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Middle age (or middle adulthood) is the age range of the years halfway between childhood and old age. [1] The exact range is subject to public debate, but the term is commonly used to denote the age range from around 40 to around 65 years. [2] [3] [4] [5] Many changes may occur between young adulthood and this stage. [6] [7] [8]
This time span is generally referred to as "middle age" and can be defined as the time of ages about 40–45 to about 60–65. [2] [3] [9] [10] [11] Many changes may occur between young adulthood and this stage. [12] [13] [14] There is no universal consensus on what the exact definition of middle age is, but usual characteristics include the beginning of rapid decline of fertility, graying of hair, and other physical changes.
Those in middle age continue to develop relationships and adapt to changes in relationships. Such changes are highly evident in the maturing relationships between growing or grown children and aging parents. Community involvement is fairly typical of this stage of adulthood, [15] as is continued career development.
Middle-aged adults may begin to show visible signs of aging. This process can be more rapid in women who have osteoporosis.[ citation needed ] Changes might occur in the nervous system. The ability to perform complex tasks remains intact. In the normal range of 45 to 55, women experience menopause, which ends natural fertility. [16] [17] Menopause can have many side effects. Changes can occur to skin, and other changes may include a decline in physical fitness, including a reduction in aerobic performance, a decrease in maximal heart rate, and graying and loss of hair. Sensory sensitivity in middle-aged adults has been shown to be one of the lowest. [18] These measurements are generalities, and people may exhibit changes at different rates and times. [19]
Mortality rates can begin to increase, due mainly to health issues like heart problems, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. [15] Still, the majority of middle-aged people in industrialized nations can expect to live into old age.
Starting around age 35, pregnant women are considered to be of advanced maternal age, and significant declines in fertility begin to occur that usually end with menopause around age 50. [20]
Middle-aged urban adults who are experiencing frailty and poverty show an association with increased H2O2 induced oxidative DNA damage. [21]
Erik Erikson refers to this period of adulthood as generativity versus stagnation, the seventh of eight stages of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. People in middle age may experience some cognitive loss, which usually remains unnoticeable because life experiences and strategies get developed to compensate for any decrease in mental abilities. [22]
During this stage, adults often strive to have things that will outlast them. Generativity, which is the concern and the commitment middle-aged people have for future generations, is a big part of development during this stage. [23]
For some, marital satisfaction remains intact, but other family relationships can become more difficult. Career satisfaction focuses more on inner satisfaction and contentedness and less on ambition and the desire to advance. [15] Even so, career changes occur often. Middle age can be a time when people reexamine their lives by taking stock and evaluating their accomplishments. Morality may change and become more conscious. [24] The perception that those in this stage of development of life undergo a so-called midlife crisis is a largely false one. [25] Personality characteristics remain stable throughout this period, [1] and relationships in middle age may continue to evolve into connections that are stable. [15]
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions, which are physical development, cognitive development, and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation.
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of reproduction. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, although the exact timing can vary. Menopause is usually a natural change related to a decrease in circulating blood estrogen levels. It can occur earlier in those who smoke tobacco. Other causes include surgery that removes both ovaries, some types of chemotherapy, or anything that leads to a decrease in hormone levels. At the physiological level, menopause happens because of a decrease in the ovaries' production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. While typically not needed, a diagnosis of menopause can be confirmed by measuring hormone levels in the blood or urine. Menopause is the opposite of menarche, the time when a girl's periods start.
An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term adult has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a non-adult or "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible. They may also be regarded as "majors". The typical age of attaining legal adulthood is 18, although definition may vary by legal rights, country, and psychological development.
A toddler is a child approximately 1 to 3 years old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "to toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, like a child of this age.
In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of the term; generally, the term is often used to refer to adults in approximately the age range of 18 to 40 years. Some inclusive definitions extend the range into the early to mid 40s, while others end earlier.
A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 45 to 64 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's growing age, inevitable mortality, and possible lack of accomplishments in life. This may produce feelings of intense depression, remorse, and high levels of anxiety; or the desire to achieve youthfulness, make drastic changes to their current lifestyle, or change past decisions and events.
The anal stage is the second stage in Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development, taking place approximately between the ages of 18 months and three years. In this stage, the anal erogenous zone becomes the primary focus of the child's libidinal energy. The main social context for the experience is the process of toilet training, where anal pleasure becomes associated with the control of bowel movements.
Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, is the cumulative effect of aging on hearing. It is a progressive and irreversible bilateral symmetrical age-related sensorineural hearing loss resulting from degeneration of the cochlea or associated structures of the inner ear or auditory nerves. The hearing loss is most marked at higher frequencies. Hearing loss that accumulates with age but is caused by factors other than normal aging is not presbycusis, although differentiating the individual effects of distinct causes of hearing loss can be difficult.
Late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) or testosterone deficiency syndrome (TDS) is a term for a condition in older men characterized by measurably low testosterone levels and clinical symptoms mostly of a sexual nature, including decreased desire for mating, fewer spontaneous erections, and erectile dysfunction. It is the result of a gradual drop in testosterone; a steady decline in testosterone levels of about 1% per year can happen and is well documented in both men and women.
In developmental psychology and developmental biology, a critical period is a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli. If, for some reason, the organism does not receive the appropriate stimulus during this "critical period" to learn a given skill or trait, it may be difficult, ultimately less successful, or even impossible, to develop certain associated functions later in life. Functions that are indispensable to an organism's survival, such as vision, are particularly likely to develop during critical periods. "Critical period" also relates to the ability to acquire one's first language. Researchers found that people who passed the "critical period" would not acquire their first language fluently.
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or just plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize and rewire its neural connections, enabling it to adapt and function in ways that differ from its prior state. This process can occur in response to learning new skills, experiencing environmental changes, recovering from injuries, or adapting to sensory or cognitive deficits. Such adaptability highlights the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the brain, even into adulthood.. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping or neural oscillation. Other forms of neuroplasticity include homologous area adaptation, cross modal reassignment, map expansion, and compensatory masquerade. Examples of neuroplasticity include circuit and network changes that result from learning a new ability, information acquisition, environmental influences, pregnancy, caloric intake, practice/training, and psychological stress.
Emerging adulthood, early adulthood, or post-adolescence refers to a phase of the life span between late adolescence and early adulthood, as initially proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article from American Psychologist. It primarily describes people living in developed countries, but it is also experienced by young adults in wealthy urban families in the Global South. The term describes young adults who do not have children, do not live in their own homes, and/or do not have sufficient income to become fully independent. Arnett suggests emerging adulthood is the distinct period between 20 and 29 years of age where young adults become more independent and explore various life possibilities.
Spermarche, also known as semenarche, is the time at which a male experiences his first ejaculation. It is considered to be the counterpart of menarche in females. Depending on upbringing, cultural differences, and prior sexual knowledge, males may have different reactions to spermarche, ranging from fear to excitement. Spermarche is one of the first events in the life of a male leading to sexual maturity. It occurs at the time when the secondary sex characteristics are just beginning to develop. Researchers have had difficulty determining the onset of spermarche because it is reliant on self-reporting. Other methods to determine it have included the examination of urine samples to determine the presence of spermatozoa. The presence of sperm in urine is referred to as spermaturia.
Positive adult development is a subfield of developmental psychology that studies positive development during adulthood. It is one of four major forms of adult developmental study that can be identified, according to Michael Commons; the other three forms are directionless change, stasis, and decline. Commons also further divided the concept of positive adult development into six distinct areas of study: hierarchical complexity, knowledge, experience, expertise, wisdom, and spirituality.
Adult development encompasses the changes that occur in biological and psychological domains of human life from the end of adolescence until the end of one's life. Changes occur at the cellular level and are partially explained by biological theories of adult development and aging. Biological changes influence psychological and interpersonal/social developmental changes, which are often described by stage theories of human development. Stage theories typically focus on "age-appropriate" developmental tasks to be achieved at each stage. Erik Erikson and Carl Jung proposed stage theories of human development that encompass the entire life span, and emphasized the potential for positive change very late in life.
Stage-crisis view is a theory of adult development that was established by Daniel Levinson. Although largely influenced by the work of Erik Erikson, Levinson sought to create a broader theory that would encompass all aspects of adult development as opposed to just the psychosocial. This theory is characterized by both definitive eras as well as transition phases, whose purpose is to facilitate a smooth transition out of one era and into the next. According to his theory, various developmental tasks must be mastered as one progresses through each era; pre-adulthood, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. Crises are also experienced throughout the lifecycle and occur when one become burdened by either internal or external factors, such as during the midlife crisis that occurs during the midlife transition from early adulthood to middle adulthood.
The neural encoding of sound is the representation of auditory sensation and perception in the nervous system. The complexities of contemporary neuroscience are continually redefined. Thus what is known of the auditory system has been continually changing. The encoding of sounds includes the transduction of sound waves into electrical impulses along auditory nerve fibers, and further processing in the brain.
Margie E. Lachman is an American psychologist. She is the Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab and the director of the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions. She was editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2000-2003), and has edited two volumes on midlife development. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 20 and the Gerontological Society of America. Lachman's research is in the area of lifespan development with a focus on midlife and later life. Her current work is aimed at identifying psychosocial and behavioral factors that can protect against, minimize, or compensate for declines in cognition and health. She is conducting studies to examine long-term predictors of psychological and physical health, laboratory-based experiments to identify psychological and physiological processes involved in aging-related changes, especially in memory, and intervention studies to enhance performance and promote adaptive functioning through active engagement and physical activity.
Sandra Gordon-Salant is an American audiologist. She is a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is also director of the doctoral program in clinical audiology. Gordon-Salant investigates the effects of aging and hearing loss on auditory processes, as well as signal enhancement devices for hearing-impaired listeners. She is the senior editor of the 2010 book, The Aging Auditory System. Gordon-Salant has served as editor of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Susan Krauss Whitbourne is a developmental clinical psychologist known for her work on personality and identity over the lifespan. She holds the position of professor emerita of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
When is middle age? We define middle age as "the period of human life between youth and old age, sometimes considered as the years between 45 and 65 or thereabout."Given the different views on when old age begins, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that the exact range of middle age is not set in stone either. In general, our age range of "45 to 65" is around the age range generally used to say when middle age supposedly occurs. Polling shows that people may think middle age begins later or earlier depending on who you ask.
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