you tend to have a lot more increased job satisfaction so as you spend more time in work you're going to start to feel a lot more competent a lot more comfortable you're going to start to know what to expect on a day-to-day basis um and so all of that increases job satisfaction you also might be working yourself up into a position where you have more control and more power and you can make more decisions um however a lot of this can be negatively affected by some of the stereotypes that we have of Aging so uh if someone is laid off or fired during this middle adulthood period which about three% will experience unemployment during this time um then it's much more difficult for them to then find another job especially a job that's going to be at the same like status and income as as what they had previously um there's all kinds of evidence that uh people are biased against hiring people um in this middle adulthood range so employers tend to prefer younger employees who are kind of fresh out of college or you know just starting off um compared to those who are older so some of the stereotypes that affect it so for example employers might assume that an older employee is not going to have as much like technological knowledge kind of like we were talking about before um they might also assume that someone who's older is going to be more prone to injury and so they're not going to be able to do like physical harder labor um so there's just all these stereotypes and biases that make it more difficult to be hired into a new job during this time so those who experience midlife unemployment they're going to have a lot of disruptions OB obviously Financial issues it can also lead to disruptions in that generativity that we talked about previously um so a job is another place where you can sometimes pass on knowledge to the Next Generation and so if you're laid off then it's going to interfere with that so the other vocational thing that's going on is uh planning for retirement so most people retire around age 65 which is the end of this middle adulthood period uh and so a lot of this period involves planning for that um final retirement basically we'll talk more about retirement later when we talk about uh late adulthood but so really like what's happening during this time is saving for retirement um there's all kinds of like rules of thumb of what you should be doing for retirement and they kind of change all the time depending on who you're talking to and the state of the economy Etc um but most people suggest that you should try to save around 10 to 15% of your income in some sort of retirement fund starting as early as possible so you know if any of you have an occupation right now that allows you to save for retirement you should probably be doing that um as soon as you start an occupation you know it's good it's a good idea to start that as quickly as possible um again kind of rule of thumb is that by the time you retire you should have about eight times your annual salary saved so if you make $100,000 a year you should have $800,000 saved up before you retire is kind of the the rule of thumb again that changes a lot who knows what the state of like Social Security and Medicare and stuff will be by the time I retire or you all retire so who knows but yeah um again we'll talk I think we that's all I'll say about retirement because we'll talk about it more next time since retirement happens right at the end of this phase so I think that's