Chapter 16: Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

Androgyny

The gender identity of those who score high on both instrumental and expressive traits.

Big 5 Personality Traits

Five clusters of personality traits that reflect an inherited predisposition that is stable throughout life; the five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Empty Nest

A transitional time of parenting when the youngest child leaves home.

Generativity Versus Stagnation

The seventh stage in Erikson’s theory in which adults seek to move beyond a concern for their own personal goals and welfare in order to guide future generations and give back to society.

Life Structure

In Levenson’s theory, a person’s overall organization of their life, particularly dreams, goals, and relationships with significant others as well as institutions, such as marriage, family, and vocation.

Midlife Crisis

A period of self-doubt and stress attributed to entering midlife once thought to contribute to a major reorganization of personality in midlife; now thought to occur in a small minority of adults and to be related to history more than age.

Possible Selves

Future-oriented representations of self-concept into the future; who an individual might become, both hoped for and feared, that guides and motivates choices and behaviors

Seasons of Life

A set of life phases that Levinson concluded adults progress through in which life structures are constructed, tested, and modified, based on experiences and opportunities.