Article at a Glance. Anxiety, irritability, depression, insomnia, fatigue, memory changes, and low libido can be signs of the effects of aging on the brain. The brain goes through both physical and neurotransmitter-related changes with time that could explain changes in mood and/or cognition.
Frantic energy; feeling restless and wanting to do something completely different. Self-questioning; questioning decisions made years earlier and the meaning of life. Confusion about who you are or where your life is going. Excessive daydreaming.
Normal Physiological Changes in Middle Adulthood. There are a few primary biological physical changes in midlife. There are changes in vision, hearing, more joint pain, and weight gain (Lachman, 2004).
One of the most common psychological changes associated with aging is a slower reaction time. You start losing your reflexive abilities during your 30s and by the time you cross the age of 50, there is a significant decrease in your reaction time. This means that you tend to slow down with age.
Emotionally, the middle-aged brain is calmer, less neurotic, more capable of managing emotions, and better able to negotiate social situations (Phillips, 2011). Older adults tend to focus more on positive information and less on negative information than do younger adults.
Conscientiousness and Agreeableness increased throughout early and middle adulthood at varying rates; Neuroticism declined among women but did not change among men. The variety in patterns of change suggests that the Big Five traits are complex phenomena subject to a variety of developmental influences.
The most common health problems experienced during middle age are arthritis, asthma, bronchitis, coronary heart disease, diabetes, genitourinary disorders, hypertension (high blood pressure), mental disorders, and strokes (cerebrovascular accidents).
The stages of adulthood examined here include: Early Adulthood (ages 22--34). Early Middle Age (ages 35--44), Late Middle Age (ages 45--64), and Late Adulthood (ages 65 and older).
In short, cognitive aging means that as we get older, our mental functions become less nimble and flexible, and many aspects of our memory get a little worse. We also become more easily distracted by busy environments, and it takes more effort to work through complex problems and decisions.
Midlife adults become more agreeable, but decline in openness and neuroticism. However, midlife is also viewed as a time of change. Carl Jung believed that our personality actually matures as we get older. A healthy personality is one that is balanced.
found that scores on Extraversion generally declined from age 30 to 90 although the drop in Extraversion was more pronounced after the mid 50s or so.
While the younger group's personalities remained more or less the same overall, the older group's personality traits begin to shift, so that on average, they became less open and extraverted, as well as less agreeable and conscientious.
Perhaps middle adulthood is best known for its infamous midlife crisis: a time of reevaluation that leads to questioning long‐held beliefs and values. The midlife crisis may also result in a person divorcing his or her spouse, changing jobs, or moving from the city to the suburbs.
Early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood are the three main stages of physical, emotional, and psychological development.
Relationships typically become more traditional and there are more financial hardships and stress in living. Children bring new expectations to the marital relationship. Two people who are comfortable with their roles as partners may find the added parental duties and expectations more challenging to meet.
Physiological changes occur with aging in all organ systems. The cardiac output decreases, blood pressure increases and arteriosclerosis develops. The lungs show impaired gas exchange, a decrease in vital capacity and slower expiratory flow rates.
Normal brain aging may mean slower processing speeds and more trouble multitasking, but routine memory, skills, and knowledge are stable and may even improve with age. It's normal to occasionally forget recent events such as where you put your keys or the name of the person you just met.
stagnation is the seventh stage of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. This stage takes place during middle adulthood, between the approximate ages of 40 and 65.
Life is stressful for middle-aged people dealing with kids, work, aging parents, and the constant pull to stay connected. A new study from Penn State reveals that people 45 to 65 feel more stressed now than their counterparts did in the 1990s. “People in middle age are often forgotten.
Mental disorders start earlier and have a higher prevalence in early to mid-life, whereas physical disorders are typically illnesses of middle and older age and tend to be chronic.” The authors noted that measurement issues might also help explain the differences in recall of mental and physical illnesses.
One's late twenties and early thirties, from an emotional perspective, are therefore the worst part of life. It's during these years that people experience the most negative thoughts and feelings and experience the most mind wandering, a psychological state that has been shown to be detrimental to well-being.
“Cognitive decline may begin after midlife, but most often occurs at higher ages (70 or higher).” (Aartsen, et al., 2002) “… relatively little decline in performance occurs until people are about 50 years old.” (Albert & Heaton, 1988).
Approximately two out of three Americans experience some level of cognitive impairment at an average age of approximately 70 years. For dementia, lifetime risk for women (men) is 37% (24%) and mean age at onset 83 (79) years.
Midlife is often associated with unhappy events: the empty nest, menopause, infidelity, financial concerns, a growing sense of mortality, and unhappiness with the daily grind. Life in one's 40s and 50s may seem like a natural time to tally one's failures and disappointments.