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• Levinson’s seasons of a man’s life• Teens – Transition from dependence to independence• 20s are a novice phase of adult development• 30s are a time for focusing on family and career development• By the 40s, man has a stable career and now must look forward to the
• Transition into middle adulthood – Conflicts• Being young versus being old• Being destructive versus being constructive• Being masculine versus being feminine• Being attached to others versus being separated from them
• Midlife crisis• 40s as a decade of reassessing and recording truth about adolescent and
• Life-events approach• Contemporary life-events approach: How life events influence the
individual’s development depends on:• Life event itself• Mediating factors• Individual’s adaptation to the life event• Life-stage context• Sociohistorical context
• Drawbacks to life events approach• Places too much emphasis on change• May not be major life events that are primary sources of stress • Daily experiences
• Stress and personal control in midlife• Middle-aged adults experience more “overload” stressors• Involve juggling too many activities at once
• Developmental changes in perceived personal control• Greater sense of control over finances, work, and marriage • Less sense of control over sex life and children
• Sense of control associated with delaying onset of disease in middle age
• Berkeley’s Longitudinal Studies• Most stable characteristics were intellectual orientation, self-confidence,
and openness to experience• Characteristics that changed the most:• Extent to which individuals were nurturant or hostile• Whether or not they had good self-control
• George Valliant’s Studies• Longitudinal studies of 3 samples:• 268 socially advantaged Harvard grads born about 1920• 456 socially disadvantaged inner-city men born about 1930• 90 middle-SES, intellectually gifted women born around 1910
• Categorized 75-80 years olds as “healthy-well,” “sad-sick,” or “dead”• Predictions based on data collected when individuals were 50 years old
• Grandparenting• Many adults become grandparents for the first time in middle age• Grandmothers have more frequent contact than grandfathers• Some grandparents thrust back into “parenting role” due to:• Divorce, adolescent pregnancy, parental drug use
• Full-time grandparenting linked to health problems, depression, and stress
• Divorce and remarriage related to special concerns about grandparent visitation privilieges
• Intergenerational relationships • Middle-aged adults express responsibility between generations• Duty to care for parents in late life• Share experiences, transmit values to younger generations
• “Sandwich generation” – responsibilities for caring for adolescent/young adult children and aging parents
• Ambivalent relationships between aging parents and their children• Love, reciprocal help, shared values on positive side• Isolation, family conflicts and problems, abuse, neglect, caregiver stress on
• Gender differences in intergenerational relationships• Women’s relationships are typically closer than other family bonds• Married men more involved with wives’ kin than their own• Mother’s intergenerational ties influential for grandparent-grandchild