Identity in three cohorts of midlife women.

To study similarities and differences in personality across historical periods, ego identity patterns, assessed by Q-sort prototypes, were compared in longitudinal samples of midlife women who had been young adults in the 1950s, early 1960s, and late 1960s. Identity pattern had similar relationships across sample with vector dimensions of the California Psychological Inventory but was related to work and family outcomes only in the younger cohorts, whose lives were less restricted. Women with the achieved–foreclosed pattern were more alike across cohort than women with the achieved–moratorium pattern. Among the latter, independence and high aspirations were salient features of the younger cohorts, whereas interest in motives of self and others were salient in the older cohort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships among sexual satisfaction, marital quality, and marital instability at midlife.

Sexual satisfaction, marital quality, and marital instability have been studied over the life course of couples in many previous studies, but less in relation to each other. On the basis of the longitudinal data from 283 married couples, the authors used autoregressive models in this study to examine the causal sequences among these 3 constructs for husbands and wives separately. Results of cross-lagged models, for both husbands and wives, provided support for the causal sequences that proceed from sexual satisfaction to marital quality, from sexual satisfaction to marital instability, and from marital quality to marital instability. Initially higher levels of sexual satisfaction resulted in an increase in marital quality, which in turn led to a decrease in marital instability over time. Effects of sexual satisfaction on marital instability appear to have been mediated through marital quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of work on women at midlife.

Examined the impact of employment status on the self-esteem, psychological well-being, and physical health of 389 middle-aged (40–59 yrs old) women (206 employed outside the home and 183 homemakers). Ss completed a number of scales of psychological well-being (including the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Lack of Depression Scale) from the national survey, The Survey of Modern Living, conducted in 1976. Results indicate that working Ss at midlife had higher self-esteem and less psychological anxiety than homemakers. Working Ss also reported being in better physical health than homemakers. Findings suggest that work may act as a stabilizing force for women during critical periods throughout the life cycle. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career momentum in midlife women: life context, identity, and personality correlates

Women (N = 83) in their early 50s indicated whether they were increasing, maintaining, or decreasing momentum in their career. On the basis of their career momentum, women were classified into 3 groups and compared on work and family patterns, the importance of work to their identity, personality characteristics, and psychological well-being. Women with high career momentum were in higher status jobs and viewed their work as more central to their identity than women who were maintaining or decreasing their career momentum. Also, women with high career momentum scored higher on measures of self-acceptance, independence, and effective functioning in their early 50s and also rated their physical health higher than the other groups. Prospective longitudinal analyses showed that personality and life context patterns differentiated among the career momentum groups as far back as 30 years before the assessment of career momentum. The significance of the results for women's career development in midlife and coping with retirement is discussed.     

Women's body satisfaction at midlife and lifetime body size: A prospective study.

The relationship between past body size and current body dissatisfaction among 933 middle-aged women from a prospective birth cohort study was examined. Women provided self-report data on weight esteem at age 54. Height and weight data were collected at ages 7, 11, 15, 20, 26, 36, 43, and 54. Data on reproductive variables were also collected prospectively. Hierarchical linear modeling and multiple regression analyses were used. Women who were dissatisfied at midlife were heavier at age 7 and showed a more rapid increase in body mass index with age. A late menarche, being postmenopausal, and having started hormone replacement therapy before menopause were associated with less dissatisfaction. Attention to these factors across the life span is necessary to understand body dissatisfaction in women at midlife. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality profiles of gifted women: Psychologists.

Compared the responses to the 16PF of 124 highly successful women psychologists with women in general, college women, and successful academic men to identify personality factors enabling these women to succeed in spite of powerful sex-role expectations to the contrary. In terms of test scores, women psychologists were significantly more intelligent, socially aloof, dominant, serious, adventuresome, sensitive, flexible, imaginative, insightful, unconventional, secure, self-sufficient, and less anxiety-prone than women in general and college girls. Despite similar test profiles of successful academic men and women, the women scored higher on intelligence, radicalism, and super-ego strength, and lower on self-sentiment. Women who published extensively were more exacting and socially aloof than less productive women psychologists. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Realization of generativity in two samples of women at midlife.

On the basis of E. H. Erikson's (1950/1963) theory of midlife development, a measure of generativity realization was constructed with items from J. Block's (1961/1978) California Adult Q-Set (CAQ). Convergent and discriminant validity for the new CAQ measure were established through a survey of 2 samples of educated women at about 43 years of age (N?=?208). These 2 samples, 1 from a study of Mills College graduates and the other from a study of Radcliffe College graduates, were also used to examine the personality, attitudinal, and life outcome correlates of generativity at midlife. Results indicated that generative women have prosocial personality characteristics, express generative attitudes through their work, are invested in the parenting process, and exhibit an expanded radius of care. In general, results conceptually replicated in the Mills and Radcliffe samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correctional psychologist burnout, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction.

Corrections is a stressful environment, but do correctional psychologists experience greater levels of occupational burnout and life stress than other public sector and nonpublic sector psychologists? Data collected from 203 doctoral level psychologists including correctional (CR; n = 44), Veteran's Affairs (VA; n = 56), public psychiatric hospital (PPH; n = 54), and university counseling centers (CC; n = 49) indicated that CR psychologists do experience significantly more occupational burnout relative to VA and CC psychologists. Furthermore, CR and PPH psychologists reported significantly less job satisfaction than CC psychologists. Although psychologists working in PPH settings reported significantly lower levels of life satisfaction than VA and CC psychologists this was not the case for CR psychologists. Professional identity related to occupational setting emerged as a significant predictor of occupational burnout. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of life goals at age 70 to activity participation and health and psychological well-being among Terman's gifted men and women.

In this study I investigated the relation of life goals to activity participation and health and psychological well-being for men and women in Terman's Study of the Gifted. The subjects were between the ages of 65 and 75 years (M?=?70.2 years) when they responded to a mail-out survey in 1982. The study included three goals scales—Autonomy, Involvement, and Achievement Motivation—as well as measures of activity participation and health and psychological well-being. Multiple regression analyses in which the three goals scales were used to predict health and psychological well-being were both significant. Path analyses demonstrated both a direct and an indirect contribution, through activity participation, of life goals to health and well-being. In most cases, the indirect effect of life goals on health and well-being accounted for more than one half of the total effect. Implications of the results for life satisfaction in aging are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maintenance of satisfaction in romantic relationships: Empathy and relational competence.

On the basis of a series of recent investigations linking personality, social behavior, and social satisfaction, as well as the theoretical concept of relational competence, we propose a model of relationship satisfaction. The model is based on the notion that personality in general and empathy in particular affect relationship satisfaction through their influences on specific mediating behaviors. The tenets of the model were tested by assessing the key constructs for both members of 264 heterosexual romantic couples. In general, the model was strongly supported, as three separate facets of dispositional empathy had separate and predictable influences on self-reported behavior, which in turn significantly influenced partners' perceptions of those behaviors. Also as expected, perceptions of partner behavior were significant influences on one's satisfaction with the relationship. The model worked especially well for longer term relationships and somewhat better for predicting female behavior; the role of one facet of empathy—perspective taking—was especially strong for longer relationships. Thus, the model appears to be a fruitful way to examine the role of personality on social and psychological well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between women and their parents: Implications for midlife well-being.

The rapid changes in women's roles during the 1970s gave the graduates of the Radcliffe College class of 1964 opportunities for life experiences markedly different from those of either their mothers or their fathers. This longitudinal study of 89 Radcliffe graduates examined the ways in which women in midlife find continuity with their parents and the implications of experiences of continuity for women's relationships with parents and for women's self-esteem and well-being. Support was found for a model linking women's educational and occupational similarity to their parents to later perceptions of parental influence, perceived parental influence to parent–daughter relationship quality, and parent–daughter relationship quality to self-esteem and subsequent well-being. The quality of women's relationships with their fathers did not predict subsequent well-being, perhaps because of fathers' decreased involvement in their adult daughters' lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role quality, multiple role involvement, and psychological well-being in midlife women.

Examined women's occupancy of the social roles of paid worker, wife, and mother, and the quality of their experience in these 3 roles in relation to psychological well-being. Data were from a disproportionate (i.e., women from high-prestige occupations) random sample of 23 White women (aged 35–55 yrs). Well-being was measured by indices of self-esteem, depression, and pleasure; pleasure was assessed by a scale consisting of single-item measures of happiness, satisfaction, and optimism. Role quality was measured by scales developed for this study that assessed the balance between the positive and negative attributes women perceived in their roles. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for age, education, and income indicated that role occupancy was unrelated to well-being with one exception: Occupying the role of paid worker significantly predicted self-esteem. In contrast, the 3 role-quality variables were significant predictors of the well-being indices, except that quality of experience in the role of mother did not predict pleasure. Findings suggest the importance of qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of role involvement and the need to examine different dimensions of well-being in relation to social roles. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leta Stetter Hollingworth: Champion of the psychology of women and gifted children.

L. S. Hollingworth (1886–1939), one of the most neglected pioneers of educational psychology, successfully challenged the prevailing scientific doctrine of women's inferior intelligence. Later in her career she established the field of gifted education, offering the 1st course and textbook in this area. In her tenure at Teachers College, Columbia University, she contributed major textbooks on mental retardation, adolescent psychology, and specific disabilities, as well as 80 scholarly papers. As the 1st psychologist in New York City, she helped establish professional standards for the field and was one of the few academicians who promoted and provided psychological services in the schools. She used the schoolroom as a laboratory for research. Her standards for research are exemplary even in modern times. Hollingworth was a courageous early leader in educational psychology who has finally begun to receive the recognition she deserves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-appraisal, life satisfaction, and retrospective life choices across one and three decades.

This research investigated the relationship of a self-appraisal of having lived up to one's intellectual abilities at midlife (average age of 49 years) with life satisfaction and retrospective life choices 1 and 3 decades later among 383 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted. Study 1 showed that participants who reported living up to their intellectual abilities were higher in satisfaction with occupational success, satisfaction with family life, and joy in living 11 years later. Study 2 showed that participants who reported living up to their abilities were higher in overall life satisfaction and were less likely to report that they would make different life choices in work or family life 3 decades later. In an integrative structural equation model, the relation between the midlife self-appraisal of having lived up to intellectual abilities and overall satisfaction at age 80 was mediated by life satisfaction discrepancy at age 61. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negotiating the middle years: Ego-resiliency and successful midlife adjustment in women.

Midlife is a time of heightened reevaluation and reorientation during which individuals are faced with potentially stressful changes and turning points. Ego-resiliency (ER) is proposed to be a powerful personality resource that enables individuals to adaptively negotiate the challenges of this period. Through examination of data from 2 longitudinal samples of women (N?=?208), Study 1 examined whether observer-based and self-reported ER assessed at the beginning of midlife (at age 43) can predict life adjustments of specific relevance to this period assessed in late middle age (ages 52 and 48). In Study 2 age 43 ER was used to predict directional changes in central life adjustments and feelings about life over this same period (between ages 43 and 52). Predictions across samples, across measures of ER, or both were confirmed by replicated findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life satisfaction.

The authors examined the interplay of personality and cultural factors in the prediction of the affective (hedonic balance) and the cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB). They predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and that the relation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture. As a consequence, they predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is also moderated by culture. Participants from 2 individualistic cultures (United States, Germany) and 3 collectivistic cultures (Japan, Mexico, Ghana) completed measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, hedonic balance, and life satisfaction. As predicted, Extraversion and Neuroticism influenced hedonic balance to the same degree in all cultures, and hedonic balance was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. The influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on life satisfaction was largely mediated by hedonic balance. The results suggest that the influence of personality on the emotional component of SWB is pancultural, whereas the influence of personality on the cognitive component of SWB is moderated by culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation at midlife.

A semiprojective measure of generativity motivation—the desire to contribute to the welfare of society—was developed and applied to a longitudinal sample of educated women. In support of previous theory that generativity represents a fusion of agency and communion, generativity at midlife was related to a combination of adolescent scores on achievement, affiliation, and power motivation. The measure was also related to independent indexes of generative wishes and Q-sort generativity. The importance of contextualizing generativity motivation is demonstrated: Generative women with careers found gratification through work, whereas generative women not working in careers experienced gratification through parenting. Generativity was also related to political consciousness. Finally, as young adults, generative women expressed gratitude toward mentors. The authors discuss theoretical implications for Erikson's (1950) concept of psychosocial generativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervising international students: Relationship between acculturation, supervisor multicultural competence, cultural discussions, and supervision satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to explore the relationship between international trainees' acculturation level and cultural discussion on supervision satisfaction and (b) to examine the mediating effect of cultural discussions on the relationship between perceived supervisor multicultural competence and trainee satisfaction with supervision. One hundred and four international students from several clinical programs who have received clinical supervision participated in the study. Results revealed that students who had lower acculturation levels but greater cultural discussion showed more satisfaction with supervision. Furthermore, cultural discussion partially mediated the relationship between the perceived supervisor cultural competence and satisfaction with supervision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job stress in midlife working women: Relationships among personality type, job characteristics, and job tension.

Investigated the relationships among midlife working women's Type A (coronary prone) personality, perceived job characteristics, and feelings of job tension. The Women's Work Questionnaire was administered to 161 35–55 yr old females who were employed by a large state social service agency. The questionnaire, developed for the present study, comprises sections for demographic and job-related information, the Sales Type A Personality Index—Short Form, the Job Characteristics Inventory, and the Job-Related Tension Index. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between job tension and a linear combination of Type A personality and job characteristics (i.e., autonomy, feedback, significance, friendship opportunities, variety, challenge, identity, dealing with others). There were also significant relationships between job tension and the following variables considered singularly: Type A personality, autonomy, feedback, significance, and friendship opportunities. Results support a person–environment fit approach to the study, prevention, and remediation of job stress. (80 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)