Lecture 1 Meaning Of Age Flashcards
What is chronological age
Time elapsed since birth, measured in d/m/y practical, objective and universally used to categorize data,
Biological age
Reflects biological functioning in relation to chronological age. Measured through performance on indicators like blood pressure and bone density.
What is psychological age?
Psychological functioning in relation to chronological age. Often measured through emotional functioning, memory, and reaction time.
What is psychological age?
Psychological functioning in relation to chronological age. Often measured through emotional functioning, memory, and reaction time.
What is social age?
Reflects Social functioning
- Measured through self reports or observer ratings of life events and social roles
What is subjective (self perceived) age?
How old an individual feels rather than their chronological age, measured through self reports
Define primary aging
“time since birth”
universal and progressive alterations in bodily systems
(eg. wrinkling, menopause, but also puberty)
Define secondary aging
“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))
Define tertiary aging
“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)
What are the distinctions within older adulthood? (age separation)
Old-old (75-84 years)
Oldest-old (85+ years)
Centenarians (100-109 years)
Supercentenarian’s (110+ years)
What are the third age and fourth age
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
Experimental vs quasi-experimental studies
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)
Some key biological changes associated with aging
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
What is terminal drop
A rapid decline in cognitive and other abilities shortly before death, reflecting mortality related processes
What is “mortality-morbidity paradox”?
Women have lower mortality rates but high morbidity (illness and disability) compared to men
What research methods are used to study aging?
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
How does sex influence aging?
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).
How is aging impacted by demographic factors?
Sex, marital status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES).
How does marital status influence aging?
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.
How does ethnicity influence aging?
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.
How does socioeconomic status (SES) influence aging?
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).
How is the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) interpreted?
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.
What is Cohen’s d?
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)
