Middle Adulthood Theory

Later Adulthood is a period of many changes. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, “Later adulthood is the last major segment of the life span” (p.587). Individuals who are in going through their later adulthood are experiencing and dealing with an immense amount of emotions and feelings. There are several areas of an individual’s life that are effected by later adulthood. An individual’s work life, health, marriage, living situation, family relationships, and social relationships are all things that can be affected in some way by later adulthood. It is important for one to understand to the best of their ability the processes and events that take place in later adulthood,

It is, however, very common and seen by people who can recognize others make drastic changes. It is common to see a man buy a sports car or a woman go on a shopping spree to improve their looks. For whatever reason, adults who undergo such a change do so in ways that are concerning. Counseling could help, but some are not fond of telling their feelings to a random person, so they rather help themselves in the ways they know they can. The midlife crisis is common and can happen at anytime. Happiness in all aspects needs to be fulfilled to prevent radical changes. The midlife crisis is about fulfilling the unfulfilled and turning back the clock – by any

Generativity versus stagnation, Erikson's seventh developmental stage, occurs during middle adulthood. By generativity Erikson means primarily “a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and lead useful lives. The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation” (Santrock, 2013, p. 23). Both

The beginning stages of Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) model focus almost entirely on the individual and the self, developing those personal characteristics and developing the idea of the self. It is not until middle adulthood that the psychosocial conflict changes perspective to reflect outside of the self. The seventh psychosocial stage is generativity versus stagnation, which takes place during the ages of 40 to 60. In this stage, the individual turns the focus outside of themselves and starts to focus on society, community, and the family. While a person can feel generative by having their own family and children, this is only a small part of being successfully generative.

The world around us has many current issues that relate one way or another to family and consumer science. I recently read an article written by Joan R. McFadden and Kay T. Rawson Swan, entitled “Women During Midlife: Is It Transition or Crisis?”. The article talked about how women go through the different stages of menopause also known as mid-life crisis to some. With a mid-life crisis it is stated to involve a feeling of loneliness, a period of wanting to find one’s self in the world, a time to reinvent yourself, to live outside of a woman’s everyday life style, and to experience changes in health and family roles. For many women these statements are said to be true, but not all women are the same.

Cherry, K. Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood, Middle Age, and Old Age. (2014). Retrieved on July 6, 2014 from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_3.htm

This article was on a study that compared developmental trajectories of non-students, versus college-educated young adults, on the aspects of Arnett’s theory of emerging adulthood (Mitchell & Syed, 2015). However, there is a large group that literature has not been explored, and that category is on the young teen/adults who choose to not attend college, or are unable to because of socio economic status (Mitchell & Syed, 2015). The emerging adulthood theory has been controversial. The controversial topic has been brought up by researchers questioning how non-students may not experience the development of other emerging adults based on their interests to pursue adulthood without attending postsecondary education. The aim of the study was intended to compare emerging adulthood among individuals with college degrees, some college, and no college (Mitchell & Syed, 2015). Arnett’s development tasks for emerging adulthood include: finding a reliable and satisfying career, choosing a partner and starting a family, and establishing financial independence (Mitchell & Syed, 2015).

Someone who would be going through a “Mid-life crisis” is that of the age between 40 and 60("Development in midlife," 2004). It is the point during our lives where we go through periods of self-doubt, this is a natural and normal process ("Development in midlife," 2004). A mid-life crisis can be triggered by different experiences, for instance, children leaving the home, death of a parent or someone close, mid-life transition to

Today people who are age 65 or older make up more than one tenth of the U.S. population and are the quickest growing age group (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman,  2010). As adults reach later adulthood, they begin to undergo mental, physical, and social transformations. All of these changes are experienced and handled differently by each individual. Time and planning help to alleviate stress and can make these changes easier to deal with. Family and friends are an exceptional source of support during these tough times.

Human development is a process that starts right from childhood to adulthood. Individuals’ success and life satisfaction depends on what they develop in the society from their childhood period. This is a topic that has always drawn the attention of many scholars and theorists who try to explain what development entails through various stages of life. This paper provides an analysis of various relevant theories and research that focus on the developmental changes that take place in early, middle, and late adulthood. It focuses on Schaie’s stage of achieving, and Erikson’s theory on intimacy, generativity, and identity development. It also explores life satisfaction in middle adulthood, and lastly, the common illnesses of the elderly.

Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.

Particularly women, begin to interpret these changes in a negative way. Some view themselves as sexually unattractive. Men, on the other hand, don’t seem to be as concerned about their physical appearance, since society has placed much of the physical importance on the women. This is a time where we need to accept these failings and move towards more important issues. This is also a time when men and women become more health conscious. We all know of the major diseases that cause premature deaths during middle adulthood, such as cancer and heart disease. When you’re a young adult, you don’t think about these health issues as you would during middle adulthood. There is more of a concern to take better care of our health, such as heathy diets, cardiovascular activity, resistance training, and not smoking. We might be better prepared for later adulthood, if we lead a healthy lifestyle. We start to realize our mortality. As most people live to be about 85, we realize that at 40, we’re almost half-way there.

The stage that follows early adulthood is known as middle adulthood where people are generally caught between being productive and being stagnant. This stage reflects the need to create a living legacy: they would either need to feel they have become an important figure for the next generation to follow or they would develop a sense of purposelessness which is generally known as a “mid-life crisis”. This crisis can be solved by having the adults care and nurture children or help the fore-coming generation in other ways or means, however if the crisis remains the person would persist in random non-age-appropriate behavior as well as a continued feeling in stagnation. During this stage adults lose some of their physical aspects as their muscular strength, ability and agility weakens. Women will go through a menopausal

Middle-aged adults experience change in many different areas of their life at this time, they will find that not only their health is changing, but their appearance, their family, their thinking, and their emotions are changes as well. When discussing people that fall into the middle adulthood age of life, the term “midlife crisis” is often used, but according to an article titled Middle Adulthood Developmental Psychology, “most people during middle adulthood are satisfied and pleased with their lives”, ("Physical Changes," 2008-2013, expression 1). This article also states that the age range for middle adulthood is approximately age thirty-five to sixty-four. Midlife crisis is a when an individual views themselves and are unhappy with

     During this closing period in the life span of human beings, people tend to “move away” from previous more desirable periods often known as “usefulness”.