HUMAN DEVELOPMENT- SEM 8

INTRODUCTION
The psychology of human development (HD) systematically examines the continuities and
changes that individuals display throughout their lives . It seeks to describe, explain, and
optimize development, recognizing that while there are typical developmental paths, individual
experiences can vary significantly.

Key aspects of understanding the psychology of HD include:

●​ Developmental Psychology Definition: It is a branch of psychology focused on

identifying and explaining the continuous and changing characteristics that individuals
display over time . Many scholars, regardless of discipline, contribute to the field of
developmental psychology and are referred to as Developmentalists .
●​ Goals of Developmental Science:
○​ Describe: Carefully observe behaviors at different ages to catalog changes over
time. This includes understanding both normative development (typical patterns)
and ideographic development (individual variations) .
○​ Explain: Determine why people develop as they do, and why variations occur .
○​ Optimize: Apply knowledge to help people develop in positive ways.
●​ Factors Influencing Development:
○​ Maturation: Biological unfolding based on species-typical and individual
biological inheritance . For example, humans typically learn to walk and talk
around age 1 due to their biological program .
○​ Learning: Relatively permanent changes in behavior resulting from experiences
and practice . Interactions with parents, teachers, and the environment lead to new
ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving .
●​ Nature vs. Nurture: Development is influenced by both nature (genetics, biology) and
nurture (environment, experiences) .
●​ Characteristics of Development: Development is a continual and cumulative process
with plasticity that is influenced by historical and cultural factors .
●​ Trajectories: These refer to the pathways or patterns of change individuals experience
across the lifespan. These trajectories are influenced by biological, cognitive, and
social-emotional factors.
●​ Multidisciplinary Field: The field incorporates insights from biologists, sociologists,
anthropologists, educators, physicians, and neuroscientists.

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PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
Germinal Stage (0-2 Weeks)

●​ Conception and Zygote Formation: This stage starts with the union of a sperm and an
egg in the fallopian tube, resulting in a zygote.
●​ Mitosis and Cell Differentiation: The zygote undergoes rapid cell division through
mitosis, multiplying from 2 to 4 to 16 cells and so on. As these cells increase, they begin
to form two distinct masses:
○​ Blastocyst: This is the inner group of cells that will eventually develop into the
embryo.
○​ Trophoblast: This is the outer layer of cells that surrounds the blastocyst and
provides nutrients and support to the developing embryo.
●​ Implantation: The blastocyst travels down the fallopian tube and attaches to the uterine
wall, in a process called implantation. Successful implantation is critical, as it triggers
hormonal changes that halt the woman's menstrual cycle and signal the beginning of
pregnancy.

Embryonic Stage (2-8 Weeks)

●​ Cell Differentiation and Organogenesis: This stage is marked by rapid cell

differentiation, where cells begin to specialize and take on specific functions. This is
also the period when the major organs and systems of the body start to form.
●​ Formation of Three Cell Layers: As the blastocyst implants in the uterine wall, it
becomes an embryo. Three primary layers of cells develop, each with a specific role:
○​ Endoderm: The innermost layer, which develops into the digestive and
respiratory systems.
○​ Mesoderm: The middle layer, which forms the circulatory, skeletal, and
muscular systems, as well as the excretory and reproductive systems.
○​ Ectoderm: The outermost layer, which gives rise to the nervous system,
including the brain, sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose), and parts of the skin
(hair and nails).
●​ Development of Support Systems:
○​ Alongside the development of the embryo, essential support structures form,
including the amnion (a protective membrane), the umbilical cord (connecting
the embryo to the placenta), and the placenta (providing nutrients and oxygen
while removing waste).
●​ Key Developments:

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 ○​ Neural Tube Formation: Around the fourth week, the neural tube forms, which
eventually develops into the brain and spinal cord.
○​ Facial Features: Also around the fourth week, the head begins to take shape,
with the rapid formation of the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
○​ Cardiovascular System: The heart and circulatory system start to develop
during this time.
○​ Limb Development: By the fifth week, buds that will become the arms and
legs make their appearance.
●​ Organ Formation: By the end of the eighth week, the embryo has developed all the
basic organs.

Fetal Stage (8 Weeks to Birth)

●​ Growth and Maturation: This stage is characterized by growth and maturation of the
organs and systems that formed during the embryonic period. The fetus undergoes
significant increases in size and weight.
●​ Brain Development:
○​ The neural tube continues to develop into the brain and spinal cord.
○​ Neurons continue to form, and synapses (connections between neurons) begin to
develop, which are crucial for brain function.
●​ Physical Developments:
○​ Third Month (12 weeks): The fetus weighs about three ounces (85 grams).
○​ Beyond 13 Weeks: Fingernails, hair, eyelashes, and toenails start to form.
○​ The size of the fetus increases noticeably.
●​ Determination of Sex: By the fourth month (16 weeks), the sex of the baby can be
determined through ultrasound.
●​ Brain Maturation: Around 28 weeks, the brain begins to mature more rapidly, and its
activity starts to resemble that of a sleeping newborn.
●​ Weight at Birth: The average weight of a full-term baby at birth is around 7.5 pounds
(3.5 kg).
●​ Viability: As early as 24-25 weeks (6 months), the fetus has a chance of surviving
outside the womb, which is referred to as viability. However, premature infants born
between 24 and 37 weeks often require assistance with breathing due to immature lungs.

Teratogens:

Definition: Teratogens are external agents, such as viruses, drugs, chemicals, and radiation, that
can cause harm to a developing embryo or fetus.

Prevalence of Normal Births: It's important to note that about 95% of newborn babies are
perfectly normal. Many of those born with defects have mild, temporary, or reversible problems.

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Examples of Teratogens:

●​ Alcohol
●​ Radiation
●​ Rubella
●​ AIDS
●​ Herpes virus, which can lead to deafness, brain swelling, or mental retardation

Sensitive Period:

●​ A sensitive period is a time during prenatal development when an organ or body part is
most susceptible to teratogenic agents.
●​ Outside of this period, stronger environmental influences are needed to produce
comparable effects.
●​ For example, the most crucial period for gross physical defects of the head and central
nervous system is the 3rd through the 5th prenatal week. The heart is particularly
vulnerable from the middle of the 3rd through the middle of the 6th prenatal week. The
most vulnerable period for many other organs and body parts is the 2nd prenatal month.

Prevention of Exposure to Teratogens:

●​ Every pregnant woman needs good prenatal care supervised by a practitioner who keeps
current on medical research in the field of teratology.
●​ No woman should become pregnant unless she is sure that she has either had rubella or
been immunized against it.
●​ From the beginning of pregnancy, a woman should be tested for STDs and do everything
possible to avoid exposure to contagious diseases.
●​ Pregnant women should avoid eating undercooked red meat or having contact with any
cat (or cat feces) that may carry toxoplasmosis infection.
●​ A pregnant woman should not take any drugs unless absolutely essential—and then only
when approved by a physician who is aware of the pregnancy.
●​ Unless it is absolutely essential for her own well-being, a pregnant woman should avoid
radiation treatments and X-ray examinations.
●​ Cigarettes should not be smoked during pregnancy.

Additional information, not found in the provided sources, that you may want to
independently verify:

●​ Specific teratogens can cause specific birth defects and developmental problems.
●​ The FDA categorizes prescription medications based on their potential to cause birth
defects.
●​ Some teratogens only pose a risk during certain stages of pregnancy.

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Textbook prenatal development

●​ Folic Acid Supplementation: Pregnant women should take 0.4 to 1.0 milligram of folic
acid daily, especially during the first 8 weeks when the neural tube is forming.
●​ Emotional Well-Being of the Pregnant Woman:
○​ A pregnant woman's emotional state can affect the fetus.
○​ When a pregnant woman experiences emotional arousal, hormones like adrenaline
can cross the placental barrier and influence the fetus's motor activity.
○​ Stress can lead to changes in fetal heart rate and motor activity. The fetus may
react to sensory changes related to the mother's stress, such as changes in heart
sounds and the mother's voice.
○​ Prolonged and severe emotional stress can result in stunted prenatal growth,
premature delivery, and low birth weight. It may also lead to infants being highly
active, irritable, and having irregular feeding, sleeping, and bowel habits.
○​ High maternal stress and cortisol levels may lead to infants who fuss and cry
more.
○​ Children exposed to maternal stress prenatally, particularly between 12 and 22
weeks of gestation, may have an increased risk of ADHD symptoms,
externalizing problems, and anxiety.
○​ Stress hormones can divert blood flow, reducing oxygen and nutrients to the fetus.
Stress can also weaken the mother's immune system and may lead to poor eating
habits or substance use.
○​ A woman's ability to manage stress is more important than the presence of
stressors. Social support and counseling can be beneficial.
○​ Moderate maternal stress may promote prenatal development.
●​ Maternal Age:
○​ The safest age range for childbearing is between 16 and 35.
○​ Mothers aged 15 and younger face increased risks of infant mortality and birth
complications. These risks are often associated with impoverished backgrounds,
poor nutrition, high stress, and lack of prenatal care.
○​ Women over 35 have a higher risk of miscarriage and pregnancy complications.
●​ Prevention of Birth Defects:
○​ The majority of genetically abnormal embryos do not develop to term, and over
95% of newborns are normal.
○​ Prenatal care is key to reducing the odds of abnormalities.
○​ Recommendations include genetic counseling if there's a family history of
disorders, prenatal care, rubella immunization, STD testing, avoiding
undercooked meat and contact with cat feces, avoiding non-essential drugs and
radiation, not smoking, and maintaining a nourishing diet.

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 ●​ The Mother's Experience:
○​ Early extended contact can help a mother form an emotional bond with her child.
○​ Cultural rituals surrounding birth differ.
○​ Natural childbirth focuses on physical and psychological preparation to minimize
medical assistance.
○​ Natural childbirth can reduce pain and medication use during delivery and
promote positive attitudes.
○​ Home births can be as safe as hospital deliveries if the mother is healthy, the
pregnancy is smooth, and a trained midwife is present.
○​ Alternative birth centers offer a homelike atmosphere with available medical
technology.
○​ Postpartum depression can affect new mothers. Lack of social support, a history
of depressive episodes, and substance use during pregnancy are linked to more
severe postpartum depression.
●​ The Father's Experience: Fathers experience a mix of positive and negative emotions
during the birth process. They often display engrossment, an intense fascination with the
newborn.
●​ Siblings' Experiences: Firstborn children may have difficulty adjusting to a new baby
due to perceived neglect. Sibling rivalry can be minimized by maintaining routines,
providing love and attention, and involving older children in the baby's care.
●​ Potential Problems at Birth:
○​ Anoxia (oxygen deprivation) can result in brain damage.
○​ Breech births and premature placental separation can cause anoxia.
○​ RH factor incompatibility between mother and fetus can also lead to
complications.

​
Postpartum Depression Effects:

●​ Prevalence and Impact: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects a significant percentage of

mothers, around 20–40%, and a somewhat lower percentage of fathers. It has long-term
negative effects on children's health and their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical
development.
●​ Disturbed Early Interactions: Researchers attribute long-term negative outcomes to
disturbed mother-infant interactions. Depressed mothers are often less engaged, exhibit
less emotion and warmth, and have lower rates of play with their infants. These
interaction disturbances appear to be universal across different cultures and
socioeconomic groups.
●​ Styles of Interaction: Depressed mothers may exhibit intrusive, controlling,
over-stimulating, withdrawn, passive, or under-stimulating interaction styles. They touch
their infants less frequently and in a less affectionate or more negative manner.

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●​ Vocal Behavior: Depressed mothers use longer utterances, less repetition, more negative
affect, fewer explanations, suggestions, questions, and fewer references to their infants'
behavior.
●​ Enrichment Activities: Depressed parents engage in fewer enrichment activities with
their infants, including less reading, singing, storytelling, and playing games.
●​ Paternal Depression: Postpartum paternal depression can exacerbate maternal
depression effects on later child behavior problems, especially if the father spends
significant time caring for the child.
●​ Inadequate Caregiving Practices: Postpartum depression can compromise feeding
practices (especially breastfeeding), sleep routines, well-child visits, and vaccinations.
○​ Breastfeeding: Depressed mothers are more likely to discontinue breastfeeding
early due to dissatisfaction and problems.
○​ Sleep Problems: Undesirable sleep practices include placing the infant to sleep in
the prone position. Infants may also experience problems such as sleeping in the
parents' bed, being nursed to sleep, taking longer to fall asleep, and waking more
often.
○​ Healthcare: Infants of depressed mothers may have increased use of acute care
services, fewer preventive services, and fewer well-child visits and up-to-date
vaccinations.
●​ Safety Practices: Maternal depression can affect safety practices such as using an infant
car seat, having electric outlet covers, safety latches on cabinets, and lowering the water
heater temperature.
●​ Thoughts of Harming Infants: Depressed mothers are more likely to have thoughts of
harming their infants.
●​ Punishment: Mothers with depressive symptoms are more likely to use harsh
punishment.
●​ Clinical Implications: Universal screening for maternal and paternal depression is
essential. Pediatricians should provide anticipatory guidance to mothers with depression
symptoms, including discussions of parenting practices.
●​ Behavioral Interventions: Interventions include psychotherapy and interaction coaching
for mothers, and infant massage for their infants. Interaction coaching can help mothers
improve their interaction behaviors. Teaching depressed mothers to massage their infants
has resulted in less irritability and fewer sleep problems in the infants and reduced
depression in the mothers.
●​ Methodological Limitations: Many studies rely on self-report measures for assessing
parental depression and caregiving activities.

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INFANCY

●​ What is Infancy?​

○​ Infancy is the period from birth to about 18-24 months.

○​ Developmentalists distinguish between sensation and perception. Sensation is
when your body's sensory receptors (like in your eyes, ears, skin) detect
information and send it to the brain. Perception is how you interpret those
sensations, like recognizing what you see or understanding what someone says.
○​ Newborns can sense the world around them and react to sights, sounds, tastes, and
smells. Researchers use clever methods to understand what infants can sense and
perceive.
●​ Newborns' Readiness for Life​

○​ In the past, newborns were thought to be fragile and helpless. But actually, they
are well-prepared for life outside the womb.
○​ A newborn's senses are working. They can see and hear well enough to notice
what's happening and respond. They can also learn and remember vivid
experiences.
○​ Two things that show how ready newborns are for life are their inborn reflexes
and their daily activity patterns.
●​ Newborn Reflexes​

○​ A reflex is an automatic response to something. For example, blinking when air is

puffed into your eye.
○​ Survival reflexes are important for survival. Examples are breathing, blinking,
sucking, and swallowing. The rooting reflex helps babies find food by turning
their head when their cheek is touched.
○​ Reflexes can make caregivers feel good. For example, a mother might feel
gratified when her baby sucks easily at the nipple. Grasping reflexes can also
make parents feel that their baby enjoys being close to them when the baby tightly
grasps their fingers.
○​ Primitive reflexes aren't as useful. The Babinski reflex (toes fan out when the
foot is stroked) is an example. The swimming reflex might help a baby float if
they fall in water. The grasping reflex could help a baby hold on when carried.
The stepping reflex may be a forerunner to walking.

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 ○​ Primitive reflexes disappear in the first few months because the higher brain
centers develop and guide voluntary behaviors. The presence and disappearance
of these reflexes indicate normal nervous system development.
○​ Preterm infants may have weak survival reflexes or show little to no primitive
reflexes at birth.
●​ Infant States of Arousal​

○​ Newborns have organized daily activity patterns. They move between six states of
arousal.
○​ During the first month, babies can quickly change states. They spend most of their
time sleeping (16-18 hours a day). They are most receptive to stimulation when in
an alert, inactive state (2-3 hours a day).
○​ Sleep cycles are short, lasting 45 minutes to 2 hours. Babies also experience
periods of drowsiness, alert activity, and crying.
○​ The fact that newborns go through predictable patterns of states indicates that
their internal regulatory mechanisms are well organized.
○​ The different infant states of arousal include:
■​ Regular sleep
■​ Irregular sleep
■​ Drowsiness
■​ Alert inactivity
■​ Alert activity
■​ Crying
●​ Developmental Changes in Crying​

○​ Babies cry most often in their first 3 months. Crying changes relate to brain and
central nervous system maturation.
○​ Mothers who respond quickly to their baby's cries tend to have babies who cry
less.
○​ Pediatricians can sometimes detect congenital problems by listening to a
newborn's cries.
○​ Preterm babies and those with health issues may have shrill, nonrhythmic cries.
Analyzing cries can even help discriminate preterm infants who will develop
normally from those who may experience later cognitive deficiencies.
●​ How Researchers Study Infant Perception​

○​ Preference Method: Showing infants two stimuli at once and seeing which one
they look at longer. If they look longer at one, it's assumed they prefer it. Robert
Fantz used this to find that newborns prefer patterned stimuli like faces over
unpatterned disks. A limitation of this method is that if infants show no

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 preference, it's unclear if they can't discriminate the stimuli or find them equally
interesting.
○​ Habituation Method: Repeatedly presenting a stimulus until the infant stops
responding (habituation). Then, a new stimulus is presented. If the infant
responds, it shows they can discriminate between the stimuli (dishabituation).
This method is useful for assessing sensory and perceptual capabilities because
babies habituate and dishabituate to sights, sounds, odors, tastes, and touches.
Distinguishing between habituation and preference can be tricky.
○​ Method of Evoked Potentials: Presenting a stimulus and recording brain waves.
Electrodes are placed on the infant's scalp above brain centers that process
sensory information. If the infant senses the stimulus, their brain waves will
change (evoked potential). This method can also show if infants discriminate
between stimuli because different stimuli produce different brain wave patterns.
The machine used for recording evoked potentials is called an
Electroencephalograph (EEG) system. It's called evoked potential because the
brain's response is deliberately elicited by an external stimulus, and potential
refers to the electrical signals detected in the brain as a reaction to the stimulus. A
limitation to this approach is that it requires infants to remain relatively still,
which can be challenging, and results can be influenced by background noise or
movement artifacts.
○​ High-Amplitude Sucking Method: Infants suck on a special pacifier with
electrical circuitry to control the sensory environment. Sucking faster or harder
activates a projector or tape recorder to present a stimulus. If the infant finds it
interesting, they'll keep sucking. This method can also determine preferences by
adjusting the circuitry so different sucking patterns activate different stimuli.
●​ Infant Sensory Capabilities​

○​ Newborns' hearing isn't as sensitive as adults'. They need louder sounds to detect
them. This may be due to fluids in the inner ear. However, they can discriminate
sounds that differ in loudness, duration, direction, and frequency.
○​ Infants react to approaching auditory stimuli similarly to visual stimuli.
●​ Visual Perception​

○​ Even newborns have some understanding of an object's real size.

○​ Size constancy improves throughout the first year but isn't fully mature until
10-11 years of age.
○​ Infants become sensitive to different spatial cues at different ages. They extract
spatial information from kinetic cues (moving objects) between 1 and 3 months.
They respond to binocular cues at 3-5 months and monocular (pictorial) cues by
6-7 months.

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●​ Depth Perception​

○​ Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk (1960) developed the visual cliff to test depth
perception. The visual cliff is an elevated glass platform divided into two sections
by a center board. One side has a checkerboard pattern directly under the glass
(shallow side), and the other has the pattern several feet below (deep side),
creating the illusion of a drop-off.
○​ Infants are placed on the center board, and their mothers coax them to cross both
sides. Most infants of crawling age (6-6½ months) cross the shallow side but
avoid the deep side, showing they perceive depth and are afraid of drop-offs.
○​ Two-month-olds show a decrease in heart rate (interest) when lowered over the
deep side, but no change on the shallow side, indicating they detect a difference
but haven't learned to fear drop-offs yet.
○​ Infants who have crawled for a couple of weeks are more afraid of drop-offs than
those who haven't. Motor development provides experiences that change infants'
interpretation of depth. Self-produced movement makes infants more sensitive to
optical flow, which may promote the development of new neural pathways in the
sensory and motor areas of the brain.
●​ Intermodal Perception​

○​ Intermodal perception is the ability to recognize something using one sense that is
familiar from another sense.
○​ The senses are integrated early in life. Infants expect to feel objects they can see
and reach.
○​ One- to two-month-olds get distressed when they see their talking mothers behind
a soundproof screen but hear the voice from a different direction, showing
integration of sight and sound.
○​ Newborns prefer looking at their mother's face compared to strangers, but this
disappears if they can't hear their mother's voice, indicating they need both visual
and auditory cues.
○​ One-month-olds can recognize by sight objects they have previously sucked.
○​ Intermodal matching between vision and hearing emerges around 4 months.
○​ The intersensory redundancy hypothesis suggests that the amodal detection of a
stimulus aids in the development and differentiation of individual senses.
Attending to multimodal stimuli promotes perceptual differentiation.
●​ Cultural Influences on Infant Perception​

○​ Culture can subtly influence perception.

○​ Infants are biologically prepared to acquire any language, but exposure to a
particular language makes them more sensitive to its sound patterns.

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 ○​ For example, all infants can discriminate the consonants "r" and "l," but adults
who speak languages that don't distinguish between them (like Japanese) cannot
make this auditory discrimination as well as infants can.
●​ Basic Learning Processes in Infancy​

○​ Learning is a change in behavior resulting from experience that is relatively

permanent.
○​ Habituation: decreasing response to a repeated stimulus.
○​ Classical Conditioning: pairing a neutral stimulus with a meaningful one so that
the neutral stimulus eventually elicits a response.
○​ Operant Conditioning: learning based on rewards and punishments.
○​ Observational Learning: learning by observing others' behavior.
●​ Habituation in Detail​

○​ Habituation is when you stop paying attention to a stimulus that is repeated over
and over. It's like learning to ignore things that are familiar and not exciting.
○​ Even fetuses can habituate.
○​ If a baby dishabituates to a slightly different stimulus, it shows that they can
discriminate between the familiar and unfamiliar.
○​ Habituation improves dramatically during the first year.
○​ Infants who habituate rapidly may have higher intelligence later in childhood.
●​ Classical Conditioning in Detail​

○​ In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus (CS) becomes associated with a

stimulus (UCS) that always causes a response. Eventually, the neutral stimulus
elicits the same response (CR).
○​ Newborns can be classically conditioned, but it's limited to biologically
programmed reflexes.
○​ Classical conditioning helps infants recognize that certain events occur together,
like bottles giving milk.
●​ Operant Conditioning in Detail​

○​ Operant conditioning involves emitting a response and associating it with the

consequences.
○​ Behaviors with favorable consequences are repeated, while those with
unfavorable outcomes are limited.
○​ Even premature babies are susceptible to operant conditioning.
○​ Operant conditioning is very difficult in neonates but gets slightly easier with
infants 3 months and above.

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 ●​ Infant Memory​

○​ Carolyn Rovee-Collier's experiment with infants and mobiles shows that infants
can remember what they have learned.
○​ Infants learned to kick their legs to make a mobile move. Two-month-olds
remembered this for up to 3 days, while 3-month-olds remembered for over a
week.
○​ Even after weeks, infants could remember if they were "reminded" by seeing the
mobile move.
○​ Early memories are highly context-dependent.
●​ Observational Learning in Detail​

○​
Observational learning is learning by watching others.
○​
New responses don't need to be reinforced or performed to be learned.
○​
Infants may imitate facial gestures, like sticking out their tongues.
○​
Deferred imitation (reproducing actions later) develops rapidly during the 2nd
year.
●​ The Active Child​

○​ Children actively participate in their own development.

○​ Perceptual development depends on brain maturation, sensory experiences, motor
skills, and the social/cultural context.

DEVELOPMENT OF SELF CONCEPT

Here are detailed yet simple notes on the development of self-concept and self-esteem, drawing
from the provided sources:

Understanding Self and Self-Concept

●​ The Self is the unique combination of physical and psychological attributes for each
individual.
●​ Essentially, the self is a collection of information and a collection of processes.
●​ Social Cognition refers to how people think about the thoughts, feelings, motives, and
behaviors of themselves and others.
●​ Self-Concept is defined as one’s perceptions of one’s unique attributes or traits.
●​ The question "Who am I?" is central to the concept of self.

Development of Self-Concept

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●​ Early Infancy (Newborns to 3 months)
○​ Some developmentalists believe even newborns can distinguish the self from the
environment.
○​ Evidence includes newborns becoming distressed at hearing another baby's cry
but not their own.
○​ Newborns anticipate the arrival of their own hands at their mouths and use
proprioceptive feedback to mimic facial expressions.
○​ Proprioceptive feedback is sensory information from muscles, tendons, and
joints that helps locate body position in space.
○​ Other views suggest infants are born without a sense of self, like a "chick in an
egg".
○​ It's difficult to know the "truth" about self-awareness at birth, requiring inference
and interpretation.
○​ However, almost everyone agrees the first glimmerings of self-capacity are seen
by 2 or 3 months.
○​ Around 2 months, infants may have a limited sense of personal agency.
○​ Personal agency is the recognition that one can be the cause of an event.
○​ Infants around 2-3 months delight in producing interesting sights/sounds by
kicking legs or pulling arms connected to mobiles or audiovisual machinery.
●​ Infancy (Beyond 3 months)
○​ By the first month or two, infants likely learn the limits of their own bodies and
differentiate the "physical self" from external objects they can control shortly
after.
○​ Once infants know they exist independently, they are in a position to find out who
or what they are, forming the basis of self-concept.
○​ Early Self-Recognition:
■​ Around 5 months, babies seem to recognize their own faces as familiar
social stimuli.
■​ When shown videos of themselves and an age-mate, 5-month-olds
discriminate their own image and prefer to gaze at the peer's face (novel)
rather than their own (familiar).
■​ This recognition doesn't mean they fully understand the face belongs to
them, only that it's familiar.
■​ One explanation for this early recognition is frequent exposure to mirrors,
often with a caregiver playing a social game.
○​ Around 9 months, babies don't yet fully understand a reflection or video is them.
They are more tuned into social interactions. They see imitation as a way to bond.
○​ Self Recognition in Infancy (Mirror Test):
■​ The Mirror Test (Rouge Test) involves placing a red mark on an infant's
nose and observing their reaction to a mirror reflection.

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 ■​ Infants with a scheme for their own faces who recognize their mirror
image as themselves should notice the mark and touch or wipe their own
nose.
■​ Before 15 months, babies typically show no self-recognition in the test,
treating the image as "some other kid".
■​ Signs of self-recognition are seen in a few 15- to 17-month-olds.
■​ A majority of 18- to 24-month-olds touch their own noses, realizing they
had a mark on their faces and knowing the kid in the mirror was them.
■​ Infants from nomadic tribes without mirror experience pass the test at the
same age as city-reared infants.
■​ Many 18- to 24-month-olds can also recognize themselves in photographs
and use personal pronouns ("me") or their own name.
○​ Cultural differences influence the age of achieving self-recognition. Children in
individualistic cultures (emphasizing independence) tend to recognize themselves
earlier than those in collectivist cultures (focusing on group identity). Parenting
styles stressing autonomy versus interdependence also play a role.
○​ Secure attachments to caregivers contribute to earlier self-recognition.
○​ Parents contribute by talking about the child's experiences ("Remember when we
went to the zoo?") which helps them understand they are the same person over
time. These autobiographical memories, co-constructed with adults, illustrate that
the self is stable over time, contributing to the extended self.
●​ Preschool Years (Ages 3-5)
○​ Children at this age primarily describe themselves in simple, concrete ways.
○​ Descriptions focus on: physical traits ("I have brown hair"), possessions ("I have
a big teddy bear"), and actions ("I can jump really high!").
○​ They rarely use psychological traits (like "I am kind" or "I am smart").
○​ Researchers once thought this meant they lacked understanding of their
personality.
○​ However, studies suggest preschoolers may have a basic understanding of
personality but lack the vocabulary to express it. When given simple choices (e.g.,
playing alone vs. with friends), they can identify aspects of their personality.
○​ Between ages 3½ and 5, the Extended Self emerges. This is a more mature
representation where children integrate past, current, and future
self-representations into a notion of a self that endures over time. This contrasts
with the Present Self (2-3 years) which recognizes current self but is unaware that
past events have implications for the present.
●​ Middle Childhood (Around 6-12 years old)
○​ Children move beyond just physical traits to describing themselves using
personality and interests ("I am kind" or "I like science").
○​ They use terms like “popular, nice, helpful, mean, smart, and dumb”.

15
 ○​ Starting around 8-12 years, children are more likely to recognize social aspects
of the self.
○​ They include references to social groups (Girl Scouts, Catholics, having two close
friends) in self-descriptions.
○​ They also begin recognizing their values and beliefs as part of their identity.
○​ Social comparison increases during this time, with children distinguishing
themselves from others in comparative rather than absolute terms.
○​ Studies show that children older than 7 include socially comparative information
in their self-evaluations after performing a task and seeing others' performance.
Younger children make little reference to others' performance. This increasing
realism aligns with their competency appraisals starting to reflect others'
evaluations around age 8.
○​ Perspective taking (understanding others' thoughts and feelings) increases in
middle and late childhood.
○​ Around age 8, children understand others have a perspective due to access to
information. In later years, they become aware of mutual perspective awareness.
○​ Perspective taking is thought to be important for developing prosocial or
antisocial attitudes/behavior; low levels are linked to more antisocial behavior.
●​ Adolescence
○​ Self-concept becomes increasingly psychological, abstract, and integrated.
○​ Adolescents transition to recognizing internal traits, values, and ideologies.
○​ They develop awareness of situational variability, realizing their behavior
changes across contexts.
○​ Early adolescents (12-14 years) may experience self-concept fragmentation and
struggle with perceived inconsistencies.
○​ This period is marked by false self behaviors, acting inauthentically often to gain
peer approval or meet parental expectations.
○​ Frequent false self behaviors are linked to lower self-esteem and less clarity in
self-concept.
○​ Adolescents (13+) integrate different self-perceptions into a more coherent and
stable self-concept.

Self-Concept and Culture

●​ What is considered a desirable self-concept varies dramatically across cultures.

●​ In Western, individualistic societies (like the U.S.), independence, competition, and
personal achievements are valued. People describe themselves based on unique qualities
(smart, hardworking).
●​ In contrast, Asian, collectivist cultures (like Japan, China, India) focus on cooperation,
relationships, and group identity. People define themselves by their connections to

16
 family, community, or social roles ("I'm a good son," "I'm part of my school team").
They may avoid self-promotion.
●​ Studies show American teenagers focus on personal traits, while Japanese teens focus on
social roles/relationships. Over time, American adolescents become more individualistic,
while Japanese/Chinese become more group-oriented. Even Asian American teens
emphasize social connections more than European American peers.
●​ Culture shapes your self-concept, influencing how you define success, relationships, and
moral values.

Self-Esteem

●​ What is Self-Esteem?
○​ Self-esteem is one's evaluation of one's worth as a person based on assessing
the qualities that make up the self-concept.
○​ It's a crucial part of the self that influences conduct and psychological well-being.
●​ Contributors to Self-Esteem
○​ Bowlby's working models theory suggests securely attached children, who form
positive self/other models, should evaluate themselves more favorably than
insecurely attached children.
○​ Studies support this: 4-5 year olds with secure maternal ties describe themselves
more favorably and are rated as more socially skilled by teachers. Self-esteem is
highest with secure attachment to both parents and shows stability.
○​ Self-esteem is heavily influenced by feedback from parents, teachers, and
peers.
○​ Perceived social acceptance plays a crucial role in determining overall
self-worth.
●​ Development and Changes in Self-Esteem
○​ Adults think of self-esteem as a global appraisal, but children first evaluate
competencies separately in different areas before integrating them into an
overall self-evaluation.
○​ Susan Harter's model proposes a multidimensional view. Her Self-Perception
Scale asks children to evaluate themselves in domains like scholastic competence,
social acceptance, physical appearance, athletic competence, and behavioral
conduct.
○​ 4- to 7-year-olds may have inflated self-perceptions, rating themselves
positively in all domains. Some think this reflects a desire to be liked/good rather
than firm self-worth. Their appraisals are modestly correlated with teacher ratings.
○​ Starting around age 8, children's appraisals become more realistic and align with
other people's evaluations (peers, teachers).
○​ Adolescence (ages 13+): Self-worth becomes more focused on relationships.
Harter's concept of Relational Self-Worth suggests teens evaluate self-worth

17
 differently depending on the specific relationship (parents, teachers, peers).
Different relationships contribute to overall self-esteem, but their importance
varies among teens.
○​ Changes across the Lifespan:
■​ Erik Erikson suggested a decline in self-esteem for young adolescents due
to physical/cognitive/social changes and identity search.
■​ Studies show self-esteem tends to decline between ages 9 and 20.
■​ This is followed by a recovery and gradual increase from young
adulthood up to about age 65.
■​ Self-esteem begins to decline again among the elderly.
■​ Emerging adults (18-25) who get married or experience increased social
support from family, friends, coworkers, and partners show the largest
increases in self-esteem.
■​ Girls may experience a higher dip in self-esteem during adolescence
compared to boys.
■​ Most teenagers cope well; self-esteem shows meaningful stability during
adolescence. Those with favorable self-worth entering teens likely exit
with self-esteem intact and look forward to increases in young adulthood.
●​ Importance of Self-Esteem
○​ There's a debate whether self-esteem is a byproduct of life experiences or actively
shapes the future.
○​ Research supports that self-esteem plays an important role:
■​ Teenagers with higher self-esteem are less likely to be depressed or get
into trouble later.
■​ Low self-esteem is linked to worse mental/physical health, poorer job
prospects, and higher chance of criminal activity as adults.
■​ Programs building children's self-worth improve mental well-being and
academic performance.
○​ However, self-esteem isn't always positive. Some, like bullies, develop high
self-esteem harmfully by dominating others. Aggressive kids with high
self-esteem may become more confident in bad behavior.
○​ Self-esteem is most beneficial when it comes from positive and healthy
experiences.
●​ Signs of Healthy Self-Esteem:
○​ Confidence
○​ Ability to say no
○​ Positive outlook
○​ Ability to see overall strengths and weaknesses and accept them
○​ Negative experiences don't impact overall perspective
○​ Ability to express your needs

18
 ●​ Signs of Low Self-Esteem:
○​ Negative outlook
○​ Lack of confidence
○​ Inability to express your needs
○​ Focus on your weaknesses
○​ Excessive feelings of shame, depression, or anxiety
○​ Belief that others are better than you
○​ Trouble accepting positive feedback
○​ Intense fear of failure

SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT​

●​ What are Emotions?​

○​ Emotions are feelings that occur when a person is in a state or interaction that is
important to them.
○​ Emotions involve:
■​ Subjective Experience: How an individual personally feels the emotion
(e.g., happiness, sadness, anger).
■​ Physiological Response: The body’s reaction to the emotion (e.g.,
increased heart rate, sweating, hormonal changes).
■​ Behavioral Expression: The outward display of the emotion (e.g., facial
expressions, body language, vocal tone).
○​ Emotions are a way of communicating with the world, especially in infancy.
●​ Positive vs. Negative Emotions​

○​ Emotions are classified as either positive or negative.

○​ Positive emotions include enthusiasm, joy, and love.
○​ Negative emotions include anxiety, anger, guilt, and sadness.
●​ Emotions as a Baby's First Language​

○​ Emotions are the first language between parents and infants.

○​ Emotion-linked interactions, like a father responding to a baby's cries, create a
foundation for the infant's developing attachment to the parent.
●​ Primary vs. Self-Conscious Emotions​

19
 ○​ Primary emotions are present in humans and other animals, appearing in the first
6 months. They are innate emotions. Examples include surprise, interest, joy,
anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.
○​ Self-conscious emotions require self-awareness and a sense of "me". Examples
include jealousy, empathy, embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt. These
emotions usually appear in the second half of the first year through the second
year.
○​ Self-conscious emotions are sometimes called "other-conscious emotions"
because they involve reactions to others' emotions. For example, parental
approval is linked to toddlers showing pride.
●​ Emotional Expressions and Social Relationships​

○​ Emotional expressions are involved in infants’ first relationships.

○​ The ability to communicate emotions allows coordinated interactions with
caregivers and the beginning of an emotional bond.
○​ Parents and infants modify their emotional expressions in response to each other.
These interactions are mutually regulated, reciprocal, or synchronous.
○​ Sensitive, responsive parents help their infants grow emotionally.
●​ Cries and Smiles​

○​ Crying and smiling are emotional expressions infants display when interacting
with parents and are babies’ first forms of emotional communication.
○​ Crying is the most important mechanism newborns have for communicating. The
first cry verifies that the baby’s lungs have filled with air. Different cries can
signal different things:
■​ Basic cry: A rhythmic pattern, which some experts believe indicates
hunger.
■​ Anger cry: A variation of the basic cry with more air forced through the
vocal cords.
■​ Pain cry: A sudden, long, loud cry followed by breath holding.
○​ Most adults can distinguish between anger and pain cries.
○​ Smiling is critical for developing social skills.
■​ Reflexive smile: A smile that doesn't occur in response to external stimuli,
usually during sleep.
■​ Social smile: A smile in response to an external stimulus, typically a face.
○​ Infants also use anticipatory smiling, smiling at an object and then turning their
smile toward an adult.
●​ Fear​

20
 ○​ Fear typically appears around 6 months and peaks at about 18 months. However,
abused or neglected infants can show fear as early as 3 months.
○​ Stranger anxiety is a common fear where infants show fear and wariness of
strangers. It appears around 6 months and peaks around 9 months. Whether an
infant shows stranger anxiety depends on individual variations, the social context,
and the characteristics of the stranger.
○​ Infants also experience separation protest, which is crying when the caregiver
leaves. It initially appears around 7 to 8 months and peaks at about 15 months.
●​ Emotion Regulation and Coping​

○​ During the first year, infants gradually develop the ability to inhibit or minimize
the intensity and duration of emotional reactions.
○​ At first, infants depend on caregivers to soothe them. Caregivers help infants
modulate their emotions and reduce stress hormones.
○​ Later, infants redirect their attention or distract themselves to reduce arousal.
●​ Temperament​

○​ Temperament involves individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and

ways of responding.
○​ It refers to differences in how quickly an emotion is shown, how strong it is, how
long it lasts, and how quickly it fades away.
○​ Temperament is biologically based, innate, relatively stable, influences behavior
and emotions, seen early in life and affects social and cognitive development.
○​ Chess and Thomas identified three basic temperament types:
■​ Easy child: Generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes routines,
and adapts easily to new experiences.
■​ Difficult child: Reacts negatively, cries frequently, has irregular routines,
and is slow to accept change.
■​ Slow-to-warm-up child: Has a low activity level, is somewhat negative,
and displays a low intensity of mood.
○​ Kagan's Behavioral Inhibition focuses on the differences between shy, subdued
children and sociable, extraverted children. Inhibited children react to
unfamiliarity with avoidance, distress, or subdued affect.
○​ Rothbart and Bates argue that three dimensions best represent temperament:
■​ Extraversion/surgency: Includes positive anticipation, impulsivity,
activity level, and sensation-seeking.
■​ Negative affectivity: Includes fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort.
■​ Effortful control (self-regulation): Includes attentional focusing and
shifting, inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-intensity
pleasure.

21
●​ Goodness of Fit​

○​ Goodness of fit refers to the match between a child’s temperament and the
environmental demands the child must cope with. A lack of fit can produce
adjustment problems.
●​ Social Referencing (there should be more material)​

○​ Social referencing is using emotional cues from others to determine how to act.
○​ It helps infants interpret ambiguous situations. By the end of the first year, a
mother’s facial expression influences whether an infant will explore an unfamiliar
environment.
●​ Attachment​

○​ Attachment is a close emotional bond between two people.

○​ Bowlby argued that both infants and caregivers are biologically predisposed to
form attachments and that the ability to form attachments is innate.
○​ Attachment develops in phases:
■​ Phase 1 (birth to 2 months): Infants direct attachment to human figures.
■​ Phase 2 (2 to 7 months): Attachment focuses on one figure, usually the
primary caregiver.
■​ Phase 3 (7 to 24 months): Specific attachments develop, and babies seek
contact with regular caregivers.
■​ Phase 4 (24 months on): Children become aware of others’ feelings, goals,
and plans.
○​ Bowlby argued that infants develop an internal working model of attachment, a
mental model of the caregiver, their relationship, and themselves as deserving of
nurturant care.
○​ Ainsworth created the Strange Situation to measure infant attachment.
○​ Based on the Strange Situation, babies are classified as: (go through stages in
slight detail)
■​ Securely attached: Use the caregiver as a secure base to explore the
environment.
■​ Insecure avoidant: Show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver.
■​ Insecure resistant: Cling to the caregiver and then resist closeness.
■​ Insecure disorganized: Show insecurity by being disorganized and
disoriented.

22
PUBERTY AND ADOLESCENCE
Puberty and adolescence represent a significant transition in human development. Adolescence
can be understood as the period of growth and development between childhood and adulthood.
Puberty is specifically marked by dramatic physical and emotional changes that occur during
this time.

Developmental Tasks

The sources highlight several important tasks and processes that occur during adolescence:

●​ Achieving a mature and healthy sense of autonomy – the capacity to make one’s own
decisions and manage life tasks without excessive dependence on others.
●​ Renegotiating the parent-child relationship, which evolves from one where the parent
was dominant to one where parents and adolescents are on more equal footing. This often
involves conflicts about self-governance issues, which are common early in adolescence
and decline later.
●​ Adolescents who are best adjusted overall have maintained a close attachment to their
parents even as they gain autonomy and prepare to leave home. Autonomy and
attachment are most desirable.
●​ Exploring various roles and ideologies to forge a personal identity. This process is
supported by warmth combined with moderate and rational parental control, such as that
found in authoritative parenting.
●​ Parents recognizing and acknowledging the teenager's greater need for autonomy and
gradually loosening control can help adolescents become appropriately autonomous and
well-adjusted. Providing support that offers choices and helps them explore alternatives,
guided by their interests, goals, and values (promotion of volitional functioning or PVF),
is an effective way to support decision-making.

Physical and Psychological Changes

Adolescence is a time of profound changes, both physically and psychologically.

Physical Changes (Puberty):

●​ Puberty involves numerous different bodily changes.

●​ Specific physical changes include breast development and menstruation in girls, and
voice changes in boys. There is also an increase in height, weight, and muscle mass.

23
 ●​ Puberty includes rapid physical growth and maturation of sexual characteristics
[Source was in previous turn but not in provided sources - skipping citation based on
instruction].
●​ The timing of puberty, or when these changes occur relative to peers, is one dimension of
pubertal variability.
●​ Other important dimensions of puberty include tempo (how quickly changes occur),
synchrony (how different bodily changes align temporally), and secular trends (changes
in pubertal development over time in the population).
●​ Pubertal synchrony indicates how well the level of development in one area of puberty
"matches" the level of development in another area. For example, synchrony between
breast and pubic hair development in girls. Greater synchrony might feel like being fully
immersed in the transition, while less coordinated maturation could feel sporadic or
unpredictable.
●​ There is a secular trend of earlier pubertal onset.
●​ Beyond objective measures, perceived development—how children see their own
maturation—is also significant. Children's self-reports of maturation may not perfectly
match assessments by trained examiners. However, self-perceptions are psychologically
revealing, reflecting qualities like mood, personality, and cognitive style. These
self-perceptions represent the child's own truth. Perceptions of maturity, regardless of
accuracy, might influence children to seek out certain experiences, environments, or
behave differently in relationships.

Psychological Changes:

●​ The adolescent brain undergoes significant development, including pruning of neural

connections, resulting in fewer, more selective, and more effective connections by the
end of adolescence. The activities adolescents choose influence which connections are
strengthened and which disappear.
●​ The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and rational
thinking, undergoes significant pruning. This development is ongoing during
adolescence, which may contribute to risk-taking behaviors and emotional impulsivity
before this part of the brain is fully mature.
●​ Adolescent Egocentrism is a psychological characteristic that often appears around
11-13 years and can last until the end of adolescence. It is characterized by heightened
self-consciousness and includes concepts like the imaginary audience (feeling
constantly watched by peers) and the personal fable.
●​ The personal fable includes a component of risk-taking, where some adolescents believe
they are invincible or invulnerable. An example is a teenager believing they won't have
an accident while texting and driving.

24
 ●​ Earlier puberty, especially in girls, increases vulnerability to problems such as depression
and anxiety [Source was in previous turn but not in provided sources - skipping citation
based on instruction]. Rapid pubertal tempo has been linked to depression.

Development of Identity

The process of developing identity is a crucial aspect of adolescence.

●​ Developing an identity and establishing independence from parents are essential tasks
[Source was in previous turn but not in provided sources - skipping citation based on
instruction].
●​ According to Erik Erikson's theory (though not named explicitly in these sources, the
description aligns), adolescents explore various roles and ideologies to forge a personal
identity. Support in this exploration, such as that provided by authoritative parenting
(warmth combined with moderate and rational control), is important.

Notes from the Sources

The provided sources also offer insights into the broader context of adolescent development:

●​ Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory: This theory provides a detailed analysis

of environmental influences on development. It views the environment (or natural
ecology) as a set of nested structures, each inside the next. The developing person is at
the center of several interacting environmental systems.
○​ Microsystem: The innermost layer, referring to the activities and interactions in
the person’s immediate surroundings, such as the family, school, and peer
groups. Individuals are influenced by others in their microsystem, and their own
characteristics also influence the behavior of those around them.
○​ Mesosystem: The second layer, referring to the connections or
interrelationships among microsystems, such as links between home and
school. Development is likely optimized by strong, supportive links.
Non-supportive links can cause trouble, like when peer groups devalue
academics, undermining scholastic performance despite parental/teacher efforts.
Lack of communication between parents and teachers can prevent addressing
struggles at home and school together. Strengthening parent-teacher
communication is a mesosystem-level intervention.
○​ Exosystem: The third layer, referring to social settings that affect the individual
indirectly. These are social systems children and adolescents do not directly
experience but which influence their development. Examples include a parent's
workplace – a parent's job causing financial stress can affect their patience and
availability with their child. Advocating for better school policies or suggesting
after-school programs are exosystem-level interventions.

25
 ○​ Macrosystem: The outermost layer, representing the larger cultural,
subcultural, or social class context in which the other systems are embedded.
It's a broad ideology that dictates how children should be treated, what they are
taught, and the goals they should strive for. These values differ across cultures,
subcultures, and social classes, influencing experiences in homes, schools, etc..
Introducing school-wide emotional literacy programs or promoting cultural shifts
around emotional expression through storytelling are macrosystem-level
interventions.
○​ Chronosystem: Involves changes in the individual or the environment that
occur over time and influence development. Providing counseling to help
process changes or maintaining a stable routine are chronosystem-level
interventions.
●​ The Family as a Social System: A family is defined as two or more persons related by
birth, marriage, adoption, or choice who have emotional ties and responsibilities to each
other. Modern family researchers use a systems approach, recognizing that families are
complex social systems—networks of reciprocal relationships and alliances that are
constantly evolving and affected by community and cultural influences.
○​ This approach emphasizes that parents influence children, children influence
parents, and families are complex social systems.
○​ Viewing the family as a system means that interactions between any two family
members are likely influenced by a third member. Every person and relationship
within the family affects every other person and relationship.
○​ Families are also dynamic, or changing, systems because every family member
is developing, and relationships change over time. These changes can be normal
developmental changes (like parents allowing toddlers more autonomy) or
unplanned events (like death or marital problems).
○​ Families are embedded within larger cultural and sub-cultural contexts, and
their ecological niche (religion, socioeconomic status, neighborhood values) can
affect family interactions and child development.
○​ The model of family influence is best described as transactional, where
socialization involves reciprocal influence between parents and children. While
longitudinal studies often show that parenting patterns influence children more
than children influence parenting, the transactional model recognizes that children
do affect their parents, and outcomes aren't solely the parent's responsibility.
●​ Parenting Styles: Research identifies four main patterns of parenting based on
dimensions of acceptance/responsiveness and demandingness/control:
○​ Authoritarian: Controlling but unresponsive; parents make many demands,
expect obedience without explanation, and rely on punitive tactics.
○​ Authoritative: Controlling but flexible; parents make reasonable demands,
provide rationales, are accepting and responsive to children's viewpoints, and

26
 often involve children in decision-making. This is consistently associated with
positive developmental outcomes.
○​ Permissive: Lax and undemanding; parents impose few rules or demands and are
uninvolved or insensitive.
○​ Uninvolved: Extremely lax and undemanding; parents may have rejected children
or be overwhelmed by their own problems, having little time or energy for child
rearing. This is suggested to be the least successful style, linked to aggression,
disruptive behavior, poor academic performance, and antisocial/delinquent acts.
●​ Behavioral vs. Psychological Control: Parents can use behavioral control (regulating
conduct through discipline and monitoring, like withholding privileges). They can also
use psychological control (attempting to influence behavior through psychological
means like withholding affection or inducing shame/guilt). Research suggests that
parents who rely on firm behavioral control without resorting to psychological guilt
trips tend to have well-behaved children and adolescents who avoid deviant peer
activities and trouble. Heavy use of psychological control is often associated with poor
outcomes like anxiety, depression, poor academic performance, affiliation with deviant
peers, and antisocial conduct.
●​ Social Class and Ethnic Variations in Parenting: Child-rearing beliefs and values can
differ based on ethnicity and social class, reflecting cultural backgrounds or ecological
niches.
○​ Economically disadvantaged and working-class parents tend to stress obedience
and respect for authority, be more restrictive and authoritarian, use more
power-assertive discipline, reason less, and show less warmth. These differences
are observed across many cultures and US racial/ethnic groups. Economic
hardships can contribute to a more aloof and coercive style.
○​ Native American and Hispanic parents, from more collectivistic backgrounds,
emphasize close ties to relatives and insist on calm, polite behavior and respect
for authority rather than independence/competitiveness. Mexican American
parents experiencing acculturation stress may be more controlling, which can be
adaptive when combined with warmth, giving children fewer options in a
potentially confusing new cultural setting.
○​ Asian and Asian American parents may stress self-discipline and interpersonal
harmony and can be more rigidly controlling. In Chinese culture, strictness may
be viewed as expressing love and training children properly. This authoritarian
style can be effective in China and among Asian immigrant families in the US,
where children may view it as a sign of parental concern and involvement.
○​ Some urban African American mothers may demand strict obedience and use
coercive discipline ("no-nonsense parenting"). This can be adaptive for mothers
lacking support or in dangerous neighborhoods, protecting children from crime or
antisocial peers. It may be viewed by African American children as a sign of

27
 caring, and children raised this way tend to be cognitively and socially competent
with less anxiety or depression and are less inclined toward delinquency.
○​ It is important not to assume a single parenting pattern is optimal for all cultures
and subcultures.
●​ Sibling Influence: The majority of American children grow up with siblings. Siblings
can serve positive roles as caregivers, teachers, playmates, and confidants. Conflicts and
rivalries are common, but prosocial acts and resolving disputes amicably are also
frequent. Older siblings can serve as important models and tutors, providing detailed
instructions and encouragement, which can benefit younger siblings' learning. Older
siblings who tutor may also benefit academically. Only children are not necessarily
disadvantaged; research shows they are high in self-esteem and achievement motivation,
more obedient and intellectually competent, and establish good peer relations.
Friendships and peer alliances may provide what they might miss without siblings.
●​ Diversity in Family Life: Modern families are much more diverse than the "typical"
nuclear family stereotype, including dual-career, single-parent, blended, and
multigenerational families. Adoption practices are also changing, with a move towards
more open systems where adoptees may have contact with birth mothers. While some
adoptees may display more learning/emotional/delinquency issues than non-adopted
peers, the vast majority are well-adjusted and fare better than in foster care. Information
about and contact with biological relatives can help adoptees feel more curious and
satisfied about their origins and see adoptive parents as their "true" parents.
●​ Case Study Interventions: The case study illustrates applying the ecological systems
theory to interventions for a child named Ayaan. Interventions target different levels:
○​ Microsystem: Daily quality time with parents, parents avoiding arguing in front of
him, positive reinforcement, teacher training in positive behavioral support,
peer-buddy programs.
○​ Mesosystem: Strengthening parent-teacher communication through regular
meetings, parenting workshops at school.
○​ Exosystem: Advocating for school policies focused on social-emotional learning,
suggesting after-school programs.
○​ Macrosystem: School-wide emotional literacy programs, cultural shifts around
emotional expression.
○​ Chronosystem: Counseling to process changes, maintaining stable routines.

28
ADULTHOOD
Adulthood: Developmental Stages and Transitions

●​ Adulthood is generally categorized into stages: Young adulthood (18-40 or 20-40),

Middle adulthood (40-60 or 40-65), and Old adulthood/Old Age (60 or 65 onwards).​

●​ Emerging Adulthood is a concept proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in 2000, referring to the

transition period from adolescence to adulthood, approximately from 18 to 25 years of
age.​

○​ It is described as an in-between stage where one is not an adolescent but not yet a
full adult.
○​ Other terms used are "roleless role," "extended adolescence," or "delayed
adulthood".
○​ This stage arises because individuals are prolonging education and the age of
marriage and child-bearing is being pushed back.
○​ Experimentation and exploration characterize emerging adults, who explore
career paths, identity, and lifestyle choices (single, cohabiting, married).
○​ Jeffrey Arnett (2006) identified five key features of emerging adulthood:
■​ Identity exploration: particularly in love and work, a time for key
identity changes.
■​ Instability: Residential changes peak, and there is often instability in love,
work, and education.
■​ Self-focused: Emerging adults have few social obligations, duties, or
commitments to others, allowing for significant autonomy.
■​ Feeling in-between: Many do not consider themselves adolescents or
fully adults.
■​ The age of possibilities and optimism: An opportunity to transform lives,
marked by optimism about the future and a chance for those with difficult
pasts to direct their lives positively.
○​ Unlike adolescence, where decisions are influenced by parents or peers, emerging
adults focus on developing their own values, goals, and preferences.
○​ The primary reason cited for this shift and delayed adulthood is economic and
workforce changes.
○​ Some scholars argue that emerging adulthood is not universal, primarily applying
to Western, middle-class individuals with the privilege to delay. Critics suggest it
may reinforce the idea of young people "delaying" responsibility instead of
adapting to new societal norms.

29
Developmental Tasks and Themes in Adulthood

●​ A central task in early adulthood is balancing intimacy and commitment on the one
hand, and independence and freedom on the other.
○​ Juggling the demands of intimacy, identity, and independence becomes a key task.
○​ Developing autonomy is important; young adults who haven't sufficiently moved
away from parental ties may face difficulties in interpersonal relationships and
careers.
○​ This balance is delicate and is worked and reworked throughout the adult years.
●​ Taking responsibility for oneself and developing emotional control are considered
important aspects and markers of becoming an adult by both parents and college students.
●​ In middle adulthood, according to Erik Erikson's theory, the significant issue is
generativity versus stagnation.
○​ Generativity is the desire to leave legacies for the next generation, achieving a
kind of immortality through biological (having offspring), parental (nurturing
children), work (developing and passing skills), and cultural (creating/conserving
culture) means.
○​ Stagnation occurs when individuals feel they have done nothing for the next
generation.
○​ Research supports that generativity is an important dimension of middle age and
tends to increase during adulthood.

Choice of Vocation and Adjustment to Careers

●​ In emerging adulthood (18-25), individuals intensely explore career paths.

●​ The twenties are considered crucial for building "identity capital," which includes
valuable experiences, skills, and networks that shape professional identity.
○​ Dr. Meg Jay advises young adults in their twenties to be intentional about career
choices instead of just drifting through temporary jobs.
○​ Making strategic moves toward goals is important, even if one doesn't
immediately land a dream job.
○​ Expanding one's network and reaching out to acquaintances ("weak ties") can
help in career advancement, as professional opportunities often come from these
connections.
●​ Economic independence is highlighted as a more important marker of becoming an
adult in developed countries. Parents reducing financial support can encourage
self-sufficiency.
●​ In middle adulthood (40-65), work issues may include recognizing career progress,
deciding whether to change jobs or careers, rebalancing family and work, and planning
for retirement.
○​ Career changes in midlife can be self-motivated or due to job loss.

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 ○​ Some individuals decide they no longer want to continue in their current work.
○​ Middle adulthood involves adjusting idealistic hopes to realistic possibilities
based on remaining time until retirement and progress towards occupational
goals.
●​ Retirement is viewed as a process, not just an event.
○​ Good adjustment to retirement is associated with being healthy, having adequate
income, being active, better educated, having an extended social network
(friends and family), and being satisfied with life before retirement.
○​ Flexibility is key to adjusting well, as the structured work environment is lost,
requiring individuals to discover and pursue their own interests.
○​ Cultivating interests and friendships unrelated to work improves adaptation.
○​ Planning for retirement is important, with special concern for women who are
likely to live longer and potentially live alone.

Marriage and Family Life

●​ Early adulthood and emerging adulthood are periods where individuals explore and
choose different lifestyles, including living alone, cohabiting, marrying, divorcing,
remarrying, or living with a same-sex partner.
●​ The percentage of single adults aged 20-29 has significantly increased.
○​ Advantages of being single include time for life decisions, developing personal
resources, freedom, opportunities for exploration, and privacy.
○​ Problems may include forming intimate relationships, loneliness, and fitting into a
marriage-oriented society. Single adults have reported experiencing more extreme
stress than married or divorced individuals.
●​ Intimacy (self-disclosure, sharing private thoughts) is a recurring theme in different
types of love and relationships, including friendship, romantic love, affectionate love, and
consummate love. It is highlighted as an important aspect of early adulthood.
●​ In marriage, challenges and strategies for making it work are discussed.
○​ John Gottman's research suggests key factors include:
■​ Letting your partner influence you: Sharing power and respecting their
views is prerequisite to compromise. Equality in decision-making predicts
positive marriage quality.
■​ Solving solvable conflicts: Identifying problems that can be worked out,
distinct from perpetual problems that may not go away (which make up
over two-thirds of marital issues). Couples don't necessarily need to solve
perpetual problems for the marriage to work. Conflict resolution involves
a soft approach, repair attempts, regulating emotions, compromise, and
tolerance.
●​ Divorce presents challenges for both partners, including loneliness, diminished
self-esteem, anxiety, and difficulty forming new relationships. Divorced individuals may

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 be more likely to experience depression or smoke daily compared to those who remained
married or cohabiting.
○​ Strategies for coping with divorce include seeing it as a chance for personal
growth and positive relationships, making careful decisions, focusing on the
future, using strengths, not expecting constant success, and recognizing that
moving on requires effort.
●​ Remarriage has mixed benefits.
○​ Remarried families are more likely to be unstable than first marriages, with a
higher risk of divorce, especially in the early years.
○​ Adults who remarry may have lower mental health than those in first marriages,
but remarriage can improve financial status, particularly for women.
○​ Remarried relationships are often more egalitarian and characterized by shared
decision-making compared to first marriages. Remarried wives may have more
influence on financial matters.
○​ Reasons remarriages are difficult include remarrying for financial reasons, help
with children, or loneliness rather than love. Bringing negative patterns from
earlier marriages and experiencing more stress in rearing children also contribute.
○​ Stepfamilies can vary greatly in structure.
●​ Fertility declines with age, which is an important consideration for family planning, as
many people assume they can wait until their mid-to-late 30s.
●​ Intergenerational relationships are important throughout adulthood.
○​ Middle-aged adults play key roles, sharing experience and transmitting values to
younger generations.
○​ They may be launching children, dealing with adult children returning home, or
becoming grandparents.
○​ Adult children may provide direct assistance or coordinate care for aging parents
with disabilities.
○​ Conflicts between parents and adult children commonly involve habits/lifestyle
(parents' perspective) and communication/interaction style (adult children's
perspective).
○​ Earlier positive family experiences, such as shared activities and financial support
from parents, are linked to adult children providing support to older parents later
in life.
○​ Middle-aged adults are sometimes called the "sandwich," "squeezed," or
"overload" generation due to responsibilities for both their children and aging
parents.
○​ When young adult children return home, parents and children should agree on
conditions and expectations (rent, chores, rules). Parents should treat them more
like adults and avoid "permaparenting" or being "helicopter parents," which can

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 impede independence. Young adults should also adjust their behavior and
consider setting a deadline for moving out.

Other Relevant Material

●​ Quarterlife and its Crisis: Satya Doyle Byock explores Quarterlife (20s-early 30s) as a
distinct phase of adulthood marked by uncertainty, self-discovery, anxiety, confusion,
and emotional turmoil. It involves emotional, psychological, and existential
questioning. Byock describes two paths: stability-seekers (prioritizing security like jobs,
relationships, finance, but potentially feeling unfulfilled) and those seeking meaning.
●​ The Defining Decade: Dr. Meg Jay's book emphasizes that the twenties matter
significantly in shaping one's future career, relationships, and identity, arguing against
the idea that they are a "throwaway decade". It's a prime time for learning, risk-taking,
and forming healthy habits.
●​ Personality Stability and Change: Research suggests that personality traits change
most during early adulthood (around 20 to 40 years old). After this period, personality
tends to become more stable, supported by the "cumulative personality model" which
suggests that as people age, they develop better interactions with the world that support
stability. While major life events can influence personality, daily experiences (hassles and
uplifts) may also be significant sources of stress.

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JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development describes how children's thinking changes
as they grow. Piaget believed that children actively construct their understanding of the
world through experiences. Learning occurs through assimilation (fitting new
experiences into existing ideas) and accommodation (changing existing ideas to fit new
experiences).

Here’s a detailed breakdown of Piaget's four stages:

●​ Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years):​

○​ How babies think: Infants use their senses (touch, taste, smell, sight,
hearing) and motor actions (grasping, sucking, crawling) to learn about the
world.
○​ Key concepts:
■​ Reflexive actions: Babies start with reflexes like sucking and
grasping.
■​ Circular reactions: They repeat actions that bring pleasure, like
shaking a rattle.
■​ Object permanence: Understanding that things still exist even when
they are out of sight.
○​ Changes/Consequences:
■​ Physical: Rapid development of motor skills like rolling, crawling,
and walking.
■​ Psychological: Understanding cause-and-effect and recognizing
caregivers.
■​ If not developed properly: Delays in motor and cognitive skills,
which can often be improved with therapy.
○​ Relevance to Gen Z: Gen Z babies learn cause-and-effect relationships
through interactive digital screens and smart home devices. For example,
they learn that swiping on a tablet changes the screen or saying "Hey
Google, play music" makes sound.
●​ Pre-Operational Stage (2 to 7 years):​

○​ How children think: Children use symbolic thinking, like words, images,
and pretend play. However, their thinking isn't yet fully logical.
○​ Key concepts:

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 ■​ Symbolic thinking: Using words, images, and pretend play.
■​ Egocentrism: Difficulty seeing things from other people's
perspectives.
■​ Animism: Believing that inanimate objects have feelings.
■​ Lack of conservation: Not understanding that the amount of
something stays the same even if its appearance changes.
○​ Changes/Consequences:
■​ Physical: Improved motor skills.
■​ Psychological: Development of memory, imagination, and early
problem-solving skills.
■​ If not developed properly: Difficulty with social interactions and
logical thinking, which can improve with training and education.
○​ Relevance to Gen Z: Digital storytelling apps and AR/VR games help
develop imaginative thinking. However, children might assume their video
calls are visible even if their cameras are off.
●​ Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years):​

○​ How children think: Children begin to think more logically about concrete
objects and events.
○​ Key concepts:
■​ Classification: Sorting things into groups based on characteristics
like color.
■​ Seriation: Arranging things in a series, like from shortest to longest.
■​ Logical thinking (with concrete examples): Solving math
problems by drawing them out with real objects.
■​ Reversibility: Understanding that actions can be undone.
○​ Changes/Consequences:
■​ Physical: Brain maturation and refined motor skills.
■​ Psychological: Improved memory, problem-solving, and logical
reasoning.
■​ If not developed properly: Struggles with abstract concepts, which
can improve with structured education and practice.
○​ Relevance to Gen Z: STEM games like Minecraft and coding platforms
like Scratch help develop systematic thinking and logical analysis.
●​ Formal Operational Stage (12 years to adulthood):​

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 ○​ How adolescents and adults think: People can reason about abstract and
hypothetical concepts.
○​ Key concepts:
■​ Hypothetical reasoning: Thinking about "what if" situations.
■​ Metacognition: Awareness of one's own thought processes.
■​ Complex problem-solving: Considering multiple variables.
■​ Moral and philosophical thinking: Questioning ethics and society.
○​ Changes/Consequences:
■​ Physical: Brain reaches full development.
■​ Psychological: Ability to reason abstractly, plan for the future, and
form personal beliefs.
■​ If not developed properly: Struggles with decision-making,
abstract reasoning, and problem-solving, which can be improved
with training and education.
○​ Relevance to Gen Z: Social media activism, online debates, and
entrepreneurial ventures provide opportunities for critical thinking and
innovation.

Piaget's theory emphasizes that cognitive development is a progressive and active process
influenced by both biological changes and environmental experiences. His work
highlights the importance of hands-on learning, exploration, and critical thinking. His
principles—constructivism, logical reasoning, and cognitive flexibility—continue to
shape learning, mental health, workplaces, and technology. For example, personalized
learning systems, AI-driven cognitive therapy, and ethical AI decision-making models
reflect the ongoing relevance of Piaget’s ideas.

FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY

Freud's psychosexual theory of development explains that personality develops through a
sequence of stages, each marked by a specific erogenous zone and conflict. Successful
resolution of these conflicts is crucial for healthy development.

Here's an expanded breakdown: (go through gen z )

●​ Oral Stage (0-18 months):

○​ The infant's primary interactions and source of pleasure come through the
mouth via activities like sucking, tasting, and biting.

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 ○​ Weaning is the major conflict of this stage.
○​ Fixation during this stage can manifest in adulthood as issues like smoking,
overeating, or nail-biting.
●​ Anal Stage (18 months-3 years):
○​ The child's attention shifts to the anus, with pleasure derived from
controlling bowel movements.
○​ Toilet training is the central conflict.
○​ Parenting styles that are either too strict or too lenient can lead to distinct
personality traits in adulthood: anal-retentive (obsessively tidy) or
anal-expulsive (disorganized).
●​ Phallic Stage (3-6 years):
○​ Children become aware of their genitals and recognize the differences
between sexes.
○​ This stage is characterized by significant psychological complexes:
■​ Oedipus complex: Boys develop a desire for their mother, viewing
their father as a rival.
■​ Electra complex: Girls experience penis envy and develop a desire
for their father.
■​ Resolution: Identification with the same-sex parent is key to
resolving these complexes, with one source noting potential
misunderstandings around Freud's original conceptualization of the
Oedipal complex.
○​ Successful resolution leads to gender identification and the development
of the superego (moral conscience).
●​ Latency Stage (6 years to puberty):
○​ Sexual feelings become dormant as children focus on social and
intellectual pursuits.
○​ Children engage in activities such as school, hobbies, and playing with
same-sex peers.
○​ This stage is a period of relative calm in psychosexual development, with
no specific conflicts.
●​ Genital Stage (puberty onward):
○​ There is a renewal of sexual interest and the establishment of mature
sexual relationships.
○​ The goal is to achieve a balance between the id (basic instincts), ego
(reality principle), and superego (moral conscience).

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 ○​ Successful navigation of earlier stages ideally leads to a well-adjusted
adult capable of love and work.

ERIK ERIKSON’S THEORY

Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development explains how people grow and change
throughout their entire lives. Unlike other theories that focus on childhood, Erikson believed that
social relationships and culture greatly influence personality development from birth to old age.
His theory outlines eight stages, each marked by a specific psychological conflict that must be
resolved for healthy development. Successfully navigating these conflicts leads to developing
virtues like hope, will, purpose, and wisdom.

Here's a detailed look at each stage:

●​ Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy: 0-1 year)

○​ Conflict: Infants learn to trust their caregivers to meet their needs. If caregivers
are reliable and nurturing, infants develop trust. If not, they may develop mistrust
and insecurity.
○​ Virtue: Hope.
○​ Example: If a caregiver responds to a baby's cries with comfort and care, the
baby learns to trust that the world is a safe and dependable place.
●​ Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Early Childhood: 1-3 years)
○​ Conflict: Children begin to assert their independence. If encouraged and
supported, they become more confident. If overly controlled or criticized, they
may feel shame and doubt their abilities.
○​ Virtue: Will.
○​ Example: A toddler who is allowed to explore their surroundings and make
simple choices will develop a sense of autonomy.
●​ Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool: 3-6 years)
○​ Conflict: Children start planning activities and accomplishing tasks. If caregivers
encourage this, children develop initiative. If discouraged or criticized, they may
feel guilty about their desires and initiatives.
○​ Virtue: Purpose.
○​ Example: A child who is encouraged to engage in imaginative play and try new
things will develop a sense of purpose.
●​ Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (School Age: 6-12 years)

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 ○​ Conflict: Children develop skills and gain a sense of competence. If encouraged,
they feel confident in their abilities. If they receive negative feedback or are not
allowed to show their skills, they may develop a sense of inferiority.
○​ Virtue: Competence.
○​ Example: A child who is praised for their efforts in school and extracurricular
activities will develop a sense of industry.
●​ Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence: 12-18 years)
○​ Conflict: Adolescents explore different roles to form a sense of self. If supported
in their exploration, they emerge with a strong sense of identity. If restricted or
overwhelmed, they may experience role confusion.
○​ Virtue: Fidelity.
○​ Example: A teenager who is given the freedom to explore different interests and
activities will develop a clear sense of identity.
○​ Relevance to Gen Z: The Gen Z population is heavily influenced by social media
and the internet, which can both boost self-expression and create pressure to
conform. The constant comparison to others online can intensify role confusion,
as adolescents experiment with different identities to find what fits.
●​ Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood: 18-40 years)
○​ Conflict: Young adults form intimate relationships. Successfully navigating this
stage leads to forming close, reciprocal relationships. Struggling to form these
relationships may lead to isolation.
○​ Virtue: Love.
○​ Example: A young adult who can form meaningful and lasting relationships will
experience intimacy.
○​ Relevance to Millennials: Millennials often postpone marriage and parenthood
due to financial instability, which can lead to feelings of isolation. The rise of
online dating offers convenience but also presents challenges in developing deep
intimacy.
●​ Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood: 40-65 years)
○​ Conflict: Adults contribute to society and future generations. Feeling they are
making valuable contributions leads to a sense of generativity. Feeling they are
not making a positive impact may lead to stagnation.
○​ Virtue: Care.
○​ Example: A middle-aged adult who volunteers in their community or mentors
younger colleagues will feel a sense of generativity.
○​ Relevance to Older Millennials: Older Millennials may demonstrate generativity
by raising children, mentoring, or advocating for social causes. Those who feel
stuck in their careers or unfulfilled in their relationships may experience
stagnation.
●​ Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood: 65+ years)

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 ○​ Conflict: Individuals reflect on their lives. Feeling they have lived a fulfilling life
leads to ego integrity. Feeling regretful may lead to despair.
○​ Virtue: Wisdom.
○​ Example: An elderly person who feels satisfied with their life achievements will
experience ego integrity.
○​ Relevance to Gen X: If Gen X feels disconnected from the present, they may
experience despair. Mentoring younger generations can prevent them from falling
into despair.

Erikson's theory suggests that each stage is a building block for the next, and that development is
a lifelong process. While the age ranges in Erikson's original model may need adaptation due to
changing social and economic factors, the core principles of personal growth and social
development remain relevant.

KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

1. Introduction and Background

●​ Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist.

●​ He built upon Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
●​ Kohlberg explored how individuals make moral decisions and develop a sense of right
and wrong.
●​ His research began in the 1950s.

2. Methodology: Moral Dilemmas

●​ Kohlberg started his research by presenting people with moral dilemmas.

●​ These are stories that challenge individuals to think about ethical decisions.
●​ A famous example is the Heinz Dilemma:
○​ A man named Heinz has a dying wife needing an expensive medicine he cannot
afford.
○​ The dilemma asks: Should he steal the medicine to save his wife, or follow the
law and let her die?.

3. The Theory: Levels and Stages

●​ Kohlberg published his theory of 6 stages of moral development in 1963.

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 ●​ These stages are grouped into 3 levels: Pre-conventional, Conventional, and
Post-conventional.
●​ He formally introduced the stages in 1969.
●​ Kohlberg suggested people move through these stages in a fixed sequence, without
skipping or regressing.
●​ Moral reasoning is linked to cognitive growth, and moral growth is tied to cognitive
maturity.

4. The Three Levels and Six Stages

●​ Level 1: Pre-Conventional Stage​

○​ Typical in young children (ages 3-7).

○​ Moral reasoning is shaped by external consequences like rewards and
punishments.
○​ Individuals are just beginning to understand right and wrong, often without
deeper consideration of motives or ethical principles.
○​ This level is less relevant for most of Gen Z, who quickly move beyond it, though
younger members might still operate here.
○​ Example: A child might follow rules to avoid getting in trouble.
○​ Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
■​ Moral reasoning is primarily driven by avoiding punishment.
■​ Right and wrong are determined by whether an action leads to a
negative consequence.
■​ Rules are viewed as fixed and unchangeable.
■​ Thinking is: "If I get punished, it must mean I did something wrong".
■​ Actions are judged based on their immediate consequences.
○​ Stage 2: Self-Interest Orientation
■​ Morality is guided by personal benefit.
■​ Individuals act in ways they believe will bring them rewards or satisfy
their own needs.
■​ Thinking is: "If I get something out of it, then it’s the right thing to do".
■​ It represents a more self-centered view of morality.
■​ People recognize actions can benefit others but their primary concern is
their own advantage.
●​ Level 2: Conventional Stage​

○​ Common in adolescents (ages 8-13).

○​ Individuals base their moral decisions on societal norms.
○​ They aim to meet the expectations of everyone.

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 ○​ Moral reasoning becomes more influenced by cultural norms, laws, and the need
for social harmony.
○​ Moral reasoning moves beyond personal gain to a broader understanding.
○​ Gen Z is strongly influenced by these stages, especially regarding peer approval
and societal norms.
○​ Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships
■​ Individuals start to care deeply about the approval of others.
■​ Morality is about maintaining positive relationships and fitting in
socially.
■​ Actions are considered right if they make others happy, earn praise, or
help build trust.
■​ "Good" behavior aligns with the expectations of family, friends, or
social groups.
■​ It's less about personal gain and more about pleasing others and fulfilling
social roles.
■​ For Gen Z, social media amplifies the need for validation and acceptance,
seen in digital activism. Example: Supporting social causes online to fit in
with peer values.
○​ Stage 4: Maintaining Social Order
■​ The focus shifts to the importance of societal rules, laws, and duties.
■​ Morality is seen in following established laws and maintaining social
order.
■​ People believe that if something is legal or part of the social contract, it
must be the right thing to do, regardless of personal feelings.
■​ Many Gen Z uphold laws but question their fairness, advocating for
reforms. Example: Following societal norms while pushing for legal
changes.
●​ Level 3: Post-Conventional Stage​

○​ Rarely reached.
○​ Typically seen in moral leaders and thinkers like Gandhi or Martin Luther King
Jr..
○​ Moral reasoning is based on personal ethics.
○​ It helps explain ethical decisions based on universal human rights and moral
principles.
○​ Individuals at this level often challenge societal norms or laws.
○​ Some Gen Z members, particularly activists, operate at these higher stages,
focusing on human rights.
○​ Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights

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 ■​ While laws are important, they can be challenged if they conflict with
basic human rights.
■​ People prioritize justice and equality over strict rule-following.
■​ They believe laws should serve the greater good and protect individual
freedoms.
■​ Gen Z believes laws should reflect justice and can be changed when
unjust. Example: Supporting climate policies or social justice movements
despite resistance.
○​ Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles
■​ Morality is driven by self-chosen, universal ethical principles like
justice, equality, and human dignity.
■​ Right and wrong are determined through moral reasoning, not merely
by societal rules or laws.
■​ Individuals act based on what they believe is universally fair and just,
even if it means breaking the law or going against the status quo.
■​ A smaller group of Gen Z adopts these principles, often taking unpopular
stands. Example: Whistleblowing on corporate wrongdoing for the greater
good.

5. Philosophical Foundations

●​ The theory was inspired by Immanuel Kant and John Rawls.

●​ Cognitive Approach: Moral reasoning develops through structured stages, similar to
cognitive development, tied to cognitive maturity and abstract
thinking/perspective-taking ability.
●​ Justice and Fairness: Moral development is driven by a growing sense of justice and
fairness, shifting from concrete understandings to abstract principles of justice, equality,
and individual rights. Emphasis on justice and fairness is central.
●​ Universalism: Kohlberg proposed that moral development follows a universal path
across cultures, with stages being the same, though specific content may vary. At the
highest level (Stage 6), decisions are guided by universal ethical principles that transcend
cultural norms.

6. Factors Influencing Moral Development

●​ The sources mention several categories of factors:

○​ Biological Factors: Brain development, hormonal influence, genetic
predisposition.
○​ Psychological Factors: Cognitive maturity, emotions and empathy, thinking
ability, emotional control, personal values, perspective taking, personality traits.

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 ○​ Social Factors: Family influence, cultural norms, education, peer influence, law
& authority.

7. Relevance and Applicability

●​ Past: Groundbreaking research, educational impact (encouraging engagement with

ethical dilemmas), use in legal and ethical discussions.
●​ Present: Educational systems use the model, cross-cultural studies show stage
application differences (e.g., collectivist cultures may emphasize Stage 4 more than Stage
6), critiques (like Carol Gilligan's male-centric bias led to refinements).
●​ Future: Potential use in AI moral decision-making (e.g., self-driving cars using Stage 6
principles), potential neuroscientific validation using brain scans, framework may adapt
to evolving societal norms.
●​ Applicability to Generations (Examples):
○​ Gen Z generally operates within Stages 3, 4, and 5.
○​ Their moral reasoning is shaped by social media, education, and activism.
○​ They balance societal norms, ethical activism, and law-based morality.
○​ They tend to challenge existing systems and advocate for justice.

8. Connections to Examples

●​ Tuesdays with Morrie:

○​ A quote about giving and receiving love is connected to Stage 6 (Universal
Ethical Principles), based on deep human values.
○​ A quote about accepting the past is connected to Stage 5 (Social Contract &
Individual Rights), reflecting on experiences, questioning norms, and taking
responsibility.
○​ A quote about aging being growth is connected to Stage 4 moving toward Stage
5, acknowledging structure but embracing a higher moral understanding.

ASHRAMA THEORY
Ashrama Theory: An Indian Philosophical Framework

1. Introduction and Meaning of "Ashrama"

●​ The Ashrama Theory is described as one of the great socio-philosophical doctrines of

early Indian thinkers.
●​ It represents their attempts to understand the basic meaning and purpose of human life.
●​ The Sanskrit word "Ashrama" literally means a halting or resting place.

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 ●​ The word also means 'stages', 'monastery', or 'duties'.
●​ "Ashrama" comes from the Sanskrit root "srama," meaning "making an effort".
●​ In this way, "Ashrama" literally signifies a step in the journey of life.
●​ According to Hindu ethics, the final aim of life is liberation or 'Moksha'.
●​ Every ashrama is a step in the long journey towards the realization of that aim.
●​ The theory provides guidelines for planning a person's life.
●​ It explains the "journey of life" in the direction of Brahmana.

2. Preliminary Stage: Balavastha

●​ Before the formal Ashrama stages, the source mentions the Balavastha stage (0-12
years).
●​ Balavastha means "childhood stage".
●​ It encompasses infancy and early childhood.
●​ This stage focuses on fundamental aspects of growth, nourishment, and play.
●​ Characteristics of Balavastha include rapid physical and cognitive growth, exploring
surroundings through play and observation, and complete dependency on
parents/guardians for survival, guidance, and emotional security.
●​ Learning happens through play, interaction, and storytelling rather than formal education.
●​ Basic morals, habits, and social behaviour are instilled during this stage.
●​ This period is described as free from obligations.
●​ Though not explicitly in the traditional Ashrama Theory, Balavastha is considered a
crucial preparatory stage before Brahmacharya Ashrama.
●​ During Balavastha, a child develops the emotional, cognitive, and physical foundations
necessary for the later structured education of Brahmacharya.

3. The Four Traditional Ashramas (Stages of Life)

●​ The Ashrama system outlines four stages of life.​

●​ These stages are meant to be followed in a progressive manner.​

●​ Each stage has specific goals, duties, and focus points.​

○​ Brahmacharya (Student's Life)​

■​ Duration: 0 to 25 years, or specifically 12-25 years. Note the different

age ranges in the source.
■​ Description: Bachelor, learning phase, student life.
■​ Aim of Life: Dharma (purpose, calling, god given mission).
■​ Focus: Become established in personal ethics, diet, and lifestyle.

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 ■​ Physical Aspect: Body undergoes growth, energy development, and
self-discipline through regulated habits.
■​ Psychological Aspect: Mind absorbs knowledge, practices focus, and
builds resilience.
■​ Social Aspect: Individual learns from teachers and elders, forming early
social bonds and understanding responsibilities.
■​ Relevance: Emphasizes the significance of learning and self-development
during formative years.
○​ Grihastha (Householder Life)​

■​ Duration: 26 to 50 years, or 25-50 years. Note the different age ranges in

the source.
■​ Description: Married life, duties of maintaining household.
■​ Aim of Life: Artha (wealth, stuff, security).
■​ Focus: Practice what was learned in the first stage, accumulate things
needed to live well, and work on security in the material world.
■​ Physical Aspect: Engages in labor, experiences peak physical strength,
and deals with health maintenance.
■​ Psychological Aspect: Faces emotional highs and lows due to
relationships, work, and responsibilities.
■​ Social Aspect: Establishes family, contributes to society, and builds
wealth.
■​ Relevance: Highlights the importance of familial responsibilities and
societal contributions. Stresses the duty of nurturing relationships and
building a supportive community.
○​ Vanaprastha (Retired Life / Forest Dweller)​

■​ Duration: 51 to 75 years, or 50-75 years. Note the different age ranges in

the source.
■​ Description: Retirement phase, handing over responsibilities to the next
generation. Gradual detachment from work, mentorship role.
■​ Aim of Life: Kama (enjoyment, desire). Note: This seems to be a
simplified or potentially misaligned goal for this stage in one illustration,
while the detailed descriptions emphasize detachment and spiritual focus.
■​ Focus: Half of one's life time has passed. Become more conscious of
needing to leave at some point. Time to fulfill desires not had time for.
Note: Again, the text description contradicts the "fulfill desires" aspect of
this bullet point. The text focuses on introspection and detachment.
■​ Physical Aspect: Experiences aging, declining strength, and health
management.

46
 ■​ Psychological Aspect: Shifts from ambition to introspection, dealing
with detachment from material life.
■​ Social Aspect: Gradually withdraws from active social roles, becoming an
advisor to the younger generation.
■​ Relevance: Focuses on transitioning away from material attachments and
preparing for spiritual pursuits. Reflects the withdrawal from societal
expectations to focus on personal spiritual and moral development.
○​ Sannyasa (Renounced Life)​

■​ Duration: 76 years and above, or 75+ (or anytime).

■​ Description: Wandering ascetic stage, the phase of giving up worldly
desires. Spiritual detachment, introspection, inner peace.
■​ Aim of Life: Moksha (liberation).
■​ Focus: Associated with spiritual enlightenment. Liberation from illusion,
physical bondage (death), and emotional bondage (ignorance). Voluntary
disengagement from the world.
■​ Physical Aspect: Minimal physical needs, reliance on basic survival.
■​ Psychological Aspect: Absolute detachment, inner peace, and ultimate
wisdom.
■​ Social Aspect: Renounces societal roles, focusing solely on spiritual
enlightenment.
■​ Relevance: Centers on renouncing worldly ties and seeking spiritual
liberation. Represents the ultimate renunciation and preparation for
liberation by accepting life's impermanence.
●​ The source uses an analogy: "Every ashrama is like a railway junction, where for every
train to arrive at the right track and platform, a change of points is needed beforehand".
This suggests each stage requires preparation and a change in focus for the next step.​

4. Theory of Karma

●​ The source includes a section on the Theory of Karma.

●​ The term 'Karma' literally means action or work.
●​ Karma includes all kinds of intentional action, whether mental, verbal, or physical.
●​ Unconscious, involuntary, and unintentional actions are not considered part of karma.
●​ The doctrine implies that every soul in a human being has the will to make decisions
and choose actions, and these decisions and actions generate karma.
●​ The theory is based on the principle of cause and effect.
●​ It provides a causal explanation of life.
●​ It bridges the past to the present.

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 ●​ The concept of karma is closely linked with the doctrine of rebirth and salvation
(moksha).
●​ The law of karma is not restricted to one lifetime but transcends all life forms on this
earth.
●​ One may not immediately see the effects of actions, but the consequences will definitely
be faced later, possibly in the next life.
●​ The principle "You reap as you sow" is the basis of karma.
●​ To achieve liberation or moksha and be freed from the cycle of birth and rebirth, one
needs to understand that karma can be divided into two categories:
○​ Sakama karma: Engaging in an action keeping in mind the result.
○​ Nishkama karma: Engagement in selfless work without expecting the
desirable outcome.
●​ Lord Krishna tells the importance of Nishkama karma in Bhagwad Gita.
●​ Nishkama karma can be explained by the principle of "detached involvement" or "duty
for duty’s sake".

5. Relevance with Tuesdays with Morrie

●​ The Ashrama Theory is connected to themes discussed in the book/movie Tuesdays with
Morrie.
●​ Morrie reminiscing about younger days aligns with Brahmacharya, emphasizing
learning and self-development.
●​ Morrie discussing family, love, and duties towards loved ones connects to Grihastha,
highlighting familial and societal contributions, and nurturing relationships.
●​ Morrie talking about accepting aging and detaching from material pursuits relates to
Vanaprastha, focusing on transitioning away from material attachments and preparing
for spiritual pursuits. It also reflects withdrawal from societal expectations.
●​ Morrie sharing views on death and focusing on spiritual growth and inner peace connects
to Sannyasa, centering on renouncing worldly ties and seeking spiritual liberation. This
represents ultimate renunciation and accepting life's impermanence.
●​ Morrie rejecting societal norms and emphasizing personal culture based on love and
acceptance aligns with the detachment aspect of Vanaprastha.
●​ Morrie stressing love, compassion, and human relationships over material pursuits relates
to the duties emphasized in Grihastha.
●​ Morrie discussing embracing death as natural relates to Sannyasa, the preparation for
liberation by accepting impermanence.

6. Applicability to Generations (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z)

●​ The sources discuss how different generations relate to or adapt the Ashrama stages.
○​ Gen X (1965-1980)

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 ■​ Brahmacharya: Experienced traditional, authority-driven education with
conventional career paths.
■​ Grihastha: Followed traditional family roles, focused on career growth and
financial stability, with work-life balance secondary.
■​ Vanaprastha: Approaching this stage, focusing on retirement planning,
second careers, or passive income; some mentor but stay active. Struggle
with financial security.
■​ Sannyasa: Embrace structured retirement, some religious/charity
activities; many still seek financial stability over complete detachment.
○​ Millennials (1981-1996)
■​ Brahmacharya: Grew up with digital transformation, pursued higher
education but faced debt/uncertainty; skill-based learning became more
valuable.
■​ Grihastha: Delay marriage/parenthood due to financial/career uncertainty;
dual-income, prioritize work-life balance; switch jobs frequently for
opportunities.
■​ Vanaprastha: Redefine retirement (e.g., FIRE movement), focus on
part-time work, travel, social causes, minimalism, side businesses.
■​ Sannyasa: Explore spirituality through retreats, therapy, alternative
healing; focus on self-discovery, conscious living over traditional religion.
○​ Gen Z (1997-2012)
■​ Brahmacharya: Highly tech-savvy, rely on online resources, self-learning;
alternative careers (freelancing, startups) common; question traditional
schooling, prioritize mental health and work-life balance while learning.
■​ Grihastha: Question traditional marriage (prefer cohabitation), gig
economy, individualism; value personal freedom, mental health, remote
work over stability; less materialistic, focus on purpose-driven careers.
■​ Vanaprastha: Early trends suggest rejection of traditional retirement, focus
on work-life flexibility; investing early, saving aggressively, seeking
digital income streams.
■​ Sannyasa: Redefine spirituality (mindfulness, meditation, digital
spirituality); reject organized religion but embrace self-awareness, inner
peace through technology.

7. Criticisms of the Ashrama Theory

●​ While providing structure, the theory faces several criticisms in contemporary society.​

○​ Rigidity & Lack of Flexibility: People in modern society do not always follow
stages linearly (e.g., delaying marriage, seeking spiritual fulfillment earlier).

49
 Modern adaptation suggests adapting principles to individual choices rather than
being age-bound.
○​ Gender Bias & Exclusion: The model ignores women's individual development
and lacks separate guidelines for their growth. Modern adaptation notes women
pursue education, careers, and spiritual paths independently, making the rigid
structure outdated.
○​ Relevance of Vanaprastha & Sannyasa in Modern Times: Elderly individuals
continue contributing to society (mentoring, business, social work) rather than
isolating themselves. Complete renunciation is impractical for everyone needing
financial/medical support in old age. Modern adaptation suggests older
individuals become advisors, mentors, or philanthropists, integrating renunciation
more with society.
○​ Socio-Economic Limitations: The fast-paced, economy-driven modern world
makes following structured stages difficult. People work longer, delay/avoid
marriage, and change careers frequently, making strict progression impractical.
Modern adaptation suggests blending aspects of each phase as needed rather than
following fixed ashramas.
○​ Caste-Based Origins & Social Hierarchy: Historically, this led to divisions and
denied certain groups access to education or spiritual life. The caste association
created disparities in spiritual growth experience. Modern adaptation focuses on
universal values (learning, duty, detachment, wisdom) accessible to all.
○​ Conflict with Individual Desires & Ambitions: Modern psychology emphasizes
personal fulfillment/self-actualization which may conflict with rigid duties. Not
everyone desires marriage or renunciation; forcing roles can cause frustration.
Modern adaptation suggests personalized paths, mixing elements based on
individual ambitions.
●​ The sources note that in modern society, economic concerns and employment rules make
strictly following the age-bound stages difficult. However, if the system was adopted and
individuals aimed for a longer life following the stages, some contemporary challenges
could be mitigated. The world can learn from this wisdom.​

8. Relevance in the Future

●​ The Ashrama Theory's core principles can help structure modern life transitions despite
life no longer being linear.
●​ Adaptations for the 21st Century:
○​ Modern Brahmacharya: Lifelong learning (upscaling, online education) and
flexible career transitions. AI-driven learning and online education fit this stage.

50
 ○​ Modern Grihastha: Redefined by dual-income families, gig economy, financial
independence; need for holistic well-being over just material success. Remote
work and digital entrepreneurship are relevant.
○​ Modern Vanaprastha: Transition to part-time work, mentorship, sustainable
living; gradual detachment from excessive materialism. Active seniors in
mentorship and digital spaces.
○​ Modern Sannyasa: Growth of spiritual retreats, self-reflection, mindfulness,
digital minimalism; focus on detachment. Virtual spirituality (meditation apps,
digital retreats) is a modern form.
●​ The theory is relevant for mental health: phased transitions help prevent burnout, clear
stages offer guidance against identity crises, and meaningful roles for the elderly prevent
loneliness.
●​ It promotes sustainability, minimalism, eco-friendly living, and conscious consumption,
aligning with modern green movements.
●​ It has global influence, with concepts like Ikigai (Japan), Hygge (Scandinavia), and Slow
Living (West) reflecting its wisdom. It can be adapted as a universal life framework.
●​ Technological advancements fit within the adapted stages.
●​ Workplace culture can align with Ashrama principles by restructuring jobs based on life
stages (flexible work, phased retirement) and supporting work-life balance and
mentorship.

9. Connections to Other Theories

●​ The Ashrama Theory is compared to other frameworks for understanding life stages.
●​ Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory:
○​ Ashrama Theory is rooted in Hindu philosophy, viewing life as a journey toward
self-realization and detachment, emphasizing duty, responsibility, and gradual
renunciation.
○​ Erikson’s Theory is a Western psychological framework focused on psychosocial
conflicts, resolving challenges for healthy identity and emotional well-being.
○​ Erikson's model focuses on identity, relationships, and self-esteem (psychosocial
factors). Ashrama Theory emphasizes spiritual progression and detachment from
worldly pleasures.
○​ In Ashrama Theory, aging is a transition toward spiritual enlightenment and
renunciation (Sannyasa). Erikson’s final stage (Integrity vs. Despair) is about
reflection on life with satisfaction or regret.
○​ Ashrama Theory is embedded in Eastern traditions, encouraging a duty-bound,
selfless life.
●​ Kübler-Ross Attachment Theory (Five Stages of Grief):
○​ Kübler-Ross's theory explains emotional processing of loss and life changes
(Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance).

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 ○​ Ashrama Theory structures life stages and emphasizes gradual detachment.
○​ Both theories deal with transitions and emotional detachment.
○​ Kübler-Ross focuses on grieving for the past; Ashrama Theory promotes
accepting change as natural progression.
○​ The stages of Ashrama involve types of loss and detachment:
■​ Brahmacharya: Detaching from childhood dependencies (early separation
anxiety).
■​ Grihastha: Balancing material desires, facing career struggles and
emotional losses.
■​ Vanaprastha: Similar to Kübler-Ross grief stages (denial of youth,
anger/fear of irrelevance, bargaining for purpose, depression/feeling
useless, acceptance of detachment).
■​ Sannyasa: Achieves what Kübler-Ross calls Acceptance (complete
spiritual detachment and peace).
○​ Ashrama Theory naturally integrates the psychological process of loss into life
stages, helping individuals prepare for detachment from relationships, wealth, and
life itself. Kübler-Ross's model can be seen as a psychological mechanism
experienced within Ashrama stages, especially Vanaprastha and Sannyasa.
●​ Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
○​ An image in the source visually compares Maslow's hierarchy (Physiological,
Safety, Love & Belonging, Esteem, Self-actualization) with the Vedic Ashrama
System (Brahmacharya, Grahastha, Vanaprastha, Sanyas).
○​ Brahmacharya aligns with Basic Needs (Physiological).
○​ Grahastha aligns with Safety, Social/Community/Intimate needs, and
Physical/Monitory/Resources Security.
○​ Vanaprastha aligns with Esteem, Achievments, Honours & Rewards. Note: This
alignment in the image seems to contradict the textual description of Vanaprastha
focusing on introspection and detachment, and aligns more with the
achievements/social aspects of Grihastha or early career. This may be an area
where different interpretations exist or the visual simplification differs from the
detailed description in the text.
○​ Sanyas aligns with Self-realisation.

10. Philosophical Foundations

●​ The sources state that the Ashrama system is a noble socio-philosophical system from
early Indian thinkers.
●​ It is deeply embedded in Eastern traditions.

11. Social Significance

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 ●​ The system provides a structured approach to life, ensuring a balance between personal,
social, and spiritual responsibilities.
●​ It is part of the vast knowledge legacy of Indian traditions.

ADULTHOOD​
​
EARLY ADULTHOOD
early adulthood is a complex and multifaceted stage of life. It is generally considered to span
from approximately 18 to 40 years of age, though some definitions narrow it to 20-40. Within
this broader period, there are more specific transitional phases.

One such phase is Emerging Adulthood, which typically occurs from about 18 to 25 years of
age. This concept was proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in 2000 and is described as an "in-between
stage" where an individual is no longer an adolescent but not yet fully an adult. It can also be
referred to as "extended adolescence" or "delayed adulthood". Unlike adolescence, where
decisions are often influenced by parents or peers, emerging adults focus on developing their
own values, goals, and preferences. Many individuals in this stage report feeling
"in-between", not considering themselves adolescents or full adults. Emerging adulthood is also
viewed as an "age of possibilities and optimism," a time when individuals have an opportunity
to transform their lives. Arnett (2006) highlights two aspects of this optimism: emerging adults
are generally optimistic about their future, and for those who had difficult upbringings, this stage
offers a chance to steer their lives in a more positive direction. During this period, strategies like
parents reducing financial support can encourage self-sufficiency, and developing life skills such
as responsibility, problem-solving, and resilience are important.

Another concept discussed in the sources is Quarterlife, explored by psychotherapist Satya

Doyle Byock, which focuses on young adults in their 20s and early 30s. Byock challenges the
notion that adulthood immediately follows adolescence, framing quarterlife as a distinct phase
characterized by uncertainty and self-discovery. It is a period of significant emotional,
psychological, and existential questioning. According to Byock, young adults in this phase often
take two major approaches: Stability-seekers, who prioritize security like jobs, relationships,
and financial stability but may feel unfulfilled, and Meaning-seekers, who prioritize
self-exploration and purpose but might struggle with instability. Both groups may feel lost due to
a lack of a clear roadmap. Quarterlife is influenced by cultural and generational shifts, where
traditional markers of adulthood like marriage, homeownership, and stable careers are delayed or

53
feel inaccessible. Millennials and Gen Z face unique pressures, including economic instability
and a changing job market. Byock suggests that young adults should embrace the uncertainty of
this stage rather than fearing it, viewing emotional and psychological growth as a necessary part
of quarterlife that should not be rushed. Drawing on Carl Jung, she sees quarterlife as an
individuation process, where young adults separate from societal expectations to define
themselves authentically. Her work is particularly relevant for those feeling anxious or lost in
their 20s and early 30s.

Adding to the importance of this period, Dr. Meg Jay's book, "The Defining Decade: Why
Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now," emphasizes the crucial
role of the twenties in shaping a person's future. Dr. Jay, a clinical psychologist specializing in
young adult development, argues against the idea that the twenties are a "throwaway decade".
She presents research and case studies demonstrating that choices made during this time
significantly impact career, relationships, and identity. Key areas highlighted include:

●​ Work: Creating Identity Capital: The twenties are crucial for building "identity
capital," which comprises valuable experiences, skills, and networks that shape
professional identity. Instead of drifting, young adults should be intentional about career
choices and make strategic moves toward their goals, even if the dream job isn't
immediately secured.
●​ Love: The Importance of Relationships: The idea that relationships can wait until the
thirties is misleading. Relationships formed in the twenties set patterns for future
relationships and marriage. Cohabiting without commitment ("sliding vs. deciding") can
potentially lead to unhealthy relationships or mismatched marriages.
●​ The Brain and Development: The brain undergoes its last major stage of development
in the twenties, influencing long-term personality and decision-making. This period is
prime for learning, risk-taking, and forming healthy, lifelong habits.
●​ The Strength of Weak Ties: Professional opportunities often arise from acquaintances
("weak ties") rather than just close friends. Expanding one's network beyond the
immediate circle can aid career advancement.
●​ Fertility and Family Planning: While timelines differ, fertility declines with age. Dr.
Jay encourages considering long-term personal goals, including family planning, earlier
in the twenties rather than later.
●​ Avoiding Aimless Exploration: While exploration is valuable, aimless drifting through
careers, relationships, and lifestyles can lead to later regret. Taking small, intentional
steps now can ease the transition into the thirties and beyond.

Regarding Vocational/Occupational Development, research by William Damon indicates that

too many young people drift aimlessly through high school and college, engaging in behaviors
that hinder them from fulfilling their potential and finding an appropriate life pursuit. Damon
notes that while teachers and parents stress studying hard and getting good grades, they rarely

54
discuss the purpose behind these goals or what they might lead to in the long term. He
emphasizes that students often focus only on short-term goals and fail to explore the "big,
long-term picture" of what they want to do in life. Unemployment can have negative effects,
including decreased immune system functioning and increased stress due to loss of income and
diminished self-esteem. Financial resources and the support of understanding family members
help individuals cope with unemployment.

Relationships in Early Adulthood are a significant focus in the sources. What attracts people to
each other and motivates them to spend time together is a key question. Familiarity and
Similarity are crucial. Friends and lovers are often people who have spent considerable time
together or share similar attitudes, values, lifestyles, and even physical attractiveness.
Consensual validation is one reason similarity is attractive, as it supports and validates one's own
attitudes and values. People also tend to prefer the predictable nature of those similar to
themselves. While similarity is common, sometimes opposites can attract, such as an introvert
and an extravert.

Attraction now extends beyond in-person interactions to the Internet. Millions in the U.S. and
China have used online matchmaking. Critics suggest online relationships may lack interpersonal
connection, but proponents argue it benefits shy or anxious individuals. A drawback is that
people may misrepresent characteristics like age, attractiveness, or occupation online. Despite
this, some research suggests online romantic relationships are more likely to last over two years
compared to those starting in person.

Physical Attractiveness also plays a role, though psychologists view its link to attraction as less
clear-cut than advertising might suggest. Standards of beauty change across cultures and over
time within cultures. The force of similarity also applies physically; people tend to seek partners
close to their own level of attractiveness, a concept supported by the matching hypothesis.
However, a study found that the matching hypothesis did not hold for married couples after six
months, where the difference in attractiveness, rather than similarity, better predicted behavior.
Both spouses behaved more positively when the wife was more attractive and negatively when
the husband was more attractive. Thus, while matched attractiveness is important early on, it
may be less influential in marriage. Men and women may also prioritize different traits, with
women often valuing considerateness, honesty, and earning prospects more, while men may
prioritize good looks and cooking skills.

Once attraction occurs, relationships can deepen into love. Love is a broad and complex aspect
of human behavior, encompassing friendship, romantic love, affectionate love, and consummate
love. Intimacy, characterized by self-disclosure and sharing private thoughts, is a recurring theme
in most types of love and a central task of adulthood, balancing with identity and independence.

Erik Erikson's stage of Intimacy Versus Isolation is central to early adulthood. After
establishing their identity, individuals enter this stage where intimacy involves finding oneself

55
while losing oneself in another person, requiring commitment. Failure to develop intimate
relationships can lead to isolation, potentially causing personality difficulties, mistrust of others,
and sometimes depression. Balancing intimacy and commitment with independence and freedom
is a delicate task in early adulthood. Difficulty moving away from parental ties can negatively
impact interpersonal relationships and careers. This balance remains an important developmental
theme throughout adulthood.

Friendship is also vital throughout life. Most U.S. adults have a best friend of the same sex, and
many friendships are long-lasting. Adulthood provides opportunities for new friendships in
neighborhoods or workplaces. Gender differences exist in adult friendships: women tend to
have more close friends and their friendships involve more self-disclosure and mutual support,
often characterized by extensive talking. Men are more likely to engage in activities with friends,
share useful information while maintaining distance, talk less about weaknesses, seek practical
solutions over sympathy, and their friendships can be more competitive. Cross-gender
friendships are more common in adulthood than childhood but less common than same-gender
friendships. They offer opportunities to learn about shared interests and differing perspectives
but can pose problems like unclear sexual boundaries.

The sources describe different "Faces of Love".

●​ Romantic Love, also called passionate love or eros, often evolves from friendships. It
has strong sexual and infatuation components and is often dominant early in a
relationship. Romantic love involves a mix of emotions, including passion, fear, anger,
sexual desire, joy, and jealousy. Sexual desire is considered a very important ingredient.
●​ Affectionate Love, or companionate love, occurs when someone desires proximity to the
other person and has a deep, caring affection for them. As love matures, passion often
transitions to affection.

Robert J. Sternberg proposed a triarchic theory of love, viewing love as a triangle with three
dimensions: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Passion is physical and sexual attraction.
Intimacy is emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing. Commitment is the cognitive
appraisal of the relationship and the intention to maintain it despite problems. Sternberg's theory
defines different types of love based on the presence or absence of these dimensions:

●​ Infatuation: Passion only.

●​ Affectionate love: Intimacy and commitment, but low or absent passion. This pattern is
common in long-married couples.
●​ Fatuous love: Passion and commitment, but lacking intimacy.
●​ Consummate love: The strongest, fullest form, involving all three dimensions: passion,
intimacy, and commitment.

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Falling Out of Love can lead to negative outcomes, particularly when love is not returned
(unrequited love). This can cause depression, obsessive thoughts, sexual dysfunction, difficulty
working effectively, challenges forming new friendships, and self-condemnation. Clear thinking
is often difficult in such situations due to the influence of strong emotions. However, studies on
romantic relationship breakups have also explored positive outcomes. A study of undergraduate
students found that self-reported positive growth was common after a breakup, categorized as
personal, relational, and environmental changes. Personal growth included feeling stronger, more
self-confident, more independent, and emotionally better off. Relational growth involved gaining
relational wisdom and skills. Environmental growth included relying more on friends and
concentrating more on school. Women reported more positive growth than men.

Adults today choose various lifestyles, including living alone, cohabiting, marrying, divorcing,
remarrying, or living with a same-sex partner. There has been a significant rise in the percentage
of single adults. Common challenges for single adults include forming intimate relationships,
confronting loneliness, and finding a place in a marriage-oriented society. Stress may also be
higher for singles compared to married or divorced individuals.

Cohabitation, or living together without being married, has dramatically increased. For some,
it's a precursor to marriage, while for others, it's an ongoing lifestyle, often chosen to avoid the
formal aspects of marriage. Cohabiting arrangements in the U.S. tend to be short-lived, with
most lasting less than a year, and few lasting five years. Dissolving a cohabitation is easier than
divorce. Cohabiting couples face problems like parental disapproval, difficulty with joint
property ownership, and less certain legal rights upon dissolution. Cohabiting women also face
an elevated risk of partner violence compared to married women. Most studies find that couples
who cohabit before marriage have lower rates of marital satisfaction and higher divorce rates.
The timing of cohabitation matters; those who cohabited before engagement reported lower
marital satisfaction and increased likelihood of divorce than those who cohabited after
engagement. One explanation is that cohabitation attracts less conventional individuals who may
not strongly believe in marriage. Another is that cohabiting changes attitudes and habits in ways
that increase divorce likelihood.

Marriage was traditionally viewed as the endpoint of adult development, but personal
fulfillment now competes with marital stability as a goal. The changing norm of male-female
equality has made marital relationships more fragile but also more intense. Cross-cultural
comparisons show variability in aspects of marriage, such as minimum marriage age and desired
partner traits. For instance, the importance placed on chastity in a partner varies significantly
across cultures. Premarital education is increasingly sought by young adults. Studies suggest
premarital education is linked to higher marital satisfaction, greater commitment, less destructive
conflict, and a 31% lower likelihood of divorce. It is recommended to begin 6-12 months before
the wedding.

57
There are significant benefits to a good marriage. Happily married individuals tend to live
longer, healthier lives than those who are divorced or unhappily married. A study of older
Japanese adults found that married individuals had a lower risk of dying over a 10-year period
compared to never-married individuals. Conversely, an unhappy marriage can shorten life
expectancy by an average of 4 years. Longer marriages are associated with a decreased
likelihood of chronic health conditions in women and a lower risk of disease in men. These
benefits are likely due to less physical and emotional stress in happy marriages, reducing wear
and tear on the body that can lead to physical and psychological problems. Men consistently
report being happier in their marriage than women.

Divorce has become increasingly common in the United States, rising significantly from 1960 to
1980 before gradually declining until 2005 and then increasing again by 2007. Factors associated
with a higher incidence of divorce include youthful marriage, low education and income levels,
lack of religious affiliation, having divorced parents, and having a baby before marriage. If a
divorce occurs, it typically happens early in the marriage, most often in the 5th to 10th year.
This timing may reflect couples trying to work things out before dissolving the marriage if
efforts fail.

Both partners face challenges after divorce, such as loneliness, diminished self-esteem, anxiety
about the future, and difficulty forming new intimate relationships. Divorced individuals are
more likely to experience depression and engage in daily smoking than married or cohabiting
adults. Despite these challenges, many people cope effectively.

In E. Mavis Hetherington's research, individuals exiting divorce follow six common pathways:

1.​ The enhancers: 20% of the group, mostly females, who became more competent,
well-adjusted, and self-fulfilled after divorce. They were skilled in multiple areas,
bounced back from stress, and created meaning from problems.
2.​ The good-enoughs: The largest group, average people coping with divorce, showing a
mix of strengths/weaknesses and successes/failures. They tried to solve problems,
pursued education, found new friends, developed social lives, and sought better jobs, but
were less skilled at planning and persistence than enhancers. Good-enough women often
remarried partners similar to their first husbands, resulting in marriages that weren't
significant improvements.
3.​ The seekers: Motivated to find new partners quickly. Initially, this group included a
significant percentage of both men and women, but it shrank as people found new
partners or became content being single, eventually becoming dominated by men.
4.​ The libertines: Spent more time in singles bars and had more casual sex. However, they
often became disillusioned with this lifestyle within a year and desired a stable
relationship.

58
 5.​ The competent loners: About 10% of the group, described as well-adjusted,
self-sufficient, and socially skilled. They had successful careers and active social lives
but had little interest in sharing their lives with anyone else.
6.​ The defeated: Some had pre-existing problems that worsened post-divorce, unable to
handle the added stress. Others struggled because divorce meant losing a supportive
spouse.

Hetherington suggests strategies for coping with divorce, such as viewing it as an opportunity for
personal growth, making decisions carefully, focusing on the future, using strengths and
resources, not expecting success in everything, and remembering that one is not trapped by a
single pathway and can move toward a better life with effort.

Remarried adults often do so relatively quickly, with approximately half remarrying within
three years of divorce. Men tend to remarry sooner than women, and men with higher incomes
are more likely to remarry. Those who initiated the divorce may remarry sooner, especially older
women in the initial years post-divorce. Evidence on the benefits of remarriage is mixed.
Remarried families tend to be less stable than first marriages, with divorce being more likely,
particularly in the early years. While remarried adults may have lower mental health levels (e.g.,
higher depression) than those in first marriages, remarriage can improve financial status,
especially for women. Remarried couples often have a more egalitarian relationship with shared
decision-making, and remarried wives may have more influence on financial matters than wives
in first marriages. Stepfamilies are diverse, involving custodial and non-custodial parents,
stepparents, and extended networks. About half of remarried women have children in their new
union, although having stepchildren reduces the likelihood. Remarried adults may find it difficult
to stay remarried because they remarry for reasons beyond love (financial, help with children,
reducing loneliness) and may carry negative patterns from previous marriages. They also
experience more stress in raising children compared to parents in never-divorced families.

Gay and lesbian relationships share many similarities with heterosexual relationships in terms
of satisfactions, love, joy, and conflict. However, they face barriers like the legal and social
context of marriage not always applying, which affects dissolution compared to heterosexual
couples. Like heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian couples need to balance romantic love,
affection, autonomy, and equality. Increasingly, gay and lesbian couples are raising children.
Lesbian couples often prioritize equality highly and gay and lesbian couples may be more
flexible in gender roles than heterosexual individuals. A study found that over 10 years of
cohabitation, gay and lesbian couples showed a higher average level of relationship quality than
heterosexual couples. Misconceptions exist about gay and lesbian couples; one partner being
masculine and the other feminine is uncommon, a large number of sexual partners is not typical
for most, and they often prefer long-term, committed relationships. About half of committed gay
male couples may have open relationships allowing sex outside the partnership (but not
affectionate love), which is usually not the case for lesbian couples. Research suggests few

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differences between children raised by gay/lesbian parents and those raised by heterosexual
parents.

Making Marriage Work has been extensively studied by John Gottman. Since the 1970s,
Gottman has used various methods, including interviews, videotaping interactions, and
physiological measures, to understand successful marriages. He emphasizes that love isn't purely
magical and that couples can improve their relationship through knowledge and effort. Gottman
identifies seven main principles for making a marriage work:

1.​ Establish love maps: Partners in successful marriages have detailed knowledge and
understanding of each other's lives and feelings, sharing these insights with fondness and
admiration.
2.​ Nurture fondness and admiration: Successful couples regularly express praise for each
other. Putting a positive spin on the marriage's history is strongly linked to a positive
future.
3.​ Turn toward each other instead of away: Happy spouses regularly connect with each
other, viewing each other as friends. This friendship helps prevent disagreements from
overwhelming the relationship. They respect and appreciate each other's viewpoints even
during disagreements.
4.​ Let your partner influence you: Good marriages involve spouses sharing power. A
willingness to share power and respect the partner's view is essential for compromise.
Equality in decision-making is a strong predictor of positive marriage quality.
5.​ Solve solvable conflicts: Distinguishing between solvable problems (e.g., reducing daily
stress) and perpetual problems (e.g., differences on having children) is key. While most
problems are perpetual and may not disappear, couples don't necessarily need to solve
them for the marriage to work. To resolve conflicts, couples should start with a soft
approach, make and receive "repair attempts," regulate emotions, compromise, and
tolerate faults. Conflict resolution is about negotiation and accommodation.
6.​ Overcome gridlock: For problems that cause gridlock (e.g., differences in religious
belief or social preferences), the goal is not necessarily to solve the problem but to move
from gridlock to dialogue and be patient.
7.​ Create shared meaning: Candid and respectful communication helps partners create
shared meaning in the marriage. This includes sharing and working towards each other's
goals.

Other factors important for a successful marriage include forgiveness and commitment. These
act as self-repair mechanisms. Forgiving a partner after conflict can help repair damage. Holding
grudges is linked to lower marital satisfaction, while forgiveness involving understanding and
reduced anger is related to developing a positive parenting alliance. Strong commitment leads
spouses to sacrifice self-interest for the marriage's benefit during conflicts. Commitment is
especially vital during hard times, offering hope for future positive changes. For remarried

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 couples, coping strategies include having realistic expectations, allowing time for relationships to
develop, viewing complexity as a challenge, developing new positive relationships and
traditions, and ensuring the couple allocates time alone for each other.

Becoming a parent is a significant event in early adulthood. Parenting roles may be planned or a
surprise. Prospective parents may have mixed emotions and idealized views. There are several
parenting myths, such as believing a child will save a failing marriage, that children will be
exactly like their parents, that having a child offers parents a "second chance," or that parenting
is instinctual and requires no training. Parenting requires interpersonal skills and is emotionally
demanding, yet formal education is limited. Parents often learn from their own parents,
perpetuating both good and bad practices. Spouses may bring different parenting approaches to
the marriage, leading to potential conflict.

Trends in Childbearing show that the age at which individuals have children has been
increasing. In 2005, the average age for women's first birth was 25.2 years. Increased birth
control use allows individuals to consciously choose when and how many children to have. The
number of one-child families is rising, and U.S. women are having fewer children overall. There
are advantages to having children earlier (in the twenties), such as parents having more
physical energy and potentially fewer medical issues with pregnancy/childbirth. Earlier parents
may also be less likely to build up excessive expectations for their children. Advantages to
having children later (in the thirties) include parents having more time to consider life goals,
greater maturity and life experience for more competent parenting, and being better established
in careers with more income for child-rearing.

​
​
MIDDLE ADULTHOOD
Middle adulthood is typically considered the developmental period beginning at approximately
40 to 45 years of age and extending to about 60 to 65 years of age. While the exact age
boundaries are not rigidly defined, some experts describe the period of 55 to 65 as late midlife, a
view influenced by increased life expectancy.

This period is characterized by a blend of elements: declining physical skills alongside

expanding responsibilities. For many, it's a time of balancing work and relationship duties amidst
physical and psychological changes associated with aging. Middle age involves a mix of new
opportunities and expanding resources, offset by decreases in physical abilities. Individuals make
choices, deciding how to invest their time and resources, and evaluating aspects of their lives that
might need change. Events like a serious accident, loss, or illness can serve as a "wake-up call,"
prompting a significant restructuring of time and a reassessment of life's priorities.

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Gains and Losses

A crucial concept in life-span development is the balance between gains (growth) and losses
(decline). Middle adulthood is seen as a unique period where biological and sociocultural factors,
as well as gains and losses, balance each other. Although biological functioning declines,
sociocultural supports such as education, career, and relationships may reach their peak in middle
adulthood. However, in late midlife, losses may begin to outweigh gains for many individuals.

Work in Midlife

Many middle-aged adults reach the peak of their position and earnings during this period. Yet,
they may also face multiple financial burdens, including rent or mortgage, childcare, medical
bills, home repairs, college tuition, and loans to family members. Midlife is often a time for
evaluation, assessment, and reflection regarding their current work and future career aspirations.
Work issues might involve recognizing career progress, contemplating job or career changes,
deciding how to rebalance family and work, and planning for retirement. Some career changes
are self-initiated, while others result from job loss. Some individuals may decide they do not
want to continue their current work for the rest of their lives. A key aspect of middle adulthood
involves adjusting idealistic hopes to realistic possibilities, considering the time remaining before
retirement and their progress toward occupational goals. Individuals may be motivated to change
jobs if they perceive they are behind schedule, have unrealistic goals, dislike their work, or find
their job too stressful. Many individuals report being at their career peak during midlife.

Personality Theories and Development

Middle age development has been examined through stage theories and the life-events approach.

●​ Erik Erikson's Stage: Erikson proposed that middle-aged adults confront the issue of
generativity versus stagnation. Generativity is the desire to leave legacies for the next
generation, achieving a form of immortality through these contributions. Stagnation, or
self-absorption, occurs when individuals feel they have contributed nothing to the next
generation. Generativity can manifest in various ways, including biological (offspring),
parental (nurturing children), work (passing on skills), and cultural (creating or
conserving aspects of culture). Generative adults actively promote and guide the next
generation through parenting, teaching, leading, and community involvement. Research
supports the importance of generativity in midlife, showing a steady increase in
generative feelings through age 43. Parents who are generative have been linked to young
adult children who are conscientious and agreeable. Middle-aged adults, especially
women with careers or those focused on parenting, show concern about generativity.
Generativity in middle age is linked with having a positive identity.
●​ Daniel Levinson's Seasons of a Man's Life: Based on interviews with 40 middle-aged
men, Levinson described stages and transitions between ages 17 and 65. He emphasized

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 mastering developmental tasks at each stage. The transition to middle adulthood (ages 40
to 45) lasts about five years. During this transition, adult males are challenged to confront
and integrate four major conflicts present since adolescence: being young versus being
old, destructive versus constructive, masculine versus feminine, and attached versus
separated. Levinson reported that 70 to 80 percent of the men he interviewed found this
midlife transition tumultuous and psychologically painful, as many aspects of their lives
were questioned. Successfully navigating this transition involves reducing these polarities
and accepting each as part of one's being. Levinson later reported that his stages,
transitions, and the crisis of middle age apply to women as well as men.

The Midlife Crisis

Levinson viewed midlife as a crisis, a time when the middle-aged adult is suspended between the
past and future, struggling with a gap that threatens life's continuity. George Vaillant, in his Grant
Study, offered a contrasting view. He concluded that the forties are a time for reassessing and
understanding adolescent and adulthood years, similar to how adolescence involves re-evaluating
childhood. However, unlike Levinson, Vaillant maintained that only a minority of adults
experience a midlife crisis. Many psychologists believe the concept of a midlife crisis has been
exaggerated by pop psychology and the media. They suggest viewing midlife more as a period of
transition rather than a crisis. Research indicates that midlife is generally not characterized by
widespread crises. One study found that only 26 percent of middle-aged U.S. adults reported
experiencing a midlife crisis, and most attributed it to negative life events rather than aging itself.
Longitudinal studies have found few midlife crises. Experts in adult development are nearly
unanimous in their belief that midlife crises have been overstated.

The Life-Events Approach and Stress

Another way to understand adult personality development is through the life-events approach.
An early view saw life events (like death of a spouse, divorce, marriage) as taxing circumstances
that forced personality change. The contemporary life-events approach is more nuanced,
emphasizing that the influence of a life event depends not just on the event, but also on
mediating factors (like health, family support), how the individual adapts (appraisal, coping), the
life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context. For instance, divorce might be more stressful
for someone in their fifties after a long marriage than for someone in their twenties married for a
short time. The sociohistorical context also matters; coping with divorce might be easier today
than in the 1950s due to increased acceptance.

A drawback of the life-events approach is that it may overemphasize change and not adequately
account for personality stability. Additionally, major life events might not be the primary sources
of stress; daily experiences, like a boring or tense job, or living in poverty, can accumulate and
lead to significant stress and illness. Some psychologists suggest focusing on daily hassles and
uplifts provides better insight into stress sources. For middle-aged adults, frequent daily hassles

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include concerns about weight and the health of a family member. Their most frequent daily
uplifts involve positive interactions with a spouse, lover, or friend. Middle-aged adults are more
likely than college students to report economic concerns as daily hassles.

Regarding stress levels, one study found that both young and middle-aged adults experienced
more stressful days and multiple stressors than older adults. Middle-aged adults were more likely
to experience "overload" stressors related to juggling too many activities simultaneously.

Stability and Change in Personality

Longitudinal studies, such as those by Costa and McCrae, the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies,
Helson's Mills College Study, and Vaillant's studies, provide insight into personality stability and
change in adulthood.

●​ Costa and McCrae's Baltimore Study[likely not to come] : This study, focusing on the
Big Five personality factors (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness,
Neuroticism - OCEAN), found considerable stability in these traits over time. However,
some studies indicate conscientiousness may continue to develop in late adulthood, and
older adults tend to be more conscientious and agreeable than younger and middle-aged
adults. A meta-analysis showed that social dominance (assertiveness) increases from
adolescence through middle adulthood, while social vitality (talkativeness) decreases in
later years. Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase in early and middle adulthood,
and neuroticism decreases in early adulthood. Openness increases in adolescence and
early adulthood, decreasing in late adulthood. Personality traits changed most during
early adulthood.
●​ Berkeley Longitudinal Studies: These studies found that personality is characterized by
a mix of stability and change. The most stable characteristics were being intellectually
oriented, self-confident, and open to new experiences, while characteristics like
nurturance/hostility and self-control showed more change. One researcher stressed
individual variation, arguing that some people experience recurrent crises while others
have more stable lives.
●​ Helson's Mills College Study: This study of women found that many shared concerns in
their early forties similar to those Levinson described for men, but they experienced this
as midlife consciousness rather than a crisis. Commitment to early adulthood tasks
(career or family) helped women develop important skills like impulse control,
interpersonal skills, independence, and goal achievement. Identity certainty and
awareness of aging increased for these women from their thirties through fifties.
●​ George Vaillant's Studies: Vaillant investigated whether personality at age 50 predicts
life in late adulthood (75-80). He found that factors at age 50 such as avoiding alcohol
abuse and smoking predicted not being deceased at 75-80. Factors linked to being
"happy-well" in late adulthood included regular exercise, avoiding being overweight,

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 having a stable marriage, being well-educated, being future-oriented, being
thankful/forgiving, empathizing with others, being active socially, and having good
coping skills. Wealth and income at age 50 were not linked to happiness later.
Generativity in middle age was more strongly related than intimacy to having an
enduring, happy marriage later in life. Healthy habits and strong relationships at age 50
were key predictors of a happy, fulfilling life in late adulthood.

Overall Conclusions on Stability and Change: Research indicates that personality traits
continue to change throughout adulthood, but the most significant changes occur in early
adulthood (approximately 20 to 40 years old). People show more stability in personality once
they reach midlife than when they were younger. This supports the cumulative personality
model, which posits that with age, individuals become better at interacting with their
environment in ways that foster personality stability. However, change still occurs in middle and
late adulthood due to new experiences, social situations, and historical events, though these
changes are generally smaller than those in early adulthood. Personality changes across
adulthood tend to move in a positive direction, with people becoming more confident, warm,
responsible, and calm, which is seen as becoming more socially mature. Recent research
contradicts the older belief that personality stabilizes by age 30. While there are common
patterns of change, individual experiences, such as being in a stable marriage or career, can lead
to unique personality changes.

Close Relationships in Midlife

Positive relationships, particularly with parents, spouse, and offspring, are a major component of
well-being for middle-aged Americans.

●​ Marriage: Affectionate, or companionate, love increases during middle adulthood,

becoming more important than the physical attraction and passion central to romantic
love in earlier relationships. Security, loyalty, and mutual emotional interest gain
importance as relationships mature. Studies show marital satisfaction increases in midlife.
Even marriages that were difficult earlier may become better adjusted in middle
adulthood, discovering a deep foundation. Partners may have fewer financial worries, less
housework, and more time together. Engaging in mutual activities is linked to a positive
view of the marriage in midlife. Most married individuals voice considerable satisfaction,
with 72% rating their marriage as "excellent" or "very good" in one study. By midlife,
many troubled marriages may have already ended. Compared to young adults, those in
midlife report more marital satisfaction, but less satisfaction compared to older adults.
Middle-aged married/partnered adults were more likely to view their relationships with
ambivalence or indifference than their late adulthood counterparts.
●​ Divorce: Divorce in middle adulthood has both potentially positive and negative aspects
compared to divorce in early adulthood. On the positive side, mature individuals may

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 face fewer perils, have more resources, can simplify their lives, and their adult children
may cope more effectively. They may also have a better understanding of themselves and
be seeking change, such as ending a poor marriage. Women who initiated divorce in
midlife were found to be more characterized by self-focused growth and optimism. On
the negative side, the long-standing emotional and time commitment to the marriage is
significant. Many see divorce in midlife as a failure. While the divorcer might see it as an
escape, the divorced partner often perceives betrayal and the ending of a relationship built
over many years. Divorce can also lower the economic standing of some middle-aged and
older women who may lack the education, skills, or experience needed to maintain their
standard of living. Outcomes can be positive for some individuals and negative for
others. An AARP survey found the main reason many stayed married for so long was
their children. Despite stress, three in four divorcees felt it was the right decision and
reported a positive outlook. Women were more likely to initiate divorce and more afraid
of financial problems than men. Common reasons for divorce cited by women included
abuse, alcohol/drug abuse, and cheating; for men, they included falling out of love,
cheating, and different values/lifestyles.

The Empty Nest and Its Refilling

Launching a child into adult life is an important family event requiring parental adjustment.
While parents who live vicariously through their children might experience the empty nest
syndrome (a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave), for most parents, marital
satisfaction actually increases after children leave home. With children gone, partners have more
time for career interests and each other. A study found that the transition to an empty nest
increased marital satisfaction, linked specifically to an increase in the quality of time spent
together, not just the quantity.

The refilling of the empty nest is increasingly common, with adult children returning home due
to economic climate, after college, or after a job or divorce. Some individuals don't leave until
their mid-twenties due to financial inability. These young adults are sometimes labeled
"boomerang kids" or "B2B" (Back-to-Bedroom). The middle generation consistently provides
support (financial, practical, emotional) to the younger generation, even after they leave home.

Living together again presents both advantages and disadvantages. A common issue is a loss of
privacy for both generations. Children may feel restricted in independence, intimate lives, and
music listening, and treated like children. Parents may find their home noisy, worry about late
nights, struggle with meal planning due to schedules, feel their couple relationship is invaded,
and bear too much responsibility. The return of adult children creates a disequilibrium requiring
adaptation from both parents and children. Strategies for cohabitation include negotiating
conditions and expectations beforehand (rent, chores, rules). Parents are advised to treat adult
children as adults and reduce monitoring ("permaparenting" or "helicopter parents" can impede

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children's independence). Adult children need to adjust their behavior, negotiate rules, set
deadlines for moving out, and focus on saving money to achieve their goals.

Sibling Relationships and Friendships

Sibling relationships typically last a lifetime, with 85% of adults having at least one living
sibling. These relationships can range from very close to apathetic or rivalrous, with the majority
being close. Closeness in adulthood usually stems from closeness in childhood. Adult siblings
often provide practical and emotional support to each other. Poor sibling relationships in
childhood have been linked to depression by age 50 in men. Friendships remain important in
midlife, and long-standing friendships are often deeper than those formed more recently.

Grandparenting

Increased longevity has changed the nature of grandparenting; a much higher percentage of
children today have living grandparents compared to a century ago. Many adults become
grandparents for the first time in middle age. Grandmothers generally have more contact with
grandchildren than grandfathers, possibly seeing it as part of their role in maintaining family ties,
whereas grandfathers may view their role as more voluntary.

Being a grandparent holds various meanings: a source of biological reward/continuity, emotional

self-fulfillment (providing companionship and satisfaction), or a remote role. Grandparenting can
provide a sense of purpose and value, especially when generative needs are strong. Grandparent
roles vary across families, ethnic groups, cultures, and situations. For example, Mexican
American grandparents in one study had the most frequent contact, provided the most support,
and had the most satisfying relationships. Grandmothers often have closer relationships and give
more personal advice than grandfathers. Early studies identified three dominant grandparenting
styles: Formal (proper, prescribed role, interested but avoid child-rearing advice), Fun-seeking
(informal, playful, source of leisure), and Distant (benevolent but infrequent interaction).
Grandparents over 65 were more often formal, while those under 65 were more fun-seeking. The
grandparent role is often mediated by parents until the grandchildren are adults.

An increasing number of U.S. grandchildren live with their grandparents, reaching 6.1 million in
2005. Reasons include divorce, adolescent pregnancies, and parental drug use. Most
grandparents raising grandchildren full-time are under 65. Nearly half are raised by a single
grandmother, often in African American families. Families raised by both grandparents are
overwhelmingly non-Latino White. The majority of grandparents living with their children
contribute income and provide childcare. Grandparents who are full-time caregivers are at higher
risk for health problems, depression, and stress, often linked to low income, minority status, and
not being married. Part-time caregiving shows fewer negative effects. Divorce can impact
grandparent-grandchild relationships; for example, if a father's relationship with his children

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deteriorates, ties with his parents (paternal grandparents) may become distant. Grandparent
visitation rights after divorce are sometimes debated.

Intergenerational Relationships [do it from the before section]

Family is very important to most people, with a strong global sense of responsibility between
generations, including adults caring for aging parents. Adults in midlife play a central role,
linking the younger and older generations. They share experience and transmit values to the
young. This can involve supporting children, becoming grandparents, giving/receiving financial
aid, or caring for aging parents. A valuable service adult children provide is coordinating and
monitoring services for disabled aging parents, which might involve finding nursing homes,
arranging medical care, securing public assistance, or handling finances. Direct assistance with
daily living activities or tasks like shopping, housework, and bill paying may also be provided.

While relationships with aging parents are often described as positive even with health issues,
they are commonly characterized by ambivalence. The positive side includes love, reciprocal
help, and shared values; the negative side involves isolation, conflicts, problems, abuse, neglect,
and caregiver stress.

Family members generally maintain significant contact across generations. However, married
adults tend to have less intergenerational contact (less likely to live with parents, keep in touch,
or give/receive help) than those who are never married or divorced. Young adults with children
are more likely to see their parents than those without children. There are both similarities and
dissimilarities across generations; similarity is most notable in religion and politics, least in
gender roles, lifestyle, and work orientation.

Common intergenerational conflicts include communication styles, habits/lifestyle choices

(sexual activity, living arrangements), child-rearing practices/values, politics, religion, and
ideology. Parents and adult children perceive the main conflicts differently; parents often list
habits and lifestyle choices, while adult children cite communication and interaction style.

Research highlights the importance of these relationships: supportive childhood family

environments predict more positive relationships with middle-aged parents later. Adult children's
motivation to support older parents is linked to positive earlier family experiences.

Gender differences characterize intergenerational relationships. Women play a particularly

important role in connecting families across generations, with their relationships often
considered closer. Mother-daughter relationships in adulthood are often closer than other
parent-child or father-son ties. Married men tend to be more involved with their wife's relatives.
Maternal grandmothers and aunts are frequently cited as important relatives. Mothers'
intergenerational ties are more influential for grandparent-grandchild relationships than fathers'.
Studies on enjoyable visits between mothers and daughters show that mothers, regardless of their

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age group, are more invested in the relationship than their daughters. The focus of interactions
can change with age; older pairs (older mothers/mid-aged daughters) are more likely to discuss
the larger kin network, while younger pairs (mid-aged mothers/young adult daughters) focus
more on their direct relationship and shared events.

Middle-aged adults are often called the "sandwich," "squeezed," or "overload" generation
due to simultaneously having responsibilities for their adolescent/young adult children and their
aging parents. These dual pressures can contribute to stress. Stress is also high for midlife adults
when their parents become ill and die. Immigration can increase intergenerational stress,
particularly due to separation from family networks and differing acculturation levels creating
conflicting expectations.

LATE ADULTHOOD
The sources discuss various aspects of Late Adulthood, also referred to as Old Age, which is
generally considered to span from 65 years until death, though some developmentalists suggest
it starts at 60. The psychological study of aging and the provision of clinical services for older
adults is a field called Geropsychology. Geropsychologists research the normal aging process,
design psychological interventions for common problems in older adults, and help older
individuals and their families enhance well-being and achieve their maximum potential in later
life.

Key concepts related to the duration of life are Life Span and Life Expectancy. Life span is
defined as the maximum number of years an individual can live, which has remained
approximately 120 to 125 years. Life expectancy, however, is the average number of years a
person born in a particular year will likely live, and this varies by year and country. For example,
the average life expectancy in India in 2019 was about 68-69 years, increasing to approximately
72.03 years by 2023 (70.52 for males, 73.60 for females).

Memory is highlighted as a significant issue in old age, noting that while memory changes, not
all types of memory change in the same way.

●​ Episodic Memory, which is the memory of life events (like what you ate for breakfast or
your first day of school), changes with age. Young adults typically remember recent
events better than older adults. Older adults may feel they remember older events better
than recent ones, but research suggests that older memories aren't necessarily more
accurate, just perceived that way. Studies indicate that older memories, such as recalling
high school classmates or diary entries, can become less reliable over time. For the most
part, episodic memory is said to decline more than semantic memory in older adults.

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 ●​ Semantic Memory, which encompasses general knowledge about the world (like facts,
concepts, or vocabulary), tends to hold up well with age. Older adults might take longer
to recall specific facts but usually can retrieve them. However, retrieving very specific
information, like people's names, often gets harder. The common tip-of-the-tongue
(TOT) feeling, where you know you know something but can't recall it, is reported more
often by older adults.
●​ Working Memory, which is the capacity to hold and manipulate information for short
periods (like doing mental math), tends to decline with age. This decline can make it
more difficult for older adults to juggle information, solve problems quickly, or follow
complex conversations.

Several factors influence memory in older adults:

●​ Beliefs and expectations significantly impact memory performance. If older adults

believe their memory will worsen, it often does. A study showed that those who read
about memory declining with age remembered significantly fewer words than those who
read about maintaining memory. This highlights the real impact of mindset on memory
performance.
●​ Emotions and self-confidence also play a role. Individuals with lower anxiety and
higher confidence about their memory tend to perform better. Conversely, high anxiety or
low confidence regarding memory use in daily life is associated with remembering less.
How you feel about your memory is stated to really matter.
●​ Health, Education, and Socioeconomic Status (SES) are also important. Good physical
health is linked to slower memory decline, although it doesn't prevent it entirely. More
educated older adults generally exhibit better memory and cognitive skills. Higher SES is
often associated with better brain health over time, likely due to better resources.
●​ Aerobic fitness training has been shown to improve various cognitive functions in older
adults, including planning, working memory, resistance to distraction, and multi-task
processing.
●​ Mental health also influences cognitive functioning. Higher levels of anxiety and
depression have been linked to poorer memory functioning in longitudinal studies.

Regarding the question of whether cognitive skills can be retrained, research indicates that
they can, to a degree. However, there is some loss of plasticity in late adulthood, particularly for
individuals 85 years and older. Structured experiences that require higher-level cognitive
coordination, such as complex video games, task switching, and dividing attention, can improve
older adults' cognitive skills. While training in specific domains (reasoning, memory, speed of
processing) can improve skills within that domain, these effects may not transfer to other
cognitive areas. Interestingly, reasoning training showed benefits for activities of daily living
(ADL), such as preparing meals, doing housework, and managing finances, whereas memory or
speed of processing training did not have a long-term benefit on ADL.

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The path through Work and Retirement looks different for each individual in old age. People
may continue in their careers, take new jobs after retiring, volunteer, move in and out of the
workforce, shift to disability status due to health, or define being laid off as retirement. Factors
related to continued employment into old age include good health, a strong commitment to
work, and a distaste for retirement. Educational attainment and being married to a working
wife were also positively correlated with the probability of employment. Retirement is described
as a process, not an event. Studies suggest retired married and remarried women report higher
life satisfaction and better health than those who are widowed, separated, divorced, or never
married. Factors associated with adjusting best to retirement include being healthy, having
adequate income, being active, being better educated, possessing an extended social
network, and generally having been satisfied with life before retirement. Difficulties in
adjustment are more common for those with inadequate income, poor health, other simultaneous
stresses (like spousal death), a strong attachment to work, lack of control over the retirement
transition, and low self-efficacy. Flexibility is also key to adjusting well. Since the structured
work environment is gone, retirees need flexibility to discover and pursue their own interests;
cultivating interests and friendships outside of work improves adaptation. Planning is crucial,
and those who view it only in financial terms do not adapt as well as those with a more balanced
plan that considers leisure, staying active, social engagement, and keeping the mind active.

Two theories regarding social engagement and well-being in late adulthood are presented:

●​ Activity Theory proposes that the more active and involved older adults are, the
more satisfied they are with their lives. Strong support has been found for this theory,
suggesting that being active, energetic, and productive leads to more successful aging and
happiness compared to disengaging from society. If middle-adulthood roles are lost (e.g.,
through retirement), finding substitute roles is important for maintaining activity and
involvement.
●​ Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, developed by Laura Carstensen, states that older
adults become more selective about their social networks. Due to a high value on
emotional satisfaction, they spend more time with familiar individuals in rewarding
relationships. This involves deliberately withdrawing from peripheral contacts while
maintaining or increasing contact with close friends and family. This selective narrowing
is believed to maximize positive emotional experiences and minimize emotional risks.
Research shows older adults have smaller social networks than younger adults but may
maintain a similar number of close emotional relationships. Studies also indicate older
adults report the most intense positive emotions with family members, less intense with
established friends, and the least intense with new friends. The theory also focuses on
goals: knowledge-related goals are prioritized in younger years, peaking in
adolescence/early adulthood, and declining later, while emotional goals are high in early
childhood, decline through early adulthood, and increase in middle/late adulthood. This
shift is attributed to the perception of time; when time is perceived as limited, older adults

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 are more motivated to pursue emotional satisfaction over knowledge, whereas younger
individuals with perceived open-ended time prioritize knowledge, sometimes at the cost
of emotional satisfaction.

Marriage and Family in Old Age are discussed as significant relationships. The period from
retirement to death is sometimes called the "final stage in the marriage process," and for many,
the portrait of marriage in older adulthood is positive. Marital satisfaction has been found to be
greater in older adults than middle-aged adults, with older adults perceiving their spouse as less
hostile. Retirement alters a couple's lifestyle and requires adaptation, particularly in traditional
families where roles change. Marital happiness is also affected by how partners handle personal
conflicts like aging, illness, and eventual death. Married or partnered individuals in late
adulthood are generally happier and live longer than those who are single. Divorce is much
less common in older adults than younger ones, with most divorces occurring earlier in life.
Divorced older adults are predominantly women, partly due to greater longevity and men being
more likely to remarry. Parent-child relationships change in later life, influenced by a long shared
history. Adult daughters are more likely to be involved in aging parents' lives and provide
assistance with daily living activities than adult sons. While aging parents and their children
often describe positive changes in their relationship, studies frequently characterize these
relationships by ambivalence, encompassing positive aspects like love and reciprocal help, and
negative aspects like isolation, conflict, or caregiver stress. Ambivalence is more likely in
relationships involving in-laws, poor health, and where early life parent-child relationships were
poor.

Loneliness is a complex concept that can be voluntary (positive solitude) or a distressing

negative feeling resulting from a lack or poor quality of social relationships. While it affects all
ages, it's often associated with older age. Two types are distinguished: Social loneliness (lack of
a good social network or quantity of contacts) and Emotional loneliness (lack of desired or
intimate attachment, when expectations from social relations aren't met). The perceived quality
of social relationships appears to be a more important determinant of loneliness than the
size of the social network. A study in Finland found that loneliness was associated with
expectations and satisfaction of contacts, with depression and living alone being powerful
predictors, alongside felt poor understanding by close people and unfulfilled expectations of
contact with friends. A study in India found loneliness to be significantly associated with
widowers compared to those living with a spouse, and higher in those in old age homes versus
those living with families. Reminiscence group therapy has shown positive results in reducing
loneliness and depression while improving self-esteem in older women.

Finally, the sources discuss Dying. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed a five-stage sequence for
facing death:

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 1.​ Denial and isolation: The initial stage where the person denies death is happening, often
a temporary defense replaced by increased awareness of practical matters.
2.​ Anger: Occurs when denial can no longer be maintained, leading to resentment, rage, and
envy; the person may become difficult to care for and displace anger onto others.
3.​ Bargaining: The hope that death can be postponed, often involving negotiations (e.g.,
with God) for more time in exchange for a reformed life.
4.​ Depression: Acceptance of the certainty of death, leading to a period of preparatory grief,
withdrawal, silence, and crying. Kübler-Ross suggested not trying to cheer the person up
at this stage, as they need to contemplate impending death.
5.​ Acceptance: Developing a sense of peace, accepting one's fate, often desiring to be left
alone, with feelings and pain potentially absent; seen as the end of the struggle before
death.

However, the sources note that Kübler-Ross's approach has criticisms. The existence of the
five-stage sequence has not been consistently demonstrated by research. Critics argue the stage
interpretation neglected individual patient situations, including relationship support, illness
effects, family obligations, and the institutional environment. Some individuals struggle against
death until the end, never reaching acceptance. While some psychologists believe fighting death
makes a peaceful end more difficult, others argue that not confronting death until the end may be
adaptive for some. The extent to which people have found meaning and purpose in life is
linked to how they approach death. Finding purpose has been associated with less despair in
the final weeks, while those who see no reason for living are more distressed. Spirituality has
been found to help buffer dying individuals from severe depression. A study found that as
patients perceived themselves closer to death, they became more spiritual.

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