Susan Krauss Whitbourne | |
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Occupation | Professor of Psychology |
Awards |
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Academic background | |
Alma mater | University at Buffalo; Columbia University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
Susan Krauss Whitbourne (born 1948) is a developmental clinical psychologist known for her work on personality and identity over the lifespan. [1] She holds the position of professor emerita of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. [2]
Whitbourne served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association from 2017 to 2018 [3] and as president of the American Psychological Association,Division 20,Adult Development and Aging from 1995 to 1996. [4]
She received an APA Presidential Citation in 2011 [5] and was awarded the Distinguished Membership Award from Psi Chi,The International Honors Society in Psychology in 2018. [6]
Whitbourne was born on December 16,1948,in Buffalo,New York. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology at the University at Buffalo in 1970 and her Ph.D in clinical/developmental psychology at Columbia University in 1974. [2] She subsequently finished a clinical psychology postdoctoral re-specialization program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. [7]
Whitbourne was an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1973 to 1975. She was on the faculty of the University of Rochester from 1976 to 1984,before moving to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At Rochester,Whitbourne was involved in conducting the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study––a 50-year,4-cohort,1200 participant,5-wave sequential study of Eriksonian psychosocial development in adulthood. [8] [9] [10]
Whitbourne has served as a columnist and/or consultant for multiple popular media outlets,including HuffPost, [11] Psychology Today, [12] Reason, [13] CapRadio, [14] Cosmopolitan, [15] Today's Parent, [16] and more.
Whitbourne's research program has examined a variety of issues related to people's experiences of identity over the lifespan. Topics include identity and self-consciousness in middle and later adulthood [17] the connection between national,ethnic,and personal identity in a multiethnic sample of young adults, [18] and the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with studying identity processing in adulthood. [19] Whitbourne and her colleagues have conducted research to evaluate the theory that older people experience physical,psychological,and social role changes that threaten their sense of self and ability to live happily,as well as being bombarded with negative ageist stereotypes. [20] She has used a variety of methodologies to examine ageism in society,including a study of ageist stereotypes in undergraduate psychology textbooks. [21]
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.
An adult is a human or other 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 a "major". The typical age of attaining legal adulthood is 18,although definition may vary by legal rights,country,and psychological development.
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,with some more inclusive definitions extending the definition into the early to mid 40s. The young adult stage in human development precedes middle adulthood.
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. Studies on midlife crises show that they are less common than popularly believed,according to Vaillant (2012):in his 75-year longitudinal study on adult development,he found midlife crises were rare experiences for people involved in the study. The term was coined by Elliott Jaques in 1965.
Middle age, or middle adulthood, is the age range of the years halfway between childhood and old age. The exact range is subject to academic debate,but the term is commonly used to denote the age range from around 45 to around 65 years. This phase of life is marked by gradual physical,cognitive,and social decline in individuals as they age.
Egocentrism is the inability to differentiate between self and other. More specifically,it is the inability to accurately assume or understand any perspective other than one's own. Egocentrism is found across the life span:in infancy,early childhood,adolescence,and adulthood. Although egocentric behaviors are less prominent in adulthood,the existence of some forms of egocentrism in adulthood indicates that overcoming egocentrism may be a lifelong development that never achieves completion. Adults appear to be less egocentric than children because they are faster to correct from an initially egocentric perspective than children,not because they are less likely to initially adopt an egocentric perspective.
Personality development encompasses the dynamic construction and deconstruction of integrative characteristics that distinguish an individual in terms of interpersonal behavioral traits. Personality development is ever-changing and subject to contextual factors and life-altering experiences. Personality development is also dimensional in description and subjective in nature. That is,personality development can be seen as a continuum varying in degrees of intensity and change. It is subjective in nature because its conceptualization is rooted in social norms of expected behavior,self-expression,and personal growth. The dominant viewpoint in personality psychology indicates that personality emerges early and continues to develop across one's lifespan. Adult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant temperament,meaning that individual differences in disposition and behavior appear early in life,potentially before language of conscious self-representation develop. The Five Factor Model of personality maps onto the dimensions of childhood temperament. This suggests that individual differences in levels of the corresponding personality traits are present from young ages.
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 the 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.
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 divided positive adult developmental processes into at least six 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.
Klaus Warner Schaie was an American social gerontologist and psychologist best known for founding the Seattle Longitudinal Study in 1956.
Religious identity is a specific type of identity formation. Particularly,it is the sense of group membership to a religion and the importance of this group membership as it pertains to one's self-concept. Religious identity is not necessarily the same as religiousness or religiosity. Although these three terms share a commonality,religiousness and religiosity refer to both the value of religious group membership as well as participation in religious events. Religious identity,on the other hand,refers specifically to religious group membership regardless of religious activity or participation.
Bernice Neugarten was an American psychologist who specialised in adult development and the psychology of ageing.
Fredda Blanchard-Fields was a professor of psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Psychology. As director of the "School of Psychology’s Adult Development Laboratory",Blanchard-Fields led research efforts that address social-cognitive processes in everyday life,from adolescence to older adulthood. Recognizing that a great deal of psychological research has focused on ways in which cognitive abilities in adulthood decline with older age,Blanchard-Fields,as a gerontologist,and her colleagues focused on investigating domains in which adults continue to grow and develop throughout the lifespan and contribute to their competence in the social realm.
Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed,either physically or emotionally." The understanding of social and environmental vulnerability,as a methodological approach,involves the analysis of the risks and assets of disadvantaged groups,such as the elderly. The approach of vulnerability in itself brings great expectations of social policy and gerontological planning. Types of vulnerability include social,cognitive,environmental,emotional or military.
Laura L. Carstensen is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy and professor of psychology at Stanford University,where she is founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and the principal investigator for the Stanford Life-span Development Laboratory. Carstensen is best known in academia for socioemotional selectivity theory,which has illuminated developmental changes in social preferences,emotional experience and cognitive processing from early adulthood to advanced old age. By examining postulates of socioemotional selectivity theory,Carstensen and her colleagues identified and developed the conceptual basis of the positivity effect.
Gerodiversity is the multicultural approach to issues of aging. This approach provides a theoretical foundation for the medical and psychological treatment of older adults within an ecological context that includes their cultural identity and heritage,social environment,community,family system,and significant relationships. Gerodiversity encompasses a social justice framework,which considers the social and historical dynamics of privilege and inequality. In addition to issues of aging,gerodiversity includes race,ethnicity,language,gender identity,socioeconomic status,physical ability or disability,sexual orientation,level of education,country of origin,location of residence,and religion or spirituality.
Jacob "Jacky" Lomranz is a professor emeritus at The School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University. He was a former head of the M.A. program for clinical-gerontological psychology at the Ruppin Academic Center.
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.
Karen L. Fingerman is the Wilson Regents Professor in Human Ecology and professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She has published nearly 200 works on intergenerational and social ties. Fingerman is well known for her work on older adult socio-emotional processes,health,and well-being. Most notably,Fingerman generated the Social Input Model and coined the term “consequential strangers”. In 2018,Fingerman founded the Texas Aging &Longevity Consortium and serves as the current Director in tandem with her position as Director of Research at the Texas Center on Aging and Population Sciences.
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