Psych Quiz #2

What are the common mental disorders in old age? How are the caused?

*Depression: (biological and psychological) prevalence declines with age *Delirium: (disturbances of consciousness and a change in cognition that developed over a short period of time) (Can happen to anyone but symptoms are more severe in older adults. Can be caused by stroke, cardio disease, other medical conditions. Older people are more susceptible because they take more medication. Most cases are cured, but some are fatal. *Dementia: (family or disorders) (most older adults don't have dementia, but rates increase with age) (diagnosed by ruling out everything else) -AD (Alzheimer's caused by plaques and tangles) -Sundowning (symptoms worse at night) -Parkinson's Disease (motor problems) -Vascular Dementia (caused by cardiovascular problems or strokes) -Huntington's Disease (flicking movements or arms/legs caused by genetics) -Alcohol-Related Dementia caused by thyamine deficiency -AIDS Dementia *Anxiety: (common in older adults because of loss of health, stress, isolation, fear losing independence, etc.) *Schizophrenia (psychotic disorders): (older adults show less emotion flattening and thought disorder than younger adults. Rare in late life, symptoms are less worse in later life. *Substance Abuse: (Older adults who drink may have problems with it affecting their meds, they metabolize it more slowly (stays in blood longer), they try and drink like how they did when they were older.)

Define Mental Health

- Ability to deal with the issues of life in an effective, socially-acceptable, appropriately flexible, satisfying way

Describe traffic accidents and age

2 bumps- people our age and the elderly (60+) are most at risk for a car crash based on miles driven. Deals with information processing.

Define Collaborative Cognition

2 heads are better than one when working on a project when you're older.

What are the 2 most common neurodegenerative disorders? Who discovered them, their common characteristics, differences.

AD: Discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimers, 4 million, characterized by cell loss, abnormal clumps of fibers, and tangled fibers. Risk factors include age, genetics, education, diet, environment. Begins slowly, mild forgetfulness. No cure. PD: Discovered in 1817 by James Parkinson's. Caused by a deficiency in dopamine. Early symptoms are a drop in energy, tremors on one side, depression. Caused by environment, genetics, low dopamine in brain, a virus.

Peak Creativity..When do people produce most of their outputs?

Age 20-40 is peak performance

Define Infanatilization

Also called secondary baby talk , involves the unwarranted use of a persons first name, terms of endearment, simplified expressions, short expressions, assumptions, and cajoling as a means of demanding compliance. Stereotypical behavior.

What is inhibitory control in regards to aging?

As we get older we lose inhibitory control by doing and saying things we shouldn't due to issues in the front part of the brain (frontal lobe).

What are the early stages of Dementia of the Alzheimer's type?

Begins slowly, first signs are usually mild forgetfulness (STM) but still have good long term memory. Not serious (usually) and could easily be AAMI (Age-Associated Memory Impairment). With time ADLs are affected and this is usually when they become more serious

Sources of data for epidemiology/treatment can be

Case Registers (from hospital, HMOs state medical records) and/or Field Surveys

What are the different types of biases? Explain them?

Casual Attribution: A symptom and source of prejudice. (a single mother's homelessness is attributed to dispositional factors such as personal laziness, poor character, or lack of ability, prejudice toward single mothers is likely to persist.). Explanations of why behaviors occur Dispositional Attribution: A causal attribution that concludes the cause resides within the actor. The explanation of individual behavior as a result caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual, as opposed to external (situational) influences that stem from the environment or culture in which that individual is found. Situational Attribution: An explanation that the cause resides outside the actor (the situation). Correspondence Bias: Producing information distortions when making causal attributions. Not taking into account multiple types of biases.

What is The Big 5 Personality Theory? Who founded it?

Costa & McCrae founded it It consists of 5 independent dimensions of personality: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness (to experiences), Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. It is strongly grounded in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential research

What is the most common form of progressive, degenerative, and fatal dementia account for perhaps 70% of all cases of dementia?

Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Who discovered AD and when? What is AD characterized as?

Discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer. Brain disease characterized by cell loss, abnormal clumps of nerve fibers (amyloid plaques) and tangled fibers (neurofibrillary tangles)

Describe Encoding/Retrieval which do older adults have problems with?

Encoding: Process of getting info into memory. Older adults have problems with this because they begin to use less strategies for remembering. Retrieval: Getting that information out. Older adults also have probs with this because they use less strategies. May be due to interference.

What are the different types of memory

Episodic (LTM) Procedural (Implicit Mem) Semantic (LTM) Prospective Retrospective

Describe the different types of memory

Episodic: day to day activities that adults perform. People recalling lists. Older adults perform worse on recall test but on recognition tests these gaps are reduced Procedural (Implicit Mem): Implicit/consciousness older people do better with this type. Like getting into a routine, we do things from memory and don't have to think about them. Semantic: Experience or general world knowledge. Learning and remembering the meaning of words and concepts not tied to specific occurrences of events in time. (cross word puzzles) Older people do better on this one. Prospective: Remembering to remember something in the future such as an action or event. (remember this tomorrow). Declines with age. Retrospective: memory of people, words, and events encountered or experienced in the past. It includes all other types of memory including episodic, semantic and procedural. It can be either implicit or explicit. Declines with age.

What is Erikson's Theory as it related to Early, Middle, and Late age?

Erikson's Psychosexual is a revised Freud. Stated there are crises at each of 8 stages - good and bad aspects of these crises Young Adult- Intimacy/Isolation: we begin to share ourselves more intimately with others. We explore relationships leading toward longer term commitments with someone other than a family member. Middle Age- Generativity/Stagnation: we establish our careers, settle down within a relationship, begin our own families and develop a sense of being a part of the bigger picture. Old Age- Ego Integrity/Despair: become senior citizens, we tend to slow down our productivity, and explore life as a retired person. It is during this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and are able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading a successful life.

What defines Experts or really really intelligent people

Experts are faster, more efficient, and more accurate. Evidence comes from typists, athletes, lab techs, chess players-older better than younger.

Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence

Fluid: Abilities that make you a flexible adaptive thinker, make inferences, and enable you to understand the relations among concepts. Understand and respond to situations, abstract situations. Peaks at middle age then declines. Crystallized: Knowledge you have acquired through life experiences and education, comprehension of communication, and judgement. Improves with age or stays the same.

Define Incidence and Prevalence

Incidence is number of new cases of some disorder/population at risk Prevalence is total number of cases with a certain disorder/population at risk

What happens to creativity and wisdom in old age? When does is increase and peak?

Increases with age. Increases at 30, peaks in 40s

How do we define psychopathology and normal aging/mental disorders

It is hard to say what are and aren't normal behaviors. What's important to know is that behaviors must be interpreted in context. We must consider what else is happening and how the behavior fits the situation in additions to such factors as age and other personal characteristics.

How are stereotypes formed?

Many of our stereotypes are AUTOMATICALLY activated We have little control over them even if we try to control them These guide our behavior/thinking. Not innate! These are learned behaviors that become internalized - from parents, friends, media outlets, TV, movies, our own experiences Societal Beliefs also important Based on generational differences (cohorts!) and life-stage differences

What is the MMSE

Mini Mental Status Exam A screening test of cognitive domains (memory and problem solving). It is ONLY used as a screening method NOT a diagnostic tool. It is very popular because it is short, easy to administer, and interpret.

What are the different aspects of The Big 5 Personality Theory?

Neuroticism: anxiety, hostility, self-consciousness, depressions, impulsiveness, and vulnerability. Emotional stability, they way you cope and respond to life's demands. Extraversion: Warmth, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions. Do you prefer lowkey social situations or the opposite? Openness (to experience): Extent to which you prefer novelty vs. convention Agreeableness: Antagonistic or agreeableness. They way you express your opinions and manage relationships. Conscientiousness: Hardworking, ambitious, energetic. Do you prefer and organized or flexible approach to life?

Coping deals with? What is an example?

New Opportunities and Compensating for Loss Care Giving as an example

What are the AD risk factors?

Not known cause, but there are several risk factors: age, family history, education, diet, environment, genetics.

How do we measure personality?

Objective - true/false, agree/disagree, MMPI, Myers-Briggs Projective - what you see, TAT, Rorschach Either way gets at what are called TRAITS

What are the observable and unobservable personality traits?

Observable: Body language, actions Unobservable: Thoughts, memories, dreams

How do you measure personality? Are there any age differences to personality?

Observing traits and The Big 5 No but there are large cohort differences, which The Big 5 is able to detect.

What is the impact of age on personality? (Impact of Freud and others). What does Bernice New garden say about it?

Personality remains relatively stable across adulthood. Newgarden said stage theorists (Freud and Ericson) are great, but its not the stage but you experiences that define your personality.

Define Midlife Review (Midlife Correction)

Reevaluating ones roles and dreams and making the necessary corrections, Usually happens around middle age.

Impact of Schaie's work of adult intelligence

Seattle Longitudinal Study of Intelligence. Cohort differences rather than age differences account for IQ/Intelligence differences.

What is the Information Processing Model

Sensory Memory STM (short term memory)-Working Memory LTM (long term memory)

Define each type of the Information Processing Model and their age-related declines (if any)

Sensory: Brief type of memory for each sense. Could be visual or auditory, lots of info coming through but it gets lost very quickly. Little if any age-related declines. STM (Working Mem): Holding info in mind and using it sometimes with incoming info to solve a problem, make a decision, or learn. Kept active tru rehearsal. Decline with age, but its not universal. LTM: Ability to remember extensive amounts of info over long periods of time. Age-related declines on recall and episodic memory, but not on recognition. These age-related declines can be reduced in different ways. Age-differences favoring elderly.

Define Stereotype

Social knowledge structure or social belief. Socially shared beliefs re: characteristics about a group of individuals.

What are spatial and perspective memory

Spatial: Familiar with objects and locations Perspective: Take blue pill at 8pm take yellow at 9

Define Neurogenesis

The regeneration of brain cells every 50 years or so

Define false memories as it relates to age

They increase as you get older because they have problems linking content info to its content.

What is the Army Alpha Test of IQ and what did it determine about intelligence and age?

Used to separate who will be in the front and the back of the war based on intelligence. Showed IQ decreased as a function of age 20-60

How do we self-perceive older adults?

We can Label (He's old so..... We can Distance ourselves (I don't want to get old.....so I'll avoid old people, try to stay/look/feel younger...

Psychiatric Interview

When you're diagnosed with AD you want as much info as possible. Interview people close to the patient, need more than a mini mental. Use process of elimination.

How is AD diagnosed

complete medical history/medical tests, neuropsychological testing, neurologist is preferred over gp, process of elimination.

Define Social Cognition

is how we think about ourselves and how we think about others

What is the reminiscence bump and age

is the tendency for older adults to have increased recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood (10-30) then starts to decline. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory (stable with age) and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories to form the lifespan retrieval curve.