Lecture 1 Meaning Of Age

Question 1

What is chronological age

Answer 1

Time elapsed since birth, measured in d/m/y practical, objective and universally used to categorize data,

Question 2

Biological age

Answer 2

Reflects biological functioning in relation to chronological age. Measured through performance on indicators like blood pressure and bone density.

Question 3

What is psychological age?

Answer 3

Psychological functioning in relation to chronological age. Often measured through emotional functioning, memory, and reaction time.

Question 4

What is psychological age?

Answer 4

Psychological functioning in relation to chronological age. Often measured through emotional functioning, memory, and reaction time.

Question 5

What is social age?

Answer 5

Reflects Social functioning
- Measured through self reports or observer ratings of life events and social roles

Question 6

What is subjective (self perceived) age?

Answer 6

How old an individual feels rather than their chronological age, measured through self reports

Question 7

Define primary aging

Answer 7

“time since birth”
universal and progressive alterations in bodily systems
(eg. wrinkling, menopause, but also puberty)

Question 8

Define secondary aging

Answer 8

“time to disability”
Abnormalities or disease in bodily systems (preventable or reversible diseases/processes) (not universal)
(ex. Skin cancer (dont tan), Type-2 Diabetes (dont eat like shit))

Question 9

Define tertiary aging

Answer 9

“time to death”
Changes that occur rapidly at end of life last 1-5 years; loss of functioning ; morality-related processes
(ex. Terminal drop, cognitive abilities, verbal abilities)

Question 10

What are the distinctions within older adulthood? (age separation)

Answer 10

Old-old (75-84 years)
Oldest-old (85+ years)
Centenarians (100-109 years)
Supercentenarian’s (110+ years)

Question 11

What are the third age and fourth age

Answer 11

Third age: Years spanning retirement to the onset of age related declines, characterized by health and vitality (pinnacle of life)

Fourth age: Years following^ characterized by reduced health and mobility and increased dependency

Question 12

Experimental vs quasi-experimental studies

Answer 12

Experimental involves random assignment of pp to different treatments to see cause and effect

Quasi compares preexisting groups without random assignment (often used in aging studies)

Question 13

Some key biological changes associated with aging

Answer 13

Cardiovasuclar: Hypertension, redcued heart efficiency

Digestive: Loss of muscle mass, reduced stomach elasticity

Endocrine: Decrease in testosterone, menopause

Immune: Increased vulnerability to infections

Nervous: Reduced sensory acuity and brain volume

Question 14

What is terminal drop

Answer 14

A rapid decline in cognitive and other abilities shortly before death, reflecting mortality related processes

Question 15

What is “mortality-morbidity paradox”?

Answer 15

Women have lower mortality rates but high morbidity (illness and disability) compared to men

Question 16

What research methods are used to study aging?

Answer 16

Experimental
Researcher randomly assigns pps to independent variable or causal variable
Eg. Employers are less likely to hire older adults than middle aged adults. (Engage in random assignment and manipulate the independent variable. A receive resumes of younger adults, Group B receives older adults, and compare which hires more.)

Quasi-experimental
Contrasting two or more pre existing groups
No random allocation
Cannot determine causality (cannot say age is the single cause for the results, does not regard inter-individual differences )
Most common form to study adulthood, older adults vs younger adults
Eg. Younger adults experience higher levels of death anxiety than older adults (looking at two intact groups and you can randomly assign them to younger/older groups)

Correlational studies
Examine the extent to which 2 naturally-occurring variables covary
Used when its unethical or impractical to do an experimental study
(r )
In psych there is rarely large correlation of over +0.6
Eg. Life satisfaction with age (can’t determine the casualty of the direction of the relationship, naturally occurring variables, unethical to manipulate life satisfaction)

Case studies
(Most infrequently published in psychological research, but interesting)
Generate, illustrate theory or examine rare phenomena
Through in depth analysis of one person or group of people
Eg. Supercentenarian’s exhibit a unique constellation of personality characteristics
(infrequent participant population, unique characteristic)

Meta-analytic studies
Combines the result of multiple studies (eg. experimental studies + quasi studies)
Very powerful to give more definitive data
Researcher obtains all published studies on the phenomenon of interest within some criteria (like time frame)
Then calculates an Effect Size (d) for each study difference be
Then averages

Effect Size (e.g magnitude of difference between two groups) Cohen’s (d)
d may exceed +- 1.00

Question 17

How does sex influence aging?

Answer 17

Sex
“Mortality-Morbidity Paradox”
Factors that mediate this paradox
- Health-related habits (e.g., routine doctor visits)
- Risk-taking behavior (e.g., men engage more in alcohol use)
- Occupation (e.g., men in riskier jobs like construction)
- Socioeconomic status (e.g., feminization of poverty)
- Social networks (e.g., women often have larger support networks).

Question 18

How is aging impacted by demographic factors?

Answer 18

Sex, marital status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES).

Question 19

How does marital status influence aging?

Answer 19

A: Mortality and morbidity rates are lower for married individuals compared to those who are never married, divorced, or widowed.

Factors include better health habits, lower risk-taking behavior, higher socioeconomic status, and more social support networks.

Question 20

How does ethnicity influence aging?

Answer 20

Ethnicity, as a social construct, affects how health is perceived and experienced across different cultural groups, and research may not always reflect the diversity within ethnic groups.

Factors:
- Migration/immigration patterns (e.g., “healthy immigrant effect” immigrants initially arrive with better health than native population, but over time, health declines. due adoption of the host country’s lifestyle, stress, and barriers to accessing healthcare)
- Health-related habits (e.g., traditional diets)
- Medicinal use (e.g., use of traditional medicine)
- Language fluency (affects access to healthcare)
- Discrimination and access to culturally responsive health services.

Question 21

How does socioeconomic status (SES) influence aging?

Answer 21

Mortality and morbidity rates are lower among individuals with higher SES, which includes higher education levels and more prestigious occupations.

Factors:
Health-related habits (e.g., better diets, access to fitness)
Utilization of health services (e.g., regular screenings)
Self-perceived health (a strong predictor of actual health outcomes).

Question 22

How is the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) interpreted?

Answer 22

Magnitude of r: 0.00–1.00 indicates the strength of the relationship.
Sign of r: (+) for positive correlation and (-) for negative correlation, indicating the direction of the relationship.

r=0; there is no relation between the variable.
r=+1; perfectly positively correlated.
r=-1; perfectly negatively correlated.
r= 0 to 0.30; negligible correlation.
r=0.30 to 0.50; moderate correlation.
r=0.50 to 1 highly correlated.

Question 23

What is Cohen’s d?

Answer 23

A measure of effect size, reflecting the magnitude of difference between two groups:

d = + 0.20 (small effect size)
d = + 0.50 (moderate effect size)
d = + 0.80 (large effect size)