Middle Adulthood Flashcards
1
Q
Ageing
A
- Primary ageing
– Normal age-related changes - Secondary ageing
– Effects of illness or disease
– More variable - Physical functioning
– Peaks in early adulthood, plateaus, then starts to decline
(about 50)
– Organ reserve first to decline
2
Q
Physical changes
A
- Strength
- Appearance
◦ Skin, hair colour, body build - Cardio-vascular system
- Respiratory system
- Sensory system
◦ Vision and hearing loss gradual
◦ Taste and smell slowly decrease - Age-related physical changes
3
Q
Health and health-compromising
behaviours
A
- Greater focus on maintaining health in middle-age
◦ Body monitoring - Both morbidity and mortality rates increase
- Australian risk behaviours according to the Australian Health
Survey 2014–15 (abs, 2015)
◦ 14.5% smokers
◦ 17% risky alcohol consumption
◦ 63% overweight or obese - Health promoting behaviours have physical and
psychosocial benefits
4
Q
Stress Management
A
- Stress management helps limit age-related illness
- Two general strategies:
- Problem-centred coping
- Emotion-centred coping
Exercise helps depression and anxiety by:
o releases ‘feel good’ chemicals (neurotransmitters, endorphins and serotonin
o reduces immune system chemicals
o increases body temperature
o boosts self confidence
o takes mind off of worries
o social interaction
5
Q
Does intelligence decline with age?
A
Early studies
Cross-sectional studies
* Affected by cohort differences
* Overestimated decline
Longitudinal studies
* Affected by biased attrition
Sequential studies
* Found no uniform pattern of change with age
across different abilities
6
Q
Protective Factors
A
Schaie (1994) identified seven factors that reduce risk of
cognitive decline:
* Absence of Chronic Disease
* Favourable Demographic Circumstances
* Intellectually Stimulating Activities
* Flexible Personality Style at Midlife
* Spouse with High Cognitive Function
* High Processing Speed
* Satisfaction with Life
7
Q
Crystallised intelligence
A
- Learned processes, stored responses
- Primary abilities
- Remain relatively stable with age
8
Q
Fluid intelligence
A
- Processing new information and reasoning ability
- Relates to neurological development
- Declines from early adulthood
9
Q
Information Processing
A
- Loss of speed of processing
- Attention and Inhibition
- Memory
- Practical problem-solving increased due to gains in
expertise - Neural Network View
- Breaks in the neural network, brain adapts but less
efficient - Information- Loss View
experience greater loss of information - Creativity
- Less about self expression and more altruistic goals
10
Q
Neuroplasticity in middle age
A
- Whether middle-age brains ‘have it’ is a hot
topic - View of decreasing cognitive ability based on
idea of neurons inability to be replaced - Animal testing
- Researchers looking for ways to promote
neuroplasticity
11
Q
Practical Intelligence
A
- Application of intellectual skills to everyday
situations - Tested by solving real-world problems rather
than abstract tasks - Practical abilities increase with age, may
improve in middle age - Interpersonal problem-solving skills similar
across adult age groups
12
Q
Expertise
A
- Specialised experience and knowledge in specific domain
- Experience and expertise compensate for declining abilities
- Compensatory mechanisms are domain-specific
- Most intellectual functions are maintained through middle
age and often beyond
13
Q
Psychosocial Development
A
- Popular images of mid-life
- Boring, monotonous
- Time of crisis
- Alternative perspective
- Prime of life
- Self-descriptions most positive in 60s
14
Q
Perceptions of age
A
- More flexibility around what constitutes midlife
than in the past - Perceptions of life stages vary by SES, work
role, age and gender - Lower SES and negative health status
associated with an older age identity - Social markers may be important in signalling
mid-life
15
Q
Conceptual frameworks – Carl
Jung (1933)
A
- Psyche seen as collection of conflicts
- Collective vs. personal unconscious
- Unconscious vs. conscious
- Anima - primitive female force vs. animus – primitive male
force - Shadow
- Unifying force of self not developed until middle age
- Process of individuation
- Self takes over the role of the ego
16
Q
Erikson
A
- Generativity versus stagnation
- Personal legacy
- Most important in middle age
- Link between generativity and wellbeing stronger for
women than men - Generative acts
- Agentic
- Communal
- Limited application to lesbian women
17
Q
Normative-crisis models
A
- Gould’s (1978) UCLA study
◦ Significant middle adult transformation - Vaillant’s (1977) Harvard Grant study
◦ Invincibility gives way to limitations - Levinson’s (1978) Yale study
◦ Emphasis moves from past to future
◦ Dream of adult accomplishment revised - Women experience role change rather than crisis
18
Q
Personality
A
- Work on personality traits has been used to debunk the
myth of the midlife crisis - Costa and McCrae (1997) argued that roles may change
with age but not personality – life events may cause
changes in social roles but not in the psychology of the
individual - Traits can be categorised into five broad dimensions:
neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experiences,
agreeableness, conscientiousness
19
Q
Stability of traits
A
- Increasing with age:
◦ Conscientiousness, agreeableness, dominance, emotional
stability - Decreasing in old age:
◦ Openness to experience - Lifespan continuity and change
◦ Continuity – genes
◦ Change – normative and non-normative events
20
Q
Normative perspective: Helson
A
- Social clock
◦ Age-related personal goals and expectations
◦ More variation than previously - Normative events
◦ Age-marked or history-marked - Non-normative events
◦ Largely unpredictable
◦ May have positive or negative impact
21
Q
Relationships
A
- Marriage and Divorce
- Feminization of poverty (single women are the
majority of adult population living in poverty) - Parent – Child
- Cultural variation for children’s independent
living - Parents that remain invested in their adult
children’s wellbeing enhances midlife
psychological well-being
Grandparenthood
o cultural variation in role of grandparent
o Increasingly grandparents have stepped into
the role of primary caregiver (out-of-home
care, poverty)
- Caring for aging parents
- ‘sandwich generation’
- Despite willingness can cause high levels
of stress - Emotional, physical and financial
- Social support is necessary for reducing
caregiving stress
Friendships
o social networking
o selectivity in friendships, deeply valued
o Sibling friendships closer – more time;
often in response to life events
22
Q
Bereavement
A
- Parental death normative in midlife
- Feelings of loneliness, loss, guilt, uncertainty about life’s
purpose - Tasks of grieving
◦ Stocktaking
◦ Reminiscence
◦ Internalisation and passage - May promote personal growth
◦ Maturity, autonomy, purpose, meaning
23
Q
Reactions to grief
A
- Initial grief reactions include psychological distress and
reduced sense of personal mastery - Adult children who have achieved mature relationships with their parents are less vulnerable when the parent dies than those who continue to look towards the parent for validation
and support - Middle-aged daughters more affected negatively than sons
24
Q
What are THE THREE TYPES OF AGEING?
A
- Primary Ageing
- Normal age-related changes - Secondary Ageing
- Effects of illness or disease
- More variable - Physical Functioning
- Peaks in early adulthood, plateaus, then starts to decline (about 50)
- Organ reserve first to decline
25
Q
A
