EXAM 4 LECTURE NOTES

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EXAM 4 LECTURE NOTES

• CHAPTERS 13, 14, 15, 16,17

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• Chapter 13 Physical and cognitive development in
  middle adulthood
• (344-361)

3
1. Defining middle adulthood (346)

• Approximately 40 to 60-65 years of age.
• Declining physical skills and expanding
  responsibilities

4

• Balancing work and relationship responsibilities
• With physical and psychological changes
  associated with aging

5
2. Middle adulthood likely includes

• Death of parents
• Last child leaving home
• Becoming grandparent

6

• Preparing for retirement
• Actual retirement

7

• Physical development
• Skin begins to wrinkle and sag
• Loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues

8

• Small localized areas of pigmentation result in
  aging spots
• Thinning and graying hair
• Fingernails and toenails thicker and more brittle

9
3. Height and weight (347)

• Begin to lose height
• Men average ½ inch, from 30-50 ¾ inch from
  50-70
• Women up to 2 inches from 20-75

10

• Many people gain weight
• Average 20 body fat during midlife
• Being overweight or obese critical health problem
  in midlife

11

• Increases likelihood for developing hypertension,
  diabetes, digestive disorders

12
4. Strength, joints, bones (348)

• Sarcopenia age-related loss of muscle mass and
  strength
• Exercise reduces rate of developing sarcopenia

13

• Cartilage, tendons and ligaments become less
  efficient
• Decline in bone density begins mid-late thirties
  and accelerates in 50s

14
5. Vision and hearing

• Accommodation of eye declines most between 40-59
• Difficulty focusing on near objects

15

• Hearing begins decline about age 40
• First lose sensitivity to high pitch sounds

16
6. Cardiovascular system

• High blood pressure and high cholesterol
  noticeable
• Fatty deposits and scar tissue develop on walls
  of blood vessels
• Cholesterol collects on wall of blood vessels
• Result in reduce blood flow to brain and heart

17

• Exercise and healthy eating including fruits,
  vegetables and grains delay cardiovascular
  problems

18
7. Lungs (349)

• About age 55, proteins in lung tissue become less
  elastic
• Gradual stiffening of connective tissue in chest
  wall combines
• result in decrease in lung capacity to bring
  oxygen to veins
• Smokers have especially low lung capacity

19
8. Sleep

• Total hours of sleep remains stable
• Beginning in 40s, increasing frequency of
  wakeful periods
• Less frequent stage 4 (very deep) sleep

20
9. Health and disease

• Decrease frequency of accidents, colds, allergies
  for some
• Stress increasingly a factor in disease,
  especially in immune system and cardiovascular
  system

21

• Mortality rates (350)
• Chronic diseases more likely cause of death than
  infectious diseases
• Most likely a single, identifiable condition
• Heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular disease

22
10. Sexuality

• Menopause usually late 40s or early 50s in
  women
• Menstrual flow stops
• Timing and side effects vary widely
• Side effects result from decline in estrogen
• Include hot flashes, nausea, fatigue and rapid
  heartbeat

23

• (351)
• Side effects experiences vary widely, especially
  across different cultural and ethnic groups
• May not be a negative experience for most women
• Loss of fertility is important marker

24

• Hormone replacement therapy controversial
• Consists of forms of estrogen and progestin
• Some HRT recipients developed increased risk of
  stroke and dementia
• HRT study found lower risk of hip fractures and
  no increase in risk for heart attack or breast
  cancer

25

• Hormonal changes in middle-aged men
• Modest decline in sexual hormone level and
  activity
• May be more psychological than physical
• (352)
• Gradually reduced sex drive
• Erections less full and less frequent

26

• Erectile dysfunction may be psychological and/or
  physical
• Smoking, diabetes, hypertension and elevated
  cholesterol contribute to erectile problems

27
11. Sexual attitudes and behavior

• Activity less frequent compared to early
  adulthood
• Increasing career interests, family matters,
  lower energy levels, changing activity routines
  contribute

28
12. Fluid and crystallized intelligence

• (353)
• Fluid ability to reason abstractly declines in
  midlife
• Crystallized accumulated information and verbal
  skills increase in midlife
• Data from cross-sectional study (Horn and
  Donaldson, 1980)

29

• Differences may have been because of cohort
  effects
• Whether data collected in cross-sectional or
  longitudinal study affects results on
  crystallized and fluid intelligence

30
13. Seattle Longitudinal study beginning in 1956

• (354)
• Schaie,1996 Willis Schaie, 2005)
• Tested vocabulary, verbal memory, spatial
  orientation, inductive reasoning, perceptual
  speed, numerical ability
• Highest level functioning in midlife for first 4
  areas tested

31

• Two abilities showed decline in midlife
  numerical ability and perceptual speed
• Schaies results indicate cognitive funtioning
  peaks in midlife, not early adulthood

32
14. Information processing

• Speed of information processing
• Declines beginning in early adulthood and
  continues in midlife
• Commonly measured using reaction-time task
• Press a button when a light appears

33
15. Memory

• (355)
• Denise Park (2001) proposed more time required to
  learn new information beginning in midlife
• Slowdown may be linked to changes in working
  memory (short-term memory)

34

• Working memory allows manipulating and assembling
  information
• especially -?
• making decisions,
• solving problems,
• understanding written and spoken language

35

• Memory decline most likely if not use strategies
  such as organization and imagery
• Can improve memory in midlife if organize (phone)
  numbers in different categories or imagine the
  numbers representing different objects in a
  familiar location

36
16. Expertise

• Most evident in midlife, possibly because of time
  needed to develop
• Involves highly organized knowledge and
  understanding of a particular domain

37

• Experts more likely to --?
• rely on accumulated experience to solve problems
• Process information automatically
• Analyze information efficiently
• Devise better strategies
• Use shortcuts to solve problems
• Be creative and flexible in solving problems

38
17. Careers, work and leisure

• Work in midlife
• Role of work usually central in midlife
• Middle-aged adults also may have multiple
  financial responsibilities,
• Often reach peak in position and earnings

39

• Career paths are diverse
• Some have stable careers
• Others move in and out of work force
• Age discrimination common in midlife
• Midlife often a time of evaluation, assessment
  and reflection about employment

40

• Midlife employment issues
• Recognize limitations in career progress
• Decide whether to change jobs or career fields
• Decide whether to change balance in work and
  family responsibilities
• Plan for retirement

41
18. Career challenges and changes

• Challenges include -?
• Globalization of work
• Rapid technological developments
• Organizational downsizing
• Early retirement
• Health care

42

• Globalization has resulted in a workforce of
  employees with different ethnic and cultural
  backgrounds
• Increased computer technology means increased
  computer literacy necessary for effective
  competition in the workforce

43

• Increased frequency of restructuring, downsizing
  and outsourcing -?
• Result increased incentive to retire early

44

• Midlife career changes vary in motivation
• Some self-related
• desire for change in type or amount of
  responsibility
• adjustment of idealistic hopes to realistic
  possibilities
• Timing of reaching occupational goals

45
19. Leisure-? (357)

• Pleasant activities after work when free to
  pursue interests of own choosing
• Important during midlife
• May have increased free time and money
• Expanded leisure opportunities
• Important in preparing for retirement

46
20. Religion and meaning in life

• Religion, spirituality and adult life
• Important to many adults across most cultures and
  ethnic groups
• wide diversity of influence for individuals

47

• Religion, spirituality and health
• For mainstream, either no link or positive effect
• Why a connection with health?
• Lifestyle issues -?
• Religious individuals have lower level drug use

48

• Religious/spiritual social networks -?
• People with strong social support networks tend
  to have fewer health problems
• Coping with stress -?
• Religion and spirituality offer source of comfort
  and support

49
21. Life meaning

• Viktor Frankl (Mans Search for Meaning, 1984)
• Emphasized individual uniqueness and life
  finiteness
• Certainty of death adds meaning to life
• -?

50

• (359)
• 3 distinct human qualities
• Spirituality, freedom and responsibility
• Spirituality human uniqueness of spirit,
  philosophy and mind
• Recommends questioning existence, life goals, and
  life meaning

51

• During midlife
• Consider death more often
• Realize there is less time in potential future
  compared to the past
• Considering Frankls questions reflectively can
  help in times of stress

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• Chapter 14 Socioemotional development in middle
  adulthood
• (362-379)

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CHAPTER 14 LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

• SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

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1. Eriksons stage of generativity versus
stagnation

• Generativity desire to leave legacy to next
  generation
• Stagnation sense that you have done little or
  nothing for next generation

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• Generative adults -?
• Commit to improvement of society
• Positive legacy of self
• Biological generativity offspring
• Parental generativity nurture children
• Work generativity develop skills and knowledge
• Cultural generativity create, renovate, conserve

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• (364)
• Promote and guide next generation
• Levinsons Seasons of a Mans Life
• Study focused on middle-aged men
• Emphasized developmental tasks at each stage

57

• Transition from teen to adult
• Gain independence from parents
• 20s novice phase of adulthood
• Reasonably free experimentation
• Testing idealistic dreams in real world

58

• 28-33 transition to facing choice of goals
• 30s focus on family and career development
• Age 40 usually stable position in career

59

• 40-45 4 major conflicts
• 1)young versus old
• 2)destructive versus constructive
• 3)masculine versus feminine
• 4)attachment versus separation

60
How pervasive are midlife crises?

• Levinson saw midlife as suspension between past
  and future
• Vaillant Grant study
• Men in early 30s and 40s
• 40s time of assessment
• Only minority if individuals experience severe
  crises

61

• Idea of midlife crisis probably exaggerated

62
Life events approach

• Life events stressful circumstances prompting
  change in personality
• Contemporary view of life events
• Focus on life events mediating factors

63
Examples of mediating factors

• Physical health
• Family and other social support
• Predictability
• Control
• Coping strategies
• Social and historical context

64

• Drawback to life events approach
• Too much emphasis on change

65
Comparison of young, midlife and older adults
experience of stress

• Start here Tuesday august 11 2009
• Stress and personal control
• Young and mid adults report more frequent
  stressors than older adults
• Mid adults reported more overload stressors

66

• Adults generally report more stress as they get
  older
• Most frequent stressor interpersonal tension

67
Gender and educational level influence stress
experience

• Mid-life women report more crossover stressors
• Lower educational group members experience same
  number of stressors but rated them as more severe

68
Context of midlife development

• Historical links similar to cohort influence
• Neugarten values, attitudes expectations and
  behaviors different for different age groups or
  cohorts

69

• Social clock time table for accomplishing life
  tasks
• Provides guide for living life
• If individual life not synchronized, experience
  more stress
• Social clock different for different age groups

70
Cultural contexts

• Concept of middle age unclear in nonindustrial
  countries
• In some cultures movement between statuses
  depends more on life events rather than age

71

• Midlife women in other cultures may experience
  advantages
• Freedom from certain restrictions
• More geographical mobility
• Child care delegated
• Domestic tasks reduced

72

• Right to exercise authority over younger kin
• Work more administrative
• Eligible for special statuses and recognition
  beyond the household
• Vocations including midwife, curer, holy woman,
  matchmaker

73

• Cultural context can differ in several ways

74
Stability and change in personality

• Costa and McCrae study

75

• Big five personality factors
• 1) openness to experience
• 2) conscientiousness
• 3) extraversion
• 4) agreeableness
• 5) neuroticism

76

• Analysis of big five framework
• More change in adult years
• Extraversion components
• social dominance (assertiveness)
• social vitality (sociability)

77

• Social dominance increases in adolescence and
  midlife
• Social vitality increases in adolescence and
  decreases in early and late adulthood

78
Berkeley Longitudinal study

• Continued in 1920s and 1930s
• Stable intellectual orientation,
  self-confidence, openness to new experience
• More likely to change being nurturing or
  hostile having good self-control or not

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Vaillant studies 3 longitudinal studies

• Studied whether personality at midlife predicts
  personality in late adulthood
• Found alcohol abuse and smoking at age 50
  predicts death between 75 and 80
• Factors at 50 predicting being happy and well -?

80

• Regular exercise
• Avoiding overweight
• Being well-educated
• Having a stable marriage
• Being future-oriented
• Being thankful and forgiving
• Empathizing with others

81

• Being active with others
• Having good coping skills
• Generativity in midlife strongly related to
  having enduring and happy marriage
• Conclusions- personality traits not permanently
  fixed during adulthood

82

• Personality change is limited
• Age is positively related to personality
  stability
• Stability peaks in 50s and 60s

83
Cumulative personality model

• With time and age people become more adept at
  interacting with their environment to promote
  personality stability

84
Close relationships

• Love and marriage at midlife
• Love becomes more affectionate and companionate
• More emphasis on security, loyalty and mutual
  emotional interest

85
Divorce at midlife

• more positive in some ways and more negative in
  others compared to other age stages
• For mature individuals divorce can be less
  stressful
• They have more resources, use time to dispose of
  possessions
• Their children are likely adults and they have
  greater self-understanding

86

• Emotional and time commitment may be difficult to
  give up
• May perceive divorce as failure
• Divorcer sees escape
• Person being divorced sees betrayal

87

• Staying married because of children most often
  delays divorce

88
Main reasons for divorce

• Women-?
• Verbal, physical emotional abuse
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• cheating

89

• Men -?
• No problem, fell out of love
• Cheating
• Different values and lifestyle

90
Empty nest and refilling

• For parents, an adjustment when children leave
  home
• May be decline in marital satisfaction when
  children leave home
• For many parents there is increase in marital
  satisfaction when last child leaves home

91

• Parents have time to pursue careers, other
  interests, more time for each other
• Refilling the empty nest
• More common in uncertain economy
• Children return home after college or before
  full-time employment

92

• Young adults sometimes move back home after
  unsuccessful career experiences or divorce
• Midlife adults usually willing to support younger
  generation, both financially and emotionally

93

• Pluses and minuses when adult children return
  home
• Parents and children should agree on expectations
  and conditions beforehand
• If not negotiated, conflict will almost certainly
  result

94
Intimacy triangle

• Symmetry
• Risky self-disclosure
• Empathy

95
Sibling relationships and friendships

• Most sibling relationships remain close in
  adulthood, if developed in childhood
• (375)
• Friendships continue to be important in middle
  adulthood
• Takes time to develop intimate relationships

96
Grandparenting

• Many adults become grandparents for first time in
  middle adulthood
• Grandmothers usually have more contact with
  grandchildren

97
Grandparent roles (376)

• 3 major meanings to being a grandparent
• (Neugarten and Weinstein, 1964)
• Biological reward and continuity
• Emotional self-fulfillment, companionship and
  satisfaction
• Remote experience

98
Changing profile of grandparents

• Increasing number of grandchildren live with
  grandparents
• Divorce, drug use and adolescent pregnancies
  among primary reasons

99
Grandparenting stress linked to 3 conditions

• Being younger grandparent
• Having grandchildren with physical and mental
  disabilities
• Low family cohesion

100

• (377)
• Special concern visitation privileges with
  grandchildren
• Controversial if visitation privileges are forced
  and against parents wishes

101
Intergenerational relationships

• Adults in midlife have variety of roles
• Share experience and transmit values to younger
  generation
• Experiencing empty nest
• Adjusting to having grown children return home

102

• May give or receive financial assistance
• May care for widowed or ill parent
• May adjust to being oldest generation after both
  parents have died

103

• Common conflicts between generations
• Communication and interaction styles
• Habits and lifestyle choices
• Child-rearing practices and values
• Politics, religion and ideology

104

• Gender differences in intergenerational
  relationships
• Mothers and daughters usually have closer
  relationships than fathers and sons
• Middle-age adults called sandwich generation
• Having responsibility for both adolescent and
  young adult children as well as aging parents

105

• Chapter 15 Physical and Cognitive Development in
  Late Adulthood
• (380-404)

106
Longevity how long we live

• Relates to life span and life expectancy
• Life span maximum number of years an individual
  can live
• Has remained at 120-125 years

107
Life expectancy

• (381)
• number of years the average person born in a
  particular year will probably live
• (382)
• Differences in life expectancy
• In US, longer than some and shorter than others

108

• Differences in life expectancy relate to health
  conditions and medical care
• Women usually have longer life expectancy
• Related to social factors (health attitudes,
  habits, lifestyles and occupations)

109

• Gender differences in life expectancy related to
  physiological factors
• Women have more resistance to infections and
  degenerative diseases
• Estrogen level helps protect against
  arteriosclerosis
• Additional X chromosome may be associated with
  higher antibody production

110
Biological theories of aging (383)

• Cellular clock theory (Hayflick, 1977)
• Cells can divide a maximum of 75-80 times
• As we age, cells become less capable of dividing
• Why? Possibly because of telomeres or DNA
  sequences that cap chromosomes

111

• After each cell division, telomeres become
  shorter
• At certain point, cells no longer able to
  reproduce

112

• Free-radical theory
• Aging occurs because of unstable oxygen molecules
  (free-radicals) that result from the metabolism
  process
• Free radicals can damage DNA and other cell
  structures
• Increasing number of free radicals linked to
  overeating, cancer and arthritis

113

• Hormonal stress theory
• Proposes aging of hormonal system lowers
  resistance to stress and increases likelihood of
  disease
• (384)
• Stressors stimulate release of certain hormones

114

• Aging results in stress-related hormones
  remaining at elevated levels longer
• Prolonged elevated levels of stress-hormones
  related to increased risk for certain diseases

115
Aging brain

• Brain loses 5-10 of weight between ages 20 and
  90
• Brain volume also decreases (can be as much as
  15 less in older adults)
• Prefrontal cortex shrinks more than other areas

116

• General slowing of function in brain and spinal
  cord begins in middle age and continues in old
  age
• Associated with slowing reaction time
• Impairs performance on timed tests

117
Adapting brain

• Aging brain has significant repair capability
• Activities in old age can influence brains
  development
• Neurogenesis or development of new nerve cells
  can occur in humans
• Demonstrated in hippocampus and olfactory area

118

• (385)
• Growth of dendrites can occur in humans and can
  partially explain the adapting brain
• Dendritic growth occurs during 40s-70s
• Slows and disappears during the 90s

119

• Changes in lateralization is another type of
  adapting
• Lateralization specialization of function in
  one or the other brain hemisphere
• Lateralization occurs more in younger adults than
  older adults

120
Nun study Snowdon, 2002

• Annual assessment of cognitive and physical
  functioning
• Findings -?
• Idea density linked to higher brain weight, fewer
  incidences of mild cognitive deficit, and
  Alzheimers disease

121

• Positive emotions in early adulthood linked to
  increased longevity
• (386)
• Those who were teachers most of their lives
  showed more moderate deficits than those in
  service occupations

122
Physical development

• Wrinkles and age spots most noticeable changes
• Decreasing height because of bone loss in spinal
  vertebra
• Decreasing weight after age 60 mostly because of
  muscle loss

123

• Older adults move more slowly than younger adults
• Regular walking can slow the rate of physical
  decline
• Exercise and appropriate weight lifting decreases
  the onset and rate of muscle loss

124
Sensory development

• Vision visual acuity, color vision and depth
  perception decline with aging
• Dark adaptation and tolerance for glare decreases
• Color vision problems related to yellowing of eye
  lens

125
3 diseases

• Glaucoma damage to optic nerve because of
  pressure resulting from buildup of fluid in the
  eye
• Cataracts thickening of eye lens causes vision
  to become cloudy, opaque and distorted

126

• Macular degeneration deterioration of macula, an
  area of the retina, associated with difficulty
  with peripheral vision

127
Hearing

• Impairment usually not a problem until late
  adulthood
• usually because of cochlear degeneration
• Cochlea is primary nerve receptor for hearing in
  inner ear
• Hearing aids can remedy some problems

128
Smell and taste

• Losses begin about age 60
• Decline reduces enjoyment of food and life
  satisfaction
• Can result in increased consumption of sweeter,
  saltier and spicier foods

129
Touch and pain (388)

• Decreasing sensitivity to touch in lower
  extremities more so than upper extremities
• Lower sensitivity to pain can help coping with
  disease and injury and
• Can also mask injury and illness requiring
  treatment

130
Circulatory system and lungs

• Consistent blood pressures above 120/80 can lead
  to heart attack, stroke or kidney disease
• Rise in blood pressure linked to illness,
  obesity, anxiety and stiffening of blood vessels
• Lung capacity decreases 40 between 20-80
• Lung tissue loses elasticity, chest shrinks and
  diaphragm weakens

131
Sexuality

• Can be lifelong with absence of disease and
  belief that older people should be asexual
• Orgasm becomes less frequent with age
• More direct stimulation needed to achieve
  erection

132
Health problems (389)

• Aging increases likelihood of developing disease
  symptoms
• Chronic diseases increase in older adulthood
• Arthritis and hypertension most common chronic
  problems
• Risk factors for disease include low income and
  relationship conflicts

133
Causes of death in older adults

• Heart disease, cancer or stroke leading causes
• Also chronic lung diseases, pneumonia and
  influenza and diabetes next in line
• Decrease in frequency of cardiovascular disease
  and kidney problems could increase longevity by
  as much as 10 years

134
Arthritis

• inflammation around joints accompanied by pain,
  stiffness, movement problems
• Incurable
• Affects knees, hips, ankles and vertebrae
• Symptoms can be reduced by medication and
  range-of-motion exercises as well as weight
  reduction and surgery

135
Osteoporosis

• Associated with severe loss of bone tissue
• Main reason many adults walk with stooped posture
• Women especially vulnerable
• Linked to deficiencies of calcium, Vitamin D,
  estrogen and lack of exercise

136

• To prevent osteoporosis -?
• Eat foods rich in calcium
• Exercise more
• Avoid smoking

137
Exercise, nutrition and weight

• Exercise
• Can literally be difference between life and
  death
• Positive effects for both men and women
• Strength training and stretching also recommended

138

• Exercise - continued
• Can prevent falling down and being
  institutionalized
• Linked to increased longevity

139
Nutrition and weight (391)

• Calorie restriction can increase longevity in
  some animals
• CR linked to delayed appearance of chronic
  problems
• CR can delay age-related rise in cholesterol and
  triglycerides
• CR may also delay aging symptoms in CNS

140
Health treatment

• Adequate health treatment received about ½ the
  time
• Aging increases likelihood of being in a nursing
  home or other extended care facility
• Quality of nursing home care varies widely
• 1/3 seriously deficient

141
Concerns relating to nursing home care

• Patients medical care
• Right to privacy
• Access to medical information
• Safety
• Lifestyle freedom within physical and mental
  capability

142
Alternatives to nursing facilities

• Home health care
• Day care centers
• Preventive medicine clinics

143
Rodin and Langer (1977) nursing home study

• (393)
• Found important factor relating to health and
  even survival -?
• Patients feelings of control and
  self-determination
• Perceived control can make the difference between
  life and death in a nursing facility

144
Cognitive functioning

• Multidimensionality and multidirectionality
• Cognition is complex
• Cognition may decline, improve or remain stable
  during late adulthood

145
Sensory/motor and speed-of-processing dimensions

• Speed of processing declines during late
  adulthood
• Wide variety in decline
• Likely because of declining functioning in brain
  and central nervous system

146
Attention (394)

• Selective attention focusing on specific aspect
  of experience while ignoring others
• Divided attention concentrating on 2 or more
  activities at one time
• Sustained attention state of readiness to
  detect and respond to small changes in
  environment occurring at random - vigilance

147

• Older adults less adept at selective attention
  compared to younger adults
• less age difference in divided attention if
  tasks are easy or automatic
• Few age differences in sustained attention

148
Memory

• Changes with age
• Different types of memory change in different
  ways

149

• Episodic and semantic memory
• Episodic remembering information relating to
  where and when events occurred
• Semantic memory general knowledge about the
  world
• Fields of expertise, academic and everyday
  knowledge, meanings of words, places and things

150

• Younger adults better at episodic memory compared
  to older adults
• In general, the older the memory, the less
  accurate it is
• Older adults take longer to retrieve semantic
  memory but usually can remember it
• Episodic memory declines more in older adults
  compared to semantic memory

151

• Working memory and perceptual speed
• Working memory linked to short-term memory
• More emphasis on memory as a place for mental work

152
Perceptual speed

• amount of time needed to perform simple
  perceptual-motor tasks
• Considerable decline in late adulthood
• Linked to decline in working memory

153
Explicit and implicit memory

• Explicit memory memory of facts and experiences
  we consciously know and can state
• Also known as declarative memory
• Declines as we age

154

• Implicit memory memory without conscious
  recollection
• Involves skills and routine procedures performed
  automatically
• Less likely to decline as we age

155
Wisdom

• (396)
• expert knowledge about practical aspects of life
• Permits excellent judgment about important
  matters
• Involves insight into human development and life
  matters

156

• Wisdom continued
• Involves coping with difficult life problems
• Focuses on pragmatic concerns
• Findings
• 1) high levels of wisdom are rare
• 2)factors other than age critical for wisdom
• 3)personality factors linked (openness to
  experience, generativity and creativity)

157
Use it or lose it

• Mental activities likely to benefit cognitive
  abilities
• Reading books,
• doing crossword puzzles,
• going to lectures and concerts

158

• Several studies support the use it or lose it
  idea (396)
• Victoria Longitudinal study middle aged and
  older adults participated in intellectually
  challenging activities
• Longitudinal study of 801 priests aged 65 -
  those who exercised their minds less likely to
  develop Alzheimers Disease

159
Training cognitive skills (397)

• 2 key conclusions improvement through cognitive
  and physical fitness training
• 1) training can improve cognitive functioning
• 2)some loss in plasticity in late adulthood,
  especially in 85 group
• Evidence from Willis and Schaie, 1986
• Improved spatial orientation and reasoning skills

160
Cognitive neuroscience and aging

• Cognitive neuroscience links brain and
  cognitive functioning
• Relies on brain-imaging techniques, including
  fMRI and PET scans
• Reveals areas of brain active during various
  cognitive activities

161
Work and retirement

• What percentage of adults continue to work?
• How productive are adults who work during late
  old age?
• Who adjusts best to retirement?

162
Work (398)

• Beginning of 21st century, percentage of men 65
  who work full time is less than at the beginning
  of 20th century
• Important change in adult work patterns is
  increase in part-time work after retirement

163

• Important characteristics predicting working
  after retirement
• Good health
• Strong psychological commitment to work after
  retirement
• Distaste for retirement
• Probability of employment positively linked to
  educational attainment and married to working wife

164

• Older workers have lower absenteeism
• Fewer accidents
• Increased job satisfaction
• Compared to younger workers
• Increasing number of middle and older adults
  entering second and third career fields
• Sometimes completely different type of work or a
  continuation of previous work

165

• Many older adults volunteer or work in active
  volunteer organizations
• Unpaid work activities
• Options give opportunities for productive
  activity, social interaction, and positive
  identity

166
Best adjustment to retirement -?

• Healthy
• Well-educated
• Have extended social network
• Satisfied with their lives before retirement

167
Worst adjustment to retirement-?

• Inadequate income
• Poor health
• Making adjustments to other stressors, such as
  death of spouse
• Strong attachment to full-time work
• Lack control over retirement transition

168
Mental health

• Depression
• Major depression is mood disorder, deeply
  unhappy, very low morale, self-derogatory and
  bored
• Does not feel well, easily fatigued, poor
  appetite, listless and weak motivation
• Symptoms linked to more economic hardships, more
  negative social interactions, decreased religious
  or spiritual tendencies

169

• Depression links continued
• Low level physical exercise
• Poor health
• Experiencing pain

170

• Depression continued
• Treatable condition
• 80 older adults with depressive symptoms receive
  no treatment
• Combination of medication and psychotherapy most
  effective

171
Dementia, Alzheimer Disease and Parkinson disease

• (400)
• Dementia global term for neurological disorder
  in which primary symptom involves deterioration
  of cognitive functioning
• Lose ability to care for self, can lose ability
  to recognize familiar surroundings and people

172

• Alzheimer disease
• Progressive and irreversible brain disorder
• Gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning,
  language and physical functioning
• 2 types distinguished -?
• Early onset before age 65
• Late-onset after age 65

173

• Early onset Alzheimer is rare
• AD involves brain chemical acetylcholine
• Brain shrinks and deteriorates
• Deterioration associated with development of
  amyloid plaques (dense deposits of protein
  accumulating in blood vessels) and
  neurofibrillary tangles (twisted fibers that
  build up in neurons)

174

• AD cause uncertain
• Age is a factor
• Genes likely contribute
• Lifestyle can influence risk
• Lower risk associated with good diet, exercise,
  weight control
• Higher risk obesity, smoking, atherosclerosis
  and high cholesterol

175
Early detection and treatment of AD

• Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents
  transitional state
• Deficits in episodic memory can be important
  early indicator of AD risk
• Special brain scans (MRI) can detect changes in
  brain indicating early AD

176
Drugs approved for AD treatment

• Donepezil (Aricept)
• Rivastigmine (Excelon)
• Galantamine (Razadyne)
• Designed to improve memory and other cognitive
  functions
• Increase levels of acetylcholine

177
Caring for individual with AD (402)

• Family can be important social support system
• Has costs for family members who can become
  emotionally and physically drained
• Can result in higher levels of caregiver burden
  and depression
• Lower levels of well-being and physical health

178

• Respite care services provide temporary relief
  for caregivers of those with diseases and
  disabilities or who are elderly
• Important break away from providing chronic care

179
Parkinson disease

• chronic, progressive disease
• Characterized by muscle tremors
• Slowing movement
• Partial facial paralysis
• Triggered by deterioration of neurons producing
  dopamine in brain

180

• Dopamine necessary for normal brain function
• Main treatment for PD administering drugs
  enhancing effect of dopamine
• Later treatment administer L-dopa, converted by
  brain into dopamine

181

• Chapter 16 Socioemotional development in late
  adulthood
• (405-420)
• Bonus chapter

182
Theories of socioemotional development

• Ericksons theory (406)

183

• Activity theory (407)

184

• Socioemotional selectivity theory (407)

185

• Selective optimization with compensation theory
  (408)

186
Personality and society

• Personality (409)

187

• Older adults in society (410)
• Stereotyping
• Policy issues in aging society

188

• (411)
• Income
• technology

189
Families and social relationships

• 412
• Lifestyle diversity
• Married older adults
• Divorced and remarried older adults

190

• 413
• Cohabiting older adults
• Older adults and their adult children

191

• 414
• Friendship
• Social support and social integration

192

• 415
• Altruism and volunteerism

193
Ethnicity, gender and culture

• 416
• Ethnicity
• gender

194

• 417
• culture

195

• 418
• Successful aging

196

• Chapter 17 death, dying and grieving
• (421-434)
• Bonus chapter

197
Defining death and life/death issues

• 422
• Determining death
• Decisions regarding life, death and health care
• Natural death act and advance directive

198

• 423
• Euthanasia

199

• 424
• needed better care for dying individuals

200
Death and sociohistorical cultural contexts

• 424
• Changing historical circumstances

201

• 425
• Death in different cultures

202
Facing ones own death

• 426-7
• Kubler-ross stages of dying

203

• 427
• Perceived control and denial

204
Coping with death of someone else

• 428-9
• Communicating with a dying person

205

• 429
• Grieving
• Dimensions of grieving

206

• 430
• Coping and type of death
• Making sense of the world

207

• 431
• Losing a life partner

208

• 432
• Forms of mourning