Chapter 13 Power Point Middle Adulthood Development Broderick 4th Ed

CHAPTER 13:
Middle Adulthood: Cognitive,
Personality, and Social Development
The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals
Edition 4

Patricia C. Broderick and Pamela Blewitt

© (2015, 2010, 2006) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Life Span Developmental Theory
 Development is a process of adapting to a constant flux of influences on our lives
 Development requires multidimensional models
– Both hereditary and environmental influences
– Both continuity and change characterize adults
– Adaptation continues from birth to death
 Both biology and culture support development
– Supporting optimal development in childhood
– Most people reach adulthood and reproduce
– Selection pressures weaken by middle adulthood
– More cultural supports are required for success
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Development as Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of loss
 Change involves gains and losses throughout life
– Gains are most obvious early in life
– Losses are more obvious later
 Adaptation to change involves three global process
– Growth: Adding new characteristics, understandings, skills
– Maintenance or resilience: Finding ways to continue or restore functioning after loss
– Regulation of loss: Adjusting expectations and accepting a lower level of functioning
 Success means maximizing gains, minimizing losses
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Influences on Adult Development:
Sources of Stability
 Stability in the Big 5 personality traits after age 30
– Neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience
– Correlated with childhood temperament
 Biological causes are implicated
– Related to brain-mediated systems of approach, fear, irritability, effortful control, and reactivity
– Stable differences in reactivity, stress response
 Environmental influences equally important
– Predictable responses from others
– Relatively stable environments for many
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Influences on Adult Development:
Sources of Age-graded Change
 Age-graded change = change as a function of time
 Physical changes in adulthood
– Declines in sensory ability, reproductive ability
– Changes in appearance, wrinkles, weight
 Cognitive changes in adulthood
– Decline in fluid/mechanical processes, processing speed and inhibition mechanisms
– Stable or increasing crystallized resources, declarative and procedural knowledge
 Life tasks and responsibilities
– Fairly predictable sequence of change in roles
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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History-graded Changes
 Development is influenced by the intersection of
– Chronological age (life time)
– Family-related roles (family time)
– Membership in a birth cohort (historical time)
 Year of birth marks entry into a cohort of peers
 History-graded changes are those that affect the development of a whole cohort
– Examples include The Great Depression, WWII, the Vietnam War, social changes in 1960s, 9-11
– Effects of event depend on age and stage of life
 The social gradient
– Economic, social status alters impact of events
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Non-normative Changes
 Nonnormative events are sudden, unexpected, and individual – Not predicted by age, not relevant to everyone
– Create a new set of circumstances
– Have potential to alter course of development
 Many negative nonnormative events possible
– Traumatic illnesses, accidents, imprisonment or death of a loved one
 Some positive nonnormative events have impact
– Geographic move for a job promotion, major career change, economic windfall
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Key Developmental Tasks of Midlife
 Continuing pursuit of intimacy and generativity
 Impact of intimacy in midlife
– Good marriages or primary relationships confer important physical and psychological benefits
• Higher levels of happiness
• Higher sexual and emotional satisfaction
• Lower rates of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and physical illness
• Economic benefits and protective factors
• Tendency to live longer
 Friendships also very important for life satisfaction
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Intimacy: Marriage and Other
Primary Relationships
 The family life cycle: Normative stagelike sequence of roles and experiences
– Leaving home as single young adults
– Finding a compatible mate
– Joining of families through marriage
– Families with young children
– Families with adolescents
– Launching children and moving on
– Families in later life
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Marriage and Its Discontents
 Great majority of individuals marry at least once
 40 to 50% of first marriages in US end in divorce
– Post-divorce decline in economic circumstances
– Emotional and behavioral difficulties for children
 Theories of marital harmony and discord
– Disillusionment model: Romantic notions dashed
– Maintenance hypothesis: Romantic couples work to maintain illusions and therefore marriage
– Social exchange/behavioral theories: Marriage fails when problems become overwhelming, or because of inadequate for coping
– Intrapersonal models: Attachment and temperament explain marital success or failure
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Marriage: Keeping Love Alive
 Existing models do not adequately explain success
 A multidimensional model would include
– Intrapersonal factors: Traits, expectations
– Interpersonal factors: Problem-solving skills
– Situational factors: Stresses, environment
– Developmental factors: Transitions, role change
 Predicting marital success or satisfaction so far
– More successful when positive outweighs negative
– Negative affect reciprocity predicts dissolution
– “Four horsemen of the apocalypse” are criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Generativity: Making a Mark at Midlife
 Generativity is seen as a primary developmental task of middle adulthood
 Two components: desire and accomplishment
– Desire refers to wanting to be creative, productive, or giving
– Accomplishment means actually feeling that you are creative, productive, or giving
– Desire more characteristic of young adults
– Accomplishment more typical of middle adults
 For many people, raising children is a significant part of adult life and establishing generativity
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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The Experience of Child Rearing
 Most view parenting role as a generative process
 Parents experience more stress than nonparents
– Parents report both intense new stresses and delightful new pleasures
– Each stage of a child’s life presents new challenges for parents
 Meeting parenting challenges depends on
– Age and stage of life
– Personality and coping skills
– Socioeconomic status
– Available support systems
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Parenting Stages and Later Family
Roles First-time parents
 Newborn period and infancy: often distressed and overwhelmed
 Toddler, preschool: Parent begin to discipline child, must provide continuous supervision
 Middle childhood: Calmer period, but with plenty of challenges, new outside factors of peers, teachers
 Adolescence: Parenting usually becomes more difficult, increases in conflict and worry
 Launching period: Emerging adult children begin to move away and become more self-sufficient
 Kinkeeping period: Maintaining extended family connections, may be caring for elder and younger
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Generativity: Work and
Community Involvement
 Middle age is often the peak of career in terms of expertise, income, and advancement
 Common to function in many roles in middle age
– Multiple roles increase stress
– Also allows for role buffering (difficulty in one role buffered by success in another)
– Sense of generative accomplishment depends on how creative and productive adults feel
 People who score high on measures of generativity
– Report higher self-esteem and happiness
– Are more actively involved in political, religious, and social reform activities
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Applications: Fostering
Relational Well-being
 Some core skills and strategies clinicians can teach to help maintain relational well-being
1.
2.
3.
4.

Calm down
Speak nondefensively
Validate partners and what they’re going through
Overlearn, practice behaviors of self-soothing, nondefensive listening and validating
5. Pay attention to the little things, cultivate positive affect in daily interactions

Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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Focus on Developmental Psychopathology:
Post-traumatic
Disorder with
 Experiencing, witnessing, Stress or being confronted event so traumatizing that it results in symptoms of re-experiencing, hyperarousal, and avoidance
 Vulnerability to PTSD a combination of factors
– Biological vulnerability, stress response
– Psychological vulnerability, history of trauma
– Difficulties in executive functions prior to trauma
 Five features of treatment
– Addressing safety
– Calming by addressing pressing practical needs
– Supporting self and collective efficacy
– Bolstering connectedness among survivors
– Instilling hope
Broderick & Blewitt, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 4th Ed.

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