Adulthood and Aging
Social Development
Adulthood
• Play “Stages of Adult Development”
(3:07) Segment #23 from Psychology:
The Human Experience.
Emerging Adulthood
• Developmental period between
adolescence and adulthood
Social Clock
• The culturally (society’s) preferred
timing of social events such as
marriage, parenthood, and retirement
• The “best” timing for certain life
events
• The timing varies from culture to
culture.
Social Development
• Erik Erikson described two fundamental
themes that dominate adulthood: love and
work
• According to Erikson, the primary
psychosocial task of early adulthood is to
form a committed, mutually enhancing,
intimate relationship with another person.
• During middle adulthood, the primary
psychosocial task becomes one of
generativity, to contribute to future
generations through your children, your
career, and other meaningful activities.
Adult Friendships
• Female friends tend to confide in one another
about their feelings, problems, and
interpersonal relationships
• Male friends typically minimize discussions
about relationships or personal feelings or
problems; instead, male friends tend to do
things together that they find mutually
interesting, such as activities related to sports
or hobbies
Marriage & Family
• Today, many young adults postpone marriage
so they can finish their education and
establish a career
• As a general rule, we tend to be attracted to
and marry people who are similar to us on a
variety of dimensions, including physical
attractiveness, social and educational status,
ethnic background, attitudes, values, and
beliefs
• Marital satisfaction tends to decline after the
birth of the first child and rise again after
children leave home
• Becoming a parent at an older age and
waiting longer after marriage to start a family
helps ease the adjustment to parenthood.
Careers in Adulthood
• Researchers have found that close to a third of people
in their late twenties and early thirties do not just
change jobs within a particular field; they completely
switch occupational fields
• Dual-career families have become increasingly
common
• Although many fathers are actively involved in child
rearing, women still tend to have primary responsibility
for child care
• Multiple roles seem to provide both men and women
with a greater potential for increased feelings of selfesteem, happiness, and competence.
• The critical factor is not the number of roles that
people take on but the quality of their experiences on
the job, in the marriage, and as a parent.
Social Changes and
Life’s Commitments
Erik Erikson
• Constructed an 8-stage theory of
social development
• Each stage has its own psychosocial
developmental task.
• The last 4 stages deal with
Adolescence through late adulthood.
Generativity
• Erikson’s term for being productive
and supporting future generations
Commitment to Work
• Most high school/college students
aren’t sure of their career goals.
• Happiness seems to be correlated with
work that is challenging, provides a
sense of accomplishment, and is
interesting.
Commitment to Love
• An important factor in adult
happiness
• Lasting love includes:
– Intimate self-disclosure
– Shared emotional and material
support
– Similar interests and values
Commitment to Marriage
• 90% of the population gets married
• 50% divorce rate
• 75% of those who have divorced
remarry
Commitment to Children
• Children result in a change in the
marital relationship
• Potential disagreement on the division
of labor with children
Empty Nest
• The change married couples go
through as a result of their children
leaving home
• Not necessarily a negative event for
couples
Physical Changes of
Middle Adulthood
Adult Physical Development
• Genetics and lifestyle combine to determine
course of physical changes
• Your unique genetic blueprint greatly
influences the unfolding of certain
physical changes during adulthood.
Such changes vary significantly from
one person to another.
• Staying mentally and physically active
and eating a proper diet can both slow
and minimize the degree of physical
decline associated with aging.
Typical Physical Progression
• Physical strength typically peaks in early
adulthood, the twenties and thirties;
• By middle adulthood, roughly from the forties
to midsixties, physical strength and
endurance gradually decline
• During late adulthood, from the mid-sixties
on, physical stamina and reaction time tend
to decline further and faster
• Aging and its effects on vision (NBC Report – 2
min.)
Menopause
• The time of natural cessation of
menstruation
• Referred to as the biological changes a
woman experiences as her ability to
reproduce declines
• Usually occurs between age 45 and 55
• Does not usually lead to depression
Later Adulthood’s
Physical Changes
Late Adulthood
• Old age as a time of poor health, inactivity, and
decline is a myth.
• Activity theory of aging—life satisfaction is highest
when people maintain level of activity they had in
earlier years. See NBC Report (1 ½ min.)
• The average life expectancy for men is about
74 years; for women, it is about 79 years.
• The majority of older adults live healthy, active,
and self-sufficient lives. Only 4.5 percent of
those age 65 and over live in nursing homes.
After 85, it is 20 percent.
Physical Changes: Vision
Physical Changes: Sense of
Smell
Physical Changes: Hearing
Physical Changes: Hearing
Diseases Related to
Aging
Alzheimer’s Disease
• A progressive and irreversible brain
disorder characterized by gradual
deterioration of memory, reasoning,
language, and physical functioning
Alzheimer’s Disease
• Play “Alzheimer’s Disease” (7:06)
Module #19 from The Brain:
Teaching Modules (2nd edition).
Alzheimer’s Disease
• Play “Understanding Alzheimer’s
Disease” (11:40) Segment #19 from
The Mind: Psychology Teaching
Modules (2nd edition).
Senile Dementia
• The mental disintegration that
accompanies alcoholism, tumor,
stroke, aging, or Alzheimer's disease
Senile Dementia
Parkinson’s Disease
• Play “Brain Transplants in
Parkinson’s Patients” (11:09) Module
#31 from The Brain: Teaching
Modules (2nd edition).
Cognitive Changes
and Memory
Aging and Memory
Cognitive Changes
and Transitions:
Intelligence
Intellectual Ablities
• Psychologist K. Warner Schaie and his
colleagues have found that general
intellectual abilities gradually increase until
one’s early forties, then become relatively
stable until about age 60, when a small but
steadily increasing percentage of older adults
experience slight declines on tests of general
intellectual abilities.
• Schaie found that those who were better
educated and engaged in physical and
mental activities throughout older adulthood
showed the smallest declines in mental
abilities.
Fluid Intelligence
• One’s ability to reason speedily and
abstractly
• Can be used to solve novel logic
problems
• Declines as people get older
Crystallized Intelligence
• One’s accumulated knowledge and
verbal skills
• Tends to increase with age
Age and Verbal/Nonverbal
Intelligence
Memory and Aging
• Play “Aging and Memory” (11:16)
Segment #17 from The Mind:
Psychology Teaching Modules (2nd
edition).
A Lifetime of
Well-Being
Overall Life Satisfaction
• Most studies show the elderly as
happy and satisfied with life.
• People tend to mellow with age.
• Most regrets focus on what the person
didn’t do rather than mistakes they
have made in life.
Overall Life Satisfaction
Death and Dying
Death and Dying
• In general, anxiety about dying tends to peak in
middle adulthood, then to decrease in late
adulthood
• Kubler-Ross stages of dying
–
–
–
–
–
Denial
Anger
Bargain
Depression
Acceptance
• Not universally demonstrated
• Dying is as individual a process as is living.
• People cope with the prospect of dying much as
they have coped with other stresses involved in
living
Reactions to Death
• Reactions to death are different from
culture to culture.
• Attitudes toward death and dying are
changing in the United States.
--more openness
--facing death with dignity; hospice
helps