Middle Adulthood Assignment - Case Study Example

Middle Adulthood Assignment Introduction Many times people in their middle years of growth and development develop a broad understanding and perception of self, in regard to their societal and cultural environment (Slatter, 2003). This adult observation of self incorporate an understanding of their strong points, abilities, skillfulness, and interests that assist them to deal with their scores of responsibilities. As a consequence of this broad understanding many report strong concern in guiding and nurturing the younger generation to assist them gain an enhanced understanding of themselves. Guidance is a critical objective of grown-ups in this developmental phase. Self-motivation in guiding of younger adults is explained by the Erickson’s stages of development specifically the generativity stage. Stagnation stage refers to self-withdrawal of a person in midlife with avoidance to involve oneself in other people lives. A: Erickson’s generativity versus stagnation stage Erickson in his psychology work came up Lifecycle theory in 1950 (Hausten, 2005). In the lifecycle theory, Erikson views life as following five stages as discussed by Freud but lays more emphasis in adolescence phase. Erickson discards the Freudian concept that personality is preset in early childhood encounters only and goes further to recognize importance of adolescence and adulthood. Erikson’s concept conceives movement of a person from being self-centered to others-centered kind of personality. Generativity versus stagnation stage is a stage in adulthood where most of a person’s personality conflict occurs.Survivalof human species depends on parental care, hence bringing up importance of caring for the children. Generativity has broad application to a family as its primary concern is the establishment and guidance of the next generation to productivity. Erikson theory explains how every person faces psychological crisis in adulthood that leads to parenthood at the same time leading others to a decision not to be parents. Generativity can be said to be an extension of love into the future. Generativity itself is aconcern onfuture generations and its wellbeing. Generativity by most people is practiced by the raising of children and any form of social contribution into future generation’s that creates the asence of importance by a society towards a person. Stagnation, on the other hand, refers the self-withdrawal of a person in affairs of those around them, People in stagnation stage are self-absorbed and have a feeling of not having made an impact in their lives. In most cases, stagnation is expressed by showing disinterest in other people lives, stagnation mostly occursafter marriage and childbearing. Self-absorbed adults in most instances end up stuck in their career lives, and if they get children, they are unable to make the lives of their offspring as noteworthy as their own. Adults in stagnation stage are usually isolated and use their jobs as perfect escapes. Adult’s decisions to take part in community activities are in most cases a result of generativity stage, adults at the generativity stage are very concerned with creating friendships and nurturing of their children (Hausten, 2005). Social behavior of adults at this stage is much of a concern for the wellbeing of future generations hence leading to an increase in a person’s involvement in either religious activities parenting or social support. For example a 40 years old man decision to start coaching a basketball team after work after a request in the community center. A feeling of guilty of declining a volunteering request lead to accepting to coach. In the past, he would have declined to take part in the coaching but now in midlife he feels an obligation to take part in community activities. Therefore while coaching a basketball team is not itself generativity, it is an example of social activities motivated by generative concern especially those that commonly associate with being a good citizen and having an impact on people’s lives. Generativity mostly presents itself in people’s lives through social involvement (Peterson and Klohnen, 1995). Erikson found that generative parents mostly mothers invested a lot of their energy and time in parenting and in most cases extended their care to the less generative parents. Generativity can hence be viewed as a main force motivating most adults to social involvement and religious activities. Effects of being a parental caretaker on self-care Being an adult caretaker comes with its effects for example increased fatigue and self-neglect. Generative adults are seen to be withdrawn from self physically with most of the activities they engage in being for the good of others and especially the younger generation. Psychologically generative activities bring with them a sense of perceived respect for the adults this is mostly as a result of self-worth from the activities they have engaged in their extended caregiving. Caregivers have also been said to experience psychological wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing is as a result of the positive relations they enjoy with their subjects. Caregivers in most cases have a positive relationship with people they care for, and they also experience a sense of satisfaction from seeing the impact they have made in other people lives as well as the community. Self-acceptance also contributes to their good psychological health. On the other hand, caregiving has been seen to result in neglect of self for the sake others, caregivers in the generativity stage are said to suffer from sleep deprivation in the course of their caregiving. Poor eating habits have also been observed in parental caregivers. Caregivers are also seen not to exercise as much as they should, and they also fail to care for their medical health. Due to the sacrifices they make parents and caregivers at times risk depression due to the stress of the commitment that comes with caregiving. Strategies to protect caregivers from problems associated with increased responsibilities In order to look after clients who are affiliates of the sandwich age band from physical and psychological issues brought about by amplified responsibilities I would propose the following strategies: Communicating constructively- In order to avoid stress that comes with little achievements or failure to achieve the goals they intended, Caregivers should communicate with those that they care of in order to have mutual understanding and respect. When caregivers and their subjects understand each other effectively the chances of misunderstanding reduce and hence stress. Asking for help- Caregivers should be willing to ask and receive help in instances where care capacity is just not enough to solve a problem. Instances, where care givers are unable to provide for people being taken of, should seek for external assistance. When depression creeps in they should seek help from psychologists. Managing personal stress-when caregivers suffer from my own stress they should engage in activities that manage the stress, for example engaging a hobby they enjoy or taking a vacation. Reduction of personal stress goes a long way in clearing of a caretakers head to enable him or her to be constructive in their work (Calvert, 2008). B: Midlife adulthood For long, there have been many myths associated with midlife for example an increase in a person’s seek for excitement and ill health. Middle age refers to the age between 40 and 60, and it is at this age that a person’s children leave home to start their careers. Midlife is onset of old age, and individuals are said to experience a crisis (Freud and Liter, 2009). Midlife crisis was first brought to the picture by a Yale psychologist named Daniel Levinson, he characterized this stage with a crisis of depression and despair at this stage people undergoing the crisis were said to start engaging in risky thrilling relationships and lifestyles the cause of which are the changes in the family structure, increased self-reflection and aging. The claims by Levinson although experienced and seen in some people most of the claims are a myth. Myths about midlife crisis Persons experiencing midlife crisis are thought to be more emotionally vulnerable than persons in other stages of life, although some men showed weakness not all of them were vulnerable in the study. In fact, research shows that at midlife men become more nurturing and women became more assertive. Vulnerability in adults in midlife is said to result from depression and despair mostly because of underachievement. Research shows that it is men who grew up with weak domineering fathers that end up undergoing this crisis (Slatter, 2003). Its believed that at midlife people tend to be remorseful on choices they made earlier on in life be it career wise is in terms of the family decisions. Regret from earlier choices is said to hit their peak at midlife. Research done conflicted with this belief with a greater percentage exhibiting satisfaction in their work, most people in midlife were satisfied with the sense of productivity they had derived from their labor and a desire to be remembered for something. People who switched careers in their 20’s and 30’s also enjoyed satisfaction with oneself in midlife (Mc Adam and Kim, 2005). Intellectual ability of persons improves at midlife with women exhibitingimproved memory and numerical ability (Freud and Ritter, 2009). Even with some declines in cognitive abilities which was about individuals much of their cognitive ability is still intact Variations in health in midlife persons can be explained more by their lifestyles and their social, economic status rather than by their age. Individuals who lacked material wealth are seen to face more health problems than those who have more material wealth. This can be explained by the quality of health care accessible to each, persons who have greater resources access higher-quality healthcare while those with a lower level of resources access more inferior quality of healthcare(McAdams and Kim, 2005). Lifestyles of persons are said to contribute to diseases and people’s health, poor diets and lifestyles such as smoking contribute to most of the diseases experienced in midlife. Persons who in their lifetimes fed on poor diets and engaged in harmful habits such as smoking end up suffering ill health in their midlife. Most of the health complications stereotyped with midlife can be traced to people’s lifestyles in their prior years. Case study Sam Johnson is a patient suffering from increased stress in his workplace, and John is widely dissatisfied with the achievements he has made in his life and regrets divorcing his wife in December last year. As part of assisting John in psychological counseling Johnson should: Take more of his time with his family. Johnson should also take up more time with his friend and a hobby to occupy his mind. John should also learn to accept to live with parts of his life that he cannot change. After following these steps, Johnson should be able to regain his former self hence reducing his stress. Works Cited Dannefer, D. (1989). Human action and its place in theories of aging. Journal of Aging Studies ( 3)1, 1–20 HAUSEN, J. T. H. (2005). Psychological approaches to human development.The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing, 6, 181. Slater, C. L. (2003). Generativity versus stagnation: An elaboration of Erikson's adult stage of human development. Journal of Adult Development, 10(1), 53-65. de St Aubin, E. E., McAdams, D. P., & Kim, T. C. E. (2004). The generative society: Caring for future generations. Washington, DC : American Psychological Association Hiel, A., Mervielde, I., &Fruyt, F. (2006). Stagnation and generativity: Structure, validity, and differential relationships with adaptive and maladaptive personality. Journal of Personality, 74(2), 543-574. Freund, A. M., & Ritter, J. O. (2009). Midlife crisis: A debate. Gerontology,55(5), 582-591. Calvert, C. (2008). Tinker's Midlife Crisis: Tattered and Transgressed but Still Standing. Am. UL Rev., 58, 1167. Read More