Late adulthood Flashcards
As more individuals are living healthier lives and medical discoveries are slowing down the aging process, middle age appears to be _______ and ______
starting later & lasting longer
late middle age is?
55-65
middle age is a time of declining physical skills-such as?
loss of height
impaired vision and hearing
reduced cardiovascular functioning
_____ also becomes more problematic.
Sleep
_______ the maximum number of years an individual can live.
Life Span
________ the number of years that will probably be lived by the average person born in a particular year
Life Expectancy
individual 100 years and older.
Centenarians
individuals 110 to 119 years and older.
Supercentenarians
In 2018, who is oldest living person in the world for 117-year-old
Nabi Tajima of Japan
Who is the oldest living person in the United States for 114-year-old?
Delphine Gibson of Pennsylvania
Factors that are responsible for such longevity in Okinawa, Japan:
[1] Diet
[2] Low-stress lifestyle
[3] Caring community
[4] Activity
[5] Spirituality
Many experts on aging prefer to describe the young-old, old-old, and oldest-old in terms of _________ rather than chronological age
functional age
85-year- olds are more _____ and _____ fit than some 65-year-olds
biologically & psychologically
This theory states that natural selection has not eliminated many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics in older adults; thus, the benefits conferred by evolution decline with age.
Evolutionary Theory of Aging
is linked to reproductive fitness.
natural selection
cellular maintenance requirements and evolutionary constraints:
Cellular Clock/Telomere Theory
Free-Radical Theory
Mitochondrial Theory
Sirtuin Theory
mTOR Pathway Theory
Hormonal Stress Theory
It is Leonard Hayflick’s theory states that the maximum number of times that human cells can divide is about 75 to 80. As we age, our cells have less capacity to divide.
Cellular Clock/Telomere Theory
A microbiological theory of aging that states that people age because normal metabolic processes within their cells produce unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals.
~ These molecules ricochet around inside cells, damaging DNA and other cellular structures.
Free-Radical Theory
the theory that aging is caused by the decay of mitochondria, tiny cellular bodies that supply energy for function, growth, and repair.
Mitochondrial Theory
A family of proteins (_____) that have been proposed as having important influences on longevity, mitochondria functioning in energy, calorie restriction benefits, stress resistance, and cardiovascular functioning.
Sirtuin Theory & Sirtuin
A cellular pathway involving the regulation of growth and metabolism that has been proposed as a key aspect of longevity
mTOR Pathway Theory
A theory that aging in the body’s hormonal system can decrease resistance to stress and increase the likelihood of disease.
Hormonal Stress Theory
The brain loses weight and volume with age, and there is a general slowing of function in the central nervous system that begins in middle adulthood and increases in late adulthood
THE SHRINKING, SLOWING BRAIN
older adults can generate ________, and at least through the seventies ______
new neurons & new dendrites.
The aging brain retains considerable plasticity and adaptiveness
THE ADAPTING BRAIN
It is the generation of new neurons, which does occur in lower mammalian species, such as mice.
Neurogenesis
can result in earlier death and lower cognitive functioning.
Poor sleep
Strategies to help older adults sleep better at night includes:
avoiding caffeine
avoiding over- the-counter sleep remedies
staying physically active during the day
staying mentally active
limiting naps
People get shorter as they age, and their weight often decreases after age 60 because of ______
loss of muscle
visual decline in late adulthood is linked to
(a) cognitive decline
(b) having fewer social contacts
(c) engaging in less challenging social/leisure activities
with aging, ________, ________, & _________ decline
visual acuity, color vision, and depth perception
Three diseases that can impair the vision of older adults are:
cataracts
glaucoma
macular degeneration
A thickening of the lens of the eye that causes vision to become cloudy, opaque, and distorted.
Cataracts
Damage to the optic nerve because of the pressure created by a buildup of fluid in the eye.
Glaucoma
A disease that involves deterioration of the macula of the retina, which corresponds to the focal center of the visual field.
Macular Degeneration
The yellowing of the eye’s lens with age reduces __________. The ability to see the ___________ also declines in older adults.
color differentiation & periphery of a visual field
decline can begin in middle age but usually does not become much of an impediment until late adulthood.
Hearing
is linked to declines in activities of daily living, cognitive functioning, and language.
Hearing loss
A perceptual motor coupling characterizes older adults; driving a vehicle is an example of this coupling.
➤ Two types of interventions in improving older adults’ driving:
Cognitive training
Education
a disorder that increase in late adulthood.
Cardiovascular disorders
a disorder that increase in late adulthood.
Cardiovascular disorders
Consistent high blood pressure should be treated to reduce the risk of ________, _______ _______, and _______ ______.
stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease
The most common chronic disorder in late adulthood is ______
arthritis
the main reason many older adults walk with a stoop; women are especially vulnerable to this condition
Osteoporosis
inflammation of the joints accompanied by pain, stiffness, and movement problems; this disease is especially common in older adults
Arthritis
a chronic condition that involves an extensive loss of bone tissue and is the main reason many older adults walk with a marked stoop
Osteoporosis
unintended injuries are the eighth leading cause of death among older adults
Accidents
Researchers who study exercise and aging have made the following discoveries:
[1] Exercise is linked to increased longevity
[2] Exercise is related to prevention of common chronic diseases.
[3] Exercise is associated with improvement in the treatment of many diseases.
[4] Exercise improves older adults’ cellular functioning.
[5] Exercise improves immune system functioning in older adults.
[6] Exercise can optimize body composition and reduce the decline in motor skills as aging occurs.
[7] Exercise reduces the likelihood that older adults will develop mental health problems and can be effective in the treatment of mental health problems.
[8] Exercise can reduce the negative effects of stress in older adults
[9] Exercise is linked to improved brain, cognitive, and affective functioning in older adult.
Four aspects of nutrition are especially important in older adults:
[1] Getting adequate nutrition.
[2] Avoiding overweight and obesity.
[3] Deciding whether to restrict calorie intake to improve health and extend life.
[4] Determining whether to take specific vitamin supplements to slow the aging process.
Being _______ is linked to health problems, and being _______ predicts earlier death.
overweight & obese
these can slow the aging process and improve older adults’ health
antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene
taking _______ ______ ______ does not reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease
antioxidant vitamin supplements
_____ is a multidimensional concept
Cognitive functioning
Cognitive mechanics are “_________” of the mind that may decline with age due to biological factors
hardware
Cognitive pragmatics are “_______” of the mind that may improve with age due to cultural factors
software
factors that contribute to the decline in fluid mechanics in late adulthood:
Declines in processing speed, working memory capacity, and inhibition
these refer to the neurophysiological processes involved in sensory input, attention, memory, and categorization, which are likely to decline with age due to biological and health factors.
Cognitive Mechanics
these refer to culture-based skills such as language comprehension, education, and life
skills, which can continue to improve even in old age due to their experiential and cultural foundation.
Cognitive Pragmatics
fluid intelligence reflecting _______ ______ and crystallized intelligence reflecting ___________
cognitive mechanics & cognitive pragmatics
decline during aging due to biological and genetic factors.
Cognitive mechanics
do not decline until individuals become very old.
Cognitive pragmatics
Four types of attention are :
selective attention
divided attention
sustained attention
and executive attention.
focuses on relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information.
Selective attention
concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.
Divided Attention
focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event, or some other aspect of the environment.
Sustained Attention (Vigilance)
planning actions, allocating attention to goals, detecting and compensating for errors, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.
Executive Attention
Different dimensions of memory and aging have been studied, including:
Explicit memory
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Source memory
Prospective memory
Working memory
which is conscious memory of facts and experiences, declines with aging
Explicit memory
which involves automatic skills and routines, is less affected.
implicit memory
a person’s knowledge about the world, is generally preserved in late adulthood, but older adults may experience difficulties retrieving specific information such as names, and the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is common.
Semantic memory
Cognitive resources such as __________ & _______ decline with age and can affect memory performance
working memory and perceptual speed
refers to the ability to remember where or how you learned information, whether you read an article online or heard about it from a friend.
Source memory
is the ability to remember to do something in the future, such as taking medication or attending an appointment.
Prospective memory
is like a mental “workbench” that allows people to manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending language
Working memory
is the ability to perform simple perceptual-motor tasks, and it shows considerable decline in late adulthood.
Perceptual speed
Skills tend to decline in older adults, particularly in working memory, cognitive control, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive inhibition.
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
As people age, their cognitive abilities decline in certain areas such as working memory, cognitive control, and cognitive inhibition.
METACOGNITION
training, particularly through meditation, has become of increasing interest for older adults.
Mindfulness
about practical life matters, exceptional insight into human development, good judgment, and an understanding of how to cope with difficult life problems.
Wisdom
Three important factors that influence cognitive functioning in older adults are:
education, work, and health
Cognitive activity patterns may result in disuse and atrophy of cognitive skills.
➤ Engaging in intellectually stimulating activities can buffer age-related declines in cognitive development.
use it or lose it
the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or ourselves based on age.
→ _____ stereotypes can limit older workers’ career opportunities and encourage early retirement or downsizing
Ageism & Ageist
disorders in older age can limit a longer life, increasing dependence on others and resulting in societal costs.
Mental
it is a mood disorder characterized by deep unhappiness, demoralization, self-derogation, and boredom
Major Depressive Disorder
it affects memory, reasoning, language, and physical function.
Alzheimer’s Disease
is a transitional state between normal cognitive changes due to aging and early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
Individuals with the _______ and _____ _________are more likely to decline from MCI to Alzheimer’s disease.
ApoE4 gene & memory impairment
can predict memory loss and dementia, and amyloid beta in spinal fluid is present in about 75% of individuals with MCI who develop Alzheimer’s disease within five years.
fMRI
The FDA has approved five drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, including:
cholinesterase inhibitors and Namenda, which regulate glutamate activity
it is a chronic and progressive disease that affects movement and facial expression. It is caused by degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain, and the reason for this degeneration is unknown.
Parkinson’s Disease
The main treatment for Parkinson’s disease is drugs that enhance the effect of ________, and in later stages, L-dopa is administered
dopamine
are also being studied as potential treatments
Stem cell transplantation and gene therapy
___________ and certain types of _______, such as the tango, have also shown promise in improving symptoms
Deep brain stimulation & dances
occurs in late adulthood; it is the final stage of psychosocial development
Integrity vs. Despair
prominent in Erikson’s final stage of integrity vs. despair; it involves evaluating, interpreting, and often reinterpreting life experiences.
Life Review
sees life review as an opportunity for personal growth, celebration, affirmation, hope, and reconciliation as well as the chance to feel pain, anger, guilt, and regret.
Robert Butler
involves discussing past activities and experience with another individual or group.
← Include the use of photographs, familiar items, and video/audio recordings.
→ Improves the mood and quality of older adults, including those with dementia.
Reminiscence Therapy
involves discussing past activities and experience with another individual or group.
← Include the use of photographs, familiar items, and video/audio recordings.
→ Improves the mood and quality of older adults, including those with dementia.
Reminiscence Therapy
it suggests that being active and involved is associated with a better quality of life for older adults.
Activity Theory
states that adults become more selective about their social network as they grow older
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
are recommended to increase social engagement of older adults due to recent studies showing weaker social engagement today than 15 years ago for 55- to 64-year-olds
Interventions
➤ Socioemotional selectivity theory identifies two classes of goals that individuals are motivated to achieve:
[1] Knowledge-Related
[2] Emotion-Related
motivation for knowledge- related goals peaks in early adulthood and declines in middle and late adulthood.
Knowledge-Related
it suggests that emotions peak in infancy, decline through early adulthood, and increase again in middle and late adulthood, and that older adults are more satisfied when they focus on emotionally meaningful goals.
Emotion-Related
influences the changing trajectories in knowledge and emotion-related goals.
Perception of time
Younger individuals, who perceive time as open-ended, ______________________, even if it comes at the cost of emotional satisfaction.
prioritize pursuing knowledge
Older adults, who perceive that they have less time left, _______________ over knowledge acquisition
prioritize emotional satisfaction
the theory describes how people can produce new resources and allocate them effectively to the tasks they want to master.
Selective Optimization with Compensation Theory
➤ Paul Baltes states that successful aging depends on three main factors:
[1] Selection
[2] Optimization
[3] Compensation
An older adults’ reduced capacity and loss of functioning require reduced performance in most life domains.
Selection
maintains performance via practice and technology use.
Optimization
relevant when tasks require a level of capacity beyond the current level of the performance potential.
Compensation
assessed the personal life investments of 25 to 105-years-old.
→ Shown here are the top four domains of personal life investment at different points in life
Ursula Staudinger -
Higher levels of conscientiousness and extraversion are associated with _____
longer life
Higher levels of conscientiousness reduce the risk of developing __________.
Alzheimer’s disease
Higher levels of neuroticism predict ________, while higher levels of agreeableness and lower levels of neuroticism lower the risk of developing ___________.
higher frailty & dementia
Higher levels of neuroticism predict ________, while higher levels of agreeableness and lower levels of neuroticism lower the risk of developing ___________.
higher frailty & dementia
Higher levels of openness and lower levels of agreeableness are associated with more frequent _________ and lower ___________ in older adults
sexual activity & sexual dysfunction
Higher levels of openness and lower levels of agreeableness are associated with more frequent _________ and lower ___________ in older adults
sexual activity & sexual dysfunction
More severe depression in older adults is associated with higher _____ and lower ________ and __________.
neuroticism & extraversion & conscientiousness
Higher levels of conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, and extraversion are linked to ____________, while neuroticism is associated with ______________.
positive emotions & negative emotions
(emotion) and outlook on life are linked to mortality in older adults.
Affect
(emotion) and outlook on life are linked to mortality in older adults.
Affect
is linked to lower depression and obesity in adults.
High self-control
the view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving inequitably large allocations of resources.
Generational Inequity
the view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving inequitably large allocations of resources.
Generational Inequity
Low _______ is linked to increased risk of earlier death in older adults
SES
physical and emotional caretaking for older members of the family, whether by giving day-to-day physical assistance or by being responsible for overseeing such care
Eldercare
physical and emotional caretaking for older members of the family, whether by giving day-to-day physical assistance or by being responsible for overseeing such care
Eldercare
woman whose spouse has died and who has not remarried.
Widow
it can be defined as a social and legal union between two individuals, often involving emotional, economic, and physical intimacy, with the intention of committing to a long-term partnership.
Marriage
are linked to a number of positive outcomes for older adults.
Positive marital relationships
was more strongly linked to an important biomarker of cellular aging, telomere length
Spousal support
helped to insulate older adults’ happiness from the effects of daily fluctuations in perceived health
Marital satisfaction
live together and have a sexual relationship without being married.
Cohabiting
live together and have a sexual relationship without being married.
Cohabiting
linked to greater psychological and physical well-being in late adulthood.
Attachment Security
linked to greater psychological and physical well-being in late adulthood.
Attachment Security
associated with negative caregiver burden in caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Insecure Attachment
decreases in middle-aged and older adults, while attachment avoidance decreases linearly across the lifespan.
Attachment Anxiety -
Men have higher rates of _____________ than women throughout the lifespan.
attachment avoidance
Relationships between aging parents and their children are usually characterized by _________
ambivalence
was likely to be present when relationships involved in-laws, those in poor health, and adult children with poor parental relationships in early life.
Ambivalence
refer to social groups that an individual is a part of, with family typically consisting of blood or legal ties, while peers are individuals of similar age or status who may share common interests or experiences
Family and Peers
it describes how individuals have a personal network from which they give and receive social support.
Convoy Model of Social Relations -
is important for the mental health of older adults
Social integration
It is linked to physical health, mental health, life satisfaction, and reduced mortality in older adults.
SOCIAL SUPPORT
it refers to the social and environmental context in which individuals age and how it affects their physical and mental health
Community and Culture
Women may face a triple jeopardy of
__________, __________, & ________.
ageism, sexism, and racism
Three factors for a good old age:
(1) health
(2) security
(3) kinship/support
characterized by a modest decline in psychological functioning after midlife (most common).
Normal Aging
it involves greater than average decline, such as mild cognitive impairment or chronic disease
Pathological Aging
it is maintained longer and declines later than for most people.
Successful Aging
Successful aging involves :
proper diet
active lifestyle
mental stimulation
good social relationships and support
absence of disease
positive coping skills
Successful aging involves :
proper diet
active lifestyle
mental stimulation
good social relationships and support
absence of disease
positive coping skills
