MIDDLE AND LATE ADULTHOOD STAGE

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF MIDDLE ADULTHOOD:

1. Adjusting to the body's physical and psychological changes.

2. Adjusting to the reality of the work situation.
3. Assuring economic security for old age.
4. Helping children leave home to become responsible adults.
5. Maintaining contact with children and grandchildren.
6. Reorganizing living arrangement.
7. Readjusting to being a couple again.
8. Participating in the community.
9. Assuring adequate medical supervision for old age.
10. Making living arrangements for one’s parents.
11. Reaffirming the values of life that have meaning.

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF LATE ADULTHOOD:

1. Adapting to a decline in physical strength

2. Adapting to retirement and reduced income
3. Coming to terms with the death of a spouse,
4. Maintaining social relations with people in your age
5. Accepting and adapting to changing social roles
6. Establishing good physical living arrangement

a. Physical Development

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Physical changes in middle adulthood are usually more gradual compared to other development periods. Although everyone

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adulthood years, the rates of this aging vary considerably from one individual to another. One of the most visible signs of phys

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first outwardly noticeable signs of aging usually are apparent by the forties or fifties. The skin begins to wrinkle and sag, hair bec
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ridges and become thicker and more brittle. Individuals also lose height in middle age, and many gain weight. On average, from
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may lose another inch from 50 to 70 years of age (Hoyer & Roodin, 2009). The height loss for women can be as much as 2 inche
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movement of bones (such as tendons and ligaments) become less efficient in the middle-adult years, they begin to have difficulty
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increases which triggers accumulation on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
In middle adulthood, chronic diseases and persistent health problems become more common in middle adulthood for other i
disease (Kahana, Kahana, & Hammel, 2009). The cumulative effect of stress often takes a toll on the health of individuals by the
adulthood go through changes in secuality. Women go through menopause wherein the production of estrogen by the ovaries d
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symptoms in some women—“hot flashes,” nausea, fatigue, and rapid heartbeat. For men, they do not lose their capacity to fathe
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sexual hormone level and activity. The gradual decline in men’s testosterone levels in middle age can reduce their sexual drive.
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b. Cognitive Development
In middle adulthood, there are abilities that begin to decline and there are abilities that begin to increase. According to John H
continues to increase while one’s ability to reason abstractly begins to decline in the middle adulthood years. In a study condu
intellectual abilities occurred in the middle adulthood years (Willis & Schaie, 1999). For both women and men, peak performa
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spatial orientation was attained in middle age, whilst number and perceptual speed declines in middle age.
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c. Socioemotional Development
A theory by Erikson (1968) proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue—generativity versus stagnation, which
theory. Generativity encompasses adults’ desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation (Petersen, 2002). Thr
contrast, stagnation (sometimes called “self- absorption”) develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the
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continuation and improvement of society as a whole through their connection to the next generation. Middle aged individuals d
the next generation. Another theory by a clinical psychologist named Daniel Levinson views midlife as a crisis, arguing that t
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future, trying to cope with this gap that threatens life’s continuity. However, George Vaillant maintains that only a minority of a
general well-being and life satisfaction in midlife tend to be high.
Importantly, theories do not adequately address individual variations in adult development. In the individual variations view,
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their lives. Age-related stages represent one major way to examine adult personality development. A second major way to co
events. Life events were viewed as taxing circumstances for individuals, forcing them to change their personality (Holmes &
marriage, and so on were believed to involve varying degrees of stress, and therefore likely to influence the individual’s deve
highlights the importance of the complex setting of the individual’s lives—of everything from their income and family support to
aspects of the contexts of life such as historical contexts (cohort effects), gender, and culture influence development during midd

a. Physical Development
The physical decline that accompanies aging in late adulthood usually occurs slowly, however sometimes even lost function
obvious signs of aging which are wrinkled skin and age spots on the skin. People get shorter as they age, and their weight ofte
movement of older adults slows across a wide range of movement tasks. Declines in visual acuity, color vision, and depth pe
periphery of a visual field also declines in older adults. Hearing decline is impediment as well as in smell and taste. Changes in
not present a problem for most older adults. Moreover, the brain loses weight and volume with age, and there is a general slo
middle adulthood and increases in late adulthood.
Immune system functioning declines with age and cardiovascular disorders increase in late adulthood. Lung capacity does dro
diaphragm-strengthening exercises. Moreover, aging in late adulthood does include some changes in sexual performance, more
limits to sexual activity.
b. Cognitive Development
Cognitive mechanics are more likely to decline in older adults than are cognitive pragmatics. Researchers have found that
attention,
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attention, on simple tasks adult age differences are minimal, but on diffi- cult tasks older adults do worse than younger adul
measures of sustained attention, less well on more complex tasks. Regarding semantic memory, older adults have more dif
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 eventually retrieve it. Additionally, older adults are more likely to show declines in explicit than in implicit memory.
For many individuals, knowledge of words and word meanings continues unchanged or may even improve in late adulth
retrieving words for use in conversation, understanding speech, phonological skills, and some aspects of discourse. These
consequence of declines in hearing or memory, or in the speed of processing information, or as a result of disease. Furthermore
Wisdom is expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters.
c. Socioemotional Development
There are four theories which discuss the socioemotional development and aging for individuals in late adulthood. First, E
which individuals experience in late adulthood, involves reflecting on the past and either integrating it positively or conclud
important theme in Erikson’s stage of integrity versus despair. Second, Activity theory, which states that the more active and inv
with their lives. This theory has been strongly supported. Third, Socioemotional selectivity theory, which states that older adult
they place a high value on emotional satisfaction, they are motivated to spend more time with familiar individuals with whom t
emotion- related goals change across the lifespan, with emotion-related goals being more important when individuals get older. L
states that successful aging is linked with three main factors: (1) selection, (2) optimization, and (3) compensation. These are es
In late adulthood, the personality traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness increase. However, lower levels of conscien
level of neuroticism, negative affect, pessimism, and a negative outlook on life are related to earlier death in late adulthood. Th
the adult years as acceptance of ideal and future selves decreases with age and acceptance of past selves increases. Most older a
regulation may vary by domain. Increasingly, the positive aspects of older adults are being studied. Factors that are linked wi
skills, good social relationships and support, and the absence of disease.

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