Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

PHYSICAL CHANGES
Visible Signs
 Forties or fifties – the first outwardly noticeable signs of aging usually apparent during this age
1. Skin – begins to wrinkle and sag, age spots appear
2. Hair – becomes thinner and grayer
3. Fingernails & toenails – develop ridges and become thicker and brittle
Height and Weight
-individuals lose height in middle age, and many gain weight
 Men 30 to 50 years old – lose one inch in height and lose another inch from 50 to 70 years of age
 Women 25 to 75 years old – lose two inches
-the decrease in height is due to bone loss in the vertebrae
 Obesity – increases from early to middle adulthood
Strength, Joints, and Bones
 Sarcopenia – age-related loss of muscle mass and strength (50 y.o)
 Women – lose bone mass twice as fast as men do
-by the end of midlife, bones break more easily and heal more slowly
Vision and Hearing

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 Accommodation of the eye – ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina

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-middle-aged individuals begin to have difficulty viewing close objects

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-hearing also can start to decline by the age of 40
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-the ability to hear low-pitched sounds does not seem to decline much in middle adulthood
 Men – lose their sensitivity to high pitched sounds than women

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Cardiovascular System
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-cardiovascular disease increases considerably in middle age

 LDL – “bad” cholesterol
 HDL – “good” cholesterol
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 Metabolic syndrome – a condition characterized by hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance. It often
leads to the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease
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Lungs
-there is little change in lung capacity through most of middle adulthood for many individuals
 At the age of 55 – proteins in lung tissue becomes less elastic
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Sleep
-sleep becomes more problematic in middle age
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 At the age of 40 – wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of the deepest type of sleep

HEALTH, DISEASE, STRESS, AND CONTROL

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-accident declines and less susceptible to colds and allergies

 Chronic disorders – characterized by slow onset and long duration
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Stress and Disease

 Stress – increasingly identified as a factor in many diseases
 Chronic disorders – increase, most common is Arthritis
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 The Immune System and Stress

 Stress and Cardiovascular System
 Culture and Health
Control
-Although many disease increase in middle age, having a sense of control is linked to many aspects of health and well-being.
Researchers have found that having a sense of control peaks in midlife then declines in late adulthood

MORTALITY RATES
 Infectious disease – the main cause of death until the middle of the twentieth century
 Middle age – deaths are caused by a single, readily identifiable condition
 Old age – death is more likely to result from the combined effects of several chronic conditions

SEXUALITY
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  Climacteric – the midlife transition during which fertility declines
Menopause
-cessation of a woman’s menstrual periods, usually during the late forties or early fifties (late forties or early fifties)
 Perimenopause – the transitional period from normal menstrual periods to no menstrual periods at all,
which often takes up to 10 years
Hormonal Changes in Middle-Aged Men
 Erectile dysfunction – the inability to adequately achieve and maintain an erection to attain satisfactory
sexual performance

INTELLIGENCE
Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
 Crystallized intelligence – accumulated information and verbal skills, which increase in middle adulthood
 Fluid intelligence – the ability to reason abstractly which begins to decline from middle adulthood onwards
The Seattle Longitudinal Study
-involves extensive evaluation of intellectual abilities during adulthood was initiated

INFORMATION PROCESSING
Speed of information Processing
A current interest focuses on possible causes for the decline in speed of processing information in adults. These causes may
occur at different levels of analysis
 Cognitive – maintaining goals, switching between tasks, preserving internal representations despite

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distraction

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 Neuroanatomical – changes in specific brain regions

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 Neurochemical – changes in neurotransmitter systems
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Memory

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-verbal memory declines
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 Working memory, long term memory – becomes limited, less reliable
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Expertise and Practical Problem Solving

-expertise increase, the ability to solve such practical problems improved
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CAREERS, WORK, AND LEISURE

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-Reach their peak in position and earnings

-For many people, midlife is a time of evaluation, assessment, and reflection in terms of the work they do and want to do in
the future
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-Challenges include globalization of work, rapid developments in information technologies, downsizing of organizations,
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early retirement, and concerns about pensions and health care

 Leisure – refers to pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of
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their own choosing- hobbies, sports etc.

RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND ADULT LIVES

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 Religion – set of beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols that increases an individual’s connection to a sacred
or transcendent other
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 Religiousness – degree of affiliation with an organized religion, participation in its prescribed rituals and
practices, connection with its beliefs, and involvement in a community of believers
 Spirituality – experiencing something beyond oneself in a transcendent manner and living in a way that
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benefits others and society

MEANING IN LIFE
 Need for purpose – “Present events draw meaning from their connection with future events”
 Need for values – “can lend a sense of goodness or positive char of life and justify certain courses of action
 Need for a sense of efficacy – “belief that one can make a difference”
 Need for self-worth – “good, worthy persons. Self-worth can be pursued individually”

Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

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 STAGES OF ADULTHOOD
Erikson’s Stage of Generativity vs. Stagnation
 Generativity – adults desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next
 Stagnation – they have nothing for the next generation
 Middle-aged adults can develop generativity in a number of ways
1. Biological – having children
2. Parental – nurture and guide children
3. Cultural – create, renovate or conserve aspect of culture

THE LIFE-EVENT APPROACH

 Contemporary life-events approach – how life events influence the individual’s development depends not
only on the life event itself but also on mediating factors

STRESS AND PERSONAL CONTROL IN MIDLIFE

Stress, Personal Control, and Age
-young and middle-aged adults had more days that were stressful and that were characterized by multiple stresses than
older adults
-middle-aged adults were less physically reactive to work stressors than were younger adults
Stress and Gender
-Women are more vulnerable to social stressors such as those involving romance, family etc
 Fight or flight –when men experience stress, they are more aggressive, withdrawing from social contact,

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or drinking alcohol

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 Tend and befriend – when women experience stress, they are likely to seek social alliances with others,

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especially female friends
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CONTEXTS OF MIDDLE DEVELOPMENT

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Historical Contexts (Cohort Effects)
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 Social clock – the timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life’s tasks, such as
getting married, having children, or establishing themselves in a career.
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LONGITUDINAL STUDIES
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Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study

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 Big 5 factors of personality – openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and

neuroticism
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LOVE AND MARRIAGE AT MIDLIFE

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-Security, loyalty, and mutual emotional interest become important as relationships mature
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-Marital satisfaction increased in middle age

-Partners may have fever financial worries, less housework and chores, more time with each other

THE EMPTY NEST AND ITS REFILLING

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 Empty nest syndrome – a decrease in marital satisfaction after children leave home, because parents
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derive considerable satisfaction from their children

GRANDPARENTING
 Formal, Fun-Seeking and Distant
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INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
-Family members usually maintain contact across generations. Mothers and daughters have the closest relationships. The
middle-aged generation, which has been called the “sandwich” or “squeezed” generation, plays an important role in linking
generations.

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