Chapter 1

Question 1

Biopsychosocial perspective

Answer 1

development as a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social processes

Question 2

Biological processes

Answer 2

changes in one’s bodily functions and structures as they age

Question 3

Psychological processes

Answer 3

changes in one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior as they age

Question 4

Social processes

Answer 4

historical, cultural, and interpersonal changes as one ages

Question 5

Gerontology

Answer 5

interdisciplinary, scientific study of the aging process

Question 6

Identity

Answer 6

a composite of how people view themselves in the biopsychosocial domains of life

Question 7

Four principles of the biopsychosocial approach

Answer 7

(1) Changes are continuous over the life span (2) Only the survivors grow old (3) Individuality matters (4) “Normal” aging is different from disease or getting sick

Question 8

Continuity principle

Answer 8

changes experienced later in adulthood build upon changes experienced earlier in life, in a cumulative fashion

Question 9

Survivor principle

Answer 9

people who live to old age are the ones who manage to outlive the threats (random or not) that could have caused their deaths at an earlier age

Question 10

Individuality principle

Answer 10

people become even more different from one another as they age, changing at different rates to different degrees

Question 11

2 types of differences among people

Answer 11

inter-individual differences and intra-individual differences

Question 12

Inter-individual differences

Answer 12

differences between people

Question 13

Intra-individual differences

Answer 13

differences in performance and multidirectionality of development within the same person

Question 14

Primary or normal aging

Answer 14

normal changes over time that occur due to universal, intrinsic, and progressive alterations in the body’s systems

Question 15

Secondary or impaired aging

Answer 15

abnormal changes over time leading to impairment in a portion of the older population due to disease, lifestyle and environmentally induced changes, rather than normal aging

Question 16

Tertiary aging

Answer 16

experiencing a rapid loss of functioning across multiple areas toward the very end of life; when disease worsens already compromised areas of functioning

Question 17

Optimal aging

Answer 17

age-related changes that improve the individual’s functioning, like preventative or compensatory measures taken

Question 18

Age subgroups often used in gerontology

Answer 18

young-old (65-74), old-old (75-84), oldest-old (85 and older)

Question 19

Centenarians

Answer 19

people over the age of 100

Question 20

Functional age

Answer 20

classification system based on how people perform as an alternative to chronological age (biological, psychological, and social ages)

Question 21

Biological age

Answer 21

age of an individual’s bodily systems: cardiovascular functioning, respiratory functioning, muscle and bone strength, and cellular aging

Question 22

Psychological age

Answer 22

performance of an individual on measures of qualities like reaction time, memory, learning ability, and intelligence (all of which change with age)

Question 23

Social age

Answer 23

calculated by evaluating here people are compared to the typical ages expected of them whey they occupy certain positions in life (family and work roles)

Question 24

Personal aging

Answer 24

changes that occur within the individual and reflects the impact of time on the body’s structures and functions (primary, secondary, and tertiary)

Question 25

Social aging

Answer 25

effects of a person’s exposure to a changing environment

Question 26

3 basic categories of social influences

Answer 26

normative age-graded influences, normative history-graded influences, and non-normative influences

Question 27

Normative age-graded influences

Answer 27

leads people to choose experiences that align with certain ages or points in a life span according to their culture and historical period

Question 28

Age norm

Answer 28

society’s expectation for the behavior of people at certain ages

Question 29

Normative history-graded influences

Answer 29

events that happen for everyone (regardless of age) , whether directly or indirectly, within a certain culture or geopolitical unit, including wars, economic trends, sociocultural changes in attitudes and values

Question 30

Non-normative influences

Answer 30

random or unpredictable idiosyncratic events that occur throughout life

Question 31

Gender or gender identity

Answer 31

the gender that a person feels internally along the gender spectrum

Question 32

Sex

Answer 32

individual’s inherited predisposition to develop the physiological characteristics typically associated with maleness or femaleness

Question 33

Immigrant population

Answer 33

persons who are or have ever been landed immigrants or permanent residents, or who are citizens by naturalization

Question 34

Visible minority

Answer 34

persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in color

Question 35

Socioeconomic status or social class

Answer 35

people’s position in the educational and occupational ranks of a society

Question 36

Gini coefficient

Answer 36

an index of income inequality in a given economy

Question 37

Religion

Answer 37

an individual’s identification with an organized belief system

Question 38

Life expectancy

Answer 38

average number of years of life remaining to people born within a similar time period

Question 39

Life span

Answer 39

maximum age for a given species

Question 40

Health-adjusted life expectancy

Answer 40

number of years a person can expect to live in good health if current mortality and morbidity rates persist

Question 41

Compression of morbidity

Answer 41

the illness burden to a society can be reduced if people become disabled closer to their time of death