Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthod Flashcards
Functional Age
- Actual competence and performance
- May not match chronological age
Life Expectancy Increasing in North America
- Lower infant mortality
- Lower adult deaths
Life Expectancy Group differences
- Women live longer
- SES
- Ethnicity
- Nationality
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
- Basic self-care tasks
- Bathing, dressing, eating
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)
- Conducting business of everyday life
- Require cognitive competence
- Shopping, food prep, housekeeping
Factors in a Long Life
-Heredity
-Environment/Lifestyle
Healthy diet, normal weight
Exercise
Low substance use
Optimism
Low stress
Social support
Community involvement
Learning
Aging and the Nervous System
-Loss of brain weight accelerates after 60
-Neurons lost in frontal lobes, corpus callosum, cerebellum (balance), glial cells
-Autonomic nervous system less efficient
-Brain can compensate
New fibers, neurons
New connections
Use more parts of brain
Visual Impairments and Aging
- Lower visual acuity
- Poor dark adaptation, sensitivity to glare
- Decreased color, depth perception
- Cataracts
- Macular degeneration
Vision Problems Effects of Sensory Changes
- Changes in leisure activities
- Possible problems in daily activities
Hearing Loss Effects of Sensory Changes
- Social isolation
- Lower safety and enjoyment
Decreased Taste and Smell Effects of Sensory Changes
Nutritional, safety risks
Less Sensitive Touch Effects of Sensory Changes
Difficulties with leisure, daily activities
Aging Cardiovascular/Respiratory Systems of the Body
- Heartbeat less forceful; slower heart rate, blood flow
- Vital lung capacity cut by half
- Less oxygen to tissues
- Exercise helps
Aging Immune System of the Body
- Effectiveness declines
- More infectious, autoimmune diseases
- Stress-related susceptibility
Sleep and Aging
- Need as much total sleep as younger adults: 7 hours/night
- Earlier bedtime and wake-up
- More difficulties including Insomnia, Nighttime waking, Sleep apnea, Restless legs
Physical Appearance and Mobility
- Skin thinner, rougher wrinkled, spotted
- Ears, nose, teeth, and hair change
- Lose height and weight after 60
- Muscle strength declines (10–20% by 60–70, 30–50% by 70–80)
- Bone strength drops
- Less flexibility
Adapting to Physical Changes of Aging
-Multidimensional (Appearance versus functioning)
-Effective coping strategies (Prevention, compensation
Problem-centered coping)
-Assistive technology
Factors in Good Health and Aging
- Optimism
- Self-efficacy
- SES
- Ethnicity
- Sex
- Nutrition
- Exercise
Nutrition in Late Adulthood
-Need extra nutrients: Protect bones, immune system; Fight free radicals
-Problems eating: Appetite, taste changes; Chewing, digestion; Shopping, cooking
-Supplements, diet changes
may help
Exercise in Late Adulthood
- Continued exercise best, but never too late to start
- Benefits: Physical capacities, Brain function, Self-esteem
- Barriers: Unaware of benefits, Discomforts
Sexuality in Late Adulthood
- Still important: Less desire and frequency; fewer male partners for women
- Married couples: regular, enjoyable sex
- Continue patterns from earlier years
- Enjoy activities other than intercourse (Men sometimes stop all activities if erection problems)
- Cultural influences: Disapproval in West
Primary Aging
- Genetically influenced declines
- Affects all members of species
- Even happens if health is good
Secondary Aging
- Declines due to heredity and environment
- Effects individualized: Major contributor to frailty
- Illnesses and disabilities: Arthritis, Diabetes, Mental disabilities
Osteoarthritis
- Deteriorating cartilage in frequently used joints
- Common, related to wear and tear
Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Autoimmune response, affects whole body
- Inflamed connective tissues: Membranes in joints
- Cartilage grows: Can deform joints, Lost mobility
Adult-Onset Diabetes
- Too little insulin or cells insensitive to insulin
- Increases in late adulthood: Genetics, Inactivity, abdominal fat
- Risk of long-term damage: Circulatory system; Eyes, kidneys, nerves
- Treatment: Lifestyle changes, Medicine
Motor Vehicle Accidents in Late Adulthood
Vision problems, slower reactions
Falling Accidents in Late Adulthood
- Vision, balance, strength problems
- Risk of hip fracture
Prevention of Accidents in Late Adulthood
- Reduce driving, retrain
- Exercise, use walking aids
- Redesign of cars, streets, signs, structures
Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood
- Dementia
- Parkinson’s disease
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cerebrovascular dementia
- Misdiagnosis, reversible dementia
Dementia (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
Thought and behavior impairments that disrupt everyday life
Cerebrovascular Dementia (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
Strokes
Misdiagnosis, reversible dementia (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
Depression
Medication side effects
Alzheimer’s Disease Symptoms (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
Forgetting, disorientation, personality change, depression, motor problems, delusions, speech problems, infections
Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Changes (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
Neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plaques in cerebral cortex
Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Factors/Protective Factors (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
- Genetic predispositions
- High-fat diet - Mediterranean diet may help
- Education, active lifestyle may help
Alzheimer’s Disease Incidence (Mental Disabilities in Late Adulthood)
-Higher with age - nearly 50% over 80
Select (Selective Optimization with Compensation)
Choose personally valued activities, avoid others
Optimize (Selective Optimization with Compensation)
Devote diminishing resources to valued activities
Compensate (Selective Optimization with Compensation)
Find creative ways to overcome limitations
Deliberate (Deliberate versus Automatic Memory)
- Recall more difficult
- Context helps retrieval, but slower processing, smaller working memory make context harder to encode
Automatic (Deliberate versus Automatic Memory)
- Recognition easier than recalls:More environmental support
- Implicit memory better than deliberate: Without conscious awareness, Depends on familiarity
Associative Memory Declines in Late Adulthood
- Difficulty in creating or retrieving links between pieces of information
- Using memory cues, enhancing meaningfulness of information, can help
Remote (Remote and Prospective Memory)
- Very long-term recall
- Autobiographical memory
Prospective (Remote and Prospective Memory)
- Remembering to engage in planned actions
- Event-based easier than time-based
- Use reminders, repetition to help
Language Processing in Late Adulthood
- Comprehension changes very little
- Problems retrieving specific words
- Problems planning what to say
- Compensation
Problems retrieving specific words (Language Processing in Late Adulthood)
- Tip-of-the-tongue
- Use more pronouns, pauses in speech
Problems planning what to say (Language Processing in Late Adulthood)
- Hesitations, false starts, repetition, sentence fragments
- Statements less organized
Compensation (Language Processing in Late Adulthood)
-Simpler grammar, more sentences, gist
Problem Solving in Late Adulthood
- Real problems include family relations, IADLs
- Extend strategies from middle adulthood: Avoid uncontrollable problems, Use experience to decide quickly when can, Consult others, Collaborate
Factors Related to Cognitive Change
- Mentally active life: Education, stimulating leisure, social participation, flexibility
- Health
- Retirement
- Distance to death: Terminal decline
- Cognitive interventions: ADEPT, ACTIVE
Lifelong Learning
Educational participation increasing
- Elderhostel
- College courses
- Community classes
The Many Benefits of Lifelong Learning
- New facts, ideas
- New friends
- Broader world perspective
- Improved self-image
