Adult development and ageing

Symptoms of Alzheimer's (psychological, biological, genetic)

Psychological: occasional loss of memory of recent events/familiar tasks. Eventually an inability to perform even basic tasks. Biological: Formation of abnormal deposits of amyloid plaques. Also apoptosis caused by the beta-amyloids (according to caspase theory, which states that beta-amyloids stimulate production of neuron-lethal caspase enzymes). Genetic: The most popular guiding theory is that genetic abnormalities are the cause of Alzheimer's, but very few cases have familial links.

Aerobic capacity + cardiac output

- Aerobic capacity - the maximum amount of oxygen that can be delivered through the blood - Cardiac output - the amount of blood that the heart pumps out per minute - Both aerobic capacity and cardiac output declines with 10% for each decade after age 25.

Developmental models on old age (2):

- Eriksson: young adulthood (intimacy vs. isolation), middle adulthood (generativity vs. stagnation), old adulthood (ego identity vs. despair) - Piaget: Assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium (a perfect balance between the two A's). Equilibrium at a formal developmental phase is most stable, because the individual is then capable of understanding and learning from experience.

Types of age:

Social age Psychological age Biological age Functional age Chronological age

Somatopause of ageing

a decline of action in the somatotrophic axis assumed to account for many age-related changes in body composture.

NCD: Alzheimer's disease

a form of neurocognitive disorder in which the individual suffers progressive and irreversible neuronal death.

NCD: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

a form of neurocognitive disorder that signifies that the individual may be at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

Arthritis

a general term for conditions affecting the joints and surrounding tissues that can cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in joints and other connective tissues.

Brinley plot

a graph where the reaction times of older groups of adults are plotted against the times of younger adults.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

a group of diseases that involve obstruction of the airflow into the respiratory system. Components: o Chronic emphysema: Loss of elasticity in the alveoli o Chronic bronchitis: Bronchial tubes inflamed and irritated o Main cause is smoking

NCD: Dementia

a loss of cognitive abilities

Neurocognitive disorder

a loss of cognitive function severe enough to interfere with normal daily activities and social relationships.

Lung age

a measurement of the state of your lungs due to your age and habits. To counter it; don't smoke, healthy diet, exercise

Ageism

a set of beliefs, attitudes, social institutions, and acts that denigrate individuals or groups based on their chronological age. o The more likely you are to think of yourself as a teen/twentysomething, the more likely you are to be ageist.

Most efficient design

a set of three designs measuring age, cohort and time of measurement. Created by K. W. Schaie o Time-sequential design - the data are organized by age and time of measurement o Cohort-sequential design - cohorts are compared at different ages o Cross-sequential design - cohorts are examined at different times of measurement.

The biopsychosocial model

a view of aging as a complex interaction between biological, psychological and sociocultural processes: o Biological: physiological factors, genetics o Psychological: cognition, emotions, personality o Social: social context, history, culture

Visual search tasks

a way of measuring attention in which the observer must locate a specific target among a set of distractors. o Simple visual search - the targets differ from the other stimuli by only one feature (colour/size/shape/etc.) o Conjunction visual search - the targets differ from the distractors in more than one way, e.g. the target is a red circle and the distractors are red squares and blue circles.

Urge incontinence

about 30% of 65+ experience sudden urges to urinate and may even leak urine

Chronological age

age in number of years; a shifty definition

Ageism: Age-as-leveler view

age overrides all other forms of discriminations, making all old people "the same"

Optimal ageing

age-related changes that improve the individual's functioning; e.g. acquiring wisdom. May counter the psychological/physical toll of aging.

Cross-linking theory

ageing causes deleterious changes in cells of the body that make of much of its connective tissue, e.g. skin/tendons/muscles/etc. Due to the contraction of collagen, which connects the strands of cross-linking protein, making it smaller and more rigid.

Autoimmune theory

aging is due to a faulty autoimmune system that attacks its own cells.

Myocardial infarction

an artery leading to the heart is severely reduced/blocked

Caloric restriction hypothesis

an offshoot of the free radical theory; the view that the key to prolong life is to restrict caloric intake, because this reduces the production of free radicals.

FOXO genes

another candidate for genetic factors on aging; a set of genes that maye operate to influence the rate of cell death.

Random error theories

based on the assumption that aging reflects unplanned changes in an organism over time.

Threshold experiences

can be interpreted in terms of identity assimilation (i.e. denial), accommodation (i.e. compulsive illness behavior/"over the hill" syndrome), or balance (part integration, part adaptation; results in a strong sense of self-efficacy).

Photoageing

changes in the skin caused by sun radiation

Personal ageing

changes that occur within the individual due to time's passing and its subsequent influence on the body's functioning and structure.

Identity accommodation

changing one's view of oneself in order to fit in new and contradictory information about oneself.

Hypertension

chronic abnormally elevated blood pressure

Psychological age

cognitive performance (e.g. memory, reaction time, learning ability, intelligence)

Sequential designs

combine the variables age, cohort and time of measurement

Inter-individual differences

differences between people (also in different age groups). E.g. hippocampus size can be more similar between a 70yo and a 20yo than two 70yo's.

Activities of daily living (ADL)

e.g. bathing, dressing, using the toilet, transferring.

Instrumental activities of daily leaving (IADL)

e.g. using a telephone, go shopping, prepare meals, do housekeeping tasks, etc.

Normative history-graded influences

events that occur to everyone within a certain culture or geopolitical unit (regardless of age) and include large-scale occurrences, such as world wars, economic trends, or sociocultural changes in attitudes and values. Impact of the events may be felt immediately + continue to have a lasting impact for many years on work/family/quality of life for those affected. For example, World War II veterans who entered the military after their families were already established were more likely upon their return to get divorced or separated, to suffer career setbacks, and experience poorer physical health after they turned 50.

Atherosclerosis

fatty deposits gather in the arteries at abnormal rates

Functional age

how people perform

Glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis

hypothesis that increased cortisol levels accelerate neuronal loss in the hippocampus

Neuronal fallout model

hypothesis that people gradually lose brain tissue because neurons don't have the capacity to replace themselves when they die

The ecological perspective

identifies multiple levels of the environment that affects the individual over time. Micro, exo, macro. o Mesosystem - where two or more systems interact, e.g. you have trouble at home and therefore trouble in school. o Chronosystem - changes that take place over time

Identity process theory

identity continues to change in adulthood in a dynamic manner

Congestive heart failure

inability of the heart to pump enough blood to supply the necessity for all the other organs

Multiple threshold model (of change in adulthood)

individuals realise that they are getting older through a step-wise process as aging-related changes occur.

Developmental science

is gradually replacing the term developmental psychology as the focus continues to incorporate more than the psychological aspect of aging.

Normative age-graded influences

lead people to choose experiences that their culture and historical period attach to certain ages or points in the life span.

Error theories

mutations acquired over the lifetime lead to the malfunctioning of the body's cells.

Cohort effects

normative history-graded influences at or around a person's time of birth

The life course perspective

norms, attitudes and roles connected to a certain age have an impact on each person's life.

Five ways to shorten your life:

o Being overweight o Not eating enough fruit/vegetables o Not enough physical exercise o Drinking and driving o Smoking

Biopsychosocial model of diabetes:

o Biological: Changes in glucose metabolism, obesity o Psychological: Sedentary lifestyle; also associated with depression and stress o Sociocultural: Habitual eating patterns, lack of education, low economic resources

Four principles of aging:

o Change is continuous over the lifespan - hence people remain the same even as they change, which should also be reflected in healthcare treatment. o Only the survivors grow old - hence aging individuals are increasingly self-selected; based on the survivor principle; this means that the group that is old people is only a subgroup in the young population o Individuality matters - within and between age groups; do intragroup differences magnify because the age span between individuals increases? o Normal aging is different from disease - the process looks different for the two

Risk factors for cancer:

o Exposure to sun o Smoking o Unhealthy diet (much red meat)

Changes in body structure:

o More fat-free mass (FFM) o Increase in BMI o Sar-copenia - a progressive, age-related loss of muscle mass o Bone remodeling (changes in bone structure throughout life) and a loss of bone minerals makes the skeleton more vulnerable

Models for nature vs nurture (3):

o Organismic model - heredity drives the course of development over the lifetime o Mechanistic model - behavior changes radically over times, in response to external forces that require adaptation o Interactionist model - environment and individual influence each other

Causes of cardiovascular disease:

o Physical inactivity o Unhealthy diet o Smoking o Harmful alcohol use

Stages of ageing

o Primary/normal aging - the normal changes over time that occur due to universal, intrinsic, and progressive alterations in the body's systems. o Secondary/impaired aging - changes over time leading to impairment due to disease rather than normal aging o Tertiary aging - towards the very end of life; rapid loss of function across multiple areas of functioning; due to the organism reaching its limit

Selective optimization with compensation model (SOC):

o Selective - choose area of focus o Optimize - maximise performance in these areas o Compensate - make up for losses in one area with gains in others

Common subgroups of the "old" (above 65) population:

o Young-old (65-74) o Old-old (75-84) o Oldest-old (85+) o Centenarians (100+) o Supercentenarians (110+)

Activity theory

old people are most satisfied when they are able to remain involved in their social roles.

Ageism: Inoculation hypothesis

old people who have previously been discriminated against (e.g. Blacks, women) have become immune to discrimination so feel the ageism less.

Disengagement theory

opposite of activity theory; the loosening of ties to social roles is a natural and intentional result of growing older.

Reciprocity in development

people both influence and are influenced by events in their lives.

Terminal decline

people gradually lose their cognitive abilities as they draw closer to death

Gompertz function

plots the relationship between age and death rates for a given species.

Multidirectionality

processes can develop simultaneously in many different directions within the same person

Programmed ageing theories

propose that aging and death is built into the hard-wire of organisms and therefore part of the genetic code.

Descriptive research design

provides information about age differences but does not try to rule out social or historical factors.

Overactive bladder

related to urge incontinence, but also includes an increased need to urinate

Osteoporosis

said to occur when the bone mineral density reaches the point that is more than 2.5 standard deviations below the mean of young, White, non-Hispanic women.

Ageism: Modernization hypothesis

since older people can no longer produce, they lose their value

Arterosclerosis

the arteries become thicker and harder due to atherosclerosis

Reaction time

the basic measure of processing speed; researchers ask their participants to complete an action (e.g. pushing a computer key when the screen flashes a particular stimulus (a target)). Stimuli that do not fit the criteria for the target are called distractors. o Simple reaction time tasks - participants are instructed to make a response such as pushing the key as soon as they see the target, such as a red circle appearing on the screen in front of them. o Choice reaction time tasks - participants must make one response for one stimulus and another response for a different stimulus.

Wear and tear theory

the body, much like a car, is torn gradually down for each day that we continue to use it.

Free radical theory

the cause of aging is the increased activity of free radicals (i.e. unstable oxygen molecules) binding to other oxygen molecules, hence compromise the functioning of a cell.

Social ageing

the effect of a person's exposure to a changing environment

Contextual influences on development

the effects of race, gender, sex, social class, religion, ethnicity and culture.

Emerging adulthood

the first years of being an adult (however you define it), which includes a transition prior to assuming the full responsibilities associated with adulthood.

General slowing hypothesis

the increase in reaction time reflects a general deline of information processing speed in the nervous system as we age.

Stress incontinence

the individual is unable to keep in urine while engaged in physical exercise

Ageism: Multiple jeopardy hypothesis

the more discriminated-against groups you belong to, the more discrimination you will experience

Androgenetic alopecia

the most common cause of baldness; the body stops producing (pigmented) terminal hairs and starts producing thin, unpigmented hair

Osteoarthritis

the most common form of arthritis, affects joints in the hips, knees, neck, lower back, and small joints of the hands.

Replicative senescence

the most compelling attempt to explain aging through genetics; the loss of the ability of cells to reproduce

Health expectancy

the number of years a person can expect to live in good health and with relatively little disability if current mortality and morbidity rates persist.

Intra-individual differences

the processes within a single person develop at different paces.

Gerontology

the scientific study of the aging process; an interdisciplinary field

Biological age

the state of an individual's bodily systems

Selective attrition

the surviving/remaining sample at the end of a longitudinal study are not necessarily representative of the original sample.

Identity assimilation

the tendency to interpret new experiences in terms of a person's existing identity. E.g. if you view yourself as a good student and did poorly on an exam, you blame external factors, whereas with good grades you "blame" yourself.

Age-complexity hypothesis

through a slowing of central processes in the nervous system, age differences increase as tasks become more complex.

Compression of morbidity

to make the time of serious illness between death as short as possible; a way to ease the burden of increased lifespan expectancy.

The lifespan perspective

views development as continuous from childhood through old age.

Ageism: Terror management theory

we push away the reminder of our own mortality

Social clock

when something is expected to happen according to a societal norm, e.g. when to have children.

Social age

where you are compared to the "typical" ages of certain positions in life (e.g. grandfather, house-owner, high school student, etc.)

Continuity theory

whether the activity or disengagement theory is right depends on the individual in question and their personality.

Telomere theory

with each cell division, some telomeres (repeating sequences of protein on the DNA strand whose job is to protect the chromosome from damage in cell division) are lost, meaning that at a certain point there will be none/very few left and the chromosome is exposed to damage. A study showed that women in low SES had shorter telomere strands than their upper SES peers = not solely biologically caused.