Human Growth and Development

Pathological Aging

characterizes individuals who in Late Adulthood show greater than average decline. They may have mild cognitive impairment in early old age, develop "Alzheimer" disease later, or have chronic disease that impairs their daily functioning.

Normal Aging

characterizes most individuals, the psychological functioning often peaks in early midlife, plateaus until the late 50's to early 60's, than modestly declines through the early 80's, although marked decline often occurs prior to death.

Metacognition

cognition about cognition and knowing about knowing.

Personality traits are linked to longer life:

conscientiousness & extraversion

Understand Elisabeth Kubler Ross' stages of grief:

1)Denial and Isolation: the person denies that death is really going to take place. Example: "No, it can't be me, it's not possible". It is a temporary defense. 2)Anger: the dying person's question becomes "Why me?". At this point, it becomes difficult to care for as anger may become displaced and projected onto physicians, nurses, family members, and even God. 3)Bargaining: the person develops the "hope" that death can somehow be postponed or delayed. Example: some persons enter into a bargaining or negotiation- often with God- as they try to delay their death. "Yes me, but..." in exchange for a few more days, weeks, months of life, the person promises to lead a reformed life dedicated to God or service to others. 4)Depression: the dying person comes to "accept" the certainty of death. At this point, a period of depression or preparatory grief may appear. The dying person may become silent, refuse visitors & spend much of the time crying or grieving. This behavior is "normal" and is an effort to disconnect the self from love objects. 5)Acceptance: the person develops a "sense of peace", an "acceptance" of his/her fate, and in many cases, a desire to be left alone. In this stage, feeling and physical pain may be virtually absent. The end of the dying struggle, the final resting stage before death.

Attitudes toward Death in life span:

A mature adult-like conception to death includes an understanding that death is final and irreversible. Death represents the end of life and that all living things die. As children grow, they develop a more mature approach to death. Many young children (4-5 years of age) understand the irreversibility of death and that involves the cessation of mental and physical functioning. In the Middle & Late Childhood years, many children develop more realistic and accurate perceptions of death, such as viewing its cause as biological in nature. Honesty is the best strategy in discussing death with children. The best response to a child's query about death might depend on the child's maturity level. More than 50% of Americans die in Hospitals and 20% die in nursing homes. Some people, though, spend their final days in isolation and fear. An increasing number of people choose to die in the humane atmosphere of a hospice.

Understand stereotypes of older adults

Ageism: Prejudice against others because of their age, especially older adults. Older adults are often perceived as incapable of thinking clearly, learning new things, enjoying sex, contributing to the community, or holding responsible jobs. Many older adults face painful discrimination and might be too polite/timid to attack it. Might not be hired for new jobs or might be eased out of old ones Might be shunned socially and edged out of their family life. - Younger individuals showed more age discrimination toward older adults than did older individuals. Friendship: People choose "close friends" over new friends as they grow older.

Sexuality

Aging in late adulthood does include some changes in sexual performance, more so for males than females. Nonetheless, there are no known age limits to sexual activity.

Which of the following are risk factors for declining self-esteem in late adulthood?

declines in health - widowhood - being institutionalized

Convoy Model of Social Relations:

individuals go through life embedded in a personal network of individuals to whom they give and from whom they receive social support

Which pattern of aging characterizes people who show more decline than average?

pathological

Successful Aging

pathway through late life that focuses on positive outcomes through health and social engagement to achieve well-being characterizes individuals whose physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development is maintained longer than for most individuals and declines later than for most people. - 4 Factors in successful aging: 1) Proactive Engagement, 2) Wellness resources, 3) Positive spirit, 4) Valued relationships

Activity Theory

states that the more participatory and involved older adults are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives.

Source Memory

the ability to remember where one learns something. Failure of source memory increases with age in the adult years and they can create awkward situations, as when an adult retells a joke to the same person. Self-referenced encoding improved the source memory of older adults

Technology

the internet plays an increasingly important role in providing access to information and communication for older adults as well as younger adults and youth. A longitudinal study revealed that Internet use by older people reduced their likelihood of being depressed by One-Third Having an iPad strengthened their family ties and brought a greater sense of overall connection to society. Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of Internet users They use email and smart phones to communicate, especially with friends and relatives.

Generational Inequity:

the view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving an inequitable large allocation of resources.

Understand "Activity theory" as related to quality of life in late adulthood:

*Activity Theory: states that the more active & involved older adults are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives. It suggests that many individuals will achieve greater life satisfaction if they continue their middle-adulthood roles into late adulthood. It is important to find substitute roles that keep them active and involved.

Biological Theory of Aging:

*It proposes that natural selection has not eliminated many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics in older adults; thus, the benefit conferred by evolution declines with age because natural selection is linked to reproductive fitness. * One recent view is that aging is caused by a combination of cellular maintenance requirements and evolutionary constraints. Among the key genetic and cellular processes that have been proposed to explain aging are those involving telomeres, free radicals, mitochondria, sirtuins, and the mTOR pathway. According to hormonal stress theory, aging in the body's hormonal system can lower resilience and increase the likelihood of disease.

Identify factors related to successful aging:

*Selective Optimization with Compensation Theory: proposed by Paul Baltes: states that successful aging depends on 3 main Factors: Selection, Optimization & Compensation (SOC). This is attractive to researchers who study aging because it makes explicit how individuals can manage & adapt to losses. - Describes how people can produce new resources and allocate them effectively to tasks they want to master. o Selection: is based on the concept that older adults have a reduced capacity and loss of functioning, which requires a reduction in performance in most life domains. o Optimization: suggests that it is possible to maintain performance in some areas through continued practice and the use of new "technologies". o Compensation: becomes relevant when life tasks require a level of capacity beyond the current level of the older adult's performance potential. Involves high mental/physical demands, such as when thinking about and memorizing new material in a very short period of time, reacting quickly when driving a car, or moving quickly. **Personal life investments at each developmental stage: *Cross-Sectional Study by Ursula Staudinger. - 25 to 34 years of age: invested more time in work and friendship & independence are more important than family. - 35 to 65 years of age: Family becomes more important than friends. - 70 to 84 years of age: Very little change occurs in personal investments. - 85 to 105 years of age: Health becomes most important. *PERSONALITY: recall the Big Five factors of personality: 1. Openness 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extraversion 4. Agreeableness 5. Neuroticism

Education, Work, and Health

*Successive generations of America have been better educated. Education is positively correlated with scores on intelligence tests. Older adults may return to college for a number of reasons. Recent generations have had work experiences that include a stronger emphasis on cognitively oriented labor. The increased emphasis on information processing in jobs likely enhances an individuals' intellectual abilities. Poor health is related to decreased performance on intelligence tests by older adults. Exercise is linked to higher cognitive functioning in older adults.

Understand the role of adolescents' attachment to parents:

- According to Erikson, physical comfort and sensitive care are key to establishing a basic sense of trust in infants. Infants' sense of trust, in turn, is the foundation for attachment and sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be a good pleasant place to be. The immediate result is the long-term effect, is to increase the infant's chances of survival. - Research have found that insecurely attached adolescents are more likely than securely attached adolescents to have emotional difficulties and to engage in problem behaviors such as juvenile delinquency and drug abuse -Parent adolescent relationships become more positive if adolescents go away to college than if they attend college while living at home

Understand crystallized intelligence as related to cognition in middle adulthood

- Crystallized intelligence The ability to use learned knowledge and experience. Ex. learning a new language. You learn more facts, you learn more vocabulary words, you learn the geography of more cities, and so on. Refers to the accumulation of knowledge, facts, and skills that are acquired throughout life, continues to increase in middle adulthood.

Understand the nature of cultural and ethnic identity and immigration:

- Immigration: Immigrants experience stressors uncommon to or less prominent among long-time residents, such as language barriers, dislocations and separation from support networks, the dual struggle to preserve identity and to acculturate, and changes in socioeconomic status. Many undocumented families affect children's and adolescents' development outcomes through parents being unwilling to sign up for services for which they are eligible, through conditions linked to low-wage work and lack of benefits, through stress, and through lack of cognitive stimulation in the home - Ethic and socioeconomic status: Ethnic adolescents experience a double disadvantage (1.) prejudice, discrimination, and bias because of their ethnic minority status; and (2.) the stressful effects of poverty. Economic advantage does not entirely enable them to escape the prejudice, discrimination, and bias associated with being a member of an ethic minority group.

Understand research on formal operations that suggests different results from Piaget:

- Infants are now viewed as more competent than Piaget believed. Some children advance more quickly through the sub-stages of the sensorimotor period than what Piaget claimed - Although Piaget's general views of the preoperational stage have been supported, it has been discovered that children's thinking is not as limited as what he described. When conservation problems are framed in contexts that are more familiar to them, then they can solve some of these problems using more advanced logic. In addition, if children have someone working with them, their cognitive skills can advance more quickly. - Another weakness of Piaget's work in the preoperational stage is that we have since found that egocentrism is not absolute. Rather, it reflects a preferred approach to solving most problems at this age. With coaching, preoperational children can view things from others' perspective, but it is more difficult to do this the younger they are. - Research shows that formal operational ability depends on the ways in which it is assessed. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that we should not rush to judgments about concrete or formal operational thinking skills when judging cognitive levels of development; rather, we must pay close attention to the ways in which these skills are being assessed and the context in which they are being assessed. It is also important to understand that we do not regress to earlier cognitive stages, but we might use the type of thinking that represents earlier stages.

Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding divorce in later adulthood?

- It can weaken kinship ties, especially in the case of older men

Which statements about elderly adults and the US economy are true?

- Older adults are more likely to be consumers rather than producers - One important challenge is the low rate of savings among American adults - Financial challenges are made worse during economic downturns

Social Support (older Adults)

- The Convoy Model of Social Relations: model in which individuals go through life embedded in a personal network of individuals to whom they give and from whom they receive support. - A higher level of social support also is related to a lower probability of an older adult being "institutionalized and depressed". - Older adults who experienced a higher level of Social support showed later cognitive decline than their counterparts with a lower level of social support. - Emotional and finance-related social support were linked to higher levels of "Physical" activity in older adults.

Which of the following statements best describe the findings of research into the role of friendship in the lives of older adults?

- The death of a spouse may be a catalyst for finding new friends - Older individuals with close ties to friends had increased longevity

.As they grow older, people tend to choose ______ friends over ______ friends?

- close; new

Identify characteristics of successful intervention programs for adolescents

1. Intensive individualized attention: High-risk adolescents are attached to a responsible adult who gives the adolescent attention and deals with adolescent's specific needs. - Student assistance counselor is a successful substance-abuse program, a student assistance counselor is available full-time for individual counseling and referral for treatment. 2. Community-wide multi agency collaborative approaches: community wide health promotion campaign has been implemented that uses local media and community education, in concert with a substance-abuse curriculum in the schools. 3. Early identification and intervention: Reaching younger children and their families before children develop problems or at the onset of their problems is a successful strategy. A preschool program provides a model for prevention delinquency, pregnancy, substance abuse, and dropping out of school. They attend high-quality two-year preschool programs and receive weekly home visits from program personnel. These adolescents are less likely to have been arrested and reported fewer adult offenses than a control group. Adolescents are less likely to drop out of high school, and teachers rated their social behaviors as more competent than that of a control group who had not received the preschool experience.

Understand basic physical changes in middle adulthood: vision and hearing

Accommodation of the eye-the ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina-experiences its sharpest decline between 40 and 59 years of age. The eye's blood supply may decrease the visual field's size and account for an increase in the eye's blind spot. At 60 years of age, the retina receives only one-third as much light as it did at 20 years of age, mostly because of the reduced size of the pupil. Hearing also can start to decline by age 40. Auditory assessments indicate that hearing loss occurs in up to 50% percent of individuals 50 years and older. Sensitivity to high pitches usually declines first; the ability to hear low-pitched sounds does not seem to decline much in middle adulthood. Men usually lose their sensitivity to high-pitched sounds sooner than women do. Researchers are identifying new possibilities for improving the vision and hearing of people as they age. One strategy involves better control of glare or background noise.

Understand adolescent egocentrism, including imaginary audience and personal fable:

Adolescent egocentrism is the heightened self-consciousness of adolescents. With two key concepts: o Imaginary audience: adolescents' belief that others are interested in them as they themselves are, as well as attention-getting behavior-attempts to be noticed, visible, and "on stage"( EX: Teen believes all eyes are on their spotty complexion- believing they are the main actor and all other are the audience) o Personal fable: part of the adolescent egocentrism involving a sense of uniqueness and invincibility. (EX: 13-year old says "no one understands me, no one has an idea of what I am feeling)

Understand developmental changes in understanding of death and implications for communicating with children of different ages about death.

Advance Care Planning: refers to the process of patients thinking about and communicating their preferences about end-of-life care. § ACP decreased life-sustaining treatment, increased hospice use, and decreased hospital use. § The completion of an advance directive was associated with a lower probability of receiving life-sustaining treatments. § Recognizing that some terminally ill patients might prefer to die rather than linger in a painful or vegetative state, the organization "Choice in Dying" created the "living will". Living Will: a legal document that reflects the patient's advance care planning. A study of end-of-life planning revealed that only 15% of patients 18 years and older had a living will. POLST- Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment: a document that is more specific than previous advance directives, was created. It translates treatment preferences into medical orders (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, extent of treatment, and artificial nutrition via a tube). POLST involves the health-care professional and the patient or surrogate conferring to determine and state the wishes of the patient. Euthanasia: ("easy death") is the act of painlessly ending the lives of individuals who are suffering from an incurable disease or severe disability. Sometimes it is called "mercy killing". - It is NOT legal in the USA. - Distinctions are made between two types of Euthanasia: Passive and Active Passive Euthanasia: occurs when a person is allowed to die by withholding available treatment, such as withdrawing a life-sustaining device. For example, Turning off a respirator or a heart-lung machine. Active Euthanasia: occurs when death is deliberately induced, as when a lethal dose of a drug is injected. Assisted Suicide: requires the patient to self-administer the lethal medication and to determine when and where to do this, whereas active euthanasia involves the physician or a third party administering the lethal medication. It is legal in Belgium, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands & Switzerland. The US government has no official policy on assisted suicide and leave the decision up to each of the states. Some USA states now allow assisted suicide (California, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Vermont & Washington, DC). Assisted Suicide involves the physician giving the patient an overdose of muscle relaxants or sedatives to take, which causes a "coma" and then death. *Better Care for Dying individuals: A study found that 61% of dying patients were in pain in the las year of life and nearly One-third had symptoms of Depression and Confusion prior to death. Care providers are increasingly interested in helping individuals experience a "good death". A good death involves physical comfort, support from loved ones, acceptance and appropriate medical care. For some individuals, a good death involves accepting one's impending death and not feeling like a burden to others. The 3 most frequent Themes: 1) Preference for dying process, 2) Pain-free status, and 3) Emotional well-being. Hospice: is a program committed to making the end of life as free from pain, anxiety and depression as possible. Palliative Care: the type of care emphasized in a hospice which involves reducing pain and suffering and helping individuals die with dignity

Understand Piaget's cognitive stage during middle to late childhood, including advances in cognitive skills as well as limitations in cognitive skills

Aerobic exercise is linked to children's cognitive skills. It benefits children's processing speed, attention, memory, effortful and goal-directed thinking and behavior, and creativity. · Running, climbing, skipping rope, swimming, bicycle riding, and skating are just a few of the many physical skills elementary school children can master. · They can master complex, intricate and rapid movements needed to produce fine-quality crafts or to play a difficult piece on a musical instrument. · Concrete operational stage last from approximately 7 to 11 years of age. In this stage children can perform concrete operations, and they can reason logically as long as reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples. · Children are also capable of seriation, which is the ability to order stimuli along a quantitative dimension( such as length) ·Another aspect of reasoning about the relations between classes is transitivity, which is the ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions.

Sleep

Approximately 50 percent of older adults complain of having difficulty sleeping. Poor sleep can result in earlier death and lower cognitive functioning. Many sleep problems are linked to health conditions. Physical Appearance and Movement: The most obvious signs of aging are wrinkled and age spots on the skin. People get shorter and their weight often decreases after 60 because of loss of muscle. The movement of older adults slows across a wide range of movement tasks.

Health problems

As we age, our probability of diseases or illness increases. Chronic disorders are rare in early adulthood, increase in middle adulthood, and become more common in late adulthood. The most common chronic disorder in late adulthood is arthritis. Nearly, three-fourth of older adults die of cancer, heart disease, or stroke. * Osteoporosis is the main reason many older adults walk with a stoop; women are especially vulnerable to this condition. Accidents are usually more debilitating to older people than to younger adults.

Avoidant attachment style

Avoidant individuals are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships and once they are in a relationship tend to distance themselves from their partner.

Understand basic physical changes in middle adulthood: obesity

Being overweight is a critical health problem in middle adulthood. For example, obesity increases the probability that an individual will suffer a number of other ailments among them hypertension, diabetes, and digestive disorders. A large-scale study found that being overweight or obese in middle age increases an individual's risk of dying earlier.

Identify contributions of Binet, Wechsler, Sternberg, and Gardner to our understanding of intelligence

Binet developed the test 1905 scale, he also came up with the concept of mental age, the level of mental development relative to others · Wechsler created the Wechsler scales which provides an overall IQ test and five composite scores: verbal comprehension, working memory, processing speed, fluid reasoning, and visual spatial. · Sternberg developed the triarchic theory of intelligence, which states that intelligence comes in three forms : (1) analytical intelligence, which refers to the ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast; (2) creative intelligence, which consists of the ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine; and (3) practical intelligence, which involves the ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice · Gardner suggests eight types of intelligence: o Verbal o Mathematical o Spatial o Bodily-Kinesthetic o Musical o Interpersonal o Intrapersonal oNaturalist

Understand definition of brain death:

Brain Death: is s neurological definition of death which states that a person is brain dead when all electrical activity of the brain ceased tor a specified period of time. Because the brain's lower portions monitor heartbeat and respiration, individuals whose higher brain areas have died may continue to breathe and have a heartbeat.

Identify changes in the brain in middle to late childhood

Brain volume stabilizes by the end of late childhood, but significant changes in various structures and regions of the brain continue to occur. · Brain pathways and circuitry involving the prefrontal cortex, continue to increase during middle and late childhood. · These are linked to children's improved attention, reasoning, and cognitive control. · Cortical thickening also occur in the temporal and frontal lobe that controls language ·Synaptic pruning is a shift that occurs. During this process areas of the brain that are not being used lose synaptic connections and areas that are used show increased connections.

The Circulatory and Respiratory System

Cardiovascular disorder increases in late adulthood. Consistent high blood pressure should be treated to reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease. Lung capacity does drop with age, but older adults can improve lung functioning with diaphragm strengthening exercises.

According to Laura Carstensen, expert in aging, what do older adults prefer?

Close friends over new friends

ROBERT KASTENBAUM

Death system in any culture comprises: · People, Places, Times, Objects, and Symbols

Identify predictors of depression in older adults and factors that can reduce depression

Depression has been called the common cold of mental disorder. Major depression characteristics are feeling deeply unhappy, demoralized, self-derogatory, and bored. Person does not feel well, loses stamina easily, poor appetite, and is listless, and unmotivated. Compared to younger adults, depression in older adults is less common and it is not often caused by psychological factors. Compared with middle age, depression is more likely to be chronic in older adults and it is linked with a higher rate of medical problems in older adults. The lower frequency of depression symptoms in older adults with middle age adults is due to fewer economic hardships, fewer negative social interchange, and increased religiosit Predictors of depression: Poor health and experiencing pain. Symptoms increase among the oldest-old (85 years and older) and this increase is associated with higher percentage of women, more physical disability, greater cognitive impairment, and lower socioeconomic status. Gender differences in depression among older adults likely reflect such as women having lower incomes, having one or more illnesses.

Divorce

Divorce can weaken kinship ties when it occurs in later life, especially in the case of older men. Divorced older women are less likely to have adequate financial resources than married older women. Older adults who are divorced have more health problems than those who are not. Rising divorce rates increased longevity, and better health have led to an increase in remarriage among older adults.

Processing skills in middle to late childhood: Long-term memory

During these years, most children dramatically improve their ability to sustain and control attention

Understand Levinson's seasons of life

Early Adult Transition (age 17-22) A transition from dependence to independence should occur. This transition is marked by the formation of a dream- an image of the kind of life the youth wants to have, especially in terms of a career and marriage. · Entering the Adult World (22-28) Forming a dream and preparing for it, forming an occupation, forming mentor relationships, forming love relationships, marriage and family. · Age 30 Transition (28-33) Man goes through a transition period in which he must face the more serious question of determining his goals. During the thirties, he usually focuses on family and career development. · Settling Down (33-40) He has reached a stable point in his career, has outgrown his earlier, more tenuous attempts at learning to become an adult, and now must look forward to the kind of life he will lead as a middle-aged adult. Ex. · Mid-life Transition (40-45) Require the adult male to come to grips with four major conflicts that have existed in his life since adolescents: (1) Being young vs. being old (2) Being destructive vs. being constructive (3) Being masculine vs. feminine (4) Being attached to others vs. being separated from them Ex. can lead to poor decisions, like spending too much money or leaving a marriage simple based on dissatisfaction and a drive to completely change their lives · Entering Middle Adulthood (45-50) Another time when person commits to new tasks and alternations on his or her life structure Ex. your youngest son went off to college, and your husband and you did new things like taking dance classes · Late Adulthood (60+) Ex. Thinking about what a great life she or he has had. You smile as remembering the achievement and now is able to make peace with his or her regrets. ü Identify major conclusions from research on stability and change in middle adulthood Four longitudinal studies that help us understand the extent to which there is stability or change in adult development: 1. Costa and McCrae's Baltimore Study Focus on what are called the Big Five factors of personality Openness to experience- (creative, curious, and cultured) individuals high on openness to experience are more likely to have better health and well-being, be tolerant, have superior cognitive functioning, achievement and IQ across the life span, show creative achievement in the arts, experience less negative affect to stressors, and to eat more fruits and vegetables. Conscientiousness (hardworking, organized and dependable) Individuals high in conscientiousness often do well in a variety of life domains. For example, there are more likely to live longer, have better health and less stress, engage in superior problem-focused coping, maintain better-quality friendships, achieve higher grade point averages in college, be more academically successful in medical school, be more successful at accomplishing goals, engage in less substance abuse, experience less negative affect to stressors, gamble less, be less likely to have an alcohol addiction, experience less cognitive decline in aging, and are less likely to be characterized by internet addiction Extraversion (gregarious, assertive and sociable) Individuals high in extraversion are more likely than others to live longer, engage in social activities, have fewer sleep problems, show less negative affect to stressors, and have a more positive sense of well-being in the future Agreeableness (cooperative, warm and agreeable) People who are high in agreeableness are more likely to live longer, be generous and altruistic, have more satisfying romantic relationships, view other people positively, show more positive affect to stressors, lie less about themselves in online dating profiles and have a lower risk of dementia Neuroticism (moody, anxious and jealous) People high in neuroticism are more likely to die at a younger age, have worse health and report having more health complaints, feel negative emotion than positive emotion in daily life, experience more lingering negative states, and have more stressor-related negative affect, be more drug dependent, have a higher coronary heart disease risk, have a lower sense of well-being 40 yrs old. 2. Berkeley Longitudinal Studies 3. Helson's Mills College Study 4. George Vaillant's Studies

Episodic Memory

Episodic memory is the retention of information about the details of life's happenings. For example, what was the color of the walls in your bedroom when you were a child, what was your first date like, what were you doing when you heard that airplanes had struck the World Trade Center, and what did you eat for breakfast this morning? Younger adults have better episodic memory than older adults. A study of 18-94 years old revealed that increased age was linked to increased difficulty in retrieving episodic information, facts, and events. In older adults, the older the memory, the less accurate it is. Episodic memory performance predicted which individuals would develop dementia 10 years prior to clinical diagnosis of the disease

Understand Erikson's stage in late adulthood

Erikson' Final Stage #8 Late Adulthood "INTEGRITY vs DESPAIR": Existential identity; a sense of Integrity strong enough to withstand Reflecting in the past, piecing together a positive review or concluding that one's life has not been well spent. Retrospective glances and Reminiscences will reveal a picture of a life well spent and the older adult will be satisfied (Integrity). But if the older adult spent in a "negative way" (being socially 'isolated' in early adulthood or stagnating in middle adulthood = Retrospective will be negative ("Despair"). BUTLER: States life review is set in motion by looking forward to death, proceeds quietly, at other times it is intense, requiring considerable work to achieve some sense of Personality integration.

Understand general conclusions about memory in older adults

Explicit and Implicit Memory: Researchers have found that aging is linked with a decline in explicit memory. Explicit Memory is memory of facts and experiences that individuals consciously know and can state. Explicit memory also is sometimes called declarative memory. Examples; being at the grocery store and remembering what you wanted to buy, being able to name the capital of Illinois, or recounting the events in a movie you have seen. Implicit Memory is a memory without conscious recollection: it involves skills and routines procedures that are performed automatically. Examples, driving a car, swinging a golf club, or trying on a computer keyboard without having to consciously think about how to perform these tasks. Implicit memory is less likely to be adversely affected by aging than explicit memory is. Thus, older adults are more likely to forget what items they wanted to buy at a grocery store(unless they write them down) than they are to forget how to drive a car. Their perceptual speed might be slower to drive a car, but they remember how to do it.

Understand major conclusions from research on second language learning and bilingual education

For late language learners, such as adolescents and adults, new vocabulary is easier to learn than sounds and new grammar. · Children have an ability to pronounce words with a native-like accent in a second language · Children are more likely to learn a second language from large amounts of input · Children who are fluent in two languages perform better than their single-language counterparts on tests of control of attention, concept formation, analytical reasoning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, cognitive complexity, and cognitive monitoring. · Bilingualism is linked to positive outcomes for children's language and cognitive development. · English language learners are taught in one of two main ways (1) instruction in English only, or (2) a dual-language approach that combines instruction in their home language and English ·It takes children approximately three to five years to develop speaking proficiency and seven years to develop reading proficiency in English

Language Development

For many individuals, knowledge of words and word meaning continues unchanged or may even improve in late adulthood. However, some decline in language skills may occur on retrieval of words for use in conversations, comprehension of speech, phonological skills, and some aspects of discourse. These changes in language skills in older adults likely occur as a consequence of declines in hearing or memory, a reduced speed of processing information, or disease.

Understand Gilligan's contributions to understanding Moral development

Gilligan criticizes that Kohlberg greatly underplayed care perspective because was male, and only used males in his research · Claims Kohlberg's work is gender bias o The theory is based on a male norm that puts abstracts principles above relationships Individuals stand-alone and independently making moral decisions. · Kohlberg had Justice perspective o Focuses on the right of the individuals and which individuals independently make moral decisions · Gilligan argues for a care perspective o Views people in terms of their connectedness with others and emphasized interpersonal communication, relationships with others and concern for others

Health care (older adults)

Health Care: One factor that contributes to rising health care costs is the increasing proportion of older adults in the population. Older adults have more illnesses, especially "Chronic diseases", than younger adults do. They see doctors more often, are "hospitalized" more often and have longer hospital days. ONE-THIRD of the total health bill of U.S is for the care of adults 65 and over, who comprise only 12% of the population. A special concern is the increasing cost of "Alzheimer" disease, especially for women, who in a recent analysis bear six times the cost of medical care.

Hearing

Hearing decline can begin in middle age but usually does not become much of an impediment until late adulthood. Smell and taste can decline, although the decline is minimal in healthy older adults. Changes in touch sensitivity are associated with aging, although this does not represent a problem for most older adults. Sensitivity to paint decreases in late adulthood. As with infants and children, perceptual-motor coupling characteristics older adults; driving a vehicle is an example of this coupling.

Understand Erikson's stage of development in Middle to Late childhood

INDUSTRY V. INFERIORITY o 4th stage in Erikson's theory and occurs Mid to late childhood o Children are now more interested on how the things are made and how things work. o School starts to become especially important in development · Developmental Changes o Children begin to get improved emotional understanding and begin to recognize complex emotions § Ex. Pride and Shame · Personal Responsibility o Increased tendency to be aware of the events leading to an emotional reaction § Aware where their feeling is coming from or being triggered o Children Increase their understanding that more than one emotion can be expresses in a particular situation o Children have the ability to suppress or conceal negative emotions or reactions Ex. A 5th grader can now hold down their anger if was not able to do so in their earlier years. o The use of self-initialed strategies for redirecting feeling o Children now have genuine empathy

Understand the role of exercise and nutrition for older adults:

Theder adults.

Income:

In 2014, US women 65 years and older (12%) were much more likely to live in poverty than their male counterparts were (7%) - Poverty: In 2013, 20% of "Latino White older adults and 18% of African American older adults lived in poverty.

.According to selective optimization with compensation theory, when do older adults need to compensate later in life?

In circumstances with high physical demands - In circumstances with high mental demands - When performing tasks that require quick reactions

Understanding Death:

In many ways, we in the US are death avoiders and death deniers. · This denial can take many forms, including our persistent search for a fountain of youth through diet, surgery, and other means. · Tendency of the funeral industry to gloss over death and fashion lifelike qualities in the dead.

Understand characteristics of disabilities in school age children

In the U.S. 12.9 percent from 3 to 12 years of age received special education services · A child with a learning disability has difficulty in learning that involves understanding or using spoken or written language, and the difficulty can appear in listening, thinking, reading, writing, and spelling but it may also involve doing math. · 80% of children with a learning disability have a reading problem. Three types of learning disabilities are dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. · Learning disabilities involve difficulty integrating information from multiple brain regions or subtle impairments in brain structures and functions. · ADHD is a disability which show one or more of the following (1) inattention, (2) hyperactivity, and (3) impulsivity. · Emotional and behavioral disorders consist of serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, and fears associated with personal or school matters, as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics. ·Autism spectrum disorders, also called pervasive developmental disorders, range from severe to mild.

Which of these are benefits of volunteering in late adulthood?

Increasing life expectancy, providing a sense of meaningfulness, social integration

Understand basic physical changes in middle adulthood: Height and weight

Individuals lose height in middle age, and many gain weight. On average, men from 30 to 50 years of age lose about one inch in height, then may lose another inch from 50 to 70 years of age. The height loss from women can be as much as 2 inches from 25 to 75 years of age. The decrease in height is due to bone loss in the vertebrae. One average, body fat accounts for about 10% of body weight in adolescence; it makes up 20 percent or more in middle age.

Insecure attachment

Insecurely attached adults had a higher level of social anxiety than their secure attache counterparts in adults was associated with the development of disease and chronic illness, especially cardiovascular system problems such as high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke

Adults experiencing the approach of the end of life and feeling depressed about the outcomes of their life would be in which of Erikson's stages of development

Integrity vs. despair

Understand characteristics of health in school age children

Leading cause of death during middle and late childhood, and the most common cause of severe injury and death in this period is motor vehicle accidents. · Being overweight is an increasingly prevalent health problem in children. · Diabetes, hypertension, and elevated blood cholesterol levels are common in children who are overweight. ·Cancer is the second leading cause of death in U.S, children 5 to 14 years of age.

Understand major factors that contribute to longevity:

Life span is the maximum number of years that a person will probably live. Life expectancy has dramatically increased; but life span has not. An increasing number of individuals live to be 100 years old. Genetic, health, and coping with stress can contribute to becoming a centenarian. Females live six years longer than male. Sex difference has to do with biological and social factors. The Young old and Oldest-old: the young old has been described as being 64 to 84 years old and the oldest-old 85 years old and older. Experts prefer to describe these two groups in terms of functional age rather than chronological age. They believe that some times 85 years old are more biologically and psychologically fit than 65-year-old individuals.

Understand James Marcia's four identity statuses as they relate to identity development:

Marcia's theory is not a stage theory where adolescents will progress from one state to another, but they will usually touch each state at one point. Many adults will find themselves in one or more of these statues at various points in their lifetime. The goal is to reach identity achievement, where it may come in different ages, depending on the support we get in our exploration, or how much desire we have to do the work required. Identity status #1: Diffusion (confusion): - People in this identity status have no commitment and/or find exploration or personal identity too threatening. They are not actively exploring anything in relationships to their identity or what they believe or value. They are not ready to explore their identity yet. [no commitment; no crisis] Identity status #2: Foreclosure: - These people have accepted a ready-made identity from authority without thinking about it. Example: "Because my grandfather was a firefighter, I'm going to be one too". People have foreclosed on a profession, religion, or identity based upon what their family tradition has been. They have not actively explored what they value, believe, or want separately from what their family or friends want for them. [ commitment; no crisis] Identity status #3: Moratorium: - These people are actively in the process of exploring their identity and how their wants, values, or beliefs, are similar or different from their family and friends. This is often considered a healthy aspect of adolescence because they are exploring their identity but not committing. [crisis, no commitment] Identity status #4: Achievement: - These people have explored alternatives and have committed to their wants, values, and beliefs and are okay with how they fit in as compared to their family or friends. They are able to integrate all of the parts of the self into a stable identity, with which they are comfortable. [both crisis and commitment]

Understand basic physical changes in middle adulthood:Strength, joints, and bones

Maximum physical strength often is attained during the twenties. The term sarcopenia is given to age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. Muscle loss with age occurs at a rate of approximately 1 to 2 percent per year after age 50. A loss of strength especially occurs in the backs and legs. Obesity is a risk factor for sarcopenia. Peak functioning of the body's joints usually occurs in the twenties. The cushions for the movement of bones become less efficient in middle adulthood, a time when many individuals experience joint stiffness and more difficulty in movement. Maximum bone destiny occurs by the mid to late stiffness and more difficulty in movement. Women lose bone mass twice as fast as men do.

.In selective optimization with compensation theory, to which concept does the term selection refer?

Older adults have a reduced capacity and loss of functioning, which require a reduction in performance in most life domains.

Understand changes in physical development from adolescence to young adulthood

Most of us reach our peak levels of physical performance before the age of 30, often between the ages of 19 and 26. · Not only do we reach our peak in physical performance during early adulthood, but it is also during this age period that we begin to decline in physical performance · Muscle tone and strength usually begin to show signs of decline around the age of 30. Sagging chins and protruding abdomens also may begin to appear for the first time. The lessening of physical abilities is a common complaint among the just- turned thirties.

Conclusion About Memory and Aging

Most, but all, aspects of memory decline during late adulthood. The decline occurs primarily in explicit, episodic, and working memory, not in semantic memory or implicit memory. A decline in perceptual speed is associated with memory declines. Successful aging means reducing the decline and adapting to it. Older adults can use certain strategies to reduce memory decline. Strategies involving elaboration and self-referential processing were effective in improving the memory of older adults, actually helping older adults' memory more than younger adult's memory. Using compensation strategies such as managing appointments by routinely writing them on a calendar was associated with higher levels of interdependence in everyday function in cognitively normal older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

Understand major conclusions from research on aspects of cognitive functioning that decline or that don't decline in older adults:

Multidimensionality and Multidirectionality *Cognitive mechanics (The neurophysiological architecture, including the brain) are more likely to decline in older adults that are cognitive pragmatics (the culture-based software of the mind). Speed of processing declines in older adults. Older adults' attention declines more on complex than simple tasks. Regarding memory, in late adulthood explicit memory declines more than implicitly memory; episodic memory declines ,more than semantic memory; working memory also declines. Components of executive function-such as cognitive control and working memory decline in late adulthood. Decision making is a reasonably well-preserved function; Recently, there has been increased interest in the role of metacognition and mindfulness in improving older adults' cognitive functioning.

In Erikson's theory, understand how positive resolutions in earlier life stages influence wisdom and integrity in old age.

Old age= Integrity vs. Despair: WISDOM= *Existential identity; a sense of integrity strong enough to withstand physical disintegration. Middle Adulthood= Generativity vs. Stagnation: CARE= *Caring for others, and empathy and concern. Early Adulthood = Intimacy vs. Isolation: LOVE= *Sense of complexity of relationships; value of tenderness and loving freely. Adolescence= Identity vs. Confusion: FIDELITY= *Sense of complexity of life; merger of sensory, logical, and aesthetic perception. School Age= Industry vs. Inferiority: COMPETENCE= *Humility; acceptance of the course of one's life and unfulfilled hopes. Toddlerhood= Autonomy vs. Shame: WILL= *Acceptance of the cycle of life, from integration to disintegration. Infancy= Basic Trust vs. Mistrust: HOPE= *Appreciation of interdependence and relatedness

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory:

Theory explains why older adults spend more time with close friends and family members

.Which of the following are reasons why the elderly contributes so much more to health care costs in the US?

Older adults tend to see doctors more often - Alzheimer disease is particularly expensive to treat - Older adults comprise an increasing proportion of the US population.

lifestyle Diversity

One-third of adults can now expect to marry, divorce and remarry during their lifetime Older men were far more likely to be married that older women. 24% of US adults over 65 years of age were widowed The time from "Retirement" until death is sometimes referred to as the "Final Stage in the marriage process". Individuals who are in a marriage or a partnership in Late Adulthood usually are happier, are less distressed, and live longer than those who are single. Marital satisfaction helped to insulate older adults' happiness from the effects of daily fluctuations in perceived health

1.People in which of the following age groups said they personally invested more time in work, friends, family, and independence, in that order?

People 25 to 34 years of age

Define puberty and identify changes associated with puberty:

Puberty is a brain- neuro endocrine process occurring in early adolescence that provides stimulation for the rapid physical changes that takes place during this period of development. -Changes associated with puberty are height, weight, the brain, and hormonal changes.

Training Cognitive Skills

Research-based information; training can improve the cognitive skills of many older adults and there is some loss of plasticity in late adulthood.

Use It or Lose It:

Researchers are finding that older adults who engage in cognitive activities, especially challenging ones, have higher cognitive functioning than those who don't use their cognitive skills.

Causes of Death:

SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome): infants stop breathing usually during the night and die without apparent cause. It is the leading cause of infant death in the US, with the highest risk at 2 to 4 months of age (nearly 3,000 deaths of infants per year in the USA). In Childhood: death occurs most often because of accidents or illness. Accidental death in childhood can be the consequence of events such as an automobile accident, drowning, poisoning, fire or a fall from a high place. Major illnesses that cause death in children are heart disease, cancer, and birth defects. In Adolescence: is more likely to occur because of motor vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide (alcohol-related). Older adults: are more likely to die from chronic ailments such as heart disease and cancer. Younger adults: are more likely to die from accidents.

Secure attachment style

Securely attached adults have positive views of relationships, find it easy to get close to others, and are not overly concerned with or stressed out about their romantic relationships. These adults tend to enjoy sexuality in the context of a committed relationship and are less likely than others to have one-night stands. The majority of adults (about 60 to 80 percent) describe themselves as securely attached, and not surprisingly adults prefer having a securely attached partner

In an analysis of many cultures, which of the following factors were found to be important to living the "good life" as an older adult?

Security, Health & Kinship/support

Semantic Memory:

Semantic Memory is a person's knowledge of the world. It includes a person's fields of experience such as knowing chess for a skilled chess player, general academic knowledge, and everyday knowledge; names of famous individuals, important places, or what day is Valentine's Day. Older adults take longer to retrieve semantic information, but in the end, they retrieve it. However, the ability to retrieve very specific information usually declines in older adults. Episodic memory declines more than semantic memory in older adults. A common memory problem for older adults is the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT)phenomenon, individuals can't retrieve familiar information but have the feeling that they should be able to retrieve it. Older adults are more likely to experience this phenomenon than younger adults are. .

Understand Piaget's cognitive stage during adolescence, including advances in cognitive skills

Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 years: reflex activity. This stage occurs between 1-4 months. Children learn to wave their fist and bring their fit to their mouth. 4-8 months children learn to respond to other stimuli and begin to improve hand/eye coordination. At 8-12 months, children are engaged in intentional types of behavior. o Object play: In this stage, children learn to follow objects with their eyes and love playing peek-a-boo at this age. o Motor Control: Children at this stage learn to gain greater motor control, control over the use of the muscles in their hands. They can do more things with objects. o Object Permanence: Piaget believed that objects exist only when they themselves are playing attention to it. When newborns stop paying attention to an object, it ceases to exist for that newborn. Infants under nine months of age search for objects that move outside of their field of vision. Infants develop realization at nine months that objects continue to exist, even when they are out of sight. They realize that the object exists even if the object is not within their sight. o Imitation: Children at this stage learn imitation. Requiring complex thought. Six or seven months of age, infants can imitate simple gestures or actions. By nine months, infants can imitate more complex gestures such as banging two objects together. Piaget believed simple imitation requires complex thought, therefore he predicted that infants would not be capable of imitating unfamiliar novel actions until they were 9 months old. o Deferred Imitation: Infant can imitate something that happened hours or days earlier. (EX: Mother makes a funny face, infant can imitate the funny face hours later) Deferred imitation requires cognitive skills such as memory that Piaget did not believe were sufficiently developed in the first 18 months. (Children today are more advanced in their development than what Piaget found based off of environment resources that impact children development) o Habituation: The process of sensitization. (EX: loud music when you're studying will capture your attention.) Once you become sensitized, it will have less and less effect on you as a stimulus, and you will be less responsive over time. o Symbolic Representation: The ability to visualize or otherwise think about something that isn't physically present. (EX: You can think about a book you read, without the being physically present in your hand or room) Preoperational Stage, Ages 2-7: This stage is divided into two substages o Early preoperational (age 2-5): This stage is highlighted by the increasingly complex use of symbols and symbolic play. This stage, children make strides in using language. o Intuitive (ages 5-7): Children begin to understand causation as well as take simple mental operations and form a more realistic personal view of the world. Children explore their surroundings and comprehend new information based on the way they understand. o Animism: Happens during the preoperational stage. Animism is when children think that anything that moves is alive. (EX: because the sun moves across the sky, kids think the sun is alive and has feelings) It is important because children can't discern between reality and make believe. Children in this stage may not realize that Mickey Mouse at Disney is not real. o Realism: The tendency of young children during the preoperational stage to attribute properties of physical objects to mental phenomena like dreams (EX: When children have a nightmare that there is a monster in the room, this is real for them) o Egocentrism: Having a self-centered view of the world. For children, this means that they tend to view things from their personal point of view or perspective. They simply cannot take the perspective of another person. o Symbolic representation: Becomes more sophisticated and can include the use of actions, images, words, or other signs to represent past and present events, experiences, and concepts. (EX: children acting out stories, using numbers to represent quantity, and drawing figures) o Irreversibility/Lack of Conservation: This concept children have NOT mastered. Conservation is the understanding that changing the shape or appearance of objects does not change their mass, volume, or number. Irreversibility is the lack of understanding that change in appearance of objects does not change the objects. Concrete Operational Stage Age 7-12: This stage allows for children to perform many mental operations than at previous stages of cognitive development. Children are able to perform mental operation as conservations, decentration, and reversibility on objects that are concrete and that can be directly experienced. o Logical Inferences: The process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known to be true. Children's thinking processes are reversible, flexible, not limited to the here and now, multidimensional, less egocentric. Formal Operational Stage age 12+: Categorized by the ability to think hypothetically and think in sophisticated ways about abstract concepts. (EX: adolescent show an increased ability think and plan ahead in abstract ways) Adolescents can hypothesize and speculate without having to concrete representations in front of them o Intangible concepts: Adolescents can perform mental operations on abstracts concepts or information (things you can see or touch such as love, power, truth, self-esteem) They think about "what could be" o Metacognition or Second-order thinking: Thinking about your own thoughts or you can think about how you think. (EX: how your process and retain information) o Adolescent Egocentrism: A pattern of thought that is seen in adolescents. Adolescents understand that others have different perspectives, but their physical, psychological, and social development causes them to be socially self-conscious.

Which theory states that older adults narrow their social networks?

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Robert Kastenbaum

There are some problem with Kubler Ross' Approach: The existence of the 5-stage sequence has not been demonstrated by either Kubler-Ross or independent research. The 5-stage interpretation neglected the patients' situations, including relationship support, specific effects of illness, family obligations, and institutional climate in which they were interviewed. Religion: can fulfill some important psychological needs in older adults, helping them face impending death and accept the inevitable losses in old age. Grief: is the emotional numbness, disbelief, separation anxiety, despair, sadness, and loneliness that accompany the loss of someone we love. It is not a simple emotional state but rather a complex, evolving process with multiple dimensions. Pining or yearning reflects an intermittent, recurrent wish or need to recover the lost person. As time passes, pining and protest over the loss tend to diminish, although episodes of Depression and Apathy may remain or increase. Good family communication can help reduce the incidence of depression and suicidal thoughts. An estimated 80-90% of survivors experience normal or uncomplicated grief reactions that include sadness and even disbelief or considerable anguish. By 6 months after their loss, they "accept" it as a "reality", are more optimistic about the future, and function competently in their everyday lives. Prolonged grief disorder (complicated grief): feelings of despair remain unresolved over an extended period of time. Disenfranchised grief: an individual's grief over a deceased person that is a socially ambiguous loss and can't be openly mourned or supported. Examples: a relationship that isn't socially recognized (ex-spouse), a hidden loss (abortion), and circumstances of the death that are stigmatized (AIDS). The feelings cannot be publicly acknowledged. Dual Process Model: a model of coping with bereavement that emphasizes oscillation between Two dimensions: 1. Loss-oriented stressors: focus on the deceased individual and can include grief work and both positive & negative reappraisals of the loss. 2. Restoration-oriented stressors: involve the secondary stressors that emerge as indirect outcomes of bereavement.

Understand Erikson's psychosocial stage in middle adulthood and how experiences in earlier stages influence this stage

Stage Seven: (Generativity vs. Stagnation) 25- 65 years old Generativity- desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation Stagnation- they have done nothing for the next generation · "job years" where people are either engaged in paid employment or take on some other productive role, such as raising children in the home or taking on voluntary service projects · They begin to focus their attention and energy to the benefit of the next generation and/or society, rather than on themselves. · Individuals also often turn their attention and energy to the solution of social issues. · Become more focused on "giving back" and guiding the next generation · The psychological strength gained by the successful resolution of this stage is care and the environmental influence is family and society

Understand Erikson's stage of development in adolescence:

Stage one: Trust vs. Mistrust (birth-2 years) - Infants learn about the basic trustworthiness of their environment and their caregivers. If infants' needs are consistently met and if they receive attention and affection then they form a global impression that the world is a safe place. -Infants must develop a healthy sense of mistrust in order to survive but hopefully they are well cared for in order to develop more trust than mistrust. Stage two: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (2years-3 years) - Autonomy is a child's need to be independent from his or her caretaker. Toddlers want to discover their own body and learn how to control it. They explore feeding and dressing themselves. It is during this time that they are toilet trained and they discover new ways of moving about. When they succeed in doing things for themselves, they gain a sense of self-control. -If children continually fail or are punished or labeled as messy, sloppy, inadequate, or bad, then they learn to feel shame and self-doubt. Stage three: Initiative vs. Guilt (3 years- 5 years) - Children begin to explore the world around them. They focus on themselves and learn how to dress and feed themselves and become potty trained. They look outside themselves and want to explore their larger world. If their explorations and activities are effective, they learn to deal with people and events in a constructive way and gain a sense of initiative. - If children are criticized or frequently punished, they learn to feel guilty for many of their own actions. Stage Four: Industry vs Inferiority (5 years-12 years) - Children attempt to establish a sense of personal competence and mastery. Children strive to develop numerous skills in school, home, and in the outside world. Kids are in school and comparison with their peers is important. They look at other kids around them and compare themselves. - Negative comparisons of self, disrupt this time. Children compare themselves to others especially on their knowledge and skills (sometimes body imagine in later ages) This stage is universal based on culture. Children in school develop a sense of industry in their self-image. Children do not perceive themselves as making progress towards academic mastery. - Psychological gained by the successful resolution of this stage is competence and the primary environmental influence is school. Stage Five: Identity vs Role Confusion (also known as Ego Identity vs Ego Diffusion) (12 years-18 years) - During this stage, adolescents need to explore what they believe, value, and care about separately from messages they have heard from their families and friends as they have grown up. The central question is "Who am I" "How do I fit in?" They explore basic values and attitudes that cut across their various roles - If adolescents fail to form a central identity or if they cannot resolve a major conflict between two major roles with opposing values systems, the result is what Erikson called "ego diffusion"- Which will lead them to face identity confusion Stage Six: Intimacy vs. Isolation (18 years- 25 years) - During this stage, they are faced with the crisis of establishing a mutually satisfying relationship with another person as opposed to failing to find such an intimate relationship. A person with factors including psychological factors also are included in true intimacy such as sharing values, beliefs, customs, and being able to talk freely and honestly with another person. - If one feels the world is untrustworthy, they are much less likely to develop intimacy with another person, because underlying belief is less likely to reach out to others or feel worthy to be in a relationship. Stage Seven: Generativity vs. Self-Absorption/Stagnation (25 years- 65 years) - This stage is labeled as the "job years" where people are either engaged in paid employment or take on some other productive role, such as raising children in the home or taking on voluntary service projects. After the earlier conflicts have been partly resolved, men and women are free to direct their attention more fully to assistance from others. They begin to focus their attention to benefit the next generation/society, rather than themselves. Individuals turn their energy to social issues, and focus on giving back. - If the individual has failed to resolve earlier conflicts, this often causes them to remain focused on the self. This leads individuals to a mid-life crisis. They measure their accomplishments and failures. The feeling of stagnation is the feeling of not having been successful or having done anything to help out the next generation. Stage Eight: Integrity vs. Despair (65+) - It's common in this stage for individuals to look back on their life and judge themselves. If people find they are satisfied that their lives have had meaning, they have achieved their major goals, and they were involved meaningfully with others, then they develop a sense of integrity. Those with integrity will handle death well. The psychological strength gained of this stage is wisdom. - If the individual's life seems to have consisted of a series of misdirected efforts and lost chances, then the outcome is a sense of despair. These people will face a lot of regrets and question of "what if" or "if only I had." Characteristics of bitterness, unhappy, dissatisfied with their lifetime.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: Laura Carstensen

States that adults become more selective about their social networks as they grow older They place a high value on emotional satisfaction They spend more time with familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships. They deliberately withdraw from social contact with individuals peripheral to their lives while maintaining or increasing contact with "close friends" and "family members" with whom they have had enjoyable relationships. This theory challenges the "stereotype" that the majority of older adults are in emotional despair because of their "social isolation". Focuses on types of GOALS that individuals are motivated to achieve: (1) knowledge-related & (2) Emotional.

Status of the Economy (older audlts)

The U.S. economy cannot bear the burden of so many older persons, who by reason of their age alone are usually consumers rather than producers. - Periodic economic crises place considerable burdens on many older adults, who see their non-government retirement funds drop significantly. - Low rate of Savings among U.S. adults, which has further exacerbated the financial problems of them during economic downturns.

Understand fluid intelligence as related to cognition in middle adulthood

The ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns. You will use it slightly differently each time you are in a new situation, so it is flexible and adaptive, like water in its fluid form. Ex. solving puzzles and coming up with problem-solving strategies. Fluid intelligence peaks, then starts to rapidly slow down. As we get older adulthood, we become less flexible, less able to adapt to new situations. Refers to the ability to reason solve problems in unique and novel situations.

Understand hormonal changes in men and women in middle age

Women Menopause- is the time in middle age, usually during the late forties or early fifties, when a woman's menstrual periods cease (stop). The average age at which U.S. women have their last period is 51. The timing of menarche, a girl's first menstruation, has significantly decreased since the mid-nineteenth century, occurring as much as four years earlier in some countries. Perimenopause (ovaries stop producing hormones) is the transitional period from normal menstrual periods to no menstrual periods at all, which often takes up to 10 years. One study of 30 to 50 years old women found that depressed feelings, headaches, moodiness, and palpitations were the perimenopausal symptoms that these women most frequently discussed with health-care providers. In menopause, production of estrogen by the ovaries declines dramatically, and this decline produces uncomfortable symptoms in some women- "hot flashes," nausea, fatigue, and rapid heartbeat, for example. For most women, menopause overall is not the highly negative experience it was once thought to be. However, the loss of fertility is an important marker for women, it means that they have to make final decisions about having children. Until recently, hormone replacement therapy was often prescribed as treatment for unpleasant side effects of menopause. Hormone replacement therapy augments the declining levels of reproductive hormone production by the ovaries. Further, research indicates that hormone replacement therapy is linked to a slightly higher risk of breast cancer and the longer HRT is taken, the greater the risk of breast cancer. § Men Most men do not lose their capacity to father children, although there usually is a modest decline in their sexual hormone level and activity. They experience hormonal change in their fifties and sixties, but nothing like the dramatic drop in estrogen that women experience. Testosterone production begins to decline about 1% a year during middle adulthood, and sperm count usually declines slowly, but men do not lose their fertility in middle age. Male hypogonadism is used to describe a condition in which the body does not produce enough testosterone. Testosterone replacement therapy increased the risk of prostate cancer; however, recent studies and research reviews indicate that is not the case, it can improve sexual functioning muscle strength, and bone health. It increased libido and energy level, beneficial effects on bone density, strength and muscle as well as cardio protective effects, have been well-documented. Erectile dysfunction (ED) difficulty attaining or maintaining penile erection. Low testosterone levels can contribute to erectile dysfunction. Smoking, diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol levels, obesity, depression, and lack of exercise also are associated with erectile problems in middle-aged men.

Understand changes in the aging brain

The brain loses weight and volume with age, and there is general slowing of function in the central nervous system that begins in middle adulthood and increases in late adulthood. However, researchers have recently found that older adults can generate new neutrons, and at least through the seventies, new dendrites. The aging brain retains considerable plasticity and adaptiveness. For example, it may compensate for losses in some regions of the brain by shifting responsibilities to other regions. A decrease in lateralization may reflect this kind of compensation. Or it may reflect an age-related decline in the specialization of function.

Re-marry

The majority of adult children support the decision of their older adult parents to remarry. Adults "daughters" are more likely than adult sons to be involved in the lives of their aging parents. Middle-aged adults feel more positive about providing support for their children than for their aging parents.

Physical Appearance and Movement

The most obvious signs of aging are wrinkled and age spots on the skin. People get shorter and their weight often decreases after 60 because of loss of muscle. The movement of older adults slows across a wide range of movement tasks. Declines in visual acuity, color vision, and depth perception usually occur with age, especially after age 75. The yellowing of the eye's lens with age reduces color differentiation. The ability to see the periphery of a visual field also declines in older adults. Significant declines in visual functioning related to glare characterize adults 75 years older and are prevalent among those 85 and older. Tree diseases that can impair the vision of older adults are cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.

Substances Abuse

The percentage of older adults who engage in binge drinking declines compare with earlier in adulthood, but moderate drinking of red wine can bring health benefits. Abuse of illicit and prescription drugs is rowing problems in the United States, although it is more difficult to detect in older adults than in younger adults.

Anxious attachment style

These individuals demand closeness, are less trusting, and are more emotional, jealous, and possessive. Attachment-anxious individuals showed strong ambivalence toward a romantic partner Young adults with an anxious attachment were more likely to be characterized by higher negative affect, stress, and perceived social rejection; those with an avoidant attachment were more likely to be characterized by less desire to be with others when alone

In which of the following ways are older adults discriminated against?

They're NOT hired for new jobs -They're eased out of old jobs -They're shunned socially

Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging

This focuses on links among aging, the brain, and cognitive functioning. They relied on MRI and PET scans to assess brain functioning while individuals are engaging in cognitive tasks. Findings are declining in the functioning of specific regions in the prefrontal cortex in older adults and links between this decline and poorer performance on tasks involving complex reasoning, working memory, and episodic memory.

Understand Frankl's ideas about meaning in life as they relate to middle adulthood

Viktor Frankl argued that examining the finiteness of our existence and the certainty of death adds meaning to life. If life were not finite (having limits or bounds) we could spend our life doing just about anything we pleased because time would continue forever. Three most distinct human qualities: spirituality, freedom, and responsibility. Frankl proposed that people need to ask themselves questions as why they exist, what they want from life, and what the meaning of their life might be. Having a sense of meaning of life can lead to clearer guidelines for living one's life and enhanced motivation to take care of oneself and reach goals. This quest can be understood in terms of four main needs for meaning that guide how people try to make sense of their lives: • Need for purpose Purpose can be divided into (1) goals (2) fulfillments • Need for values"can lead a sense of goodness or positive characterization of life and justify certain courses of action. values enable people to decide whether certain acts are right or wrong." • Need for a sense of efficacy "belief that one can make a difference. A life that had purposes and values but no efficacy would be tragic. The person might know what is desirable but could not do anything with that knowledge." • Need for self-worth "good, worthy persons. Self-worth can be pursued individually."

Identify religious/cultural differences in beliefs about death and dying (from videos):

Watch these VIDEOS again!!! **Funeral is an important aspect of many cultures: In USA Culture: The trend is away from public funerals and displaying the dead body in an "open casket" and toward private funerals followed by a memorial ceremony. Their critics claim that funeral directors are just trying to make $$$money and that embalming is "grotesque". In Judaism Culture: have a ceremonial meal and it is shared after a death. A black armband is worn by bereaved family members for one year following a death. The program of mourning is divided into graduated time periods, each with its appropriate practices. The observance of these practices is required of the spouse and the immediate blood relatives of the deceased. The First period is "aninut", the period between death and burial. The next two periods make up "avelut" or mourning proper. The first of these is "shivah" a period of seven days, which commences with the burial and it is followed by "sheloshim" the 30-day period following the burial, including "shivah" At the end of "sheloshim", the mourning process is considered over for all but one's parents. For parents, mourning continues for 11 months, although observances are minimal. The seven-day period of the "shivah" is especially important in traditional Judaism. The mourners, sitting together as a group through an extended period, have an opportunity to project their feelings to the group as a whole.

Cognitive Resources

Working Memory and Perceptual Speed Working memory is closely linked to short term memory. It is like a mental "workbench" that allows children and adults to manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language. Working memory declines during late adulthood and continues to decline from 65 to 89 years of age. It can be improved through training. Moderate exercise resulted in faster reaction times on older adults. Aerobic endurance was linked to better working memory in older adults. Imagery strategy training improved the working memory of older adults

According to research, self-esteem ______ in adults in their 70s and 80s?

dropped significantly

Processing skills in middle to late childhood: Executive function

function is an umbrella-like concept that encompasses a number of higher-level cognitive process. One of those cognitive processes is working memory, specially its central executive dimension.

Adults with avoidant and anxious attachment

had a lower level of sexual satisfaction than their securely attached counterparts

Processing skills in middle to late childhood: Long Term Memory

increases with age during middle and late childhood

Processing skills in the middle to late childhood: Autobiographical memory

involves memory of significant events and experiences in one's life.

Prospective Memory

involves remembering to do something in the future, such as remembering to take your medicine or remembering to do an errand. This memory has been referred to as remembering to remember. Research found decline in prospective memory with age.

Eldercare:

is the physical and emotional caretaking of older members of the family.

Generational inequity:

it is the view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving a large allocation of resources

Ageism

older adults are discriminated against because of their age

Altruism and Volunteering (older audlts)

older adults are more likely to behave in altruistic ways and to value contribution to the public good than younger adults Volunteering is associated with a number of positive outcomes for aging adults. They have better health, cognitive functioning and are less lonely. Among the reasons for the positive outcomes of volunteering are its provision of Constructive activities and productive roles, social integration and enhanced meaningfulness.

A flat EEG (electroencephalogram)

reading for a specified period of time is one criterion of brain death. · The "higher portions" of the brain often die sooner that the lower portions.

Instrumental Reminiscence Therapy

recall the times one coped with stressful circumstances and analyzing what it took to adapt in those contexts -Improved the adaptive ability and resilience of older adults in coping with adverse situations.

*The Sightlines Project (2016):

recommends interventions to increase the social engagement of older adults: employer wellness programs that strengthen support networks, environmental designs that improve neighborhood & community life, technologies that improve personal relationships and opportunities for volunteerism.

Attachment-focused

reminiscence therapy reduced depressive symptoms, perceived stress, & emergency room visits in older African Americans.

Processing skills in middle to late childhood: Executive Function dimensions

self-control/inhibition, working memory, flexibility

.Optimization

suggests that it is possible to maintain performance in some areas through continued practice and the use of new technologies.

Reminiscence Therapy:

when working with Older clients, some clinicians use this therapy, which involves discussing past activities and experiences with another individual or group; including the use of photographs, familiar items and video/audio recordings. Improves the mood and quality of older adults, including with Dementia In older adults with dementia: reduce their depressive symptoms, improved self-acceptance and positive relations with others. A Meta-analysis of 128 studies found that through Reminiscence Therapy clients attained a higher sense of integrity (Based on Erikson's concept of Integrity vs. Despair). One study with Elderly Institutionalized adults with 8 weeks of therapy resulted self-estem, life satisfaction and psychological well-being and reduced depression.

*Life Expectancy:

§ The upper boundary of the Human lifespan is 122 years of age (based on the oldest age documented). § Life expectancy has increased from 47 years for a person born in 1900 to 79 years for someone born today (US Census 2017). § Today in US women life expectancy is 81, for Men 76. § More than 80% of all deaths occur in Hospital or Institutions

Understand how attachment styles are related to young adulthood relationships

· Although relationships with romantic partners differ from those with parents, romantic partners fulfill some of the same needs for adults as parents do for their children. · Do adult attachment patterns with partners reflect childhood and adolescent attachment patterns with parents? In a widely cited retrospective study, Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver revealed that young adults who were securely attached in their romantic relationships were more likely to describe their early relationship with their parents as securely attached. · Further, a longitudinal study revealed that securely attached infants were in more stable romantic relationships in adulthood than their insecurely attached counterparts · However, in another study links between early attachment styles and later attachment styles were lessened by stressful and disruptive experiences such as the death of a parent or instability of caregiving · Consistently positive caregiving over a number of years is likely an important factor in connecting early attachment with functioning later in development. · It is important to recognize that attachment security in infancy does not always by itself produce long-term positive outcomes, but rather is linked to later outcomes through connections with the way children, adolescents, and adults subsequently experience various social contexts as they development Individuals who are securely attached have a well-integrated sense of self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. They are able to control their emotions, are optimistic, and are resilient. When they face stress and adversity, they activate cognitive representations of being securely attached, are mindful of what is happening around them, and choose effective coping strategies. · If you have an insecure attachment style, are you stuck with it and does it doom you to have problematic relationships? Attachment categories are somewhat stable in adulthood, but adults do have the capacity to change their attachment thinking and behavior

Understand Erikson's psychosocial stage in young adulthood and how experiences in earlier stages influence this stage

· Intimacy vs. Isolation. This stage occurs at approximately 18-25 years old. During this age range individuals are faced with the crisis of establishing a mutually satisfying relationship with another person as opposed to failing to find such an intimate relationship. However, intimacy in Erikson's theory should not be confused with sexual intimacy. Although sex can certainly be a part of intimacy, psychological factors also are included in true intimacy such as sharing values, beliefs, customs, and being able to talk freely and honestly with another person. Certainly there is a lot of sexual intimacy that happens in the absence of these psychological factors. Intimacy can be defined as the ability for an individual to share oneself with another person of either sex without the fear of losing personal identity. · You can also see how feeling competent (autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, and industry vs. inferiority) and a developed sense of trust (trust vs. mistrust) is also important at this stage. If you feel that the world is untrustworthy, you are much less likely to develop intimacy with another person, because your underlying belief is that they will let you down. In addition, if you have a low sense of self-esteem, you are less likely to reach out to others or feel worthy to be in a relationship. As counselors and teachers working with clients and students, it is at this stage that we can most clearly see the damage that has been caused by unsuccessful resolution of the previous stages. · During the stage of intimacy vs. isolation the key questions that need to be resolved are: o Who do I want to be with or date? o What am I going to do with my life? o Will I settle down and take a partner? · We have seen that historically this stage has lasted longer than in previous time periods as more and more young adults are delaying marriage and partnership to pursue school and a degree rather than settle down as early as generations in the past. The psychological strength gained by the successful resolution of this stage is love and the environmental influence is partners, spouses/lovers and friends.

Identify the effects of exercise on young adults

· Many health experts recommend that young adults engage in 30 minutes or more of aerobic exercise daily. · Aerobic exercise is sustained exercise—jogging, swimming, or cycling, for example—that stimulates heart and lung activity. Most health experts recommend raising your heart rate to at least 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. Only about one-fifth of adults, however, achieve these recommended levels of physical activity · Researchers have found that exercise is linked not only to physical health, but mental health as well. In particular, exercise is associated with a higher self-concept, as well as lower anxiety and depression · Recent research also indicates that exercise reduces depressive symptoms. Meta-analyses have shown that exercise can be as effective in reducing depression as psychotherapy

Understand Piaget's ideas about cognition in young adulthood

· Piaget concluded that an adolescent and an adult think in the same way qualitatively. That is, Piaget argued that at approximately 11 to 15 years of age, adolescents enter the formal operational stage, which is characterized by more logical, abstract, and idealistic thinking than the concrete operational thinking of 7- to 11-year-olds. · Piaget did stress that young adults are more quantitatively advanced in their thinking in the sense that they have more knowledge than adolescents. · He also reasoned, as do information-processing psychologists, that adults especially increase their knowledge in a specific area, such as a physicist's understanding of physics or a financial analyst's knowledge of finance. According to Piaget, however, formal operational thought is the final stage in cognitive development, and it characterizes adults as well as adolescents.

Understand research on post formal thought

· Some theorists have pieced together these descriptions of adult thinking and have proposed that young adults move into a new qualitative stage of cognitive development, postformal thought · Postformal thought is: o Reflective, relativistic, and contextual. As young adults engage in solving problems, they might think deeply about many aspects of work, politics, relationships, and other areas of life. They find that what might be the best solution to a problem at work (with a boss or co-worker) might not be the best solution at home (with a romantic partner). Thus, post formal thought holds that the correct solution to a problem requires reflective thinking and may vary from one situation to another. Some psychologists argue that reflective thinking continues to increase and becomes more internal and less contextual in middle age o Provisional. Many young adults also become more skeptical about the truth and seem unwilling to accept an answer as final. Thus, they come to see the search for truth as an ongoing and perhaps never-ending process. o Realistic. Young adults understand that thinking can't always be abstract. In many instances, it must be realistic and pragmatic. o Recognized as being influenced by emotion. Emerging and young adults are more likely than adolescents to understand that their thinking is influenced by emotions. However, too often negative emotions produce thinking that is distorted and self-serving at this point in development. · How strong is the evidence for a fifth, postformal stage of cognitive development? Researchers have found that young adults are more likely to engage in postformal thinking than adolescents are · But critics argue that research has yet to document that postformal thought is a qualitatively more advanced stage than formal operational thought. · In addition to the characteristics just described for a possible fifth, postformal stage, a recent study explored wisdom and meaning as important developments in emerging adulthood. In this study, it was found that the search for and presence of meaning was linked to wisdom, which was assessed with five components: critical life experiences, reminiscence/reflectiveness, openness to experience, emotional regulation, and humor

Understand Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of love

· Sternberg proposed a triarchic theory of love in which love can be thought of as a triangle with three main dimensions—passion, intimacy, and commitment · Passion, as described earlier in the romantic love section, is physical and sexual attraction to another. · Intimacy relates to the emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship. · Commitment is the cognitive appraisal of the relationship and the intent to maintain the relationship even in the face of problems. · In Sternberg's theory, the strongest, fullest form of love is consummate love, which involves all three dimensions · If passion is the only ingredient in a relationship (with intimacy and commitment low or absent), we are merely infatuated · A relationship marked by intimacy and commitment but low or lacking in passion is called affectionate love, a pattern often found among couples who have been married for many years. · If passion and commitment are present but intimacy is not, Sternberg calls the relationship fatuous love, as when one person worships another from a distance. · But if couples share all three dimensions—passion, intimacy, and commitment—they experience consummate love

Understand Kohlberg's levels and stages of moral development

· The Kohlberg's levels of Moral Development o These levels are "universal" o A person's mortality becomes more internal or mature · Kohlberg's Level 1: Pre-conventional reasoning Lowest level Children interpret "good and bad" in terms of external awards and punishment "What is in it for me?" Be nice and that is how people will treat you · Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment o Individual think that Powerful authorities have placed down the law that must be obeyed Authorities include: Mom, dad, teacher They obey to avoid punishment Heinz dilemma: Children say Heinz was wrong, because it's against the law to steal. · Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange Children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by adults Children obey to get praised Punishment is simply a risk that one would naturally want to avoid. Heinz dilemma: Children would say that he would steal the drug if he wanted his wife to live but doesn't have to. · Kohlberg's Level 2: Conventional reasoning o Individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are standards of others Ex. Parents or laws of society · Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships Children are now entering their teens Believe that people should live up to the expectations of the family and community and behave in "good ways" Good behavior means having good motives Such as love, trust, empathy, and concern for others Heinz dilemma: Teens believe that he was right to steal the drug because he was a good man for wanting to save his wife. Even if Heinz doesn't love his wife, they would still see him as good for stealing the drug because he is still her husband. · Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order o People become more concerned with society as a whole o Now it's emphasized in obeying laws, respecting authority, and performing one's duties so that social order is maintained o Good behavior is not based on fear or seeking approval anymore, but we follow rules to maintain an orderly society Heinz dilemma: People understand that his motives are good, but cannot condone the theft · Level 3: Post-Conventional Morality o 3rd highest level o Morality is more Internal · Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights o People begin to ask, " What makes a good society?" o Certain rights should always be protected Such as Basic rights, liberty, and life o Recognize that laws can and should be changed when they do not protect the welfare of the people Heinz dilemma: People in this stage make it clear they don't favor breaking the law, but the wife's right to live is a moral right that must be protected. o Life is more important than property · Stage 6: Universal Principles (Theoretical now) Gandhi MLK type of people o Principals by which we achieve justice o Treating all people, the same, respecting basic dignity, o The principal is universal as they apply to all Ex. WE would not vote for a law that aids some but hurts others. Heinz dilemma: Looking at situations through one's eyes, which would mean that everyone involved would take the roles of others. The druggist, the wife, and Heinz. If the druggist did this, he would recognize that life must take priority over the property. Identify criticism of Kohlberg's theory of moral development The link between moral thought and moral behavior, whether moral reasoning is conscious deliberative or unconscious automatic. · Moral Thought and Moral Behavior o Kohlberg was criticized for putting too much emphasis on moral thought and not enough emphasis on moral behavior o Moral Reasoning can sometimes be a shelter for immoral behavior · Jonathon Haidt o Saw flaws in Kohlberg's work, because moral thinking is purposeful, and people go around all the time contemplating and reasoning about morality · The role of emotion o Kohlberg argued that emotions have negative effects on moral reasoning But studies show that emotions actually play an important part in moral thinking · Culture and Moral Reasoning o Critics claim his theory is culturally biased Kohlberg's study was all male and white When study conducted in different vulture results were different · Families and Moral development o Kohlberg claimed that family process was unimportant in a child's moral development

Understand important adjustments in marriage/family

· While marriage rates are declining and the average age of marriage is going up, recent research with emerging and young adults indicates that they view marriage as a very important life pursuit. Indeed, young adults in one study predicted that marriage would be more important in their life than parenting, careers, or leisure activities · emerging and young adults may not be abandoning marriage because they don't like it or are not interested in it, but rather because they want to position themselves in the best possible way for developing a healthy marital relationship. · Thus, in this study, never-married men said that the most important factor for a potential spouse was similar ideas about having and raising children, but never-married women placed greater importance on having a steady jo · Is there a best age to get married? Marriages in adolescence are more likely to end in divorce than marriages in adulthood. However, researchers have not been able to pin down a specific age or age span for getting married in adulthood that is most likely to result in a successful marriage · How happy are people who do marry? The average duration of a marriage in the United States is currently just over nine years. The percentage of married individuals in the United States who said their marriages were "very happy" declined from the 1970s through the early 1990s before approaching a plateau · Spouses with a strong commitment to each other may in times of conflict sacrifice their personal self-interest for the benefit of the marriage. Commitment especially becomes important when a couple is not happily married and can help them get through hard times with the hope that the future will involve positive changes in the relationship. · How important is the sexual aspect of a relationship in the couple's marital satisfaction? A recent study in the second to fourteenth years of a marriage found that frequency of engaging in sexual intercourse was linked to a couple's marital satisfaction, but that a satisfying sex life and a warm interpersonal relationship were more important

Understand basic physical changes in middle adulthood: Visible signs

• Visible signs Most visible signs of physical changes in middle adulthood involve physical appearance. The skin begins to wrinkle (arrugar) and sag (hundirse) because of a loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues. Small, localized areas of pigmentation in the skin produce age spots, especially in areas that are exposed to sunlight, such as the hands and face. Hair becomes thinner and grayer due to a lower replacement rate and a decline in melanin production. Fingernails and toenails develop ridges and become thicker and more brittle. Since a youthful appearance is valued in many cultures, individuals whose hair is graying, whose skin is wrinkling, whose bodies are sagging, and whose teeth are yellowing may strive to make themselves look younger. Undergoing cosmetic surgery, dyeing hair, purchasing wigs, enrolling in weight reduction programs, participating in exercise regimens, and taking heavy doses of vitamins are common in middle age. • Cardiovascular system Midlife (40 to 65) is a time when high blood pressure and high cholesterol often take adults by surprise. The level of cholesterol in the blood increases during the adult years and in midlife begins to accumulate on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol comes in two forms: - LDL (low density lipoprotein)- "bad" cholesterol because when level of LDL is too high, it sticks to the lining of blood vessels, which can lead to arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). - HDL (high-density lipoprotein)- "good" cholesterol because when it is high and LDL is low, the risk of cardiovascular disease is lower. High blood pressure (hypertension), too, often begins to appear for many individuals in their forties and fifties. At menopause, a woman's blood pressure rises sharply and usually remains above that of a man through life's later years. One study found that uncontrolled hypertension can damage the brain's structure and function as early as the late thirties and early forties. Exercise, weight control, and a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can often help to stave off many cardiovascular problems in middle age. 7 of things that people can do to improve their cardiovascular health: (1) Manage blood pressure (2) Control cholesterol (3) Reduce blood sugar (4) Get active (5) Eat better (6) Lose weight (7) Quit smoking. An increasing problem in middle and late adulthood is metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance. • Lungs There is little change in lung capacity through most of middle adulthood for many individuals. At age 55, the proteins in lung tissue become less elastic. This change, combined with a gradual stiffening of the chest wall, decreases the lungs' capacity to shuttle oxygen form air people breathe to the blood in their veins. The lung capacity of individuals who are smokers drops precipitously in middle age, but if the individuals quit smoking, their lung capacity improves, although not to the level of individuals who have never smoked. Exercise is linked to better lung functioning and a lower risk of developing lung cancer. • Sleep The average American adult gets just under seven hours of sleep a night. An increasing number of experts note that eight hours of sleep or more per night are necessary for optimal performance the next day. Work pressures, school pressures, family obligations, and social obligations often lead to long hours of wakefulness and irregular sleep/wake schedules. Some aspects of sleep become more problematic in middle age. The total number of hours slept usually remains the same as in early adulthood, but beginning in the forties, wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of the deepest type of sleep.