Unit 12 Adulthood and the last stage of the life course

1. What characterises adulthood as a stage in the life course?

Adulthood is recognised increasingly as a time of continuous challenge and change. Erikson noted that the crisis for young adults (ages 20 to 40) is intimacy vs. isolation. In middle adulthood (ages 40 to 60), the crisis is generativity vs. stagnation. At this stage of life, adults frequently must juggle feelings of making substantial contributions to the world with feelings of boredom and resignation.

Daniel Levinson pioneered the systematic study of the adult life cycle. He believes that the adult male life cycle is divided into stable periods in which a man reviews and evaluates his past choices and considers the future. Transition periods are difficult. Levinson argues that all men progress through the same stages in the same order. The first stage occurs during the twenties. Young men begin to make their own choices and to define their place in the adult world. Around age 30, seriousness increases because the decisions are now more permanent and farther-reaching in their consequences.

The mid-life transition occurs between ages 40 and 45. Early signs of aging set in, and many men may have reached a plateau in their career. At this stage many men experience a time of reassessment. Still another transition begins at about age 60, when men begin to recognise that their generation is no longer the dominant one. They become concerned with sustaining their own vitality in new but appropriate forms for late adulthood and old age.

Regrettably, Levinson's study included only men. To date no major in-depth analysis of women's life course has appeared, but the evidence suggests that the " ages and stages" approach may not apply as well to women. This difference is due particularly to the timing of childbearing, which substantially affects a woman's decisions about work and career. We need more research on how the female life course in adulthood will be affected by the influx of women into the labour force and the trend for younger women to combine job and family roles.

2. What characterises the last stages of the life course?

New stages have been added to our analysis of aging because Americans are growing increasingly older. Most social scientists distinguish between the old or the elderly (ages 65 to 85) and the aged or the " old old" (age 85 and beyond).

Several converging trends have affected the aging of the American population in the expansion of the life course. First, survival rates have improved steadily. Second, medical advances have produced increased longevity. Third, declining birth rates have helped increase the proportion of the population that is older.

The aging of the population has altered the social structure because an increasing proportion of people are (and will be) in the older age groups. The aging of the population also reflects tremendous social change. An industrialised and urbanised society generally has lower fertility, thereby decreasing the proportion of the population that is very young.

Several stereotypical views of the elderly help promote ageism, a system of negative beliefs about the elderly. First, there is the belief that old age means inevitable physical, sexual, and mental decline. In fact, however, physical changes have negative effects at a much later age than many people think. A decline in sexuality does not generally occur as long as the opportunity remains. Furthermore, senility does not strike all older people. Many of the conditions associated with senility can now be diagnosed accurately and treated effectively. Finally, although many people believe the myth of inflexibility, there is no evidence to support this myth.

Still another myth holds that older people are disengaged from the world around them, but withdrawal is not a natural part of the aging process. A final myth is that the last part of life is perfectly serene, but obviously, the aged experience a variety of problems. Erikson's crisis in the last stage of life is integrity vs. despair. People either accept themselves and integrate the various aspects of their life or they regret the past.

Sociologists distinguish between primary aging and secondary aging. The former is a biologically programmed process that affects all body systems; the latter involves limitations that result not from aging as such but from disease, abuse, or disuse. Primary aging is inevitable, but secondary aging is not.

The experience of aging has improved recently because of better medical care, improved diet, and increased interest in physical fitness. In fact, very few elderly Americans live in nursing homes or in age-segregated retirement communities. Furthermore, the belief that aging parents are a drain on children's finances is false. In fact, older Americans are much more likely to give financial aid to their children than to receive such aid.

Social Security has had both positive and negative consequences for older people. It provides money and therefore independence for many. On the other hand, it tends to reinforce ageism. By

giving official sanction to the concept of retirement and to the appropriate age for retirement, Social Security has helped reduce the number of the working elderly. In addition, age discrimination often forces people to retire before they reach the official mandatory retirement age. Retirement is an important transition in the life course and can be very stressful, especially for men. Most studies, however, show that a majority of older Americans look forward to retirement.

Socioeconomic status is an important factor in the quality of life for the elderly. Widows and members of minority groups are particularly likely to experience economic hardship. The effects of socioeconomic status are seen once again as a key determinant of people's life experiences.

Women experience aging differently from men. They suffer a greater loss as they age because society values youth and beauty more highly in women than in men. Women are much more likely to be widowed for a large portion of their old age because they marry older men and live longer than men. The experience of widowhood itself is different for men and for women; widowed men have a much higher chance of remarriage than do widowed women.

The meaning of death for individuals as well as for society has changed as a result of increased longevity and the growing size of the aging population. With death occurring at a later age, more people are able to contemplate their own deaths. Ernest Becker believed that the denial of death inhibits preparation for dying, thereby making the final transition even more difficult. He main­tained that fear of dying and failure to accept the inevitability of death are major sources of unperceived stress in modern societies.

Kubler-Ross identifies five stages in the process of dying: denial, bargaining for a reprieve, anger, depression, and finally, acceptance of the inevitable. She argues that dying persons should be enabled in working through these stages. These changing conceptions of death and dying have altered the responses of societies and social institutions to dying persons.