2- development adult Flashcards
(developmental) psychology’s major issues
- continuity and stages (continuous vs discrete) depends on framing
- stability and change (stable vs changing)
- nature AND nurture
nature and nurture
- look at interaction between them! best way to study
- poorly understood
heritability estimate
describes variance, not correlation
basically looks for the shared variance between IQ and genes
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Piaget
- infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
- Worked at Binet’s school!
- Also used his own kids! - believed that kids are not passive vessel but ACTIVE THINKERS
- thought that children’s ability to understand objects was a cognitive skill that develops slowly as a child matures and interacts with the environment.
deprivation of attachment
Important note: we are resilient, we bounce back quickly
§ Higher risk for attachment problems, substance abuse, other poor outcomes (BUT see above)
Moral action for adolescents
Feeds moral attitudes
§ Mischel & marshmallows, again
§ i.e. self-control predicts future self-regulation
- actions shape our intuitions
- when thoughts =/= actions… actions win! cognitive dissonance
early adulthood physical development
physical benefits: muscle, health
middle adult physical development
biggest predictor of this is FITNESS LEVELS!!
- healthier brains when you’re older too!
Late adulthood physical development
- late adulthood is a new psychological phenomenon
- reaction and processing time slows down a little
aging and memory middle adulthood
- active recall gets worse
- buuuuuut recognition memory is the same
late adulthood aging and memory
- more bias in how you process information
- attend to irrelevant and meaningless information less but still good with meaningful and positive stimuli
end of life aging and memory
last 4 years of life
- decline in cognition and memory
Alzheimer’s disease
- A neurocognitive disorder (NCD) Most common cause of dementia
- Tremendous incidence in older adults
- Occasional early onset from genetics, but otherwise no single gene associated with AD
- No cure
early symptoms of AD
selective declines in memory
later symptoms of AD
confusion, irritability, anxiety,
deterioration of speech
Advanced stages of AD
difficulties with even simple responses or behaviours (e.g. swallowing, bladder control)
The defining characteristics of AD
- Brain volume decrease (at first is just loss of synapses)
- Neurofibrillary tangles
- Amyloid plaques
plaques
one of the earliest markers of AD
likely the end result of processes long processing in silence
Amyloid cascade hypothesis
plaques cause AD
Neurofibrillary (or tau) hypothesis
tangles cause AD
buuutttt they show up later than plaques so eh
Vascular hypothesis
blood flow-related
changes in blood flow are disruptive
Pathogenic spread hypothesis
the idea that abnormal forms of disease-associated proteins, such as tau or α-synuclein, physically move from neuron to neuron to induce disease progression
Gum disease hypothesis
well, the bacteria from it
well, microbial infections in general
high prevalence of gingivitis in brain
Autoimmune hypothesis
maybe the proteins were originally a part of the immune system that are now attacking itself?
autoimmune!
Marriage
Predictive of happiness, sexual satisfaction, income and mental health
Divorce
Rates related to women’s autonomy, societal higher expectations, “trial marriage” / cohabitation
wellbeing across the lifespan
Less anger
Less stress
Less worry
Fewer relationship problems Less reactivity to negativity (In some studies) Happier
EMERGING ADULTHOOD
- This is a relatively newly defined period of lifespan development spanning from 18 years old to the mid-20s, characterized as an in-between time where identity exploration is focused on work and love.
- emerging adulthood is a product of both Western culture and our current times
- social phenomenon
- social and financial autonomy in those age groups
- Occasionally lumped in with adolescence, often with
early adulthood - Dependence on parents
ADULTHOOD
- Adulthood begins around 20 years old
- has three distinct stages: early, middle, and late.
- Early adulthood (20 to early 40s)
physical development
- physical maturation is complete, although our height and weight may increase slightly.
- young adulthood, our physical abilities are at their peak, including muscle strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac functioning.
- Middle adulthood (40s to the 60s) physical development
- Physical decline is gradual.
- The skin loses some elasticity, and wrinkles are among the first signs of aging.
- Visual acuity decreases during this time.
- Women experience a gradual decline in fertility as they approach the onset of menopause,
- Both men and women tend to gain weight
- Hair begins to thin and turn gray
- Late adulthood (60s+) physical development
○ The skin continues to lose elasticity, reaction time slows further, and muscle strength diminishes.
○ Smell, taste, hearing, and vision, so sharp in our twenties, decline significantly.
○ The brain may also no longer function at optimal levels, leading to problems like memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease in later years.
Cognitive development for adults
- Remains steady throughout early and middle adulthood
- Our crystallized intelligence tends to hold steady as we age—it may even improve.
- decline in fluid intelligence. These processes become slower
- adults who engage in mentally and physically stimulating activities experience less cognitive decline and have a reduced incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia
Psychosocial development
adults
- Some aspects of healthy aging include activities, social connectedness, and the role of a person’s culture.
- we need to have and continue to find meaning throughout our lives.
- For those in early and middle adulthood, meaning is found through work and family life
○ These areas relate to the tasks that Erikson referred to as generativity and intimacy. - Positive relationships with significant others in our adult years have been found to contribute to a state of well-being
- socioemotional selectivity theory
suggests that our social support and friendships dwindle in number, but remain as close, if not more close than in our earlier years
Hospice
○ to help provide a death with dignity and pain management in a humane and comfortable environment, which is usually outside of a hospital setting.
stages of grief
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
the stages may occur in different orders, depending on the individual.
Not all people experience all of the stages.
health care proxy,
appoints a specific person to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to speak for yourself.
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)
states that if a person stops breathing or their heart stops beating, medical personnel such as doctors and nurses are not to take steps to revive or resuscitate the patient.
living will or advance directive
which is a written legal document that details specific interventions a person wants.
- Physical development
involves growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness.
- Cognitive development
involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
- Psychosocial development
involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.
- Normative approach –
“what is normal development”
- Developmental milestones
age-related averages as general guidelines to compare children with same-age peers to determine the approximate ages they should reach specific normative events
○ But… not all normative events are universal
Achievement gap:
refers to the persistent difference in grades, test scores, and graduation rates that exist among students of different ethnicities, races, and—in certain subjects—genders
○ strongly influenced by differences in socioeconomic factors that exist among the families of these children.
Moral intuition
effortlessly, automatically
haidt – doesn’t take effort
greene – has automatic, but they can be persuaded or overwritten
what are early AD symptoms sometimes referred to
- Early symptoms sometimes referred to as mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
where does AD first appear in
- Appears first in the medial temporal lobe structures, then to cortex
diagnosis for AD?
- Diagnosis traditionally “probable” until post-mortem because you have to check brain tissue
