The development of time sense in middle adulthood

The focus of this paper is on the normal, intrapsychic, subjective experience of time in a developmental context. Time sense in middle age is determined less by the chronological age markers of forty or sixty and more by powerful, complex dynamic factors. Issues such as physical aging and illness, relationship to spouse and children, death of parents, and retirement will be explored in terms of how time is experienced.     

When a child dies: the sociobiology of bereavement

According to modern evolutionary theory, the fitness of individuals consists of both their personal reproductive success and the reproductive success of those with whom they share genes in common. It follows that one of the most biologically costly events possible is the death of a child. This study investigated the grief intensity of bereaved parents and their immediate families using ratings made by 263 bereaved parents. Predictions were derived from sociobiological tenets relating to parental investment, paternal uncertainty, and the propagation potential of both parents and children. Consequently, it was found that mothers grieved more than fathers, healthy children were grieved for more than unhealthy children; male children were grieved for more than female children; health of child and sex of child interacted such that the pattern of grief intensity obtained was healthy male greater than healthy female = unhealthy female = unhealthy male; similar children were grieved for more than dissimilar children; maternal grandmothers grieved more than either maternal grandfathers or paternal grandmothers, who in turn grieved more than paternal grandfathers; and mothers' siblings grieved more than fathers' siblings.     

The acceptance model of intuitive eating: a comparison of women in emerging adulthood, early adulthood, and middle adulthood

The acceptance model of intuitive eating (Avalos & Tylka, 2006) posits that body acceptance by others helps women appreciate their body and resist adopting an observer's perspective of their body, which contribute to their eating intuitively/adaptively. We extended this model by integrating body mass index (BMI) into its structure and investigating it with emerging (ages 18-25 years old, n = 318), early (ages 26-39 years old, n = 238), and middle (ages 40-65 years old, n = 245) adult women. Multiple-group analysis revealed that this model fit the data for all age groups. Body appreciation and resistance to adopt an observer's perspective mediated the body acceptance by others-intuitive eating link. Body acceptance by others mediated the social support-body appreciation and BMI-body appreciation links. Early and middle adult women had stronger negative BMI-body acceptance by others and BMI-intuitive eating relationships and a stronger positive body acceptance by others-body appreciation relationship than emerging adult women. Early adult women had a stronger positive resistance to adopt observer's perspective-body appreciation relationship than emerging and middle adult women.     

Paths from socioemotional behavior in middle childhood to personality in middle adulthood

Continuity in individual differences from socioemotional behavior in middle childhood to personality characteristics in middle adulthood was examined on the assumption that they share certain temperament-related elements. Socioemotional characteristics were measured using teacher ratings at ages 8 (N = 369; 53% males) and 14 (95% of the initial sample). Personality was assessed at age 42 (63% of the initial sample; 50% males) using a shortened version of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI); the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP); and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ). Three models were tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed paths (a) from behavioral activity to adult Extraversion and Openness (NEO-PI), sociability (KSP), and surgency (ATQ); (b) from well-controlled behavior to adult conformity (KSP) and Conscientiousness (NEO-PI); and (c) from negative emotionality to adult aggression (KSP). The paths were significant only for one gender, and more frequently for males than for females. The significant male paths from behavioral activity to all indicators of adult activity and from well-controlled behavior to adult conformity started at age 8, whereas significant female paths from behavioral activity to adult sociability and from well-controlled behavior to adult Conscientiousness started at age 14. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The consultation process with an adult: a child analyst's perspective

A close examination of a consultation is presented. Such a face-to-face encounter with an adult patient can suggest a parallel with another type of treatment: child analysis. It is argued that certain ways of working with children in analysis--the gliding between the interpersonal and the intrapsychic--were especially useful in bringing this adult patient to engage in analysis. Also highlighted in this account are interventions that function not as interpretations per se but as protointerpretations aimed at arousing preconscious affect states for the purpose of bringing them into conscious experience.     

Breakdown in communication: On finding the child in the analysis of an adult

SUMMARY

In this paper a patient is described in whom communication with parts of herself and with her objects, internal and external, had broken down. I suggest that her way of communicating was achieved by projective identification, as described by Klein (1946) and Bion (1962). The only way she could deal with and communicate her own very “bothered” feelings was to “put them” into the analyst. In this way she “bothered” the maternal or analytic mind in such a way as to make the analyst experience feeling like a “bothered” child.

I have tried to show how the analyst holds or contains these feelings, and to show the gradual establishment in the patient of a different way of communicating with the analyst and with the more primitive parts of herself.     

Consumer information processing strategies in middle and late adulthood

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the extent to which performance of a complex cognitive task of a type resembling that encountered in everyday life is maintained through adulthood. A total of 80 subjects participated; 20 in their thirties, 20 in their fifties, 20 in their sixties, and 20 in their seventies. Subjects were asked to make preference judgments with respect to 32 pocket-size notebooks of a sort they might encounter as consumers in a stationery or variety store. Independently, they were also asked to express their preferences with respect to each of the four dimensions on which the notebooks varied. With only minor differences across age groups, most subjects demonstrated the ability to integrate their individual dimension preferences into a complex preference judgment of an object embodying those dimensions, in a logically consistent manner.     

The child is father of the man: personality continuities from childhood to adulthood

This article presents findings about continuities in personality development that have been uncovered in the Dunedin study, an investigation of a cohort of children studied from age 3 to 21. At age 3, children were classified into temperament groups on the basis of observations of their behavior. In young adulthood, data were collected from study members themselves, from people who knew them well, and from official records. Undercontrolled 3-year-olds grew up to be impulsive, unreliable, and antisocial, and had more conflict with members of their social networks and in their work. Inhibited 3-year-olds were more likely to be unassertive and depressed and had fewer sources of social support. Early appearing temperamental differences have a pervasive influence on life-course development and offer clues about personality structure, interpersonal relations, psychopathology, and crime in adulthood.     

The implications of adult identity for educational and work attainment in young adulthood

This study investigates the relation of young adult identities (ages 18-22 years), reflecting subjective age and psychosocial maturity, to educational and career attainment in young adulthood (ages 25-29 years). Add Health data show that having an older subjective age alone does not curtail attainment; the critical issue is the level of psychosocial maturity that accompanies subjective age. Those with older subjective ages and low psychosocial maturation have the lowest attainment at ages 25-29 years, while those with older subjective ages and high psychosocial maturation show considerable progress toward work-related attainment. For those with younger subjective ages, a lower level of psychosocial maturity is not as detrimental to attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The sex-typing of adult and child behavior in toy sales

In order to investigate sex-stereotyping pressure in toy sales, a field experiment was conducted in which students approached 134 sales persons in 67 retail outlets, asking for help in selecting a toy for a niece or nephew, age 5. The results indicated that toy sales advice serves primarily to reinforce traditional sex-role expectations. Overall, salespersons gave more sex-stereotyped than neutral responses, and their responses did not vary by retail setting (specialized vs. department/chain stores) or the age of the salesperson. As expected, more stereotyped responses were received by male than by female buyers, especially when both sought suggestions for a male child. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that salespersons hold stereotyped conceptions of adult socialization practices and channel interaction in ways that behaviorally confirm these stereotypes. A number of other findings are presented and discussed.     

The role of task persistence in young adolescence for successful educational and occupational attainment in middle adulthood

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the importance of task persistence in young adolescence for successful educational and occupational attainment in middle adulthood. Data from age 13 (N = 1,092) and adult age (age 43 for women, N = 569 and age 47 for men, N = 393) were taken from the Swedish longitudinal research program entitled "Individual Development and Adaptation." In line with previous research, task persistence was found to be related to changes in grades between age 13 and age 16, over and above other childhood factors. Task persistence at age 13 was also a significant predictor of both income and occupational level in middle adulthood for the men, controlling for a number of childhood factors (including intelligence), and even when educational attainment in adulthood was taken into account. Finally, task persistence was related to educational attainment in adulthood. The authors suggest that task persistence is a second fundamental factor besides general mental ability, influencing attainment within the area of working life and education. The influence of task persistence is discussed in form of personality-environment selection mechanisms.     

The experience of worry in parent–adult child relationships

This study examined the experience of worry in the parent–adult child relationship. A mother, father, and adult son or daughter from 213 families participated (N= 639). Parents and adult children commonly worried about one another and their worry reflected individual characteristics (e.g., neuroticism) and relationship characteristics (e.g., importance of the relationship and ambivalence). In addition, how much adults and their parents worried about one another influenced the other party’s perceptions of relationship quality. Specifically, adults and parents rated their relationships more positively and more negatively when the other party reported worrying about them more and communicating their worries to them more frequently. Findings underscore the importance of including experiences such as worry in research on emotional complexities in the parent–adult child relationship.     

Associations between personality traits and psychological well-being across time in middle adulthood

Associations of personality traits with psychological well-being (PWB) were analyzed across ages 33–50 as part of an ongoing Finnish longitudinal study (initial N = 369). Bivariate latent growth curve analyses indicated that a low initial level of neuroticism (.75) and high extraversion (.55) correlated strongly with a high level of PWB. Moreover, a high level of conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness also correlated significantly with PWB. The change factor was significant only for openness: the higher the initial level of PWB, the higher the increase in openness from age 33–50. In comparison with emotional well-being, indicated by general life satisfaction, the associations of the personality traits with PWB were significantly stronger for neuroticism, extraversion, and openness.     

Age differences in and correlates of identity status from college through middle adulthood

Adults ranging from 20 to 42 years of age were compared on the Extended Objective Measure of Identity Statuses, a questionnaire measure of identity statuses in the domains of ideological and interpersonal development. As hypothesized, compared to current college students, men and women over 30 years of age showed patterns of more mature identity development in both domains with the exception of foreclosure scores in the interpersonal domain that remained stable. Relationships between life commitments and identity statuses were analyzed separately for adults in their 30s compared to those in their 40s, revealing complex interactions with gender and normative cohort expectations. As hypothesized, relationships between identity statuses and adult commitments were more generally observed for the younger adult cohort, for whom individual differences in psychosocial development rather than age-related expectations might be expected to serve as determinants of early life choices.     

Support groups for parents with an adult child suffering from bipolar disorder

Confronted with the disconcerting behaviour exhibited by their children, parents of bipolar patients are in severe distress. Research focuses on the study of the ‘burden’ that the pathology puts on caregivers, owing to their experience of depression, sometimes combined with the presence of hostile attitudes and negative affects. In France, parents of adult patients encounter an initial specific difficulty: they are not systematically included in the care management system. Thanks to the initiative of an association of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, the authors set up a psychoanalytic support group for the parents of ‘bipolar’ adults. The diagnosis of a bipolar disorder is established by a psychiatrist within a medical structure. Support groups for parents do exist in France, but their experiences have not led to scientific publications on this specific topic. Existing publications focus on other types of pathology and other therapeutic approaches. In this article, we will highlight how this type of psychoanalytic support group, with operating rules based on the theoretical work of Anzieu, can help parents of patients with bipolar disorders. Group participants accepted the principle of a research study that maintained their anonymity. We collected and analysed qualitative data from the first year of the group, so we highlight the specific difficulties of these parents, faced with chronic disease. The relevance of our qualitative study also resides in the data collected over a period of time, enabling us to see the progress made, and encouraging us to reflect on the place of psychoanalytic groups for parents, as well as on the care management of this pathology.     

Empathy and risk status for child physical abuse: the effects of an adult victim's pain cues and an adult victim's intent on aggression

It has been proposed that abusive parents and parents at high risk for child physical abuse could be more likely to view children's behavior as being motivated by hostile intent [e.g., Milner, 1993], as compared to nonabusive and low‐risk parents. This kind of misattribution of other's behavior may inhibit empathic emotion, and therefore, could block the inhibiting effect of a victim's pain cues on aggression [Baron, 1979]. An experiment was designed to analyze the moderating effect of an adult victim's intent on aggression in high‐ and low‐risk participants for child physical abuse. A 2 × 2 factorial design based upon two levels of the participant's risk status (high, low) and two levels of victim's intent (positive, ambiguous) was employed. All participants observed an adult victim's pain cues. Ninety‐five (48 high and 47 low risk for child physical abuse) undergraduate females enrolled in courses at the University of the Basque Country participated in the experiment. The main effects of victims' intent and of participants' risk status were statistically significant. Participants in the ambiguous victim's intent condition aggressed significantly more than participants in the positive victim's intent condition. Moreover, high‐risk participants aggressed more than low‐risk participants regardless of the victim's intent. A significant interaction between risk status and victim's intent was expected. High‐risk subjects for child physical abuse were expected to aggress more than low‐risk subjects only in the ambiguous victim's intent condition. However, results did not support this hypothesis. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Change and stability of needs from middle adolescence to young adulthood in Swedish females

The Cesarec–Marke Personality Schedule, a Swedish inventory for the measurement of needs, was administered to a sample of females, aged 15, and readministered 10 years later. Longitudinal analyses showed that most dispositions changed significantly, although the changes were rather small. All traits were moderately stable over the 10-year period.