(11) Adult Development Flashcards
What is physical development like in early adulthood?
- Golden age of physical fitness:
- Peak od muscular strength
- Manual dexterity most efficient
- Senses at their sharpest
- Healthiest of all age groups
- Death primarily accidental (e.g. traffic accidents)
What is intellectual development like in early adulthood?
Longitudinal studies show general intelligence relatively stable until after 60
What is Crystallized intelligence?
Skills, knowledge
What is Fluid intelligence?
abstract thinking, reasoning
What is physical development like in middle adulthood?
- Slight (often undetectable) deterioration in physical function
- Loss of reserve capacity
- Sense become less acute:
- Presbyopia (sight, close vision bad)
- Hearing loss
- Taste
What is intellectual development like in middle adulthood?
- Increase in crystallised, decrease in fluid, little change in general measures of intelligence
- 40-50-year olds are best at practical problem-solving (Denney & Palmer, 1981)
What is physical development like in late adulthood?
- Continuing, accelerated deterioration of physical capabilities
- But, wide variation in both the extent and the nature of physical deterioration
What areas can life expectancy change?
- Life expectancy increasing in almost all societies, but difference in:
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Social class
What is Damage based theory?
body is worn out by use of the environment
What is Primary ageing?
gradual deterioration (can’t slow down)
What is Secondary ageing?
disease, abuse, illness etc (can slow down)
What is intellectual development like in late adulthood?
- Drop in fluid intelligence and problem-solving ability
- But very wide variation, many ‘mentally active’ octogenarians
- Notable declines in memory and information processing abilities
What is Biological hypotheses?
neurological deterioration in the brain
What is Processing hypotheses?
less efficient at processing, encoding, binding etc (longer to retrieve)
What Contextual consideration need to be noted when looking at late adulthood memory?
e.g. SES and IQ predict memory performance
What is dementia?
A loss of cognitive function severe enough to interfere with normal daily activities and social relationships
What causes dementia
Caused by diseases affecting the CNS including cardiovascular disorders
What are early signs of dementia?
loss of memory for recent events or familiar tasks (short term, not long term)
What happens in later stages of dementia?
changes in personality, cannot perform basic everyday functions
What six domains characterizes dementia?
Characterised by cognitive impairment in six domains: attention, executive function, learning and memory, language, perceptual-motor function, social cognition
How are you diagnosed with dementia?
- Evidence of significant decline in one or more cognitive domain
- Cognitive deficits must be sufficient to interfere with independence in everyday life
How can Protein build-up cause Alzheimer?
plaques and tangles, loss of connections between neurons
How can Genetic causes cause Alzheimer?
only 50% of early onset and 40% of late onset explained by genetic factors
How can Environmental factors cause Alzheimer?
study of 3700 men born in Japan 1900-1919 but lived in Honolulu during adulthood (White et al, 1996) 7-10% of Japanese in Honolulu
What can help alzheimers?
- Drugs
- Cognitive stimulation
- Life story work (reflecting on life)
What is an adult Secure attachment?
more satisfactory and stable long-term relationships
What is an adult Avoidant attachment?
distance themselves and close off from potentially rewarding relationships
What is an adult Anxious attachment?
clingy, fear of abandonment and worry about negative feelings
Can attachment be categorised?
- Others argue that adult attachment does not fall into categories – instead we should have a two-dimensional model (Fraley et al, 2000)
- Avoidance – anxiety
- More precise and valid to use dimensions
What components are there in the biomedical theory?
- Biomedical theories: Rowe and Kahn (1998) note three components:
1. Absence of disease
2. Maintenance of physical and cognitive functioning
3. Active engagement with life - But is a disease-free older age realistic?
What is the psychosocial theory of successful ageing?
- Focus on life satisfaction, social participation and overall well-being
- Happiness is maintained in older people
What is successful ageing defined as?
-They defined successful ageing as having good health and functioning, in addition to other factors
What % of adults say theyre ageing successfully?
75%
