Deck 14: Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

Question 1

Jacqueline nurtures and guides her children. According to Erikson, she has achieved _____ generativity.

A) biological
B) parental
C) work
D) cultural

Answer 1

parental

Question 2

From about the ages of 28 to 33, a man goes through a transition period in which he must face the more serious question of:

A) achieving his independence.
B) forming his dreams.
C) achieving his goals.
D) determining his goals.

Answer 2

determining his goals.

Question 3

According to Levinson, the transition from dependence to independence is marked by the:

A) realization of a goal.
B) testing of a dream.
C) free experimentation.
D) formation of a dream.

Answer 3

formation of a dream.

Question 4

According to Levinson, the transition to middle adulthood lasts about _____ years.

A) two
B) four
C) five
D) seven

Question 5

According to Levinson, which of the following is a major task that needs to be mastered in early adulthood?

A) Exploring the possibilities for adult living
B) Determining one's goals in life
C) Testing one's dreams in the real world
D) Becoming independent

Question 6

Saeko has commited herself to the continuation and improvement of society as a whole through her connection with their children and grandchildren. According to Erikson, she is _____.

A) self-absorbed
B) generative
C) stagnant
D) apathetic

Question 7

As he looks back over his life, Chris realizes that his work was not as important to him as he believed, and that he lost too much valuable time with his children. If he could do it over again, he would work less and spend more time with his children. According to Erikson, Chris is experiencing some degree of _____.

A) social rejection
B) apathy
C) generativity
D) stagnation

Question 8

Levinson sees the twenties as a(n) _____ phase of adult development.

A) stagnant
B) novice
C) expert
D) generative

Question 9

In a recent study by Cox & others, _____ was strongly linked to middle-aged adults' positive social engagement in contexts such as family life and community activities.

A) stagnation
B) self-concept
C) generativity
D) self-absorption

Question 10

According to Levinson, by age 40, a man has:

A) reached a stable point in his career.
B) just started to determine his goals.
C) just formed a dream about his future.
D) come to grips with the conflict of being attached to others versus being separated from them.

Question 11

According to Levinson, which of the following should occur at the end of one's teens?

A) A transition from dependence to independence
B) An increase in generativity
C) An increase in feelings of stagnation
D) A transition from conventional to postconventional reasoning

Question 12

In Erik Erikson's theory, adults strive for generativity to achieve a sense of _____.

A) immortality
B) recognition
C) achievement
D) omniscience

Question 13

Guillermo has taught his apprentices all the specialized techniques he has developed over the years as a carpenter. According to Erikson, he has achieved _____ generativity.

A) biological
B) parental
C) work
D) cultural

Question 14

Identify the seventh stage of Erikson's life span theory.

A) Intimacy versus isolation
B) Integrity versus despair
C) Autonomy versus shame and doubt
D) Generativity versus stagnation

Question 15

Abdiel has had three children, according to Erikson, he has achieved:

A) biological generativity.
B) parental generativity.
C) biological stagnation.
D) cultural stagnation.

Question 16

_____ develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the next generation.

A) Perpetuity
B) Generativity
C) Self-actualization
D) Stagnation

Question 17

_____ encompasses adults' desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation.

A) Self-actualization
B) Generativity
C) Self-absorption
D) Perpetuity

Question 18

Identify the major task that must be mastered in early adulthood, according to Levinson.

A) Reaching the pinnacle of one's career
B) Developing a stable life structure
C) Focusing on family development
D) Forming an image of one's career

Question 19

Erikson proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue which he termed _____.

A) intimacy versus isolation
B) integrity versus despair
C) generativity versus stagnation
D) autonomy versus shame and doubt

Question 20

In a longitudinal study of Smith College women, the desire for _____ increased as the participants aged from their thirties to their fifties.

A) generativity
B) self-concept
C) stagnation
D) self-absorption

Question 21

Middle-aged adults feel they have less control over their:

A) marriage.
B) finances.
C) work.
D) children.

Question 22

George Vaillant concludes that the _____ are a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about the adolescent and adulthood years.

A) forties
B) fifties
C) sixties
D) thirties

Question 23

According to the contemporary life-events approach, the influence of life events also depends on all of the following factors EXCEPT the _____.

A) individual's cognitive capacity
B) individual's adaptation
C) life-stage context
D) sociohistorical context

Question 24

Which of the following aspects of life do middle-aged adults feel they have less control over?

A) Finances
B) Sex life
C) Work
D) Marriage

Question 25

According to Lachman, researchers have found that on average a sense of personal control peaks in _____ and then declines.

A) early adulthood
B) midlife
C) adolescence
D) late adulthood

Question 26

Daniel Levinson's studies suggest that most adults feel that middle age is a time of:

A) crisis.
B) reconsolidation.
C) peace and tranquility.
D) intimacy and social closeness.

Question 27

The life-events approach to understanding adult development has been criticized because it:

A) placed too much emphasis on change.
B) ignored the developmental stages adults go through.
C) did not consider the female experience.
D) focused on minor and not major life events.

Question 28

According to Levinson, the _____ rests on how effectively the individual reduces the polarities and accepts each of them as an integral part of his being.

A) failure of adolescent transition
B) success of the midlife transition
C) success of transition into early adulthood
D) success of transition into late adulthood

Question 29

Which of the following is a major difference between Levinson's and Valliant's view on midlife?

A) According to Levinson, only males experience midlife crisis.
B) Valliant maintains that only a minority of adults experience midlife as a crisis.
C) Levinson maintains that the transition period to midlife is 6 years; while Valliant holds it to be 8 years.
D) Valliant's study was mainly focused on white, middle-aged, male population within the upper SES of society.

Question 30

_____ percent of the men Levinson interviewed found the midlife transition tumultuous and psychologically painful, as many aspects of their lives came into question.

A) 50 to 60
B) 40 to 50
C) 70 to 80
D) 10 to 20

Question 31

When men face stress, they are more likely to respond in a:

A) composed manner.
B) fight-or-flight manner.
C) stagnant manner.
D) tend and befriend pattern.

Question 32

According to Levinson, the changes to middle-adulthood requires that the adult male come to grips with four major conflicts. Which of the following is NOT one of these major conflicts?

A) Being young versus being old
B) Being attractive versus being unattractive
C) Being masculine versus being feminine
D) Being destructive versus being constructive

Question 33

According to the Almeida & Horn study, which of the following is the difference in the experience of stressors between young adults and middle-aged adults?

A) Young adults experience daily stressors less frequently.
B) Middle-aged adults experience lesser multiple stressors than older adults.
C) Young adults were less physically reactive to work stressors.
D) Middle-aged adults experienced more "overload" stressors.

Question 34

What did Levinson's research conclude about women in midlife transition?

A) Women have significantly less distress during this process.
B) Women face the midlife transition earlier and with greater difficulty than do men.
C) Levinson maintained that women who have had children experience an easier time during midlife than those who have not had children.
D) Levinson reported that his stages, transitions, and the crisis of middle age hold for women as well as men.

Question 35

Which theory is similar to the contemporary life-events approach in highlighting the importance of complex setting of our lives?

A) Bronfenbrenner's theory
B) Freud's psychoanalytic theory
C) Erikson's psychosocial theory
D) Piaget's cognitive development theory

Question 36

George Vaillant concludes that _____ is a time for detecting parental flaws and discovering the truth about childhood.

A) adolescence
B) late adulthood
C) middle adulthood
D) old age

Question 37

Mr. Chang works at a boring but tense job. Stress about his job keeps him up late on most nights. Mr. Chang is experiencing the stress of:

A) a major life event.
B) a daily hassle.
C) a middle-age development crisis.
D) psychological generativity.

Question 38

Adult development experts are virtually unanimous in their belief that midlife crises:

A) have been validated.
B) have been exaggerated.
C) have no cross-cultural validity.
D) have been underestimated.

Question 39

When women experience stress, they are more likely to engage in:

A) a tend and befriend pattern.
B) aggressive behavior.
C) a flight or fight response.
D) social distancing.

Question 40

The _____ life-events approach emphasized the manner in which life events influence an individual's development depends not only on these events but also on mediating factors.

A) contemporary
B) standard
C) cognitive
D) assimilative

Question 41

In general, the argument that middle adulthood has advantages for women in nonindustrialized cultures is based on the idea that women in these cultures typically:

A) delegate less tasks to younger ones as they age.
B) take on less administrative tasks as they age.
C) take on more of the day-to-day chores as they age.
D) become eligible for special statuses as they age.

Question 42

Which of the following is the conclusion of the study conducted by Costa and McCrae on approximately 1,000 college-educated men and women aged 20 to 96?

A) Considerable stability occurs in the five personality factors.
B) Extraversion is the most unstable personality factor.
C) While extraversion and openness remained stable, agreeableness and conscientiousness varied greatly.
D) The five personality factors were very unstable across different age groups.

Question 43

Sandra's mother is concerned about Sandra's lack of interest in marrying and having children. She told Sandra, "When I was your age, I had already found a good husband and settled down." Sandra and her mother:

A) have different social clocks.
B) have different coping styles.
C) have different burnout levels.
D) are in different developmental stages.

Question 44

Which of the following is one of the Big Five factors of personality?

A) Generativity
B) Extraversion
C) Transitivity
D) Stagnation

Question 45

Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes a person as either disciplined or impulsive?

A) Openness to experience
B) Conscientiousness
C) Neuroticism
D) Agreeableness

Question 46

Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes whether an individual is fun-loving or somber.

A) Agreeableness
B) Openness to experience
C) Conscientiousness
D) Extraversion

Question 47

Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes whether an individual is imaginative or practical?

A) Agreeableness
B) Extraversion
C) Conscientiousness
D) Openness to experience

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT one of the five big personality traits identified by Costa and McCrae?

A) Extraversion
B) Openness
C) Adaptability
D) Conscientiousness

Question 49

Lorenzo was born during the depression era in the U.S. Now he and others who were born at about the same time show greater cognitive decline that people born at later times. This illustrates that cohort effects are differences based on:

A) gender.
B) historical contexts.
C) genetic traits.
D) cultural aspects.

Question 50

Which of the following is NOT one of the changes middle-aged women of nonindustrialized countries might have?

A) Lesser geographical mobility
B) Delegation of child care
C) Reduction of domestic chores
D) The right to exercise authority over specified younger kin

Question 51

Becky is careless, impulsive and disorganized. According to the Big Five personality factors, Becky will score low on _____.

A) openness to experience
B) agreeableness
C) neuroticism
D) conscientiousness

Question 52

A recent study by Specht, Egloff, and Schukle found that _____ showed a continuous increase from early adulthood to late adulthood.

A) agreeableness
B) extraversion
C) conscientiousness
D) openness

Question 53

Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes whether a person is independent or conforming.

A) Openness to experience
B) Extraversion
C) Conscientiousness
D) Agreeableness

Question 54

Stages of adulthood in the Gusii culture of Kenya are defined by:

A) a person's age.
B) events in a person's life.
C) the evaluations of the elders within a culture.
D) the type of midlife crisis the person experiences.

Question 55

Cross-cultural studies show that in nonindustrialized countries the concept of middle age is:

A) is not very clear, or in some cases is absent.
B) about the same as it is in industrialized countries like the United States.
C) more finely discerned and consisting of several stages.
D) more rigidly defined.

Question 56

It is common in nonindustrialized societies to:

A) describe individuals as young or old but not as middle-aged.
B) describe individuals as middle-aged.
C) not have any words for "old" or "young."
D) not give much importance to an individual's age.

Question 57

Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes whether a person is sociable or retiring?

A) Extraversion
B) Openness to experience
C) Conscientiousness
D) Agreeableness

Question 58

The timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life's tasks, such as getting married, having children, or establishing themselves in a career is known as the _____.

A) interval measure
B) life-event calendar
C) circadian rhythm
D) social clock

Question 59

Which of the following is a significant observation by Neugarten regarding social clocks?

A) Social clocks are more rigid than they were before.
B) Individuals whose lives are synchronized with the social clocks are less stressed.
C) Younger adults below 25 years are excluded from the social clock age bracket.
D) Social clocks are more important for males than for females.

Question 60

Identify the Big Five personality factor that classifies a person as either organized or disorganized.

A) Openness to experience
B) Extraversion
C) Conscientiousness
D) Agreeableness

Question 61

Don and Ellie have been married for over 30 years. Which of the following is likely to be MOST important in their relationship?

A) Romance
B) Passion
C) Physical attraction
D) Security

Question 62

Most research studies indicate that the greatest change in personality traits occurs in:

A) midlife.
B) late midlife.
C) late adulthood.
D) early adulthood.

Question 63

According to the Big Five factors of personality, which of the following personality supertrait describes a person as either helpful or uncooperative?

A) Conscientiousness
B) Agreeableness
C) Openness
D) Extraversion

Question 64

Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes an individual as either self-satisfied or self-pitying?

A) Openness
B) Agreeableness
C) Neuroticism
D) Extraversion

Question 65

Middle-age partners are more likely to view their marriage as positive if they:

A) have a satisfying sexual relationship.
B) feel a high level of physical attraction toward their partner.
C) engage in mutual activities.
D) are religious.

Question 66

The _____ model of personality development states that with time and age people become more adept at interacting with their environment in ways that promotes increased stability in personality.

A) conditioning
B) cumulative personality
C) reciprocity
D) social learning

Question 67

One study by Sharp & others revealed that _____ was related to superior cognitive functioning and IQ across the life span.

A) agreeableness
B) openness
C) extraversion
D) neuroticism

Question 68

According to George Vaillant's longitudinal studies, _____ in middle age was more strongly related than intimacy to whether individuals would have an enduring and happy marriage at 75 to 80 years of age.

A) generativity
B) stagnation
C) autonomy
D) traditional gender role

Question 69

Vaillant's research showed that at age 50, the best predictors of who would be dead at 75 to 80 years of age were:

A) chronic depression and cardiovascular disease.
B) diabetes and depression.
C) alcohol abuse and smoking.
D) smoking and obesity.

Question 70

In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, which of the following characteristics generally changed the most across time for the adult?

A) Intellectual orientation
B) Nurturance or hostility
C) Openness to experience
D) Self-confidence

Question 71

In a survey conducted by AARP (2004), divorced adults reported that they had generally stayed in their marriages and postponed their divorces because of:

A) their children.
B) financial problems.
C) religious beliefs.
D) cultural norms.

Question 72

In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, which of the following characteristics was generally stable across time for the adult?

A) Nurturance
B) Hostility
C) Self-control
D) Self-confidence

Question 73

Identify the supertrait that encompasses traits such as soft-hearted, trusting, and helpful, according to Big Five factors of personality.

A) Conscientiousness
B) Openness to experience
C) Agreeableness
D) Extraversion

Question 74

According to the Big Five factors of personality, which of the following personality supertrait describes whether an individual is either secure or insecure?

A) Neuroticism
B) Agreeableness
C) Openness
D) Extraversion

Question 75

What are the two major forms of love?

A) Passionate and intimate
B) Companionate and consummate
C) Romantic and affectionate
D) Sexual and noncommittal

Question 76

Across a 10-year period, which of the following Big Five personality factors did NOT predict health outcomes involving physical health, blood pressure, and number of days limited at work or home due to physical health factors?

A) Agreeableness
B) Extraversion
C) Openness
D) Neuroticism

Question 77

Middle-aged Americans agree that a major component of their well-being involves:

A) physical health.
B) positive relationships.
C) recovery from midlife crisis.
D) better financial situation.

Question 78

Factors at age 50 that were linked with being in the "happy-well" group at age 75 to 80 years of age included all of the following EXCEPT:

A) being well-educated.
B) being wealthy.
C) having a stable marriage.
D) being forgiving.

Question 79

Cathy and Miguel have been dating for six-months. Which of the following is likely to be LEAST important in their relationship?

A) Passion
B) Loyalty
C) Physical attraction
D) Romance

Question 80

Diana is fun-loving, sociable, and affectionate with all her friends and acquaintances. Identify the Big Five personality factor that describes this aspect of Diana's personality.

A) Extraversion
B) Conscientiousness
C) Neuroticism
D) Agreeableness