postformal thought
Cognitive development beyond Piaget's formal operational stage
epistemic cognition
Refers to our reflections on how we arrived at facts, beliefs, and ideas
dualistic thinking
Dividing information, values, and authority into right and wrong, good and bad, we and they
relativistic thinking
Viewing all knowledge as embedded in a framework of thought. Aware of a diversity of opinions on many topics, they gave up the possibility of absolute truth in favor of multiple truths, each relative to its context.
commitment within relativistic thinking
Instead of choosing between opposing views, they try to formulate a more personally satisfying perspective that synthesizes contradictions.
pragmatic thought
A structural advance in which logic becomes a tool for solving real-world problems
cognitive-affective complexity
Awareness of conflicting positive and negative feelings and coordination of them into a complex, organized structure.
expertise
Acquisition of extensive knowledge in a field or endeavor. There is knowledge based rich, and are well-organized. We use to learn or to even remember to solve problems. It also comes from experience and is domain-specific.
The fantasy period
in early and middle childhood, children gain insight into career options by fantasizing about them. In childhood kids can tell you what they want to be when they grow up, and they pick careers that look like being fun as well as a status that looks like a
The tentative period
Between ages 11 and 16, adolescents think about careers in more complex ways, at first in terms of their interests, and soon - as they become more aware of personal and educational requirements for different vocations - in terms of their abilities and val
The realistic period
By the late teens and early twenties, with the economic and practical realities of adulthood just around the corner, young people start to narrow their options. A first step is often further exploration - gathering more information about possibilities tha
emerging adulthood
the transition to adult roles has become so delayed and prolonged that it has spawned a new transitional period extending from the late teens to the mid- to late-twenties. This is development in early adulthood (18-25). People in this time are not adolsec
intimacy vs isolation
One of Erikson's psychological conflict of early adulthood that reflects in the young person's thoughts and feelings about making a permanent commitment to an intimate partner. People's development should be more focused on relationships. Some people need
social clock
Age-graded expectations for major life events such as beginning a first job, getting married, birth of the first child, buying a home, and retiring.
triangular theory of love
This identifies three components - intimacy (emotional sharing), passion (physical domain of relationships), and commitment (being in this relationship together) - that shift in emphasis as romantic relationships develop. Researchers look at this as this
passionate love
intense sexual attraction
companionate love
Warm, trusting affection and caregiving.
family life cycle
A series of phases characterizing the development of most families around the world
Traditional marriages
These marriages involve a clear division of roles - husband as head of household for family economic well-being, wife as caregiver and homemaker - still exist in Western Nations.
Egalitarian marriages
These marriages involve partners that relate as equals, sharing power and authority. Both try to balance the time and energy they devote to their occupations, their children, and their relationship.
cohabitation
This refers to the lifestyle of unmarried couples who have a sexually intimate relationship and who share a residence.
Early adulthood development being cumulative
They are going to move on as what happens then happens now in the future. How they did well at one point they will carry on. They will develop trust and mistrust as a kid and carry on in life. We will see more individual variability and what children in m
Becoming an adult
There is a lot of definitions for this time in life. It is also more subjective and is not as easy as you can think. This talks about demographic changes. There are also talk of social adulthood too. You have economic self-sufficiency (finishing school an
Early Adulthood - transition to college
This can be a difficult adjustment as it requires more independence as well as having it be more impersonal than in high school. It also requires more self-discipline, which can be exhausting and needs new ways to cope and can be more overwhelming. A grow
Early adulthood - cognitive development
College encourages critical thinking (formal operational thinking). One goal in college allows people to think critically and open up their ideas and consolidates this thinking as well as encourage knowledge. As people develop, they become more realistic
Early adulthood - work
You look at how people make their vocational choices and ideally what you want is people want to find a job that is a good fit for them and what other employees you will work with. This is more of process more than a decision made in one day, as it talks
Vocational choice
Process of finding an optimal fit between one's self-concept or personality and occupational opportunities.
Brofenbrenner - adulthood
Adolescents vocational choices are going to be influenced by a number of things. The number of parents make a difference as well as the peers and extended families views or obstacles of higher education makes an impact on further education. The school als
Becoming an adult - leaving poverty
You finish high school with better preparation for college as well as having plans with how to attend college and even talking about how to make a career from college into internships and placement services.
Becoming and adult - passion
Most adults are going to work and the job would be something that they feel committed to and that can make them get into a flow experience
flow experience
You are so engaged in what you are doing, and you do not need to keep track of different things.
Becoming an adult - job having purpose
This talks about how jobs have meaning whether or not they are happy and feeling like they can make the world a better place as well as feeling persistence and taking all opportunities while exploring different pathways. Ideally, you want to examine many
Becoming an adult - relationships
Friendships are important as they are hard to apply with both child and adult relationships. They are more than a one-sided reciprocal and they are able to do activities as well as having emotional bonds and sharing itnerests to sympathy, loyalty, and tru
Becoming an adult- building on earlier relationships
All children get attached to their parents and they need these so kids can depend on someone in emergency and can explore the world safely. Our attachment relationship, such as romantic partners, can be someone you can depend and also helps you go through
avoidant attachment style
An attachment style characterized by a suppression of attachment needs, because attempts to be intimate have been rebuffed; people with this style find it difficult to develop intimate relationships
anxious attachment style
An attachment style that describes adults who demand closeness, are less trusting, and are more emotional, jealous, and possessive.
Secure attachment style
an attachment style characterized by trust, a lack of concern with being abandoned, and the view that one is worthy and well liked
Idea of attachment
We have our security of attachment and it carries on to our romantic relationships, but in the same time this can change one's security of attachment. It can also keep changing regularly.
Interpersonal attraction
There is a lot of studies on relationships and how people get into these relationships. There is research that suggests that proximity (people have to be close to each other) people can have a better chance of seeing each other. People you see more start
consummate relationship
These relationships have passion, intimacy, and commitment
fatuous relationships
These relationships have passion and commitment
affectionate relationships
These relationships have intimacy and commitment
empty relationships
These relationships only have commitment
Falling out of love
Research suggests that these can be painful but they can be good as you can learn about yourself, even if its a difficult learning experience. You also have betrayed trust and relationships and you cut off from friends, family, and respect and appreciatio
Family life cycle
These consist of milestones and events that happen in life and most people are going to get married, and have children.
Changing family forms
People go from different stages as there are different paths that people at different ages and whether or not they have children.
Family life cycle - establishment
It is a big life transition and there is a "honeymoon is over" effect happens as marital satisfaction starts to decline. The Seven-year itch is based in real-life that when we see dips in marital satisfaction as whether or not they are happy or unhappy we
Model of divorce
Personal vulnerabilities re associated with divorce as well as stressful events as they can result to positive or negative marital behaviors. This also affects marital quality which comes down to stability or dissolution of the marriage. These are warning
Relationship "Don'ts" - criticism
This is a problem in the relationship and is blamed on character defect of the partner. Such as claiming that they "never" do something.
Relationship "Don'ts" - defensiveness
Ward off attack on opponent and counterattack in the argument.
Relationship "Don'ts" - contempt
making fun of your partner and derision and inferiority such as rolling eyes.
Relationship "Dont's" - Stonewalling
Being silent and showing disengagement.
Positive habits of mind - love maps
This talks about setting up communication and interest in your partner and keeping that line of communication open.
Positive habits of mind - day-to-day
There is habit of doing something nice for your partner just because such as fondness and admiration.
Positive habits of mind - turn towards
This talks about how you turn yourself or attention and responsiveness to your partner.
Emotional bank account
We can positive skills and accept the fact that we are not perfect and not always right and we should not try to win every argument. These consist of solvable problems (openness to change), intractable problems (dialogue and patience) and repair and forgi
Building toward the future
The goal is not to win or get your way, but you want to optimize your own development as well as having life goals and lettign them become true. This also consists of creating the life you both want to live while sharing meaning, purpose, culture, and leg
New parenthood
When people become parents it becomes stressful in the family while also being joyful. It is physically exhausting as well as financially challenging. Marital satisfaction declines, particularly with women. There are factors that influence adjustment whic
Gender stereotypes - early adulthood
These stereotypes are more tolerant of self and others
Gender stereotypes - parenting years
These consist of more stereotyped behavior as well as having a more "parental imperative".
Child-rearing family challenges
Most people have more than one child, and the second child can add more challenges from that child. After the second child we will see another decline of marital satisfaction. Some of these are based on life events such as unemployment or accidents and ev
Empty nest
This happens when grown children leave home, myths make women feel unhappy, but marital satisfaction increases and marriages are seen as fairer and more equal and less conflictual as they spend more time together and have more money.
Gender stereotypes getting older
AS women get older, they become more confident and men become more emotional and dominering. They are going through an androgyny shift.
Re-filling the nest
This is how grown children return home and they are more positive but sometimes it depends on the quality of the relationship and this also depends on the behavior of the parents and children.
Grandparenthood
This is even more positive than paenthood as there are differnet forms of patterns of this stage as they are distant (emotional or geographical) or formal (which is proper and more prescribed) fun-seeking (These ones are there for fun and have a relations
Extended family
These talk about marital relationships as it has increased happiness or stable unhappiness and ends in widowhood and parent-child relationships are more mutual. Siblings also consist of longest relationships and friendships are more important across the l
osteoporosis
When age-related bone loss is severe, this condition develops.
Type A behavior pattern
Extreme competitiveness, ambition, impatience, hostility, angry outbursts, and a sense of time pressure.
hardiness
A set of three personal qualities - control, commitment, and challenge - all combined make up this term.
crystallized intelligence
This refers to skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery o social conventions - abilities acquired because they are valued by the individual's culture. It is also known as accumulated information on verbal skil
fluid intelligence
This depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills - ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory. It is known as the ability to reason abstractly and solve novel proble
neural network view
This view suggests that neurons in the brain die, breaks in neural networks then occur. The brain adapts by forming bypasses - new synaptic connections that go around the breaks but are less efficient.
information-loss view
This hypothesis suggests that older adults experience greater loss of information as it moves through the cognitive system. As a result, the whole system must slow down to inspect and interpret the information.
practical problem solving
This requires people to size up real-world situations and analyze how best to achieve goals that have a high degree of uncertainty.
generativity versus stagnation
Generativity involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and guide the next generation.
midlife crisis
These are self-doubt and stress during the forties that causes individuals to prompt major restructuring of the personality.
possible selves
These future-oriented representations of what one hopes to become and what one is afraid of becoming. These are the temporal dimension of the self-concept - what the individual is striving for and attempting to avoid.
parental imperative theory
This holds identification with traditional gender roles and is maintained during the active parenting years to help ensure the survival of children. Men become more goal-oriented, while women emphasize nurturance.
big five" personality traits
These factors are on a continuum and these go from low to moderate or to high. Neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
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.
kinkeeper
This is gathering the family for celebrations and making sure everyone stays in touch.
Skipped-generation families
These live with grandparents but apart from parents.
Sandwich generation
This is widely used to refer to the idea that middle-aged adults must care for multiple generations above and below them at the same time.
identity
Becoming the person who you want to be and who they are and what their goals
Intimacy
Establishing a relationship by creating the life you want to live.
Generativity
Raising a family and leaving a legacy you want to remain.
Developmental task of middle adulthood generativity vs stagnation
Erikson says when people are ideally going to accomplish a generativity (contributing to the next generation), you will do this by raising children and the time you spend for the children will pay off for them in the future. People are accomplishing this
mid-life crisis vs mid-life consciousness
If we make good decisions we enter mid-life in the best possible decision which might mean being creative or finding a way to let people know you work here and your focus is as big as it is going to get. What happens during this time is we recognize that
Non-normative events
Things that happen in ones life and will get more likely to happen the longer we live and how things can be unpredictable. Examples can be illnesses or death in the family. These things can derail people in time and add challenges to them and the longer w
Paths being variable
This is when people's lives go in different directions and how they balance growth and loss and in mid-life development means you both gain and lose something.
Shift to years-left-to-live
This is when you run out of time and how much time you lose and you and how you lift off biology and society.
Cross-sectional studies on intelligence
Work on intelligence was done on children so we can identify if children in needing help. In adulthood we check to see how stable the intelligence is. Intelligence at this time starts to decline particularly throughout the beginning of adulthood and gradu
Longitudinal studies on intelligence
We can do this research on intelligence and we can notice that intelligence changes every seven years from their mid 20s. We start seeing some declinement at the age of 60.
Cross sectional vs longitudinal
They both have different answers in the studies and both cannot be right as they say different things.
Cross-sectional studies - cohort effects
There are strong effects like this on these tests as each generation does better than the generation before it. This could be exposed to better health and education in every new generation.
Cross-sectional studies - testing effects
As people get older, the tests are different for them. They tend to slow down and takes them longer to do things. They are more likely to be cautious when answering something and older people have less experience with tests.
Longitudinal studies - drop out
Participants may not want to participate particularly those with a lower cognitive performance and some people may want to not take the tests anymore. People who score lower are more likely to do this.
Sequential designs - complex studies
These show a big effect of generation with each generation being different. In different domains, there are modest gains from 30s-50s and scores level off in the 60s and 70s. From the 70s to 80s, the scores start to decline.
Sequential designs - different abilities at different rates
They are crystalized (stable or improves) or fluid (declines more rapidly) and perceptual speed also declines. For fluid intelligence we see more of a declinement whereas crystallized there are more inclinements. We see different people showing different
Terminal drop
There is a major decrease in intellectual abilities right before death.
Everyday problem-solving
How people make decisions and these occur on a daily basis. You are asked on how you will do something. Middle-aged people reason better than younger adults and elderly also have smaller deficits.
Stereotypes of older people in the workplace
People are old, inflexible, and also unproductive.
Older people discrimination
They are passed over for promotions and are not hired and also make less money.
Older people working research
Older workers are just as productive as younger workers, they are innovative and are also reliable. Some may miss less work and will stick with the company longer.
Middle adulthood with creativity
People have tried to look at aspects of thinking and this is harder to measure.
Creativity - preperation
They think about a problem
Creativity - indubation
They study and learn a problem
Creativity - illumination
They have insights and even "vision" about the problem
Creativity - revision
They try to revise ideas and follow ideas whereever they lead.
Creativity - age trends
This increases from 20s to 30s and there are different domains at different ages. Math experts come from and early development. Humanities (novelists) tend to be a lot better as they get older. This also declines in old age.
Creativity - expression
In order to be creative you need to be enthusiastic and some also have experience and critical thinking.
Personality
Temperament is born naturally in infants and they are have more or less easier temperaments and what matters more than anything is the goodness-of-fit. It has been built throughout most of our lives.
Psychometric trait theory
Looking at the theory based how it was measured (Big 5).
Low openness to experience
People do not like new things and are not interesting in doing new things and do not like new things
high openness to experience
People are open-minded and want to try new experiences and they like trying new things. It increases slightly as you get older but decreases as people get older.
high on concientiousness
People who are responsible and have a schedule with how they do things and finish things ahead of time and are organized. This increases as people get older.
low on concientiousness
These people are more disorganized and are not great at following through and are more lost.
Extroversion
A personality trait shared by people who are friendly, assertive, and outgoing with others. It can be consistent throughout of life.
Introversion
A personality descriptor indicating the quiet and reserved nature of some individuals. It increases to early adulthood and remains fairly stable.
High on Agreeableness
Someone who is sensitive to other people and are kind to other people and will help people because they just want to help, they do not want recognition. They do not want to hurt someone elses feelings. This can increase more as they can get older and into
Low on Agreeableness
People who are suspicious and feel it is not their job to help people and may be the kind of people who like arguing and people tell things like how it is.
High on neuroticism
These people have strong emotions and tend to meltdown and have strong emotional reactions. This also increases as people get a lot older.
Low on neuroticism
People who are laid back and it takes a lot for these people to be concerned and handle stress a lot better.
Personality development
People become more extroverted, agreeable, and conscientious. They are also less extroverted, more neurotic and are less open to new experience. We see change throughout this time and people who were high in concientousness and have less social vitality.
Stereotypes of aging
People are more anxious, rigid or stubborn and are also more bossy and tend to complain more.
Personality being more stable
This is the case due to genetic physiological influences and there are long lasting effects of childhood experiences. Once identity is achieved you feel a higher satisfaction level too. As people get older they have more control and have better decision m
Gene-environment correlations
People seek out experiences that fit with their personality and experiences also maintain this too.
Systematic change with age
Changes happen at anytime and is not depended on age but it depends on life events or other variables. Development is the result of dealing with challenging life events.
maximum lifespan
Species-specific biological limit to length of life (in years), corresponding to the age at which the oldest known individual died
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 chair, or eating
Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs)
Tasks necessary to conduct the business of daily life and also requiring some cognitive competence, such as telephoning, shopping, food preparation, housekeeping, and paying bills.
cataracts
Cloudy areas in the lens, resulting in foggy vision and (without surgery) eventual blindness.
macular degeneration
When light-sensitive cells int he macula, or central region of the retina break down, older adults develop this in which vision blurs and is gradually lost.
autoimmune response
The immune system is more likely to malfunction by turning against normal body tissues in this response.
assistive technology
An array of devices that permit people with disabilities to improve their functioning.
compression of morbidity
Ideally, as life expectancy extends, we want the average period of diminished vigor before death - especially the number of months or years of ill-health and suffering - to decrease.
primary aging (biological aging)
Genetically influenced declines that affect all members of our species and take place even in the context of good health.
secondary aging
This declines due to hereditary defects and negative environmental influences
Frailty
This involves weakened functioning of diverse organs and body systems, which profoundly interferes with everyday competence and leaves older people highly vulnerable in the face of infection, hot or cold weather, or injury.
Osteoarthritis
The most common type of stiff disease which involves deteriorating cartilage on the ends of bones of frequently used joints.
rheumatoid arthritis
This involves the whole body as it is an autoimmune response which leads to inflammation of connective tissue, particularly the membranes that line the joints, resulting in overall stiffness, inflammation, and aching. Tissue in the cartilage tends to grow
Dementia
Set of disorders occurring almost entirely in old age in which many aspects of thought and behavior are so impaired that everyday activities become disrupted.
Alzheimer's disease
The most common form of dementia, in which structural and chemical brain deterioration is associated with gradual loss of many aspects of thought and behavior.
neurofibrallary tangles
These are bundles of twisted threads that are the product of collapsed neural structures and that contain abnormal forms of protein called tau.
amyloid plaques
These outside neurons are dense deposits of a deteriorated protein called the amyloid, surrounded by clumps of dead nerve and glial cells develop.
cerebrovascular dementia
This is a series of strokes leaves areas of dead brain cells, producing step-by-step degeneration of mental ability, with each step occurring abruptly after a stroke.
assisted living
a homelike housing arrangement for seniors who require more care than can be provided at hoe but less than is usually provided in nursing homes.
selective optimization with compensation
Narrowing their goals, thy select personally valued activities to optimize (or maximize) returns form their diminishing energy. They find new ways to compensate for losses.
implicit memory
A memory without conscious awareness
associative memory deficit
Difficulty creating and retrieving links between pieces of information
remote memory
Very long-term recall
reminiscence bump
Among remote events recalled using either word-cue or time-line procedures, most happened between ages 10 and 30 - period of heightened autobiographical memory.
Prospective memory
This refers to remembering to engage in planned actions in the future
wisdom
When researchers talk about this, most mention 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 ability to listen patiently and empa
Terminal decline
This refers to acceleration in deterioration of cognitive functioning prior to death.
integrity vs despair
This involves coming to terms with one's life. Adults who arrive at a sense of integrity feel whole, complete, and satisfied with their achievements.
gerotranscendence
A cosmic and transcendent perspective directed forward and outward, beyond the self. A shift in perspective or consciousness, toward thinking about one's ultimate purpose and connection to "the grand scheme of things.
affect optimization
The ability to maximize positive emotion and dampen negative emotion
reminiscence
telling stories about people from events from their past and reporting associated thoughts and feelings
dependency-support script
Dependent behaviors are attended to immediately
independence-ignore script
Independent behaviors are mostly ignored.
person-environment fit
A good match between their abilities and the demands of their living environments, which promotes adaptive behavior and psychological well-being. When people cannot maximize use of their capacities, they react with boredom and passivity. When they encount
Disengagement theory
This mutual withdrawal between older adults and society takes place in anticipation of death
activity theory
This states that social barriers to engagement, not the desires of aging adults, cause declining rates of interaction, When older people lose certain roles (IE retirement), they try to find others in an effort to stay about as active and busy as they were
continuity theory
According to this theory, most aging adults 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
socioemotional selectivity theory
Social interaction extends lifelong selection processes.
aging in place
Remaining in a familiar setting where they have control over their everyday life.
congregate housing
an increasingly popular long-term care option - provides a variety of support services, including meals in a common dining room, along with watchful oversight of residents with physical and mental disabilities.
Life-care communities
These offer a range of housing alternatives, from independent or congregate housing to full nursing home care. For a large initial payment and additional monthly fees, life care guarantees that seniors' changing needs will be met within the same facility
social convoy
An influential model of changes in our social networks as we move through life.
secondary friends
People who are not intimates but with whom they spend time occasionally, such as a group that meets for lunch, bridge, or museum tours.
optimal aging
This is which gains are maximized and losses minimized.
Why is work important
It is important so you can provide food to eat, having money to get a place to live and contributing to the next generation.
What is important for well-being for single adults?
Having relationships. Both romantic and non-romantic are important.
Why are friendships and romantic relationships important?
Friendships make you feel there are people who make us understand and that having intimacy in a relationship
Age grade
Socially defined age group in society. Age matters a lot in regards to what we expect them to do.
Assigned different
We have different expectations of social status, privileges, responsibilities, and roles.
Age Norm
Society's expectations about what people should and should not do at different points in the lifespan and our expectations may be different for different people. We have expectations about people's abilities, appearances, vocabulary, attitudes and activit
Aging
We take in the aging process and how we should be behaving and what is appropriate for our age. There is more interest in studying the aging process. Two big messages about aging. One of them is limited time or having unflattering qualities. It is a long
Life-span view of adulthood and aging
Late adulthood does start at 60 and between 100+ years. We have a terminology to break down late adulthood and there are functional differences in these points. Some people are doing well and as we are getting on we see people living a lot less.
Developmental task of late adulthood
Integrity vs despair. Erikson talks about how we figure out who we are and what kind of life we want to have. We spend our middle years contributing to our generation and figuring out what we want to do with our life and what we want to do with it. Erikso
Biological declines in aging
The brain does slow down processing and this is because the cardiovascular system returns. Even in an healthy older person, the brain starts to shrink. No matter how much exercise you do, they will not have the same muscle and mass as they get older. They
Capacity vs functioning
People believe they are aging just fine and these things happen very gradually. In terms of day-to-day functioning, we can say generally speaking, and however we are functioning we can always be doing what we are doing and there is a little bit of reserve
Successful aging - activity theory
There are people who age well also do well mentally, physically, and even social activity. If you want to age well, you have to be physically active in live and you have to be learning and socializing with people.
Successful aging - Socio-emotional selectivity
The successful agers go about their lives and approach it with a different mind set and because they are older they are able to prioritize their life. Older adults don't have to worry about the future anymore and are going to pay off a few years later.
Successful aging - selective optimization with compensation
Their mindset is socio-emotional selectivity and they feel like that they are happy and they are accomplishing things.
Successful aging - Developmental self-regulation
To be a successful older person we control what we are capable of having control. We will do everything we can in our ability to do what we want to accomplish. We can also focus on what brings you joy as well as having good acceptance, gratitude, and endu
Aging priorities
Work is the most important thing then friends, family and independence for young adulthood. As they get older, family becomes a higher priority as well as health becoming a bigger priority and cognitive fitness playing an important role.
Episodic memory
Memory not being as "sticky" and it takes more work to get information in and there are problems with encoding. There is more of a decline in this memory.
Semantic memory
They expect nonsense words, recognition is fine and there are problems with constant retrieval (recall). There is less of a decline around this time.
Working memory
Holding things in your awareness and doing something with them (such as playing with them)
Speed of processing
This slows down and takes people a lot longer in aging.
Explicit declines
They are not implicit declines and there are different steps for how we would do something.
Declines for certain tasks
Those that get older have a harder time with timed tasks and complex tasks.
Contextual factors causing decline in memory
People who are in better health, people who have higher socio-economic status and having more education can cause less of a decline in memory. We also see cohort effects also causing less of a decline in memory and they do better at tasks they are familia
What does not cause memory declinement
Knowledge based information and meta-memory also play a role in this.
What might cause memory declinement
Basic processing capacities, sensory changes, and brain sets priorities.
Maintaining memory - overcoming stereotypes
You can't spend too much time with older people that memory loss continues to get worse as there is selective attention to it as well as there is an overgeneralization of real deficits of memory loss.
Maintaining memory - physical and mental activity
You have to put energy into making memory stay strong with physical and mental activity.
Health being a factor in functioning and activity
Health can affect physical and psychological activity and physical and psychological functioning as these two can both influence each other.
Pathological declines in cognition - symptoms
There is impaired memory, judgment and mood swings become apparent and it interferes with daily functioning.
Pathological declines in cognition - acute vs chronic brain dysfunction
Alzheimer's plays a huge role in this and it can be fairly hard to diagnose. Memory loss is becoming harder to recognize.
Pathological declines in cognition - treatment
People have medical conditions not being correctly treated or medications cannot interact and the dosage or prescription need to change. Nutrition also causes a change and there is physical and mental activity also changing as well as the stress level
Pathological declines in cognition - terminal drop
There is a decline of memory that happens right before death.
Potential improvements with age
Efforts have been made to study cognitive growth, wisdom, spiritual development and even moral development.
Studying older people challenges
People are at a phase where it is hard to know what the important things are to study and what the important factors are available. We do not know what is important from a 80 or 90 year old's perspective. We know that when we are talking about elderly peo
Post-formal operations
Piaget thinks there could be a fifth stage gets into the spiritual idea that some people in the latter stages of adulthood reach this new level of reasoning and understanding, from different perspectives and thinking about them in different ways of thinki
Relativistic thinking
Knowledge depends on the perspective of the knower
Dialectical thinking
They deal with contradictory viewpoints and essential paradox
Systematic thinking
They think about entire systems of knowledge or ideas.
What you get out of post-formal operations
People can integrate their understanding of the world with their emotional connection to the world. They can integrate their cognition and their affect (emotion) and their motivation. They are able to think about the real world in terms of our understandi
Post-formal operations - getting there
Hot everyone gets there in life and not all people are wise as they get older. Different characteristics that promote development are openness and being intellectually curious and thinking about things from a new experience and people who do this are more
Wisdom
Expert knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life that permits exceptional insight, judgment and advice about complex and uncertain matters. We measure it asking series of statements with how you believe something and how you have a right way of doin
What shapes wisdom?
This is promoted by life experiences, different mentors and a combination of personality or openness to experience, creativity, and generativity.
Spiritual Development
There is research on this building on in regards to their cognitive development, moral development, ego development, and identity development.
Spiritual development - task
This is creating and livign a life that is consistent with deeply held values and priorities and universaling principles and creating your own version of "ultimate reality
Shift in meta-perspective
They have a decrease in self-centeredness and less of an interest in fear in death. They talk about the future and talk about being at peace with where you are now and being where you are right now in life. We are all part of one large whole.
Challenges to research on aging
There is no "age-grading" in these studies and just like in every phase of life, we want people to optimize more and want them to make the most of doing something. We want people to develop this spiritual side to themselves and having these interactions w
biological aging (senescence)
This is genetically influenced and it declines the functioning of organs and systems that are universal in all members of our species.
telomeres
A special type of DNA that is located at the ends of chromosomes, serving as a "cap" to protect the ends from destruction - shortens. Eventually, so little remains that the cells no longer duplicate at all.
free radicals
Naturally occurring, highly reactive chemicals that form in the presence of oxygen
cross-linkage theory of aging
Over time, protein fibers that make up the body's connective tissue form bonds, or links, with one another. When these normally separate fibers cross-link, tissue becomes less elastic, leading to many negative outcomes.
functional age
Actual competences and performance
average life expectancy
The number of years that an individual born in a particular year can expect to live, starting at any given age.
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.
agonal phase
The Greek word 'agon' means "struggle". Agonal in this case refers to gasps and muscle spasms during the first moments in which the regular heartbeat disintegrates.
clinical death
A short interval follows in which heartbeat, circulation, breathing, and brain functioning stop, but resuscitation is still possible.
mortality
the individual passes into permanent death
brain death
irreversible cessation of all activity in the brain and brain stem (which controls reflexes)
persistent vegetative state
this is which the cerebral cortex no longer registered electrical activity but the brain stem remained active
death anxiety
Fear and apprehension of death
appropriate death
This is a death that makes sense in terms of individual's pattern of living and values and at the same time preserves or restores significant relationships and is free of suffering as possible.
hospice
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.
palliative, comfort, care
This relieves pain and other symptoms rather than prolonging life
Euthanasia
The practice of ending the life of a person suffering from an incurable condition.
passive enthanasia
Life-sustaining treatment is a withheld or withdrawn, permitting a patient to die naturally.
advance medical directive
A written statement of desired medical treatment should they become incurably ill.
Living will
People specify the treatments they do or do not want in case of a terminal illness, coma, or other near death situation.
durable power of attorney for health care
This authorizes appointment of another person to make health-care decisions on one's behalf
voluntary active authanasia
Doctors or others act directly, at a patient's request, to end suffering before a natural end to life.
Bereavement
The experience of losing a loved one by death
grief
Intense physical and psychological distress
mourning
The culturally specified expression of the bereaved person's thoughts and feelings
Dual-process model of coping and loss
A recent perspective that has 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.
anticipatory grieving
acknowledging that the loss is inevitable and preparing emotionally for it.
Programmed theories of aging
In some sense, the aging process is built into our systems and it is within our bodies or our genes and we have some expiration date and part of the physical process of life is we are going through these different processes in life. It is built into the s
Damage theories of aging
Also known as wear or tear theories, one way or another we go through aging is we become worn out and exposed to a lot of things in the world that damages in the body. Continual use makes the body incredibly tired. (mechanistic thinking)
Programmed theories
These are genetically determined and it is inevitable and universal and this is what it is. Your life span will be this long and no longer.
Cellular clock theory
Leonard Hayflick's theory that the maximum number of times that human cells can divide is about 75 to 80. As we age, our cells have less capability to divide.
Free Radical theory
presence of free radicals produced through normal respiration and metabolism cause damage to existing cells, some believe this can be reversed through consumption of vitamins and other products
Mitochondrial theory
The theory that aging is caused by the decay of mitochondria, tiny cellular bodies that supply energy for function, growth, and repair.
Endocrine and immune systems theory with aging
The former is the hormone system and later as people get older it changes with hormones harm the immune system.
Hormonal stress theory
the theory that aging in the body's hormonal system can lower resistance to stress and increase the likelihood of disease
Genes turn aging on - twin studies
identical twins are likely to have a similar life span than fraternal
Genes turn aging on - Premature aging (progeria)
This is a genetic disease that causes premature aging and people who have this age a lot faster and the average life span for them in the early teens and develop the problems of old age affecting the young age. This could potentially be a factor to make p
Maximum lifespan
The maximum number of years any member of a species has lived will be around 120-125 years.
What causes damage theories
There are lot of things in the environment that can make aging a stressful process and this includes wear and tear, disease, lack of us, stress or even pollutants. Some of the things we see we avoid and others we can't avoid. Stuff happens to our body tha
Idea of damage theories
We have been exposed to things and they have all been avoidable and there is evidence to support this such as exposure to the sun. Physical factors can make us more susceptible to illness like diet, exercise, or substance abuse. Psychological factors such
Life expectancy
Average number of years a newborn can be expected to live (currently its 78.6 years).
Historical changes in death
Average life expectancy is 49 years and half of children died and most men had two wives. A lot of people did not make it out of infancy and a lot of people did not even make it through birth.
Factors that affect life expectancy
We have clean water, we have germ theories, we have things like antibotics and children died more of ear infections. We have better medical care and more sanitation and we are getting people to live to the highest life expectancy.
Aging and death process
Part of this process is due to genetics and how the body is designed and the wear and tear theories are also a possibility. Our personal activity and biology, psychology, and social factors play an important role in this. Interactions over time play an im
Children's understanding of death
Children understand things at different ages and what we can say maturely is that this happens to everyone and it happens to everyone and is irreversible and is universal and is caused by internal processes.
Infants and death
Babies do not have concept of death they will be sad and not be comforted by someone else and because they are so limited in understanding there is no long-term effects depending on the replacement.
Early childhood and death
This is where the biggest long-term negative effects go on as they have a better connection than infants and they are in the "magic" years. If you can believe things you can imagine you can think of death being as operational. It is difficult for them to
Middle childhood and death
they understand concrete things more than younger children. They understand it is irreversible and it is universal and may not understand causality of death and are better at understanding a more mature concept of death. They have more coping strategies t
Adolescence of death
They have more of an understanding of death and have a more conception of death and they can rely on other people who they can cope with. The danger with this is they may do things and it can cause rumination (such as reliving the problem). It is difficul
Process of dying - life review
We are talking about people looking back over their lives with what they are happy with and whatever mistakes that they made. People are ideally looking back at where they are and are limiting their social circles and taking each day at a time. They are t
Stages of dying - denial
This stating that it is a mistake and must not be the said individual or there must be a possible cure and refusal to believe it is accurate.
Stages of dying - anger
This can be directed at anything or anyone or why anyone could have this.
Stages of dying - bargaining
A lot of people try to make a deal and make it to their kid's high school graduation or coming up with their own terms.
Stages of dying - depression
This is feeling despair or feeling hopeless during this time
Stages of dying - acceptance
Some people recognize that this is happening to everyone and this is their time and whatever happens, happens.
Critique and alternatives of dying stages
People can have mixtures of the death stages and they can be a lot more complex emotionally. It also depends on the illness process and the influence that the individual has as well as the amount of the social influence.
Cultural differences of bereavement
These consist of mourning and grief and even having a continuing relationship with the dead.
Experience of grieving (process of bereavement)
There is disbelief (feeling of unreality) or shock. There is a yearning feeling and wanting to have the person back. People go into depression and debate of whether or not it is a good idea to diagnose someone with depression with the mourning process. We
The mourning after
This depends on the process of the loss. The more closer the relationship the harder it is. It also talks about the cause of the death which could mean if it was an expected death or a sudden death and more importantly losing someone who you lose in a way
Providing support for people who are dying of grieving
Researchers suggest this is difficult for someone to go through. Things will not be easy for that person and it will require a lot of patience. You must remain engaged with the person as well as flexible and more importantly you should respect individuali
life expectancy vs life span
The former refers to the number of years a person is expected to live, based on the statistical average. This statistical average is calculated based on a population overall, including those who die shortly during childbirth, shortly after childbirth, dur
How can age-related declines be slowed?
Have a healthy body and mental engagement
What are the challenges of moral development
Some people do not get to conventional but most people do not get to post-conventional
Contrast of life-span view and traditional view
Both involve looking at a whole span of life, traditional believes that after the age of 25 there is no development and it is all downhill from there. In lifespan, however, people believe that gains are still possible after the age of 25.