Adulthood
UNIT 7
Unit Introduction
 When does an adolescent become an adult?
Unit Introduction
 What are the rites of passage that we use as
social markers to highlight the transition
from adolescence to adulthood?
Unit Introduction
 Should we change the age at which
adolescents can vote, drive, consume alcohol,
get married?
Developmental changes during adulthood
7.1
What is the process of physical
development during adulthood?
 In early adulthood physical growth continues.
 Shoulder width, height and chest size increase, and people
continue to develop their athletic abilities.
 By their mid-thirties, nearly everyone shows some hearing
impairment, but for most people, the years of early adulthood
are the prime of life.
 In middle adulthood, other physical changes slowly
emerge.
 The most common of these involve the further loss of sensory
sharpness.
 People become less sensitive to light, less accurate at perceiving
differences in the distance, and slower and less acute at seeing
details.
 At about age forty, increased farsightedness is common, and
glasses may be necessary to correct it.
What is the process of physical
development during adulthood?
 Most people are well into late adulthood before their bodily
functions show noticeable impairment.
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However, inside the body, bone mass is dwindling, the risk of heart
disease is increasing, and fertility is declining.
In their late forties or early fifties, women generally experience
menopause, the shutdown of reproductive capability.
Estrogen and progesterone levels drop, and the menstrual cycle
eventually ceases.
Men shrink about two centimetres in height, and women about five
centimetres, as their posture changes and cartilage disks between the
spinal vertebrae become thinner.
Hardening of the arteries and a buildup of fat deposits on the artery
walls may lead to heart disease.
The digestive system slows down and becomes less efficient.
In addition, the brain shrinks and the flow of blood to the brain
diminishes during late adulthood (Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 366).
What is the process of cognitive
development during adulthood?
 Despite the aging of the brain, cognition
undergoes little change for the worse until late
adulthood.
 Before that time, alert older people can think just as
quickly as alert younger people.
 In fact, older adults may function as well or as better
than younger adults in situations that tap their
memories and learning skills.
 Their years of accumulating and organizing
information can make older adults practiced, skillful
and wise.
 Until age sixty at least, important cognitive abilities
improve.
What is the process of cognitive
development during adulthood?
 The nature of thought may also change during adulthood.
 Adult thought is often more complex and adaptive than
adolescent thought.
 Middle-aged adults are more expert than adolescents or young
adults at making rational decisions and at relating logic and
abstractions to actions, emotions, social issues, and personal
relationships.
 It is not until late in adulthood that, after the age of sixty-five or
so, that some intellectual abilities decline in some people.
 Older adults do just as well as younger ones at tasks they know
well, however, when asked to perform an unfamiliar task or to
solve a complex problem they have not seen before, older adults
are generally slower and less effective than younger ones
(Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 366).
What is the process of emotional
development during adulthood?
 Adulthood is a time when changes occur in
social relationships and positions.
 These changes do not come in neat,
predictable stages but, instead, follow
various paths depending on individual
experiences.
 Changes can include being abandoned by a
spouse, getting fired from a job, going back
to school, remarrying or suffering the death
of a spouse.
What is the process of emotional
development during adulthood?
 Men and women in Western cultures usually
enter the adult world in their early twenties.
 They decide on an occupation, or at least take a
job, and often become preoccupied with their
careers.
 They also become more preoccupied with the
issues of love.
 During young adulthood, the experience of
becoming parents represents entry into a major
new developmental phase accompanied by
personal, social, and, often, occupational
changes.
What is the process of emotional
development during adulthood?
 Sometime around age forty, people go
through a mid-life transition.
 They may reappraise and modify their lives
and relationships.
 Happiness and healthiness of people in midlife depend on how much control they feel
they have over their job, finances, marriage,
children, and sex life; the level of education
they have attained; and the type of work they
are doing.
What is the process of emotional
development during adulthood?
 Most people between sixty-five and seventy-five years of
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age think of themselves as middle-aged, not old.
They are active and influential politically and socially; they
often are physically vigorous.
Men and women who have been working usually retire
from their jobs during this period.
Ratings of life-satisfaction and self-esteem are, on average,
as high in old age as during any other period in adulthood.
During late adulthood, people generally become more
inward-looking, cautious and conforming.
Although they interact with others less frequently, older
adults enjoy these interactions more, finding relationships
more satisfying, supportive, and fulfilling than earlier in life
(Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 367).
How do adults deal with change in
their lives?
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Researchers have looked at how and why people change either on their
own or with help. Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente (1992) have
proposed a wheel concept that illustrates the six stages of change:
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Precontemplation: At this point a person is not even thinking that there is a
problem or that there is a need to make a change. A person requires information
and feedback to raise their awareness that they can make changes. This is the
entry point into change.
Contemplation: At this point the person swings between considering a change
and rejecting it repeatedly.
Determination or preparation: The person determines that they have to do
something about the problem and questions what they can do and explores
options.
Action: A person engages in actions in order to bring a change.
Maintenance: A person continues previous action and perhaps tries new skills.
Relapse: There is a return to old behaviour and the task is to get on the wheel
again (Prochaska et al., 1992, p. 1105).
Lifestyle choices
7.2.1
What role does proper nutrition
play in our overall development?
 How have the eating styles and habits of
adults changed over the past 50 years?
How important is regular exercise to our
physical, mental and emotional health?
 Every adult should engage in 30 minutes or
more of moderate-intensive physical activity
on most, preferably all, days of the week.
 Researchers have found that exercise
benefits not only physical health, but mental
health as well.
 In particular, exercise improves self-concept
and reduces anxiety and depression
(Santrock, 1999, p. 392).
How do we define substance abuse
and addiction?
 Substance abuse is a pattern of use that causes
serious social, legal or interpersonal problems.
 Thus, people can become psychologically
dependent on psychoactive drugs without
becoming physically addicted to them.
 Addiction is the physical need for a substance
(physiological substance dependence).
 Even when use of a drug does not create physical
addiction, some people may overuse, or abuse,
because the drug gives them temporary selfconfidence, enjoyment or relief from tension
(Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 467).
Why do people become
addicted?
 The biological model holds that addiction, whether to
alcohol or any other drug, is due primarily to a person's
biochemistry, metabolism and genetic predisposition.
 Genes could contribute to alcoholism by contributing to
traits or temperaments that predispose a person to become
alcoholic. Or they may affect biochemical processes in the
brain that make some people more susceptible to alcohol
or cause them to respond to it differently than others do.
 For example, genes may affect the functioning of key
neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which researchers
think is somehow related to addiction and other
disorders. Genes may also affect how much a person needs
to drink before feeling any effect (Tavris and Wade, 2000, p.
600).
Why do people become
addicted?
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According to the learning model, drug addiction is not a disease but a
“central activity of the individual’s way of life” that depends on learning
and culture. To understand why people become addicted the learning
model focuses on the behaviours surrounding the addiction. Four
arguments support this view:
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Addiction patterns vary according to cultural practices and the social
environment. Alcoholism is much more likely to occur in societies that forbid
children to drink but condone drunkenness in adults than in societies that teach
children how to drink responsibly and moderately but condemn adult
drunkenness. Within a particular country, addiction rates can rise or fall rapidly in
response to cultural changes such as when people move from their own culture
into another that has different drinking rules.
Policies of total abstinence tend to increase rates of addiction rather than reduce
them.
Not all addicts have withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking a drug.
Addiction does not depend on properties of the drug alone, but also on the
reason for taking it. Addicts use drugs to escape from the real world, but people
living with chronic pain use some of the same drugs in order to function in the real
world and they do not become addicted (Tavris and Wade, 2000, p. 601).
What are the defining characteristics of
a substance abuser?
 A substance abuser is a person who overuses and relies on
drugs to deal with stress and anxiety. Most substance
abusers turn to alcohol, tobacco and other readily available
drugs such as cocaine and marijuana, but substance abuse
is not confined to these drugs. A growing number of people
are abusing legal drugs such as tranquilizers and diet pills,
as well as illegal drugs such as amphetamines and heroin. A
person is a substance abuser if all three of the following
statements apply:
 The person has used the abusive substance for at least a month.
 The use has caused legal difficulties or social or vocational
problems.
 There is recurrent use in hazardous situations such as driving a
car (Lefton et al., 2000, p. 138).
Are some people more likely than others
to become alcoholics?
 The answer is yes, according to researchers who
study the biological aspects of alcoholism.
 Researchers assert that genetics, blood and
brain chemistry, and specific brain structures
predispose some people to alcoholism.
 Children of alcoholics are more likely to become
alcoholics, even if they are raised by nonalcoholic adoptive parents.
 The correlations suggest that certain individuals'
physiology predisposes them to alcoholism
(Lefton et al., 2000, p. 141).
Under what conditions are people likely
to become addicted?
 Abuse and addiction reflect an interaction of physiology and
psychology, person and culture. Problems with drugs are most likely
to occur under these conditions:
 When a person has a physiological vulnerability to a drug;
 When a person believes he or she has no control over the drug;
 When laws or customs encourage or teach people to take a drug
in binges, and moderate use is neither encouraged nor taught;
 When a person comes to rely on a drug as a way of coping with
problems, suppressing anger or fear, or relieving pain;
 When members of a person's peer group drink heavily or use
other drugs excessively (Tavris and Wade, 2000, p. 604).
What are some risks of prolonged alcohol
abuse?
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About 10 percent of Americans - in excess of 25 million people - display alcohol
dependence or abuse, a pattern of continuous or on-and-off drinking that may
lead to addiction and almost always causes severe social, physical, and other
problems.
Males exceed females in this category by a ratio of six to one, although the
problem is on the rise among women and among teenagers of both genders.
Prolonged overuse of alcohol can result in life-threatening liver damage,
reduced cognitive abilities, vitamin deficiencies that can lead to severe and
irreversible memory loss, and a host of other physical ailments.
Alcohol dependence or abuse, commonly referred to as alcoholism, has been
implicated in half of all the traffic fatalities, homicides and suicides that happen
each year.
Alcoholism also figures prominently in rape and child abuse, as well as in
elevated rates of hospitalization and absenteeism from work.
It is estimated that 43 percent of U.S. adults have an alcoholic in their families.
Children growing up in families in which one or both parents abuse alcohol are at
an increased risk for developing a host of mental disorders, including substance
abuse disorders (Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 467).
How prevalent is the problem of alcohol
abuse in Canada?
 Alcohol consumption in Canada has been
declining in the past decade.
 According to the Canadian Centre on Substance
Abuse, about 72 percent of urban Canadian
adults report having used alcohol at some time;
just over nine percent of those who drink report
having problems related to alcohol and just
under half a million Canadians are classified as
alcoholics.
 The highest proportions of people reporting
problems with alcohol are in the 15- to 24-yearold range (Lefton et al., 2000, p. 139).
Why do people smoke?
 There are genetic, psychosocial and cognitive reasons:
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Genetic: Some people may be genetically predisposed. Individual
differences in the reaction to nicotine are taken as evidence that our
genes play a role in determining which people will become
smokers. Also, nicotine enhances the availability of certain
neurotransmitter substances, such as dopamine. These
neurotransmitters influence memory, attention, performance, pleasure,
tension, anxiety, appetite and pain, and can be pleasurable for some
people.
 Psychosocial factors also play a role in establishing smoking behaviour,
especially among young people. Adolescents may be more likely to
smoke if their parents or other role models smoke, if they experience
peer pressure to do so, or if their brothers or sisters do.
 The cognitive factors include believing that smoking allows them to stay
alert and handle stress, even though there is no clear evidence in support
of those ideas. Smokers are more likely to believe self-exempting beliefs
than non-smokers (Baron et al., 1998, p. 551)
What happens, physically, when smokers
quit?
Time elapsed
Physical response
20 minutes
Blood pressure drops to normal.
Pulse rate drops to normal.
Body temperature of hands and feet returns to normal.
Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal.
Oxygen level in blood increases.
Chance of heart attack decreases.
8 hours
24 hours
48 hours
2 weeks to 3 months
1 to 9 months
1 year
5 years
10 years
15 years
Nerve endings start regrowing.
Ability to smell and taste is enhanced.
Circulation improves.
Walking becomes easier.
Lung function increases by up to 30 percent.
Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, shortness of breath decrease.
Cilia regrow in lungs, increasing ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, reduce infection.
Body's overall energy increases.
Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker.
Lung cancer death rate for average former smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half.
Stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5-15 years after quitting.
Risk of cancer of the throat, mouth and esophagus is half that of a smoker's.
Lung cancer death rate similar to that of non-smoker's.
Precancerous cells are replaced.
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, pancreas and kidney decreases.
Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker.
Stress and Resiliency
7.2.2
What is stress?
 Canadian physician Hans Selye (1956) concluded that stress
consists of a series of physiological reactions that occur in three
phases:
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The alarm phase, in which your body mobilizes to meet the immediate
threat or other stressor. Physiological responses include a boost in
energy, tense muscles, reduced sensitivity to pain, the shutting down of
digestion, a rise in blood pressure, and increased output of the adrenal
hormones adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol.
 The resistance phase, in which your body attempts to resist or cope with
a stressor that cannot be avoided, but which persists over time. During
this phase, the physiological responses of the alarm phase continue, but
these responses make the body more vulnerable to other stressors.
 The exhaustion phase, in which persistent stress depletes the body of
energy and therefore increases vulnerability to physical problems and
eventually illness. The same reactions that allow the body to respond
effectively in the alarm and resistance phases are unhealthy as longrange responses (Tavris and Wade, 2000, p. 546).
How does stress develop?
Stressors
Life changes and strains
Catastrophic events
Daily hassles
Chronic stressors
Stress mediators
Cognitive
appraisal
Predictability
Sense of control
Coping resources
and methods
Social support
Personality
Stress reactions
Physical
Emotional
Cognitive
Behavioural
What can we do to minimize the effects of
stress?
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Stress mediators include:
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Predictability and control: Uncertainty about when and if a certain stressor might
occur tends to increase the stressor's impact. Predictable stressors tend to have
less impact than those that are unpredictable. Stressors over which people
believe they exert some control usually have less impact. The greatest threat to
health and well-being occurs when people feel unable to control their
circumstances - when they feel caught in a situation they cannot escape. Feelings
of control can reduce or even eliminate the relationship between stressors and
health.
Coping resources and methods: People usually suffer less from a stressor if they
have adequate coping resources (money, time) and effective coping methods
(problem-focused techniques involve methods to alter or eliminate stress, or
emotion-focused techniques that attempt to regulate the negative emotional
effects). Social support consists of resources provided by other people, the
friends and social contacts on whom you can depend for support. Social support
refers not only to your relationship with others but also to the recognition that
others care and will help.
Personality: One element of the stress-resistant personality seems to be
dispositional optimism, the belief or expectation that things will work out
positively. People who tend to think of stressors as temporary and who do not
blame themselves for bringing about the stressors appear to be less harmed by
them (Bernstein and Nash, 1999, p. 380).
What are some successful ways of dealing
with stress?
Physical strategies
• Relaxation
• Meditation
• Massage
• Exercise
Problem-oriented strategies
• Reduce negative emotions
• Problem-focused coping
Cognitive strategies
• Reappraising the problem
• Learning from the problem
• Making social comparisons
• Cultivating a sense of humour
Social strategies
• Relying on friends and family
• Helping others
What are the factors that increase
the risk of illness from stress?
 Factors that increase the risk of illness from stress include:
 Environmental: Uncontrollable noise, poverty, lack of access to
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health care, persistent discrimination
Experiential: Bereavement or divorce, traumatic events, chronic
and severe job stress, unemployment
Biological: Viral or bacterial infections, disease, genetic
vulnerability
Psychological: Toxic hostility, possibly chronic depression,
emotional inhibition, pessimism, external locus of control,
fatalism, feeling powerless
Behavioural: Smoking, high-fat diet, lack of exercise, abuse of
alcohol and other drugs, lack of sleep
Social: Lack of supportive friends and relatives, low involvement
in groups
What is resiliency?
 Resiliency is unusually good adaptation to
severe and/or chronic stress, or the ability to
rebound to or above pre-stress levels of
adaptation (Saskatchewan Health, 1998, p.
C1).
How do you promote resiliency?
 To promote resiliency in people, you must decrease
the risk factors and increase the protective factors:
 The major risk factors include an uptight
temperament, poor parenting (especially during the
first three years), family conflict/violence/mental
illness, poverty and being
powerless/marginalized/stigmatized.
 There are three aspects that serve to protect people:
 Individual protectors, or protective personal characteristics
such as low anxiety, good coping skills, autonomy, secure
attachments, sense of control over their lives, having a
mentor outside of the family, a good support network, and
a positive outlook.
How do you promote resiliency?
 Protective family factors include parental
involvement/caring/support, high but achieveable expectations,
participation by children welcomed, and the family
endures/copes in the face of stressful events.
 Protective communities demonstrate a cohesive and civil society,
safety is not a concern, high equity and low marginalization,
adequate recreation for all, resources are available, and the
community is genuine and concerned, “accept you as a person,
not as a stereotype”.
 To promote resiliency in high school youth, interventions
include peer mentoring/conflict resolution, programs to
prevent dropping out, preparation for being good
partners/parents, preparation for transition to work; and
provisions for teens with babies (Saskatchewan Health,
1998, pp. C2-C6).
Aging
7.2.3
What is the life expectancy for North
Americans?
 In 1900, the average life expectancy was only 47
years of age; only three percent of the
population lived past 65.
 Today, the average life expectancy is 75; 12
percent of the U.S. population is older than 65.
 As a much greater percentage of the population
lives to an older age, the midpoint of life and
what constitutes middle age or middle
adulthood are getting harder to pin down.
 In only one century we have added 30 years to
the average life expectancy (Santrock, 1999, p.
484).
When does old age start?
 It is also important to distinguish between primary and
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secondary aging.
Primary aging is the normal, inevitable change that occurs
among human beings and is irreversible, progressive, and
universal.
Such aging happens despite good health; a consequence of
such aging is that a person is more vulnerable to society's
fast paced and sometimes stressful lifestyles.
Secondary aging is aging due to external factors such as
disease, environmental pollution, or smoking.
Lack of good nutrition is a secondary aging factor that is a
principal cause of poor health and aging among lower
income Canadians (Lefton et al., 2000, p. 394).
What are the causes of aging
and death?
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Many different views about the causes of aging have been proposed, but
most fall under one of three major headings: wear-and-tear theories,
genetic theories and social theories:
 Wear and tear theories suggest that we grow old because various organs
of our bodies, or the cells of which they are composed, wear
out. Indirect evidence for wear-and-tear theories of aging is provided by
individuals who repeatedly expose their bodies to harmful conditions
and substances - for example, alcohol, tobacco, various drugs or harsh
environments. Such individuals often show premature signs of aging,
presumably because they have overburdened their capacity for internal
repair (Baron et al., 1998, p. 390).
 Genetic theories of aging attribute physical aging primarily to genetic
programming. Certain cells do indeed divide only a set number of times
before dying. Moreover, no environmental conditions seem capable of
altering this number (Baron et al., 1998, p. 391).
What are the causes of aging
and death?
 Social theories include external, or lifestyle, factors. There are
several social theories of aging:
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For too many years, it was believed that the best way to age was to be
disengaged. Disengagement theory argues that as older adults slow
down they gradually withdraw from society. Disengagement is a mutual
activity in which the older adult not only disengages from society, but
society disengages from the older adult.
 According to activity theory, the more active and involved older adults
are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives. Activity
theory suggests that individuals should continue their middle childhood
roles through late adulthood.
 A third social theory of aging is social breakdown-reconstruction
theory. This theory argues that aging is promoted through negative
psychological functioning brought about by negative societal views of
older adults and inadequate provision of services for them. Social
reconstruction can occur by changing society’s view of older adults and
by providing adequate support systems for them (Santrock, 1999, p.
527).
What are some policy issues
around aging?
 Policy issues might
 costs for medication
include:
 housing
 health (access to
 pensions
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services, costs, private
versus public access)
retirement
education
political involvement
economics and
income
 insurance.
What is ageism, and what influence
does it have on adult behaviours?
 Stereotypes about the elderly give rise to ageism - prejudice
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against the elderly and the discrimination that follows from it.
Ageism is prevalent in the job market, in which older people are
not given the same opportunities as their younger co-workers,
and in housing and health care.
Ageism is exceptionally prevalent in the media - on television and
in newspapers, cartoons and magazines - and in everyday
language.
Older people who are perceived to represent negative
stereotypes are more likely to suffer discrimination than those
who appear to represent more positive stereotypes.
This means that an older person who appears healthy, bright and
alert is more likely to be treated with the same respect shown to
younger people. By contrast, an older person who appears less
capable may not be given the same respect or treatment (Lefton
et al., 2000, p. 398).
In general, how do adults feel
about growing older?
 Perhaps the best news is that as people get older,
they get happier and their well-being improves.
 In a study of nearly 3 000 people ages 25 to 74, the
young people were far more likely than the eldest to
report feeling sad, nervous, hopeless or worthless.
 As many people age, they learn to control negative
feelings and emphasize the positive.
 Older couples, compared with younger couples, are
less likely to express anger, belligerence, and
whining when they quarrel (Tavris and Wade, 2000,
p. 536).
Death and Dying
7.2.4
When are we dead?
 The answer to that question is most complex.
 To begin with, there are several kinds of death.
 Physiological death occurs when all physical processes
that sustain life cease.
 Brain death is defined as a total absence of brain
activity for at least ten minutes.
 Cerebral death means cessation of activity in the
cerebral cortex.
 Social death refers to a process through which other
people relinquish their relationships with the deceased
(Baron et al., 1998, p. 391).
Death in infancy and childhood:

As statistics indicate, the number of people who experience the death
of an infant is substantial, and their reactions may be profound. One of
the most common reactions is extreme depression.
 Another kind of death that is extremely difficult to deal with is prenatal
death, or miscarriage. Parents typically form psychological bonds with
their unborn child and consequently they often feel profound grief if it
dies before it is born.
 Another form of death that produces extreme stress, in part because it is
so unexpected, is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). For parents,
the death of a child produces the most profound sense of loss and
grief. In fact, there is no worse death in the eyes of most parents,
including the loss of a spouse or of parents.
 Parents’ extreme reaction is partly based on the sense that the natural
order of the world, in which children should outlive their parents, has
somehow collapsed. Furthermore, parents feel that it is their primary
responsibility to protect their children from any harm, and they may feel
that they have failed in this task when a child dies.
Death in adolescence:
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We might expect the significant advances in cognitive development that
occur during adolescence to bring about a sophisticated, thoughtful and
reasoned view of death.
However, in many ways, adolescents’ views of death are as unrealistic as
those of younger children, although along different lines.
Although adolescents clearly understand the finality and irreversibility
of death, their view often tends to be highly romantic.
Adolescents develop a personal fable, a set of beliefs that causes them
to feel unique and special. Such thinking can lead to quite risky
behaviour, as personal fables induce a sense of invulnerability. Many
times, this risky behaviour causes death in adolescence.
For instance, the most frequent cause of death among adolescents is
accidents, most often involving motor vehicles. Other frequent causes
include homicide, suicide, cancer and AIDS.
Death in young adulthood:
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Young adulthood is the time when most people feel primed to begin their
lives. Past the preparatory time of childhood and adolescence, they are on the
threshold of making their mark on the world.
Because death at this point in life seems close to unthinkable, its occurrence is
particularly unimaginable. Because they are actively pursuing their goals for life,
they are angry and impatient with any illness that threatens their future.
In early adulthood the leading cause of death continues to be accidents,
followed by suicide, homicide, AIDS and cancer.
For those people facing death in early adulthood, several concerns are of
particular importance.
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One is the desire to develop intimate relationships and express sexuality, both of which are
inhibited, if not completely prevented, by a terminal illness.
Another particular concern during early adulthood concerns future planning. At a time when
most young people are mapping out their careers and deciding at what point to start a family,
young adults who have a terminal illness face additional burdens.
Like adolescents, young adults sometimes make poor patients. They are
outraged at their plight and feel the world is unfair, and they may direct their
anger at care providers and loved ones.
Death in middle adulthood:
 For people in middle adulthood, the shock of a life-
threatening disease – which is the most common
form of death in this period – is not so great.
 In fact, by this point, people are well aware of the
fact that they are going to die sometime, and they
may be able to consider the possibility of death in a
fairly realistic manner.
 On the other hand, their sense of realism doesn’t
make the possibility of dying any easier.
 In fact, fears about death are often greater in middle
adulthood than at any time previously – or even later
in life.
Death in late adulthood:
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By the time they reach late adulthood, people know with some certainty
that their time is coming to an end.
They think about death, and they may begin to make preparations for
their demise. Some begin to pull away from the world due to
diminishing physical and psychological energy.
Furthermore, they face an increasing number of deaths in their
environment.
The most likely causes of death are cancer, stroke and heart disease in
late adulthood.
The prevalence of death in the lives of elderly people makes them less
anxious about dying than they were at earlier stages of life.
They are more realistic and reflective about it.
One particular salient issue for older adults suffering from a terminal
illness is whether their lives still have value.
More than younger individuals, elderly people who are dying harbour
concerns that they are burdens to their family or to society.
What are the stages of death
and dying?
No individual has had a greater influence on our understanding of
the way people confront death than Elisabeth Kubler-Ross who
developed a stage theory of death and dying built on extensive
interviews with people who were dying and with those who cared
for them.
 Stage 1: Denial. Denial comes in several forms. A patient may
flatly reject the diagnosis, simply refusing to believe the news. In
other forms of denial, patients fluctuate between refusing to
accept the news and, at other times, confiding that they know
they are going to die. Patients deal with loneliness, internal
conflict, guilt and feelings of the meaningless of their lives.
 Stage 2: Anger. A dying person may be angry at
everyone: people who are in good health, their spouses and
other family members, those who are caring for them, their
children. They may lash out at others, and wonder – out loud –
why they are dying and not someone else.
What are the stages of death
and dying?
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Stage 3: Bargaining. In the bargaining stage, dying people try to negotiate their
way out of death. In some ways, bargaining seems to have positive
consequences. Although death cannot be postponed indefinitely, having a goal
of attending a particular event or living until a certain time may in fact delay
death until then. However, there is a gradual realization of the real
consequences of their condition.
Stage 4: Depression. Realizing that the issue is settled and they cannot bargain
their way out of death, people are overwhelmed with a deep sense of loss. They
know that they are losing their loved ones and that their lives are coming to an
end. The depression they experience may be of two types. In reactive
depression, the feelings of sadness are based on events that have already
occurred: the loss of dignity that may accompany medical procedures, the end
of a job, or the knowledge that one will never return home. On the other hand,
dying people also experience preparatory depression, feeling sadness over
future losses. They know that death will bring an end to their relationships with
others, and that they will never see future generations.
Stage 5: Acceptance. In this last stage people are fully aware that they are
dying. Increasingly self-reliant, they have made peace with themselves. For
them, death holds no sting.
Careers & Work
Career Stages
 Define the 6 stages of Career Development as
outlined by Donald Super
Personality and Work
 Determine what your Personality Type is (use
John Holland’s model).
 What implications does this have for your
career choices?