Middle Adulthood Changes

Issues in Middle Adulthood

• Middle adulthood covers physical, cognitive, social, and personality aspects.

Physical and Cognitive Development

Physical Transitions

• Height stabilizes until about age 55.
• There is a gradual decline in height with women losing around 2 inches and men around 1 inch.
• Women face a greater risk of height loss due to osteoporosis.
• Body fat increases, leading to "middle-age spread".
• Weight gain is commonly seen as height declines or stabilizes.
• Muscle strength decreases, especially in back and leg muscles.
• Maximum strength declines by roughly 10% by age 60.
• Tying self-image to physical attributes can influence emotional reactions.
• Societal pressures on appearance affect women, particularly, and perceptions of aging and attractiveness differ between genders.

The Senses

• Visual acuity declines around age 40
• Presbyopia causes loss of near vision, requiring reading glasses or bifocals
• Other vision declines include depth and distance perception, and adaptability to darkness
• Possible sight loss can be caused by Glaucoma, treatable if detected early
• Hearing gradually declines beginning in middle adulthood
• Hearing loss is caused by age-related and environmental factors like exposure to loud noises
• Presbycusis affects the ability to hear high-frequency sounds, affecting 12% in mid-50s to mid-60s
• Men are more prone to hearing loss
• Difficulty idnentifying the direction and origin of sound
• Adaptation strategies for sensory changes include increasing volume, asking people to speak louder, and focusing on conversations
• Most people can adjust easily to sensory losses.

Reaction Time

• Reaction time increases by about 20% from 20 to 60 years of age.
• The changes in reaction time are most noticable in simple tasks such as reacting to a loud noise
• Decline in nerve impulse processing speed in the nervous system increases reaction time
• Driving performance, like reacting to emergency situations, is slightly impaired
• Fewer accidents are caused by middle-aged drivers, which is due to cautiousness, risk aversion, and expertise
• Practice and experience lessen the slowing of reaction time
• Experience improves driving performance
• Active exercise programs can delay the effects of aging
• Health improvements, muscle strength and endurance provide benefits
• Engagement in activities can slow decline

Sexuality

• Menopause typically occurs around age 45 and signals the cessation of menstruation
• Physical menopause changes include thinning of vaginal walls, vaginal shrinkage and potential for discomfort
• Menopause can lead to symptoms such as headaches, hot flashes, dizziness, and heart palpitations
• Hormonal effects of menopause include decreased production of progesterone and estrogen
• Treatments may include Hormone replacement therapy for symptom alleviation, but with risks
• Psychological effects are linked to attitudes and cultural backgrounds
• Andropause or male climacteric describes gradual physiological changes in late middle age around the age of 50
• Physical changes include reduced testosterone production and potential erectile dysfunction
• Prostate enlargement in about 50% of men by age 80 can lead to urination problems
• Treatments include medication like Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis; testosterone replacement therapy.
• There is an unclear psychological impact on males caused by physical changes
• Frequency of sexual activity declines but remain important for many
• After menopause, middle-aged women may experience a liberation from fears of pregnancy
• Men require a longer time for achieving an erection and ejaculatory changes
• Cultural and ethnic variances cause different experiences and perceptions of menopause
• Psychological impacts vary based on individual attitudes and expectations toward changes.

Wellness and Illness

• The majority in middle age report no chronic health difficulties or activity limitations
• Some health improvements include lower likelihood of infections, lower instances of allergies, and lower occurences of respiratory and digestive issues, compared to younger adults
• The onset of common chronic diseases such as arthritis, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes begins

Intelligence in Middle Adulthood

• Traditional beliefs said that intelligence peaks at 18, and declines in mid-20s.
• Modern thinking now indicates complex, multifaceted changes in intelligence occurring across adulthood
• Cross-sectional studies demonstrate that older subjects scored lower on IQ tests, showing potential biases due to cohort effects, education, and health disparities
• Longitudinal studies show that intelligence is stable or increases until the mid-30s to 50s and that studies are susceptible to sample attrition bias and practice effects
• Fluid intelligence is responsible for reasoning, information processing, and memory, and it declines with age
• Crystallized intelligence relates to knowledge and learned skills, and it improves, or holds steady
• Fluid and crystallized intelligence are interconnected in nature
• Spacial orientation and inductive reasoning decline from age 25 onwards
• Verbal ability stabilizes around 40 and numeric ability peaks in mid-40s
• Genetic changes occur in learning-related genes at around the age of 40
• Brain functioning adapts, utilizing both hemispheres

Development of Expertise

• Expertise involves aquisition of a knowledge of skill in a specific area
• Expertise is gained through attention, practice, and experience
• Professional experience:
  • physicians diagnose better through patient interaction
  • exposure and practice in other professions
• Personal interests:
  • cooking hobbies lead to intuitive knowledge
  • enjoyment fosters expertise in specific areas
• When compared to beginners, experts rely less on rules and more on intution
• automatic information processing is used
• Better strategies:
  • Experts create effective problem solving strategies
  • The approach is more flexible due to experience

Adult Personality Development

Life Events Models

• Events shape personality development instead of age being the driving factor
• Example: first child at 21 vs first child at 39
• Shared experiences lead to shared psychological forces
• Shared events result in shared psychological experiences

Eriksons Stage

Generativity vs Stagnation

• Generativity involves making contributions to family, community, society, and work

• Mentorship and Parenting are avenues of contribution

• Generativity is focused on making a lasting impact that exceeds personal interests

• Stagnation involves a lack of psychological growth

• Stagnation results in a feeling of limited contributions and significance, frustration, and boredom

• Vaillant and Gould expanded on Eriksons ideas

• "Keeping the Meaning", Rigidity is a key factor around 54-55 years of age

• Seven stages are connected to specific age periods

• Levinsons Seasons:

  • Transition and crisis in early 40s - midlife transition
  • Questioning lives finite nature and facing signs of aging
  • Facing signs of aging which involve assessing accomplishments and seeking corrections

• Contrary to what is commonly believed, most passage into middle age is tranquil

• Many at midlife can find career and family dynamics rewarding

• A feeling of being younger than your age is linked to better health outcomes

Stability

• Evidence supports relative stability in particular traits over the lifespan
• Even-temperedness, affection, and disorganized traits persist.
• Some traits strengthen with the amplification of age
• Basic traits such as neuroticism, extraversion, and openness decline slightly after 30
• Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase
• Apparent Contradictions
  • Basic traits show continuity but life events and experiences lead to changes
• Impactful life events
  • Changes in family, career, health, aging and understandings of mortality contribute to personality
• Complex interplays
  • Personality show susceptibility to changes influenced by life events and aging
• Both stability and change coexist

Marriage and Divorice

• There is an increased diversity in middle adulthood marital statuses
• More individuals living single, remarried, cohabiting and married
• Diveorce leads to blending of families
• Marital satisfaction follows a u-shaped trajectory
• Friendship, mutual respect, shared goals and a growing interest in a spouse contributes to satisfaction
• The quality of sexual satisfaction is more important than the frequency
• Coping mechanisms in marriages include realistic expectations, positive focus, compromise and open communications
• A ride of midlife diveorces are occurring despite declining rates overall
• Causes of divorce:
  • A reduction in time together
  • emphasis on personal happiness
  • Increased stress and lower passion
• Infidelity contributes too issues reported in reports
• Challenges for women:
  • Traditional roles are correlated with higher instances of job loss
• Positive outcomes
  • personal growth, independence and the potential of developing new relationships emerge
• 75-80% remarry in between 2-5 yeats, men prefer someone who is remarried
• Gender plays a roll remarriage
  • Older women face challenges in remarrying due to society
• Motivations for
  • A way to combat society
  • To increase comfort
  • To stabilize economic stability
  • To improve overall satisfaction

Family Evolitions

• Decline in parental transition which comes with a departure in children
• Those that are homemakes lose particularly
• Positive shifts in family dynamics create opportunities for personal growth and career advancement
• a decline of emotions for the parental figures involved in kids leaving
• There is a trend in helicopter parenting
• A refilling in life with the return of chidren
• More children stay at home due too economic factors
• A rise of the sandwich generation which comes with new responsibilities
• Psychologicals and rolereversl causes a complexity in a rise
• The generation rises with intergeneration households
• There is a burden in care and culture
• There is a shift in gender roles around these family evolutions
• Psychological rewords lead to attachment
• family members develop close relationships

Work and Carear

• As priorities shift, there is a transition of work and carear
• There is a change of productivtity
• The goal and aspiration might shift and decline
• concerns are linked in change
• Job satisfaction evolves:
  • There is an increase in salary
  • The level of stress shifts in response to the conditions
  • The satisfaction also plays an important role in transition
• Burnout results in cynicism and disatisfaction
• Reduce burnout by
  • Reframe roles in the workforce
  • Celebrate any achievement made
  • Mentally disengage

Unemployement

• The effects of it
• Loss if carear can cause anxiety and depression in the people who have lost it
• The individual will decline
• Health and mentally become damaged
• The rate of suicide increases if un employed has become more of an issue
• Psychiatric admissions occur due to those conditions involved
• The psychosocial consequences result
• Long therm unmeployement has an impact
• The chances of someone being looked at diminish
• There is a discrimination caused by age in these environments
• emotional adjustment
• adjustment to losing the job, new careers and adjustment

Carears

• To seek new challenges when a Carear has mastered every thing

• New role creates that desire

• Adaptation is a must!

• Fresh start is also a motivator

• Can cause a loss to the original plan

• Challenges and realities

• Expectations

• Some people end up liking them even if they lose

• New skills can be learned as well

Leasure

• Middle age can make you want to watch tv more with about 52 hours a week
• To engage you need engagement
• So you can do activities
• As you interact you need a social interaction
• This makes it social
• As it grows you can increase with financials

Early Retirement

• Lifestyle can be improved, or new improvements can be gratified
• More time and energy can be added to make things great
• Financial security can be achieved
• Perspective is what helps improve

Perception of leisure time

• A peace in time
• But even with that things can seem as time is faster, or faster to take
• Engage helps time take long
• Improve the time as long as you can to make peace

Middle-aged drivers have fewer accidents due to experience. Active exercise programs can slow reaction time decline. Menopause in women involves physiological changes treatable with hormone therapy, considering cardiovascular risks. Personality traits evolve, with agreeableness increasing, shaped by both stability and life events.