Social Development in Adulthood

10 Key excerpts on "Social Development in Adulthood"

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  Psychology

  • Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Adrian Furnham(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Their other distortion is that of personal fables, the belief that they are unique and exceptional and their thoughts are shared by no one else, which may lead to their thinking that nobody understands them and risk-taking behaviour. Adulthood and Old Age LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5 Describe key social and emotional changes that take place throughout adulthood. Traditionally, developmental psychology viewed adulthood as an outcome rather than a period worthy of study. Indeed, many of today’s theorists further divide adulthood into a series of stages: early adulthood, middle adulthood and old age. Let us look at some of the developmental changes that happen over the course of adulthood. Social and Emotional Development in Adulthood Although the social and emotional changes that occur in adulthood are more gradual than those that characterize childhood, adults do in fact experience multiple transitions in these spheres of functioning (Aldwin et al., 2010; Freund & Lamb, 2010; Holcomb, 2010). As shown in Table 4.4, Erikson proposed that individuals confront important psychosocial conflicts as they travel from early adulthood to old age. A number of other theorists have made similar claims. Social and Emotional Features of Early and Middle Adulthood According to Erikson (1985), during early adulthood (20 to 30 years of age), people form intimate relationships and sex- ual unions that call for self-sacrifice and compromise. In fact, he believed that the primary goal of this period is to attain love. The ethical convictions developed in adolescence and the sense of moral obligation formed in childhood contribute to ethical strength in young adulthood. These early acquisi- tions are important, he believed, because a sense of morality is required for the truly loving relationships of adulthood.

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  Adult Development and Aging

  Biopsychosocial Perspectives

  • Susan K. Whitbourne, Stacey B. Whitbourne(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  We hope this text will educate you otherwise! 22 Models of Individual– Environment Interactions 23 The study of adult development and aging has evolved from the field of developmental psychology to incorpo- rate the years beyond childhood and adolescence into a unified view of the life span. For many years, the field of developmental psychology was synonymous with the field of child development. Starting in the 1960s, several influ- ential theorists determined that the emphasis in the field should extend through the entire life span. They argued that designating a point when people stopped developing did not make sense because people do not stop grow- ing and changing once they reach full maturity. Although there are still theorists and researchers in developmental psychology who retain an emphasis on the early years, the emphasis in the field is increasingly coming to embrace the middle and later years of life. Reflecting the expanded view of developmental psy- chology beyond the early years of life, the term develop- mental science emerged in the 1960s to promote a more integrative, life-span view of individual growth and change (Magnusson, 1996). The use of the term ‘‘science’’ rather than ‘‘psychology’’ additionally conveys a shift from focus- ing solely on what happens to the individual over time to understanding the systematic effects of multiple influences that all play a role in the developmental process. Developmental scientists look, then, at the multiple intersecting factors that impact change. According to this approach, to understand development, we have to go beyond the unit of the individual and look at social context. Contextual influences on development include sex, race, ethnicity, social class, income, religion, and culture.

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  HDEV

  • Spencer Rathus(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  358 PART FIVE: Middle and Late Adulthood Masterfile 18 Late Adulthood: Social and Emotional Development LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this chapter, you will be able to. . . 18-1 Evaluate various theories of social and emotional development in late adulthood 18-2 Discuss psychological development in late adulthood, focusing on self-esteem and maintaining independence 18-3 Discuss the social contexts in which people age, focusing on housing, religion, and family 18-4 Describe factors that contribute to adjustment to retirement 18-5 Discuss factors in “successful aging” 359 CHAPTER 18: Late Adulthood: Social and Emotional Development 18-1 THEORIES OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATE ADULTHOOD Late adulthood differs from the phases of life that come before it. Previous phases or stages focus on growth and gains, or at least on stability, in most areas. In late adulthood, we must now cope with decline and death. Theories of development in late adulthood deal with the ways in which we can approach our relationships with our changing bodies, our mental capacities, transitions in intimate relationships, our families, society at large, and voluntary and involuntary relocations (Lange & Grossman, 2010). 18-1a ERIK ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY AND OFFSHOOTS Erikson labeled his eighth or final stage of life the stage of ego integrity versus despair . As a perennial opti-mist, Erikson believed that people who achieved positive outcomes to earlier life cri-ses—for example, generativity rather than stagnation in mid-dle adulthood—would be more likely to obtain ego integrity than despair in late adulthood. F or many people, the later years are the best years— especially when they are filled with meaningful activity. The stresses involved in building and maintaining a career, selecting a mate, and rearing children may have receded.

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  Visualizing

  The Lifespan

  • Jennifer Tanner, Amy Warren, Daniel Bellack(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  422 ❑ Process Diagram, p. 423 ❑ What a Developmentalist Sees, p. 427 ❑ Challenges in Development, p. 429 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 424 ❑ p. 435 ❑ p. 441 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Answer What’s happening in this picture? ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. CHAPTER PLANNER ✓ ✓ In this chapter, we will see how middle adulthood involves a great deal of adaptation, just as Ruth experi- enced. The demands of adult children growing up and aging parents needing more help bring stress into the lives of middle-aged adults. Despite these stresses, the middle adult years are often the happiest because they are a time to reflect on all that one has achieved. 419 420 CHAPTER 14 Socioemotional Development in Adulthood ince Freud’s time, a number of psychologists have come to challenge Freud’s belief that development ends after adolescence. Now we know that adults continue to develop well past adolescence. Midlife is no exception. The change we see in middle adulthood is often in response to signifi- cant life events such as divorce and career transitions, whereas change in earlier decades is often in response to physical growth and maturation. Personality in Midlife Until recently, researchers believed that personality traits were fixed by age 30 (Costa & McCrae, 1994, pp. 21–40). Costa and McCrae (1994) tracked changes in the Big five personality traits (OCEAN: openness to experience, con- scientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) in adults ages 19 to 80 in the Baltimore Study of Aging. They found that among adults followed for more than a decade, the most dramatic changes in personality traits took place in adolescence and early adulthood, followed by less change in the 30s, and then stability from middle through late adulthood (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006; Specht, Egloff, & Schmukle, 2011).

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  Visualizing the Lifespan

  • Jennifer Tanner, Daniel Bellack, Colleen MacQuarrie(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  14 Socio-emotional Development in Adulthood L orraine called the meeting to order and thought with pride how much their social justice group had accomplished in their city and province. Together, they’d organized to lead a project on poverty and poor housing, and now they were organizing for better eye and dental care for people with low income. It had taken a lot of collective work and sharing of resources and skills but together they were making a difference in their community. In this chapter, we will see how middle adulthood—as Lorraine is experiencing—involves opportunities for growth and adaptation on many 451 Christopher Futcher/iStockphoto CHAPTER OUTLINE Personality Development 452 • Personality in Mid-life • Psychosocial Development: Generativity vs. Stagnation Social Influences 456 • Family in Mid-life ■ What a Developmentalist Sees: Mid-life Marital Biographies • Marriage in Mid-life ■ Challenges in Development: Marital Help-Seeking • Parental Caregiving ■ Where Developmentalists Click:The Family Caregiver.com • Relationships with Adult Siblings and Friends Emotional Development 468 • Emotions in Mid-life • Well-Being in Mid-life • Gender Roles in Mid-life • Careers in Mid-life ❑ Study the picture and read the opening story. ❑ Scan the Learning Objectives in each section: p. 452 ❑ p. 456 ❑ p. 468 ❑ ❑ Read the text and study all visuals. Answer any questions. Analyze key features ❑ Development InSight, p. 454 ❑ Process Diagram, p. 455 ❑ What a Developmentalist Sees, p. 459 ❑ Challenges in Development, p. 461 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 456 ❑ p. 467 ❑ p. 474 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Answer What is happening in this picture? ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. CHAPTER PLANNER ✓ ✓ 451 levels. We will think about how juggling demands of adult children growing up and aging parents needing more help impact the lives of middle-aged adults.

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  Adult Development and Aging

  Biopsychosocial Perspectives

  • Susan K. Whitbourne, Stacey B. Whitbourne, Candace Konnert(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  A psychoanalyst by training, Erikson attempted to understand how people navigate the major life issues that they face when they encounter each of life’s new challenges. Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development pro- poses that at certain points in life, a person’s biological, psychological, and social changes come together to influ- ence our personality. He defined each stage of develop- ment as a “crisis” or turning point that influences how people resolve the issues they face in a subsequent period in life. The “crisis” is not truly a crisis in the sense of being a catastrophe or disaster. Instead, each psycho- social stage is a time during which the individual may move closer to either a positive or negative resolution of a particular psychosocial issue. Figure 2.4 illustrates the eight-stage matrix. Let’s take a look at a stage that characterizes young adulthood. During this period in life, which Erikson called the “intimacy versus isolation stage,” biology, psychol- ogy, and sociocultural factors make it likely that people are faced with decisions about committing to long-term relationships. They are, of course, biologically capable of engaging in sexual relationships, but they are also psy- chologically capable of serious emotional involvement with another adult. Socially, young adults are expected to “settle down” and find a partner. Young adults emerge from this crisis either ready to embark on a close relation- ship (“intimacy”) or unable to make long-term commit- ments (“isolation”). Erikson maintained that everyone goes through the eight crisis stages in the same order. The epigenetic prin- ciple asserts that each stage unfolds from the previous stage according to a predestined order. These stages are set in much the same manner as the programming for the biological development of the individual throughout life. According to Erikson, they are built into the hard-wiring of the human being.

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  21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook

  • Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Social Changes The final topic is how adults change socially as they develop. Social development includes research on the fol-lowing topics: family life cycle, sexuality, friendship, and lifestyle choices. Family Life Cycle As people age and move from adolescence through adulthood, their place in the family hierarchy changes with them. This progression through the different stages of the family system is often called the family life cycle . Carter and McGoldrick (1989) identified six stages to the family life cycle. During each stage, a person moves through the family hierarchy, assuming the place of someone else who has also moved along the hierarchy. The family life cycle starts with the launching of an indi-vidual into the world. This stage is characterized by leav-ing the security of one’s original family and moving on to start one’s own life. During this time, personal goals, assets, and an individual’s identity formulate. The second stage involves the previously launched individual coming together with another launched individual to create an entirely new family system. The third stage of the fam-ily life cycle involves the new couple having children. Here, the new couple moves up a generation in the family hierarchy, assuming the role of parents. Also, all others in their extended families move up a generation as well. The fourth stage is the couple with adolescents. This is a very stressful time in the couple’s life, with their children asserting autonomy and indicating their desire to move up in the family hierarchy. The fifth stage is the couple at midlife. Now the individuals who were launched by their own parents launch their own child. Additionally, this couple is not only still helping their children to manage their lives but also often taking care of their parents, who are now in an elderly state.

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  Visualizing Psychology

  • Karen R. Huffman, Alastair Younger, Claire Vanston(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  In this chapter, we’ll look at these aspects of de- velopment. We’ll also examine how sex, gender, and culture influence our development. Finally, we’ll explore several key developmental chal- lenges during adulthood. © Oleksiy Mark/iStockphoto 267 CHAPTER OUTLINE Social, Moral, and Personality Development 268 • Social Development: The Importance of Attachment ■ What a Psychologist Sees: Attachment:The Power of Touch • Parenting Styles: Their Effect on Development • Siblings and Peers ■ Psychological Science: Attachment across the Lifespan • Moral Development: Kohlberg’s Stages • Personality Development: Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory How Sex, Gender, and Culture Affect Development 278 • Sex and Gender Influences on Development • Cultural Influences on Development Developmental Challenges through Adulthood 283 • Committed Relationships: Overcoming Unrealistic Expectations • Work and Retirement: How They Affect Us ■ Applying Psychology: AreYour Relationship Expectations Realistic? ■ Psychological Science: Myths of Development • Death and Dying: Our Final Developmental Crisis ■ Psychological Science: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Decriminalized? CHAPTER PLANNER ✓ ✓ ❑ Study the picture and read the opening story. ❑ Scan the Learning Objectives in each section: p. 268 ❑ p. 278 ❑ p. 283 ❑ ❑ Read the text and study all visuals. Answer any questions. Analyze key features ❑ What a Psychologist Sees, p. 269 ❑ Study Organizer, p. 271 ❑ Psychological Sciences, p. 272 ❑ p. 286 ❑ p. 289 ❑ ❑ Process Diagram, p. 274 ❑ p. 277 ❑ ❑ Visualizing, p. 279 ❑ Applying Psychology, p. 284 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 278 ❑ p. 282 ❑ p. 289 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. Social, Moral, and Personality Development LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Describe the three types of attachment identified by Mary Ainsworth.

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  What is Psychology?

  Foundations, Applications, and Integration

  • Ellen Pastorino, Susann Doyle-Portillo, Ellen Pastorino(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Doing crossword puzzles, playing trivia games, and continuing to read, travel, or participate in educational pursuits are all activities that help sustain cognitive functioning (Hertzog et al., 2008; Stine-Morrow et al., 2007). 1. The idea that a correct solution (or solutions) may vary depending on the circumstances is called . a. dualistic thinking b. egocentrism c. postformal thought d. formal operations 2. When at the mall with her friends, Maria acts as if everyone is watching her. Maria’s behavior is an example of . a. egocentrism b. an imaginary audience c. idealism d. a personal fable 3. Which one of the following mental abilities shows the least amount of decline after age 25? a. Inductive reasoning b. Numeric ability c. Perceptual speed d. Reaction time Answers 1. c; 2. b; 3. a 9.6 Quiz Yourself 9.7 Psychosocial Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood How people’s individuality and character develop and change in adolescence and adulthood, and how people navigate their social environments, are challenging research areas in contemporary psychology. Erik Erikson saw adolescence and adulthood as a process of building, modifying, and sustaining a personal identity. This identity is influenced by our social relationships as well as the world of work. 9.7.1 Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Adolescence and Adulthood Recall Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development (You Review), in which chil- dren, adolescents, and adults face developmental crises that establish their indi- viduality. Successfully mastering each stage strengthens the person’s capacity to confront and negotiate the next stages. Here we examine the four stages Erikson attributed to the adolescent and adult years. Identity versus Role Confusion: Know Who You Are For Erikson (1956, 1958, 1959), adolescence represents the integration and summa- tion of the previous crises of childhood into an appropriate identity.

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  Human Growth and Development Across the Lifespan

  Applications for Counselors

  • David Capuzzi, Mark D. Stauffer, David Capuzzi, Mark D. Stauffer(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  gerotranscendence, a term developed by a Swedish sociologist. In essence, this term redefines consciousness in old age as well as self in relationship to others and offers a new understanding of several existential questions. Specifically, during late adulthood, there is decreased interest in material things and superficial social interaction, a redefinition of time and space, and a different way of perceiving life and death, with decreased fear of death. Clearly counselors need to help older adults explore their beliefs and feelings about aging, death, and dying and encourage clients to keep on becoming, which was Joan Erikson's advice to older adults (Gusky, 2012).

  Box 18.5: Reversal of Developmental Tasks

  In your opinion, does the notion that Joan Erikson proposed regarding the reversal of developmental tasks in late adulthood make sense? Interview an older adult and share this information with him or her, contrasting it to the stages as originally conceived, and asking this person to reflect on how this concept of reversal does or doesn't apply to him or her.

  Attachment Theory

  One of the most familiar social development theories is attachment theory, originally described as the bond that develops between infants and their primary caregivers (Bjorklund, 2011). Just as infants rely on an attachment figure, so do adults who form new attachments with spouses or partners while at the same time maintaining attachment to their parents. According to Mikulincer and Shaver (2009), people of all ages want several things from people to whom they are strongly attached: proximity (close physical or psychological presence); a safe haven (support when they feel insecure or threatened); and a secure base (help in achieving goals). Bjorklund emphasized that older adults who have secure attachments feel safe and can generally deal with life's challenges, knowing they can call on others for support as needed.

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