1. Adulthood
Chapter 5-1

2. Life questions teens ask.

3. From Awakening at Midlife by Kathleen A. Brehony, 1996
I remember sitting in a restaurant in Nags Head, North Carolina,…A woman I barely knew came over to me. She shook my shoulder, got right in my face and said, “Hey, hey. Did you just find out that life ain’t fair? Hmmm?” All I could do was nod. I had lived to be forty years old. I was a child of an upper-middle-class family. Blessed with good health, a good education, and endless possibilities. Now I was confronting age-old questions: Where am I going with the rest of my life? “Who am I?” I vaguely remembered asking these questions as a teenager but had forgotten the answers, if I ever knew them. After that I forgot to ask the questions.

4. Physical Changes Theories:
Bodies age as a result of break downs in our body’s cells
Age because our cells have preset biological “clocks” that limit the number of times cells can dividie and multiply

5. Physical Progression 18-30 years old - peak Middle age Old age
Gray/thinning hair
Skin dry & inelastic
Wrinkles
Menopause (45-50ish)
Old age
Muscles & fat break down (lose weight)
Become shorter
Loose skin
20% longer reaction time

6. Leading Causes of Death
Heart disease
Cancer
Cirrhosis of the liver

7. Marriage & Divorce 90% marry 40-60% end in divorce
Success dependent on:
How handle conflicts
How often couples share intimate and happy moments

8. Cognitive Changes Mid 20’s: 40’s: 60’s: Intelligence New information
Better at learning, solving problems that require speed and coordination, shifting from one strategy to another
40’s:
Peaks of creativity and productivity
60’s:
Peaks of humanities, history, foreign languages, literature
Intelligence
New information
Expanded vocabularies
Think flexibly

9. Social & Personality Development
Character/personality is primarily stable

10. Levinson’s Theory of Male Development
Eras
Transition periods at 30, 40, 50 and 60
Transitions last approximately 5 years

11. Levinson’s Eras Entering the Adult World: 22-28
The Age-Thirty Crisis: 28-30
Settling Down: 36-40
The Midlife Transition: 40-45
Generativity
Stagnation
Middle Adulthood: late 40’s

12. Female Development
Midlife crisis?
Empty Nest Syndrome
Depression