Chapter 9: Late Adulthood

Question 1

Dependency ratio

Answer 1

A demographic indicator that expresses the degree of demand placed on society by the young and aged combined. The more old people the more demand placed on society to help them.

Question 2

Social gerontology

Answer 2

The social science that studies human aging.

Question 3

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Disengagement theory

Answer 3

Suggests that as elderly individuals grow older, they gradually decrease their social interactions and ties and become increasingly self-preoccupied.

Question 4

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Active theory

Answer 4

States that higher levels of activity and involvement are directly related to higher levels of life satisfaction in elderly people.

Question 5

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Continuity theory

Answer 5

Individuals adapt to changes by using the same coping styles they have used throughout the life course, and they adopt new roles that substitute for roles they lost because of age.

Individuals lifestyle tends to stay the same or reflect earlier lifestyles.

Question 6

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Social construction theory

Answer 6

Suggests that ways of understanding are shaped by the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic conditions in which knowledge is developed, thus values are associated with various ways of understanding.

Conceptions about age arise through interactions of an individual with their social environment.

Question 7

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Feminist theories

Answer 7

Suggest that gender is a key factor in understanding a person’s aging experience.

Question 8

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Social exchange theory

Answer 8

Built on notion that an exchange of resources takes place in all interpersonal interactions.

Question 9

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Life course perspective

Answer 9

Human development is characterized by multidimensional, multifunctionality, plasticity, and continuity in the persons experiences of gains and losses over the life course.

Question 10

Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:

Age stratification

Answer 10

Falls into the tradition of the life course perspective. Stratification is a sociological concept that describes a given hierarchy that exists in a given society. Society is structured around age and changes in age changes roles we play in society.

Question 11

Genetic theories of biological aging

Answer 11

Propose that there are genetically determined differences between species in th maximum life span.

Question 12

Programmed aging theories

Answer 12

Propose that cells can not replicate themselves indefinitely. It slows down as we become older.

Question 13

Random error theories

Answer 13

Physiological aging occurs because of damaging processes that become more frequent in late adulthood but are not part of the genetic unfolding process.

Question 14

Molecular/cellular theories of biological aging

Answer 14

Aging is caused by molecular or cellular processes.

Question 15

System levels theories of biological aging

Answer 15

Propose that aging is caused by processes operating across biological systems.

Question 16

Mortality rates

Answer 16

The frequency at which death occurs within a population.

Question 17

Morbidity

Answer 17

The incidence of disease.

Question 18

Ego integrity verses ego dispair

Answer 18

Integrity involves the ability to make peace with one’s “one and only” life cycle and to find unity within the world.

Question 19

Keeper of meaning

Answer 19

Takes on task of passing on the traditions of the past to the next generation.

Question 20

Fluid intelligence

Answer 20

Capacity for abstract reasoning and involves such things as the ability to respond or memorize quickly.

Question 21

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 21

Based on accumulated learning and included ability to reflect and recognize.

Question 22

Intentional memory

Answer 22

Events that you plan to remember.

Question 23

Incidental memory

Answer 23

Relates to facts learned without the intention to retain and recall.

Question 24

Dementia

Answer 24

Brain disease in which the cognitive abilities deteriorate over time.

Question 25

Delirium

Answer 25

Impairment of consciousness.

Question 26

Reminiscence

Answer 26

Thinking and remember and tell stories of the past.

Question 27

Power of attorney

Answer 27

Legal arrangement by which a person appoints another individual to manage his or her financial and legal affairs.

Question 28

Life review

Answer 28

Task of late adulthood that is a process of evaluating and making sense of one’s life.