Human Development III Flashcards
What are the common developmental experiences?
Marriage/partnership ― Parenthood ― Establishing career ― Vocational changes ― Divorce ― Empty nest (last child leaves house) ― Boomerang children (return of child to house) ― Dependency of elderly parents
― Retirement ▪ Phases: Honeymoon; Disenchantment; Reorientation & Stability ― Loss (deaths) ― Shrinking social network ― Loss of independence ― Chronic illness ― Facing end of life
Not all occur, and no set time for these experiences
• Developmental experiences can shape personality, even in adulthood (e.g.,
Erikson’s theory)
What are the stages of adult life?
Stages of Life (review DLA on Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages)
‒ Resolution of developmental conflicts from infancy
through adulthood predisposes specific traits
Developmental Phase* Early Adulthood (20s-40s) Middle Adulthood (40s-60s) Late Adulthood (65+)
Psychosocial Stage
Intimacy vs. Isolation
(gaining capacity for love)
Generativity vs. Stagnation
(feeling a sense of contribution)
Integrity vs. Despair
(reflecting on quality of life lived)
What are the issues 9f adult development?
• Many of the issues experienced during adult
development are stressors
• Stress increases risk of common chronic diseases such as cardiac disease, diabetes, and depression
What are the age related physical changes of adulthood?
Physical abilities peak in early adulthood, then decline: – Muscular strength – Cardiac output – Reaction time – Sensory acuity • Vision (presbyopia) • Audition • Olfaction
Sleep rhythms shift with age
– The need to sleep is moved earlier – “sleep phase advance”
Describe the gradual decline in sexual functioning
Gradual decline in sexual functioning
― Men: sperm count, testosterone level,
speed of erection, force of ejaculation, refractory period following ejaculation
― Women: hormone levels, longer to become sexually aroused, vaginal wall irritation due to decreased elasticity and lubrication, shorter and less intense orgasms
What are the features of increasing physical durability?
Increasing physical disability
―Diminished ability to recover after injury or
acute illness
―Onset of chronic illness
Summarize age related changes in brain structure
• White matter volume increases until ~40 years of age and
starts to slowly decline
• Gray matter volume shows a steady decline across the
adult life span
• Cerebrospinal fluid volume sharply increases ~60 years of age, corresponding with visible brain atrophy on MRI scans
What are the age related decline features of cognitive decline?
Crystallized intelligence
‒ Vocabulary, reading, facts
‒ Increases in early adulthood and generally plateaus throughout middle and late adulthood (i.e., there is less decline than with fluid intelligence)
Fluidintelligence
‒ Attention, memory, processing speed
‒ Increases in early adulthood and then declines throughout middle to late adulthood
What is a cognitive reserve?
Cognitive Reserve
‒ A person’s capacity to maintain normal cognitive function in the presence of brain degeneration (age-related or pathological)
▪ Increased education is associated with greater cognitive reserve
▪ Brain degeneration still occurs, but signs of cognitive dysfunction are delayed
What is life expectancy?
General increase over the past century ‒ US average in 2019= 78.8 yrs ‒ Average life expectancy decreased by 1.5 0 yrs in 2020 ‒ Women live longer than men by several years
What demographic often has chronic illnesses?
Chronic Illness (people ≥65) - Conditions lasting ≥1 year that require ongoing medical attention or limits activities
- Common examples − Heart disease − Cancer − Stroke - Respiratory - diabetes - Ahlzeimer’s dementia
Majority have ≥2 chronic conditions with associated complex treatment regimens
Growing proportion of elderly population (predicted to be almost 25% by 2060, up from 16%)
What are the leading causes of death?
Causes
‒ Top 5 causes of mortality vary by age
Trends ‒ Death by external causes in younger age groups • Unintentional injuries • Suicide* • Homicide
‒ Death by chronic disease in older age groups
• Heart disease
• Malignant neoplasms
• Respiratory disease
What are the major needs of dying persons and how are these needs met?
Needs
‒ To control pain
‒ To maintain dignity
‒ To receive love and affection
Meeting these needs
1. ‒ Active pain management
control ▪ Requires patient to actively participate in
pain-managing activity (e.g., yoga, exercise)
- Maintain Dignity
‒ Patient participation in treatment decisions
‒ Use of Advance Directives (as per the Patient Self-Determination Act) - Love & affection ‒ Holding, touching, listening, and supporting
as appropriate
‒ Facilitating continuous family involvement
What do we do when dealing with dying patients?
• Patients (and families) may experience preparatory (anticipatory) grief
― Normal mourning that occurs before death, in reaction to forthcoming losses
― Explore such feelings with patients to help avoid depression/isolation often seen in terminal illness
• Distinguish normal grief from depression
― Due to symptom similarity with grieving,
depression may be overlooked
▪ Even when grieving, person can still have joy
▪ Feeling joyless and worthless are more
evident in depression
Summarize the dying process: Kübler Ross
Based on clinical experiences with dying patients • Five stages of dying (grief) – Denial – Anger – Bargaining – Depression – Acceptance
- Stages are not invariable or universal
- May apply to loss in genera
