What Can Psychology Teach Us Lisa A Goodman PhD Department of Counseling and Developmental Psychology Lynch School of Education Invisibility in the psychological literature Invisibility ID: 342279
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Women at Midlife: What Can Psychology Teach Us?
Lisa A. Goodman, Ph.D.
Department of Counseling and Developmental Psychology
Lynch School of EducationSlide2
Invisibility
…… in the psychological literatureSlide3
Invisibility
……. In the Psychology of Women QuarterlySlide4
Invisibility
….. in the popular mediaSlide5
Invisibility
…..in the classroomSlide6
Limits and LossSlide7
Openness and FreedomSlide8
IntegrativeSlide9
Integrative
Abigail Stewart
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
University of Michigan
Joan Ostrove
Ravenna Helson
Nicola Newton
David Winter
Kathi Miner-RubinoSlide10
Identity Certainty
a clear sense of self and one’s place in the social worldSlide11
Confident Power
feelings of mastery and competenceSlide12
Generativity
preoccupation with a world beyond the self and desire to make a contribution Slide13
Concerns about Aging
preoccupation about “time left” and decreased physical strength and attractiveness Slide14
Sample
300 middle- and upper middle class women’s college students
Surveyed in their 20s, 40s, 60s
250 white women (and men) who had graduated from an urban public school
Surveyed in their 60s and asked about their 20s and 40sSlide15
Growing sense of……
Identity
Power
Generativity
Worry about mortality, aging, loss of capacitySlide16
Irrespective of…….
College education
Marital status
Children
Work
Social classSlide17
What Can We Conclude?
Questions shape answersSlide18
Why Does it Matter?Slide19
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Within the woman’s story, as exemplified in most theoretical and empirical research, the high points of the narrative are clustered toward the early years of adulthood, when marriage and childbearing are the events of interest…Then stability, then a regressive fall, marked by negative accelerations with the departure of children and widowhood. According to this narrative form, a woman’s life is basically downhill or regressive from 40 on. [This narrative itself] serves to exacerbate the plight of the mature woman who is faced with no clear alternatives. It operates as an invitation to anxiety and depression
Mary GergenSlide20
Empirical Support
Negative Stereotypes
Better Performance
Worse Performance
Positive
StereotypesSlide21
Empirical Support – Becca Levy
YOUNGER AGE:
Negative stereotypes about older people
OLDER AGE: Poor physical healthSlide22
Empirical Support – Becca Levy
25% of those with negative age related stereotypes at 30
heart problems at 60
13% of those with positive age related stereotypes at 30
heart problems at 60
Controlling for: blood pressure, smoking, depression, cholesterolSlide23
Images Move Into the Body, Mind, and SoulSlide24
Where From Here?Slide25
Returning to Loss and LimitsSlide26
Returning to Openness and FreedomSlide27
Returning to IdentitySlide28
Returning to MasterySlide29
Returning to GenerativitySlide30
Returning to Concerns About AgingSlide31
Who Am I …. Now That I'm Not Who I Was?