Midterms Flashcards
Ageism
a form of discrimination against older adults based on their age.
Paul Baltes’ 4 key features
multidirectionality, plasticity, historical context, multiple causation
Multidirectionality
development involves both growth and decline; as people grow in one area, they may lose in another and at different rates.
Plasticity
skills can be trained or improved with practice even later on in life
Historical context
each of us develops within a particular set of circumstances determined the historical time in which we are born and the culture in which we grow up
Multiple causation
how people develop results from a wide variety of forces: biological, psychological, sociocultural, and life-cycle forces.
Primary aging
normal, disease-free development during adulthood
Secondary aging
developmental changes that are related to disease, lifestyle, and other environmentally induced changes that are not inevitable
Tertiary aging
rapid losses that occur shortly before death
Nature-nurture issue
involves the degree to which genetics or hereditary influences (nature) and experiential or environmental influences (nurture) determine the kind of person you are.
Stability-change issue
concerns the degree to which people remain the same over time
Continuity-discontinuity controversy
concerns whether a particular developmental phenomenon represents a smooth progression over time (continuity) or a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity)
Culture
share basic values, norms, beliefs, habits, ways of living
Ethnicity
sense of identification (ancestral/national)
Universal vs. context specific development controversy
oncerns whether there is just one path of development or several
Longitudinal study
the same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives
Cross-sectional study
developmental differences are identified by testing people of different ages at the same time.
Cellular theories
a cell can only divide a limited number of times. Telomeres (tips of chromosomes) if healthy, regulates cell division. Enzyme telomerase if insufficient reproduce to smaller size.
Cross-linking theory
certain proteins in human cells interact randomly and produce molecules that are linked in such a way as to make the body stiffer.
Free radicals theory
aging is caused by unstable reactive molecules
Changes in skin
wrinkles, age spots, moles, less pigment, varicose veins, thinner and drier skin
Changes in hair
hair loss caused by destruction of germ centers. Males don’t lose facial hair. Females gain facial hair.
Changes in voices
decrease volume and pitch, breathlessness and trembling, less pronunciation
Changes in body build
decrease in height (compression of the spine) weight gain then loss.
Changes in mobility
muscles and strength loss: age 70- up to 20%. Age 80- up to 40%. No gender differences. Bones loss begin in late 30s, faster in 50s, slows at 70s
Changes in vision
decrease in light, farsightedness, cataracts (opaques spots), glaucoma (high fluid pressure), macular degeneration
Changes in hearing
damage due to loud environment
Changes in touch
somesthesia (body sensitivity to touch): pain perception, decrease in sexual pleasure. Balance: dizziness and vertigo: the fear of falling and actual falls.
Changes in taste
little evidence to show taste diminishes with age
Changes in smell
taste dependent on smell. Older adults cannot identify odors as well
Congestive heart failure
occurs when cardiac output and the ability of the heart contract severely decline.
Angina pectoris
occurs when the oxygen supply to the heart muscle becomes insufficient, resulting in chest pains
Myocardial infarction
occurs when blood supply to the heart is severely reduced or cut off.
Autoimmunity
the immune system can begin attacking the body itself
Psychoneuroimmunology
the study of the relations between psychological, neurological, and immunological systems that raise or lower our susceptibility to and ability to recover from disease
Acute disease
conditions that develop over a short period of time and cause a rapid change in health
Chronic disease
conditions that last a longer period of time (at least 3 months) and may be accompanied by residual functional impairment that necessitates long-term management
Primary appraisal
categorizes events into three groups based on the significance they have for our well-being: irrelevant, benign, or positive, and stressful.
Secondary appraisal
evaluates our perceived ability to cope with harm, threat, or challenge
Reappraisal
involves making a new primary or secondary appraisal resulting from changes in the situation
Competence
upper limit of a person’s ability to function in five domains: physical health, sensory-perceptual skills, motor skills, cognitive skills, and ego strength
Environmental press
refers to the physical, interpersonal, or social deans that environments put on people
Ecology of aging
environmental psychology, which seeks to understand the dynamic relations between older adults and the environments they inhabit
Adult day care
designed to provide support, companionship, and certain services during the day.
Congregate/cluster housing
includes a range of living options from those providing only housing to those providing some level of medical services.
Assisted living facilities
housing options for older adults that provide a supportive living arrangement for people needing assistance with personal care but who are not so impaired physically or cognitively that they need 24-hour care.
Nursing home
governed by state and federal regulations. Skilled nursing care consists of 24-hour care including skilled medical and other health services. Intermediate care is also 24-hour care including nursing supervision, but at a less intense level.
Information-processing model
uses a computer metaphor to explain how people process stimuli
Working memory
active processes and structure involved in holding information in mind and simultaneously using that information, sometimes in conjunction with incoming information, to solve a problem, make a decision, or learn new information.
Semantic memory
concerns learning and remembering the meaning of words and concepts not tied to specific occurrences of events in time
Episodic memory
general class of memory having to do with the conscious recollection of information from a specific event or point in time
Autobiographical memory
involves remembering information and events from our own life
Prospective memory
involves remembering to remember something in the future, such as an action or event
Long-term memory
refers to the ability to remember rather extensive amounts of information from a few seconds to a few hours to decades
Encoding
getting information into memory. Strategy is anything people do to make tasks easier and increase efficiency of encoding or retrieval
Retrieval
getting information of of memory. Older people use fewer retrieval strategies.
False memory
when one remembers items or events that did not occur
Source memory
refers to the ability to remember the source of a familiar event as well as the ability to determine if an event imagined or actually experienced
External memory aids
memory aids that rely on environmental resources, such as notebooks or calendars
Internal memory aids
memory aids that rely on mental processes, such as imagery
Four concepts of the theories of intelligence
multidirectionality, plasticity, inter individual variability, multidimensional
Multidimensional
theories of intelligence specify many domains of intellectual abilities
Interindividual variability
acknowledges adults differ in the direction of their intellectual development
Mechanics of intelligence
concerns the neurophysiological architecture of the mind
Pragmatic intelligence
concerns acquired bodies of knowledge available form and embedded within culture.
Fluid intelligence
consists of the abilities that make you a flexible and adaptive thinker, allow you to make inferences, and enable you yo understand the relations among concepts
Crystallized intelligence
the knowledge you have acquired through life experience and education in a particular culture
Primary mental abilities
hypothetical contracts into which related skills are organized (word fluency, verbal meaning, numbers, inductive reasoning, spatial orientation)
Secondary mental abilities
related groups of mental abilities (social translations)
Cohort effect of longitudinal and cross sectional studies on mental abilities
cross section studies show decrements, longitudinal studies show stability (even increase) in intellectual performance
