Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

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Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle
Adulthood

• Chapter 15
• Robert S. Feldman

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Age Changes

• What stays the same as we age?
• What changes with age?

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Changes with age Aging

• Layers of Aging
• Socioeconomic
• Cognitive
• Spiritual
• Biological functions

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How is aging like or NOT like other social
categories?

• What are the isms?
• Does ageism exist?

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Physical Transitions in Middle Adulthood

• Gradual psychological and emotional changes in
  bodys capabilities
• Depends in part on self-concept and lifestyle

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Height, Weight, and Strength Benchmarks of Change

• After age 55, bones become less dense
• Ultimately women lose 2 inches and men lose 1
  inch in height
• Women are more prone to declining height due to
  __________________
• Both men and women continue to gain weight in
  middle adulthood

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There was an old lady.

• Society applies a double standard to men and
  women in terms of appearance
• Older _____________ tend to be viewed in
  unflattering terms
• Aging __________ more frequently perceived as
  displaying a maturity that enhances status

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Sights and Sounds of Middle Age

• Starting at age 40, visual acuity declines
• Changing eye's lenses in shape and elasticity
  results in loss of near vision, called
  ______________
• Declining depth perception and night vision
• GLAUCOMA

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Do you hear what I hear?

• ___________________
• About 12 percent of people between 45 and 65
  suffer from this
• Men more prone to hearing loss
• Sound localization is diminished

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Reaction time Not-so-slowing Down

• Decreases slightly in middle adulthood
• Improves or compensated for by being more careful
  and practicing the skill
• Exercise can slow this loss

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Use It or Lose It
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Sexuality During Middle Age

• Frequency of sexual intercourse decreases with
  age
• Sexual activities remain a vital part of most
  middle-aged adults lives
• Adults have more freedom
• Women no longer need to practice birth control

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Sexual Intercourse

• Men typically need more time to get an erection
• Volume of fluid in ejaculation declines
• Production of testosterone also declines
• In women, walls of the vagina become less elastic
  and thinner
• Vagina shrinks, potentially making intercourse
  painful

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Female Climacteric

• Starting about age 45, transition from being able
  to bear children to being unable to do so
• Lasting about 15 to 20 years
• MENOPAUSE

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Menopause

• Estrogen replacement therapy (ERT)
• Women's expectations about menopause relate to
  their experience of menopause
• Variations by race and culture

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From Research to Practice

• The Dilemma of Hormone Therapy
• Estrogen and progesterone administered to
  alleviate menopausal symptoms

• CON
• Increases risk of breast cancer and blood clots
• Higher risk for pulmonary embolism and heart
  disease

• PRO
• Changes ratio of good cholesterol to bad
  cholesterol
• Decreases thinning of bones
• Associated with reduced risks of stroke and colon
  cancer
• Cognitive advantages
• Enhances sex drive

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The Psychological Consequences of Menopause

• Early research
• Menopause was linked directly to depression,
  anxiety, crying spells, lack of concentration,
  and irritability
• Current research
• Normal part of aging that does not, by itself,
  produce psychological symptoms
• Effects influenced by personal and cultural
  expectations of menopause

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Male Climacteric

• Male changes during middle age
• Period of physical and psychological change
  relating to male reproductive system that occurs
  during late middle age.
• Enlargement of the prostate gland
• Problems with urination, including difficulty
  starting to urinate and frequent need to urinate
  during night
• Men still produce sperm and can father children
  through middle age

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Health and Wellness

• American College of Sports Medicine and the
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity
  physical activity daily
• Reduces risk of heart disease, osteoporosis,
  weight gain, and hypertension
• Provides psychological benefits of sense of
  control and well-being

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Did you know?

• Vast majority of people in middle age
• Face ___ chronic health difficulties
• Fewer accidents and infections

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Chronic Diseases in Middle Adulthood

• Arthritis typically begins after age ___
• Diabetes is most likely to occur in people
  between the ages of ___ and ___
• Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of the
  most frequent chronic disorders found in middle
  age

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Developmental Diversity Individual Variation in
Health

• Ethnic differences
• African Americans death rate is twice rate for
  Caucasians
• Lower familys income?higher likelihood of
  disabling illness, more dangerous occupations,
  inferior health coverage

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Gender Differences

• During middle age, women experience more non-life
  threatening illnesses than men but men experience
  more serious illnesses
• Women smoke less drink less alcohol have less
  dangerous jobs
• Medical research has typically studied diseases
  of men with all male samples the medical
  community is only now beginning to study women's
  health issues

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What are the consequences of stress in middle
adulthood?
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Stress in Middle Adulthood

• Stress continues to have a significant impact on
  health in middle age
• According to psychoneuroimmunologists, who study
  the relationship between the brain, the immune
  system, and psychological factors, stress
  produces three main consequences
• Leads to unhealthy behaviors

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Coronary Heart Disease

• More men die in middle age of diseases of the
  heart and circulatory system than any other
  cause.
• Both genetic and experiential characteristics are
  involved
• Heart disease runs in families
• Men are more likely to suffer than women, and
  risks increase with age

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TYPE A BEHAVIOR PATTERN

• Characterized by
• _______________
• __________________
• _________________
• _________________
• Evidence is only correlational so cannot say Type
  A behavior causes heart disease

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TYPE B BEHAVIOR PATTERN

• Characterized by
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• Evidence that Type B people have less than half
  the risk of coronary disease that Type A people
  have

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The Threat of Cancer

• Cancer is associated with genetic and
  environmental risks
• Poor nutrition, smoking, alcohol use, exposure to
  sunlight, exposure to radiation, and particular
  occupational hazards
• __________________________is related to higher
  survival rate

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Cancer Treatment

• Takes a variety of forms
• Radiation therapy involves the use of radiation
  to destroy a tumor
• Chemotherapy involves the controlled ingestion of
  toxic substances meant to poison the tumor
• Surgery may be used to remove the tumor
• Early diagnosis is crucial

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Breast Cancer

• Mammography, a weak X-ray, is used to detect
  breast cancer
• Death rate lower for those who had a "fighting
  spirit" or those who denied they had the disease
• A positive psychological outlook may boost the
  body's immune system

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Psychological Factors Relating to Cancer Mind
Over Tumor?

• Power of a fighting spirit

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Cognitive Development

• Cross-sectional studies clearly showed that older
  subjects scored less well than younger subjects
  on traditional IQ tests
• Intelligence peaks at 18, stays steady until
  mid-20s, and declines till end of life
• Longitudinal studies, revealed different
  developmental patterns in intelligence
• Stable and even increasing IQ scores until
  mid-30s and some to mid-50s, then declined

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Difficulties in Answering the Question

• Older research
• Cross sectional studies
• Cohort effect
• Newer research
• Longitudinal studies
• Practice effect and participant attrition

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Testing Effects

• Practice effect
• Attrition
• Physical performance portion
• Timed
• Reaction time slows with age
• Results may be due to physical changes not
  cognitive changes

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Kinds of Intelligence

• ______ INTELLIGENCE is the ability to deal with
  new problems and situations
• ________ INTELLIGENCE is the store of
  information, skills, and strategies that people
  have acquired through education and prior
  experiences, and through their previous use of
  fluid intelligence

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Continuing Competence versus Growing Decline

• Salthouse suggests four reasons why this
  discrepancy exists
• Typical measures of cognitive skills tap a
  different type of cognition than what is required
  to be successful in particular occupations
• Measures of practical intelligence rather than
  traditional IQ tests to assess intelligence may
  yield little discrepancy
• People can be quite successful professionally and
  still be on the decline in certain kinds of
  cognitive abilities
• Older people may be successful because they have
  developed specific kinds of expertise and
  particular competencies

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Highly Successful Middle Age People

• Older, successful people may have developed
  expertise in their particular occupational area.

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The Development of Expertise Separating Experts
from Novices

• EXPERTISE, the acquisition of skill or knowledge
  in a particular area, develops as people devote
  attention and practice
• Expert rely on experience and intuition,
  process information automatically, use different
  neural pathways to solve problems
• Novice strictly follow formal rules and
  procedures, use better strategies and better
  problem-solving

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Memory You Must Remember This

• According to research on memory changes in
  adulthood
• Most people show only minimal losses
• Many exhibit no memory loss in middle adulthood
• Memory is viewed in terms of three sequential
  components
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory holds information for 15 to 25
  seconds
• Long-term memory

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Schemas in Middle Adulthood

• Help people represent the way the world is
  organized
• Aid in categorization and interpretation of new
  information
• Convey cultural information

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Becoming an Informed Consumer of Development

• Effective Strategies for Remembering
• Mnemonics
• Get organized
• Pay attention
• Use encoding specificity phenomenon
• Visualize
• Rehearse

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