Midlife Career Reflection

The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing has certified Robert Fettgather as a Stress Management Trainer, and Medical Hypnosis Seminars of the Los Gatos Institute has certified him in Clinical Hypnotherapy.  At Santa Clara University, Graduate Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, Robert Fettgather's studies included Health Education and Behavioral Medicine. He has completed Hospice Training with Hospice of the Valley.

Job satisfaction peaks in middle age; however, work takes on a less important role in an adult’s overall sense of well-being during these years. Most middle-aged adults continue to be highly productive in their careers. What makes work satisfying? Apart from a paycheck, there are intangible values.

But the job world for some  middle aged adults, and many young adults sinks to stagnating lows embodied in cultural euphemisms like TGIF, or the grind of a Monday, or the relief coming if only we can get past Wednesday, hump day. Some students feel the same way. 

Career Stagnation is real of course. This detailed, worthwhile  and somewhat technical articleLinks to an external site. (link to article) analyzes underlying issues and potential solutions. Many who take this course are preparing for a career and my wish for you all is that it is a satisfying one. 

Some of you enrolled in the class are in the process of changing careers.  Anxiety and depression sometimes accompany both involuntary and voluntary midlife career changes. Voluntary career changers leave one career to pursue another for a variety of internal reasons, such as finding a new job that is more fulfilling. Involuntary career changers are people who are in transition because of external reasons: Their skills have become obsolete, their jobs have been eliminated through organizational restructuring, or they have been laid off because of shifting economic conditions. They experience heightened levels of anxiety and depression and higher risk of physical illness in the months after the job loss. Re-employment seems to restore health, emotional stability, and a sense of well-being quite rapidly.

The notion of retirement is relatively new and tends to be exclusive to industrialized cultures. Preparation for retirement includes financial literacy and  planning, as well as a decline in the number of hours a middle-aged adult works each week. Meaningful activity seems to aid the retirement process. Spending most of their time sitting around with minimal activity would not be a typical approach of Boomer retirees!

Reflection Point: Speculate as to the retirement possibilities and plans of members of the Generation X cohort and the Millennial  cohort. How are they similar to and different from the Baby Boomers?

Abnormal Psychology Concepts: Then and Now

 Robert Fettgather, PhD, has served as an associate faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara, California, since 1983. When he is not leading courses in general, developmental, and abnormal psychology, among other subjects, Robert Fettgather enjoys hiking and boating.

Abnormal psychology is a distinct branch of psychology focused on atypical behavioral patterns and uncommon emotions and thoughts that may qualify as mental disorders. 

In modern times, aspects of this psychological discipline can be traced back to Karl Jaspers, who published the book General Psychopathology in 1913. It was an instrumental title in reframing interpretations of individual mental experiences, particularly those that might be considered unusual or out of the ordinary. Over the course of more than a century, the discipline has evolved to emphasize in-depth, medical-based studies of various mental illnesses, which may be caused by factors as diverse as genetics and social influence.

Psychopathology is the focus on the underlying disease processes or pathology, causing the abnormal behavior. Abnormal psychologists may study several clinical and personality disorders. One of the most common behavioral disorders in the United States is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD refers to impulsive actions and the inability to focus on a single topic or activity. It is usually diagnosed and treated in childhood, with a prevalence rate of approximately 9.4 percent. However, a 2019 study found that ADHD prevalence in adults had nearly reached 1 percent, doubling over a decade. It is not clear whether the trend represents sound medicine or diagnostic inflation. Personality disorders include obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), narcissistic personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Interestingly, OCPD is different than a similarly named disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). OCPD is characterized by a preoccupation with perfectionism and a staunch dedication to rules and standards. Behaviors associated with OCD include repeated obsessions and compulsions. Treatment options for OCD generally involve exposure and response prevention, cognitive behavioral therapy, and a regimen of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Historically, abnormal psychology was preceded by various religious traditions including shamanism that involved rituals such as incantations and exorcisms. Trephining, involving drilling a hole directly into the skull, was utilized as an attempt to promote healing by the early Greeks and the Chinese. Primitive and dangerous ancient methods can overshadow reasonable contributions from Tradiotional Chinese Medicine, including some herbal interventions.

The Structure of Language

Robert Fettgather is an associate faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara, California, where he has taught courses in developmental psychology, general psychology, abnormal psychology, psychiatric interviewing, and developmental disabilities. Robert Fettgather has published numerous articles in the fields of education and psychology. 

To understand the structure of language, there is some basic terminology.  Here you go: Semantics is the rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences. Next sounds. Phonemes represent the most basic units of sounds used in language, while morphemes combine those bits of sound into the smallest units that have meaning.  Next, more rules. Grammar includes all the rules for combining morphemes into words, and syntax is the rules for combining words into sentences. Lastly niceties. Pragmatics deals with the practical aspects of communicating with others or the social etiquette of language.

Many scientists argue that what truly sets us apart from other species is our language. Behaviorist B.F. Skinner wrote a classic work on language acquisition, Verbal Behavior, and most people, like Skinner, believe we learn language through imitation and reinforcement. But it's actually far more complex. How do you explain that a child says foots instead of feet or "I swimmed"? Here, children are applying (incorrectly) language and grammar rules they have never been taught for singular/plural and past tense. But how? 

According to famed psycholinguist Noam Chomsky, humans possess an innate ability to comprehend and produce language through a mechanism he called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). The LAD has an "innate facility" for acquiring language, including grammar.

The Sapir- Whorf hypothesis states that the structure of a language very much influences (some say determines) the modalities of thought and behavior of the culture in which it is spoken.  For example, Alaska Natives have many terms that refer to “snow,” which may cause them to perceive and think about snow differently than English speakers-- especially those from low snow environments.

An opposing theory to Sapir-Whorf, known as cognitive universalism, submits the proposition that ways of thinking (cognition) are shared among all groups of people and that those thought patterns influence the development of language.

Animals other than humans demonstrate a diverse ability to communicate, but it is unclear whether or not they have the capability for language, as demonstrated by the ability to use abstract symbols to communicate. Kanzi, a bonobo chimpanzee, has demonstrated an ability to understand about 150 spoken English words

Appreciating Other Points of View

Robert Fettgather has served as Special Consultant in psychometrics to the Departments of Education and Developmental Disabilities for the State of California. Robert Fettgather holds a specialist credential in learning handicapped and community college credentials in both learning and developmental disabilities.

In addition to cultural and individual differences, perceptions can be influenced by perceptual sets or expectancies. One example of perceptual expectancy is top-down processing. This happens when an individual utilizes pre-existing knowledge to place certain features into an organized whole. If there is no expectancy to help organize information, a person might use bottom-up processing to build a complete perception by making sense of the smaller features piece by piece. With a friend, try this experiment from Martin Bolt: print on a piece of paper the words below. Then read aloud these three words as your friend looks at the words and reads along with you:

FOLK CROAK SOAK

Next, immediately ask, what do you call the white of an egg? That expectation tricks the friend into a wrong answer, yolk!

Bottom-up processing starts with information and energy from the environment. Top-down processing refers to using past experience, knowledge, and expectations for how we perceive things (as in the example above). Remember that perception is a representation of our environment,  not a replication-- therefore, everyone’s perceptions may be different, and they may not be necessarily accurate. Once realized, this understanding allows for a deeper appreciation of different points of view!