Chapter 17: Late Adulthood - Physical & Cognitive Development Flashcards
Lifespan (longevity)
The maximum amount of time a person can live under optimal conditions
Life expectancy
The amount of time a person can actuallybe expected to live ina given setting
Ageism
Prejudice agaisnt peope because of their age.
Glaucoma
(6%0) A condition involving abnormally high fluid pressure in the eye.
Prebycusis
Loss of acuteness of hearing to do age related degenerative changes in the ear
- Gradual degeneration of every part of the auditory system
- More quickly in men than in women
Isteoporosis
A disorder in which bones become more porous, brittle and subject to fracture, due to loss of calcium and other minerals.
Sleep apnea
Temporary suspension of breathing while asleep
Cellular clock theory (Hayflick limit)
A theory of aging focusing on the limits of cell division
- Each species has a time limit beyond which cells lose capacity to replicate themselves
- In humans it is about 50 time
Telomers
Protective segments of DNA located at the tips of chromosomes
- String of repetitive DNA at the tips of chromosomes
- Length is reduced slightly each time a cell replicates
Hormonal stress theory
A theory of aging that suggests stress hormones lifted at elevated levels, make the body more vulnerable to chronic conditions.
Corticosteroids and adrenaline are left elevated after illness
○ Increases susceptibility to chronic diseases
Immunological theory
A theory of again that holds that the immune system is pre-set to decline by an internal biological clock.
Production of antibodies declines with age
■ Age-related changes increase risk for cancer
Wear-and-tear theory
A theory of againg that suggest that ovedr time, our bodies become less capable of repairing themselves.
Accumulation of unrepaired breaks resulting in loss of cellular function
○ Stem cells divide an unlimited amount of times, but we have a limited pool in our body
Free-radical theory
A theory of agin that attribtes again to damage caused by the accumulation of unstable molecules
Damage cell proteins, DNA, membranes
○ Our body produces fewer antioxidants with age
Cross-linking theory
A theory of aging that holds that the stiffening od body proteins eventually break down the bodily process, leading to aging
Cell proteins bind to one another
○ Leads to stiffening of body proteins
○ Immune system combat cross-liking but get less efficient with time
Arthritis
Inflammation of the joints
Osteoarthritis
A painful, degenerative disease characterized by wear and tear of the joints
- More brittle and vulnerable to fracture
- Osteoporosis
- Loss of calcium-
- This leads to bone fractures
- Exercise (weight bearing) can decrease the risk
- It can shorten one’s stature
- More common in women; Due to drops in estrogen levels
- Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption as risk factors
Rheumatoid Arthritis
A painful, degenerative disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the membranes that line the joints
Dementia
A condition characterized by deterioation of cognitive functioning
Alzheimer’s Disease
A severe form of dementia characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of cognitive functioning.
- ⅔ of the dementia cases
Implicit memory
Automati memores based on reptition and apparenty ot requiring any conscious effort to retrieve
More automatic
- Years of learning and repetition
- Does not require conscious effort
- implicit memory remains largely unaffected by age
Prospective memory
Memory of things one has planned for the future
Life expectancy for babies born in 2016
Men ~80 years
Women ~ 84 years
Young-old (65-74), old-old (75-84), oldest-old (85+)
Senescence
gradual deterioration of body systems
Telomerase
Enzyme that restores telomeres to the end of DNA
■ Most adult cells lack capacity to produce telomerase
Antioxidants
Antioxidants are natural or man-made substances that protect living organisms from the harmful effects of free radicals.
Late Adulthood Prevalence / Canadian population
Seniors have increased from 8% - 14% of the population since 2009
- by 2036, projected to increase to 23%-25%
- by 2061, projects to be 24%-28%
- Average Canadian baby is expected to live about 80 years
Brain & Nervous System
Decrease in efficiency, increase in compensatory functioning.
Reduction of brain weight
- Loss of grey matter
- Education as a protective factor (less atrophy)
- The decline in the density of dendrites
- Slower synaptic transmission speed
- Plasticity decreases
- Reaction time increases
Cataracts
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of your eye. Cataracts are very common as you get older. In fact, more than half of all
Tinnitus
when you experience ringing or other noises in one or both of your ears. The noise you hear when you have tinnitus isn’t caused by an external sound, and other people usually can’t hear it. Tinnitus is a common problem.
Senses in Late Adulthood
- Taste and smell
- Loss of taste buds on tongue
- Flavour blandness
- Inadequate nutrition as result
- Loss of sensitivity to odours
- Touch
- Skin is less responsive to cold and heat
Programmed and cellular damage theories of aging
Theories again have two main categories:
1. programmed theories:
- cellular clock theory
- hormonal stress theory
- immunological theory
2. cellular damage theories
- wear and tear theory
- free radical theory
- cross-linking theory
Identify common health concerns associated with late adulthood
Three major causes of death in Canadian older than 65 are cancer, CVD, and respiratory diseases.
- Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart attacks strokes
- Arthritis becomes more common with advancing age and is more common in women
* Many older adults are addicted to prescribed drugs:
- 50% of prescriptions are not taken properly
- 20% of Canadian hospitalizations: problems with medication
* Increased risk for unintentional injuries
Language / Tip of the tongue phenomenon
A state in which one cannot quite recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning.
- Gradual decline in expressive vocabulary
- Decline in reading comprehension is related to working memepoy
- Many adults find it difficult to understand spoken language and find it hard to produce language, also, due to working memory
- Applies to expressive vocab, more than receptive
Agoraphobia
a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.
Parkinson’s Disease
a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination. Symptoms usually begin gradually and worsen over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking.
- Related to dopamine deficiency
- More common in men 3:2
- Dementia is more common in advanced stages
Long-term memory: Explicit Memory
Episodic/autobiographical
■ Semantic memory
■ Conscious effort
Temporal memory
Order in which events have happened
Difference between receptive and expressive vocabulary
Receptive vocabulary refers to all the words that can be understood by a person, including spoken, written, or manually signed words. In contrast, expressive vocabulary refers to words that a person can express or produce, for example, by speaking or writing.
Associative Memory
Relating information
Long-term memory
Adults remember the second and third decades of their
lives with more details and emotional intensity
■ When developing identity?
■ When sex hormones have the strongest effect?
Long-term memories are subject to distortion, bias, and even decay. Decline in:
clines in
* Retrospective memory - Dependent on fluid intelligence
* Prospective memory - Independent of fluid intelligence
* Episodic memory
- Pollyanna principle
- Recall what fits self-view
* Associative memory
* Temporal memory: confused
Pollyanna principle
is the tendency for people to remember pleasant items more accurately than unpleasant ones. Research indicates that at the subconscious level, the mind tends to focus on the optimistic; while at the conscious level, it tends to focus on the negative.
Short-term / Working Memory Capacity
Pronounced decline after age 70
○ Speed processing decline
○ Learning process takes longer
○ Not only unrelated tasks, but also everyday memory
Cohen’s Four-stage theory of mid-to late-life creativity
- Re-evaluation phase ~ 50’s
- Reflect on past accomplishments and formulate new goals
- Liberation phase ~ 60’s
- Freer to create, more tolerant of failures, more willing to take risks
- Summing-up phase ~ 70’s
- Knit accomplishments together in a cohesive story
- Encore phase ~ 80’s
- Complete unfinished works and fulfill desires
