adulthood midlife levinson
TRANSCRIPT
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Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2003
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HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENT
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
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This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;
Preparation of any derivative work, including extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;
Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Copyright Allyn & Bacon
Copyright Allyn & Bacon
HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENT
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;
Preparation of any derivative work, including extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;
Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;
Preparation of any derivative work, including extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;
Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Andrew T. Nilsson, Ph.D.
Eastern Connecticut State University
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.Boy adolescent husband/worker family head/career
grandfather retired death
Girl adolescent wife mother grandmother widow death
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
A LIFE STAGE PERSPECTIVE
(Adulthood in blue)
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ERIKSONS PSYCHO-SOCIAL CRISES
?Ego integrity vs. despair65+
25 yrs.Generativity vs. stagnation35-60 yrs.
15 yrs.Intimacy vs. isolation20-35 yrs.
6 yrs.Identity vs. role confusion12-18 yrs.6 yrs.Industry vs. inferiority6-12 yrs.
3 yrs.Initiative vs. guilt3- 6 yrs.
1 yrs.Autonomy vs. shame & doubt18 mo.- 3 yrs.
1 yrs.Trust vs. mistrustTo 18 mo.
DURATIONERIKSONIAN CRISISAGE
Developmental periods increase in duration
Individual differences increase as well
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ERIKSONS STAGES OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT
20-35 yrs. - Intimacy vs. isolation
The quest for intimacythe ability to share onesself with another person without being afraid ofsacrificing ones own identity.
Love and workmate selection and career choice
35-60 yrs, - Generativity vs. stagnation
The need to be creative and productive in wayswhich will contribute to future generations; creatingones legacy for the future.
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DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF MID-LIFEPeck (1968)
Socializing vs. sexualizing Redefine intimate relationships to value the individual,
friendship, and compaionship, rather than sex alone.
Value wisdom vs. value physical power
Life experience and wisdom replaces phyical ability andattractiveness
Cathectic flexibility vs. cathectic impoverishment
The ability to shift ones emotuional investment from one
activity to another or from one individual to another
Mental flexibility vs. mental rigidity
Life-long learning; the ability to seek and adapt to new
information and ideas
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LEVINSONS STAGES OF ADULT LIFE
The Seasons of a Mans Life (1978)
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LEVINSONS STAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Levinsons sample:
Levinson interviewed 40 men in four occupational groups
(novelists, biologists, business executives, and factory
workers) between the ages of 35-45. Five percent were
black. All had been married at least once.
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LEVINSONS STAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Levinson viewed life as a series of periods formed around
developmental tasks, the main goals, objectives, and concernsfaced by individuals during each life period. A period endswhen its tasks lose significance and new tasks emerge.
Developmental transitions:
Existing life structure
Transition periodperiod of personal crisis and re-evaluation
Life structure questioned; new decisions made
Review and evaluate the past
Accept loses at the end of a period
Explore new optionsdecide what to keep and what todiscard; consider possibilities for the future
New life structure
Structure building periodrelative tranquility
Structure based on new decisions
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LEVENSONSTAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Entering the adult world (22-28) Explore and make commitments to adult rolesestablish life style
Work leads to career choice
Intimate relationships lead to marriage, birth of children
Age 30 transition (28-33) Reappraisal of early adult commitments and change
Focus on adjustment and enrichment If I am to change my life, Id better do it now.
Sometimes crisis; divorce, occupational change common
Settling down (33-40)culminating life structure for early adulthood
Apprenticeship overtime to be a successful, competent adult BOOM periodBecoming Ones Own Man independence from
mentor
Deeply absorbed in commitments to occupation, family, and activities
Desire to get ahead, realize youthful ambitions
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LEVENSONSTAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Midlife transition (40-45)
Midlife crisisWhat have I done with my life?
Come to terms with the dreams of ones youth
Work on discrepancy between what is and what will be
Life takes on a new sense of urgency
80% of Levinsons subjects went through personal crisis andre-evaluation
Crisis may include divorce, extramarital affair, occupational
change
Levinson stopped gathering data on his subjects at age 45.
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LEVENSONSTAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Entering middle adulthood (45-50)
Living out previously made changes
For many, the most satisfying, enriching time of life
Age 50 transition (50-55)
Time of moderate crisis
Men review where they have come from and make plans forwhere they are heading.
Culmination of middle adulthood (55-60)
Finish framework of life structure for middle adulthood
A period of great fulfillment
Late adult transition (60-65) Ending middle age and preparing for late adulthood
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APPLICATION OF LEVINSONS THEORY TO WOMEN
Papulia and Olds (1992) study of dissertations:
The mentor - Women substantially less likely to have a mentor
Love relationshipMen seek women to support their dreams.
Women seek a special man but see themselves as supporting hisdreams.
The dreamMen find themselves by separating from family of
origin and pursuing own interests. Women develop identities
through responsibilities and attachments of relationships.
Men dream of occupational achievement, status accomplishment.
Womenless clear dreams; more tentative mix of family and
career interests.
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LEVINSONS STUDY OF WOMENThe Seasons of a Womans Life (1996)
Levinson interviewed 45 women aged 35-45 years, including 15homemakers, 15 female executives in major corporate financialorganizations, and 15 female faculty members.
Women, similar to men, go through age-linked developmentalstages, often moving from one stage to the next through painful and
turbulent periods of transition. The homemakersdreamed in youth of traditional, family
centered life. By mid-life:
All but one working outside the home
Half were legally divorced; most of the rest, psychologically divorced
Motherhood was a less central component of their life structure
Increased independence and desire to exist on more equal terms withmen
Levinson concluded that a traditional marriage is no longerviable in our culture
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LEVINSONS STUDY OF WOMEN
THE CAREER WOMEN
The career women dreamed in youth of modifyingthe traditional homemaker pattern.
At midlife: Intense struggle between the Traditional Homemaker
Figure and the internal Anti-Traditional figure
Attempting to be everything to everyone, seeking to haveeverything
Plagued by exhaustion, worries about their children, andexasperation with their spouses who fail to do their fair shareof household responsibilities and child care.
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LEVENSONSTAGES OF ADULT LIFE
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT
Small, biased samplesNot a random cross-section of men orwomen.
Generational issuesWill future generations follow the samepatterns?
Practical application: People seek help during periods of crisis
Understanding the difficulties of transitions from one stage of lifeto the next is useful for helping people understand and workthrough the crises they experience.
Tasks of transition periods: Review and evaluate the past
Accept loses at the end of a period
Explore new optionsdecide what to keep and what to discard;consider possibilities for the future.
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THINK AND SHARELEVINSONS STAGES OF ADULT LIFE
Locate yourself in Levinsons stages of adultdevelopment. Are you on task according to his
developmental model?
Envision your dream. Does your gender influence
your dream in the ways described by Papulia and Olds?