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9 - Three Ways that Aging Affects Women Differently from Men

Menopause, Changes in Physical Appearance, and Caregiving

from Section 2 - Developmental Perspectives of the International Psychology of Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

By
Amber Xuqian Chen ,
Vivian Hiu-Ling Tsang ,
Tze Kiu Wong ,
Helene H. Fung  and
Liat Ayalon
Edited by
Fanny M. Cheung  and
Diane F. Halpern
Fanny M. Cheung
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Diane F. Halpern
Affiliation:
Claremont McKenna College, California
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Summary

From midlife to old age, women are influenced differently by developmental transitions compared with men. These transitions range from menopause to subjective experiences such as appearance-related changes and caregiving responsibilities. More importantly, cultural and personal factors may impact how people understand these transitions. As such, cultural differences may be reflected in the expression, subjective experiences, and consequences of these developmental transitions. Concerning menopause, cultures influence the expression of menopausal symptoms and their psychological consequences. Moreover, cultural factors also impact women’s perceptions of appearance-related changes, and their appraisals of the caregiving experiences. Future developmental studies on women might focus on the moderating role of culture in the ways women interpret and cope with developmental changes in the second half of life.

Keywords

Menopausephysical attractivenesscaregivingdouble standard of ageingageingattitude on ageingcultural differencesmenopausal symptoms
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the International Psychology of Women , pp. 124 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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Amber Xuqian Chen is a research assistant at Motivation and Emotion Laboratory, the Department of Psychology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and her master’s degree in Psychology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on how technology influences social interdependence and emotional interaction across the life span. Chen grew up in mainland China and is now living in Hong Kong. She was an exchange student at University of California, Berkeley. She is deeply intrigued by how individuals change and adapt across contexts and time.

Vivian Hiu Ling Tsang is currently a PhD student at the Department of Psychology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her BSSc from the Hong Kong Baptist University and an MPhil from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research has focused on interpersonal relationship, social rejection, loneliness, and well-being across adulthood. Tsang was born and grew up in Hong Kong. She worked as an intern at Heartland Human Care Services (International Children’s Center–Youth Residential Services) in Chicago for two months in 2013 during her bachelor’s degree. Later she worked as a research assistant for two years at the Education University of Hong Kong before starting her doctoral studies.

Tze Kiu Wong received her BSSc from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is currently an MPhil student in Psychology there. Her research focuses on older adults’ engagement. She was born and raised in Hong Kong. Wong considers herself a feminist, although now it is more precise to say that she supports equality of all genders.

Helene H. Fung is the Chairperson and a Professor at the Department of Psychology, and the Executive Director of the Centre for Positive Social Science, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Fung examines social motivation and cognition across adulthood. She won the 1998 Margaret Clark Paper Award from the Association of Anthropology and Gerontology, and the 1999 Behavioral and Social Science Pre-dissertation Research Award and the 2010 Margret and Paul Baltes award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology from the Gerontological Society of America. She is an associate editor for the Australian Journal of Psychology. Fung grew up in Hong Kong. She emigrated to Canada in the early 1990s and is now a Canadian citizen residing in Hong Kong. She attended college (University of Washington, Seattle) and graduate school (Stanford University) in the USA. She has been visiting Germany every summer since 2003 and was a Visiting Professor at Ewha Woman’s University in South Korea for two months in 2018. She worked as a volunteer at a nursing home for Chinese older adults in Seattle during her college years. She can understand many Chinese dialects. This has greatly enriched her career as a researcher on aging, allowing her to communicate with Chinese older adults with diverse background.

Liat Ayalon is a Professor at Bar Ilan University, School of Social Work. Her main area of focus for the past few years has been ageism - the (often) negative construction of old age. She is the chair (with Prof. Tesch-Römer) of a COST Action on Ageism from a multinational, interdisciplinary perspective (COST IS1402). She is also the coordinator of a new Marie Curie Innovative Training Network on Ageism (EuroAgeism). Ayalon was born and raised in Israel. She lived in the United States for seven years. She attended graduate school at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and internship and postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Although her doctoral degree is in Clinical Psychology, her internship was in a department of geriatrics. She specializes in the psychosocial aspects of aging.

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