Erik Erikson's Theory, ego integrity versus despiar, involves coming to terms with one's lilfe.  Adults who arrive at a sense of ntegrity feel whoe and satisfied with their achievements.  Despair occurs when elders feel time is too short to find an alternate route to integrity.

According to Peck, attaining ego integrity involves three distinct taskes; ego differentiation, body transcendence, and ego transcendence.  Joan Erikson bellieves these attainments represent an additional psychosocial stage, gerotranscendence, evident in inner calm and quiet reflection.

Labouvie-Vief ponts out that older adults improve in affect optimization-the ability to maximize positive emotion and dampen negative emotion.  Full understanding of their own feelings contributes to expertise in processing emotional information and regulating negative affect. 

Reminscence can be positive and adaptive for older people.  But may well-adjusted elders spend little time in lie review to achieve greater self understandin.  Rather, as the term Third Age conveys, they are largely present and future-oriented, seeking opportunities for personal fulfillment.

Successful aging is multi-facited.  Physical health, Financial Security, Productivity & Employment, Independence, Adaptable, Positivity, and Social Support.

Three Components  of Successful Aging:  Survival (Longevity), health (lack of Disability), and Life Satisfaction (Happiness)

Factors that were related to aging successfully- not smoking, having an adaptive coping style, absence of alcohol abuse, maintaining health weight, stable marriage, some exercise and education

The Rosetans were healthy because of the culture of southern Italy they brought to the hills to Pennsylvania.  Their culture involved:  Deep social connections, Unifying and calming effects of the church and 22 separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2,000 people.

These aspects of social support created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insultating rosetans from the pressure of the modern world.

1. Select certain domains of activities

2. Optimize performance through practice and new technologies.

3. Compensate for age related declines (e.g., slowing of behavior, memory, and physical demands).

Using selective optimization with compensation allows older adults to maintain functioning into adulthood.

Types of intelligence:

1. Fluid Intelligence- can be thought of as the "hardware of the mind" and includes one's speed, accuracy, and memory.  One's fluid intelligence is independent of previous learning, culture, or education.  It refers to the capacity to apply intellectual ability in new situations.  A test of one's fluid intelligence would be solving puzzles and coming up with problem-solving solutions.

2. Cyrstallized Intelligence - If fluid intelligence is the hardware of the mind, crystallized intelligence is the software of the mind.  One's crystallized intelligence refers to their ability to remember and use learned information.  Whereas fluid intelligence does not depend on previous learning, crystallized intelligence does depend on one's education and culture.

Crystallized intelligence reflects one's ability to cope with life's challenges.  A test one's crystallized intelligence would be a vocabulary or reading compreshension test.

There is no one consensus as to the nature of wisdom.  Here are two different definistions of wisdom used in developmental science:

Expert knowledge about practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters.

The virtue that aging adults achieve during the last stage of life through reflection upon their lives.

In all cultures, age and wisdom go together,but that does not mean that age equals wisdom. 

Characteristics of individuals who are classified as  1. have breadth and depth of knowledge on practical matters, including human nature, social relationships, and emotions. 2. can reflect on and apply their knowledge in ways to mae life decisions and successfully handle conflict 3. have emotional maturity, including the ability to liste, evaluate, and give advice. 4. are concerned with the common good. 5. understand that many problems have no perfect solution.

They also tend to have higher education

Their occupation typically involves a human services career and/or a leadership position.

They possess both age AND life experiences

They both faced AND overcame adversity

Childhood - Preschool chldren do not understand death:  they are not shaken when they are told someone one has died.

A more realistic perception of death develops around age 5 or 6.

By age 9, children ususually understand that everyone will die adn that death is irreversible

When children experience the loss of someone close to them, they often get a hypersensitivity about death adn get fear full

Young Adulthood - death is not on their radar.  Death of peers who commit suicide is difficult for adolescents, as they may feel rresponsible.  Many young people think they are immune to death.

Middle Adulthood - are aware that half their life is gone and begin to realize that their time is limited.  they start to experience the death of their parents which  makes their mortality more sailient.  Seeing themselves age makes death more real.

Old Age - think about death more and talk about  it more in conversation with others than do middle aged adults.  They have more direct experience with death which forces them to examine the meaning of life and death more frequently.

There are three types of euthanasia

1. Active Euthanasia - involves deliberately and directly causing a person's death.  Example, administering a lethal dose of drugs. 

2. Passive Euthanasia - Involves allowing a terminally ill person to die of natural causes by withholding lifesaving treatments.  Example, taking someone off a life suppor.  In our country today, there is a trend toward acceptance of passive euthanasia.

3. Assisted suicide- "assisted" by a phyisician, lies somewhere in the middle: it does nnot involve actively killing someone, but it does involve making available to a person who wishes to die the means by which she may do so.

Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1997.  The Death with Dignity Act allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.  It is up to qualified patients and licensed physicians to implement the act on an individual basis. 

To qualify for Death with Dignity, a patient must be:

1. 18 years of age or older

2. A resident of Oregon

3. Capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him/herself

4. diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six (6)  months

In patterns  of behavior called the dependency-support script and the independence-ignore script, older adults dependency behaviors are attended to immediately while their independent behaviors are ignored.  But dependency can be adaptive if elders remain in control by selecting areas in which they desire help.  this enables them to conserve their strength for highly valued activities.

-Physical illness can lead to a sense of loss of personal control and, when disability results, is among the strongest risk factors for late-life depression.  Older adults have the higest suicide rate of all age groups.

-Although elders are at risk for a variety of negative llife changes, these events may evoke less stress and depession in older than in younger adults.  But when negative changes pile up, they test elders coping resources.

-social support eases stress, thereby fostering older adults physical health and psychological well-being.  But if assistance is excessive or cannot be returned, it often sparks feelings of dependency and distress.  Consequently, perceived soical support, rather than sheer amount of help, is associated with a postive outlook.

Point:  allowing pysician-assisted suicide forces the medical community to attend appropriately to pain management at the end of life.

-Without choices about how to die, people at the end of life are left without any power for self-determination and humanity.

- There has been adequate management of suffering for years.

-there are many cases of people choosing to die with honor, such as soldiers iin battle, yet we do not condemn that choice.

-the fact that physicians can withdraw life support means that we already condone medical professionals being involved with the end of life.

COUNTERPOINT:  It is wrong to kill someone no matter the circumstances.

-Legalizing physician-assisted suiced has broad and dangerous social implications.

-Decisions surrounding death are symbolilc of how we think about the improtance of human life, an as such must be caustious and rrespectful rather than technologyically efficient.

-Allowing physician-assisted suicide will invite abuse of end of life regulations.

-Prohibiting physician-assisted suicide will erode public trust in doctors.

The decision to retire depends on affordability, health status, nature of the work environment, opportunities to pursue meaningful activities and sociatal factors as retirement benefits.

Most older adults adapt well to retirement on affordability , health status, nature of the work environment, opportunities to pursue meaningful activities and societal factors such as retirement benefits.

Meaningful leisure and community service pursuits are typically formed earlier and sustained or expanded during retirement.  Involvement  is related to better physical and mental health and to reduced mortality. 

-"Launching children and moving on" is the newest and longest phase of the family life cycle.  Middle-aged adults move adapt to many entries and exits of family members as their children leave, marry, and produce grandchildren and as their own parents age and die.

-Midlife changes prompt many adults to review and adjust their marriages.  When divorce occurs, middle-aged adults seem to adapt more easily than younger people.  For women, marital breakup usually brings significant economic disadvantage.  contributing to the feminization of poverty.

-Most middle-aged parents adjust well to launching adult children, especially if they have gratifying alternative activities and if parent-child contact and affection are sustained.  As children marry and bring in-laws into the family network, middle-aged parents, especially mothers, often become kinkeepers

-Grandparenthood is an important means of fullfilling and soicietal needs. Proximity, number of grandchild sets, sex of grandparent and grandchild, and in-law relationships affect grandparent-grandchild contact and closeness.  

-In low-income families and i some ethnic groups, grandparents provide esssential financial and child-care assistance.  when serious famil problems exist, grandparents may become primary caregivers in skipped-generation families.

1. Our culture has become accepting of divorce and therefore divorce is less stigmatizing today than in the past.

2. people's expectations of marriage have greatly increase over time.  today, people are more likely to expect marriage to be a deep source of emotional fulfillment iin ways they did not in the pasat.

3. The decline of religious influence in our culture has reduced the view of marriage as a sacred institution.

4. Entering the paid labor for ce in large numbers has given women financial alternatives to staying in an unhappy marriage

5. It is easier to get a divorce today legally with no-fault divorces that are now available in all 50 states.

6. the high divorce rate mean that there are more available potential partners on the market, providing attractive alternatives to spouses in unhappy marriages.

Judith Wallerstein's study had two belief's that were prevailing at the time in the early 1970's,

1. Divorce was a brief crisis that would resolve itself.  In othe works, "time heals all wounds".

2. the divorce rate would drop.

His study involved 60 families with 131 children of varying ages.  Criteria were:  Non of the adults had a history of emotional disturbance

Amato's Study was interested in examining wheterh low versus high distress divorce were linked to different outcomes for adults. 

High-distress divorce - These divorces tend to be your stereotypical divorce.  In Amato's words, these couples fight a great deal, may have disagreements that ends in violence, engage in few positive activities togehter, seee man probelms in their relationships, and are unhappy with their marriages.  These couples break up primarily because their relationships are costly and unsatisfying.

Low-distress divorce-Some spouses may fight infrequently, feel moderately happy (rather unhappy) with their marriages, continue to engage in some positive interaction with their spouses and perceive a few but not a large number of problems in their marriages.  They seek divorce because of low levels of commitment to marriages as a lifelong relationship, hold high expectations for marriage, perceive few barriers to leaving their relationships, and believe that viable alternatives to their current partners are available. 

Wallerstein's study has given us graet iinsight into the effects of divorce on children, both in the long term and in the short term. 

- Important to note that there is great variation in how children cope with their parent's divorce.

- Mother's and father's who can stay on the same page with parenting and maintain close relationships with their children are most effective in helping their children deal with a divorce.

Amato's work suggests that not all divorces are the same- the effects of a divorce for adults (and then, presumable, for children) depended to a large degree on the type of divorce the adults experiences. 

-Factors for high versus low distress divorces were relatively similar, they likely work in different ways to bring about the end of a marriage.

Sample size: Amato had a large sample of over 500 couples that divorced compared to Wallerstein's 60 families.

Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods: Amato was able to have a larger sample because his study was quantitative in nature; work involved giving participants questionnaires in which they answered questions by rating a number on a scale, much like the cooparenting measure.

Timing of the Study:  Amato's study collected data on couples before the divorce and after the divorce whereas Wallerstein's study only examined families oonce the decision to divorce had been maade.  Amato's sample of couples was taken from a much larger study of couples, it was inevitable that some of those couples would choose to divorce after the first wave of the study which was what allowed him to look both before and after a divorce.

High vs. low distress divorces: wallerstein's study beagan a full 30 years before Amato's study results came out, she did not examine wheterh the families in her study experienced high versus low distress divorces. 

Development occurs in context, and the family context suports children's psychological, physical, and emotional ascent into maturity.  When that structure collapses, a chld's world loses support.  Many children in the study felt angry and powerless, especially when they were told about the divorce on the day of separation.  Fewer than 10% of children had any adult express sympathy or empathy to them as the divorce unfolded.  -children were sometimes in awkward circumstances by the divorcing parents.  many children expereienced what Wallerstein called Dividied Loyalties.   If the chldren took a side in the divorce, they were told they were being disloyal to the other parent. 

- Wallerstein, along with other researches, found that children had to make a number of difficult adjustments around a divorce.

- The effects of a divorce on children depend to some degree on the age of the child when the divorce occurred.

- Sleeper effect - One of Wallerstein's most provocative findings is called the Sleeper Effect - refers to a delayed expression of an effect from some type of experience.  Wallerstein found that the trauma experienced by children from divorce often manifests itself in their own romantic relationships in emerging adulthood and beyond.    It also manifest's differently for males and females

male:  either avoid romantic relationships or were reserved in them

- instead of concentrating on romantic relationships, they concentrated more on their careers, often claiming they just can't find the right girl.

-the young men seem to shut their emotions away

-many were uncomfortable in social situations

Females: tended to be preoccupied with betrayal.  This typically manifessted itself when they had their first serious romantic relationship.  For example, they worried when boyfriend was late or did not call on time. these females tended to struggle with jealously and even obsess that relationship would crumble.

Some ran at first sign of commitment

some were promiscuous

Some never trusted a trustworthy partner

Some stayed in unsatisfying relationship for fear of being alone

1. Help understanding Divorce

2. Stability

3. Help dealing wth the loss

4. Help dealing with anger

5. Help working out guilt

6. Helpl accepting the permanence of the divorce

7 Help taking a chance on love

1. Manufacturing to Service Economy

-disadvantage of service jobs.

low wages

low job security

tend to be highly routinized jobs

high emotional labor from being on th frontline interacting with customers

2. 24/7 global economy

People around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before

Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world

International travel and communication is more frequent

3. Contingent employment contracts

work contracts that are short ter, temporary, and part-tiime. 

Work hours

Work shift

Underemployment

Job security

work-family and family work spillover

Work prressur

Occupational self-direction

Propinquity - Same geographical area

Attractiveness - Physically attracted to one another

Social Background - Similar social backgrounds

Consensus - Similar attitudes and values

Complementary - Complement each other

Readiness

Cohabitation refers to a non-marital living arrangement that involves a sexual relationship.

1. How common is cohabitation- More tahan half of all marriages today are preceded by cohabitation

2. How have cohabitation rates changed over time?  the cohabitation rate has risen 10 times higher than it was in 1960.  In 2005, the Census Burreau reported 4.85 million couples were cohabitating compared to 439,000 couples in 1960.

3. How are cohabiting relationship different from married relationships?  Relationships between cohabiters are more equal than married couples with respect to sharing housework.

4.  What is the profile of a cohabiting couple?  Although many people think of cohabiters as college educated couples with no children who have never been married, this stereotype does not hold up. 

 - Cohabitation is more common among the less affluent and less educated than the more affluent and more educated:  59% of cohabiters do not have a high school diploma compared to 37% of cohabiters who hold a college degree.

- Cohabitation is more common before a remarriage than before a first marriage:  The great majority of remarriage are preceded by a period of cohabitation.

- Despite prevailing stereotypes of childless couples cohabitating, cohabitation is common among individuals with children:  In fact, many cohabiters have children:  15% have children from their current relationship and 35% have children from previous relationship.

Explain how John Gottman conducts his research on romatically involved couples.

His body of research involves careful, systematic observation of couples in a longitudinal study.

John Gottman's research lab is called the love lab. 

He does not use questionnaires.

He conducts a Marital Interaction Assessment, which involves the couple having a 15 minute discussion about something that has recently caused conflict.  During this Marital Interaction Assessment, Gottman assess:

Facial expression, voice tone, and body language

Positive affect, including humor, affection, validation, and joy

negative affect, inlcuding disgust, contempt, criticism, belligerence, domineering, defensiveness, whining, tension, fear, anger and sadness

Physiological measures, including heart rate, pulse, palmar skin conductance, gross motor movement, blood assays determine one's immune responses.

the key differences with couples who are doing well and couples who are doing "not so" well doing well has to do with what Gottman calls the Magic Marriage Ratio.   You need to have more positive than a negative ratio to make marriages work.

John Gottmans Four Horsmen Apocalypse are

1. Criticism

2.Defensiveness

3. contempt:  Contempt is most predictive of divorce:  it has been referred to as a love killer

4. Stonewalling

Advantages:  giving and receiving warmth and affection

- Experiencing the stimulation and fun that children add to life

-Being accepted as a responsible and mature member of the community

- Experiencing new growth and learning opportunities that add meaning to life

- Having someone to provide care in old age

- Gaining a sense of accomplishment and creativity from helping children grow

- Learning to become less selfish and to sacrfrice

-Having someone carry on after one's own death

- having offspring who help with parents' work or add their own income to the family's resources

87% of women become mothers

81% of men become fathers

Disadvantages: loss of freedom, being tied down

-financial strain

-family-work conflict-not enough time to meet both child-rearing and job responsbililties

-worries over children's health, safety and well-being

-risks of bringing up children in a world plagued by crime, war and pollution

-Reduced time to spend with husband or wife

-Loss of privacy

-Fear that children will turn out badly, through n faults o one's own

The majority of married men and women report attending church at least once a month (60% of married women and 53% of married men). 

81% of Americans report that  they identify with a specific religion.

Explain the findings linking religiosity and marital quality; be able to describe how the way in which questions are asked about religiosity is so important to these findings.

Annette Mahoney and colleagues research

Religious Affiliation:  What is your religion, if any? (Participants mark from a long list of religions and denominations.)   Those who report a religious affiliation were less likely to divorce than those who reported no affilitation; however, this finding was relatively small and when other third variable explanations were entered into the model, like income, the effect disappeared.

Religious Affiliation Homogamy:  Researchers asses whether or not both partners denote the same or different religious affiliations.  Couples who reported the same relligious affiliation had lower divorce rates than couples in which: (1) One individual reported an affiliation and the otehr individual did not report an affiliation and (2) the two individuals reported different affiliations.

Personal Relevance of Religion:  How important are religious or spiritual beliefs in your day to day life?  would you say very important, fairly important, not too important, or not at all important?   Relativley strong links were found between personal relevance of religion and marital satisfication, with higher relevance being linked to higher marital satisfaction.

Frequency of church attendance:  How often do you attend religious serves? 1. never, 2. Less than once a year, 3. About once or twice a year, 4. Several times a year, 5. About once a month, 6. 2-3 times a month, 7. Nearly every week 8. every week, 9. Several times a week

Sixty percent of infrequent church attenders (operationilized as attending less than once a month), had a history of divorce compared to 44% of frequent church attenders (operationalized as attending once a month or more)

Joint Religious Activities - The degree to which a romantic couple participated in religious activities together

Couples who reported high levels of joint religious activities also reported having higher marital adjustment, receiving more benefits from tehir marriage, and engaging in less marital conflict, less verbal aggrression and higher verbal collaboration.

Sanctification of Marriage - degree to which individuals believe that their marriage is God's will and that their marriage has spiritual significance.

"God is present in my marriage". and "My marriage is a refelctions of God's will".  Questions rated on a scale froom 1: strongly Agree to 7: Strongly disagree.

Having strong beliefs about the sancitication of marriage predicts better marital quality in multiple domains, including marital functioning and quality of communication.

The gradual physical changes begun in early adulthood continue in midlife, contributing to a revised physical self-image, with less emphasis on hoped-for gains and more on feared declines.

Vision is affected by presbyopia, or loss of he acoomodative ability of the lens, reduced abillity to see in dim light, increased sensitivity to glare, and dimished color discrimination.  After age 40, risk of glaucoma, a build up of pressure in the eye that damages the optic nerve increase.

Hearing loss, or presbycusis, first affects detection of high frequencies and then spreads to other tones.

The skin wrinkles, loosens, dries, and starts to develop age spots.  Muscle mass declines, and fat deposits increase.  A low-fat diet and regular exercise that includes resistance trainig can offset excess weight and muscle loss.

Bone density declines in both sexes, but to a greater extent in women, especially after menopause.  Height loss and bone fractures can result. 

Speed of cognitivie processing slows with age, a change explained by either the neural network view or the information loss view,.  As reaction time slows, people perform less well on complex memory, reasoning, and problem-solving tasks, especially on fluid-ability items. but other factors also predict diverse, age-related cognitive changes. 

Middle-aged people show declines in ability to divide their attention, focus on relevant stimuli, and switch from one task to another as the situation demands.  Cognitive inhibition becomes more difficult, at tiimes prompting distactiblity. 

Adults in midlife retain less information in working memory, largely due to a decline in use of memory stategies. but training, improved design of tasks, and metacognitive knowledge enable older adults to compensate for age relate decrements.