Middle Adulthood

Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

§ The changing midlife - Many of today’s 50-year-olds are in better shape, more alert, and
more productive than their 40-year-old counterparts from a generation or two earlier
§ What is middle adulthood?
§ begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of
age
§ a time of declining physical skills and expanding responsibility
§ a period in which people become more conscious of the young-old polarity and the
shrinking amount of time left in life
§ a point when individuals seek to transmit something meaningful to the next generation
§ a time when people reach and maintain satisfaction in their careers

The Nature of Middle Adulthood

§ According to Lachman in 2004, middle adulthood involves balancing work and
relationship responsibilities in the midst of the physical and psychological changes
associated with aging
§ The age of gains (growth) and loses (decline)

Physical Development
§ physical changes are usually more gradual, rates of aging vary considerably from one
individual to another
§ Visible signs – physical appearance (visible by 40s to 40s), skin begins to wrinkle and sag
because of a loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues, Small, localized areas of
pigmentation in the skin produce age spots, especially in areas that are exposed to
sunlight, such as the hands and face, Hair becomes thinner and grayer due to a lower
replacement rate and a decline in melanin production. Fingernails and toenails develop
ridges and become thicker and more brittle.
§ Height and weight - Individuals lose height in middle age, and many gain weight
§ Strength, Joints, and Bones - Maximum physical strength often is attained during the
twenties. The term sarcopenia is given to age-related loss of muscle mass and strength .
IT occurs at a rate of approximately 1 to 2 percent per year after age 50
§ A loss of strength especially occurs in the back and legs.
§ many individuals experience joint stiffness and more difficulty in movement
§ Women lose bone mass twice as fast as men do
§ By the end of midlife, bones break more easily and heal more slowly
§ Vision and Hearing - Accommodation of the eye (the ability to focus and maintain an
§ image on the retina) experiences its sharpest decline between 40 and 59 years of age.
§ hearing loss occurs in up to 50 percent of individuals 50 years and older
§ Sensitivity to high pitches usually declines first, Men usually lose their sensitivity to
high-pitched sounds sooner than women do
 § Cardiovascular system - a time when high blood pressure and high cholesterol often
take adults by surprise. These increase during the adult years and in midlife begins to
accumulate on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease
§ High blood pressure (hypertension), too, often begins to appear (40s – 50s)
§ metabolic syndrome - A condition characterized by hypertension, obesity, and insulin
resistance. This often leads to the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease
§ Lungs - at about age 55, the proteins in lung tissue become less elastic. This change,
combined with a gradual stiffening of the chest wall, decreases the lungs’ capacity to
shuttle oxygen from the air people breathe to the blood in their veins
§ Sleep - beginning in the forties, wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of
the deepest type of sleep, The amount of time spent lying awake in bed at night begins
to increase in middle age

Health, Disease, Stress, and Control

§ the frequency of accidents declines and individuals are less susceptible to colds and
allergies, However, disease and persistent health problems become more common in
middle adulthood for some individuals
§ Chronic disorders are characterized by a slow onset and a long duration. These are rare
in early adulthood, increase in middle adulthood, and become common in late
adulthood.
§ arthritis is the leading chronic disorder in middle age, followed by hypertension
§ Men have a higher incidence of fatal chronic conditions (such as coronary heart disease,
cancer, and stroke); women have a higher incidence of nonfatal ones (such as arthritis,
varicose veins, and bursitis)
§ Stress and disease - stressors can have damaging effects on physical functioning
§ elevated cortisol levels are linked to physical health problems such as lower immune
system functioning and higher blood pressure, cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease,
and higher levels of mental health problems such as anxiety and depressive disorders
§ The immune system keeps us healthy by recognizing foreign materials such as viruses,
tumors, and harmful bacteria and then destroying them. IT becomes less effective with
normal aging
§ Control - having a sense of control peaks in midlife and then declines in late adulthood
§ Mortality rates - Infectious disease was the main cause of death until the middle of the
twentieth century.
§ Chronic diseases are now the main causes of death for individuals in middle adulthood.

Sexuality
§ Climacteric - term that is used to describe the midlife transition in which fertility
declines
§ Menopause -usually during late 40s or early 50s, when a woman’s menstrual periods
cease
§ Perimenopause - the transitional period from norm menstrual periods to no menstrual
periods at all, which often takes up to 10 years
 § Hormonal Changes in Middle-Aged Men - most men do not lose their capacity to father
children, but usually is a modest decline in their sexual hormone level and activity
§ Testosterone production begins to decline about 1 % a year during middle adulthood,
and sperm count usually declines slowly, but men do not lose their fertility in middle age
§ Erectile dysfunction (ED) – difficulty attaining or maintaining penile erection affects
approximately 50% of men 40 to 70 years of age and 75 percent of men over 70 years
§ Viagra – main treatment for erectile dysfunction
§ Sexual Attitudes and Behavior – Although the ability of men and women to function
sexually shows little biological decline in middle adulthood, sexual activity usually occurs
less frequently in midlife than in early adulthood

Cognitive Development
§ John Horn argues that some abilities begin to decline in middle age while others
increase
§ crystallized intelligence - an individual’s accumulated information and verbal skills,
continues to increase in middle adulthood
§ fluid intelligence - ability to reason abstractly, begins to decline in middle adulthood
§ the highest level of functioning for four of the six intellectual abilities (verbal ability,
verbal memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial orientation) occurred in middle
adulthood
§ numeric facility and perceptual speed declined during middle age
§ perceptual speed showed the earliest decline
§ middle age was a time of peak performance for some aspects of both crystallized
intelligence and fluid intelligence

Information Processing
§ memory - verbal memory peaked during the fifties based on seattle longitudinal studies,
however, in some other studies, verbal memory has shown a decline in middle age,
especially when assessed in cross-sectional studies
§ Expertise - Because it takes so long to attain, expertise often shows up more in middle
adulthood than in early adulthood
§ Practical problem solving - ability to solve such practical problems improved through the
forties and fifties as individuals accumulated practical experience

Careers, Work, and Leisure

§ Work in midlife - Many middle-aged adults reach their peak in position and earnings.
However, they may also be saddled with multiple financial burdens including rent or
mortgage, child care, medical bills, home repairs, college tuition, loans to family
members, or bills from nursing homes.
§ CAREER CHALLENGES AND CHANGES - Some midlife career changes are self-motivated;
others are the consequence of losing one’s job.
§ Leisure - refers to the pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue
activities and interests of their own choosing—hobbies, sports, or reading, for example
 § Adults at midlife need to begin preparing psychologically for retirement. Constructive
and fulfilling leisure activities in middle adulthood are an important part of this
preparation.

Religion, Spirituality, and Meaning in Life

§ Can religion be distinguished from spirituality? Pamela King and her colleagues (2011)
provide the following distinctions:
§ Religion - an organized set of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols that increases an
individual’s connection to a sacred or transcendent other
§ Religiousness - refers to the degree of affiliation with an organized religion, participation
in its prescribed rituals and practices, connection with its beliefs, and involvement in a
community of believers.
§ Spirituality- experiencing something beyond oneself in a transcendent manner and living
in a way that benefits others and society
§ Women have consistently shown a stronger interest in religion and spirituality than men
§ How might religion influence physical health?
§ Some cults and religious sects encourage behaviors that can be damaging to health,
such as ignoring sound medical advice
§ Victor Frankl: three most distinct human qualities are spirituality, freedom, and
responsibility.
§ people need to ask themselves questions such as why they exist, what they want from
life, and what the meaning of their life might be
§ WE begin to be faced with death more often, especially the deaths of parents and other
older relatives, and facing less time ahead of them than behind them
§ Having a sense of meaning in life can lead to clearer guidelines for living one’s life and
enhanced motivation to take care of oneself and reach goals
§ Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs argue that this quest can be understood in terms of
four main needs for meaning that guide how people try to make sense of their lives:
need for purpose, values, sense of efficacy, and self-worth

Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

Personality Theories and Adult Development

§ Erikson: Generativity Versus Stagnation – 7th stage
§ Generativity encompasses adults’ desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next
generation, achieving some kind of immortality
§ stagnation (sometimes called “self-absorption”) develops when individuals sense that
they have done nothing for the next generation
§ Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life – the transition to middle adulthood lasts about five
years (ages 40 to 45) and requires the adult to come to grips with four major conflicts
that have existed in his life since adolescence: (1) being young versus being old, (2)
being destructive versus being constructive, (3) being masculine versus being feminine,
and (4) being attached to others versus being separated from them.
 § life events were viewed as taxing circumstances for individuals, forcing them to change
their personality.
§ Events such as the death of a spouse, divorce, and marriage, were believed to involve
varying degrees of stress, and therefore likely to influence the individual's development
§ In contemporary life-events approach, life events influence the individual’s
development depends TOGETHER WITH mediating factors

Stability and Change

§ Costa and McCrae BALTIMORE STUDIES - concluded that considerable stability occurs in
the five personality factors - emotional stability (Neuroticism), extraversion, openness,
agreeableness, AND conscientiousness

§ Berkeley Longitudinal Studies - The results from early adolescence through a portion of
midlife did not support either extreme in the debate over whether personality is
characterized by stability or change. HOWEVER, Some characteristics were more stable
than others.
§ The most stable characteristics were the degree to which individuals were intellectually
oriented, self-confident, and open to new experiences.
§ Helson’s Mills College Study - concluded that rather than being in a midlife crisis, the
women were experiencing midlife consciousness.
§ George Vaillant’s Studies - when individuals at 50 years of age were not heavy smokers,
did not abuse alcohol, had a stable marriage, exercised, maintained a normal weight,
and had good coping skills, they were more likely to be alive and happy at 75 to 80 years
of age.

Close Relationships
§ The fires of Romantic love are strong in early adulthood. Affectionate, or
companionship, love increases during middle adulthood
§ Marriage – A study revealed that marital satisfaction increased in middle agE. marriages
that were difficult and rocky during early adulthood improved during middle adulthood.
§ DIVORCE – occurs after 50 years of agE
§ Compared with earlier decades, divorce has less stigma for women and they are more
likely to leave an unhappy marriage, THUS THE INCREASE IN MIDLIFE DIVORCE
 § empty nest syndrome – includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the
home. FOR MOST PARENTS, marital satisfaction does not decline after children have left
home AS THEY USE THEIR TIME TO pursue career interests and to spend with each other
§ “boomerang kids” and “B2B” (or Back-to-Bedroom) - young adults who return to their
parents’ homes to live after several years of college, after graduating from college, to
save money after taking a full-time job, after an unsuccessful career or a divorce
§ SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS in adulthood may be extremely close, apathetic, or highly
rivalrous
§ Those siblings who are psychologically close to each other in adulthood tended to be
that way in childhood, majority are close.
§ Friendships are as important in middle adulthood as they were in early adulthood. It
takes time to develop intimate friendships, so friendships that have endured over the
adult years are often deeper than those that are newly formed
§ GRANDPARENTING - Grandparents especially play important roles in grandchildren’s
lives when family crises such as divorce, death, illness, abandonment, or poverty occur
§ Researchers have consistently found that grandmothers have more contact with
grandchildren than grandfathers do
§ Three prominent meanings are attached to being a grandparent:
§ brings a sense of biological reward and continuity
§ source of emotional self-fulfillment, generating feelings of companionship and
satisfaction that may have been missing in earlier adult-child relationships
§ a remote role, providing a sense of purpose and a feeling of being valued

Intergenerational Relationships
§ Family members usually maintain contact across generations.
§ Mothers and daughters have the closest relationships.
§ Middle-aged adults have been described as the “sandwich,” “squeezed,” or “overload”
generation because of the responsibilities they have for their adolescent and young
adult children as well as their aging parents
§ Middle aged adults play an important role in linking generations