PSYC 226 Final Exam Study Guide

The average adult in middle adulthood ______ height and ______ weight.

Loses; gains

The healthcare needs of older adults are reflected in ______, the program that provides health-care insurance to adults over 65 under the Social Security system.

Medicare

Prejudice against others because of their age, especially against older adults, is known as ______

Ageism

Identify the possible double jeopardy for elderly ethnic minority individuals.

Ageism and racism

Brain death occurs when:

All electrical activity of the brain has ceased for a specified period of time.

Adult development experts are virtually unanimous in their belief that midlife crises:

Have been exaggerated.

Which of the following most resembles the grieving process?

A roller coaster ride of emotions

Although Alicia has a great memory for trivia, she has difficulty remembering important events in her life. Alicia has a good ______ memory but poor ______ memory.

- Semantic - Episodic

Today the average life expectancy in the United States is:

79 years

Alzheimer's disease involves a deficiency in which important brain messenger chemical?

Acetylocholine

Kubler-Ross describes the ______ stage as the end of the dying struggle.

Acceptance

Which of the following is true of the American attitude toward death?

Americans are generally death avoiders and death deniers.

What is the most common chronic disorder in late adulthood?

Arthritis

Which of the following is a consistent finding regarding age identity?

As adults become older their age identity is younger than their chronological age.

Which of the following is especially important to successful aging?

Being active

According to Levinson, one of the changes to middle adulthood requires that the adult male come to grips with four major conflicts. Which of the following is NOT one of these major conflicts?

Being attractive versus being unattractive

Factors at age 50 that were linked with being in the "happy-well" group at age 75 to 80 years of age included all of the following EXCEPT:

Being wealthy

Andrew, 52 years old, is typical of most people in middle age. Work plays a ______ role in his life.

Central

Middle-aged adults feel they have less control over their:

Children

Zane's mother seems to know every historical fact about their hometown. You can pick any building and she can tell you all the people who have owned it. Zane is impressed with his mother's ______ intelligence.

Crystallized

Erikson proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue which he termed:

Generativity versus stagnation

______ is the global term for any neurological disorder in which the primary symptoms involve a deterioration of mental functioning.

Dementia

As Clarence has gotten older he is much slower going down stairs. While his adult children think it is due to balance, he is actually experiencing the effects of age on his:

Depth perception

Which of the following is most typical of the vision-related issues faced by middle-aged persons?

Difficulty viewing close objects

Middle-age partners are more likely to view their marriage as positive if they:

Engage in mutual activities

Marina is having hot flashes, nausea, and rapid heartbeat, all signs that the production of ______ by the ovaries declines dramatically.

Estrogen

Which of the following Big Five personality factors describes whether a person is sociable or retiring?

Extraversion

Steven's employer is downsizing and cutting jobs. He is worried about his future with the company. On his way home he purchases enough beer so that he'll be drunk by bedtime. He is responding in a typically male:

Fight-or-flight manner.

Which of the following biological theories of aging states that people age because their cells' normal metabolism produces unstable oxygen molecules?

Free-radical theory

______ is a program committed to making the end of life as free from pain, anxiety, and depression as possible.

Hospice

Erikson believed that elderly adults use their impending death as a motivation to look back and evaluate their life. This form of retrospection is what many theorists call:

Life review

Most psychologists believe that it is best for dying individuals to:

Know that they are dying.

______ is the number of years that the average person born in a particular year will probably live.

Life expectancy

Middle adulthood is referred to as the sandwich generation because:

Middle-aged adults may have to care for their own adolescent/young adult children as well as their elderly parents.

According to research by Rossi, which of the following were found to have the closest relationships during their adult years?

Mothers and daughters

According to the evolutionary theory of aging, why hasn't natural selection eliminated many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics in older adults?

Natural selection is closely linked with reproduction in young adulthood

Turning off a respirator or a heart-lung machine is an example of ______ euthanasia.

Passive

According to the Seattle Longitudinal Study, which of the following abilities showed signs of early decline?

Perceptual speed

A low level of social integration is linked with:

Poorer health and earlier death in older adults

Recent studies have led researchers to conclude that the emotional life of older adults is more ______ than once thought.

Positive

Gerry, 72 years old, is feeling sluggish and mentally cloudy because he is having trouble sleeping. After talking with his nurse practitioner, he learned that recent research has found that ______ improves the sleep profile of older adults.

Regular exercise

When working with older clients, some clinicians use ______ therapy. Vanda is in one such therapy program and her clinician has her discussing past activities and experiences with other individuals in her group.

Remininscence

An example of ______ attention is the ability to focus on one voice among many in a crowded room or a noisy restaurant.

Selective

Sebastian has four children. Among the four, who is most likely to help him with daily living activities when he is older?

Selena, his only daughter and next to the youngest

Which of the following theories explains why older adults spend most of their time with familiar individuals and family?

Socioemotional selectivity theory

In a classic study, Judith Rodin and Ellen Langer found that an important factor related to health, and even survivial, in a nursing home is:

The patient's feelings of control and self-determination.

What is the MOST common change in sleep patterns of adults during middle age?

There is a decrease in the deepest type of sleep.

Trevor and Michelle's last child has just left home to attend college. According to research, this will most likely be a time when:

They will have increased marital satisfaction.

An advanced directive/living will must be signed when:

When an individual is able to think clearly.

______ is expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits practical judgment about important matters.

Wisdom