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Quantative Design and analysis masters course assessment : Histograms and Descriptive Statistics

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

For this three-part assessment, you will create and interpret histograms and compute descriptive statistics for given variables; analyze the goals of data screening; and generate z scores for variables, analyze types of error, and analyze cases to either reject or not reject a null hypothesis. You will use SPSS software and several Capella course files to complete this assessment.

A solid understanding of descriptive statistics is foundational to grasping the concepts presented in inferential statistics. This assessment measures your understanding of key elements of descriptive statistics.

SHOW LESS

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

  • Competency 1: Analyze the computation, application, strengths, and limitations of various statistical tests.
    • Analyze the strengths and limitations of examining a distribution of scores with a histogram.
    • Analyze the relevant data from the computation, interpretation, and application of z-scores.
    • Analyze real-world application of Type I and Type II errors and the research decisions that influence the relative risk of each.
  • Competency 2: Analyze the decision-making process of data analysis.
    • Analyze meaningful versus meaningless variables reported in descriptive statistics.
    • Apply the logic of null hypothesis testing to cases.
  • Competency 4: Interpret the results of statistical analyses.
    • Interpret histogram results, including concepts of skew, kurtosis, outliers, symmetry, and modality.
    • Interpret descriptive statistics for meaningful variables.
  • Competency 5: Apply a statistical program’s procedure to data.
    • Apply the appropriate SPSS procedures for creating histograms to generate relevant output.
    • Apply the appropriate SPSS procedure for generating descriptive statistics to generate relevant output.
    • Apply the appropriate SPSS procedures for creating z-scores and descriptive statistics to generate relevant output.
  • Competency 7: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.
    • Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.

     

Read Assessment 1 Context [DOC] for important information on the following topics:

SHOW LESS

  • The standard normal distribution and z scores.
  • Hypothesis testing.
  • Null and alternative hypotheses.
  • Type I and Type II errors.
  • Probability values and the null hypothesis.

 

APA Resources

Because this is a psychology course, you need to format this assessment according to APA guidelines. Additional resources about APA can be found in the Research Resources in the courseroom navigation menu. Use the resources to guide your work.

  • American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
    • This resource is available from the Capella University Bookstore.

Required Resources

The following resources are required to complete the assessment.

SPSS Software

The following statistical analysis software is required to complete your assessments in this course:

  • IBM SPSS Statistics Standard or Premium GradPack (recent version for Windows or Mac).
    • As a Capella learner, you have access to the more robust IBM SPSS Statistics Premium GradPack arranged at an academic discount through a contracted vendor.
    • Please refer to the Statistical Software page on Campus for general information on SPSS software, including the most recent version made available to Capella learners.
Data Set and Software Procedure
  • Data Set Instructions [DOCX].
    • These instructions explain how to access the data needed for this assessment.
  • grades.sav.
    • This file contains the data set used with SPSS to complete the assessment.
Assessment Template and Output Instructions
  • Copy/Export Output Instructions [DOCX].
    • This document provides instructions for extracting output from SPSS. You will insert your output into the assessment answer template as indicated.
  • z Scores, Type I and Type II Error, Null Hypothesis Testing Answer Template [DOCX].
    • Use this template to complete your assessment.

     

Preparation

This assessment has three parts, each of which is described below. Submit all three parts as Word documents.

Note: All the course documents you will need for the assessment are linked in the Resources section.

Read Assessment 1 Context to learn about the concepts used in this assessment.

This assessment uses the grades.sav file, found in the Resources for this assessment.

The fictional data in the grades.sav file represent a teacher’s recording of student demographics and performance on quizzes and a final exam across three sections of the course. Each section consists of about 35 students (N = 105).

There are 21 variables in grades.sav. To prepare for this assessment, complete the following:

  • Open your grades.sav file and navigate to the “Variable View” tab.
  • Read the Data Set Instructions, and make sure you have the correct Values and Scales of Measurement assigned.

Part 1: Histograms and Descriptive Statistics

Your first IBM SSPS assessment includes two sections:

  • Create two histograms and provide interpretations.
  • Calculate measures of central tendency and dispersion and provide interpretations.
Key Details and Instructions
  • Submit your assessment as an attached Word document.
  • Begin your assessment by creating a properly formatted APA title page. Include a reference list at the end of the document if necessary. On page 2, begin Section 1.
  • Organize the narrative report with your SPSS output charts and tables integrated along with your responses to the specific requirements listed for that assessment. (See the Copy/Export Output Instructions in the Resources for instructions on how to do this.)
  • Label all tables and graphs in a manner consistent with APA style and formatting guidelines. Citations, if needed, should be included in the text as well as a reference section at the end of the report.
  • For additional help in completing this assessment, refer to IBM SPSS Step-By-Step Instructions: Histograms and Descriptive Statistics, linked in the Resources.
Section 1: Histograms and Visual Interpretation

Section 1 will include one histogram of “total” scores for all the males in the data set, and one histogram of “total” scores for all the females in the data set.

Create two histograms using the total and gender variables in your grades.sav data set:

  • A histogram for male students.
  • A histogram for female students.

Below the histograms, provide an interpretation based on your visual inspection. Correctly use all of the following terms in your discussion:

  • Skew.
  • Kurtosis.
  • Outlier.
  • Symmetry.
  • Modality.

Comment on any differences between males and females regarding their total scores. Analyze the strengths and limitations of visually interpreting histograms.

Section 2: Calculate and Interpret Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion

Using the grades.sav file, compute descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis for the following variables:

  • id.
  • gender.
  • ethnicity.
  • gpa.
  • quiz3.
  • total.

Below the Descriptives table, complete the following:

  • Indicate which variable or variables are meaningless to interpret in terms of mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. Justify your decision.
  • Next, indicate which variable or variables are meaningful to interpret. Justify your decision. For meaningful variables, specify any variables that are in the ideal range for both skewness and kurtosis.
  • Specify any variables that are acceptable but not excellent.
  • Specify any variables that are unacceptable. Explain your decisions.
  • For all meaningful variables, report and interpret the descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis).

Part 2: Data Screening

For this part of the assessment, respond to the following questions:

What are the goals of data screening? How can you identify and remedy the following?

  • Errors in data entry.
  • Outliers.
  • Missing data.

Part 3: z Scores, Type I and II Error, Null Hypothesis Testing

This IBM SPSS assessment includes three sections:

  • Generate z scores for a variable in grades.sav and report/interpret them.
  • Analyze cases of Type I and Type II error.
  • Analyze cases to either reject or not reject a null hypothesis.

The format of this assessment should be narrative with supporting statistical output (table and graphs) integrated into the narrative in the appropriate place (not all at the end of the document). See the Copy/Export Output Instructions for instructions on how to do this.

Download the z Scores, Type I and Type II Error, Null Hypothesis Testing Answer Template from the Required Resources, and use the template to complete the following sections:

  • Section 1: z Scores in SPSS.
  • Section 2: Case Studies of Type I and Type II Error.
  • Section 3: Case Studies of Null Hypothesis Testing.

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Due today…… 8 hours…… please read……. sociology 1-2 pages…

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

this assignment is due today in 8 hours…… must have done in 8 hours…… no late work

Sociology homework…..

Read/Browse Chapter 1  ( book is attached)

Instructions for assignment:

weekly journal will be 1-2 pages and will include 2 sources in the media that relate to the reading that week. The purpose of this assignment, which will continue throughout the semester, is to encourage you to think in a sociological manner and learn to apply sociology and social problems theory to events in everyday life. You should learn to integrate the ideas we discuss in class and start to regard aspects of society critically.

Each journal entry should be dated, typed, single-spaced and include citations.For each journal entry you should include the following:

Choose 1 or more concepts or themes from the chapter. Define the concept or theme in your own words.

Locate 2 items in the media (e.g., news source, journal or magazine article, working paper, video, television show, or blog) that link to the concept/theme. Summarize the connection or the significance of each source to the concept/theme from the textbook.

Critical analysis (you may consider the following questions: how is the social problem is being framed [person vs. structure blame]; are there any solutions proposed and by whom; is there anything not considered in the source that should be; does the information in the source contradict the text; etc.).

Bibliographic information about the source (e.g., title, author, publication).Your entries should be critical and academically enlightening. They also should reflect a sociological perspective. You should provide evidence from the material you are analyzing to support your ideas and have some connection to the text. These journals are not formal essays, but they should still follow an organizational structure. Therefore, they should contain an introductory paragraph, a body consisting of two to three paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.  Since you will be using course content and outside sources, you will need to cite the source of your information.  Please use the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting.  This is the format most frequently used by all of the social sciences.  You may cite sources at the bottom of your journal response, instead of on a separate page.

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Socw-6121-Responses Wk 2

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

RESPONSE 1

Respond to two colleagues who presented a different strength and/or solution in analyzing one of the levels of practice.

Colleague 1: Kevin

Micro-Level practice focuses on personal interaction with the client on an individual level or with a couple or family. The intervention of micro social work effects change on an individual basis and involves working closely with clients to support them through their challenges while maintaining the client’s self-determination (NASW, 2017).

Mezzo-Level intervention entails bringing people together who are not as intimate as a couple or group of family members but might mutually build and benefit from this social or resource network (Holosko, Dulmus & Sowers, 2012). It might directly change the system that is affecting a client, such as a classroom or neighborhood group. Mezzo work may include group therapy counseling, self-help groups or neighborhood community associations (NASW, 2017).

Macro-Level practice focuses on systemic issues. It might include creating and maintaining a network of service providers in order to establish a continuum of care. Macro-level intervention can intersect with the political realm by creating and lobbying for policy changes. The planning, implementation, and maintenance of social programs are also processes which macro-scale approach is applicable. Coordinating multiple services and policy work offers an opportunity to address several overlapping social problems (NASW, 2017).

Explain how you would assess Paula Cortez’s situation applying the micro-level of social work practice and specifically identify two strengths and/or solutions in this level

The student understands the essential concepts of Paula’s self-determination. Nevertheless, a micro-level approach could assist her through counseling, empathy, active listening, goal setting and building rapport with her to produce a healthy therapeutic relationship (Arendt, 2017). The directive for recognizing and focusing on Paula’s strengths is crucial to the committed client empowerment and fulfillment. Paula’s resilience was drawn from her cultural background that played a part in her independence especially from mainstream medicine. Also, Paula’s strengths were exhibited in her uniqueness in teaching herself how to paint with her non-dominant hand and her ability to gather professionals together to work with her (Cowger, 1994).

Describe how you would assess Paula Cortez’s situation applying the mezzo-level of social work practice and specifically identify two strengths and/or solutions in this level

The student would be non-judgmental and resourceful and use the mezzo-level approach when it comes to connecting Paula with the right referrals to assist her with preparation for the pregnancy (Plummer, Makris & Brocksen, 2014).The psychiatrist also was a supportive example of a mezzo interaction regarding Paula’s well-being during her pregnancy and worked with the social worker in making the hard decision of having Paula involuntarily admitted into the hospital (Plummer et al., 2014). Clearly, Paula’s resilience proceeds her, and it created a sense of purpose; a new beginning from what was a troublesome past filled with disappointment, emotional and physical abuse (Plummer et al., 2014).

Describe how you would assess Paula Cortez’s situation applying the macro-level of social work practice and specifically identify two strengths and/or solutions in this level

The student also recognizes that macro-level social work is essential in helping Paula to identify her personal needs. With advocating, the social worker can propose interventions and implement strategies through local government assistance, provided reasonable healthcare assistance, food and protected shelter that would aid Paula’s complex needs (Plummer et al., 2014).

Describe what the value of applying strength-based solutions is.

Applying strengths-based approaches will be helpful in successfully shifting the balance of care and developing services that are focused on prevention and independence. For example, Paula’s newborn child created that sense of purpose. Paula became independent and began to acquire social services on her own (Plummer et al., 2014). Paula maintained her autonomy which was of value to her.

References:

Arendt, V. (2017). Changing Areas of Practice: The Transferability of Social Work Skills. New Social Worker, 24(2), 10-25.

Cowger, C. (1994). Assessing client strengths: clinical assessment for client empowerment. Social Work, 39(3), 262-268.

Holosko, J., M., Dulmus, N., C., Sowers, M., K. (2012). Social Work Practice with Individuals and Families: Evidence-Informed Assessments and Interventions, 1st Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781118419359/

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

The National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Code of ethics. Retrieved from https://www.uaf.edu/socwork/student-information/checklist/(D)-NASW-Code-of-Ethics.pdf

Colleague 2: Lorraine

Your description of how micro-, mezzo-, or macro-levels of practice aid social workers in assessing families. Assess Paula Cortez’s situation using all three of these levels of practice, and identify two strengths and/or solutions in each of these levels.Assessing families is an important part of what we will do as social workers.

Understanding the family unit and how the intricate  parts of this unit interact and affect one another is essential.  On the Micro level it is important to understand each individual unit and the family’s dynamic.  This understanding of the family helps social workers identify how the  influences exist within the overall unit.  On a Mezzo level it is important to understand the families interaction as a group and the groups interaction with the community in which it lives and works.  The families access to resources and whether these resources are being utilized or not.  On a Macro level we examine how this family fits into the social environment on a larger scale and how social policies impact the family as a whole.  According to Holosko, Dulmus & Sowers (2013),  “The key challenge here is to recognize how the common themes of making available material and social resources and achieving health and well-being for all family members are constructed within the global economy and have different meanings across different contexts” (p.244).As I review Paula Cortez’s situation from a Micro level I can see several areas of strength.  However, the strengths I identify here have to do with Paul’s level of resiliency.  Paula has faced several life altering medical conditions, one being her HIV positive status.  Paula has been diagnosed as bipolar, yet has been able to remain out of the hospital of over 5 years.  On a  Mezzo level Paula has been admitted to a skilled nursing facility due to paralysis on her right side, yet has been able to progress within that facility and regain some mobility within her right arm and the ability to walk again.  Paula became pregnant and despite her overwhelming medical condition she has been able to request and receive 24/7 in home services for her child.  On a Macro level Paula is identified as low income.  Although Paula is part of a larger issue regarding poverty and the imbalance of societal wealth,  she is doing her best to utilize public assistance to help her in providing a stable environment for her self and her child.  Paula is utilizing many social resources to assist her with her childcare as well as her health issues (Plummer, Makris & Brocksen, 2013).

Describe the value in strength-based solutions.

I am a overwhelming fan of strength based solutions.  Strength based solutions provide he client with a strong focus on their abilities and on what can be done as opposed to what can’t.  There are key themes social workers should incorporate when assessing families.  According to Holosko, Dulmus & Sowers (2013), “A commitment to the belief that families bring strengths and resources to the helping relationship, and these can be harnessed in finding solutions. This means that the assessment can provide opportunities for exploring both problems and resources within the family” (p.247).  It is important for clients to focus on the genuine possibilities and work towards realistic, measurable and obtainable goals.  When clients are operating from a strengths perspective, they can begin to envision their goals as actual possibilities.  Operating from a strength perspective does not discount the serious nature of the families issues at hand, it incorporates the understanding of the risk involved with the family’s situation while incorporating a strength based approach to it.  According to  Holosko, Dulmus & Sowers (2013), “An understanding that a focus on strengths does not diminish the importance of identifying risk and safety issues and finding ways to protect clients from harm and causing harm” (p.247).

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Chapter 9, “Assessment of Families” (pp. 237–264)

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2013). Sessions case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. “The Cortez Family” (pp. 23–25)

RESPONSE 2

Respond to two colleagues whose assessments of family cohesion differ from yours. Resolve the differences or explain how each viewpoint is valid.

Colleague 1: Farren

The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems is a tool that is used when working with families. The models address three dimensions which are cohesion, flexibility, and communication (Olson, 2000). The model is designed for treatment planning and clinical assessments and focuses on treating marital and family system and focuses on togetherness (Olson, 2000). The goal of this model is to promote flexibility and provide balance amongst the members and create ways to effectively communicate.

The Cortez family would benefit from the Circumplex Model as they appear to lack togetherness and everyone appears to be doing their own separate things. The family would benefit from cohesion as it balances togetherness as the family appears to be very distant from one another (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2013). Balanced families have better communication skills than unbalanced families (Olson,2000). The Circumplex model would also assess the family’s flexibility as it would assess how the family reacts to change. In the Cortez family, Paula is pregnant and has numerous health issues, and the father had remarried and Miguel was in school and had a job. The family system appears chaotic and the family is distant and has their own lives, however, Miguel did step in and provide some support but it was limited (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2013). Communication reinforces the previous 2 dimensions (Olson, 2000). In the Cortez family, it does not appear that there is effective communication going on however, Paula and Miguel appear to communicate more together then they do with David.

Assessing these dimensions can assist the social worker in treatment planning as it can help the social worker create goals by assessing the gaps in the family dynamics. In the Cortez case communication amongst the family members appears to be very limited. Also, the family lacks cohesion. The Circumplex Model would have identified these issues and create goals that will alleviate some of the family’s issues if they are able to successfully achieve their goals as the model is designed for clinical assessment and treatment planning (Olson, 2000).

Reference

Olson, D. H. (2000). Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Journal of Family Therapy, 22(2), 144–167.  Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2013). Sessions case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. “The Cortez Family” (pp. 23–25)

Colleague 2: Amanda

The circumplex model of families and relationships are built on three different dimensions. These dimensions include cohesion, flexibility, and communication (Olson, 2000). Each of these dimensions are broken down to show us how a family functions. Cohesion is described as the amount of time the family spends together as a whole. There are four types of cohesions that could be possible within a family unit, disengaged, separated, connected, and enmeshed (Olson, 2000). Disengaged is the lowest form of togetherness while enmeshed is overly together. Flexibility is like cohesion, but this shows amount of change in its leadership, role relationships, and relationship rules (Olson, 2000). The levels of flexibility include rigid, which is the lowest, structured, flexible, and chaotic, which is the highest level (Olson, 2000). If there is no conformity or leadership within a family unit, there will indeed be chaos. Communication is different and has many different aspects to it. This is when the family unit can communicate with regards to their listening skills, speaking skills, self-disclosure, clarity, continuity tracking, respect, and regard (Olson, 2000). The circumplex model serves as a framework to assess family systems, because each dimension helps you to identify to what degree the family is suffering.

The Cortez family case is slightly complicated. This family unit includes Paula (mother), Miguel (son), and David (father). This family no longer live together as a family due to Paula’s illnesses, however they are still close to one another (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2013). In the first dimension of the circumplex cohesion, Paula’s family tends to be disengaged. I say disengaged, because David and Miguel are doing their own thing with limited attachment or commitment to Paula (Olson, 2000). The second dimension is flexibility. Paula’s relationship with her son Miguel is chaotic. I chose chaotic because there is no leadership between them, nor is there proper decision making. Paula is constantly going off her medications making her impulsive (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2000). The last dimension is communication. Paula has poor communication within her family unit. She doesn’t ask for help when needed, and she rarely speaks with Miguel or David unless she must.

Assessing these dimensions helps the social worker in treatment planning, because to set goals and help family units, we must know how the family is functioning daily. This can also help with the breakdown of what maybe causing some family problems. Treatment plans are vital to clients who are struggling to keep their family together such as a separation or divorce. Its helpful to the social worker to set goals, and if these goals are followed than there is a chance the family unit can change, if the goals are not followed than the chance of a change is slim.

References:

Olson, D. H. (2000). Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Journal of Family Therapy, 22(2), 144–167.

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2013). Sessions case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing.

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05978 -2- Pages within 10hrs

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

05978 Topic: Learning Team

Number of Pages: 2 (Double Spaced)

Number of sources: 1

Writing Style: APA

Type of document: Essay

Academic Level:Master

Category: Psychology

Language Style: English (U.S.)

05978 Topic: Learning Team

Number of Pages: 2 (Double Spaced)

Number of sources: 1

Writing Style: APA

Type of document: Essay

Academic Level:Master

Category: Psychology

Language Style: English (U.S.)

Order Instructions: Attached

On this essay, you only have to answer # 4 and # 6. Also, use only the modules that I will upload.

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Career Counseling LMHC

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

Last week you explored the intersection of personal and career counseling. Keep this in mind as you dive into the career counseling process, starting with the intake interview. After reading the chapter, the Career Counseling Application Assignment : Intake Interview- Chapter 5 -Helper Studio Angela’s Self vs. Family will help you apply the material through open-ended questions AND recording your counseling skills in the form of a response to the client vignette linked to this assignment. WRITE IT OUT I WILL RECORD. In MindTap, you will submit both your written responses to open ended questions and video recorded verbal response to the client. Your video recorded verbal response should be as if you are actually in session with the client; this should NOT be “I would help the client explore….” but rather SHOULD BE “You feel ….. It sounds like……” as if you’re actually responding to the client. If you don’t think your first (or second, etc.) try is satisfactory, you can re-record before you submit the assignment. Further instructions are in the assignment.

When completing this assignment, keep in mind personal issues that affect career, including family influences and values. You job is NOT to problem solve or to direct Angela in any one direction, but rather to meet her where she’s at, listen to her dilemma, and help her explore how her values, career goals, and family might be influencing her career decisions.

Chapter 4 Introduction

Chapter Highlights

· The call to integrate career and personal counseling

· The biopsychosocial model of interacting influences

· Biological, psychological, and social/cultural forces that drive behavior

· Development of a personality disorder

· Observing symptoms of a personality disorder

· Career work connection to anxiety

My focus in this chapter is on a counseling approach that addresses both personal and career concerns. The point was made in chapter 1 that the role and scope of career counseling have been and continue to be influenced by an ever-changing society in which the workforce and workplace have also experienced significant changes. How to effectively address career-related concerns in a world that is rapidly changing has been the subject of numerous research projects and debates over several decades. In the meantime, the more sophisticated career development approaches and counseling interventions developed since the latter part of the last century have dramatically expanded the role and scope of career counseling in contemporary society. As pointed out in chapters 2 and 3, career development theorists currently address a wide range of client concerns, including multiple life roles, learning deficiencies, cognitive difficulties, emotional problems, multicultural issues, and social restraints.

Historically, career and personal domains were viewed as separate entities and, as a result, studies of career development were approached as a distinct domain (Spokane, 1991). Following this perspective, counselor training programs also considered career and personal concerns as separate domains. The relationship and interplay of personal and career concerns, however, have focused more attention on strategies that integrate them. Some may complain that the counseling profession has been too cautious in addressing the position of integrating career and personal concerns. In the 1970s, for example, Osipow (1979) put forward the idea of blending vocational development with mental health when working with adults in the workplace. He labeled this effort occupational mental health. Counselors were to address work maladjustment, work-related stress, depression, and other concerns that might involve an interplay between work, personal concerns, and all life roles. Keep these suggestions in mind as I address the rational for a holistic approach in career counseling next.

The Rationale for a Holistic Approach

In the 1990s, there was considerable dialogue as to whether career counseling should devote more attention to the interrelationships of personal and career problems and how they affect multiple life roles. This debate is not new to the counseling profession. Some researchers have suggested that career and personal concerns should be dealt with separately (Crites, 1981), whereas others, believing that career and personal concerns are intertwined, have promoted a more holistic counseling approach (Betz & Corning, 1993; Krumboltz, 1993). Moreover, Richardson (1996) prudently suggests that the pervasive nature of work in each person’s life needs to be researched by several academic disciplines to clarify its position and role in the counseling process. What we have here is a reinforcement of the position that work is a core element of an individual’s everyday existence. It gives meaning to many facets of each person’s life and as such should be addressed more aggressively in the counseling profession. Conversely, this position also suggests that a client’s personal concerns can significantly affect work roles and career development over the life span. Thus, personal concerns that evolve from different life roles and interfere with career development should not be ignored in career-related programs and in counseling interventions. The important question here for the practice of career development is how to effectively integrate an individual’s career and personal concerns.

What is being suggested is a holistic counseling approach that is much more inclusive when addressing client concerns. This stance is underscored by the ever-expanding role of career counseling, from its early focus on career choice and placement of young adults to today’s greater emphasis on the concerns of adults in multiple life roles. The interrelationship of personal and career problems has become more apparent in the lives of adults as they experience changes in work environments and difficulties associated with other life roles. Work maladjustment, career transitions, job loss, work stress, changing work requirements, concerns of older adults, and changing values and interests are examples of career-related problems that can affect all life roles. In more inclusive counseling models, however, counselors are also to address the concerns of some clients who, for example, present symptoms of depression, dysfunctional thinking, behavioral problems, a lack of cognitive clarity, and affective domain concerns of inner conflicts that restrict or interfere with career choice and development.

The Call to Integrate Career and Personal Counseling

The call for the counseling profession to integrate career and personal counseling was heightened in the 1990s, underscored by a profusion of articles in professional journals. In 1993, the Career Development Quarterly (Vol. 42, pp. 129–173) contained articles that supported the integration of career and personal counseling. Different points of view were expressed, including those predisposed toward a need to integrate career and personal counseling by expanding the role of counseling to address problems of a personal nature that are incurred in multiple life roles over the life span (Gelso & Fretz, 2001).

Super (1993) suggested that “there are two kinds of counseling, situational and personal, and they are not dichotomous but rather a continuum” (p. 132). Counselor and client are to work together to develop the client’s self and situational knowledge as shaped in person-in-environment interactions. Clients who are aware of their own needs are empowered to effectively begin an independent exploration that leads to decision making. In this process, career and personal concerns are integrated and not dichotomized.

Krumboltz (1993) strongly advocates integrating career and personal counseling. He suggests that the terms career counseling and personal counseling convey the impression of a dichotomy that has been reinforced by different training courses and certification. His major point is that personal problems cannot be separated from career problems as they are inextricably intertwined. He illustrates his point with some case examples, such as, “Linda is depressed because she has lost her job and doesn’t think she can ever find another one. Is this a career problem? Or a depression problem?” (p. 144). According to Krumboltz (1993), compartmentalizing client concerns limits our ability as counselors to help them understand, for example, how belief systems and interests are interrelated in the career counseling process.

Davidson and Gilbert (1993) approach career counseling as a highly personal matter that includes the multidimensional self and its relationship to life and work. Counselors, therefore, are to acknowledge and recognize the personal and contextual realities that clients bring to counseling. Career is seen as a personal identity and as such is interrelated with multiple life roles over the life span, including dual-career roles. Finally, these authors conclude that career and personal counseling are the same.

Career issues that engage aspects of the total person are the theme of a research project by Haverkamp and Moore (1993). Their conclusions suggest that the supposed dichotomy of personal and career counseling was exaggerated by career counseling’s narrow focus on career choice with young adults. They also argue that more attention should be paid to work adjustment and personal aspects of the whole person. Finally, they conclude that there is little question that career and personal issues are intertwined in adult development.

Betz and Corning (1993) viewed career and personal counseling as inseparable and recommended a “whole person,” holistic philosophy of counseling, a belief apparently shared by an increasing number of counselors (Farmer, 2009; Gelso & Fretz, 2001; Schultheiss, 2000; Zunker, 2008). The overwhelming rationale is that career and personal issues are inseparable and intertwined. The most effective mind-set when using a holistic approach is one that views each client from a total person perspective. In a collaborative relationship, client and counselor uncover all problems—not just career ones, nor just personal ones, but both—and more important, how they interrelate.

The call to integrate career and personal counseling underscored a need for an effective counseling model that could address all client concerns that interfere with career choice and development. An extension of career counseling suggests an increased focus on addressing such personal concerns as severe anxiety and apprehension, mood disorders of depression, faulty cognitions, and a host of psychological disorders. What we have here is the recognition that mental health concerns present potential problems for clients who are engaged in the initial career choice process and choices that follow as well personal interactions in the workplace and the ability to perform appropriately. Clearly what are needed are comprehensive methods for identifying factors that influence behavior and development. What is suggested is that counselors are to view behavior as being influenced by multidimensional forces as suggested by a biopsychosocial model of development (Durand & Barlow, 2013; Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014; Sue et al., 2014).

Biopsychsocial Model

Over time the study of factors that influence behavior has emerged as an ongoing process that will continue to unlock multidimensional influences that affect human development. The contributions of cognitive science and neuroscience have underscored the position that the interplay of biological influences, psychological influences, and social/cultural influences are recognized as major forces that drive behavior. Behavior is no longer to be viewed as one dimensional but as multidimensional and multifaceted. Durand and Barlow (2013) clearly state this position as follows: “Behavior both normal and abnormal is the product of a continual interaction of biological, psychological, and social influences” (p. 26). This conclusion has led to what is referred to as a scientific method of determining influences that drive behavior and is labeled an integrative approach. What is suggested here is that what individuals think and do does not occur in isolation, on the contrary, there is an interaction of influences involved in career decision making, in one’s perceptions of a work role and other life roles, and in the development of cognitions and emotions that could lead to a psychological disorder. What is also suggested is that client concerns can affect all life roles including the work role. An integrative approach suggests that mental disorders are the product of a very complex interacting process involving three dimensions, biological, psychological, and social/cultural, as depicted in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1An Integrated Approach of Influences on Behavior

 

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Source: From Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach, 5th ed., p. 32, by D. Barlow, and V. Durand, Copyright. 2009. Reprinted with permission from Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.

To illustrate an interactive process, I use a stressful life event that triggers a number of biological reactions including an activation of neurons that transmits messages through neurotransmitters to the central nervous system and brain. Thus, a stressful life event can cause physiological responses including cardiovascular system reactions such as increased heart rate and high blood pressure, Psychological reactions include learned conditioned responses such as negative cognitions, self-defeating thinking, and excessive emotional responses. In the social/cultural dimension unique social and cultural experiences influence each person’s reaction to stressful life events. This is a process that involves the interaction of three dimensions that could result in an anxiety response followed by a panic reaction. Anxiety and panic, which are closely related, are often considered precursors for development of a psychological disorder. As one would suspect, a psychological disorder involving anxiety and panic can have long-term effects on one’s ability to function in all life roles. Counselors are to be aware of multiple influences involved in the development of behavior that can lead to pathology as well as the complexity of the process itself. Behavior is not the product of one dimension, but a combination of interacting influences; there is reciprocity. The following paragraphs contain brief summaries of three dimensions in the integrative model. For more information, see Ashford and Lecroy (2013); Durand and Barlow (2013); Goldstein (2011); Kail and Cavanaugh (2014); Sue and colleagues (2014); and Zunker (2008) among others.

The assumption that behavior is the product of multiple interactive influences suggests that counselors are to focus on multipath models of development in the process of building an understanding of a client’s interrelated concerns. Furthermore, the complexity of mental health concerns suggests the involvement of more than one dimension in an integrative model. Multiple interactive influences are most likely to contribute to the development of a mental health concern or concerns, but this does not imply that all dimensions have contributed equally to a disorder. Finally, one must be reminded that individuals react differently when exposed to identical events and stressors (Sue et al., 2014). Biological, psychological, and social/cultural influences that drive behavior are discussed next.

Biological. Biological vulnerability is very complex as well as inclusive. Biological explanations of human behavior have focused on brain functions as well as functions of the central nervous system. The brain, for example, contains billions of interconnected cells called neurons that communicate with each other (Goldstein, 2011). Complex processes involving functions of the brain emphasize that there is much about behavior that we do not know. What we do know is that psychological interventions can alter brain functions but so can stressful life situations. Biological vulnerability also includes genetically inherited predispositions to develop psychological disorders. There are indeed higher rates of depression found in relatives of individuals who have experienced mood disorders. Some relatives, however, may not suffer from depression (Zunker, 2008). Keep in mind that inherited predispositions, sometime referred to as tendencies, are not certainties or one’s destiny (Schulz & Schulz, 2013) but are part of the equation that has many interconnections. Yet there are also biochemical imbalances that are a part of the interaction process; for example, the neurotransmitter serotonin is believed to influence behavior; thus, drug therapy is used to either increase or decrease serotonin levels. Obviously, there is much more to be learned about biological functions and their influences on human behavior. Counselors should remain alert to the results of continuing research.

Psychological. Psychological vulnerability is also a very broad-based force that “includes all internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors that affect development” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2010, p. 6). What is implied in the previous description of psychological vulnerability is a strong endorsement for evaluating each person as a unique individual. An individual client’s psychological vulnerability could be heightened, for example, by a severe emotional reaction to a stressful life event. The counselor may view this client as being very fragile, as having a poor self-concept, and who tends to fall apart when faced with stressful conditions. In this case the client is likely to have difficulty functioning in a work role, especially one that is stressful. This client would more than likely experience problems in all life roles. Also observed in this case is the interconnection to biological and social vulnerability. Distorted beliefs and poor self-concept, chemical imbalances, and perceptions of isolation from peers are interacting forces that are very problematic. Clients who have tendencies to react emotionally may find their problem to be exacerbated by chemical imbalances and poor interpersonal skills. High serotonin levels, for instance, can influence the development of distorted beliefs that interfere with all life roles. Vulnerable psychological characteristics and traits can be reinforced by biological factors and social contexts. What is emphasized here is the often mentioned interaction between dimensions that influence behavior; one’s emotions and faulty cognitions are either reinforced or diminished in the interaction processes that drive behavior (Durand & Barlow, 2013; Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014; Sue et al., 2014).

Social/Cultural. In the social/cultural dimension counselors should recognize that much of what one learns is through social contexts that include cultural beliefs, values, and worldviews. Social contributions to the development of anxiety, for example, can include social pressure to succeed, a lack of social support, and prior experiences in social interactions. Poverty, social inequality, discrimination, and oppression can diminish one’s sense of control; one’s self-concept and self-esteem can be adversely affected. Social vulnerability also includes experiences of being rejected by authority figures and diminished feelings of well-being when one does not have social support. On the other hand, social support is a most important weapon in combating a number of psychological problems including depression. Recently more attention has been directed to the importance and relevance of one’s environmental experiences in the search for solutions to both career and personal concerns and their interrelationships. Self in situation is indeed an important factor in research of influences that drive behavior. Life-course events are one of the influential driving forces of human development (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014).

The point was made very early in this discussion that behavior is the product of multiple influences that are very pervasive. The function and structure of the brain, the nervous system, and genetic endowments are but a part of biological influences involved in this very complex process that defies our desire for simplicity. Researchers continue to uncover more information concerning the complexity of biological functions, for example when studying the effects of genetic inheritance, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel (1983) concludes that environmental influences can diminish the effects of genetic tendencies. He observes that in the process of learning there is a change in the genetic structure of cells, suggesting that situational experiences may indeed modify the influence of genetic endowments (Durand & Barlow, 2013). More recently, researchers strongly suggest that there appears to be a social connectivity to the re-engineering of new cells, suggesting that social experiences can become a part of one’s biology (Rutter, 2010).

What is most important for counselors to learn here is that environmental influences can alter brain functions (Kolb, Gibb, & Robinson, 2003). This position calls attention to the impact of social/cultural influences on both biological and psychological factors. Counselors should also be aware that positive thinking and subsequent behavior can increase the effectiveness of the immune system (Durand & Barlow, 2013). These examples can serve to solidify the position that behavior is influenced by the interaction of multidimensional forces that are interconnected. Furthermore, Sue and colleagues (2014) suggest that one-dimensional perspectives of observing behavior are overly simplistic. Counselors are to recognize the important contribution of reciprocal influences in the development of mental disorders. I will continue to explore interrelationships by observing the potential development of such traits as irresponsibility, impulsiveness, deceitfulness, and disregard for the rights of others.

Development of Dysfunctional Personality Dimensions

I have selected some personality factors to illustrate their development by biological, psychological, and social/cultural influences as shown in Figure 4.2. The interactions of influences in this illustration suggest that the development of one’s personality typically begins in early childhood. The chronic nature of development is characteristic of most personality disorders. The significance of this observation suggests to counselors that early detection of the influences that could lead to the development of a psychological disorder is of the utmost importance. There is little evidence at this time of success in moderating behavior associated with personality problems that have developed over time. Typical behavior patterns of an individual who is considered severely antisocial, for example, suggest a lack of respect for the concerns of others and one who is likely to be involved in overt criminal acts. Extreme aggressiveness and little or no concern for the violation of the rights of others can be the driving forces that lead to vandalism, stealing, and chronic criminal behavior. Poor emotional control and a nonconformity attitude present serious problem for interpersonal relations in all life roles, especially in the work role. In the next section we examine a case of poor emotional control. I will introduce a model for career counselors that consists of four domains, one of which is the career domain. Keep in mind that we have discussed a multipath model for understanding the development of behavior. We now focus on how we can use that information in the career counseling process. The goal is to integrate personal and career concerns and their interrelationships.

Figure 4.2Development of Personality Dimensions

 

Source: From Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach, 5e, by D. H. Barlow and V. M. Durand, 2009. Reprinted with permission of Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.

Conceptualizing Concerns in Four Domains

What follows is a good example of interacting influences that have led to a serious disorder that has long-term consequences. All life roles are adversely affected by personality factors that could lead to psychological disorders; the interrelationships of career and personal concern are quite obvious. There are clients, however, who will present symptoms that are considered antisocial but do not meet the criteria for a full-blown psychological disorder. Such is the case of Irv, a 17-year-old Caucasian male, who informs the counselor that he “has difficulty keeping a job.” Further explanations by Irv revealed that he has the tendency to lose his temper and get into arguments with fellow workers. On two occasions he was fired because of his inability to control his emotions. During the interviews that followed the counselor learned that Irv grew up in a neighborhood that was known for its high crime rate. His father was a day laborer and as Irv put it, there was never enough money to sustain the family. He admits to stealing items from neighbors on several occasions, but he was never charged or arrested. He stated he becomes “stressed out” when thinking about future opportunities; Irv felt that he was doomed because of his background. Irv was able to express himself very well and it was noted that his achievement test scores were very close to average for his age group even though he dropped out of high school. The counselor concluded that Irv does not meet all the criteria necessary for a diagnosis of a personality disorder at this time but does have some symptoms that are most troubling. Irv’s concerns were conceptualized by using the representing strategies and four domains as described in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1

Representative Strategies and Client Concerns in Four Domains

CAREER
Strategies

Trait-oriented counseling, developmental counseling, social learning and cognitive counseling, person-in-environment counseling

Assessment of traits, clarifying interests, self-concept development, vocational identity development, awareness of developmental stages and tasks, rational decision making, self-directed career maintenance, interpersonal skills development, sources of job satisfaction, work adjustment variables, coping with job loss, and preparing for retirement.

Concerns

Indecisive, deficiencies in basic skills, career maturity issues, poor work identity, work impairment, work maladjustment, adjusting to career transitions, balancing life roles, job loss, stress, violence in the workplace, relational problems, failure to adapt to changing work requirements, loss of work identity, and adjustment to retirement.

AFFECTIVE
Strategies

Cognitive-behavioral interventions, client-centered therapy, existential therapy, psychodynamic therapies

Empathy, active listening, awareness techniques, dignity and worth of individual, ventilation and catharsis, self-regulation, wholeness of individual, insight, and awareness, meaning in life, positive regard, and internal frame of reference.

Concerns

Emotional instability, sad, anxious, angry, panic attacks, impulsivity, poor self-esteem, feelings of inferiority and helplessness, depressed mood, lethargy, fatigue, and poor personal relationships.

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL
Strategies

Behavioral counseling, cognitive restructuring, rational-emotive therapy, reality therapy, Beck’s cognitive therapy

Counterconditioning, bibliotherapy, reframing, A_B_C_D_E analysis, systematic desensitization, modeling, contingency management, homework assignments, assertiveness training, problem-solving techniques, contracting, and social skills training.

Concerns

Faulty thinking, inappropriate behavior, self-destructive behavior, cognitive distortions, maladaptive behavior, faulty beliefs, overgeneralizations of negative experiences, poor information-processing skills, and problems in decision making.

CULTURE
Strategies

Culturally based interventions, multicultural counseling

Focus on level of acculturation and worldview, cultural identity, cultural orientation, work-related values, culturally appropriate assessment techniques and resources, adjustment techniques to new socioeconomic system. Use indigenous helpers, alternative counseling procedures, and expanded repertoire of helping responses.

Concerns

Deficiencies in the use of English language and basic skills, poor adjustment to the dominant cultural values, collectivist worldview, cultural shock, lack of job skills, difficulty with assimilating new lifestyle, restrictive emotions, level of cultural identity, effects of discrimination and oppression, and relating to others.

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Table 4.1 is modeled after Hackney and Cormier (2001) and contains counseling strategies and corresponding client concerns. This perspective provides a means of observing interrelationships of client concerns from four domains: Career, Affective, Cognitive-Behavioral, and Cultural. In the career domain, client concerns are very inclusive including the following examples: career decision making, inadequate basic skills, career identity, indecisiveness, poor problem-solving skills, work-related stress, job loss, school-to-work transitions, lack of occupational knowledge, poor self-concept, and self-knowledge. The affective domain encompasses problems—frequently emotionally driven—that affect mood, self-concept, self-awareness, and feelings of inferiority, impulsivity, and helplessness, among others. The cognitive-behavioral domain focuses on cognitions and cognitive schemas that influence behavioral reactions. The rationale is that faulty cognitions can lead to inappropriate behavior. In the cultural domain the client’s level of acculturation is assessed; worldview is weighed, especially the constructs of individualism versus collectivism. The cultural context of a client’s development is considered an important factor in the counseling process. The use of this model is illustrated by the conceptualization of Irv’s concern in four domains as follow.

Career: Irv has given little attention to finding an optimal career. His focus has primarily been on survival and he has resorted to criminal acts of stealing. His decision-making skills are practically nonexistent and his ability to accurately process career information is very questionable. His career development needs are many, including identification of his abilities, interests, and values through appropriate standardized assessment instruments. In addition, how to locate and process career information, learn career decision-making techniques, and find the means and motivation to complete high school are essential. Career development should be accompanied by addressing the interrelationships of a multitude of personal needs. The rationale here is that progress in the career domain will enhance progress designed to moderate personal problems and vice versa.

Affective: Irv needs help in learning to control his emotions. He is emotionally unstable, impulsive and resorts to criminal acts with little thought given to the consequences of his actions. Some of his emotional responses are driven by an attitude of nonconformity. His poor emotional control also adversely affects his ability to focus on future needs, including career information and decision making. His focus appears to be only on short-term interests in that planning for the future is at best a vague concept. The evidence of poor emotional control and accompanying underlying anxiety suggests that interventions should focus on the interrelationship of concerns. This recommendation is based on the premise that what happens in one life role affects other life roles; there is a spillover effect.

Cognitive-Behavioral: Irv’s view of the world has been colored by inconsistent parental discipline, a lack of social support, and other negative environmental experiences. He appears to believe that the way one gets ahead is to be very aggressive regardless of the effect one’s actions have on others. His aggressive behavior is driven by immediate rewards with little thought given to future consequences. Cognitive restructuring should focus on faulty cognitions involving negative self-talk and negative cognitions that reflect self-concept and self-efficacy deficits. To help Irv with interpersonal relationships, assertiveness training and behavioral rehearsal should focus on the differences between aggressiveness and assertiveness. Behavioral rehearsal should target interpersonal relationships, especially one’s lack of concern for others. Irv should participate in several selected roles which will be followed with discussions of real-life experiences and their consequences. A major emphasis will be placed on addressing cognitive schemas and their influence on behavior. Dysfunctional thinking will be assessed by the Career Thoughts Inventory (Sampson et al., 1996a) and My Vocational Situation (Holland et al., 1980) (see chapter 6). Homework assignments will focus on preparing for taking the test for a GED and learning and practicing relaxation techniques.

Cultural: Irv was born into a white working-class home. Although he was exposed to the individualistic view which champions individual accomplishment, an appropriate role model in the home was definitely missing. The environment in which he was raised did not provide a model of consistency; on the contrary, there were constant mixed messages which left Irv confused. In fact, his development appears to include negative perceptions of all life roles accompanied by socioeconomic status disadvantages. Irv’s situational conditions are a good example of how one’s expectations of the future can be quite limited as a result of contextual experiences. Irv is in need of exposure to more positive life roles and the benefits of a balanced lifestyle; self-awareness will be stressed in interventions designed to enhance self-knowledge.

The counselor was very aware that Irv needed immediate attention in order to moderate symptoms that, left unchecked, could develop into a psychological disorder. Although his symptoms were very troubling, there were indications that he was sincere in addressing them. Clients of this ilk, however, can be deceitful and are effective con artists. The road ahead could be perilous, but well worth the effort. The tightly woven connection between career and personal concerns suggests that interventions should address concerns simultaneously. Thus, interests, values, and aptitudes will be evaluated and addressed as well as career decisions techniques. In a working consensus counseling relationship, counselor and client agree on the purpose of all interventions in order for the client to be an active participant in setting goals and selecting the content of interventions. Irv has many needs and among them is the need to learn that structure and consistency can be achieved through his own efforts that are supported by others. Other interventions to restructure his thinking process are to be accomplished through the above planned use of cognitive-behavioral techniques. Hopefully, Irv will recognize that future perspectives can be positive and filled with opportunities. What is important to recognize here is that addressing interrelationships of concerns can enhance the meaning of counseling interventions. Another case example is used next to illustrate significant interrelationships of concerns.

The Career-Work Connection to Anxiety

Susie, a 28-year-old Hispanic female, stated, “I want to find a different job—something that’s easier for me to do.” She explained that her current job as an appliance salesperson was not what she liked, and she felt incompetent. Susie was appropriately dressed and expressed herself well. Susie has never been married and lives with her elderly parents. She has three older married sisters who are living nearby but has little personal contact with them. Susie was considered to be a good student in high school, but a loner. After she graduated from high school, she stayed home to help her parents. Eventually her parents convinced Susie to seek work and she reluctantly applied for a job at a local department store. She was put through a training program to prepare her for dealing directly with customers. Susie, however, seemed to worry about every aspect of her job. She explained that her worries were about making mistakes and if she could meet all the demands of the job. The counselor realized that many workers focus on meeting the demands of a job, but in Susie’s case the concerns seemed excessive. Susie’s expressions indicated a great deal of underling anxiety that will need to be addressed. There also appeared to be a spillover effect in that Susie not only worries about her work but also worries about other activities and life events. She constantly worries about relationships with her older sisters. As an example, she stated, “They don’t like me I’m not one of them.” In addition, the counselor learned that Susie has few friends, and when she rarely dated, she worried intensely about being an appropriate and adequate date. Susie’s world was filled with anxiety including what the future would hold in store for her. The counselor realized that some of Susie’s worries were shared by others her age, but the difference in Susie’s case was the intensity of the anxiety she experienced. The examples of constant worrying illustrate how anxiety can consume an individual and more importantly destroy one’s ability to function in all life roles. Susie’s concerns are conceptualized in the following four domains.

Conceptualizing Concerns in Four Domains

The counselor recognized that there was much more to learn about Susie, but at this point it was clear that personal concerns of anxiety need to be addressed first. Anxiety and tension can often result in confusion and increase one’s vulnerability to develop a psychological disorder. Susie’s negative self-talk and faulty cognitions can interfere with her ability to make appropriate decisions about future needs. Readiness for career counseling will be determined later. In the meantime, the counselor will investigate the focus of Susie’s anxiety in order to determine the purpose and goals of intervention strategies. There appeared to be a general sense of uncontrollability in response to stress that triggers inherited and/or conditioned tendencies to overreact to life events and circumstances. The focus of interventions will address faulty perceptions and negative cognitive schemas. Difficulties with interpersonal relations will need to be moderated and more social support from family members is to be encouraged. What was known about Susie’s concerns at this time was conceptualized as follows.

Career: Susie’s ability to make optimal career choice decisions at this time is very questionable. There seems to be sufficient evidence that she has given little thought to establishing a work identity. Self-knowledge, career information, and the ability to process information are among important goals for interventions. Career readiness will be evaluated by the following standard assessment instruments: Career Maturity Inventory—Revised (CMI-R) (Crites & Savickas, 1995) and My Vocational Situation (Holland et al., 1980) (see chapter 6). In the meantime, interventions will focus on interpersonal relations in the workplace.

Affective: The anxiety Susie is currently experiencing can result in severe emotional reactions and panic attacks. In addition, the overwhelming and constant worry she experiences leave little time for other considerations such as establishing a work role and becoming involved in social activities. Susie’s feelings of helplessness and poor self-esteem are important factors to be addressed in counseling interventions. In short, excessive emotionally driven behavior needs to be moderated.

Cognitive-Behavioral: Susie’s feelings of anxiety associated with fear of the future can make rational decision making difficult. She tends to overgeneralize negative thoughts in all life situations including the work role. Cognitive distortions associated with high levels of anxiety will be addressed through cognitive restructuring as well as negative self-talk. It appears that Susie’s poor self-concept is reinforced by cognitive distortions and poor self-esteem. In addition, demeaning self-talk will be addressed by interventions that are designed to generate self-enhancing thoughts.

Cultural: Susie is a second-generation Hispanic. She self identifies as a Mexican American and embraces many traditional values. Although she is family and community oriented, her relationships with her three older sisters is estranged. In collectivist-oriented Hispanic families, it is most important for each family member to embrace the welfare of the family group rather than one’s individual goals. Family support and approval are sought by all its members. The lack of social support from family members can contribute to the anxiety Susie is currently experiencing. Thus, another major goal for the counselor is to unite the family in offering support of Susie’s efforts to overcome anxiety.

Susie’s case is a good example that illustrates the connection of career and personal concerns. Counselors may find that career counseling is best delayed with some clients until some or most personal problems are moderated. This is a call that counselors must often make, but there are also situations when career and personal concerns can be effectively dealt with simultaneously. In the case of Susie, the decision to delay career counseling was determined by the severity and pervasive nature of an anxiety disorder. Interventions can include discussions of interactions in the workplace; successful experiences in the work environment can be very therapeutic. An example of an intervention in Susie’s case is described as follows:

Addressing an Anxiety Disorder with Systematic Desensitization

Systematic desensitization is a progressive muscle relaxation technique. One reduces anxiety through muscle relaxation while visualizing anxiety-provoking events; a relaxed state of mind inhibits severe reaction to stress. The client is encouraged to construct a hierarchy of events, arranged in order of least to most intense, that heighten anxiety reactions. Susie’s hierarchy included the following events involving a workday and her work environment:

1. Take a bus to work

2. Check in

3. Discuss day with work associates

4. Enter meeting room

5. Leader calls meeting to order

6. Discussion of current sale priorities

7. Report to work area

8. Meet with first customer

Clients begin by imagining that they are in the first situation twice without increasing muscle tension. They are to stop when they are unable to visualize a situation without becoming tense. Clients recycle through the hierarchy until they are able to move forward without tension. This exercise is usually followed with homework assignments such as practicing muscle relaxation.

Susie will also participate in practicing methods of enhancing self-thoughts and moderating self-talk that is demeaning. Drug therapy may be used in conjunction with other interventions. Social support provided by her family and other members of the community such as church groups should help Susie prepare for the future through effective career counseling. Establishing a work identity will require Susie to view the future in a much more positive manner. The counselor will attempt to remove all barriers to career choice by addressing both career and personal concerns. Early detection of anxiety and panic provides the counselor with opportunities to address those concerns in an effort to halt the development of a full-blown psychological disorder. Susie will be given the opportunity to select a career with an increased knowledge of her interests, abilities, and values, and more importantly, the ability to adequately process career information.

 

 

 

 

 

In both of the case examples, counselors are to select career counseling models that provide opportunities for systematic and consistent plans and actions. Integration of career and personal concerns suggests

· (1) that technical eclecticism involving valid techniques from different approaches to address personal concerns would be used with

· (2) career counseling techniques from career development theories that provide consistency of procedures.

In these two cases, cognitive-behavioral approaches were used to address personal concerns; similar techniques and supportive assessments instruments are used in social learning and cognitive career development theories discussed earlier. In the chapters that follow, more case examples will illustrate the integration of career and personal concerns.

Summary

1. The pervasive nature of work should be the subject of research by several academic disciplines to clarify its position in counseling programs.

2. Career development theorists address a wide range of client concerns including cognitive difficulties, emotional problems, and social restraints.

3. Historically, career and personal domains were viewed as separate entities.

4. The call to integrate career and personal counseling was heightened in the 1990s.

5. The biopsychosocial model suggests an interactive process that includes the interplay of biological, psychological, and social/cultural forces that influence behavior. Biological influences include inherited genetic vulnerability, immune system responses, central nervous system responses, and biochemical imbalances. Psychological influences include emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Social/cultural influences include events and situational influences, lack of social support, oppression, discrimination, and poverty.

6. The chronic nature of development is typical of most personality disorders. Symptoms that present the lack of respect and concerns for others and overt criminal acts require effective cognitive-behavioral interventions.

7. The client Irv illustrates behavioral patterns that are similar to behaviors of someone who has been diagnosed as having severe personality problems. Interventions addressed faulty cognitions and career concerns simultaneously.

8. Career work connection to anxiety required the counselor to determine that readiness for career counseling would be evaluated later. In the meantime, interventions focused on negative self-talk and negative cognitions, poor self-esteem, and feelings of helplessness. Fear of the future associated with anxiety can make rational decision making difficult.

Supplementary Learning Questions and Two Case Studies

1. Describe how you would inform a client about how a personal problem of anxiety is interfering with career choice.

2. The career counseling profession has been criticized for devoting most attention to initial choice for young adults. Do you agree or disagree? Justify your conclusions.

3. What do you see as the major obstacles to managing a holistic counseling approach?

4. Defend or criticize the position that career and personal needs are to receive equal attention.

5. Do you think counselor training programs should include a broader perspective of counseling needs?

Case 4.1

The Case of Indecision

Jim, a 19-year-old Caucasian male, told the counselor that he is looking for “the kind of work in which I can do my job without any hassle.” When asked what kind of work he was referring to, he replied, “something I can do on my own.” These and similar statements made it very clear that Jim preferred working alone. The counselor learned that Jim’s previous job had been on an assembly line at a local cannery. He was required to coordinate his responsibilities with a small group of fellow workers. It appeared that Jim was able to meet the demands of his work role but disliked required meetings. Everyone was encouraged to participate by making recommendations to solve problems that had been encountered in the workplace. Jim rarely said a word but when he was challenged by the group to at least express an opinion, he never returned to the work site—he received a notice in the mail that his job had been terminated.

Not only did his fellow workers have difficulty in getting Jim to respond, but so did the counselor. Jim is very shy and makes little eye contact, noted the counselor, and answers questions with a short, abrupt response or usually yes or no. She also noted that when he is pressed to respond he appears confused and very anxious.

Jim grew up in small town and moved to a large city in which he now lives when he finished high school. His father is a plumber and he has one older brother whom he rarely sees. He lives alone and claims he has few friends. He has not dated since moving to the city. His hobbies are listening to musical records and going to an occasional movie or sporting event. He reported average grades in high school. He was unable to identify a preferred occupation but once again made it clear he preferred to work alone.

Questions and Exercises for Discussion

1. How would you conceptualize Jim’s career concerns?

2. What are your conclusions concerning Jim’s reactions to group meetings?

3. What is the significance of Jim’s desire to work alone?

4. How would you describe Jim’s major problems in the cultural/social domain?

5. Conceptualize interrelationships of career and personal concerns in the case of Jim.

Case 4.2

The Case of the Confused Decision Maker

Kris, a 19-year-old high school graduate, asked for help in choosing a college major. She reported to the counselor’s office with one of her older brothers. Kris was neatly dressed and well groomed. Her speech was fluent, and she tended to speak very softly. When questioned about work experience, she informed the counselor she was “let go” from a retail sales job in a local clothing store. The counselor noticed that Kris seemed to be somewhat anxious when questioned directly and she constantly looked to her brother for approval.

In the top 10% of her class, Kris had a record of being a very capable student. She had good rapport with teachers as well as with her peer group. She strongly identified with several girls her age at the high school. Kris has five brothers, and her father was a meat inspector in a local plant. He worked hard to maintain the family. Her mother has never worked outside the home.

When the counselor asked Kris to come into his office, she seemed to be very uncomfortable and asked if her brother could attend the session with her. The counselor reassured her that they would have ample time to talk with her brother later. She reluctantly agreed to begin the interview.

From the description Kris gave of her home environment, the counselor assumed it was very traditional. Moreover, the chores assigned to the children typically were based on what the parents considered appropriate work for boys and for girls. There seemed to be strict stereotypical roles embedded in Kris’s perception of traditional work roles for women. She appeared to be very passive and gave the impression that she expected someone else to make decisions for her.

When discussing future objectives, Kris seemed quite confused when the counselor suggested she consider all careers, including nontraditional ones. At one time she had expressed an interest in architecture but considered it to be only for men and therefore decided against it as a possible choice.

Kris’s behavior pattern reflected little confidence in her abilities, and she deferred to others for decision making. She constantly referred to her brothers as giving her good advice and reassuring her of what was best for her.

Questions and Exercises for Discussion

1. How would you characterize Kris’s emotional state?

2. How would you address Kris’s dependence on others?

3. How would you explain to Kris that her personal and career concerns are interrelated?

4. What does self-efficacy have to do with Kris’s current status?

5. Which, if any, assessment instruments would be most helpful?

 

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Multicontextual Life cycle

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

In this assignment, you will explain the Multicontextual Life Cycle Framework as well as completing a self-genogram of your family system. Complete the “Multicontextual Life Cycle Framework” worksheet. This assignment assesses the following programmatic competency: 6.1: Analyze the forms and functions of families at different developmental stages.

In order to analyze a family system, it is important to understand the multisystem structure. This assignment will help you learn this concept.

First, create a self-genogram of your family system, looking at it through the multisystem lens. Complete your family’s genogram and discuss your family system in terms of the family life cycle.

The genogram can be handwritten and scanned, done as a PDF, or done using Word tools to ensure it can be uploaded to LoudCloud. You can also go to the following site or another similar genogram site of your choice to download the GenPro software.

http://www.genopro.com/

Use the different phases listed in Figure 1.5 of the textbook to look at both the emotional process of transition and the second order tasks (If you have a large family, pick six to eight key individuals including yourself to discuss). Relate this to what your family members are going through in their lives presently (you can include key moments of the past – someone passing away, going through cancer treatment, miscarriage, etc.):

  • All family members
  • Include ages (if known), marriages, divorces, deaths
  • Substance use identified
  • Mental illness identified
  • All relationship dynamics

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PTSD case Vignette

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

Case 1: Jack

Jack Krull is a 26-year-old white male presenting with a shy demeanor. He made only fleeting eye contact and did not smile as he told the therapist in his first session that he knew he was overdue for getting help, mentioning that one of his problems is procrastination. He identifies that he has a lot of anxiety, which has worsened lately.

Jack has a degree in engineering and has held a job as a government patent examiner for the past 3 years since finishing college. He said that he gets very little work done, frustrated by the fact that each patent is different in scope and to find out how to approach it, he has to get information from others. Jack described how difficult it is to call people to do this. He does not know what to say and is afraid of stumbling over his words and sounding “stupid.” He also thought he would be judged for not knowing more.

Jack said he could not concentrate at work, spending most of his time procrastinating. He has received a warning from his supervisor for not meeting his quota. His job is solitary, and he does not interact with others at work, although everyone else there are “nerds” like him. However, some of them go to lunch with each other. He wonders whether it would be nice to join them rather than eating alone at his desk, but he does not feel he can do this since he is always so behind.

Jack is the product of a dating relationship between his mother and father, who had just come out of a divorce. His father indicated that Jack was a “mistake,” and Jack has had very little contact with him throughout the years and no monetary support. From his mother’s previous marriage, Jack has a half-sister, who is 3 years older. From his father, he has a half-brother from the previous marriage, and another half-brother from a subsequent marriage.

Jack said that his mother remarried when he was about 7 to a critical stepfather to whom he did not feel close. His stepfather was physically abusive to Jack’s mother. During these sporadic abusive episodes, Jack would remain in his room, feeling guilty for being unable to help. His mother left this man when Jack was 12.

Jack described his mother as overprotective growing up, exhorting him to do well in school and disallowing his attending social events because she did not want him getting into trouble. They lived in an isolated, rural setting.

Currently, Jack speaks to his mother about once a month on the phone, and he says they are not close. He tends to avoid her as much as possible and dreads talking to her. He says that he does not feel connected to any of his half siblings either.

Jack was diagnosed with ADHD as a child but could not describe any behaviors that warranted the diagnosis. He took stimulants for years but could not tell whether they helped or not. He is currently not on any medication. He says that he does not remember much about his childhood, but that, in general, he has a terrible memory. He has one memory of speaking in front of the class for a presentation when he was about 11 and starting to cry because he became so anxious.

 

Jack is currently living with his ex-girlfriend. They broke up after dating for 4 years, primarily because he was not interested in her sexually. She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but from what he reports, she is stable on her medication and high functioning. (She is in a graduate studies program.)

Their lease will soon be up and Jack agonizes whether to get an apartment on his own or move with her to another place. On one hand, he feels very dependent on her but he also would not mind exploring what it would be like to be on his own. He has been with her since his senior year of college. However, he has a long-time fear of cockroaches and is afraid of choosing a place that has cockroaches.

Jack says he has some friends in the area to socialize with, but he does not feel close to them. He says he starts stammering, blushing, and shaking if he talks to more than one of his friends at a time. He does not know what to say or where to put his hands, and he focuses heavily on how he walks, believing he is doing it “wrong.” He also worries about what he will say and how he will handle interactions with clerks and shopkeepers. He goes to social events at times but usually “talks himself out” of going or leaves after a short time. He does not try to approach any women because he is afraid they would think he is being “obnoxious” and “hitting on them.” His self-talk is negative in that he calls himself “stupid” and that no one would like him. He is suspicious of people, thinking they are “fake” and “trying to get something.” Although Jack does not feel close to anyone except his ex-girlfriend, he says he feels more comfortable around women. He admits to feeling afraid of men, that they will yell at him or try to physically threaten him.

Jack says his appetite is fine, and he usually has three meals a day, but he does not eat as healthily as he should. He has a hard time sleeping at night and then has a difficult time waking up in the morning. He reports sporadic feelings of suicidality although he does not have an active plan and has never attempted suicide. He finds work so stressful that he is glad to retreat to his apartment in the evening. Still, he does not enjoy what he is doing there and constantly beats himself up about why he is not more productive at work so he can be rewarded with a more flexible schedule.

Case 2: Monica

Monica Moreno is a 20-year-old woman who was born in the U. S. Her parents at the time were recent immigrants, her mother Claudia from El Salvador and her father Enrique from Mexico. Monica said she heard her father had raped her mother (the families knew each other) and that Estelle had become pregnant as a result. They then married and bore two other children, Monica’s sister who is now 18 and a brother who is 12. Monica’s parents both worked long hours in food service when she was growing up. Her father worked his way up to a chef at this point in life, but Claudia is still stuck in minimum-wage positions.

Monica said that her mother was physically abusive, hitting Monica, sometimes with objects such as brooms, and berating her on a frequent basis as a child and teenager. Monica claimed to have been treated more harshly than her brother and sister. When Monica was about 7, she was sexually abused by her babysitter’s uncle. She said she remembers her mother examining her vagina with a flashlight to see if there was “damage” (it was a one-time incident of digital penetration). Monica said that she remembers leading her younger female cousins in watching pornography and touching each other when she was about 11. Her mother scolded her for being a “lez” for this incident. Monica said she was also sexually abused by a male cousin who was 2 years older from about 12–14 years. None of these incidents were reported, and she said no one in her family was aware of the last one.

She said that her father reportedly had sexually abused Monica’s mother’s younger sister but she said her father had always been appropriate with her and her sister, describing herself as a “Daddy’s girl.” She said that she now realizes her father is “manipulative” and a “pathological liar” and got Monica to side against her mother in the long period of their separation and divorce, (which was final when Monica was about 15). Her father was jealous and violent with her mother during this period of time. He, however, was a chronic “cheater” during the marriage. Monica said there were a few incidents that she and her siblings witnessed, the most memorable of which was when he threatened Estelle with a gun.

Monica discovered later that her mother was involved with a family friend from Mexico, and once she was divorced, she married him. Currently, Monica, lives with her mother, brother, stepfather, and Estelle’s new baby in a two-bedroom apartment. Monica said that she is sad that her brother, whom she cares for very much, is being neglected in favor of the new baby. She said he is withdrawn and gets poor grades, and she is worried for him. Her sister currently lives with her father about 2 hours away, and she has been in and out of residential treatment programs for the last year because of being suicidal. Monica said to her knowledge her sister had not been sexually abused.

When Monica was 14, she became involved with her boyfriend who is 4 years older. She said she loves him but is racked by insecurity. She said when she was 14, she flirted and kissed a couple of boys who were interested in her and still replays those incidents in her mind, castigating herself, and worrying that she has not confessed these incidents sufficiently to her boyfriend. She also constantly scrutinizes her behavior when she is not with her boyfriend, worried that she is not going to be able to control her flirting and perhaps even do something physically with them, especially when she has been drinking. She is also worried that her boyfriend will cheat on her and gets on his social media accounts, looking for clues. She said she constantly feels insecure and that her anxiety is almost unbearable, her thoughts racing in a near-constant loop on this subject. She denied any physical abuse by him but says that he has a problem with alcohol. He currently is unable to drive due to a DWI.

Monica said that she did poorly in school but well enough to get passed along. Although English is not her first language, she is well able to express herself, indeed, speaking rapidly and almost without stopping for the first session. She has taken classes this past year at the local community college and fails all her classes each semester. She is not sure what she would like to do but considers being a nurse’s aide. She admits to frequently not attending classes, forgetting about assignments, and being unable to concentrate when studying.

Monica holds a part-time job at a doctor’s office that her cousin, the office manager, got for her. She said she has a hard time remembering her duties at the job, and one of her coworkers is frequently irritated with her for not learning quickly enough and not working fast enough to keep up with the practice.

Monica said that she feels depressed sometimes when she wakes up but she mainly struggles with anxiety. She denies flashbacks and nightmares but has problems falling asleep and then cannot wake up in the morning for classes and work. She says she is late for work almost every day. She denies any problems with drugs and alcohol though says that she has about five drinks when she goes out with her friends and/or boyfriends to bars and parties on mostly weekend nights. She said that she is close to her sister, her female cousins, and a couple of girlfriends she has known since middle-school.

Appendix C: Directions and Template for “Reflect and Reply” Cases

 

Case

Directions Part I, Diagnosis

Given the case information, prepare the following: a diagnosis, the rationale for the diagnosis, and additional information you would have wanted to know in order to make a more accurate diagnosis.

Directions Part II, Biopsychosocial Risk and Resilience Assessment

 

Formulate a risk and resilience assessment, both for the onset of the disorder and for the course of the disorder, including the strengths that you see for this individual. What techniques could you use to elicit additional strengths in the client?

Biopsychosocial Risk and Resilience Assessment for Onset of the Disorder

 

Risk Influences

 

 

Resilience Influences

 

Biological

 

 

Psychological

 

 

Social

 

Biopsychosocial Risk and Resilience Assessment for Course of the Disorder

 

Risk Influences

 

 

Resilience Influences

 

Biological

 

 

Psychological

Social

Directions Part III, Goal Setting and Treatment Planning

Given your risk and resilience assessment of the individual, your knowledge of the disorder, and evidence-based practice guidelines, formulate goals and a possible treatment plan for this individual.

Directions Part IV, Critical Perspective

Formulate a critique of the diagnosis as it relates to this case example. Questions to consider include the following: Does this diagnosis represent a valid mental disorder from the social work perspective? Is this diagnosis significantly different from other possible diagnoses? Your critique should be based on the values of the social work profession (which are incongruent in some ways with the medical model) and the validity of the specific diagnostic criteria applied to this case.

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Graduate Level Psychology Help

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

Ethics in Psychology Course

 

Directions: This is three-part assignment, with different due dates. Please pay attention to each individual instruction and due date.

 

Part I Discussion Questions Due Date: Responses to questions #1, #2, #3 are due on 6/15/19 and #4, #5, #5, #7, #8 are due on 6/17/19 .

Directions: Respond to the questions in 100 words. You must cite your references and must provide original work. Please remember this is a psychology ethics class, therefore; the responses must reflect the class.

1. Why is the selection of culturally neutral assessment tools so critical to the ethical practice of psychology?

2. What potential harm can result if assessment materials are culture-bound?

3. What potential limitations do you foresee encountering with culturally neutral assessment tools?

4. According to the APA Ethics Code, what conditions would justify termination of therapy?

5. Do you agree with the prohibitions of termination of therapy? Why or why not?

6. List another reason why you agree or disagree with the prohibitions?

7. Provide citation and reference to the material(s) you discuss. Describe what you found interesting regarding this topic, and why.

8. Describe what may be unclear to you, and what you would like to learn.

 

Part II Individual Assignment ** Due Date: This part of the assignment is due 6/17/2019**

Directions: Please complete the attached worksheet. You must use cite references used in-text. Must be original work and cite all work! The scenario is found below!

***Scenario: Case 7. Handling Disparate Information for Evaluating Trainees

Rashid Vaji, PhD, a member of the school psychology faculty at a midsize university, serves as a faculty supervisor for students assigned to externships in schools. The department has formalized a supervision and evaluation system for the extern program. Students have weekly individual meetings with the faculty supervisor and biweekly meetings with the on-site supervisor. The on-site supervisor writes a midyear (December) and end of academic year (May) evaluation of each student. The site evaluations are sent to Dr. Vaji, and he provides

feedback based on the site and his own supervisory evaluation to each student. The final grade (fail, low pass, pass, high pass) is the responsibility of Dr. Vaji.

Dr. Vaji also teaches the spring semester graduate class Health Disparities in Mental Health. One of the course requirements is for students to write weekly thought papers, in which they take the perspective of therapy clients from different ethnic groups in reaction to specific session topics. Leo Watson, a second-year graduate student, is one of Dr. Vaji’s externship supervisees. He is also enrolled in the Health Disparities course. Leo’s thought papers often present ethnic-minority adolescents as prone to violence and unable to grasp the insights offered by school psychologists. In a classroom role-playing exercise, Leo plays an ethnic-minority student client as slumping in his chair, not understanding the psychologist, and giving angry retorts. In written comments on these thought papers and class feedback, Dr. Vaji encourages Leo to incorporate more of the readings on racial/ethnic discrimination and multicultural competence into his papers and to provide more complex perspectives on clients.

One day during his office hours, three students from the class come to Dr. Vaji’s office to complain about Leo’s behavior outside the classroom. They describe incidents in which Leo uses derogatory ethnic labels to describe his externship clients and brags about “putting one over” on his site supervisors by describing these clients in “glowing” terms just to satisfy his supervisors’ “stupid do-good” attitudes. They also report an incident at a local bar at which Leo was seen harassing an African American waitress, including by using racial slurs.

After the students have left his office, Dr. Vaji reviews his midyear evaluation and supervision notes on Leo and the midyear on-site supervisor’s report. In his own evaluation report, Dr. Vaji had written, “Leo often articulates a strong sense of duty to help his ethnic minority students overcome past discrimination but needs additional growth and supervision in applying a multicultural perspective to his clinical work.” The on-site supervisor’s evaluation states that

Leo has a wonderful attitude toward his student clients. . . . Unfortunately, evaluation of his multicultural treatment skills is limited because Leo has had fewer cases to discuss than some of his peers, since a larger than usual number of ethnic minority clients have stopped coming to their sessions with him.

It is the middle of the spring semester, and Dr. Vaji still has approximately 6 weeks of supervision left with Leo. The students’ complaints about Leo are consistent with what Dr. Vaji has observed in Leo’s class papers and role-playing exercises. However, these complaints are very different from Leo’s presentation during on-site supervision. If Leo has been intentionally deceiving both supervisors, then he may be more ineffective or harmful as a therapist to his current clients than either supervisor has realized. In addition, purposeful attempts to deceive the supervisors might indicate a personality disorder or lack of integrity that, if left unaddressed, might be harmful to adolescent clients in the future.

 

Ethical Dilemma

Dr. Vaji would like to meet with Leo to discuss, at a minimum, ways to retain adolescent clients and to improve his multicultural treatment skills. He does not know to what extent his conversation with Leo and final supervisory report should be influenced by the information provided by the other graduate students.*******

 

Part III Group Assignment ** Due Date 06/16/2019 before 10:00 am EST**

This is a group assignment, however; I am responsible for only 1 slide . The slide must include detailed speaker notes and must also include information on the slide. Attached you will find a copy the group’s PowerPoint. Please add to the PowerPoint and add the peer-reviewed references to the project.

 

Directions: Develop 1-Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation with detailed speaker notes on the selection process of a culture-neutral assessment .

My Slide: Examples of when culture biased assessments have been problematic

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Share Your Thoughts Chapter 15

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

Midlife is a time of increased generativity—giving to and guiding younger generations. Charles Callis, director of New Zealand’s Olympic Museum, shows visiting schoolchildren how to throw a discus. His enthusiastic demonstration conveys the deep sense of satisfaction he derives from generative activities.

chapter outline

·   Erikson’s Theory: Generativity versus Stagnation

· ■  SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH  Generative Adults Tell Their Life Stories

Other Theories of Psychosocial Development in Midlife

·   Levinson’s Seasons of Life

·   Vaillant’s Adaptation to Life

·   Is There a Midlife Crisis?

·   Stage or Life Events Approach

Stability and Change in Self-Concept and Personality

·   Possible Selves

·   Self-Acceptance, Autonomy, and Environmental Mastery

·   Coping with Daily Stressors

·   Gender Identity

·   Individual Differences in Personality Traits

· ■  BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT  What Factors Promote Psychological Well-Being in Midlife?

Relationships at Midlife

·   Marriage and Divorce

·   Changing Parent–Child Relationships

·   Grandparenthood

·   Middle-Aged Children and Their Aging Parents

·   Siblings

·   Friendships

· ■  SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH  Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren: The Skipped-Generation Family

·   Vocational Life

·   Job Satisfaction

·   Career Development

·   Career Change at Midlife

·   Unemployment

·   Planning for Retirement

image2

One weekend when Devin, Trisha, and their 24-year-old son, Mark, were vacationing together, the two middle-aged parents knocked on Mark’s hotel room door. “Your dad and I are going off to see a crafts exhibit,” Trisha explained. “Feel free to stay behind,” she offered, recalling Mark’s antipathy toward attending such events as an adolescent. “We’ll be back around noon for lunch.”

“That exhibit sounds great!” Mark replied. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Sometimes I forget he’s an adult!” exclaimed Trisha as she and Devin returned to their room to grab their coats. “It’s been great to have Mark with us—like spending time with a good friend.”

In their forties and fifties, Trisha and Devin built on earlier strengths and intensified their commitment to leaving a legacy for those who would come after them. When Mark faced a difficult job market after graduating from college, he returned home to live with Trisha and Devin and remained there for several years. With their support, he took graduate courses while working part-time, found steady employment in his late twenties, fell in love, and married in his mid-thirties. With each milestone, Trisha and Devin felt a sense of pride at having escorted a member of the next generation into responsible adult roles. Family activities, which had declined during Mark’s adolescent and college years, increased as Trisha and Devin related to their son as an enjoyable adult companion. Challenging careers and more time for community involvement, leisure pursuits, and each other contributed to a richly diverse and gratifying time of life.

image3

The midlife years were not as smooth for two of Trisha and Devin’s friends. Fearing that she might grow old alone, Jewel frantically pursued her quest for an intimate partner. She attended singles events, registered with dating services, and traveled in hopes of meeting a like-minded companion. “I can’t stand the thought of turning 50,” she lamented in a letter to Trisha. Jewel also had compensating satisfactions—friendships that had grown more meaningful, a warm relationship with a nephew and niece, and a successful consulting business.

Tim, Devin’s best friend from graduate school, had been divorced for over five years. Recently, he had met Elena and had come to love her deeply. But Elena was in the midst of major life changes. In addition to her own divorce, she was dealing with a troubled daughter, a career change, and a move away from the city that served as a constant reminder of her unhappy past. Whereas Tim had reached the peak of his career and was ready to enjoy life, Elena wanted to recapture much of what she had missed in earlier decades, including opportunities to realize her talents. “I don’t know where I fit into Elena’s plans,” Tim wondered aloud on the phone with Trisha.

With the arrival of middle adulthood, half or more of the lifespan is over. Increasing awareness of limited time ahead prompts adults to reevaluate the meaning of their lives, refine and strengthen their identities, and reach out to future generations. Most middle-aged people make modest adjustments in their outlook, goals, and daily lives. But a few experience profound inner turbulence and initiate major changes, often in an effort to make up for lost time. Together with advancing years, family and work transitions contribute greatly to emotional and social development.

More midlifers are addressing these tasks than ever before, now that the baby boomers have reached their forties, fifties, and sixties (see  page 12  in  Chapter 1  to review how baby boomers have reshaped the life course). Indeed, 45- to 54-year-olds are currently the largest age sector of the U.S. population, and they are healthier, better educated, and—despite the late-2000s recession—more financially secure than any previous midlife cohort (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ; Whitbourne & Willis,  2006 ). As our discussion will reveal, they have brought increased self-confidence, social consciousness, and vitality—along with great developmental diversity—to this period of the lifespan.

A monumental survey called Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), conducted in the mid-1990s, has contributed enormously to our understanding of midlife emotional and social development. Conceived by a team of researchers spanning diverse fields, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and medicine, the aim of MIDUS was to generate new knowledge on the challenges faced by middle-aged adults. Its nationally representative sample included over 7,000 U.S. 25- to 75-year-olds, enabling those in the middle years to be compared with younger and older individuals. Through telephone interviews and self-administered questionnaires, participants responded to over 1,100 items addressing wide-ranging psychological, health, and background factors, yielding unprecedented breadth of information in a single study (Brim, Ryff, & Kessler,  2005 ). The research endeavor also included “satellite” studies, in which subsamples of respondents were questioned in greater depth on key topics. And it has been extended longitudinally, with 75 percent of the sample recontacted at first follow-up, in the mid-2000s (Radler & Ryff,  2010 ).

MIDUS has greatly expanded our knowledge of the multidimensional and multidirectional nature of midlife change, and it promises to be a rich source of information about middle adulthood and beyond for many years to come. Hence, our discussion repeatedly draws on MIDUS, at times delving into its findings, at other times citing them alongside those of other investigations. Let’s turn now to Erikson’s theory and related research, to which MIDUS has contributed.

image4 Erikson’s Theory: Generativity versus Stagnation

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Through his work with severely malnourished children in Niger, this nurse, affiliated with the Nobel Prize–winning organization Doctors Without Borders, integrates personal goals with a broader concern for society.

Erikson’s psychological conflict of midlife is called  generativity versus stagnation.  Generativity involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and guide the next generation. Recall from  Chapter 14  that generativity is under way in early adulthood through work, community service, and childbearing and child rearing. Generativity expands greatly in midlife, when adults focus more intently on extending commitments beyond oneself (identity) and one’s life partner (intimacy) to a larger group—family, community, or society. The generative adult combines the need for self-expression with the need for communion, integrating personal goals with the welfare of the larger social world (McAdams & Logan,  2004 ). The resulting strength is the capacity to care for others in a broader way than previously.

Erikson ( 1950 ) selected the term generativity to encompass everything generated that can outlive the self and ensure society’s continuity and improvement: children, ideas, products, works of art. Although parenting is a major means of realizing generativity, it is not the only means: Adults can be generative in other family relationships (as Jewel was with her nephew and niece), as mentors in the workplace, in volunteer endeavors, and through many forms of productivity and creativity.

Notice, from what we have said so far, that generativity brings together personal desires and cultural demands. On the personal side, middle-aged adults feel a need to be needed—to attain symbolic immortality by making a contribution that will survive their death (Kotre,  1999 ; McAdams, Hart, & Maruna,  1998 ). This desire may stem from a deep-seated evolutionary urge to protect and advance the next generation. On the cultural side, society imposes a social clock for generativity in midlife, requiring adults to take responsibility for the next generation through their roles as parents, teachers, mentors, leaders, and coordinators (McAdams & Logan,  2004 ). And according to Erikson, a culture’s “belief in the species”—the conviction that life is good and worthwhile, even in the face of human destructiveness and deprivation—is a major motivator of generative action. Without this optimistic worldview, people would have no hope of improving humanity.

The negative outcome of this stage is stagnation: Once people attain certain life goals, such as marriage, children, and career success, they may become self-centered and self-indulgent. Adults with a sense of stagnation express their self-absorption in many ways—through lack of interest in young people (including their own children), through a focus on what they can get from others rather than what they can give, and through taking little interest in being productive at work, developing their talents, or bettering the world in other ways.

Some researchers study generativity by asking people to rate themselves on generative characteristics, such as feelings of duty to help others in need or obligation to be an involved citizen. Others ask open-ended questions about life goals, major high points, and most satisfying activities, rating people’s responses for generative references. And still others look for generative themes in people’s narrative descriptions of themselves (Keyes & Ryff,  1998a ,  1998b ; McAdams,  2006 ,  2011 ; Newton & Stewart,  2010 ; Rossi,  2001 ,  2004 ). Whichever method is used, generativity tends to increase in midlife. For example, in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of college-educated women, and in an investigation of middle-aged adults diverse in SES, self-rated generativity rose throughout middle adulthood (see  Figure 16.1 ). At the same time, participants expressed greater concern about aging, increased security with their identities, and a stronger sense of competence (Miner-Rubino, Winter, & Stewart,  2004 ; Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson,  2001 ; Zucker, Ostrove, & Stewart,  2002 ). As the Social Issues: Health box on  page 534  illustrates, generativity is also a major unifying theme in middle-aged adults’ life stories.

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FIGURE 16.1 Age-related changes in self-rated generativity, concern about aging, identity security, and sense of competence.

In a longitudinal study of over 300 college-educated women, self-rated generativity increased from the thirties to the fifties, as did concern about aging. The rise in generativity was accompanied by other indicators of psychological health—greater security with one’s identity and sense of competence.

(Adapted from Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson, 2001.)

Just as Erikson’s theory suggests, highly generative people appear especially well-adjusted—low in anxiety and depression; high in autonomy, self-acceptance, and life satisfaction; and more likely to have successful marriages and close friends (Ackerman, Zuroff, & Moskowitz,  2000 ; An & Cooney,  2006 ; Grossbaum & Bates,  2002 ; Westermeyer,  2004 ). They are also more open to differing viewpoints, possess leadership qualities, desire more from work than financial rewards, and care greatly about the welfare of their children, their partner, their aging parents, and the wider society (Peterson,  2002 ; Peterson, Smirles, & Wentworth,  1997 ). Furthermore, generativity is associated with more effective child rearing—higher valuing of trust, open communication, transmission of generative values to children, and an authoritative style (Peterson,  2006 ; Peterson & Duncan,  2007 ; Pratt et al.,  2008 ). Generative midlifers are also more involved in political activities, including voting, campaigning, and contacting public officials (Cole & Stewart,  1996 ).

Although these findings characterize adults of all backgrounds, individual differences in contexts for generativity exist. Having children seems to foster generative development in both men and women. In several studies, including the MIDUS survey, fathers scored higher in generativity than childless men (Marks, Bumpass, & Jun,  2004 ; McAdams & de St. Aubin,  1992 ; Snarey et al.,  1987 ). Similarly, in an investigation of well-educated women from ages 43 to 63, those with family commitments (with or without a career) expressed greater generative concerns than childless women who were solely focused on their careers (Newton & Stewart,  2010 ). Parenting seems to spur especially tender, caring attitudes toward succeeding generations.

For low-SES men with troubled pasts as sons, students, workers, and intimate partners, fatherhood can provide a context for highly generative, positive life change (Roy & Lucas,  2006 ). At times, these fathers express this generativity as a refusal to pass on their own history of suffering. As one former gang member, who earned an associate’s degree and struggled to keep his teenage sons off the streets, explained, “I came through the depths of hell to try to be a father. I let my sons know, ‘You’re never without a daddy, don’t you let anybody tell you that.’ I tell them that if me and your mother separate, I make sure that wherever I go, I build something for you to come to” ( p. 153 ).

Social Issues: Health Generative Adults Tell Their Life Stories

In research aimed at understanding how highly generative adults make sense of their lives, Dan McAdams and his colleagues interviewed two groups of midlifers: those who often behave generatively and those who seldom do. Participants were asked to relate their life stories, including a high point, a low point, a turning point, and important scenes from childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (McAdams,  2006 ,  2011 ; McAdams et al.,  2001 ). Analyses of story lines and themes revealed that adults high and low in generativity reconstruct their past and anticipate their future in strikingly different ways.

Narratives of highly generative people usually contained an orderly sequence of events that the researchers called a commitment story, in which adults give to others as a means of giving back to family, community, and society (McAdams,  2006 ). The generative storyteller typically describes an early special advantage (such as a good family or a talent), along with early awareness of the suffering of others. This clash between blessing and suffering motivates the person to view the self as “called,” or committed, to being good to others. In commitment stories, the theme of redemption is prominent. Highly generative adults frequently describe scenes in which extremely negative life events, involving frustration, failure, loss, or death, are redeemed, or made better, by good outcomes—personal renewal, improvement, and enlightenment.

Consider a story related by Diana, a 49-year-old fourth-grade teacher. Born in a small town to a minister and his wife, Diana was a favorite among the parishioners, who showered her with attention and love. When she was 8, however, her life hit its lowest point: As she looked on in horror, her younger brother ran into the street and was hit by a car; he died later that day. Afterward, Diana, sensing her father’s anguish, tried—unsuccessfully—to be the “son” he had lost. But the scene ends on an upbeat note, with Diana marrying a man who forged a warm bond with her father and who became accepted “as his own son.” One of Diana’s life goals was to improve her teaching, because “I’d like to give something back … to grow and help others grow” (McAdams et al.,  1997 , p. 689). Her interview overflowed with expressions of generative commitment.

Whereas highly generative adults tell stories in which bad scenes turn good, less generative adults relate stories with themes of contamination, in which good scenes turn bad. For example, a good first year of college turns sour when a professor grades unfairly. A young woman loses weight and looks good but can’t overcome her low self-esteem.

Why is generativity connected to life-story redemption events? First, some adults may view their generative activities as a way to redeem negative aspects of their lives. In a study of the life stories of ex-convicts who turned away from crime, many spoke of a strong desire to do good works as penance for their transgressions (Maruna,  2001 ; Maruna, LeBel, & Lanier,  2004 ). Second, generativity seems to entail the conviction that the imperfections of today can be transformed into a better tomorrow. Through guiding and giving to the next generation, mature adults increase the chances that the mistakes of the past will not happen again. Finally, interpreting one’s own life in terms of redemption offers hope that hard work will lead to future benefits—an expectation that may sustain generative efforts of all kinds, from rearing children to advancing communities and societies.

Life stories offer insight into how people imbue their lives with meaning and purpose. Adults high and low in generativity do not differ in the number of positive and negative events included in their narratives. Rather, they interpret those events differently. Commitment stories, filled with redemption, involve a way of thinking about the self that fosters a caring, compassionate approach to others (McAdams & Logan,  2004 ). Such stories help people realize that although their own personal story will someday end, other stories will follow, due in part to their own generative efforts.

The more redemptive events adults include in their life stories, the higher their self-esteem, life satisfaction, and certainty that the challenges of life are meaningful, manageable, and rewarding (Lilgendahl & McAdams,  2011 ; McAdams,  2001 ). Researchers still have much to learn about factors that lead people to view good as emerging from adversity.

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Carlos Arredondo, who lost his older son in the Iraq War and his younger son to suicide, now travels the country, telling the story of how he overcame despair and committed himself to campaigning for peace in his sons’ memory. After the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013, Arredondo, a spectator, leapt into action and rescued this gravely injured bystander.

Finally, compared with Caucasians, African Americans more often engage in certain types of generativity. They are more involved in religious groups and activities, offer more social support to members of their community, and are more likely to view themselves as role models and sources of wisdom for their children (Hart et al.,  2001 ). A life history of strong support from church and extended family may strengthen these generative values and actions. Among Caucasian Americans, religiosity and spirituality are also linked to greater generative activity (Dillon & Wink,  2004 ; Son & Wilson,  2011 ; Wink & Dillon,  2008 ). Highly generative middle-aged adults often indicate that as children and adolescents, they internalized moral values rooted in a religious tradition and sustained their commitment to those values, which provided lifelong encouragement for generative action (McAdams,  2006 ). Especially in individualistic societies, belonging to a religious community or believing in a higher being may help preserve generative commitments.

image8 Other Theories of Psychosocial Development in Midlife

Erikson’s broad sketch of psychosocial change in midlife has been extended by Levinson and Vaillant. Let’s revisit their theories, which were introduced in  Chapter 14 .

Levinson’s Seasons of Life

Return to  page 470  to review Levinson’s eras (seasons of life). His interviews with adults revealed that middle adulthood begins with a transition, during which people evaluate their success in meeting early adulthood goals. Realizing that from now on, more time will lie behind than ahead, they regard the remaining years as increasingly precious. Consequently, some make drastic revisions in their life structure: divorcing, remarrying, changing careers, or displaying enhanced creativity. Others make smaller changes in the context of marital and occupational stability.

· Whether these years bring a gust of wind or a storm, most people turn inward for a time, focusing on personally meaningful living (Neugarten,  1968b ). According to Levinson, to reassess and rebuild their life structure, middle-aged adults must confront four developmental tasks. Each requires the individual to reconcile two opposing tendencies within the self, attaining greater internal harmony.

· ● Young–old: The middle-age person must seek new ways of being both young and old. This means giving up certain youthful qualities, transforming others, and finding positive meaning in being older. Perhaps because of the double standard of aging (see  pages 516 – 517  in  Chapter 15 ), most middle-aged women express concern about appearing less attractive as they grow older (Rossi,  2005 ). But middle-aged men—particularly non-college-educated men, who often hold blue-collar jobs requiring physical strength and stamina—are also highly sensitive to physical aging. In one study, they were more concerned about physical changes than both college- and non-college-educated women, who exceeded college-educated men (Miner-Rubino, Winter, & Stewart,  2004 ).

Compared with previous midlife cohorts, U.S. baby boomers are especially interested in controlling physical changes—a desire that has helped energize a huge industry of anti-aging cosmetic products and medical procedures (Jones, Whitbourne, & Skultety,  2006 ; Lachman,  2004 ). And sustaining a youthful subjective age (feeling younger than one’s actual age) is more strongly related to self-esteem and psychological well-being among American than Western-European middle-aged and older adults (Westerhof & Barrett,  2005 ; Westerhof, Whitbourne, & Freeman,  2012 ). In the more individualistic U.S. context, a youthful self-image seems more important for viewing oneself as self-reliant and capable of planning for an active, fulfilling late adulthood.

· ● Destruction–creation: With greater awareness of mortality, the middle-aged person focuses on ways he or she has acted destructively. Past hurtful acts toward parents, intimate partners, children, friends, and co-workers are countered by a strong desire to participate in activities that advance human welfare and leave a legacy for future generations. The image of a legacy can be satisfied in many ways—through charitable gifts, creative products, volunteer service, or mentoring young people.

· ● Masculinity–femininity: The middle-aged person must create a better balance between masculine and feminine parts of the self. For men, this means greater acceptance of “feminine” traits of nurturance and caring, which enhance close relationships and compassionate exercise of authority in the workplace. For women, it generally means being more open to “masculine” characteristics of autonomy and assertiveness. Recall from  Chapter 8  that people who combine masculine and feminine traits have an androgynous gender identity. Later we will see that androgyny is associated with favorable personality traits and adjustment.

· ● Engagement–separateness: The middle-aged person must forge a better balance between engagement with the external world and separateness. For many men, and for women who have had successful careers, this may mean reducing concern with ambition and achievement and attending more fully to oneself. But women who have been devoted to child rearing or an unfulfilling job often feel compelled to move in the other direction (Levinson,  1996 ). At age 48, Elena left her position as a reporter for a small-town newspaper, pursued an advanced degree in creative writing, accepted a college teaching position, and began writing a novel. Tim, in contrast, recognized his overwhelming desire for a gratifying romantic partnership. By scaling back his own career, he realized he could grant Elena the time and space she needed to build a rewarding work life—and that doing so might deepen their attachment to each other.

People who flexibly modify their identities in response to age-related changes yet maintain a sense of self-continuity are more aware of their own thoughts and feelings and are higher in self-esteem and life satisfaction (Jones, Whitbourne, & Skultety,  2006 ; Sneed et al.,  2012 ). But adjusting one’s life structure to incorporate the effects of aging requires supportive social contexts. When poverty, unemployment, and lack of a respected place in society dominate the life course, energies are directed toward survival rather than realistically approaching age-related changes. And even adults whose jobs are secure and who live in pleasant neighborhoods may find that employment conditions restrict possibilities for growth by placing too much emphasis on productivity and profit and too little on the meaning of work. In her early forties, Trisha left a large law firm, where she felt constant pressure to bring in high-fee clients and received little acknowledgment of her efforts, for a small practice.

Opportunities for advancement ease the transition to middle adulthood. Yet these are far less available to women than to men. Individuals of both sexes in blue-collar jobs also have few possibilities for promotion. Consequently, they make whatever vocational adjustments they can—becoming active union members, shop stewards, or mentors of younger workers (Christensen & Larsen,  2008 ; Levinson,  1978 ). Many men find compensating rewards in moving to the senior generation of their families.

Vaillant’s Adaptation to Life

Whereas Levinson interviewed 35- to 45-year-olds, Vaillant ( 1977 ,  2002 )—in his longitudinal research on well-educated men and women—followed participants past the half-century mark. Recall from  Chapter 14 how adults in their late fifties and sixties extend their generativity, becoming “keepers of meaning,” or guardians of their culture (see  page 471 ). Vaillant reported that the most-successful and best-adjusted entered a calmer, quieter time of life. “Passing the torch”—concern that the positive aspects of their culture survive—became a major preoccupation.

In societies around the world, older people are guardians of traditions, laws, and cultural values. This stabilizing force holds in check too-rapid change sparked by the questioning and challenging of adolescents and young adults. As people approach the end of middle age, they focus on longer-term, less-personal goals, such as the state of human relations in their society. And they become more philosophical, accepting the fact that not all problems can be solved in their lifetime.

Is There a Midlife Crisis?

Levinson ( 1978 ,  1996 ) reported that most men and women in his samples experienced substantial inner turmoil during the transition to middle adulthood. Yet Vaillant ( 1977 ,  2002 ) saw few examples of crisis but, rather, slow and steady change. These contrasting findings raise the question of how much personal upheaval actually accompanies entry to midlife. Are self-doubt and stress especially great during the forties, and do they prompt major restructuring of the personality, as the term  midlife crisis  implies?

Consider the reactions of Trisha, Devin, Jewel, Tim, and Elena to middle adulthood. Trisha and Devin moved easily into this period, whereas Jewel, Tim, and Elena engaged in greater questioning of their situations and sought alternative life paths. Clearly, wide individual differences exist in response to mid-life.  TAKE A MOMENT…  Now ask several individuals in their twenties and thirties whether they expect to encounter a midlife crisis between ages 40 and 50. You are likely to find that Americans often anticipate it, perhaps because of culturally induced apprehension of aging (Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley,  2004 ). Yet little evidence supports this view of middle age as a turbulent time.

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Like many midlifers, elementary school teacher Jaime Malwitz modified his career in ways that resemble a turning point, not a crisis. He designed a scientist-in-residence program for elementary schools. Here he serves as a resident physicist, discussing a density experiment with a fifth grader.

When MIDUS participants were asked to describe “turning points” (major changes in the way they felt about an important aspect of their lives) that had occurred during the past five years, most of the ones reported concerned work. Women’s work-related turning points peaked in early adulthood, when many adjusted their work lives to accommodate marriage and childrearing (see  Chapter 14 ). The peak for men, in contrast, came at midlife, a time of increased career responsibility and advancement. Other common turning points in early and middle adulthood were positive: They involved fulfilling a dream and learning something good about oneself (Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley,  2004 ). Overall, turning points rarely resembled midlife crises. Even negative work-related turning points generally led to personal growth—for example, a layoff that sparked a positive career change or a shift in energy from career to personal life.

Asked directly if they had ever experienced something they would consider a midlife crisis, only one-fourth of the MIDUS respondents said yes. And they defined such events much more loosely than researchers do. Some reported a crisis well before age 40, others well after age 50. And most attributed it not to age but rather to challenging life events (Wethington,  2000 ). Consistent with this view, Elena had considered both a divorce and a new career long before she initiated these changes. In her thirties, she separated from her husband; later she reconciled with him and told him that she desired to return to school, which he firmly opposed. She put her own life on hold because of her daughter’s academic and emotional difficulties and her husband’s resistance.

Another way of exploring midlife questioning is to ask adults about life regrets—attractive opportunities for career or other life-changing activities they did not pursue or lifestyle changes they did not make. In two investigations of women in their early forties, those who acknowledged regret without making life changes, compared to those who modified their lives, reported less favorable psychological well-being and poorer physical health over time (Landman et al.,  1995 ; Stewart & Vandewater,  1999 ). The two groups did not differ in social or financial resources available to effect change. Rather, they differed in personality: Those who made changes were higher in confidence and assertiveness.

By late midlife, with less time ahead to make life changes, people’s interpretation of regrets plays a major role in their well-being. Mature, contented adults acknowledge a past characterized by some losses, have thought deeply about them, and feel stronger because of them. At the same time, they are able to disengage from them, investing in current, personally rewarding goals (King & Hicks,  2007 ). Among a sample of several hundred 60- to 65-year-olds diverse in SES, about half expressed at least one regret. Compared to those who had not resolved their disappointments, those who had come to terms with them (accepted and identified some eventual benefits) or had “put the best face on things” (identified benefits but still had some lingering regret) reported better physical health and greater life satisfaction (Torges, Stewart, & Miner-Rubino,  2005 ).

In sum, life evaluation is common during middle age. Most people make changes that are best described as turning points rather than drastic alterations of their lives. Those who cannot modify their life paths often look for the “silver lining” in life’s difficulties (King & Hicks,  2007 ; Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley,  2004 ). The few midlifers who are in crisis typically have had early adulthoods in which gender roles, family pressures, or low income and poverty severely limited their ability to fulfill personal needs and goals, at home or in the wider world.

Stage or Life Events Approach

That crisis and major restructuring in midlife are rare raises, once again, a question we considered in  Chapter 14 : Can adult psychosocial changes can be organized into stages, as Erikson’s, Levinson’s, and Vaillant’s theories indicate? A growing number of researchers believe the midadult transition is not stagelike (Freund & Ritter,  2009 ; McCrae & Costa,  2003 ; Srivastava et al.,  2003 ). Some regard it as simply an adaptation to normative life events, such as children growing up, reaching the crest of a career, and impending retirement.

Yet recall from earlier chapters that life events are no longer as age-graded as they were in the past. Their timing is so variable that they cannot be the sole cause of midlife change. Furthermore, in several studies, people were asked to trace their thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and hopes during early and middle adulthood. Psychosocial change, in terms of personal disruption followed by reassessment, coincided with both family life cycle events and chronological age. For this reason, most experts regard adaptation during midlife as the combined result of growing older and social experiences (Lachman,  2004 ; Sneed, Whitbourne, & Culang,  2006 ).  TAKE A MOMENT…  Return to our discussion of generativity and the midlife transition on  page 533 , and notice how both factors are involved.

Finally, in describing their lives, the large majority of middle-aged people report troubling moments that prompt new understandings and goals. As we look closely at emotional and social development in middle adulthood, we will see that this period, like others, is characterized by both continuity and change. Debate persists over whether midlife psychosocial changes are stagelike. With this in mind, let’s turn to the diverse inner concerns and outer experiences that contribute to psychological well-being and decision making in midlife.

ASK YOURSELF

REVIEW What personal and cultural forces motivate generativity? Why does it increase and contribute vitally to favorable adjustment in midlife?

CONNECT How might the approach of many middle-aged adults to handling life regrets prevent the occurrence of midlife crises?

APPLY After years of experiencing little personal growth at work, 42-year-old Mel looked for a new job and received an attractive offer in another city. Although he felt torn between leaving close friends and pursuing a long-awaited career opportunity, after several weeks of soul searching, he took the new job. Was Mel’s dilemma a midlife crisis? Why or why not?

REFLECT Think of a middle-aged adult whom you admire. Describe the various ways that individual expresses generativity.

image10 Stability and Change in Self-Concept and Personality

Midlife changes in self-concept and personality reflect growing awareness of a finite lifespan, longer life experience, and generative concerns. Yet certain aspects of personality remain stable, revealing the persistence of individual differences established during earlier periods.

Possible Selves

On a business trip, Jewel found a spare afternoon to visit Trisha. Sitting in a coffee shop, the two women reminisced about the past and thought aloud about the future. “It’s been tough living on my own and building the business,” Jewel said. “What I hope for is to become better at my work, to be more community-oriented, and to stay healthy and available to my friends. Of course, I would rather not grow old alone, but if I don’t find that special person, I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that I’ll never have to face divorce or widowhood.”

Jewel is discussing  possible selves,  future-oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one is afraid of becoming. Possible selves are the temporal dimension of self-concept—what the individual is striving for and attempting to avoid. To lifespan researchers, these hopes and fears are just as vital in explaining behavior as people’s views of their current characteristics. Indeed, possible selves may be an especially strong motivator of action in midlife, as adults attach increased meaning to time (Frazier & Hooker,  2006 ). As we age, we may rely less on social comparisons in judging our self-worth and more on temporal comparisons—how well we are doing in relation to what we had planned.

Throughout adulthood, the personality traits people assign to their current selves show considerable stability. A 30-year-old who says he is cooperative, competent, outgoing, or successful is likely to report a similar picture at a later age. But reports of possible selves change greatly. Adults in their early twenties mention many possible selves, and their visions are lofty and idealistic—being “perfectly happy,” “rich and famous,” “healthy throughout life,” and not being “down and out” or “a person who does nothing important.” With age, possible selves become fewer in number and more modest and concrete. Most middle-aged people no longer desire to be the best or the most successful. Instead, they are largely concerned with performance of roles and responsibilities already begun—“being competent at work,” “being a good husband and father,” “putting my children through the colleges of their choice,” “staying healthy,” and not being “a burden to my family” or “without enough money to meet my daily needs” (Bybee & Wells,  2003 ; Cross & Markus,  1991 ; Ryff,  1991 ).

What explains these shifts in possible selves? Because the future no longer holds limitless opportunities, adults preserve mental health by adjusting their hopes and fears. To stay motivated, they must maintain a sense of unachieved possibility, yet they must still manage to feel good about themselves and their lives despite disappointments (Lachman & Bertrand,  2002 ). For example, Jewel no longer desired to be an executive in a large company, as she had in her twenties. Instead, she wanted to grow in her current occupation. And although she feared loneliness in old age, she reminded herself that marriage can lead to equally negative outcomes, such as divorce and widowhood—possibilities that made not having attained an important interpersonal goal easier to bear.

Unlike current self-concept, which is constantly responsive to others’ feedback, possible selves (though influenced by others) can be defined and redefined by the individual, as needed. Consequently, they permit affirmation of the self, even when things are not going well (Bolkan & Hooker,  2012 ). Researchers believe that possible selves may be the key to continued well-being in adulthood, as people revise these future images to achieve a better match between desired and achieved goals. Many studies reveal that the self-esteem of middle-aged and older individuals equals or surpasses that of younger people, perhaps because of the protective role of possible selves (Robins & Trzesniewski,  2005 ).

Self-Acceptance, Autonomy, and Environmental Mastery

An evolving mix of competencies and experiences leads to changes in certain aspects of personality during middle adulthood. In  Chapter 15 , we noted that midlife brings gains in expertise and practical problem solving. Middle-aged adults also offer more complex, integrated descriptions of themselves than do younger and older individuals (Labouvie-Vief,  2003 ). Furthermore, midlife is typically a period in which the number of social roles peaks—spouse, parent, worker, and engaged community member. And status at work and in the community typically rises, as adults take advantage of opportunities for leadership and other complex responsibilities (Helson, Soto, & Cate,  2006 ).

· These changes in cognition and breadth of roles undoubtedly contribute to other gains in personal functioning. In research on adults ranging in age from the late teens into the seventies, and in cultures as distinct as the United States and Japan, three qualities increased from early to middle adulthood:

· ● Self-acceptance: More than young adults, middle-aged people acknowledged and accepted both their good and bad qualities and felt positively about themselves and life.

· ● Autonomy: Middle-aged adults saw themselves as less concerned about others’ expectations and evaluations and more concerned with following self-chosen standards.

· ● Environmental mastery: Middle-aged people saw themselves as capable of managing a complex array of tasks easily and effectively (Karasawa et al.,  2011 ; Ryff & Keyes,  1995 ).

As these findings indicate, midlife is generally a time of increased comfort with the self, independence, assertiveness, commitment to personal values, and life satisfaction (Helson, Jones, & Kwan,  2002 ; Keyes, Shmotkin, & Ryff,  2002 ; Stone et al.,  2010 ). Perhaps because of this rise in overall psychological well-being, middle age is sometimes referred to as “the prime of life.”

At the same time, factors contributing to psychological well-being differ substantially among cohorts, as self-reports gathered from 25- to 65-year-old MIDUS survey respondents reveal (Carr,  2004 ). Among women who were born during the baby-boom years or later, and who thus benefited from the women’s movement, balancing career with family predicted greater self-acceptance and environmental mastery. But also consider that women born before or during World War II who sacrificed career to focus on child rearing—expected of young mothers in the 1950s and 1960s—were similarly advantaged in self-acceptance. Likewise, men who were in step with prevailing social expectations scored higher in well-being. Baby-boom and younger men who modified their work schedules to make room for family responsibilities—who fit their cohort’s image of the “good father”—were more self-accepting. But older men who made this accommodation scored much lower in self-acceptance than those who focused on work and thus conformed to the “good provider” ideal of their times. (See the Biology and Environment box on  pages 540 – 541  for additional influences on midlife psychological well-being.)

Notions of happiness, however, vary among cultures. In comparisons of Japanese and Korean adults with same-age U.S. MIDUS participants, the Japanese and Koreans reported lower levels of psychological well-being, largely because they were less willing than the Americans to endorse individualistic traits, such as self-acceptance and autonomy, as characteristic of themselves (Karasawa et al.,  2011 ; Keyes & Ryff,  1998b ). Consistent with their collectivist orientation, Japanese and Koreans’ highest well-being scores were on positive relations with others. The Korean participants clarified that they viewed personal fulfillment as achieved through family, especially the success of children. Americans also regarded family relations as relevant to well-being but placed greater emphasis on their own traits and accomplishments than on their children’s.

Coping with Daily Stressors

In  Chapter 15 , we discussed the importance of stress management in preventing illness. It is also vital for psychological well-being. In a MIDUS satellite study in which more than 1,000 participants were interviewed on eight consecutive evenings, researchers found an early- to mid-adulthood plateau in frequency of daily stressors, followed by a decline as work and family responsibilities ease and leisure time increases (see  Figure 16.2 ) (Almeida & Horn,  2004 ). Women reported more frequent role overload (conflict among roles of employee, spouse, parent, and caregiver of an aging parent) and family-network and child-related stressors, men more work-related stressors, but both genders experienced all varieties. Compared with older people, young and midlife adults also perceived their stressors as more disruptive and unpleasant, perhaps because they often experienced several at once, and many involved financial risks and children.

But recall, also, from  Chapter 15  that midlife brings an increase in effective coping strategies. Middle-aged individuals are more likely to identify the positive side of difficult situations, postpone action to permit evaluation of alternatives, anticipate and plan ways to handle future discomforts, and use humor to express ideas and feelings without offending others (Diehl, Coyle, & Labouvie-Vief,  1996 ). Notice how these efforts flexibly draw on both problem-centered and emotion-centered strategies.

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FIGURE 16.2 Age-related changes in daily stressors among men and women.

In a MIDUS satellite study, researchers interviewed more than 1,000 adults on eight consecutive evenings. Findings revealed an early- to mid-adulthood plateau, followed by a decline as work and family responsibilities ease and leisure time increases.

(From D. M. Almeida & M. C. Horn, 2004, “Is Daily Life More Stressful During Middle Adulthood?” in O. G. Brim, C. D. Ruff, and R. C. Kessler [Eds.], How Healthy Are We? A National Study of Well-Being at Midlife. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, p. 438. Adapted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.)

Why might effective coping increase in middle adulthood? Other personality changes seem to support it. Complex, integrated, coherent self-descriptions—which increase in midlife, indicating an improved ability to blend strengths and weaknesses into an organized picture—predict a stronger sense of personal control over outcomes and good coping strategies (Hay & Diehl,  2010 ; Labouvie-Vief & Diehl,  2000 ). Midlife gains in emotional stability and confidence in handling life’s problems may also contribute (Roberts et al.,  2007 ; Roberts & Mroczek,  2008 ). These attributes predict work and relationship effectiveness—outcomes that reflect the sophisticated, flexible coping of middle age.

Gender Identity

In her forties and early fifties, Trisha appeared more assertive at work. She spoke out more freely at meetings and took a leadership role when a team of lawyers worked on an especially complex case. She was also more dominant in family relationships, expressing her opinions to her husband and son more readily than she had 10 or 15 years earlier. In contrast, Devin’s sense of empathy and caring became more apparent, and he was less assertive and more accommodating to Trisha’s wishes than before.

Many studies report an increase in “masculine” traits in women and “feminine” traits in men across middle age (Huyck,  1990 ; James et al.,  1995 ). Women become more confident, self-sufficient, and forceful, men more emotionally sensitive, caring, considerate, and dependent. These trends appear in cross-sectional and longitudinal research, in people varying in SES, and in diverse cultures—not just Western industrialized nations but also village societies such as the Maya of Guatemala, the Navajo of the United States, and the Druze of the Middle East (Fry,  1985 ; Gutmann,  1977 ; Turner,  1982 ). Consistent with Levinson’s theory, gender identity in midlife becomes more androgynous—a mixture of “masculine” and “feminine” characteristics.

Although the existence of these changes is well-accepted, explanations for them are controversial. A well-known evolutionary view,  parental imperative theory , holds that identification with traditional gender roles is maintained during the active parenting years to help ensure the survival of children. Men become more goal-oriented, while women emphasize nurturance (Gutmann & Huyck,  1994 ). After children reach adulthood, parents are free to express the “other-gender” side of their personalities.

Biology and environment What Factors Promote Psychological Well-Being in Midlife?

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These yoga students express a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Maintaining an exercise regimen contributes greatly to midlife psychological well-being.

For Trisha and Devin, midlife brought contentment and high life satisfaction. But the road to happiness was rockier for Jewel, Tim, and Elena. What factors contribute to individual differences in psychological well-being at midlife? Consistent with the lifespan perspective, biological, psychological, and social forces are involved, and their effects are interwoven.

Good Health and Exercise

Good health affects energy and zest for life at any age. But during middle and late adulthood, taking steps to improve health and prevent disability becomes a better predictor of psychological well-being. Many studies confirm that engaging in regular exercise—walking, dancing, jogging, or swimming—is more strongly associated with self-rated health and a positive outlook in older than in younger adults (Bherer,  2012 ). Middle-aged people who maintain an exercise regimen are likely to perceive themselves as particularly active for their age and, therefore, to feel a special sense of accomplishment (Netz et al.,  2005 ). In addition, physical activity enhances self-efficacy and effective stress management (see  page 515 in  Chapter 15 ).

Sense of Control and Personal Life Investment

Middle-aged adults who report a high sense of control over events in various aspects of their lives—health, family, and work—also report more favorable psychological well-being. Sense of control contributes further to self-efficacy. It also predicts use of more effective coping strategies, including seeking of social support, and thereby helps sustain a positive outlook in the face of health, family, and work difficulties (Lachman, Neupert, & Agrigoroaei,  2011 ).

Personal life investment—firm commitment to goals and involvement in pursuit of those goals—also adds to mental health and life satisfaction (Staudinger & Bowen,  2010 ). According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a vital wellspring of happiness is flow—the psychological state of being so engrossed in a demanding, meaningful activity that one loses all sense of time and self-awareness. People describe flow as the height of enjoyment, even as an ecstatic state. The more people experience flow, the more they judge their lives to be gratifying (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi,  2009 ). Although flow is common in people engaged in creative endeavors, many others report it—students who love studying, employees who like their jobs, adults involved in challenging leisure pursuits, and parents and grandparents engaged in pleasurable learning activities with children. Flow depends on perseverance and skill at complex endeavors that offer potential for growth. These qualities are well-developed in middle adulthood.

Positive Social Relationships

Developing gratifying social ties is closely linked to midlife psychological well-being. In a survey of college alumni, those who preferred occupational prestige and high income to close friends were twice as likely as other respondents to describe themselves as “fairly” or “very” unhappy (Perkins,  1991 , as cited by Myers,  2000 ).

Supportive relationships, especially with friends and relatives, improve mental health by promoting positive emotions and protecting against stress (Fiori, Antonucci, & Cortina,  2006 ; Powdthavee,  2008 ). Enjoyable social ties can even strengthen the impact of an exercise regimen on well-being. Among an ethnically diverse sample of women using a private gym or an African Caribbean community center, exercising with likeminded companions contributed to their happiness and life satisfaction (Wray,  2007 ). The social side of going to the gym appeared especially important to minority women, who were less concerned with physical-appearance benefits than their Caucasian agemates.

A Good Marriage

Although friendships are important, a good marriage boosts psychological well-being even more. The role of marriage in mental health increases with age, becoming a powerful predictor by late midlife (Marks, Bumpass, & Jun,  2004 ; Marks & Greenfield,  2009 ).

Longitudinal studies tracking people as they move in and out of intimate relationships suggest that marriage actually brings about well-being. For example, when interviews with over 13,000 U.S. adults were repeated five years later, people who remained married reported greater happiness than those who remained single. Those who separated or divorced became less happy, reporting considerable depression (Marks & Lambert,  1998 ). Couples who married for the first time experienced a sharp increase in happiness, those who entered their second marriage a modest increase.

Although not everyone is better off married, the link between marriage and well-being is similar in many nations, suggesting that marriage changes people’s behavior in ways that make them better off (Diener et al.,  2000 ; Lansford et al.,  2005 ). Married partners monitor each other’s health and offer care in times of illness. They also earn and save more money than single people, and higher income is modestly linked to psychological well-being (Myers,  2000 ; Waite,  1999 ). Furthermore, sexual satisfaction predicts mental health, and married couples have more satisfying sex lives than singles (see  Chapter 13 ).

Mastery of Multiple Roles

Finally, success in handling multiple roles—spouse, parent, worker, community volunteer—is linked to psychological well-being. In the MIDUS survey, as role involvement increased, both men and women reported greater environmental mastery, more rewarding social relationships, heightened sense of purpose in life, and more positive emotion. Furthermore, adults who occupied multiple roles and who also reported high control (suggesting effective role management) scored especially high in well-being—an outcome that was stronger for less-educated adults (Ahrens & Ryff,  2006 ). Control over roles may be vital for individuals with lower educational attainment, whose role combinations may be particularly stressful and who have fewer economic resources.

Finally, among nonfamily roles, community volunteering in the latter part of midlife contributes uniquely to psychological well-being (Choi & Kim,  2011 ; Ryff et al.,  2012 ). It may do so by strengthening self-efficacy, generativity, and altruism.

But this biological account has been criticized. As we discussed in earlier chapters, parents need both warmth and assertiveness (in the form of firmness and consistency) to rear children effectively. And although children’s departure from the home is related to men’s openness to the “feminine” side of their personalities, the link to a rise in “masculine” traits among women is less apparent (Huyck,  1996 ,  1998 ). In longitudinal research, college-educated women in the labor force became more independent by their early forties, regardless of whether they had children; those who were homemakers did not. Women attaining high status at work gained most in dominance, assertiveness, and outspokenness by their early fifties (Helson & Picano,  1990 ; Wink & Helson,  1993 ). Furthermore, cohort effects can contribute to this trend: In one study, middle-aged women of the baby-boom generation—who experienced new career opportunities as a result of the women’s movement—more often described themselves as having masculine and androgynous traits than did older women (Strough et al.,  2007 ).

Additional demands of midlife may prompt a more androgynous orientation. For example, among men, a need to enrich a marital relationship after children have departed, along with reduced chances for career advancement, may be involved in the awakening of emotionally sensitive traits. Compared with men, women are far more likely to face economic and social disadvantages. A greater number remain divorced, are widowed, and encounter discrimination in the workplace. Self-reliance and assertiveness are vital for coping with these circumstances.

In sum, androgyny in midlife results from a complex combination of social roles and life conditions. In  Chapter 8 , we noted that androgyny predicts high self-esteem. In adulthood, it is also associated with cognitive flexibility, creativity, advanced moral reasoning, and psychosocial maturity (Prager & Bailey,  1985 ; Runco, Cramond, & Pagnani,  2010 ; Waterman & Whitbourne,  1982 ). People who integrate the masculine and feminine sides of their personalities tend to be psychologically healthier, perhaps because they are able to adapt more easily to the challenges of aging.

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In middle age, gender identity becomes more androgynous for both sexes. Men tend to show an increase in “feminine” traits, becoming more emotionally sensitive, caring, considerate, and dependent.

Individual Differences in Personality Traits

Although Trisha and Jewel both became more self-assured and assertive in midlife, in other respects they differed. Trisha had always been more organized and hard-working, Jewel more gregarious and fun-loving. Once, the two women traveled together. At the end of each day, Trisha was disappointed if she had not kept to a schedule and visited every tourist attraction. Jewel liked to “play it by ear”—wandering through streets and stopping to talk with shopkeepers and residents.

In previous sections, we considered personality changes common to many middle-aged adults, but stable individual differences also exist. Through factor analysis of self-report ratings, the hundreds of personality traits on which people differ have been reduced to five basic factors, often referred to as the  “big five” personality traits:  neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.  Table 16.1  provides a description of each. Notice that Trisha is high in conscientiousness, whereas Jewel is high in extroversion.

Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of U.S. men and women reveal that agreeableness and conscientiousness increase from the teenage years through middle age, whereas neuroticism declines, and extroversion and openness to experience do not change or decrease slightly—changes that reflect “settling down” and greater maturity. Similar trends have been identified in more than fifty countries varying widely in cultural traditions, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and South Korea (McCrae & Costa,  2006 ; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer,  2006 ; Schmitt et al.,  2007 ; Soto et al.,  2011 ; Srivastava et al.,  2003 ). The consistency of these cross-cultural findings has led some researchers to conclude that adult personality change is genetically influenced. They note that individual differences in the “big five” traits are large and highly stable: A person who scores high or low at one age is likely to do the same at another, over intervals ranging from 3 to 30 years (McCrae & Costa,  2006 ).

TABlE 16.1 The “Big Five” Personality Traits

TRAIT DESCRIPTION
Neuroticism Individuals who are high on this trait are worrying, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable.
Extroversion Individuals who are high on this trait are affectionate, talkative, active, fun-loving, and passionate. Individuals 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, uncurious, 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, punctual, ambitious, and persevering. Individuals who are low are negligent, lazy, disorganized, late, aimless, and nonpersistent.

Source: McCrae, 2011; McCrae & Costa, 2006.

How can there be high stability in personality traits, yet significant changes in aspects of personality discussed earlier? Studies of the “big five” traits include very large samples and typically do not examine the impact of a host of contextual factors—including life events, the social clock, and cultural values—that shape aspirations, goals, and expectations for appropriate behavior (Caspi & Roberts,  2001 ). Look closely at the traits in  Table 16.1 , and you will see that they differ from the attributes considered in previous sections: They do not take into account motivations, preferred tasks, and coping styles, nor do they consider how certain aspects of personality, such as masculinity and femininity, are integrated. Theorists concerned with change due to experience focus on how personal needs and life events induce new strategies and goals; their interest is in “the human being as a complex adaptive system” (Block,  1995 ,  2011 , p. 19). In contrast, those who emphasize stability due to heredity measure personality traits on which individuals can easily be compared and that are present at any time of life.

To resolve this apparent contradiction, we can think of adults as changing in overall organization and integration of personality but doing so on a foundation of basic, enduring dispositions that support a coherent sense of self as people adapt to changing life circumstances. When more than 2,000 individuals in their forties were asked to reflect on their personalities during the previous six years, 52 percent said they had “stayed the same,” 39 percent said they had “changed a little,” and 9 percent said they had “changed a lot” (Herbst et al.,  2000 ). Again, these findings contradict a view of middle adulthood as a period of great turmoil and change. But they also underscore that personality remains an “open system,” responsive to the pressures of life experiences. Indeed, certain midlife personality changes may strengthen trait consistency! Improved self-understanding, self-acceptance, and skill at handling challenging situations may result in less need to modify basic personality dispositions over time.

ASK YOURSELF

REVIEW Summarize personality changes at midlife. How can these changes be reconciled with increasing stability of the “big five” personality traits?

CONNECT List cognitive gains that typically occur during middle adulthood. (See  Chapter 15 ,  pages 518 – 519  and  524 – 525 .) How might they support midlife personality changes?

APPLY Jeff, age 46, suggested to his wife, Julia, that they set aside time once a year to discuss their relationship—both positive aspects and ways to improve. Julia was surprised because Jeff had never before expressed interest in working on their marriage. What midlife developments probably fostered this new concern?

REFLECT List your hoped-for and feared possible selves. Then ask family members in early and middle adulthood to do the same. Are their reports consistent with age-related research findings? Explain.

image14 Relationships at Midlife

The emotional and social changes of midlife take place within a complex web of family relationships and friendships and an intensified personal focus on generative concerns. Although some middle-aged people live alone, the vast majority—87 percent in the United States—live in families, most with a spouse (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). Partly because they have ties to older and younger generations in their families and partly because their friendships are well-established, people tend to have a larger number of close relationships during midlife than at any other period (Antonucci, Akiyama, & Takahashi,  2004 ).

The middle adulthood phase of the family life cycle is often referred to as “launching children and moving on.” In the past, it was called the “empty nest,” but this phrase implies a negative transition, especially for women who have devoted themselves entirely to their children and for whom the end of active parenting can trigger feelings of emptiness and regret. But for most people, middle adulthood is a liberating time, offering a sense of completion and opportunities to strengthen social ties and rekindle interests.

As our discussion in  Chapter 14  revealed, increasing numbers of young adults are living at home because of tight job markets and financial challenges, yielding launch–return–relaunch patterns for many middle-aged parents. Still, a declining birthrate and longer life expectancy mean that many contemporary parents do launch children a decade or more before retirement and then turn to other rewarding activities. As adult children depart and marry, middle-aged parents must adapt to new roles of parent-in-law and grandparent. At the same time, they must establish a different type of relationship with their aging parents, who may become ill or infirm and die.

Middle adulthood is marked by the greatest number of exits and entries of family members. Let’s see how ties within and beyond the family change during this time of life.

Marriage and Divorce

Although not all couples are financially comfortable, middle-aged households are well-off economically compared with other age groups. Americans between 45 and 54 have the highest average annual income. And the baby boomers—more of whom have earned college and postgraduate degrees and live in dual-earner families—are financially better off than previous midlife generations (Eggebeen & Sturgeon,  2006 ; U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). Partly because of increased education and financial security, the contemporary social view of marriage in midlife is one of expansion and new horizons.

These forces strengthen the need to review and adjust the marital relationship. For Devin and Trisha, this shift was gradual. By middle age, their marriage had permitted satisfaction of family and individual needs, endured many changes, and culminated in deeper feelings of love. Elena’s marriage, in contrast, became more conflict-ridden as her teenage daughter’s problems introduced added strains and as departure of children made marital difficulties more obvious. Tim’s failed marriage revealed yet another pattern. With passing years, the number of problems declined, but so did the love expressed (Rokach, Cohen, & Dreman,  2004 ). As less happened in the relationship, good or bad, the couple had little to keep them together.

As the Biology and Environment box on  pages 540 – 541  revealed, marital satisfaction is a strong predictor of midlife psychological well-being. Middle-aged men who have focused only on career often realize the limited nature of their pursuits. At the same time, women may insist on a more gratifying relationship. And children fully engaged in adult roles remind middle-aged parents that they are in the latter part of their lives, prompting many to decide that the time for improving their marriages is now (Berman & Napier,  2000 ).

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For many middle-aged couples, having forged a relationship that permits satisfaction of both family and individual needs results in deep feelings of love.

As in early adulthood, divorce is one way of resolving an unsatisfactory marriage in midlife. The divorce rate of U.S. 50-to 65-year-olds has doubled over the past two decades (Brown & Lin,  2012 ). Divorce at any age takes a heavy psychological toll, but midlifers seem to adapt more easily than younger people. A survey of more than 13,000 Americans revealed that following divorce, middle-aged men and women reported less decline in psychological well-being than their younger counterparts (Marks & Lambert,  1998 ). Midlife gains in practical problem solving and effective coping strategies may reduce the stressful impact of divorce.

Because the divorce rate is more than twice as great among remarried couples as among those in first marriages, about half of midlife divorces involve people who have had one or more previous unsuccessful marriages. Highly educated middle-aged adults are more likely to divorce, probably because their more comfortable economic circumstances make it easier to leave an unhappy marriage (Skaff,  2006 ). Nevertheless, for many women, marital breakup—especially when it is repeated—severely reduces standard of living (see  page 347  in  Chapter 10 ). For this reason, in midlife and earlier, it is a strong contributor to the  feminization of poverty —a trend in which women who support themselves or their families have become the majority of the adult population living in poverty, regardless of age and ethnic group. Because of weak public policies safeguarding families (see  Chapter 2 ), the gender gap in poverty is higher in the United States than in other Western industrialized nations (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ).

What do recently divorced middle-aged people say about why their marriages ended? Women frequently mention communication problems, inequality in the relationship, adultery, gradual distancing, substance abuse, physical and verbal abuse, or their own desire for autonomy. Men also bring up poor communication and sometimes admit that their “workaholic” lifestyle or emotional inattentiveness played a major role in their marital failure. Women are more likely than men to initiate divorce, and those who do fare somewhat better in psychological well-being. Men who initiate a split often already have another romantic involvement to turn to (Rokach, Cohen, & Dreman,  2004 ; Sakraida,  2005 ; Schneller & Arditti,  2004 ).

Longitudinal evidence reveals that middle-aged women who weather divorce successfully tend to become more tolerant, comfortable with uncertainty, nonconforming, and self-reliant in personality—factors believed to be fostered by divorce-forced independence. And both men and women reevaluate what they consider important in a healthy relationship, placing greater weight on equal friendship and less on passionate love than they had the first time. As in earlier periods, divorce represents both a time of trauma and a time of growth (Baum, Rahav, & Sharon,  2005 ; Schneller & Arditti,  2004 ). Little is known about long-term adjustment following divorce among middle-aged men, perhaps because most enter new relationships and remarry within a short time.

Changing Parent–Child Relationships

Parents’ positive relationships with their grown children are the result of a gradual process of “letting go,” starting in childhood, gaining momentum in adolescence, and culminating in children’s independent living. As noted earlier, most parents “launch” adult children sometime in midlife. But because more people are delaying having children to their thirties and even forties (see  page 438  in  Chapter 13 ), the age at which midlifers experience their children’s departure varies widely. Most parents adjust well; only a minority have difficulty (Mitchell & Lovegreen,  2009 ). Investment in nonparental relationships and roles, children’s characteristics, parents’ marital and economic circumstances, and cultural forces affect the extent to which this transition is expansive and rewarding or sad and distressing.

After their son Mark secured a career-entry job and moved out of the family home permanently, Devin and Trisha felt a twinge of nostalgia combined with a sense of pride in their grown son’s maturity and success. Beyond this, they returned to rewarding careers and community participation and delighted in having more time for each other. Parents who have developed gratifying alternative activities typically welcome their children’s adult status (Mitchell & Lovegreen,  2009 ). A strong work orientation, especially, predicts gains in life satisfaction after children depart from the home (Silverberg,  1996 ).

Wide cultural variations exist in the social clock for children’s departure. Recall from  Chapter 13  that many young people from low-SES homes and with cultural traditions of extended-family living do not leave home early. In the Southern European countries of Greece, Italy, and Spain, parents often actively delay their children’s leaving. In Italy, for example, parents believe that moving out without a “justified” reason signifies that something is wrong in the family. Hence, many more Italian young adults reside with their parents until marriage than in other Western nations. At the same time, Italian adults grant their grown children extensive freedom within the parental home (Rusconi,  2004 ). Parent–adult-child relationships are usually positive, making living with parents attractive.

With the end of parent–child coresidence comes a substantial decline in parental authority. Devin and Trisha no longer knew of Mark’s daily comings and goings or expected him to inform them. Nevertheless, Mark telephoned at regular intervals to report on events in his life and seek advice about major decisions. Although the parental role changes, its continuation is important to middle-aged adults. Departure of children is a relatively minor event as long as parent–child contact and affection are sustained (Mitchell & Lovegreen,  2009 ). When it results in little or no communication, parents’ psychological well-being declines.

Whether or not they reside with parents, adolescent and young-adult children who are “off-time” in development—who deviate from parental expectations about how the path to adult responsibilities should unfold—can prompt parental strain (Pillemer & Suitor,  2002 ; Settersten,  2003 ). Consider Elena, whose daughter was doing poorly in her college courses and in danger of not graduating. The need for extensive parental guidance, at a time when she expected her daughter to be more responsible and independent, caused anxiety and unhappiness for Elena, who was ready to reduce time devoted to active parenting.

In one study, researchers asked a large sample of 40-to 60-year-old parents to report on their grown children’s problems and successes along with their own psychological well-being. Consistent with the familiar saying, “parents are only as happy as their least happy child,” having even one problematic child dampened parents’ well-being, but having a successful child did not have a compensating positive effect. The more grown children with problems, the poorer parents’ well-being. In contrast, it took multiple successful grown children to sway parents’ well-being in a favorable direction (Fingerman et al.,  2012a ). As with marriages, negative, conflict-ridden experiences with grown children are particularly salient, profoundly affecting midlife parents’ psychological states.

Throughout middle adulthood, parents continue to give more assistance to children than they receive, especially while children are unmarried or when they face difficulties, such as marital breakup or unemployment (Ploeg et al.,  2004 ; Zarit & Eggebeen,  2002 ). Support in Western countries typically flows “downstream”: Although ethnic variations exist, most middle-aged parents provide more financial, practical, emotional, and social support to their offspring than to their aging parents, unless a parent has an urgent need (declining health or other crises) (Fingerman & Birditt,  2011 ; Fingerman et al.,  2011a ). In explaining their generous support of adult children, parents usually mention the importance of the relationship. And providing adult children with assistance enhances midlife psychological well-being (Marks & Greenfield,  2009 ). Clearly, middle-aged adults remain invested in their adult children’s development and continue to reap deep personal rewards from the parental role.

When children marry, parents must adjust to an enlarged family network that includes in-laws. Difficulties occur when parents do not approve of their child’s partner or when the young couple adopts a way of life inconsistent with parents’ values. Parents who take steps to forge a positive tie with a future daughter- or son-in-law generally experience a closer relationship after the couple marries (Fingerman et al.,  2012b ). And when warm, supportive relationships endure, intimacy between parents and children increases over the adult years, with great benefits for parents’ life satisfaction (Ryff, Singer, & Seltzer,  2002 ). Members of the middle generation, especially mothers, usually take on the role of  kinkeeper, gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch.

Parents of adult children expect a mature relationship, marked by tranquility and contentment. Yet many factors—on both the child’s and the parent’s side—affect whether that goal is achieved. Applying What We Know on  page 546  suggests ways middle-aged parents can increase the chances that bonds with adult children will be loving and rewarding and serve as contexts for personal growth.

Grandparenthood

Two years after Mark married, Devin and Trisha were thrilled to learn that a granddaughter was on the way. Although the stereotypical image of grandparents as elderly persists, today the average age of becoming a grandparent is 50 years for American women, 52 for American men (Legacy Project,  2012 ). A longer life expectancy means that many adults will spend one-third or more of their lifespan in the grandparent role.

Meanings of Grandparenthood.

Middle-aged adults typically rate grandparenthood as highly important, following closely behind the roles of parent and spouse but ahead of worker, son or daughter, and sibling (Reitzes & Mutran,  2002 ). Why did Trisha and Devin, like many others their age, greet the announcement of a grandchild with such enthusiasm? Most people experience grandparenthood as a significant milestone, mentioning one or more of the following gratifications:

· ● Valued elder—being perceived as a wise, helpful person

· ● Immortality through descendants—leaving behind not just one but two generations after death

· ● Reinvolvement with personal past—being able to pass family history and values to a new generation

· ● Indulgence—having fun with children without major child-rearing responsibilities (AARP,  2002 ; Hebblethwaite & Norris,  2011 )

Applying What We Know Ways Middle-Aged Parents Can Promote Positive Ties with Their Adult Children

Suggestion Description
Emphasize positive communication. Let adult children and their intimate partners know of your respect, support, and interest. This not only communicates affection but also permits conflict to be handled in a constructive context.
Avoid unnecessary comments that are a holdover from childhood. Adult children, like younger children, appreciate an age-appropriate relationship. Comments that have to do with safety, eating, and self-care (“Be careful on the freeway,” “Don’t eat those foods,” “Make sure you wear a sweater—it’s cold out today”) annoy adult children and can stifle communication.
Accept the possibility that some cultural values and practices and aspects of lifestyle will be modified in the next generation. In constructing a personal identity, most adult children have gone through a process of evaluating the meaning of cultural values and practices for their own lives. Traditions and lifestyles cannot be imposed on adult children.
When an adult child encounters difficulties, resist the urge to “fix” things. Accept the fact that no meaningful change can take place without the willing cooperation of the adult child. Stepping in and taking over communicates a lack of confidence and respect. Find out whether the adult child wants your help, advice, and decision-making skills.
Be clear about your own needs and preferences. When it is difficult to arrange for a visit, babysit, or provide other assistance, say so and negotiate a reasonable compromise rather than letting resentment build.

Grandparent–Grandchild Relationships.

Grandparents’ styles of relating to grandchildren vary as widely as the meanings they derive from their new role. The grandparent’s and grandchild’s age and sex make a difference. When their granddaughter was young, Trisha and Devin enjoyed an affectionate, playful relationship with her. As she got older, she looked to them for information and advice in addition to warmth and caring. By the time their granddaughter reached adolescence, Trisha and Devin had become role models, family historians, and conveyers of social, vocational, and religious values.

Living nearby is the strongest predictor of frequent, face-to-face interaction with young grandchildren. Despite high family mobility in Western industrialized nations, most grandparents live close enough to at least one grandchild to enable regular visits. But because time and resources are limited, number of “grandchild sets” (households with grandchildren) reduces grandparent visits (Uhlenberg & Hammill,  1998 ). A strong desire to affect the development of grandchildren can motivate grandparents’ involvement. As grandchildren get older, distance becomes less influential and relationship quality more so: The extent to which adolescent or young-adult grandchildren believe their grandparent values contact is a good predictor of a close bond (Brussoni & Boon,  1998 ).

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Many grandparents derive great joy from an affectionate, playful relationship with young grandchildren. As this grandchild gets older, he may look to his grandfather for advice, as a role model, and for family history in addition to warmth and caring.

© BLUE JEAN IMAGES/ALAMY

As  Figure 16.3  shows, maternal grandmothers report more frequent visits with grandchildren than do paternal grandmothers, who are slightly advantaged over both maternal and paternal grandfathers (Uhlenberg & Hammill,  1998 ). Typically, relationships are closer between grandparents and grandchildren of the same sex and, especially, between maternal grandmothers and granddaughters—a pattern found in many countries (Brown & Rodin,  2004 ). Grandmothers also report higher satisfaction with the grandparent role than grandfathers, perhaps because grandmothers are more likely to participate in recreational, religious, and family activities with grandchildren (Reitzes & Mutran,  2004 ; Silverstein & Marenco,  2001 ). The grandparent role may be a vital means through which women satisfy their kinkeeping function.

SES and ethnicity also influence grandparent–grandchild ties. In higher-income families, where the grandparent role is not central to family maintenance and survival, it is fairly unstructured and takes many forms. In low-income families, by contrast, grandparents often perform essential activities. For example, many single parents live with their families of origin and depend on grandparents’ financial and caregiving assistance to reduce the impact of poverty. Compared with grandchildren in intact families, grandchildren in single-parent and stepparent families report engaging in more diverse, higher-quality activities with their grandparents (Kennedy & Kennedy,  1993 ). As children experience the stress of family transition, bonds with grandparents take on increasing importance.

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FIGURE 16.3 Influence of grandparent sex and lineage on frequent visiting of grandchildren.

When a nationally representative sample of 4,600 U.S. grandparents were asked how often they visited a particular set of grandchildren, maternal grandmothers were especially likely to report visiting frequently (at least once a week). Paternal grandmothers slightly exceeded both maternal and paternal grandfathers.

(From P. Uhlenberg & B. G. Hammill, 1998, “Frequency of Grandparent Contact with Grandchild Sets: Six Factors That Make a Difference,” Gerontologist, 38, p. 281. Copyright © 1998 The Gerontological Society of America. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press and Peter Uhlenberg.)

In some cultures, grandparents are absorbed into an extended-family household and become actively involved in child rearing. When a Chinese, Korean, or Mexican-American maternal grandmother is a homemaker, she is the preferred caregiver while parents of young children are at work (Kamo,  1998 ; Williams & Torrez,  1998 ). Similarly, involvement in child care is high among Native-American grandparents. In the absence of a biological grandparent, an unrelated aging adult may be integrated into the family to serve as a mentor and disciplinarian for children (Werner,  1991 ). (See  Chapter 2 ,  page 66 , for a description of the grandmother’s role in the African-American extended family.)

Increasingly, grandparents have stepped in as primary caregivers in the face of serious family problems. As the Social Issues: Health box on  page 548  reveals, a rising number of American children live apart from their parents in grandparent-headed households. Despite their willingness to help and their competence at child rearing, grandparents who take full responsibility for young children experience considerable emotional and financial strain. They need more assistance from community and government agencies than is currently available.

Because parents usually serve as gatekeepers of grandparents’ contact with grandchildren, relationships between grandparents and their daughter-in-law or son-in-law strongly affect the closeness of grandparent–grandchild ties. A positive bond with a daughter-in-law seems particularly important in the relationship between grandparents and their son’s children (Fingerman,  2004 ). And after a marital breakup, grandparents who are related to the custodial parent (typically the mother) have more frequent contact with grandchildren.

When family relationships are positive, grandparenthood provides an important means of fulfilling personal and societal needs in midlife and beyond. Typically, grandparents are a frequent source of pleasure, support, and knowledge for children, adolescents, and young adults. They also provide the young with firsthand experience in how older people think and function. In return, grandchildren become deeply attached to grandparents and keep them abreast of social change. Clearly, grand-parenthood is a vital context for sharing between generations.

Middle-Aged Children and Their Aging Parents

The percentage of middle-aged Americans with living parents has risen dramatically—from 10 percent in 1900 to over 50 percent in the first decade of the twenty-first century (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). A longer life expectancy means that adult children and their parents are increasingly likely to grow old together. What are middle-aged children’s relationships with their aging parents like? And how does life change for adult children when an aging parent’s health declines?

Frequency and Quality of Contact.

A widespread myth is that adults of past generations were more devoted to their aging parents than are today’s adults. Although adult children spend less time in physical proximity to their parents, the reason is not neglect or isolation. Because of a desire to be independent, made possible by gains in health and financial security, fewer aging adults live with younger generations now than in the past. Nevertheless, approximately two-thirds of older adults in the United States live close to at least one of their children, and frequency of contact is high through both visits and telephone calls (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). Proximity increases with age: Aging adults who move usually do so in the direction of kin, and younger people tend to move in the direction of their aging parents.

Middle age is a time when adults reassess relationships with their parents, just as they rethink other close ties. Many adult children become more appreciative of their parents’ strengths and generosity and mention positive changes in the quality of the relationship, even after parents show physical declines. A warm, enjoyable relationship contributes to both parent and adult-child well-being (Fingerman et al.,  2007 ,  2008 ; Pudrovska,  2009 ). Trisha, for example, felt closer to her parents and often asked them to tell her more about their earlier lives.

Social Issues: Health Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren: The Skipped-Generation Family

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A custodial grandmother helps her 8-year-old granddaughter with homework. Although grandparents usually assume the parenting role under highly stressful circumstances, most find compensating rewards in rearing grandchildren.

Nearly 2.4 million U.S. children—4 to 5 percent of the child population—live with grandparents but apart from parents, in  skipped-generation families  (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). The number of grandparents rearing grandchildren has increased over the past two decades. The arrangement occurs in all ethnic groups, though more often in African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American families than in Caucasian families. Although grandparent caregivers are more likely to be women than men, many grandfathers participate (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler,  2005 ,  2007 ; Minkler & Fuller-Thomson,  2005 ). Grandparents generally step in when parents’ troubled lives—as a result of substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, family violence, or physical or mental illness—threaten children’s well-being (Langosch,  2012 ). Often these families take in two or more children.

As a result, grandparents usually assume the parenting role under highly stressful life circumstances. Unfavorable child-rearing experiences have left their mark on the children, who show high rates of learning difficulties, depression, and antisocial behavior. Absent parents’ adjustment difficulties strain family relationships. Parents may interfere by violating the grandparents’ behavioral limits, taking grandchildren away without permission, or making promises to children that they do not keep. These youngsters also introduce financial burdens into households that often are already low-income (Mills, Gomez-Smith, & De Leon,  2005 ; Williamson, Softas-Nall, & Miller,  2003 ). All these factors heighten grandparents’ emotional distress.

Grandparents struggle with daily dilemmas—wanting to be grandparents, not parents; wanting the parent to be present in the child’s life but fearing for the child’s well-being if the parent returns and does not provide good care (Templeton,  2011 ). And grandparent caregivers, at a time when they anticipated having more time for spouses, friends, and leisure, instead have less. Many report feeling emotionally drained, depressed, and worried about what will happen to the children if their own health fails (Hayslip & Kaminski,  2005 ; Langosch,  2012 ). Some families are extremely burdened. Native-American care-giving grandparents are especially likely to be unemployed, to have a disability, to be caring for several grandchildren, and to be living in extreme poverty (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler,  2005 ).

Despite great hardship, these grandparents seem to realize their widespread image as “silent saviors,” often forging close emotional bonds with their grandchildren and using effective child-rearing practices (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler,  2000 ; Gibson,  2005 ). Compared with children in divorced, single-parent families, blended families, or foster families, children reared by grandparents fare better in adjustment (Rubin et al.,  2008 ; Solomon & Marx,  1995 ).

Skipped-generation families have a tremendous need for social and financial support and intervention services for troubled children. Custodial grandparents describe support groups—both for themselves and for their grandchildren—as especially helpful, yet only a minority make use of such interventions (Smith, Rodriguez, & Palmieri,  2010 ). This suggests that grandparents need special help in finding out about and accessing support services.

Although their everyday lives are often stressful, caregiving grandparents—even those rearing children with serious problems—report as much fulfillment in the grandparent role as typical grandparents do (Hayslip et al.,  2002 ). The warmer the grandparent–grandchild bond, the greater grandparents’ long-term life satisfaction (Goodman,  2012 ). Many grandparents mention joy from sharing children’s lives and feelings of pride at children’s progress, which help compensate for difficult circumstances. And some grandparents view the rearing of grandchildren as a “second chance”—an opportunity to make up for earlier, unfavorable parenting experiences and “do it right” (Dolbin-MacNab,  2006 ).

Research indicates that middle-aged daughters forge closer, more supportive relationships with aging parents, especially mothers, than do middle-aged sons (Fingerman,  2003 ). But this gender difference may be declining. Sons report closer ties and greater assistance to aging parents in recent than in previous studies (Fingerman et al.,  2007 ,  2008 ). Changing gender roles are likely responsible. Because the majority of contemporary middle-aged women are employed, they face many competing demands on their time and energy. Consequently, men are becoming more involved in family responsibilities, including with aging parents (Fingerman & Birditt,  2011 ). Despite this shift, women’s investment continues to exceed men’s.

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In midlife, many adults develop warmer, more supportive relationships with their aging parents. At a birthday party for her mother, this daughter expresses love and appreciation for her mother’s strengths and generosity.

In collectivist cultures, older adults most often live with their married children. For example, traditionally, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean seniors moved in with a son and his wife and children; today, many live with a daughter and her family, too. This tradition of coresidence, however, is declining in some parts of Asia and in the United States, as more Asian and Asian-American aging adults choose to live on their own (Davey & Takagi,  2013 ; Zhan & Montgomery,  2003 ; Zhang,  2004 ). In African-American and Hispanic families as well, coresidence is common. Regardless of whether coresidence and daily contact are typical, relationship quality usually reflects patterns established earlier: Positive parent–child ties generally remain so, as do conflict-ridden interactions.

Help exchanged between adult children and their aging parents is responsive to past and current family circumstances. The more positive the history of the parent–child tie, the more help given and received. Also, aging parents give more help to unmarried adult children and to those with disabilities. Similarly, adult children give more to elderly parents who are widowed or in poor health—usually emotional support and practical help, less often financial assistance. At the same time, middle-aged parents do what they can to maximize the overall quantity of help offered, as needed: While continuing to provide generous assistance to their children because of the priority placed on the parent–child tie (see  page 545 ), middle-aged adults augment the aid they give to elderly parents as parental health problems increase (Kunemund, Motel-Klingebiel, & Kohli,  2005 ; Stephens et al.,  2009 ).

Even when parent–child relationships have been emotionally distant, adult children offer more support as parents age, out of a sense of altruism and family duty (Silverstein et al.,  2002 ). And although the baby-boom generation is often described as self-absorbed, baby-boom midlifers actually express a stronger commitment to caring for their aging parents than the preceding middle-aged generation (Gans & Silverstein,  2006 ).

In sum, as long as multiple roles are manageable and the experiences within each are high in quality, midlife intergenerational assistance as family members (aging parents) have increased needs is best characterized as resource expansion rather than as merely conflicting demands that inevitably drain energy and detract from psychological well-being (Grundy & Henretta,  2006 ; Stephens et al.,  2009 ). Recall from the Biology and Environment box on  pages 540 – 541  that midlifers derive great personal benefits from successfully managing multiple roles. Their enhanced self-esteem, mastery, and sense of meaning and purpose expand their motivation and energy to handle added family-role demands, from which they reap additional personal rewards.

Caring for Aging Parents.

About 25 percent of U.S. adult children provide unpaid care to an aging adult (MetLife,  2011 ). The burden of caring for aging parents can be great. In  Chapter 2 , we noted that as birthrates have declined, the family structure has become increasingly “top-heavy,” with more generations alive but fewer younger members. Consequently, more than one older family member is likely to need assistance, with fewer younger adults available to provide it.

The term  sandwich generation  is widely used to refer to the idea that middle-aged adults must care for multiple generations above and below them at the same time (Riley & Bowen,  2005 ). Although only a minority of contemporary middle-aged adults who care for aging parents have children younger than age 18 at home, many are providing assistance to young-adult children and to grandchildren—obligations that, when combined with work and community responsibilities, can lead middle-aged caregivers to feel “sandwiched,” or squeezed, between the pressures of older and younger generations. As more baby boomers move into late adulthood and as their adult children continue to delay childbearing, the number of midlifers who are working, rearing young children, and caring for aging parents will increase.

Middle-aged adults living far from aging parents who are in poor health often substitute financial help for direct care, if they have the means. But when parents live nearby and have no spouse to meet their needs, adult children usually engage in direct care. Regardless of family income level, African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic adults give aging parents more direct care and financial help than Caucasian-American adults do (Shuey & Hardy,  2003 ). Compared with their white counterparts, African Americans and Hispanics express a stronger sense of obligation, and find it more personally rewarding, to support their aging parents (Fingerman et al.,  2011b ; Swartz,  2009 ). And African Americans often draw on close, family-like relationships with friends and neighbors for caregiving assistance.

In all ethnic groups, responsibility for providing care to aging parents falls more on daughters than on sons. Why are women usually the principal caregivers? Families turn to the person who seems most available—living nearby and with fewer commitments that might interfere with the ability to assist. These unstated rules, in addition to parents’ preference for same-sex caregivers (aging mothers live longer), lead more women to fill the role (see  Figure 16.4 ). Daughters also feel more obligated than sons to care for aging parents (Gans & Silverstein,  2006 ; Stein,  2009 ). And although couples strive to be fair to both sides of the family, they tend to provide more direct care for the wife’s parents. This bias, however, is weaker in ethnic minority families and is nonexistent in Asian nations where cultural norms specify that daughters-in-law provide care to their husband’s parents (Shuey & Hardy,  2003 ; Zhan & Montgomery,  2003 ).

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Caring for an aging parent with a chronic illness or disability is highly stressful. But social support reduces physical and emotional strain, enabling adult children to find satisfactions and rewards in tending to parents’ needs.

As  Figure 16.4  shows, nearly one-fourth of American working women are caregivers; others quit their jobs to provide care. And the time they devote to caring for a disabled aging parent is substantial, averaging 10 to 20 hours per week (Metlife,  2011 ; Takamura & Williams,  2004 ). Nevertheless, men—although doing less than women—do contribute. In one investigation, employed men spent an average of 7½ hours per week caring for parents or parents-in-law (Neal & Hammer,  2007 ). Tim, for example, looked in on his father, a recent stroke victim, every evening, reading to him, running errands, making household repairs, and taking care of finances. His sister, however, provided more hands-on care—cooking, feeding, bathing, managing medication, and doing laundry. The care sons and daughters provide tends to be divided along gender-role lines. About 10 percent of the time—generally when no other family member can do so—sons become primary caregivers, heavily involved in basic-care tasks (Harris,  1998 ; Pinquart & Sörensen,  2006 ).

As adults move from early to later middle age, the sex difference in parental caregiving declines. Perhaps as men reduce their vocational commitments and feel less need to conform to a “masculine” gender role, they grow more able and willing to provide basic care (Marks,  1996 ; MetLife,  2011 ). At the same time, parental caregiving may contribute to men’s greater openness to the “feminine” side of their personalities. A man who cared for his mother, severely impaired by Alzheimer’s disease, commented on how the experience altered his outlook: “It was so difficult to do these tasks; things a man, a son, is not supposed to do. I have definitely modified my views on conventional expectations” (Hirsch,  1996 , p. 112).

Although most adult children help willingly, caring for a chronically ill or disabled parent is highly stressful. Over time, the parent usually gets worse, and the caregiving task escalates. As Tim explained to Devin and Trisha, “One of the hardest aspects is the emotional strain of seeing my father’s physical and mental decline up close.”

Caregivers who share a household with ill parents—about 23 percent of U.S. adult children—experience the most stress. When a parent and child who have lived separately for years must move in together, conflicts generally arise over routines and lifestyles. But the greatest source of stress is problem behavior, especially for caregivers of parents who have deteriorated mentally (Alzheimer’s Association,  2012b ). Tim’s sister reported that their father would wake during the night, ask repetitive questions, follow her around the house, and become agitated and combative.

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FIGURE 16.4 Baby boomers, by work status and gender, who provide basic personal care to an aging parent in poor health.

A survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,100 U.S. men and women over age 50 with at least one parent living revealed that more nonworking than working adults engaged in basic personal care (assistance with such activities as dressing, feeding, and bathing). Regardless of work status, many more women than men were caregivers.

(Adapted from The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents, June 2011, Figure 3. Reprinted by permission of The MetLife Mature Market Institute, New York, NY.)

Applying What We Know Relieving the Stress of Caring for an Aging Parent

Strategy Description
Use effective coping strategies. Use problem-centered coping to manage the parent’s behavior and caregiving tasks. Delegate responsibilities to other family members, seek assistance from friends and neighbors, and recognize the parent’s limits while calling on capacities the parent does have. Use emotion-centered coping to reinterpret the situation in a positive way, such as emphasizing the opportunity it offers for personal growth and for giving to parents in the last years of their lives. Avoid denial of anger, depression, and anxiety in response to the caregiving burden, which heightens stress.
Seek social support. Confide in family members and friends about the stress of caregiving, seeking their encouragement and help. So far as possible, avoid quitting work to care for an ill parent; doing so is associated with social isolation and loss of financial resources.
Make use of community resources. Contact community organizations to seek information and assistance, in the form of caregiver support groups, in-home respite help, home-delivered meals, transportation, and adult day care.
Press for workplace and public policies that relieve the emotional and financial burdens of caring for an aging parent. Encourage your employer to provide care benefits, such as flexible work hours and employment leave for caregiving. Communicate with lawmakers and other citizens about the need for additional government funding to help pay for caregiving. Emphasize the need for improved health insurance plans that reduce the financial strain of caring for an aging parent on middle- and low-income families.

Parental caregiving often has emotional, physical, and financial consequences. It leads to role overload, high job absenteeism, exhaustion, inability to concentrate, feelings of hostility, anxiety about aging, and high rates of depression, with women more profoundly affected than men (Neal & Hammer,  2007 ; Pinquart & Sörensen,  2006 ). Caregivers who must reduce their employment hours or leave the labor force to provide care (mostly women) face not just lost wages but also diminished retirement benefits. Despite having more time to care for an ill parent, women who quit work fare especially poorly in adjustment, probably because of social isolation and financial strain (Bookman & Kimbrel,  2011 ). Positive experiences at work can actually reduce the stress of parental care as caregivers bring a favorable self-evaluation and a positive mood home with them.

In cultures and subcultures where adult children feel an especially strong sense of obligation to care for aging parents, the emotional toll is also high (Knight & Sayegh,  2010 ). In research on Korean, Korean-American, and Caucasian-American caregivers of parents with mental disabilities, the Koreans and Korean Americans reported higher levels of family obligation and care burden—and also higher levels of anxiety and depression—than the Caucasian Americans (Lee & Farran,  2004 ; Youn et al.,  1999 ). And among African-American care-givers, women who strongly endorsed cultural reasons for providing care (“It’s what my people have always done”) fared less well in mental health two years later than women who moderately endorsed cultural reasons (Dilworth-Anderson, Goodwin, & Williams,  2004 ).

Social support is highly effective in reducing caregiver stress. Tim’s encouragement, assistance, and willingness to listen helped his sister cope with in-home care of their father so that she could find satisfactions in it. When caregiving becomes a team effort with multiple family members trading off, care-givers cope more effectively. Under these conditions, despite being demanding and stressful, it can enhance psychological well-being (Roberto & Jarrott,  2008 ). Adult children feel gratified at having helped and gain in self-understanding, problem solving, and sense of competence.

LOOK AND LISTEN

Ask a middle-aged adult caring for an aging parent in declining health to describe both the stressful and rewarding aspects of caregiving. What strategies does he or she use to reduce stress? To what extent does the caregiver share caregiving burdens with family members and enlist the support of community organizations?

In Denmark, Sweden, and Japan, a government-sponsored home helper system eases the burden of parental care by making specially trained nonfamily caregivers available, based on seniors’ needs (Saito, Auestad, & Waerness,  2010 ). In the United States, in-home care by a nonfamily caregiver is too costly for most families; only 10 to 20 percent arrange it (Family Caregiver Alliance,  2009 ). And unless they must, few people want to place their parents in formal care, such as nursing homes, which also are expensive. Applying What We Know above summarizes ways to relieve the stress of caring for an aging parent—at the individual, family, community, and societal levels. We will address additional care options, along with interventions for caregivers, in  Chapter 17 .

Siblings

As Tim’s relationship with his sister reveals, siblings are ideally suited to provide social support. Nevertheless, a survey of a large sample of ethnically diverse Americans revealed that sibling contact and support decline from early to middle adulthood, rebounding only after age 70 for siblings living near each other (White,  2001 ). Decreased midlife contact is probably due to the demands of middle-aged adults’ diverse roles. However, most adult siblings report getting together or talking on the phone at least monthly (Antonucci, Akiyama, & Merline,  2002 ).

Despite reduced contact, many siblings feel closer in mid-life, often in response to major life events (Stewart et al.,  2001 ). Launching and marriage of children seem to prompt siblings to think more about each other. As Tim commented, “It helped our relationship when my sister’s children were out of the house and married. I’m sure she cared about me. I think she just didn’t have time!” When a parent becomes seriously ill, brothers and sisters who previously had little to do with one another may find themselves in touch about parental care. And when parents die, adult children realize they have become the oldest generation and must look to each other to sustain family ties.

Not all sibling bonds improve, of course. Recall Trisha’s negative encounters with her sister, Dottie (see  page 513  in  Chapter 15 ). Dottie’s difficult temperament had made her hard to get along with since childhood, and her temper flared when their father died and problems arose over family finances. Large inequities in division of labor in parental caregiving can also unleash intense sibling conflict (Silverstein & Giarrusso,  2010 ). As siblings grow older, good relationships often get better and poor relationships get worse.

As in early adulthood, sister–sister relationships are closer than sister–brother and brother–brother ties, a difference apparent in many industrialized nations (Cicirelli,  1995 ; Fowler,  2009 ). But a comparison of middle-aged men of the baby-boom generation with those of the preceding cohort revealed warmer, more expressive ties between baby-boom brothers (Bedford & Avioli,  2006 ). A contributing factor may be baby boomers’ more flexible gender-role attitudes.

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These brothers, both in their fifties, express their mutual affection at a family reunion. Even when they have only limited contact, siblings often feel closer in midlife.

In industrialized nations, sibling relationships are voluntary. In village societies, they are generally involuntary and basic to family functioning. For example, among Asian Pacific Islanders, family social life is organized around strong brother–sister attachments. A brother–sister pair is often treated as a unit in exchange marriages with another family. After marriage, brothers are expected to protect sisters, and sisters serve as spiritual mentors to brothers. Families not only include biological siblings but bestow on other relatives, such as cousins, the status of brother or sister, creating an unusually large network of lifelong sibling support (Cicirelli,  1995 ). Cultural norms reduce sibling conflict, thereby ensuring family cooperation. In industrialized nations, promoting positive sibling ties in childhood is vital for warm sibling bonds in later years.

Friendships

As family responsibilities declined in middle age, Devin found he had more time to spend with friends. On Friday afternoons, he met several male friends at a coffee house, and they chatted for a couple of hours. But most of Devin’s friendships were couple-based—relationships he shared with Trisha. Compared with Devin, Trisha more often got together with friends on her own.

Middle-aged friendships reflect the same trends discussed in  Chapter 14 . At all ages, men’s friendships are less intimate than women’s. Men tend to talk about sports, politics, and business, whereas women focus on feelings and life problems. Women report a greater number of close friends and say they both receive and provide their friends with more emotional support (Antonucci, Akiyama, & Takahashi,  2004 ).

Over the past decade, the average number of friendships rose among U.S. midlifers, perhaps because of ease of keeping in touch through social media (Wang & Wellman,  2010 ). Though falling short of young adults’ use, connecting regularly with friends through Facebook or other social networking sites has risen rapidly among middle-aged adults (see  Figure 16.5 ) (Brenner,  2013 ; Hampton et al.,  2011 ). As in early adulthood, women are more active users. And users have more offline close relationships, sometimes using Facebook to revive “dormant” friendships.

Still, for both sexes, number of friends declines from middle to late adulthood, probably because people become less willing to invest in nonfamily ties unless they are very rewarding. As selectivity of friendship increases, older adults try harder to get along with friends (Antonucci & Akiyama,  1995 ). Having chosen a friend, middle-aged people attach great value to the relationship and take extra steps to protect it.

LOOK AND LISTEN

Ask a middle-aged couple you know well to describe the number and quality of their friendships today compared with their friendships in early adulthood. Does their report match research findings? Explain.

By midlife, family relationships and friendships support different aspects of psychological well-being. Family ties protect against serious threats and losses, offering security within a long-term timeframe. In contrast, friendships serve as current sources of pleasure and satisfaction, with women benefiting somewhat more than men (Levitt & Cici-Gokaltun,  2011 ). As middle-aged couples renew their sense of companionship, they may combine the best of family and friendship.

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FIGURE 16.5 Gains in use of social networking sites by age group from 2005 to 2012.

Repeated surveys of large representative samples of U.S. adults who use the Internet revealed that social networking site use increased substantially for all age groups. Though not as avid users as young adults, most middle-aged adults use social networking sites, primarily Facebook.

(From J. Brenner, 2013, “Pew Internet: Social Networking.” Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Washington, D.C. February 14, 2013,  www.pewinternet.org . Adapted by permission.)

ASK YOURSELF

REVIEW How do age, sex, proximity, and culture affect grandparent–grandchild ties?

CONNECT Cite evidence that early family relationships affect middle-aged adults’ bonds with adult children, aging parents, and siblings.

APPLY Raylene and her brother Walter live in the same city as their aging mother, Elsie. When Elsie could no longer live independently, Raylene took primary responsibility for her care. What factors probably contributed to Raylene’s involvement in caregiving and Walter’s lesser role?

REFLECT Ask one of your parents for his or her view of how the parent–child relationship changed as you transitioned to new adult roles, such as college student, career-entry worker, married partner, or parent. Do you agree?

image24 Vocational Life

As we have seen, the midlife transition typically involves vocational adjustments. For Devin, it resulted in a move up the career ladder to a demanding administrative post as college dean. Trisha reoriented her career from a large to a small law firm, where she felt her efforts were appreciated. Recall from  Chapter 15  that after her oldest child left home, Anya earned a college degree and entered the work force for the first time. Jewel strengthened her commitment to an already successful business, while Elena changed careers. Finally, Tim reduced his career obligations as he prepared for retirement.

Work continues to be a salient aspect of identity and self-esteem in middle adulthood. More so than in earlier or later years, people attempt to increase the personal meaning and self-direction of their vocational lives. At the same time, certain aspects of job performance improve. Middle-aged employees have lower rates of absenteeism, turnover, and accidents. They are also more effective workplace citizens—more often helping colleagues and trying to improve group performance and less often complaining about trivial issues. And because of their greater knowledge and experience, their work productivity typically equals or exceeds that of younger workers (Ng & Feldman,  2008 ). Consequently, an older employee ought to be as valuable as a younger employee, and possibly more so.

The large tide of baby boomers currently moving through midlife and (as we will see in  Chapter 18 ) the desire of most to work longer than the previous generation means that the number of older workers will rise dramatically over the next few decades (Leonesio et al.,  2012 ). Yet a favorable transition from adult worker to older worker is hindered by negative stereotypes of aging—incorrect assumptions of limited learning capacity, slower decision making, and resistance to change and supervision (Posthuma & Campion,  2009 ). Furthermore, gender discrimination continues to restrict the career attainments of many women. Let’s take a close look at middle-aged work life.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction has both psychological and economic significance. If people are dissatisfied at work, the consequences include absenteeism, turnover, grievances, and strikes, all of which are costly to employers.

Research shows that job satisfaction increases in midlife in diverse nations and at all occupational levels, from executives to hourly workers (see  Figure 16.6  on  page 554 ). The relationship is weaker for women than for men, probably because women’s reduced chances for advancement result in a sense of unfairness. It is also weaker for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, perhaps because blue-collar workers have less control over their own work schedules and activities (Avolio & Sosik,  1999 ). When different aspects of jobs are considered, intrinsic satisfaction—happiness with the work itself—shows a strong age-related gain. Extrinsic satisfaction—contentment with supervision, pay, and promotions—changes very little (Barnes-Farrell & Matthews,  2007 ).

image25

FIGURE 16.6 Age-related changes in job satisfaction.

In this study of more than 2,000 university employees at all levels, from secretary to university president, job satisfaction dropped slightly in early adulthood as people encountered some discouraging experiences (see  Chapter 14 ). In middle age, job satisfaction showed a steady rise.

(From W. A. Hochwarter et al., 2001, “A Note on the Nonlinearity of the Age–Job-Satisfaction Relationship,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, p. 1232. Copyright © 2001, John Wiley and Sons. Reproduced with permission of Wiley Inc.)

What explains the rise in job satisfaction during middle adulthood? An improved capacity to cope effectively with difficult situations and a broader time perspective probably contribute. “When I first started teaching, I complained about a lot of things,” remarked Devin. “From my current vantage point, I can tell a big problem from a trivial one.” Moving out of unrewarding work roles, as Trisha did, can also boost morale. Key characteristics that predict job well-being include involvement in decision making, reasonable workloads, and good physical working conditions. Older people may have greater access to jobs that are attractive in these ways. Furthermore, having fewer alternative positions into which they can move, older workers generally reduce their career aspirations (Barnes-Farrell & Matthews,  2007 ). As the perceived gap between actual and possible achievements narrows, job involvement—importance of one’s work to self-esteem—increases (Warr,  2001 ).

Although emotional engagement with work is usually seen as psychologically healthy, it can also result in  burnout —a condition in which long-term job stress leads to mental exhaustion, a sense of loss of personal control, and feelings of reduced accomplishment. Burnout occurs more often in the helping professions, including health care, human services, and teaching, which place high emotional demands on employees. Although people in interpersonally demanding jobs are as psychologically healthy as other people, sometimes a worker’s dedication exceeds his or her coping skills, especially in an unsupportive work environment (Schmidt, Neubach, & Heuer,  2007 ). Burnout is associated with excessive work assignments for available time and lack of encouragement and feedback from supervisors. It tends to occur more often in the United States than in Western Europe, perhaps because of Americans’ greater achievement orientation (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter,  2001 ).

Burnout is a serious occupational hazard, linked to impaired attention and memory, severe depression, on-the-job injuries, physical illnesses, poor job performance, absenteeism, and turnover (Sandström et al.,  2005 ; Wang,  2005 ). To prevent burnout, employers can make sure workloads are reasonable, provide opportunities for workers to take time out from stressful situations, limit hours of stressful work, and offer social support. Interventions that enlist employees’ participation in designing higher-quality work environments show promise for increasing work engagement and effectiveness and reducing burnout (Leiter, Gascón, & Martínez-Jarreta,  2010 ). And provisions for working at home may respond to the needs of some people for a calmer, quieter work atmosphere.

Career Development

After several years as a parish nurse, Anya felt a need for additional training to do her job better. Trisha appreciated her firm’s generous support of workshop and course attendance, which helped her keep abreast of new legal developments. And as college dean, Devin took a summer seminar each year on management effectiveness. As these experiences reveal, career development is vital throughout work life.

Job Training.

Anya’s 35-year-old supervisor, Roy, was surprised when she asked for time off to upgrade her skills. “You’re in your fifties,” he replied. “What’re you going to do with so much new information at this point in your life?”

Roy’s insensitive, narrow-minded response, though usually unspoken, is all too common among managers—even some who are older themselves! Research suggests that training and on-the-job career counseling are less available to older workers. And when career development activities are offered, older employees may be less likely to volunteer for them (Barnes-Farrell & Matthews,  2007 ; Hedge, Borman, & Lammlein,  2006 ). What influences willingness to engage in job training and updating?

Personal characteristics are important: With age, growth needs give way somewhat to security needs. Consequently, learning and challenge may have less intrinsic value to many older workers. Perhaps for this reason, older employees depend more on co-worker and supervisor encouragement for vocational development. Yet as we have seen, they are less likely to have supportive supervisors. Furthermore, negative stereotypes of aging reduce older workers’ self-efficacy, or confidence that they can get better at their jobs (Maurer,  2001 ; Maurer, Wrenn, & Weiss,  2003 ). Self-efficacy is a powerful predictor of employees’ efforts to renew and expand career-relevant skills.

Workplace characteristics matter, too. An employee given work that requires new learning must pursue that learning to complete the assignment. Unfortunately, older workers sometimes receive more routine tasks than younger workers. Therefore, some of their reduced motivation to engage in career-relevant learning may be due to the type of assignments they receive. In companies with a more favorable age climate (view of older workers), mature employees participate frequently in further education and report greater self-efficacy and commitment to the organization (Bowen, Noack, & Staudinger,  2011 ).

Gender and Ethnicity: The Glass Ceiling.

In her thirties, Jewel became a company president by starting her own business. Having concluded that, as a woman, she had little chance of rising to a top executive position in a large corporation, she didn’t even try. Although women and ethnic minorities have gradually gained in access to managerial careers, they remain a long distance from gender and ethnic equality (Huffman,  2012 ). From career entry on, inequalities in promotion between men and women and between whites and blacks become more pronounced over time—findings still evident after education, work skills, and work productivity have been controlled (Barreto, Ryan, & Schmitt,  2009 ; Maume,  2004 ). Women who are promoted usually get stuck in mid-level positions. When the most prestigious high-level management jobs are considered, white men are overwhelmingly advantaged: They account for 70 percent of chief executive officers at large corporations and 93 percent at Fortune 500 companies (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ).

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Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg is among a handful of women who have attained top positions in major corporations. In her best-selling book, Lean In, she urges women to be more assertive in demonstrating qualities linked to leadership at work.

Women and ethnic minorities face a  glass ceiling,  or invisible barrier to advancement up the corporate ladder. Why is this so? Management is an art and skill that must be taught. Yet women and ethnic minorities have less access to mentors, role models, and informal networks that serve as training routes (Baumgartner & Schneider,  2010 ). And stereotyped doubts about women’s career commitment and ability to become strong managers (especially women with children) also contribute, leading supervisors to underrate their competence and not to recommend them for formal management training programs (Hoobler, Lemmon, & Wayne,  2011 ). Furthermore, challenging, high-risk, high-visibility assignments that require leadership and open the door to advancement, such as startup ventures, international experience, and troubleshooting, are less often granted to both women and minorities.

Finally, women who demonstrate qualities linked to leadership and advancement—assertiveness, confidence, forcefulness, and ambition—encounter prejudice because they deviate from traditional gender roles, even though they more often combine these traits with a democratic, collaborative style of leading than do men (Cheung & Halpern,  2010 ; Eagly & Carli,  2007 ). To overcome this bias, women in line for top positions must demonstrate greater competence than their male counterparts. In an investigation of several hundred senior managers at a multinational financial services corporation, promoted female managers had earned higher performance ratings than promoted male managers (Lyness & Heilman,  2006 ). In contrast, no gender difference existed in performance of managers not selected for promotion.

Like Jewel, many women have dealt with the glass ceiling by going around it, leaving the corporate environment and going into business for themselves. Today, more than half of all startup businesses in the United States are owned and operated by women. The large majority are successful entrepreneurs and leaders, meeting or exceeding their expansion and earnings goals (Ahuja,  2005 ; U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). But when women and ethnic minorities leave the corporate world to further their careers, companies not only lose valuable talent but also fail to address the leadership needs of an increasingly diverse work force.

Career Change at Midlife

Although most people remain in the same vocation through middle age, career change does occur, as with Elena’s shift from journalism to teaching and creative writing. Recall that circumstances at home and at work motivated Elena’s decision to pursue a new vocation. Like other career changers, she wanted a more satisfying life—a goal she attained by ending an unhappy marriage and initiating a long-awaited vocational move at the same time.

As noted earlier, midlife career changes are seldom radical; they typically involve leaving one line of work for a related one. Elena sought a more stimulating, involving job. But other people move in the reverse direction—to careers that are more relaxing, free of painful decisions, and less demanding (Juntunen, Wegner, & Matthews,  2002 ). The decision to change is often difficult. The individual must weigh years invested in one set of skills, current income, and job security against present frustrations and hoped-for gains.

image27

After many years as a professor of ancient Greek philosophy, Abe Schoener found himself at a dead end in his career. In his mid-forties, he decided to transform his passion for winemaking into a new vocation as a vintner—a radical shift that prompted the breakup of his marriage but ultimately led to a more satisfying life.

An extreme career shift, by contrast, usually signals a personal crisis (Young & Rodgers,  1997 ). In a study of professionals who abandoned their well-paid, prestigious positions for routine, poorly paid, semiskilled work, nonwork problems contributed to radical change. An eminent 55-year-old TV producer became a school bus driver, a New York banker a waiter in a ski resort (Sarason,  1977 ). Each was responding to feelings of personal meaninglessness—escaping from family conflict, difficult relationships with colleagues, and work that had become unsatisfying to a less burdensome life.

Among blue-collar workers—those in such occupations as construction, manufacturing, mining, maintenance, or foodservice work—midlife career shifts are seldom freely chosen. In one investigation, researchers followed a large sample of blue-collar men in their fifties over a seven-year period; all were employed by Alcoa, the world’s largest producer of aluminum. One-third had highly physically taxing jobs. Of the small minority who transitioned to less physically demanding work, an injury usually preceded the change (Modrek & Cullen,  2012 ). Transitioners appeared to change jobs to stay in the workforce, rather than being forced to retire early, at less than full pension benefits, because of their disability.

Yet opportunities to shift to less physically demanding work are limited, particularly in the late-2000s recession aftermath. A strong predictor of middle-aged workers’ eligibility for such jobs for is education—at least a high school diploma (Blau & Goldstein,  2007 ). Less educated workers with a physical disability face greatly reduced chances of remaining in the labor force.

Unemployment

As companies downsize, eliminating jobs, the majority of people affected are middle-aged and older. Although unemployment is difficult at any time, middle-aged adults show a sharper decline in physical and mental health than their younger counterparts. Those who perceive a company’s layoff process as unfair and inconsiderate—for example, giving them little time to prepare—often experience the event as highly traumatic (Breslin & Mustard,  2003 ; McKee-Ryan et al.,  2009 ). Older workers affected by layoffs remain jobless longer, suffering substantial income loss. In addition, people over age 40 who must reestablish occupational security find themselves “off-time” in terms of the social clock. Consequently, job loss can disrupt major tasks of midlife, including generativity and reappraisal of life goals and accomplishments. Finally, having been more involved in and committed to an occupation, the older unemployed worker has also lost something of greater value.

People who lose their jobs in midlife, whether executives or blue-collar workers, seldom duplicate the status and pay of their previous positions. As they search, they encounter age discrimination and find that they are over-qualified for many openings. Those also facing financial difficulties are at risk for deepening depression and physical health declines over time (Gallo et al.,  2006 ; McKee-Ryan,  2011 ). Counseling that focuses on financial planning, reducing feelings of humiliation due to the stigma of unemployment, and encouraging personal flexibility can help people implement effective problem-centered coping strategies in their search for alternative work roles.

Planning for Retirement

One evening, Devin and Trisha met Anya and her husband, George, for dinner. Halfway through the meal, Devin inquired, “George, tell us what you and Anya are going to do about retirement. Are you planning to close down your business or work part-time? Do you think you’ll stay here or move out of town?”

Three or four generations ago, the two couples would not have had this conversation. In 1900, about 70 percent of American men age 65 and over were in the labor force. By 1970, however, the figure had dropped to 27 percent, and in the early twenty-first century it declined to 16 percent (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). Because of government-sponsored retirement benefits (begun in the United States in 1935), retirement is no longer a privilege reserved for the wealthy. The federal government pays Social Security to the majority of the aged, and others are covered by employer-based private pension plans.

As the trend just noted suggests, the average age of retirement has declined over the past several decades. Currently, it is age 63 in the United States and hovers between 60 and 63 in other Western nations (U.S. Census Bureau,  2012b ). The recent recession led to an increase in the number of Americans at risk for being unable to sustain their preretirement standard of living after leaving the workforce. Consequently, a survey of a large, nationally representative sample of baby boomers revealed that the majority expect to delay retirement (Jones,  2012 ). But current estimates indicate that most will need to work just a few extra years to be financially ready to retire (Munnell et al.,  2012 ). For the healthy, active, long-lived baby-boom generation, up to one-fourth of their lives may lie ahead after they leave their jobs.

Applying What We Know : Ingredients of Effective retirement Planning

Issue Description
Finances Ideally, financial planning for retirement should start with the first paycheck; at a minimum, it should begin 10 to 15 years before retirement.
Fitness Starting a fitness program in middle age is important because good health is crucial for well-being in retirement.
Role adjustment Retirement is harder for people who strongly identify with their work role. Preparing for a radical role adjustment reduces stress.
Where to live The pros and cons of moving should be considered carefully because where one lives affects access to health care, friends, family, recreation, entertainment, and part-time employment.
Leisure and volunteer activities A retiree typically gains an additional 50 hours per week of free time. Careful planning of what to do with that time has a major impact on psychological well-being.
Health insurance Finding out about government-sponsored health insurance options helps protect quality of life after retirement.
Legal affairs The preretirement period is an excellent time to finalize a will and begin estate planning.

Retirement is a lengthy, complex process that begins as soon as the middle-aged person first thinks about it (Kim & Moen,  2002b ). Planning is important because retirement leads to a loss of two important work-related rewards—income and status—and to a change in many other aspects of life. Like other life transitions, retirement can be stressful.

Nearly half of middle-aged people engage in no concrete retirement planning, yet research consistently shows that clarifying goals for the future and acquiring financial-planning knowledge result in better retirement savings, adjustment, and satisfaction (Hershey et al.,  2007 ; Jacobs-Lawson, Hershey, & Neukam,  2004 ).

LOOK AND LISTEN

Contact the human resources division of a company or institution in your community, and inquire about the retirement planning services it offers. How comprehensive are those services, and what percentage of its recent retirees made use of them?•

Applying What We Know above lists the variety of issues addressed in a typical retirement preparation program. Financial planning is especially vital in the United States where (unlike Western European nations) the federal government does not offer a pension system that guarantees an adequate standard of living (see  page 68  in  Chapter 2 ). Hence, U.S. retirees’ income typically drops by 50 percent. But although more people engage in financial planning than in other forms of preparation, even those who attend financial education programs often fail to look closely at their financial well-being and to make wise decisions (Keller & Lusardi,  2012 ). Many could benefit from an expert’s financial analysis and counsel.

Retirement leads to ways of spending time that are largely guided by one’s interests rather than one’s obligations. Individuals who have not thought carefully about how to fill this time may find their sense of purpose in life seriously threatened. Research reveals that planning for an active life has an even greater impact on happiness after retirement than financial planning. Participation in activities promotes many factors essential for psychological well-being, including a structured time schedule, social contact, and self-esteem (Schlossberg,  2004 ). Carefully considering whether or not to relocate at retirement is related to an active life, since it affects access to health care, friends, family, recreation, entertainment, and part-time work.

Devin retired at age 62, George at age 66. Though several years younger, Trisha and Anya—like many married women—coordinated their retirements with those of their husbands. In contrast, Jewel—in good health but without an intimate partner to share her life—kept her consulting business going until age 75. Tim took early retirement and moved to be near Elena, where he devoted himself to public service—tutoring second graders in a public school, transporting inner-city children to museums, and coaching after-school and weekend youth sports. For Tim, retirement offered a new opportunity to give generously to his community.

Unfortunately, less well-educated people with lower lifetime earnings are least likely to attend retirement preparation programs—yet they stand to benefit the most. And compared with men, women do less planning for retirement, instead relying on their husband’s preparations. This gender gap seems to be narrowing, however, as women increasingly contribute to family income (Adams & Rau,  2011 ). Employers must take extra steps to encourage lower-paid workers and women to participate in planning activities. In addition, enhancing retirement adjustment among the economically disadvantaged depends on access to better vocational training, jobs, and health care at early ages. Clearly, a lifetime of opportunities and experiences affects the transition to retirement. In  Chapter 18 , we will consider the decision to retire and retirement adjustment in greater detail.

ASK YOURSELF

REVIEW What factors contribute to the rise in job satisfaction with age?

CONNECT Supervisors sometimes assign the more routine tasks to older workers, believing that they can no longer handle complex assignments. Cite evidence from this and the previous chapter indicating that this assumption is incorrect.

APPLY An executive wonders how his large corporation can foster advancement of women and ethnic minorities to upper management positions. What strategies would you recommend?

image28 SUMMARY

Erikson’s Theory: Generativity versus Stagnation ( p. 532 )

According to Erikson, how does personality change in middle age?

· ● Generativity expands as middle-aged adults face Erikson’s psychological conflict of generativity versus stagnation. Personal desires and cultural demands jointly shape adults’ generative activities.

· ● Highly generative people, who contribute to society through parenthood, other family relationships, the workplace, and volunteer endeavors, appear especially well-adjusted. Stagnation occurs when people become self-centered and self-indulgent in midlife.

Other Theories of Psychosocial Development in Midlife ( p. 535 )

· Describe Levinson’s and Vaillant’s views of psychosocial development in middle adulthood, and discuss similarities and differences between men and women.

· ● According to Levinson, middle-aged adults confront four developmental tasks, each requiring them to reconcile two opposing tendencies within the self: young–old, destruction–creation, masculinity–femininity, and engagement–separateness.

· ● Middle-aged men show greater acceptance of “feminine” traits of nurturance and caring, while women are more open to “masculine” characteristics of autonomy and assertiveness. Men and successful career-oriented women may reduce their concern with ambition and achievement, but women who have devoted themselves to child rearing or an unfulfilling job often seek rewarding work or community engagement.

· ● Vaillant found that adults in their late forties and fifties become guardians of their culture, seeking to “pass the torch” to later generations.

Does the term midlife crisis reflect most people’s experience of middle adulthood, and is middle adulthood accurately characterized as a stage?

· ● Most people respond to midlife with changes that are better described as “turning points” than as a crisis. Only a minority experience a midlife crisis characterized by intense self-doubt and stress that lead to drastic life alterations.

· ● Some midlife changes are adaptations to life events that are less age-graded than in the past. Most middle-aged adults also report troubling moments that prompt new understandings and goals, but debate persists over whether these psychosocial changes are stagelike.

Stability and Change in Self-Concept and Personality ( p. 538 )

· Describe changes in self-concept, personality, and gender identity in middle adulthood.

· ● Middle-aged individuals maintain self-esteem and stay motivated by revising their possible selves, which become fewer in number as well as more modest and concrete as people adjust their hopes and fears to their life circumstances.

· ● Midlife typically brings enhanced psychological well-being, through greater self-acceptance, autonomy, and environmental mastery. Factors contributing to well-being, however, vary widely among cohorts and cultures.

· ● Daily stressors plateau in early to mid-adulthood, and then decline as work and family responsibilities ease. Midlife gains in emotional stability and confidence in handling life’s problems lead to increased effectiveness in coping with stressors.

· ● Both men and women become more androgynous in middle adulthood. Biological explanations, such as parental imperative theory, are controversial. A combination of social roles and life conditions is more likely responsible. image29

· Discuss stability and change in the “big five” personality traits in adulthood.

· ● Among the “big five” personality traits, agreeableness and conscientiousness increase into middle age, while neuroticism declines, and extroversion and openness to experience do not change or decrease slightly. Individual differences are large and highly stable: Although adults change in overall organization and integration of personality, they do so on a foundation of basic, enduring dispositions.

Relationships at Midlife ( p. 543 )

· Describe the middle adulthood phase of the family life cycle.

· ● “Launching children and moving on” is the midlife phase of the family life cycle. Adults must adapt to many entries and exits of family members as their children launch–return–relaunch, marry, and produce grandchildren, and as their own parents age and die.

· ● When divorce occurs, middle-aged adults seem to adapt more easily than younger people. For women, midlife marital breakup often severely reduces standard of living, contributing to the feminization of poverty.

· ● Most middle-aged parents adjust well to launching adult children, especially if positive parent–child relationships are sustained, but adult children who are “off-time” in development can prompt parental strain. As children marry, middle-aged parents, especially mothers, often become kinkeepers.

· ● Grandparents’ contact and closeness with grandchildren depend on proximity, number of grandchild sets, sex of grandparent and grandchild, and in-law relationships. In low-income families and in some ethnic groups, grandparents provide essential financial and child-care assistance. When serious family problems exist, grandparents may become primary caregivers in skipped-generation families. image30

· ● Middle-aged adults reassess their relationships with aging parents, often becoming more appreciative. Mother–daughter relationships tend to be closer than other parent–child ties. The more positive the history of the parent–child tie and the greater the need for assistance, the more help exchanged.

· ● Middle-aged adults, often caught between caring for aging parents, assisting young-adult children and grandchildren, and meeting work and community responsibilities, are called the sandwich generation. The burden of caring for ill or frail parents falls most heavily on adult daughters, though the sex difference declines in later middle age.

· ● Parental caregiving has emotional and health consequences, especially in cultures and subcultures where adult children feel a particularly strong obligation to provide care. Social support is highly effective in reducing caregiver stress and helping adult children derive benefits from caregiving.

Describe midlife sibling relationships and friendships.

· ● Sibling contact and support decline from early to middle adulthood, probably because of the demands of diverse roles. But many middle-aged siblings feel closer, often in response to major life events. Sister–sister ties are typically closest in industrialized nations. In nonindustrialized societies, strong brother–sister attachments may be basic to family functioning.

· ● In midlife, friendships become fewer, more selective, and more deeply valued. Men continue to be less expressive with their friends than women, who have more close friendships. Viewing a spouse as a best friend can contribute greatly to marital happiness.

Vocational Life ( p. 553 )

· Discuss job satisfaction and career development in middle adulthood, with special attention to sex differences and experiences of ethnic minorities.

· ● Vocational readjustments are common as middle-aged people seek to increase the personal meaning and self-direction of their work lives. Certain aspects of job performance improve. Job satisfaction increases at all occupational levels, more so for men than for women.

· ● Burnout is a serious occupational hazard, especially for those in helping professions. It can be prevented by ensuring reasonable workloads, limiting hours of stressful work, providing workers with social support, and enlisting employees’ participation in designing higher-quality work environments.

· ● Both personal and workplace characteristics influence the extent to which older workers engage in career development. In companies with a more favorable age climate, mature employees report greater self-efficacy and commitment to the organization.

· ● Women and ethnic minorities face a glass ceiling because of limited access to management training and prejudice against women who demonstrate strong leadership qualities. Many women further their careers by leaving the corporate world, often to start their own businesses.

Discuss career change and unemployment in middle adulthood.

· ● Midlife career change typically involves leaving one line of work for a related one. Radical career change often signals a personal crisis. Among blue-collar workers, midlife career shifts are seldom freely chosen. image31

· ● Unemployment is especially difficult for middle-aged adults, who constitute the majority of workers affected by corporate downsizing and layoffs. Counseling can help them find alternative, gratifying work roles, but these rarely match their previous status and pay.

Discuss the importance of planning for retirement.

· ● Retirement brings major life changes, including loss of income and status and an increase in free time. Besides financial planning, planning for an active life is vital, with a strong impact on happiness after retirement. Low-paid workers and women need extra encouragement to participate in retirement planning.

Important Terms and Concepts

“big five” personality traits ( p. 542 )

burnout ( p. 554 )

feminization of poverty ( p. 544 )

generativity versus stagnation ( p. 532 )

glass ceiling ( p. 555 )

kinkeeper ( p. 545 )

midlife crisis ( p. 536 )

parental imperative theory ( p. 540 )

possible selves ( p. 538 )

sandwich generation ( p. 549 )

skipped-generation family ( p. 548 )

image32 milestones Development in Middle Adulthood

image33

40–50 years

· PHYSICAL

· ■ Accommodative ability of the lens of the eye, ability to see in dim light, and color discrimination decline; sensitivity to glare increases. ( 502 – 503 )

· ■ Hearing loss at high frequencies occurs. ( 503 )

· ■ Hair grays and thins. ( 502 )

· ■ Lines on the face become more pronounced; skin loses elasticity and begins to sag. ( 503 )

· ■ Weight gain continues, accompanied by a rise in fatty deposits in the torso, while fat beneath the skin declines. ( 504 )

· ■ Loss of lean body mass (muscle and bone) occurs. ( 504 )

· ■ In women, production of estrogen drops, leading to shortening and irregularity of the menstrual cycle. ( 504 ) image34

· ■ In men, quantity of semen and sperm declines. ( 507 )

· ■ Intensity of sexual response declines, but frequency of sexual activity drops only slightly. ( 509 )

· ■ Rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease increase. ( 509 – 513 )

COGNITIVE

· ■ Consciousness of aging increases. (502, 535)

· ■ Crystallized intelligence increases; fluid intelligence declines. ( 518 – 519 )

· ■ Speed of processing declines, but adults can compensate through experience and practice. ( 520 – 521 ) image35

· ■ Ability to attend selectively and to adapt attention—switching from one task to another—declines, but adults can compensate through experience and practice. ( 521 )

· ■ Amount of information retained in working memory declines, in part because of reduced use of memory strategies. ( 522 )

· ■ Retrieving information from long-term memory becomes more difficult. ( 522 )

· ■ General factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, knowledge related to one’s occupation, and metacognitive knowledge remain unchanged or may increase. ( 522 – 523 ) image36

· ■ Practical problem solving and expertise increase. ( 524 )

· ■ Creativity may become more deliberately thoughtful, emphasize integrating ideas, and shift from self-expression to more altruistic goals. ( 524 – 525 ) image37

· ■ If occupation offers challenge and autonomy, may show gains in cognitive flexibility. ( 525 – 526 )

EMOTIONAL/SOCIAL

· ■ Generativity increases. ( 532 – 533 )

· ■ Focus shifts toward personally meaningful living. ( 535 ) image38

· ■ Possible selves become fewer in number and more modest and concrete. ( 538 )

· ■ Self-acceptance, autonomy, and environmental mastery increase. ( 538 – 539 )

· ■ Strategies for coping with stressors become more effective. ( 539 )

· ■ Gender identity becomes more androgynous;

“masculine” traits increase in women, “feminine” traits in men. (535, 540–542)

· ■ Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase, while neuroticism declines. ( 542 )

· ■ May launch children. ( 544 – 545 )

· ■ May become a kinkeeper, especially if a mother. ( 545 )

· ■ May become a parent-in-law and a grandparent. ( 545 – 547 )

· ■ Becomes more appreciative of parents’ strengths and generosity; quality of relationships with parents increase. ( 547 )

· ■ May care for a parent with a disability or chronic illness. ( 549 – 551 )

· ■ Siblings may feel closer. ( 552 ) image39

· ■ Number of friends generally declines. ( 552 )

· ■ Intrinsic job satisfaction—happiness with one’s work—typically increases. ( 553 – 554 ) image40

50–65 years

PHYSICAL

· ■ Lens of the eye loses its capacity to adjust to objects at varying distances entirely. ( 502 )

· ■ Hearing loss gradually extends to all frequencies but remains greatest for high frequencies. ( 503 )

· ■ Skin continues to wrinkle and sag, “age spots” increase, and blood vessels in the skin become more visible. ( 503 )

· ■ In women, menopause occurs; as estrogen declines further, genitals are less easily stimulated, and the vagina lubricates more slowly during arousal. ( 504 )

· ■ In men, inability to attain an erection when desired becomes more common. ( 507 )

· ■ Loss of bone mass continues; rates of osteoporosis rise. (504, 512–513)

· ■ Collapse of disks in the spinal column causes height to drop by as much as 1 inch. ( 504 )

· ■ Rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease continue to increase. ( 509 – 513 ) image41

COGNITIVE

· ■ Cognitive changes previously listed continue. image42

EMOTIONAL/SOCIAL

· ■ Emotional and social changes previously listed continue. image43

· ■ Parent-to-child help-giving declines, and child-to-parent support and practical assistance increase. ( 548 – 549 ) image44

· ■ May retire. ( 556 – 557 )

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate the page or pages on which each milestone is discussed.

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Help in Cyberrat homework

July 1, 2025/in Psychology Questions /by Besttutor

my homework is it  exberiments that you have to do on application

you will dowonlowd the application frome this website http://cyberrat.net

it will cost 25$

then sign in by using my ID number

 

to do the experiment you have to follow the instruction that i uploud it in the attachment

ahter you do the expermen you have to answer some questions by looking to the  graph in the end of the experment

 

there are  two experments

1- experment nuber 3

2- experment numer 5

and each of them has insturactions you have to follow and questions you have to answer

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