Developmental Psychology

Chapter 9: Middle Adulthood

Overview Let’s now move on to middle adulthood. In this chapter, we will explore the physical, cognitive and social development of individuals during this stage of life. We will also explore emotional aspects of middle adulthood. There are not many concerns or conflicts during this particular stage. There are social dynamics that are outside of the family that tend to play less of an influential role than normal family social dynamics Learning Objectives At the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • Describe the physical changes that will occur during middle adulthood. This includes sexual and reproductive changes • Understand what kind of impact lifestyle has on middle adulthood • Compare and contrast crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence • Recognize the five stable personality traits (Also known as the Big Five) • Explain family dynamics, marriage, divorce, etc. • Describe work related issues that occur during the middle adulthood stage of life 9.1 Physical Development in Middle Adulthood Usually after an individual turns 40, then they will see visible signs of aging. Some of the things that someone may notice when they are aging are • Development of gray hair • Developing thin hair • Discovering wrinkles • Changes in bone density • Changes in body shape When it comes to the change in bone density, this is where people assume that they are shrinking since their bones are losing strength. The intercostal discs of the vertebrae begin to lose elasticity. Within the United States, a good portion of the population will become overweight later in life. Females and males go through a decline when increasing in age. Let’s take a look at some of the body declines that different systems of the human body go through. • Hearing o Things that affect hearing are sex, genes, and age o Women usually start losing their hearing around the age of 45-50 o Men start losing their hearing around the age of 30 o In hearing loss, the range of loss will vary, and some will lose the ability to hear higher frequencies before losing the ability to hear lower frequencies • Vision o The ability to focus on things that are far away, decreases with age.

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