PSY 3123 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Premarital Sex, Midlife Crisis, Erik Erikson

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3123
• Professor: Guergana Roumenova Mileva;

Document Summary

Chapter seven: the middle years of the family. With only one or two kids (typically) today"s parents devote less years to child rearing. The current midlife generation consists of the baby boomers (in 2011 they were in between 45 and 64 years of age). This stage involves raising older children and the eventual splitting of the family as children leave the family of organ and start their family of procreation. Erik erikson (1982) stated that the key issue in middle age (35 to 65 years) is generativity, or having children and passing on something of value to younger generations. Midlife crisis: extreme strain as a person re-evaluates his or her own life at middle age. Assessing oneself: most research attention was focused on men"s experience. Career and public life were seen as the most important forms of generativity. It was assumed that women expressed generativity primarily though the less esteemed function of having and raising children.