LIFE CYCLE TRANSITIONS AND ADULT DEVELOPMENT:Aging

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Abnormal Psychology PSY404

Lesson 45

LIFE CYCLE TRANSITIONS AND ADULT DEVELOPMENT

In gerontology, the multidisciplinary study of aging, it is common to distinguish among the young-old,

the old-old, and the oldest-old.

1- Young-old 65-74

2- The old-old 74-84 and

3- The oldest-old 85-and up

Gero-psychology focuses on the mental health problems of later adulthood. Gero-psychologists focus

on exploring and assessing mental health problems of later adulthood as compared to young people.

One out of every four people getting psychotherapy does not have a mental disorder. The well-

functioning people seeking treatment due to their psychological pain, difficult but normal emotions (for

example, feeling "hurt") that can result from difficult life events.

DSM-IV-TR tries to categorize these sorts of issues that bring mentally healthy clients into therapy.

1- One possible diagnosis is adjustment disorder, the development of clinically significant symptoms in

response to stress (that are not severe enough to classify as mental disorder).

2- DSM-IV-TR also includes a list of other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention, such as a "partner

relational problem," "bereavement," and "phase of life problem."

3- Psychologists have learned much about adult development, the occurrence of fairly predictable

challenges in relationships, work, life goals, and personal identity during adult life. Several theorists

divide adult development into three periods--early, middle, and later life.

Consistent with this division are the three major life-cycle transitions, struggle in the process of

moving from one stage of adult development into a new one.

The transition to adult life is a time for grappling with the major issues related to identity, career, and

relationships.

Family transitions in the middle years may include very happy events, like the birth of the first child,

or very unhappy ones, like a difficult divorce.

The transition to later life may involve major changes in life roles (e.g., retirement), grief over the

death of loved ones, and more abstract issues that accompany the inevitability of aging and

mortality.

Life-cycle transitions not only may cause otherwise well-functioning adults to seek professional

help, but also pose special challenges to those already suffering from a mental disorder.

Life-cycle transitions differ greatly, and different people respond to the same event in different

ways.

The psychologist Erik Erikson highlighted conflict as a common theme.

By definition, transitions involve change, and conflict is a frequent consequence of change.

1- Erik Erikson highlighted that development does not end with childhood but continues throughout

adult life.

· His theory of psychosocial development includes four stages of adult development:

(1) Identity versus role confusion,

(2) Intimacy versus self-absorption,

(3) Generativity versus stagnation, and

(4) Integrity versus despair.

· Erikson focused on the psychological side of psychosocial development, whereas many

contemporary approaches emphasize social relationships.

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2- Psychologist Daniel Levinson emphasizes three major (and many minor) transitions or "seasons" in

adult life.

· The early adult transition involves moving away from family and assuming adult roles.

· The midlife transition--often called a "midlife crisis"--is a time for becoming less driven and

developing more compassion.

· The late adult transition is characterized by the changing roles and relationships of later life.

Still, the outlines offered by Erikson and Levinson capture broad commonalities in the experiences

of many great people.

Most of us create social clocks--age-related goals for ourselves--and we evaluate our achievements

to the extent that we are "on time" or "off time."

Erikson focused on the identity crisis as the central psychological conflict during the transition to

adult life.

Identity conflicts are epitomized by the searching question "Who am I?"

Other things also change during the transition to adulthood.

Young adults must make decisions about whether and where to go to college and what career paths

to pursue.

3- The theory of the ego psychologist Karen Horney, claim that people have competing needs to move

toward, to move away from, and to move against others.

· Moving toward others fulfills needs for love and acceptance.

· Moving away from others is a way of establishing independence and efficacy.

· Moving against others meets the individual's need for power and dominance.

· According to Horney, relationship difficulties come from conflicts among these three basic needs.

Aging

· Typically, adults become increasingly aware of aging in their forties and fifties.

· Concerns about physical health increase for both men and women in their sixties, seventies, and

eighties.

· Death is an inevitability that confronts all of us.

· With advancing age, we must face both the abstraction of our own mortality and our specific fears

about a painful and prolonged death.

· Bereavement is a part of life for older adults, as friends fall ill and die.

· Older adults often confront a form of social prejudice known as ageism, a term that encompasses

a number of misconceptions and prejudices about aging.

· Older adults experience the full range of human interests and concerns, and we must guard against

forming stereotypes based on our prejudices or fears about aging.

· Physical functioning and health decline with age, but the loss of health and vigor is not nearly as

rapid as stereotypes suggest.

· The functioning of all sensory systems declines gradually throughout adult life.

· The amount of muscle in our bodies also declines with age, but, like sensory function, the loss is

gradual until advanced age.

· The fact that aging is accompanied by gradual declines in physical health does not mean that older

adults experience similar declines in psychological well-being.

· In fact, older adults report more positive relationships and a greater sense of mastery over their

environment than do adults who are young or in midlife.

· On the other hand, older adults do report less of a sense of purpose in life and less satisfaction with

personal growth in comparison to younger adults.

· Older adults also report greater satisfaction with their jobs than younger people, but this may be a

result of self-selection.

· According to Erik Erikson many older adults do wonder about the meaning of their lives when

they look back from the perspective of their later years.

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The presence of a supportive close relationship is an important predictor of psychological well-

being during adult life.

Family relationships are of key importance to psychological well-being throughout the life span.

Grief is the emotional and social process of coping with a separation or a loss.

Bereavement is a specific form of grieving in response to the death of a loved one for example,

when the loss of a mate occurs early in adult life or when a child dies before a parent.

Psychological disorders are an important concern among older adults; this is especially true of

depression, which may be more profound, lasting, and debilitating among older than younger

adults.

Classification of adults in later life typically divides categories based on age and health status.

In gerontology, the multidisciplinary study of aging, it is common to distinguish among the young-

old, the old-old, and the oldest-old.

The young-old are adults roughly between the ages of 65 and 75.

However, the category is defined less by age than by health and vigor.

The old-old are adults between the ages of approximately 75 and 85 who suffer from major physical,

psychological, or social (largely economic) problems.

They require some routine assistance in living, although only about 6 percent of Americans in this

age group live in a nursing home.

The oldest-old are the adults 85 years old or older.

People in this category are a diverse group and include some adults who maintain their vigor and

others in need of constant assistance.

Widowed women and low-income groups are found disproportionately among the oldest-old.

Twenty-two percent of the oldest-old live in nursing homes.

Psychological Stresses for Older People

1- Grief is the emotional and social process of coping with a separation or a loss.

· Bereavement is a specific form of grieving in response to the death of a loved one for example,

when the loss of a mate occurs early in adult life or when a child dies before a parent.

2- Some old people lose a sense of meaning and purpose after retirement or chronic illness.

3- Depression is the most common mental problems of older people; the prevalence is higher among

women than men.

4- Elderly people suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, phobias and panic disorders.

5- Minor lapses in memory or intellectual functioning increases as one gets older, the frequency of

Dementias, Alzheimer, Parkinson, Huntington's chorea and Pick's increases.

6- The abuse of street drugs or the abuse of prescription of drugs is commonly alarming.

7- Some people also show alcohol related problems.

8- Elderly also exhibit psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia or paranoid disorder.

Treatment of Psychological Problems in Later Life

1- Good medical care is of great importance to older adults, not only for treating disease but also for

promoting physical health and psychological well-being.

· Because health behavior is critical to the quality of life among older adults, experts view health

psychology and behavioral medicine as central components of medical care.

2- In fact, a new sub-discipline of these fields, called behavioral gerontology, has been developed

specifically for studying and treating the behavioral components of health and illness among older

adults.

· The same psychological and biological therapies used to treat emotional disorders among younger

adults can be used to treat these problems among the aged.

· However, older adults may have misconceptions about psychotherapy.

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3- Health care professionals must focus not only on improving quality of life among older adults, but

on maintaining integrity in death.

· Health behavior is particularly important to the physical and psychological well-being of older adults.

4- In addition to appropriate health behavior, important psychological contributions to adjustment in

later life include the availability of close relationships and the experience of loss.

5- Numerous social factors are linked with a happier transition to later life, especially material well-

being and participation in recreational activities.

6- Religion is also very important to many older adults, and religious affiliations have been found to

moderate the ill effects of bereavement, particularly among men.

7- Other research indicates that integration into the community is a major contribution to adjustment to

later life.

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