Chapter 13: Later Adulthood (60-75) Flashcards
Life satisfaction
sense of well-being based on an one’s progress toward achieving life goals.
goal orientation
Guiding direction of one’s life goals
• especially the distinction between
• agentic (such as focusing on achievement, power, and the expression of personal abilities)
• communal (focusing on intimacy, affiliation, and contributions to the welfare of others)
goal domains
Important areas of life that contribute to life satisfaction
Examples: job or daily activities
goal-related activities
The actions one takes to achieve one’s life goals.
personality
A pattern of • thoughts, • feelings, and • actions that are characteristic of a person across situations.
Extroversion
Personality dimension
includes such qualities as: sociability,
vigor,
sensation seeking, &
positive emotions
Openness to experience
A personality characteristic that includes
- curiosity,
- imaginativeness, and
- enthusiasm for novelty
neuroticism
A personality dimension
consistently associated with •discouragement,
•unhappiness, and
•hopelessness.
Neuroticism includes such qualities as
•anxiety,
•hostility,
•impulsiveness.
usefulness/competence
Personality dimension
associated with wellbeing and high self-esteem through volunteerism, etc
well-being
The state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous.
Optimism
A belief that one’s decisions will lead to positive consequences and that situations will turn out
well.
sense of control
The authority or power to direct one’s behavior in various aspects of life,
Examples: selecting leisure activities or choosing when to retire.
In older adults, a sense
of control is associated with life satisfaction.
Chronic illnesses
Long-lasting, ongoing illnesses.
conscientiousness
A personality dimension
associated with doing what is right and doing one’s work or duty well.
intellectual vigor
A person’s ability to maintain and successfully utilize cognitive abilities.
age differences
In the comparison of age groups, differences between populations that may be due to development, aging, or a variety of cohort related opportunities and experiences.
age changes
Changes that are due to the natural aging process.
Reserve capacity
A person’s resources to protect themselves from illness or recover from illness or stress, especially as they age.
sensory register
neurological processing activity required to take in
- visual,
- auditory,
- tactile, and
- olfactory information
Speed of processing
The amount of time it takes to detect and interpret sensory stimuli.
Working memory
A type of memory that uses attention to hold and manipulate information in the short term.
short-term memory
The working capacity to encode and retrieve 5 to 9 bits of information in the span of a minute or two. This is the scratch pad of
memory
Long-term memory
A complex network of information, concepts and schemes related by associations, knowledge, and use.
It is the storehouse of a lifetime of information.
Semantic memory
Recall of basic knowledge, such as the meaning of words like “vegetable,” “democracy,” or “insect.”
Episodic memory
Recall of situations and data.
prospective memory
Memory about events or actions taking place in the future.
postformal thought
A qualitatively new form of thinking that emerges after formal operational thought
involves a higher use of reflection and the integration knowledge
- contextual,
- relativistic, and
- subjective .
crystallized intelligence
Skills acquired through:
- education &
- socialization.
fluid intelligence
The ability to impose organization on information and to generate new hypotheses.
grandparenthood
The stage of life one enters when one’s first grandchild is born.
intergenerational solidarity
The closeness and commitment within parent–child and grandparent–grandchild relationships.
widowhood
The stage of life one enters when one’s spouse dies.
Volunteerism
Involvement in some form of volunteer service.
point of view about death
A considered and/or evaluated perspective about death, including the death of others and
oneself.
death anxiety
Personal fear and worry about death.
integrity
The ability to accept the facts of one’s life and to face death without great fear. The sense of integrity is usually acquired toward the end of later adulthood.
sense of coherence
A process in which one seeks to find an integrative thread that makes sense of the life one has led without belaboring past mistakes.
despair
Feeling a loss of all hope and confidence.
ageism
A devaluation of older adults by the social community.
reminiscence
The process of thinking or telling about past experiences
Wisdom
A type of expert knowledge that reflects sound judgment and good advice in the face of high levels of uncertainty
expertise
A quality of individuals who focus their intelligence on intensive study, training, and repeated opportunities for problem solving within a domain in which they become specialists.
disdain
A feeling of scorn for the weakness and frailty of oneself or others
Retirement
A societal and psychological construct in which an individual ceases to work year-round full time, often withdrawing from the formal structure of work.
retirement anxiety
Apprehensions that adults have as they anticipate retirement.
