Chapters 15-19 Reading Reflections
Ch.19 Agonal Phase
The phase of dying in which gasps and muscle spasms occur during the first moments in which the regular heart beat disintegrates.
Ch.19 Clinical Death
The phase of dying in which heartbeat, circulation, breathing, and brain functioning stop, but resuscitation is possible.
Ch.19 Mortality
The phase of dying in which the individual passes into permanent death.
Ch.19 Voluntary Active Euthanasia
The practice of acting directly, at a patient's request, to end suffering before a natural end to life.
Ch.19 Euthanasia
The practice of ending the life of a person suffering from an incurable condition.
Ch.19 Passive Euthanasia
The practice of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, permitting a patient to die naturally.
Ch.17 Compression of Morbidity
The public health goal of reducing the average period of diminished vigor before death as life expectancy extends.
Discuss difficulties that middle-aged adults face when they become unemployed.
They feel as if they have lost something of greater value. They show a sharper decline in physical and mental health, and those over 40 usually stay jobless longer, suffering substantial income loss.
Explain why older adults think and talk more about death than do younger people but feel less anxious about it.
They no longer have a vague conception of their own death. In late adulthood, they think and talk more about death, because they are a lot closer to it. They know that with getting older, consequences happen, and they have come to accept that, for the most part at least.
Explain the benefits of continuing education for elders. How can educators increase program effectiveness?
They report a rich array of benefits: understanding new ideas in many disciplines, learning new skills that enrich their lives, making new friends, and developing a broader perspective on the world. They see themselves differently. They are to be patient, supportive, and modify equipment and software to suit their needs.
Ch.18 Person-Environment Fit
A good match between older adults' abilities and the demands of their living environments. Promotes adaptive behavior and psychological well-being.
Average healthy life expectancy
The number of years a person born in a particular year can expect to live in full health, without disease or injury.
Define four types of euthanasia, and give an example of each.
1. Passive Euthanasia: At the patient's request, the doctor withholds or withdraws treatment, thereby permitting the patient to die naturally. For example, the doctor does not perform surgery or administer medication that could prolong life, or the doctor turns off the respirator of a patient who annoy breathe independently. 2. Voluntary Active Euthanasia: The doctor ends a suffering patient's life at the patient's request. For example, the doctor administers a lethal does of drugs. 3. Assisted Suicide: The doctor helps a suffering patient take his or her own life. For example, the doctor enables the patient to swallow or inject a lethal dose of drugs. 4. Involuntary Active Euthanasia: The doctor ends a suffering patient's life without the patient's permission. For example, without obtaining the patient's consent, the doctor administers a lethal does of drugs.
Family members often find letting go very difficult. What are some suggestions you can offer to help them communicate with a dying family member?
1. Be truthful about the diagnosis and course of the disease. 2. Listen perceptively and acknowledge feelings. 3. Maintain realistic hope. 4. Assist in the final transition.
What are some characteristics of wise elders?
1. Knowledge about fundamental concerns of life, including human nature, social relations, and emotions. 2. Effective strategies for applying that knowledge to making life decisions, handling conflict, and giving advice. 3. A view of people that considers the multiple demands of their life contexts. 4. A concern with ultimate human values, such as the common good, as well as respect for individual differences in values. 5. Awareness and management of the uncertainties of life - that many problems have no perfect solution.
Ch.18 Social Convoy
A model of age-related changes in social networks, which views the individual as moving through life within a cluster of relationships, with close ties in the inner circle and less close ties on the outside. With age, people change places in the convoy, new ties are added, and some are entirely lost.
What five concepts must a child grasp in order to fully understand death?
1. Permanence: Once a living thing dies, i cannot be brought back to life. 2. Inevitability: All living things die eventually. 3. Cessation: All living functions, including thought, feeling, movement, and bodily processes, cease at death. 4. Applicability: Death applies to living things. 5. Causation: Death is caused by a breakdown of bodily functioning.
Average life expectancy
The number of years that an individual born in a particular year can expect to live
Functional Aging
Unlike chronological age, this refers to actual competence and performance.
Ch.17 Osteoarthritis
A form of arthritis that involves deteriorating cartilage on the ends of bones of frequently used joints, which leads to swelling, stiffness, and loss of flexibility. Also known as "wear and tear" arthritis or "degenerative joint disease"
Ch.15 Type A Behavior Problem
A behavior pattern characterized by extreme competitiveness, ambition, impatience, hostility, angry outbursts, and a sense of time pressure.
Ch.17 Wisdom
A capacity made up of multiple cognitive and personality traits, combining breadth and depth of practical knowledge; ability to reflect on and apply that knowledge in ways that make life more bearable and worthwhile; emotional maturity, including the ability to listen, evaluate, and give advice; and altruistic creativity, which involves contributing to humanity and enriching other' lives.
Sleep apnea
A condition in which breathing ceases for 10 seconds or longer, resulting in many brief awakenings.
Ch.16 Burnout
A condition in which long-term job stress leads to mental exhaustion, a sense of loss of personal control, and feelings of reduced accomplishment.
Ch.15 Presbyopia
A condition of aging in which, around age 60, the lens of the eye loses its capacity to adjust to objects at varying distances.
Gerotranscendence
A cosmic and transcendent perspective directed forward and outward, beyond the self.
Ch.19 Appropriate Death
A death that makes sense in terms of the individual's pattern of living and values, preserves or restores significant relationships, and is as free of suffering as possible.
Ch.16 Skipped-Generation Family
A family structure in which children live with grandparents but apart from parents.
Ch.17 Rheumatoid Arthritis
A form of arthritis in which an autoimmune response leads to inflammation of connective tissue, particularly the membranes that line the joints, resulting in overall stiffness, inflammation, and aching. Leads to deformed joints and often serious loss of mobility.
Ch.18 Third Age
A new phase of late adulthood extending from ages 65 to 79 or linger, resulting from added years of longevity plus good health and financial stability, in which older adults pursue personally enriching interests and goals.
Ch.19 Dual-Process Model of Coping With Loss
A perspective that assumes that people cope most effectively with loss when they oscillate between dealing with the emotional consequences of loss and attending to life changes, which - when handled successfully - have restorative, or healing, effects.
Ch.17 Dementia
A set of disorders occurring almost entirely in old age in which many aspects of thought and behavior are so impaired that everyday activities are disrupted.
Ch.17 Selective Optimization With Compensation
A set of strategies used by older adults who sustain high levels of functioning. Narrowing their goals, they select personally valued activities to optimize returns from their diminishing energy and also find new ways to compensate for losses.
Ch.15 Hardiness
A set of three personal qualities - control, commitment, and challenge - that, together, help people cope adaptively with stress brought on by inevitable life changes.
Ch.18 Disengagement Theory
A social theory of aging tat states that declines in social interaction in late adulthood are due to mutual withdrawal between older adults and society in anticipation of death.
Ch.18 Activity Theory
A social theory of aging that states that declining rates of interaction in late adulthood reflect social barriers to engagement, not the desires of aging adults. Older people try to preserve life satisfaction by finding roles that allow them to remain about as active and busy as they were in middle age.
Ch.18 Continuity Theory
A social theory of aging that states that most aging adults, in their choice of everyday activities and social relationships, strive to maintain a personal system - an identity and a set of personality dispositions, interests, roles, and skills - that promotes life satisfaction by ensuring consistency between their past and anticipated future.
Ch.19 Persistent Vegetative State
A state in which the cerebral cortex no longer registers electrical activity but the brain stem remains active.
Ch.17 Neurofibrillary Tangles
A structural change in the cerebral cortex associated with Alzheimer's disease, in which bundles of twisted threads appear that are the product of collapsed neural structures.
Ch.17 Amyloid Plaques
A structural change in the cerebral cortex associated with Alzheimer's disease, in which dense deposits of a deteriorated protein called amyloid develop, surrounded by clumps of dead nerve and glial cells.
Ch.16 Sandwich Generation
A term used to describe middle-aged adults who must care for multiple generations above and below them at the same time.
Ch.18 Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory
A theory of gaining that states that social interaction in late adulthood extends lifelong selection processes. Physical and psychological aspects of aging lead to an increased emphasis on the emotion-regulating function of social interaction, leading older adults to prefer familiar social partners with whom they have developed pleasurable relationships.
Ch.16 Parental Imperative Theory
A theory that claims that identification with traditional gender roles is maintained during the active parenting years to help ensure the survival of children but that after children reach adulthood, parents are free to express the "other-gender" side of their personalities.
Ch.16 Feminization of Poverty
A trend in which women who support themselves or their families have become the majority of the adult population living in poverty, regardless of age and ethnic group.
Ch.18 Dependency-Support Script
A typical pattern of interaction in which caregivers attend to older adults; dependent behaviors immediately, thereby reinforcing those behaviors.
Ch.18 Independence-Ignore Script
A typical pattern of interaction, in which older adults; independent behaviors are mostly ignored and, as a result, occur less often.
Ch.15 Neural Network View
A view that attributes age-related slowing of cognitive processing to breaks in neural networks as neurons die. The brain adapts by forming bypasses - new synaptic connections that go around the breaks but are less efficient.
Ch.15 Information-Loss View
A view that attributes age-related slowing of cognitive processing to greater loss of information as it moves through the system. As a result, the whole system must slow down to inspect and interpret the information.
Ch.19 Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
A written statement authorizing appointment of another person (usually, though not always, a family member) to make health care decisions on one's behalf.
Ch.19 Advance Medical Directive
A written statement of desired medical treatment should a person become incurably ill.
Ch.19 Living Will
A written statement specifying the treatment a person does or does not want in case of a terminal illness, coma r other near-death situations.
Body transcendence
Focusing on psychological strengths.
Ch.17 Terminal Decline
Acceleration in deterioration of cognitive functioning prior to death.
Anticipatory grieving
Acknowledging that loss is inevitable and preparing emotionally for it.
Discuss why teenagers' understanding of death is not yet fully mature.
Adolescence is a period of rapid growth and onset of reproductive capacity- attainments that are the opposite of death. They may be beyond the reach of death. And, finally, as teenagers construct a personal identity and experience their first freely chosen love, relationships, they ay be strongly attracted to romantic notions of death, which challenge logic.
Ch.17 Secondary Aging
Age-related declines due to hereditary defects and environmental influences, such as poor diet, lack of exercise, disease, substance abuse, environmental pollution, and psychological stress.
Ch.17 Associative Memory Deficit
Age-related difficulty creating and retrieving links between pieces of information - for example, two items or an item and its context.
Ch.15 Presbycusis
Age-related hearing impairment, beginning around age 50 with a noticeable decline in sensitivity to high-frequency sounds, which gradually extends to all frequencies.
Ch.18 Optimal Aging
Aging in which gains are maximized and losses minimized.
Briefly describe shifts in three personality characteristics that defy aging stereotypes.
Agreeableness: becoming increasingly generous, acquiescent, and good-natured well into late life. Acceptance to Change: an attribute older adults frequently mention as important to psychological well-being. Openness to change: this declines likely due to their awareness of cognitive declines.
Cite evidence that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular dementia.
Alzheimer's: with familial alzheimer's, it tends to have an early onset between the ages of 30 and 60. It then progressed rapidly than later-allearing sporadic type, which occurs around age 65. There are genes on chromosomes 1,14,and21 in which researchers have identified as harmful. Cerebrovasclar dementia: The effects of heredity are indirect, through high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, each of which increases the risk of stroke. And environmental influences - inkling cigarettes smoking, heavy alcohol use, high salt intake, very low dietary protein, obesity, inactivity, and psychological stress - also heighten stroke risk.
Assistive technology
An array of devices that permit people with disabilities to improve their functioning.
Ch.19 Thanatology
An interdisciplinary field devoted to the study of death and dying.
Discuss assistive technology, including its benefits to elders.
Assistive technology is an array of devices that permit people with disabilities to improve their functioning. They could be reminders to take medication, movable walls, or making entrances or spaces bigger in the homes, for the safety and convenience for the elder.
Ch.16 Possible Selves
Future-oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one is afraid of becoming. The temporal dimension of self-concept.
Summarize individual differences in hearing loss. Why does men's hearing decline earlier and more rapidly than women's hearing?
At about age 50 is when we can start seeing the decline in hearing. The inner ear structures deteriorate due to natural cell death or reduced blood supply caused by atherosclerosis. Processing of neural messages in the auditory cortex also declines. Men's hearing declines earlier than women's hearing, because of cigarette smoking, intense noise and chemical pollutants in some male-dominated occupations and also high blood pressure and cerebrovascular disease, or strokes that damage brain tissue.
Differentiate between atherosclerosis, heart attack, arrhythmia and angina pectoris. What gender differences are there in cardiovascular disease?
Atherosclerosis: a buildup of plaque in his coronary arteries, which encircle the indicators of cardiovascular disease. Heart attack: blockage of normal blood supply to an area of the heart, usually brought on by a blood clot in one or more plaque-filled coronary arteries. Arrhythmia: irregular heartbeat Angina pectoris: reveals an oxygen-deprived heart. Males are naturally more prone to cardiovascular diseases.
Define average life expectancy and average healthy life expectancy. Discuss factors that influence each.
Average Life Expectancy: the number of years that an individual born in a particular year can expect to live, starting at any given age. Many factors influence this, such as slow biological aging, including improved nutrition, medial treatment, sanitation, and safety. A major factor is a steady decline in infant mortality, but death rates among adults have decreased as well. Average healthy life expectancy: the number of years a person born in a particular year can expect to live in full health, with out disease of injury. The factors are: low rates of obesity and heart disease, low-fat diets, along with its favorable health-care policies. Poverty, malnutrition, disease, and armed conflict influence this as well.
Activities of daily living (ADLs)
Basic self-care tasks required to live on one's own, such as bathing, dressing, getting in and out of bed or a chair, or eating.
How and why does fear of crime have negative consequences for elders?
Because crimes such as purse-snatching and pickpocketing happen more often with seniors, and women, than they do with other age groups.
Explain the difference between the following terms: bereavement, grief, and mourning. Describe the three phases of grieving.
Bereavement: Is the experience of losing a loved one by death. Grief: Intense physical and psychological distress. Mourning: Is the culturally specified expression of the bereaved person's thoughts and feelings. Phases or tasks of grieving: 1. To accept the reality of the loss. 2. To work through the pain of grief. 3. To adjust to a world without the loved one. 4. To develop an inner bond with the deceased and move on with life.
Life review
Calling up past experiences with the goal of achieving greater self-understanding.
Ch.19 Palliative/Comfort Care
Care for terminally ill, suffering patients that relieves pain and other symptoms (such as nausea, breathing difficulties, insomnia, and depression), with the goal of protecting the patient's quality of remaining life rather than prolonging life.
Cataracts
Cloudy areas in the lens, resulting in foggy vision and (without surgery) eventual blindness.
Describe crystallized and fluid intelligence. How does aging affect each type of intelligence?
Crystallized Intelligence: refers to skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery of social conventions - abilities acquired because they are valued by the individual's culture. Fluid Intelligence: depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills - ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory. Many cross-sectional studies show that crystallized intelligence increases steadily through middle-childhood, whereas fluid intelligence begins to decline in the 20's.
Describe death education and its goals.
Death education: Are predatory steps that can help people of all ages cope with death more effectively. Goals: 1. Increasing students' understanding of the physical and psychological changes that accompany dying. 2. Help students learn how to cope with the death of a loved one. 3. Preparing students to be informed consumers of medical and funeral services. 4. Promoting understanding of social and ethical issues involving death.
Ch.15 Climateric
The midlife transition in which fertility declines, bringing an end to reproductive capacity in women and diminished fertility in men.
Discuss some disorders and conditions commonly misdiagnosed as dementia.
Depression is a disorder that is commonly misdiagnosed as dementia. If not diagnosed carefully, it can lead to even more problems down the road.
Explain why some experts want to change the standard of death.
Different countries, such a Japan ave different standards of death. We used to accept the criteria of the loss of heart beat and respiration a sign of death, and that is how Japan is. But, we have learned we can resuscitate the heart and lungs, whereas the brain, we cannot. So, it would be nice to have a standard of death across the board.
Define the four social theories of aging. Give a late adulthood example of each theory.
Disengagement Theory: mutual withdrawal between older adults and society takes place in anticipation of death. This is why we have retirement. Activity Theory: states that social barriers to engagement, not the desires of aging adults, cause declining rates of interaction, hen older people lose certain roles, such as retirement, they try to find others in an effort to stay about as active and busy as they were in middle age. Continuity Theory: does not view older adults' efforts to remain active as simple replacement of lost social roles with new ones. Rather, according to this view, most aging adults strive to maintain a personal system. After retirement, they still do activities that extend their life. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: social interaction extends lifelong selection processes. Relationships will last until the 80's and then they decline to just a few people.
Dual-process model of coping with loss
Effective coping requires people to oscillate between dealing with the emotional consequences of loss and attending to life changes, which have restorative, or healing, effects.
Cite examples of how older adults can compensate for age-related physical declines.
For age-related physical declines, it talked about in the book about hearing and vision. Those are things that are related to age, because as the person gets older, parts of their body tend to decline and not work as well as it used to.
Describe the three distinct tasks involved in attaining ego integrity, according to Robert Peck.
Ego differentiation: for those who invested heavily in their careers, finding other ways to affirm self-worth - through family, friendship, and community life. Body transcendence: surmounting physical limitations by emphasizing the compensating rewards of cognitive, emotional, and social powers. Ego transcendence: as contemporaries die, facing the reality of death constructively through efforts to make life more secure, meaningful, and gratifying for younger generations.
Discuss the final psychological conflict of Erikson's theory, including characteristics associated with each outcome.
Ego integrity vs. despair: involves coming to terms with one's life. Adults who arrive at a sense of integrity feel whole, complete, and satisfied with their achievements. This is the positive outcome, where the person comes to acceptance and is satisfied with everything they have done. The negative outcome is where they feel like they made many wrong decisions, and are bitter, defeated, and hopeless, and act out in anger or contempt towards others, which disguises the contempt for oneself.
Cite strategies that middle-aged parents can use to promote positive ties with their adult children.
Emphasize positive communication. Avoid unnecessary comments that are a holdover from childhood. Accept the possibility that some cultural values and practices and aspect of lifestyle will be modified in the next generation. When an adult child encounters difficulties, resist the urge to "fix" things. Be clear about your own needs and preferences.
Adults with a sense of generativity cannot contribute to society's welfare because they place their own comfort and security above challenge and sacrifice. T/F
False
Despite the double standard of aging, equal numbers of men and women express concern about appearing less attractive as they grow older. T/F
False
EG and other physiological measures reveal that menopause is linked to changes in quantity and quality of sleep. T/F
False
Glaucoma affects nearly 15 percent of people over age 40. T/F
False
Having children seems to foster women's generative development more than men's. T/F
False
In middle adulthood, the best predictor of sexual frequency is good health. T/F
False
In middle age, weight gain and loss of muscle power are inevitable. T/F
False
Low-hardy individuals are likely to use active, problem-centered coping strategies in situations they can control. T/F
False
Middle age brings about greater rigidity in masculine and feminine parts of the self. T/F
False
Research shows that the majority of adults experience a midlife crisis. T/F
False
Women's hearing declines earlier and at a faster rate than men's. T/F
False
Ch.19 Death Anxiety
Fear and apprehension of death.
Ch.17 Primary Aging
Genetically influenced age-related declines in the functioning of organs and systems that affect all members of our species and occur even in the context of overall good health.
Brandon's sister Ashley is working full-time and caring for their disabled mother. Brandon is worried about Ashley and wants to help her, even though he lives several hundred miles away. What are some things Brandon can do to alleviate Ashley's stress?
Give social support, encouragement, assistance when needed, and willingness to listen.
Define hospice, and list its main features.
Hospice: is not a place but a comprehensive program of support services for terminally ill people and their families. It aims to provide a caring community sensitive to the dying person's needs so patients and family members can prepare for death in ways that are satisfying to them. Main Features: 1. The patient and family as a unit of care. 2. Emphasis on meeting the patient's physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs, including controlling pain, retaining dignity and self-worth, and feeling cared for and loved. 3. Care provided by an interdisciplinary team: a doctor, a nurse or home health aide, a chaplain, a counselor or social worker, and a trained volunteer. 4. The patient kept at home or in an inpatient setting with a homelike atmosphere where coordination of care is possible. 5. Focus on protecting the quality of remaining life with palliative, or comfort care that relieves pain and other symptoms (nausea, breathing difficulties, insomnia, and depression) rather than prolonging life. 6. In addition to regularly scheduled home care visits, on-call services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 7. Follow-up bereavement services offered to families in the year after a death.
Ch.18 Life-Care Communities
Housing for older adults that offers a range of alternatives, from independent or congregate housing to full nursing home care, guaranteeing that residents' changing needs will be met within the same facility as they age.
Ch.18 Congregate Housing
Housing for older adults that provides a variety of support services, including meals in a common dining room, along with watchful oversight of residents with physical and mental disabilities.
Ch.18 Aging in Place
In late adulthood, remaining in a familiar setting where one has control over one's everyday life.
Grief
Intense physical and psychological distress following the loss of a loved one.
Describe four diverse functions of friendships in late adulthood.
Intimacy and companionship are basic to meaningful late-life friendships. Late-life friendships help shield each other from negative judgments stemming from stereotypes of aging. Friendships link aging adults to the larger community. Friendships help protect seniors from psychological consequences of loss.
Ch.16 Glass Ceiling
Invisible barrier to advancement up the corporate ladder, faced by women and ethnic minorities.
Ch.19 Brain Death
Irreversible cessation of all activity in the brain and the brain stem. The definition of death accepted in most industrialized nations.
Ch.15 Hormone Therapy
Low daily doses of estrogen, either alone or in combination with progesterone, aimed at reducing the physical discomfits of menopause.
Cite strategies for fostering adaptation to widowhood in late adulthood.
Mastery of new skills of daily living; social support and interaction; senior centers, support groups, religious activity, and volunteer activities.
Ch.17 Implicit Memory
Memory without conscious awareness
What causes older adults to "shrink" in height and how can the progress be slowed?
Mineral content declines, so the bones become more porous. They gradually lose bone density that begins at about age 40 and accelerates in the fifties, especially women. Due to the loos of bone strength, the disks in the spinal column begin to collapse. To slow this process, include weight-bearing exercise, adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, and avoid smoking and heavy alcohol consumption.
Name the "big five" personality traits, and give characteristics of individuals who are high or low in each trait.
Neuroticism: Individuals who are high on this trait are worrying, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable. Those who are low are calm, even-tempered, self-content, comfortable, unemotional, and hardy. Extroversion: High- affectionate, talkative, active, fun-loving, and passionate. Low- reserved, quiet, passive, sober, and emotionally unreactive. Openness to experience: High- imaginative, creative, original, curious, and liberal. Low- down to earth, uncreative, conventional, uncurious, and conservative. Agreeableness: high- soft-hearted, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, and good-natured. Low- ruthless, suspicious, stingy, antagonistic, critical, and irritable. Conscientiousness: high- hard-working, well-organized, punctual, ambitious, and preserving. Low- negligent, lazy, disorganized, late, aimless, and non-persistent.
Ch.17 Reminiscence Bump
Older adults' heightened autobiographical memory for events that occurred between ages 10 and 30.
List and describe the three main kinds of mutations that contribute to cancer. What is the difference between germline and somatic?
Oncogenes: cancer genes; that directly undergo abnormal cell duplication. Tumor suppressor genes: fail to keep oncogenes from multiplying. Stability genes: which normally keep genetic alterations to a minimum by repairing subtle DNA mistakes that occur either during normal cell duplication or as a result of environmental agents. Germline: due to an inherited predisposition Somatic: occurring in a single cell, which then multiplies.
Discuss the meaning of optimal aging, and provide some examples of how to facilitate it.
Optimal aging: in which gains are maximized and losses minimized. Ex: social network is strong, self-efficacy, physical energy, cognitive resources, self concept, acceptance of change, etc.
Ego transcendence
Orienting toward a larger, more distant future.
Ch.18 Secondary Friends
People who are not intimates but with whom an individual spends time occasionally, such as a group that meets for lunch, bridge, or museum tours.
What are possible selves, and why are they important in middle adulthood?
Possible selves: future oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one is afraid of becoming. They are the temporal dimension of self-concept - what the individual is striving for and attempting to avoid. This is just as important as explaining behavior, but as we age, we rely less on social comparisons in judging our self-worth and more on temporal comparisons.
Ch.15 Practical Problem Solving
Problem solving that requires people to size up real world situations and analyze how best to achieve goals that have a high degree of uncertainty.
Autoimmune response
The immune system is more likely to malfunction by turning against normal body tissues.
Ch.17 Prospective Memory
Recall that involves remembering to engage in planned actions in the future.
How do changes in hearing affect older adults? How do hearing impairments compare with visual impairments?
Reduced blood supply and natural cell death in the inner ear and auditory cortex occur. The membranes stiffen, causing the hearing to decline. This affects the safety and enjoyment in life, which compares to vision as well.
Your friend recently lost her job due to a reduction in work force, and she is experiencing a significant amount of stress. What are some strategies you can suggest to help her manage her stress?
Reevaluate the situation, focus on events you can control, view life as fluid, consider alternatives, set reasonable goals for yourself, exercise regularly, master relaxation techniques, use constructive approaches to anger reduction, and seek social support.
Other-focused reminiscence
Reminiscence that is directed at social goals, such as solidifying family and friendship ties and reliving relationships.
Self-focused reminiscence
Reminiscence that is used to reduce boredom and revive bitter events.
What are some steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of unintentional falls in late adulthood?
Risks must be addressed in the environment and person, but through corrective eyewear, strength and balance training and improved safety in homes and community, we can reduce the risk of unintentional falls.
Ch.16 Kinkeeper
Role assumed by members of the middle generation, especially mothers, who take responsibility for gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch.
Ch.16 Midlife Crisis
Self doubt and stress that prompt major reconstructing of the personality during the transition to middle adulthood. Characterizes the experience of only a minority of adults.
Ch.15 Osteoporosis
Severe age-related bone loss, which greatly magnifies the risk of bone fractures.
Describe some ways that middle-aged and older adults can compensate for age-related memory problems.
Slowing the pace at which information is being presented or cuing the link between new and previously stored information.
Central State College wants to provide supports for mature adults who are returning to school. What strategies would you suggest?
Social support among partner, children, extended family and friends, educational institution, and the workplace.
Ch.17 Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)
Tasks necessary to conduct the business of daily living and also requiring some cognitive competence, such as telephoning, shopping, food preparation, housekeeping, and paying bills.
Reminiscence
Telling stories about people and events from the past and reporting associated thoughts and feelings.
Affect optimization
The ability to maximize positive emotion and dampen negative emotion.
Ch.18 Affect Optimization
The ability to maximize positive emotion and dampen negative emotion. An emotional strength of late adulthood.
Mourning
The culturally specified expression of the bereaved person's thoughts and feelings.
Ch.15 Menopause
The end of menstruation, and, therefore, of a woman's reproductive capacity.
Bereavement
The experience of losing a loved one by death.
Ch.19 Bereavement
The experience of losing a loved one by death.
Ego integrity versus despair
The final psychological conflict of Erikson's theory, which involves coming to terms with one's life.
Maximum lifespan
The genetic limit to length of life for a person free of external risk factors.
What circumstances are likely to induce bereavement overload? Cite examples.
This happens when someone experiences several deaths at once or in close succession. Multiple losses deplete the coping resources of even well-adjusted people, leaving them emotionally overwhelmed and unable to resolve their grief. Public tragedies, such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, random murders in schools, or widely publicized kidnappings can spark bereavement overload as well.
The middle adulthood phase of the family life cycle is referred to as "launching children and moving on." Is this phase generally positive or negative? Why? What new roles must adults adapt to in this phase?
This is a negative transition, because women who have devoted themselves entirely to their children and for whom the end of active parenting can trigger feelings of emptiness and regret. But, for most people, middle adulthood is a liberating time, offering a sense of completion and opportunities to strengthen social ties and rekindle interests.
What is the psychological conflict of midlife, according to Erikson? Describe outcomes associated with each.
This is generatively vs. Stagnation. Generativity involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and guide the next generation. Stagnation is being self-centered and self-absorbed; this usually happens when you accomplish all the major milestones in life.
Why is the stage notion an inaccurate account of dying patients' mental and emotional reactions?
This is inaccurate, because it looks at dying patients; thoughts and feelings outside the contexts that give them meaning.
Discuss changes in vision caused by presbyopia and glaucoma. Who is at risk for developing these conditions?
Those who are around 40 start the decline of vision, so 40+ usually get presbyopia and glaucoma. With presbyopia, the lens loses its capacity to adjust to objects at varying distances entirely. Glaucoma is a disease in which poor fluid drainage leads to a buildup of pressure within the eye, damaging the optic nerve.
Adults can be generative as parents and in other family relationships, as mentors in the workplace, in volunteer endeavors, and through many forms of productivity and creativity. T/F
True
Because osteoporosis is considered a "woman's disease," men are far less likely to be screened and treated for it. T/F
True
Cancer and cardiovascular disease are the leading causes of death in middle age.
True
During the midlife transition, some people make drastic revision in family and occupational components of the life structure. T/F
True
Emotional and social development in middle adulthood is characterized by both continuity and stagewise change. T/F
True
In one study, hormone replacement therapy slightly elevated the risk of mild cognitive declines and nearly doubled the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. T/F
True
In societies around the world, older people are guardians of traditions, laws, and cultural values. T/F
True
Midlifers who experience a crisis typically have had early adulthoods in which gender roles, family pressures, or low income and poverty severely limited their ability to fulfill personal needs and goals, at home or in the wider world. T/F
True
People who are repeatedly enraged are more likely to be depressed and dissatisfied with their lives, to lack social supports, and to engage in unhealthy behaviors than people who are not prone to hostility and anger. T/F
True
List and describe the four gratifications of being a grandparent.
Valued elder: being perceived as a wise, helpful person. Immortality through descendants: leaving behind not just one but two generations after death. Reinvolvement with personal pass: being able to pass family history and values to a new generation. Indulgence: having fun with children without major child-rearing responsibilities.
Ch.17 Remote Memory
Very long-term recall.
How do changes in vision affect older adults? What are some common visual impairments?
Vision further declines, with the cornea becoming more translucent and scatters light, blurring images, and increase sensitivity to glare. The lens yellows leading to further impairment in color discrimination. Many acquire cataracts, which cloud areas in the lens, resulting in foggy vision, and without surgery eventually leads to blindness. And others will develop Macular Degeneration, in which the central vision blurs and is gradually lost.
Ch.17 Frailty
Weakened functioning of diverse organs and body systems, which profoundly interferes with everyday competence and leaves older adults highly vulnerable in the face of infection, extremely hot or cold weather, or injury.
Bereavement overload
When a person experiences several deaths at once or in close succession.
Knowledge-based reminiscence
When elders draw upon their past for effective problem-solving strategies and for teaching younger people.
Macular degeneration
When light-sensitive cells in the macula break down, central vision blurs and gradually is lost.
Life expectancy crossover
When surviving members of low-SES ethnic minority groups live longer than members of the white majority.
During climacteric the production of estrogen drops. Climacteric concludes with menopause. List physiological and emotional changes that result from this loss of estrogen. How does hormone therapy help? What are the risks of using hormone therapy?
Women tend to get hot flashes and night sweats, they are not as aroused as they used to be. Hormone therapy can help by injecting estrogen or estrogen and progesterone into the body. This can help with the discomforts of menopause. The risks are: just using estrogen can cause cancer on the endometrium.
According to Levinson, what four developmental tasks must middle-aged adults confront in order to rebuild their life structure?
Young-old: we must forget some youthful activities and find joy and happiness in aging. Destruction-creation: we look back on all the wrong we have done and try to make up for it by giving charitable gifts, creative products, volunteer service, and mentoring young people. Masculinity-femininity: we try to balance both the male a female characteristics within us. Engagement-separateness: there must be a balance between being separated and connected to the external world.
