1
Q
Social Development in Adults
A
- Normative Crisis Models
- Timing of Events Models
2
Q
Development Through Work
A
- Entering the Workforce
- Career Exploration
- Evaluation of theories or Career Exploration
- Changes in Career Satisfaction
- Retirement from Workforce
3
Q
Love and Work
A
- Research that have attemptsto account for the changes in social development
- Occur from young adulthood to older adulthood
- TWO models have been adopted:
- Normative crisis model.
- Timing of events model.
- These themes are not surprising.
- Research on life meaning and purpose shows that relationships and career are what give meaning to life for adults
- This is across sexes and age groups in adulthood,
- Baum & Stewart, 1990
4
Q
Normative Crisis Models
A
- Erikson (1953, 1968).
- Levinson (1980).
- Have been highly influential in developmental psychology.
- Argues that one moves through fixed stages, each tied to age
- Specific crises leads to growth (through resolution)
- Critics: outdated as these models are based on traditional models of family & work
5
Q
Ground Plan, Crises & Resolution
A
- There is an inbuilt ground plan to human development (i.e., definite age related sequences)
- This ground plan establishes a series of crises appropriate to particular phases of human life that need to be resolved.
- If crises are resolved, development proceeds to the next stage.
- If crises are not resolved, development may stagnate, although later revision of crises in response to life events is always possible.
- Consequences: life satisfaction and psychological well-being
6
Q
Seasons of A Man’s Life
A
- Levinson (1980):
- Theory has had huge impact upon the ways in which adult life is understood.
- Based on longitudinal study of 40 middle-aged men, aged 35 years to 45 years beginning in 1969.
- Did a subsequent study on women (Levinson, 1996) and found the stages, transitions, and crises invariant for women
- Included no statistical analyses, however quality and quantity of data were rich and detailed
7
Q
Eras and Transitions
A
- Levinson surmised a sequence of alternating age-linked eras and transitional periods
- Each era consists of developmental tasks to be negotiated.
- Considered to be stable, structure-building
- individual settles down to pursue key goals, values, life activities
- Build on experiences gained in the previous transitional period
- Each transitional period involves the termination of an existing life structure
- Individual must reappraise and modify certain aspects of life, so that a life structure can be initiated
- Follow eras, and can consist of a crisis period
8
Q
Levinson’s Developmental Periods (5)
A
- Childhood and adolescence: birth to 20
- Early adulthood: 17-45
- Middle adulthood: 40-65
- Late adulthood: 60+
- Late adult transition: 60-65
9
Q
Levinson - Early Adult Transition
A
- Age 17-22
- Entry life structure for early adulthood 33-40
- Age 30 Transition 28-33
- Entry site structure for early adulthood 22-28
10
Q
Mid-Life Transition: Age 40-45
A
- Culminating life structure for middle adulthood 55-60
- Age 50 transition 50-55
- Entry life structure for middle adulthood 45-50
11
Q
Early Adult Transition
A
- Age 17-22 years
- This era establishes a bridge between adolescence and adulthood
- Reffered to as emerging adulthood
- Arnett 2001
- New possibilities of the adulthood explored and tentative choices made.
- Primary task:
- Change of life structure by altering relationships with parents and institutions, so that self-sufficiency is established.
- “Have I made the right decisions to enter adult life?”
12
Q
Entering the Adult World
A
- 23 years – 28 years.
- Young adults build and test a preliminary life structure
- Integrate work, love, and community to attain their ‘Dream’.
- Developmental tasks of this stage include:
- Choosing an occupation.
- Marriage.
- Establishing a home and family.
- Joining civic and social groups.
- Interestingly, Levinson found women had greater difficulty forming the dream compared to men
13
Q
Two Important Aspects of Entering the Adult World
A
The Dream
- A tentative map for the future to guide the building of subsequent life structures.
The Mentor
- An individual who is approximately 8 to 15 years older than the individual.
- Assists the individual in discovering ways of fulfilling the ‘Dream’ by providing support and inspiration.
- “What choices do I want to make?”
- Interestingly, Levinson found women had greater difficulty forming the dream compared to men
14
Q
Age 30 Transition
A
- A stable life structure has been created
- Forces individuals to question the choices and commitments that they have made
- Many individuals experience a developmental crisis during this period of their lives:
- Their present life structure is intolerable.
- “Is my career or lifestyle what I truly desire?”
- This crisis may lead to a radical change in life direction:
- Women who have been engaged in home duties often commence a career.
- Women who have been engaged in a career become concerned with issues of relationships and families.
15
Q
Settling Down and Becoming Your “Own Man”
A
- Culminating life structure for early adulthood
- 33 years – 40 years.
- TWO developmental tasks:
- Build a second life structure.
- Within this life structure, work towards the dream.
- “What niche would I like to establish in society and how would I like to progress in my career and family life? What kind of parent would I like to be?”
16
Q
Two Subtasks: Becoming Your Own Man
A
- Establish oneself in society
- Work towards advancement
SubStage - Becoming One’s Own Man 36-40 Years
- Ambition Peaks
- Individual attains greater authority
- Goal orientation increases
- Individual becomes more independent
17
Q
Mid-Life Transition
A
- 40 years – 45 years
- THREE tasks of this transition:
- Reappraisal.
- Integration.
- Creation of new life structure for the successful negotiation of mid-life.
- “What meaning and direction do I want in my life in order to meet my values? What additional talents would I like to cultivate? How can I work towards leaving a legacy?”
18
Q
Reappraisal
A
- Individual must reapprise lifestyle and goals
- Critical examination of existing life structure
- Realisation of own mortality
- Time is limited and must be used wisely
19
Q
Integration (4)
A
Four great polarities must be integrated within the self
- Young/Old
- Destructive/Constructive
- Masculine/Feminine
- Attachment/Separation
20
Q
Integration - Young/Old
A
- Individual is neither young or old but feels both
- Must relinquish youth
- Enable challenges of Middle Age to be embraced
21
Q
Integration - Destructive/Constructive
A
- Awareness of the transitory nature of things
- Aware of destructive actions in the past that have hurt others.
- Desire to be constructive through leaving a legacy.
- Link to Erikson’s notion of generativity
22
Q
Integration - Masculine/Feminine
A
- Awareness of, and integration of opposite gendered qualities in self
- i.e.,
- for men – qualities of nurturance, emotion;
- for women – qualities of assertiveness, power
23
Q
Integration - Attachment/Separation
A
- Integration of the need for connection with others
- Also need for solitude and separateness
24
Q
Creation of New Life Structure
A
80% of men noted that this period represents great struggle/crisis in areas of:
- Career.
- Marriage.
- The Dream.
- Mentoring.
25
Entering Middle Adulthood
* 45 years – 50 years
* Creation of new life structure for middle age.
* “What new tasks would I like to take on? How can I be at peace with myself and others as I reflect on my life?”
* Coping with ageing/dying parents.
* Growing knowledge of own mortality.
* Making a deeper commitment to the younger generation.
* Coping with “Boomerang Kids”/ Sandwich Squeeze
* A recent survey by Ameritrade (2019) revealed 50% of young millennials planning to move back home after university
26
Age 50 Transition
* 50 years - 55 years.
* Individuals who did not progress through their mid-life crisis at 40 years tend to experience the crisis in this stage of development.
* Assessing and improving career structure.
27
Subsequent Stages
* Culmination of middle adulthood (55 years - 60 years).
* Achieving the goals formulated at age 50 (Stable period)
* Late adult transition (60 years - 65 years).
* Preparing for retirement (transitional)
* Late adulthood (65 years +).
* Retirement (stable)
28
Development of Women
* Roberts & Newton (1987):
* Development of women at mid-life.
* 12 women, aged 44 years - 53 years.
* Applied Levinson’s framework to an analysis of these women’s lives.
* Women experience similar developmental changes to those experienced by men
* Mid-life transition less clear-cut dividing line for women:
* Life continues to be unstable after transition.
* Women had not reached point in their careers where could assess achievements and make clear change in direction
29
Women Change in Middle Age
* When women made changes in career and family commitments, changes reflected:
* Age.
* Shifting roles.
* Desire for self-expression.
* Women who took risks and made real structural changes to lives showed at mid-life:
* Less depression.
* Higher self-esteem.
30
Midlife Crisis
* Reality or Myth?
* Mixed results
* Evidence to suggest that for majority of people, transition is smooth and rewarding.
* Cheng, Powdthavee & Oswald (2014) Tracked happiness across three countries
* Studied England, Australia, Germany over multiple decades
* Evidence for a ‘U shaped’ pattern
31
Why Mid Life Results Inconsistent
* Cross-sectional vs longitudinal design
* Several components of well being in midlife (Carol Ryff):
* **Self-acceptance:** holding a positive attitude toward oneself and one's past life.
* **Positive relations with people:** having warm, satisfying, trusting relationships with others and concern and empathy for others.
* **Autonomy:** being self-determined, independent, and resistant to social pressures.
* **Environmental mastery:** having a sense of mastery and competence in managing the complexities of everyday life.
* **Purpose in life:** having goals, aims, and objectives that provide meaning in life.
* **Personal growth:** feeling a sense of continuing development and being open to new experiences
* Resolving these means less likely to have mid-life crisis
32
Timing of Events Model
* Developing according to the social clock
* Tasks occur in response to particular life events and their timing
For example:
* **Normative-crisis model:** midlife transition occurs between ages 40 and 45
* **Timing of events model:** occurs when the person begins the process of questioning life desires, values, goals, and accomplishments (may/may not occur at ages 40-45).
33
Timing of Events - Neugarten 1968
* Social development during adulthood is based upon the time in individual’s lives when important events occur.
* More variability between and among individuals is therefore taken into consideration when development is explained.
34
Tenets of Timing of Events Model
* Social Clock says there is an **appropriate** time for events like marraige and children
* Affected by socioeconomic status
* Also Culture and Historical Period in which individuals are born
* Development proceeds when **Normative Life Events** occur when they are expected to
* When unexpected events occur OR when they occur at a time earlier or later than expected development is affected
35
Timing of Events - Helson
* Each of us has a SOCIAL CLOCK
* Psychological timepiece that records the major milestones in people's lives
* Allows us to measure and compare our progress against our peers
* Promotions, divorce, job changes, etc
* Ravenna Helson: timing of particular events in an adult's life, rather than age determine the course of personality development.
* A woman having her first baby at 21 would experience the same psychological forces as a woman having her first baby at 39.
36
Developing Through Work
* Career Development
* Social Development
37
Four Important Life Transitions - Adolescence to Mature Adulthood
Four important life transitions that mark shift from adolescence and emerging adulthood into fully mature adulthood.
* Falling in love.
* Marriage.
* Children.
* Entering workforce.
38
Entering the Workforce
* Proves to others that the individual has attained full maturity.
* Severs lingering ties of:
* Economic Dependence
* Emotional Dependence to parents.
* Myers (2000): Means to:
* Express skills and talents (young adults in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s).
* Achieve affluence (young adults in 1990s, 2000s).
39
Career Exploration
Before choosing a particular career direction, most young adults explore career options through:
* Part-time work.
* Career education classes.
* Discussions with parents, teachers, already employed friends.
40
Theories of Vocational Development
Two theoretical perspectives account for process of vocational development.
* Super (2001).
* Holland (1985).
41
Career Development Theory - Super 1990
* Stage 1: Growth Span
* Childhood - Beginning to develop a sense of self and understanding of the world
* Stage 2: Exploration Stage
* Age 15-24 - Trying things out through classes, work experience and Hobbies
* Stage 3: Establishment
* Ages 25-44: Entry Level Skills Building and stabilisation through work experience
* Stage 4: Maintenance
* Ages 45-64: Continual adjustment process to improve position
* Stage 5: Decline
* Ages 64 and up: Deceleration, retirement planning and living
42
5 Stages of Super's Career Development Theory
* Growth (Birth – 14 years).
* Exploration (14 years – 25 years).
* Establishment (25 years – 45 years).
* Maintenance (45 years – 65 years).
* Decline or disengagement (65 years +).
* People cycle through each of these stages when they go through career transition
43
Exploration
The Exploration stage has three substages:
* Vocational choice reflects **interests** only.
* Vocational choice reflects **interests** if these are congruent with **ability**.
* Vocational choices reflect **interests, abilities**, and **availability** of jobs.
44
Vocational Choices - Holland 1985
* Vocational choice reflects personality traits.
* Satisfaction in career only possible if match exists between personality type and occupation.
45
Six Personality Types - Holland
* Conventional.
* Realistic.
* Artistic.
* Enterprising.
* Investigative.
* Social.
46
Data to Support Super's Theory
* Developmental data support the distinctions made by Super (2001):
* **Children** focus upon more visible aspects of their worlds
* Appreciation of **abstract qualities** of world then increases
* **Self concept** becomes more abstract, differentiated, and adaptive with increasing age.
47
Limitations of Career Development Theory
* Age factors may be more significant than theories suggest.
* Vocational development now occurs relatively late in adolescence.
* Super’s theory focuses on how and when individuals make vocational choices
* REASONS underlying those career choices is not identified
* No theory considers role of barriers in career decisions
48
Barriers to Career Decision - Pryor & Taylor 1986
* Career exploration in 287 Australian technical college students, aged 17-42 years.
* 50% recognised need to achieve compromise between career ideals and available opportunities.
* 50% Needed support to cope with realities of job market.
Results also highlight way in which gender functions as barrier to career choice:
* 71% male students (cf 33% female students) sought desired careers with high visibility, income, difficult entry requirements without considering own work related abilities and values.
* Issue: Overly rigid adherence to sex-role stereotypes.
49
Social Context and Career Choice
Two sets of influences have been shown as important in career choice and path:
* Parents, peers, and partners
* Individual acheivements highly correlated with acheivements of those around them.
* Sex and class based pressures and expectations.
50
Six reasons for parent, peer and partner influence in career
* Attachment styles.
* Occupational attainment and educational attainment.
* Class differences in child rearing.
* Educational opportunities.
* Role models.
* Value context.
51
Attachment and Work
* Hazan & Shaver (1990):
* Attachment style is a strong predictor of the way in which adults approach their careers.
52
Secure Attachment and Work
Individuals with secure attachment to partners:
* Approached career with enthusiasm and confidence.
* High levels of satisfaction in career.
* Relationships PRIORITISED
* Partner’s needs placed ahead of demands of career.
53
Avoidant Attachment and Work
Individuals with avoidant attachment to partners:
* Immersion in career left little time for exploration of intimacy
* Defensive.
* High levels of satisfaction in career.
54
Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment and Work
Individuals with anxious-ambivalent attachments:
* Preoccupation with anxiety and competition at work.
* Investment in career was the result of fear of being demoted or losing position, rather than love of work.
55
Occupation and Education
* Occupational attainment depends strongly on educational attainment
* Not grades received, but passage through school
* Educational attainment is influenced by socioeconomic status.
56
Class and Socialisation
* Individuals with middle class families and peers are more likely aspire to enter middle class employment
* Less so their working class counterparts to and enter middle class or high status occupations.
* Middle class parents are more likely to raise children in ways that facilitate:
* Development of strong needs for achievement.
* Interest in vocational exploration.
57
Role Models
* Parents, siblings, and other models of influence act as important models for individuals’ occupational choices.
* An individual’s occupational choices are similar to those of parents
* Especially when family relationships are warm, close, and allow formation of strong identifications.
58
Role Models for Women
* Modelling especially important for women:
* Daughters whose mothers are happily employed outside of the home are more likely to seek careers in addition to marriage and family.
* Young women whose mothers hold high status occupations are more likely to do so when they enter the labour force.
* Adolescent males and females have less gender stereotyped views about dual-career arrangements if they grew up in dual-career households.
59
Value Context in Occupational Choice
Parents and peers influence young adults’ occupational choices by:
* Establishing a value context in which some occupational choices are encouraged, while others are not
* Middle class → autonomy, independence, self-direction.
* Working class → conformity, obedience.
60
Career and Gender
* The individual’s gender affects his/her career and occupational choices.
* Consider the following results from the Office of National Statistics in the UK (2013):
* Women are over-represented in service jobs (pink collar jobs) and jobs that require a lower skills level (also the jobs that receive lower pay).
* Women’s choices reflected concerns of needing to balance family and career at some time in the future.
61
Career at Mid-Life and Beyond
* Changes in career satisfactionn
* Career development Theory
* A period of turmoil, uncertainty and upheaval in career
* Mid-Career Crisis
62
Changes in Career Satisfaction
THREE stages:
* **Cooling-down** of ambitious purposive striving of establishment phase.
* Strenuous **critical self-analysis:**
* Lowered self-esteem (Murphy & Burck, 1976).
* Increased awareness and re-evaluation of life’s priorities in relation to time (Neugarten, 1968).
* **Redirection** of work-related efforts.
One strategy to resolve mid-career crisis is to embark on new and different line of work.
63
Mid-Career Change Advantages
* Enables us find avenues to express aspects of personality neglected during first career.
* New career requires period of new learning
* Facilitates cognitive development.
* Development of new skills arising through negotiation of new challenges and new social connections
64
L. Eugene Thomas 1980
Changing career Mid-Life
* 73 working men between ages of 34 and 54 years who abandoned prestigious professional and managerial positions.
* 48% Wanted better fit between life values and work
* Supports Levinson's arguement that mid-life crisis concerns life philosophy + Career issues
* 13% Insecurity in old jobs & promise of security in new job.
* 11% Desire for better pay.
65
Six Factors that Influence Second Career Satisfaction
SIX factors influence second career satisfaction in adulthood:
* Voluntary decision.
* Economic support during transition period.
* Support from partner.
* Availability of role models who have made similar change.
* Career counsellors who support option of change as feasible and desirable.
* Timing of transition in relation to family life and original career.
66
* Atchley (1976)
FOUR phases to the retirement process:
* Honeymoon.
* Disenchantment.
* Reorientation.
* Stability.
67
Retirement - Honeymoon and Disenchantment
**Honeymoon:**
* Period of hedonism.
**Disenchantment.**
* Confront long-term realities
* Depression.
* Uncertainty.
68
Retirement - Reorietation and Stability
Reorientation:
* Re-evaluation - THREE resources important:
* Good physical health.
* Adequate finances.
* Strong long term marital relationship.
Stability:
* Return of satisfaction.
69
Career Development Conclusions
* Contrary to suggestions of earlier lifespan theorists (e.g., Freud), development continues throughout adulthood.
* Development occurs through negotiation of issues in central domains of work and love.
* Social development through work occurs throughout stages of:
* Career choice.
* Career development.
* Career evaluation.
* Career retirement.
* The world of work is therefore a significant domain for social development in adulthood.
* However, work also reciprocally affects love in the social development process.
70
2052 - Lifespan Development
flashcards
Decks in class (15)
# Cards
