College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

Abstract

Adulthood encompasses a large time span and includes a series of psychosocial challenges (E. H. Erikson, 1950). Five aspects of personality (identity certainty, confident power, concern with aging, generativity, and personal distress) were assessed in a cross-sectional study of college-educated women who at the time of data collection were young adults (age: M = 26 years), middle-aged adults (age: M = 46 years), or older adults (age: M = 66 years). Respondents rated each personality domain for how true it was of them at the time, and they then rated the other 2 ages either retrospectively or prospectively. Results are discussed with attention to the ways in which women's adult development may have been shaped by experiences particular to both gender and birth cohort, and to how these women fit with E. H. Erikson's theory of adult development.

La generatividad en la vejez y su relación con el bienestar: ¿Quién más contribuye es quien más se beneficia?

“…Por ejemplo, tras incrementarse en la transición de la juventud a la mediana edad, el interés y las actividades generativas en general se mantienen en la vejez, tanto cuando se comparan trasversalmente diversos grupos de edad (Sheldon y Kasser, 2001;Zucker, Ostrove, y Stewart, 2002) como cuando las personas evalúan, retrospectivamente, la generatividad en diferentes momentos de su vida (Miner-Rubino, Winter, y Stewart, 2004). Así, la generatividad parece estar detrás de las contribuciones de los mayores tanto en ámbitos familiares como comunitarios (Kleiber y Nimrod, 2008;Thiele y Welan, 2008;Warburton y Gooch, 2007).…”

Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the NEO-PI-R Scales in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.

“…Roberts, Caspi, and Moffitt (2001) linked personality change to work experience. Zucker, Ostrove, and Stewart (2002) discussed "ways in which women's adult development may have been shaped by experiences particular to both gender and birth cohort" (p. 236). Roberts, Wood, and Smith (2005) held that a driving mechanism of personality development is psychological investment in agegraded social roles.…”

Gender, Social Class, and the Subjective Experience of Aging: Self-Perceived Personality Change From Early Adulthood to Late Midlife

“…As did Stewart et al (2001) and Zucker et al (2002), we asked individuals to describe their feelings associated with aging both retrospectively (for their 40s and 20s) and concurrently (for their 60s-their current age). Thus, similar to previous work, this study relies on retrospective accounts for much of the data.…”

“…For example, Stewart, Ostrove, and Helson (2001) and Zucker, Ostrove, and Stewart (2002) found that college-educated women report feeling more certain about their identity, confident, powerful, and generative in midlife compared to earlier ages. Gender and social class may influence how individuals experience subjective aspects of aging (Cameron, 1970(Cameron, , 1973Gatz & Karel, 1993;Lachman, 1986;Ryff, 1982).…”

“…We examined the four specific aspects of personality development-identity certainty, confident power, generativity, and concern about aging-that were assessed by Stewart et al (2001) and Zucker et al (2002). Identity certainty derives from Erikson's (1950Erikson's ( , 1964Erikson's ( , 1968Erikson's ( , 1980 concept of identity as an affirmed sense of self and of one's place in the social world; confident power assesses feelings of mastery and competence (Helson & Wink, 1992;Neugarten, 1968); generativity reflects a preoccupation with a world beyond the self and a desire to make a contribution to future generations (Erikson, Erikson, & Kivnick, 1986); and concern about aging represents the popular conception of aging as a preoccupation with "time left," the approach of death, and decreased physical strength and attractiveness (Clausen, 1986;Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, & McKee, 1978;McAdams, 1985).…”