Analysis of Midlife Changes: Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial

This essay critically discusses and analyzes the key physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that occur during midlife, placing these changes within a life course perspective. The introduction defines midlife as the period from forty to sixty-five, highlighting the challenges related to aging and m...Read More

Physical, Cognitive And
Psychosocial Changes Which
Occur During Midlife

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Main body..............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9

Critically discuss and analyse the key physical, cognitive and psychosocial changes which
occur during midlife, placing this within a life course.
Introduction
Midlife, spanning from forty to sixty five, is basically the period when a person goes through
physical, cognitive and psychosocialchanges. It could be stressful period for an individual as
they have to struggle with mortality, ageing and sticking to a sense of purpose. Physical,
cognitive and psychosocial changes are the most common aspects of mid-life of an individual
where they have to deal with number of problems (Krychman, 2017). The overall system of
the body could slow down and most of the individuals indulge into substance abuse or may
cause stress or depression. During this period most adults take new job responsibilities and
feel a requirement to reassess their professional life and make changes when they feel that
there is still some time left. In this particular study, all sorts of changes including physical,
cognitive and psychological changes that occur within an individual whole life course,
specifically in midlife is going to be covered.
Main body
As per views given by Paine and et.al. (2019), physical changes are the changes which are
clearly visible and could be noticed by individuals. It goes throughout the life course of an
individual. As a result of passing of time, a middle aged person goes through a number of
physical changes. However, age related changes can be based on number of factors such as
cellular or molecular changes, biological factors and oxidative damage which all comes in the
category of primary aging. The aging that comes due to regulatory factors like leading an
unhealthy lifestyle due to lack of physical activities and poor diet is referred to as secondary
aging. Going out of the shape is not actually a part of ageing, it is most probably due to the
reason that middle aged person has experienced a lot of stress and has become less physically
active. Some of the activities of the individuals like smoking, taking alcohol, low quality of
diet, stress, anxiety along with the occurrence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, blood
pressure, arthritis negatively affects the overall health of the individuals. Moreover, the
physical changes which are most visible in a middle aged adult can be due to internal
functioning of their body. Such as colour of Hair which is mostly due to the pigment called
melanin developed by hair follicles. Due to ageing, the follicles of hair generate less amount
of melanin content and thus cause the hair to become grey. Colour of hair generally starts to

become light from the temple but eventually it causes he whole hair to become white. Skin of
the middle aged people continues to dry and become prone to cause wrinkles mainly covering
the sensitive area of face. Creases and wrinkles are mostly the common part of aging. Once
an individual start to age, the skin dries out and loses the layer of the fat which makes the
face dull and drooping. Genetics play a major role in causing of wrinkles, however exposure
to sun and frequent smoking causes wrinkles to develop sooner even before the age. Blotchy
skin and dark spots also appear as the individual grows up.
Blood vessels also become apparent due to constant drying of skin. Sarcopenia which is
referred to loss of strength and muscle mass occurs in the mid-life of an individual. It is one
of the most significant factor in the functional as well as frailty impairment which mostly
occurs in middle aged people (Rentz and et.al., 2017). Decline of hormones like testosterones
and low level of physical activity has been cause due to this particular factor. This loss of
muscle mass usually occurs at the age of 40. It causes decrease of quality of life, increase in
cost of health care and even death of middle aged adults. Changes which are related to age
like change in muscles, weakening of diaphragm, can also results and reducing of lungs
expansion and its capacity of supplying oxygen to the body. Such changes cause lower level
of oxygen in the blood streams and can enhance the level of carbon dioxide which is very
harmful for an individual to survive normally. Due to low level of lung expansion,
individuals can experience feeling fatigue most of the time and shortness of breath.
In the midlife of an individual, such changes are mostly minimal if the individual is a non-
smoker and is physically active. However, in the individuals who are suffering some kind of
chronic diseases such as frequent asthma, pneumonia and lung related medical conditions and
those who are smokers, the effect could be more dangerous (Rodgers and et.al., 2016). These
all physical changes appear when an individual reach at an age of 40-65 years and the effects
could be increase throughout the life course and then eventually lead to declining. Individuals
during midlife goes through stress and some sort of pressure due to burden of responsibility.
Stress may result in occurrence of number of diseases along with a dynamic change in weight
of individuals. As stress may cause a dis-balance of hormone in overall system of body which
basically results in weight gain. Occurrence of some specific conditions like presbyopia and
presbycusis are also common changes that occur during midlife of an individual. Presbyopia
is a condition where individual experience difficulties in reading whereas, presbycusis is a
condition where individual face difficulties in listening to high pitched sounds. Middle aged
individuals compensate such situations by wearing glasses, taking care of themselves while

engage in motor tasks and driving more carefully. Individuals also goes through some bio-
physiological changes during the course of midlife. Menopause which is ceasing of
menstruation in women and male climacteric which is male menopause in men are some
specific bio physiological changes which is proved to be a turning point in life of midlife
individuals. Menopause is a common thing which happen with both men and women at a
certain age of midlife. However, the perceptions regarding menopause varies according to
different cultures. Differences in cultures could shape how individuals experience this phase
of their life. In a youth idolizing western culture, menopause is basically seen as ending of
mensuration cycle. In many other cultures it is a time for new respect as well as freedom for
women. Mayan women, experiencing some of the uncomfortable symptoms and looked
forward for menopause and believes that it provide them a sense of freedom and respect. In
certain regions of the country women who were kept private before menopause are now
allowed to come forward and sit with men and could drink home brew. Men and women at
the age of midlife feel themselves less attractive and appealing and because of such
overthinking they gain some extra pounds around their waist, get bald and feel less energetic
than they use to in their 20's. As society usually put more emphasis on physical appearance
and youthfulness middle aged women and men often losses their self esteem. Development of
some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis is often faced by individuals at 50's.
Metabolism also slows down at this age.
During middle adulthood, two major kind of intelligence has been observed, namely, fluid
and crystallized. The crystallized sort of intelligence is associated with the gathered
acquaintance and experiences. Such type of intelligence is improved with the time and the
amount of knowledge and skills which is gather by an individual during their life course.
Whereas, fluid intelligence is much more associated with basic and normal cognitive
processing qualities. Though, it has been observed through such intelligence, is that the
power of solving issues and making decisions with the assistance of cognitive processing
reduces in middle and later adulthood. There are number of changes in the individual’s
cognitive ability in the mid-life. It also leads in loss of memory and concentration power. It
also results in minimizing of processing of information in individuals. Comparing to younger
and early age adults, the individuals who are at the age of mid adulthood are less likely to
concentrate properly and there is a constant loss memory (Samuels and et.al., 2019). There
are many changes that occur in the thinking power of the individuals, there is a dynamic
change in the information processing and in the ways for seeing the world. There are number

of elements of information processing process but the two most common aspects which has
been facing by middle aged adults are memory and attention. Attention makes the individual
to over loo the extra information and to just focus on what is most important. Middle
adulthood is mostly presents a stage of stability, where hardly any changes of development
can be observed. During midlife of an individual, there is a loss of self confidence and a
feeling of anxiety which is often face by men and women. It is a normal phase which comes
in the life of individuals in mid life when they transform from young people to older adults.
At this time individuals, usually evaluate their achievements , dreams and goals against what
they have pray for in their past life and what stage they are currently facing in their life. Men
and women experience mid life crisis in a different manner from each other. Men tends to
prove their success to others whereas women try to work on their physical appearance and
make plans regarding what they can do when their responsibility of parenting will be end.
The ability of performing logical thinking and high cognitive skills alters withinj the life
course. However, middle aged adults are generally observed to remember semantic memories
due to the course of experience and practice. There is a change in crystallized and fluid
intelligence which are used to determine the patterns of cognitive changes throughout the life
course Crystallized intelligence can be define as ability, skills and knowledge which are over
learned, familiar and well practiced. General knowledge and vocabulary are the examples of
cognitive intelligence. Such practice are totally dependent on the experience level of an
individual, hence this is reason why middle aged adults are able to perform good during tasks
as compared to young individuals. Fluid intelligence can be defined as some activities such as
problem solving and give reasoning about the things which are not properly familiar and are
totally different from what an individual has learned (Thomas and Thurston, 2016). The
ability of thinking drastically reduce during the third decade of the life and keep constant
during the overall period of life. Number of cognitive changes has been noticed in the middle
aged adults as a result of decline of memory and slows of processing speed. Thus, this decline
of process can negatively impact on performances of the individuals.
The mind of a human being is much more dynamic and complex as it seems to observe, such
complexity is been critically analyzed in various stages of life and ranges of experiences an
individual accommodates. There are several variables which affects the individual’s
personality formation as well as development. Such components may be categorized into
internal as well as external factors. So as to monitor and evaluate the actions and behavior of
people the identification of such factors are very essential. Middle adulthood has been

considered as a crucial phase of life in every person. During this stage, an individual has been
gone through various life changing and personality changing scenarios associating with the
external and internal elements. Factors like family, schooling, family background, relation
with society and family, social status are some internal factors which changes the
psychosocial status of a person (Sharp and et.al., 2019). Occupation, relation with co workers,
society or community attitude are few external variables which determines the personality
and behavior of an adult throughout their life time. Psychosocial changes are related with the
alteration in emotion and way adults socialize with other people. For the clearer
understanding of psychosocial shifts in mid adulthood, theoretician have kept more
highlighted the understanding the centres in Social Intellect and Social Expertise. Social
Intellect can be defined in form of Social Intellect which is the ability to observe and
distinguish a person in agreement with mood, nature, intentions and encouragement in order
to play vibrant role in changing the behavior of an individual person and the manner they
communicate or talk with other people (Kessler and Segler, 2017). In mid life a person relates
the age of their adulthood and becomes publicly rational to sympathize and empathize with a
person in the available environment. Social Expertise on the other hand can be explained as
ability in order to communicate acclimatizing responses to various interpersonal requirements
and to take social conduct in such a manner that aids oneself and agreement with norms and
morals of the society. For the analysis of cognitive behavior of individuals during midlife,
cognitive model can be utilized. This theory helps to identify how individuals thoughts and
opinions may impact their lifestyle. Stress in the individuals at midlife may result in
unhealthy behavior and emotions. Thinking ability of individuals at midlife seems to be differ
as compared to adolescents and young adults. Number of individuals at mid life tends to
attain Piaget stage of formal operations, which is categorized by ability to think in a abstract
manner, give reasons logically and often engaged in solving theoretical problems. Middle
aged persons develop and apply post-formal thinking which is categorized by use of
practical common sense in order to tackle with unclear problems. According to the
perspective of Zheng and et.al., (2019), collectively for Educational, Social and Poignant
knowledge recognized various capabilities which give base for social advancement. Self
Consciousness can be defined as the ability of a person to comprehend oneself. Founded on
the base of confidence on oneself and self-consciousness is the true evaluation of own
individuality which evolves during the midlife. Social awareness is the ability to understand
the believes of others, interpretations and responses in each condition. It is efficiency of
believing, insight and intermingling effectively which empower the person. Self supervision

can be defined as the way to handle the emotions and responses in each condition. It is
referred as the capability to enable oneself to achieve the targets in a difficult situation.
Relationship building skills is the way to maintain good and longer relationships with the
people. Keeping the proper communication, collaboration, and synchronization as base and
handling oneself in difficult conditions, relationship building skills are formed. During
midlife, both men and women suffer from empty nest syndrome. They experience a feeling
of grief and loneliness as their children move out of the house. They felt like there is no
further support for them and they have to survive without their children. The symptoms of
empty nest can result in depression and loss of purpose for their parents because of departure
of children from them which eventually leads to adjustments in parents life. Sand-which
generation is also a major aspect which refers to a generation of individuals aged between 40
to 70 years. In this phase, individuals tends to support their aging parents and also care for
their children. Individuals in midlife are also from a sandwich generation who raise their kids
and care fro their parents from a long distance or may be in the same house. It develops a
sense of responsibility in the life of individuals in the mid life. This generation is particularly
refer to middle aged persons.
Majority of the adults around the globe recognize themselves in accordance of
maintained relations with family, specifically with wife/husband, kids, and mother and father.
A personal relation is a bond between people that can vary from short to long-term time
period. Relationships also transform and enhance, the relation may either grow or disperse
over a period. The relationship between two individuals can be dependent on different aspects
– love, harmony, corporate, or any other reason which demands the two individuals to
interact. Personal relations are vigorous practices that alter constantly till the time this
interpersonal relationship exists. Like living beings, relations have an inception, a life
expectancy and expiration (Ellis and et.al., 2019). In some circumstances people do not like
the company of each other through which their relationship tends to deteriorate and finally
people choose to separate their ways, but in most of the cases the relationship be likely to
enhance and develop progressively as individuals talk to each other and get the opportunity to
know each other during a span of time and gradually share a strong emotional connect. Erik
Erikson's stages of development theory is related to psycho social focuses on various
relationships so as to build high virtues in our life course. Various stages make up the theory
which assist in developing hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, wisdom in an

individual and such virtues are changes according to the situations and experiences of a
person in our life course.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that the cognitive, physical and psycho-social
changes are generally wide spread aspects of mid-life of a human being where they face
numerous challenges and accumulate experiences which shapes the mental, social and
physical health condition of a person. I have observed that Physical changes are the changes
which are clearly recognizable and could be observed by other individuals. It naturally goes
all the way through the existence course of all people. Further study have concluded that the
performance of an individual cognitively deals with the changing or upgrading intelligence
and knowledge of a person. I have highlighted the value of life course and evidenced that the
psychosocial changes according to the report comprise of internal and external factors which
affect the further life of a person and shape the behaviour of people in midlife.

References
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