Critical thinking questions

Your answers to these kinds of questions demonstrate an ability to comprehend and apply ideas discussed in this chapter.

1. Describe the nature of love and marriage during middle adulthood.

2. Define the empty nest syndrome, and explain its relationship to marital satisfaction.

3. Define and provide at least two examples of intergenerational relationships.

4. Indicate evidence that daily hassles are stressful to adults; and compare and contrast the daily hassles of college students versus those of middle-aged adults.

5. Defend or refute the view that adult stage theories express a male bias.

6. Explain the life-events approach in your own terms.

Ex.1. Skim over the text and give your comments on its ideas. Domestic Violence Taken Less Seriously in Older Couples

domestic violence – домашнее насилие

criminal justice – уголовное право (справедливость, суд)

terminate – прекращать

entitle – давать право

defense – защита, оборона

overall – в целом

preventive medicine – профилактическая медицина

intimate partner abuse – жестокое обращение с близким партнером

ageist – ущемляющий права пожилых

urge – убеждать, советовать, настаивать

to be aware – осознавать, понимать

bruises – синяки

attributable – приписываемый

clumsy – неловкий, неуклюжий

Do social workers, police, and others take domestic violence among older people less seriously than they do among younger couples? A recent survey, published in the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, suggests that they might.

A sample of 242 college students in social work and criminal justice examined three similar scenarios for domestic abuse between couples. In one, the pair was 75 years old. In another they were 30. In the third, the students were asked to imagine themselves as the abused partner at age 75.

One of the findings was that only 26% of those who imagined themselves as the abused 75-year old partner agreed that they would know when to terminate the relationship. By contrast, 44% said that the 30-year-old person who was being abused should know when to leave.

They also said that 30-year-old couples were more likely to engage in conflict and violence than 75-year-old couples. More respondents believed that the 30-year-old person being abused was entitled to physical defense compared with the same scenario with the couples portrayed at 75 year olds.

“Overall the older characters in the first scenario were perceived either to possess fewer options or to be less entitled to a situation change,” says Robin Jacobs, PhD, a professor in the department of preventive medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

“Domestic violence and intimate partner abuse among older couples is frequently unrecognized,” observes Jacobs. “In cases where the suspected abuse of an older person is perpetrated by a spouse or intimate partner, it is rarely labeled as domestic violence.”

“It is an ageist myth for students and professionals to continue to believe that all intimate relationships among older persons are harmonious, respective, loving, and supportive,” she adds.

The study authors urge educators to be aware of perception myths about older people among those in training to become social workers and other human services professionals.

“Raising awareness may help students to identify the possibility of intimate partner abuse when the bruises on the 70-year-old face of Aunt Rose are not attributable to being clumsy but are attributable to 72-year-old Uncle Frank,” the researchers wrote.