Think about the people you know who are in middle adulthood. This may be your parents, your friends' parents, aunts and uncles, instructors, and co-workers. What do you know of their lives? How do they exhibit the characteristics discussed in your textbook related to middle age? Is there consistency among these people, or do they represent a wide range of individual differences? If you observe differences among them, what do you think accounts for the differences? Be sure to consider both current and past influences on behavior and mental functioning. Has thinking about these individuals in terms of the information in the text changed your perceptions of middle adulthood? Why or why not, and in what ways