PSY 100

The Individual and Society

Adult Lifestyles
 Objectives
• Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
– Discuss the benefits and challenges of living alone, and how they vary with age
– Describe the range of adult lifestyles, including living alone, cohabitation,
marriage, divorce and remarriage, as well as gay and lesbian relationships.
– Describe the characteristics of good marriages
– Describe when divorce is most likely to occur, the stresses associated with
divorce and factors that enable people to cope effectively with divorce
– Describe the textbook’s six-stage model of how families change over time and
discuss the essential characteristics of each stage
– Identify the essential characteristics of the four parenting styles noted by
Baumrind and described in the textbook
– Discuss how parental age and employment status may affect children
– Describe how divorce affects the adjustment of children and what factors
influence how a child will adjust to divorce
– Describe the main types of child abuse, the long-term effects of child abuse
and the cultural context of child abuse
 Overview
• Adjustments Depend on Lifestyle
• Diversity of Lifestyles
• Family Changes
• Parenting
 The Diversity of Adult Lifestyles
• Single Adults Living Alone
– Dramatic rise in numbers
– Stereotypes
– Disadvantages
– Advantages
• Cohabiting Adults
– Living together but not married
– Often short lived
– Advantages and disadvantages
 The Diversity of Adult Lifestyles
• Married Adults
– Overview
• U.S. a marrying society
• Marriages occur later
– Finding a partner
• Chastity
• Domesticity
• Religion
– Marital expectations and myths
 The Diversity of Adult Lifestyles
• Divorced Adults
– The timing of divorce
– The stresses of divorce
– Coping with divorce
• Social maturity
• Autonomy
• Internal locus of control
• Religiosity
• Work
• Social support
• A new intimate relationship
– Pathways
• Enhancers
• Good enoughs
• Seekers
• Libertines
• Competent loners
• Defeated
 The Diversity of Adult Lifestyles
• Remarried Adults
– Within 4 years of divorce
– Stepfamilies
• Sizes
• Forms
• Complex
• Gay and Lesbian Relationships
– Legal and social contexts
– Similar conflicts
– Misconceptions
– Gay and lesbian families
 The Family Life Cycle
• Leaving Home
• The New Couple
• Becoming a Family with Children
• The Family with Adolescents
• Midlife Families
– The Empty Nest
– Intergenerational relationships
• Families Later in Life
 Parenting
• Timing of Parenthood
– Early
• Advantages
– Late
• Advantages
• Parenting Styles
– Authoritarian
– Authoritative
– Neglectful
– Indulgent
 Parenting
• Working Parents
– Negative effects
– Positive effects
– Working during the first 9 months
• Children in Divorced Families
– Poorer adjustment
– Risks and vulnerabilities
• Prior adjustment
• Personality
• Temperament
• Gender
• Custody situation
• Ethnicity and Parenting
– Unique stressors
 Parenting
• Child Abuse
– Types of Abuse
• Physical
• Child neglect
• Sexual abuse
• Emotional abuse
– Cultural context of abuse
• Common single mother in poverty
• Violence in America
• Support options
– Consequences
• In children
• Into adulthood
 Summary
• The diversity of adult lifestyles
• The family lifecycle
• Timing of parenting
• Parenting styles
• Child abuse