Middle Adulthood

 People experience emotional audit, reevaluate their priorities, and emerge with a
slightly different orientation to emotional regulation and personal interaction
 People undergoes on what the society calls, “the Paradox of Aging” —despite
more loss and disability associated with age, life satisfaction and happiness
increase with successive decades.
 They are often labeled as competent, happy, and selfish.
 People make most of their substantial contributions to society. People in this age
group meets the two life challenges of Erik Erikson: People learn to give and
receive love in a close, long-term relationship, and they develop an interest in
guiding the development of the next generation, often by becoming parents.
 There is a gradual decline in fertility, particularly for women. Eventually, women
experience menopause, the cessation of the menstrual cycle.
 The recovery from muscular strain of people belonging in this age group
becomes more prolonged, and their sensory abilities may become somewhat
diminished.
 People first begin to suffer from ailments such as high cholesterol and high blood
pressure as well as low bone density.
 Cognitive abilities like learning new skills and remembering things is gradually
deteriorating.
 People are expected to have the ability to create an effective and independent
life.
 Despite the challenges of early and middle adulthood, the majority of middle-
aged adults are not unhappy. These years are often very satisfying, as families
have been established, careers have been entered into, and some percentage of
life goals has been realized.

REFERENCES
o https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-
lifespandevelopment/chapter/emotional-and-social-development-in-middle-
adulthood/

o https://impactethics.ca/2016/01/25/wrinkles-and-the-paradox-of-
aging/#:~:text=Research%20shows%20that%20we%20grow,happiness
%20increase%20with%20successive%20decades.

o https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022022120925904
o https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/6-4-early-and-middle-
adulthood-building-effective-lives/
o https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-older-people-happier-
20160824-snap-story.html