Gero 20

Question 1

Middlescence

Answer 1

Dychtwald (1988) In 1988, Dychtwald began popularizing the term “middlescence” a theory which suggests that with the modern postponement of old age due to extended longevity, and the multiplying numbers of people who were reinventing themselves post-youth, a new middlescent lifestage was rising up between 45 and 65.

Question 2

Continuity theory

Answer 2

Atchley (1989) Continuity Theory holds that, in making adaptive choices, middle-aged and older adults attempt to preserve and maintain existing internal and external structures; and they prefer to accomplish this objective by using strategies tied to their past experiences of themselves and their social world. Change is linked to the person’s perceived past, producing continuity in inner psychological characteristics as well as in social behavior and in social circumstances. Continuity is thus a grand adaptive strategy that is promoted by both individual preference and social approval. Internal continuity: memory, temperament, skills External continuity: activities, role relationships

Question 3

Assimilative and Accomodative Coping Theory

Answer 3

Brandstadler & Renner (1990) Addresses coping strategies for maintaining a sense of continuity and efficiency in the face of resource loss. Crises and critical life transitions activate 2 distinct but complementary modes of coping, (a) transforming developmental circumstances in accordance with personal preferences ( assimilative tendency ) and (b) adjusting personal preferences to situational constraints ( accommodative tendency ).

Question 4

FIT Failure to Thrive

Answer 4

Palmer (1990) Rourke (2006) Has long been associated with infants who do not gain weight. In frail older people, it is a syndrome defined as a gradual decline in physical and/or mental functioning along with weight loss, decreased appetite, and withdrawal from social interactions in absence of an explanation for these symptoms. Also has been used as an admission criteria for nursing homes and hospitals.

Question 5

Deadly triangle

Answer 5

Osgood (1991) Refers to the connection between depression, alcohol, and suicide in older adults. Alcoholism accounts for 1/3 of suicides Many of the factors that lead to depression also lead to alcoholism and suicide such as loss, loneliness, stress, helplessness and low self esteem Family caregivers, and health care practitioners need to be aware of the deadly relationship between the 3.

Question 6

Dual valenced stereotypes of aging

Answer 6

Hummert et al (1994) ‘‘older adult’’ operates as a superordinate category that includes various stereotype subcategories. Young, middle-aged and older adults endorse the positive grandparent (e.g., enjoys life, generous), golden ager (e.g., affluent, wise), and conservative (e.g., proud, patriotic) subcategories as stereotypical of older adults. Across age groups, people also tend to agree that the following negative subcategories are stereotypical of older adults: impaired (e.g., forgetful, rambling of speech), despondent (e.g., burden to society, useless), shrew (e.g., ill-tempered, miserly), recluse (e.g., quiet, sedentary) and vulnerable (e.g., afraid of crime, suspicious of strangers).

Question 7

Possible selves

Answer 7

Markus and Nurius (1986) coined the term Possible Selves which refer to representations of oneself in the future that take the form of vivid cognitions about the person one expects to become. Although possible selves are personalized in the sense that individuals envision events as happening to themselves, the content of these events is often shaped by consensually held views regarding what is indeed possible

Question 8

Gerotranscendence

Answer 8

Tornstam (2005) (1994) The core of the theory suggests that normal human aging includes a range of vital and commonly overlooked components. In brief… There is an increased feeling of affinity with past generations and a decreased interest in superfluous social interaction. There is also often a feeling of cosmic awareness, and a redefinition of time, space, life and death. The individual becomes less self-occupied and at the same time more selective in the choice of social and other activities. The individual might also experience a decrease in interest in material things. Solitude becomes more attractive.

Question 9

Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory

Answer 9

Corstensen (1995) Beginning in early adulthood, people become more socially selective, reducing peripheral social contact in favor of close friends. Older adults are still interested in meeting new people and doing new things, but are more interested in the immediate pleasure of the experience than the overall goal attained behind it. The positivity effect comes into focus, or how they are more concerned with a preference for positive over negative experiences.

Question 10

Selective optimization with compensation

Answer 10

Baltes and Baltes (1995) Selective Optimization With Compensation is a strategy for improving health and wellbeing in older adults and a model for successful ageing. It is recommended that seniors select and optimize their best abilities and most intact functions while compensating for declines and losses. For example, an elderly person with fading eyesight who loves to sing could focus more time and attention on singing, perhaps by joining a new choir, while cutting back on time spent reading. Overall, this model suggests that seniors take an active approach in their ageing process and set goals that are attainable and meaningful.

Question 11

Optimal aging

Answer 11

Baltes and Baltes (1990) the capacity to function across many domains—physical, functional, cognitive, emotional, social and spiritual—to one’s satisfaction and in spite of one’s medical conditions.

Question 12

Multiple threshold approach

Answer 12

Whitbourne and Collins (1998) Proposes that people recognize aging across adulthood in various physical, social and cognitive domains.

Question 13

Successful aging

Answer 13

Rowe and Kahn (1998) views “better than average” aging as a combination of three components: avoiding disease and disability, high cognitive and physical function, and engagement with life.

Question 14

Feminist theory

Answer 14

Calasanti and Slevin (2001) Gender alters the experience of aging from different lifelong access to key resources in that women experience aging differently than men do. This theory is a spin-off of political economy theory (Estes et al)

Question 15

Cognitive psychology

Answer 15

Reha, Hasher, Colcombe (2001) Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes—all of the things that go on inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem solving, and learning. Motivtation and emotion affect cognitive performance

Question 16

Life story model

Answer 16

McAdams (2001) Adults reformulate their life stories throughout adulthood in late adolescence and young adulthood people start to organise and make meaning of their lives by creating ‘inner’ personal histories that reconstruct their own past and anticipate their future. To do this they draw upon all the events that have happened to them in the past, tie them together in a meaningful sequence and use that ‘story’ to explain who they are, what that means, and where they are ‘going’.