Human Development Chapter 13 Study Guide

Which change has NOT contributed to the rise in the median age of the world's population? -decreasing fertility -AIDS in the developing world -medical advances -the baby boom reaching older adulthood

AIDS in the developing world

In affluent cultures, _____ are especially good at helping people cope during widowhood.

friends

Mnemonic techniques frequently involve the use of _____ to remember information.

imagery

Margaret's husband of 55 years recently passed away. What is likely to be the most significant problem that Margaret will now face?

loneliness

The _____ age, or the age at which half the population is younger and half is older, is rapidly rising in the developed world.

median

__________ memory refers to information that we automatically remember, without conscious thought. ex. physical skills

Procedural

Illegally laying off workers or failing to hire or promote them on the basis of age.

age discrimination

Reaching integrity, feeling generative, and having a sense of purpose in life are keys to:

being happy in old age.

A difficult memory challenge involving memorizing material while simultaneously monitoring something else.

divided-attention tasks

MOST people work beyond the traditional retirement age because they:

enjoy their jobs or cannot financially afford to retire.

Longitudinal research suggests widowed people: -first turn to family and later reach out to friends for support. -typically withdraw from the world. -first turn to friends and then later reach out to family for support. -rarely turn to friends for support.

first turn to family and later reach out to friends for support.

The fraction of people over age 60 compared to younger, working-age adults (ages 15 to 59). This ratio is expected to rise dramatically as the baby boomers retire.

old-age dependency ratio

The proportion of working adults to retirees, which is expected to rise dramatically as the baby boomers retire, is called the:

old-age dependency ratio.

Sean is 82. Developmentalists classify Sean as:

old-old

People age 80 and older are considered:

old-old.

This type of memory refers to basic factual knowledge.

semantic

In the United States, our main sources of retirement income are:

Social Security, private pensions, and savings.

What is the neural reason that peoples' executive functions decline with age?

age-related deterioration in the frontal lobes

One reason for recent increases in the median age of the population in the developed world is declining:

fertility rates

Age discrimination at work is: -legal if the worker is older than 75. -illegal and very rare. -legal if the person is over 65. -illegal but probably common.

illegal but probably common.

Crystallized intelligence tends to _____ with age, and memory abilities tend to _____ with age.

increase; decrease

A framework that divides memory into three types: procedural, semantic, and episodic memory.

memory-systems perspective

Jeanine has always been a multitasker and routinely did several things simultaneously. Jeanine is now elderly. Based on the research, Jeanine MOST likely has: -maintained her multitasking ability. -improved her multitasking ability. -permanently lost her multitasking ability. -temporarily lost her multitasking ability but can regain it.

permanently lost her multitasking ability.

People in their sixties and seventies are considered:

young-old.

_____ memory transforms information into permanent storage.

Working

Using the information-processing approach, researchers find that as people age, working memory:

declines.

The median age of the population is rising due to:

declining fertility; longer life expectancies, and the baby boom.

As memory tasks get more difficult, performance differences between young and older people: -decrease slightly. -decrease dramatically. -increase dramatically. -show little change.

increase dramatically.

Balancing the needs of the young and old. Specifically, often referred to as the idea that U.S. government entitlements, such as Medicare and Social Security, "over-benefit" the elderly at the expense of other age groups.

intergenerational equity

__________ are strategies to make information emotionally vivid. ex. using acronyms to remember processes

Mnemonic techniques

_____ is the fact that despite their physical and mental losses, the elderly report being just as happy or happier than the young.

Paradox of well-being

One form of age discrimination that is impossible to prove is when employers:

choose not to hire an older job applicant.

Older people in the United States are at high risk of being poor when they:

depend on Social Security alone.

The young-old and the old-old differ in:

health and income.

Based on his psychosocial framework, Erikson believed that people who haven't reached _____ have serious regrets about their life and are terrified of death.

integrity

With childbearing rates dipping sharply in Europe and Asia in recent decades, the median age of the population in most developed countries is now well into:

middle age.

In the United States, Social Security provides:

money for most retired U.S. citizens.

Glen, age 65, is convinced that at his age he is destined to have brain deficits; as a result, he stops trying to remember new names. Glen has problems with: -genetic entities. -socioemotional selectivity. -motivation. -crystallized intelligence.

motivation.

While ageism is universal, we also gravitate to the elderly for:

positive traits.

According to the memory-systems perspective, there are three basic types of memory:

procedural, semantic, and episodic memory.

Using the memory-systems perspective, studies reveal few age-related losses in ________ or __________ but dramatic declines in ___________.

semantic or procedural memory; episodic memory

In the United States, workers' retirement is financed by everything EXCEPT: -Social Security. -bridge jobs. -stimulus funds. -private pensions.

stimulus funds.

_____ is balancing the needs of the young and the old.

Intergenerational equity

In 2016, _____ adults over age 65 in the United States reported that they were still working. -One in three -Two in five -One in four -One in five

Two in five

More older people are more at risk for being:

poor.

Which of the following is NOT a recommendation for how to help most bereaved people? -Encourage them to join a widow support group. -Encourage them to meet another widowed friend. -Give emotional support. -Encourage them to date other people.

Encourage them to join a widow support group.

__________ memory refers to the ongoing events of daily life. ex. what you had for dinner the other night

Episodic

Of the countries on this list, which has the BEST government-funded retirement program? -China -Germany -the United States -Mexico

Germany

__________ memory is our fund of basic facts; well-learned, crystallized database.

Semantic

The U.S. government's national retirement support program.

Social Security

Which statement about typical older people's emotional states is false? -They are often better at stimulating flow in their lives. -They focus more on happy (instead of sad) events than do younger adults. -They perform worse at emotion management tasks than do younger adults. -They experience less stress than younger people do.

They perform worse at emotion management tasks than do younger adults.

The average retirement "nest egg" in the United States is: -$127,000 -$22,000 -$56,000 -$432,000

$127,000

Which of the following is NOT a tip for assisting an older relative? -Provide a nondistracting environment to enhance memory. -Don't expect the person to necessarily want to meet new people. -Be realistic about declines in episodic memory. -Help the person to withdraw from social interactions.

Help the person to withdraw from social interactions.

_____________ suggests that in old age, when people see their future as limited, they focus on maximizing the quality of their current life and prefer to spend time with their closest attachment figures.

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Statistically, which statement is true -There is little that can be done to improve memory in old age. -Memory decline doesn't occur until late adulthood. -About 50 percent of people over age 65 are in nursing homes. -The elderly think more positively about life than do younger adults.

The elderly think more positively about life than do younger adults.

Stereotypic, intensely negative ideas about old age.

ageism

Candice believes that the elderly should NOT be allowed to drive, that they are unable to care for themselves, and that they are a burden to society. Candice is demonstrating:

ageism.

Today, because most U.S. baby boomers do not have the funds to fully float retirement, people are working until older ages, and may take _______ after they formally retire.

bridge jobs

People of every age remember ______ stimuli best.

emotional

The brain's "master planner," responsible for executive functions such as selective attention, is located in the _____ lobe.

frontal

Erik Erikson's eighth psychosocial stage, in which elderly people decide that their life missions have been fulfilled and so accept impending death.

integrity

The age at which 50 percent of a population is older and 50 percent is younger.

median age

A divided-attention task involves: -memorizing material while monitoring something else. -arbitrary word pairs and lists of unrelated words. -receiving auditory information from two sources. -memorizing something under time pressure.

memorizing material while monitoring something else

All things being equal, who adjusts MOST poorly to being widowed?

old-old people

The positivity effect refers to the tendency for:

older people to focus on positive events and screen out negative ones.

The fact that despite their physical and mental losses, the elderly report being just as happy and often happier than the young.

paradox of well-being

The tendency for older people to focus on positive experiences and screen out negative events.

positivity effect

The tendency for older people to focus on positive experiences and to ignore negative ones is referred to as the:

positivity effect.

The major source of nongovernmental income support for U.S. retirees, in which the individual worker and employer put a portion of each paycheck into an account to help finance retirement.

private pensions

Knowing how to tie shoes is an example of _____ memory.

procedural

Which memory system is preserved the longest, even into Alzheimer's disease?

procedural

According to the information-processing perspective, older people experience the LEAST problems with:

procedural memory.

One key to happiness in older adulthood is to: -avoid challenges. -withdraw from interactions with other people. -think a lot about the past. -remain open to other people's feelings.

remain open to other people's feelings.

As part of an evaluation, a psychologist asks Karl basic factual questions such as, "Who was the first U.S. president?" while testing Karl's _____ memory.

semantic

The idea that the time one has left to live changes one's priorities and social agendas is the basic premise of _____ theory.

socioemotional selectivity

A theory of aging (and the lifespan) put forth by Laura Carstensen, describing how the time we have left to live affects our priorities and social relationships. Specifically, in later life people focus on the present and prioritize being with their closest attachment figures.

socioemotional selectivity theory

Carstensen believes that the focus on making the most of every moment explains why late life is potentially:

the happiest life stage.

In Germany, the government: -tries to keep people working as long as possible. -tries to ensure that people are financially comfortable during their older years. -encourages workers to quit their jobs around age 50. -encourages citizens to save for retirement rather than offering a structured retirement plan.

tries to ensure that people are financially comfortable during their older years.

The group that is MOST vulnerable to suicide is: -widowed men. -widowed women. -married women. -married men.

widowed men.

The elevated risk of death that occurs among people after a spouse dies is called the _____ effect.

widowhood mortality

Widowhood research has shown that MOST: -widows are resilient; they are able to regroup and lead fulfilling lives. -widows with secure relationships are at risk for depression. -young-old widowers are at special risk for suicide. -widows are very fragile; they need a lot of caregiving help.

widows are resilient; they are able to regroup and lead fulfilling lives.

Carstensen's studies show that when one sees one's future as limited, one tries to spend as much time as possible:

with one's closest attachment figures.