Test #5 Flashcards
The years of middle or late adulthood in both men and women during which reproductive capacity declines or is lost.
Climacteric
The cessation of monthly menstrual cycles in middle-aged women.
Menopause
The stage of menopause during which estrogen levels fall somewhat, menstrual periods are less regular, and anovulatory cycles begin to occur.
Premenopausal Phase
The stage of menopause during which estrogen and progesterone levels are erratic, menstrual cycles may be very irregular and women begin to experience symptoms such as hot flashes.
Perimenopausal Phase
The last stage of menopause; a woman is is in this stage when she has had no menstrual periods for at least a year.
Postmenopausal Phase
Any situation in which two or more roles are at least partially incompatible, either because they call for different behaviours or because their separate demands add up to more hours than there are in the day.
Role Conflict
The strain experienced by an individual whose own qualities or skills do not measure up to the demands of some role.
Role Strain
Middle-aged adults give more help to both their adult children and their own parents than they receive.
Sandwich Generation
In middle adult hood, for current age cohorts, the family role involves not only giving assistance in both directions in the generational chain, but also shouldering the primary responsibility for maintaining affectional bonds. These responsibilities produce what is sometimes called the mid-life squeeze, and those being squeezed form the….
Sandwich Generation
A term for the cumulative negative effects of caring for an elderly or disabled person.
Caregiver Burden
The hypothesis that mental and physical functioning decline drastically only in the few years immediately preceding death.
Terminal Drop Hypothesis
The idea that it is normal and healthy for older adults to try to remain as active as possible for as long as possible.
Activity Theory of Aging
The theory that it is normal and healthy for older adults to scale down their social lives and to separate themselves from others to a certain degree.
Disengagement Theory of Aging
The idea that older adults adapt life-long interests and activities to the limitations imposed on them by physical aging.
Continuity Theory of Aging
A period during which vital signs are absent but resuscitation is still possible.
Clinical Death
Absence of vital signs, including brain activity; resuscitation is no longer possible.
Brain Death
The point at which family members and medical personnel treat the deceased person as a corpse.
Social Death
A sense that one is making a valuable contribution to society by bringing up children or mentoring younger people in some way.
Generativity
Self-help tasks such as bathing, dressing,and using the toilet.
Activities of Daily Living
More complex daily living tasks such as doing homework, cooking, and managing money.
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
A neurological disorder involving problems with memory and thinking that affect an individual’s emotional, social, and physical functioning.
Dementia
A measure of an individual’s ability to perform certain roles and tasks, particularly self-help tasks and other chores of daily living.
Functional Status
The scientific study of aging.
Gerontology
The theoretical proposal that each species is subject to a genetically programmed time limit after which cells no longer have any capacity to replicate themselves accurately.
Hayflick Limit
String of repetivive DNA at the tip of each chromosome in the body that appears to serve as a kind of timekeeping mechanism.
Telomere
Physical changes and declines associated with aging.
Senescence
A persistent ringing in the ears.
Tinnitus
Loss of bone mass with age, resulting in more brittle and porous bones
Osteoporosis
Normal loss of visual acuity with aging, especially the ability to focus the eyes on near objects.
Presbyopia
Normal loss of hearing with aging, especially of high-frequency tones
Presbycusis
Reflecting on past experience.
Reminiscence
A hypothesized cognitive characteristic of older adults that includes accumulated knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to practical problems of living.
Wisdom
Suggests both a basic decay curve & a fairly large gap between actual level of performance on exercised & unexercised abilities.
Denney’s model of physical and cognitive changes in adulthood.
According to Denney, exercise means:
a) physical exercise
b) mental exercise
c) to practice
d) both physical and mental exercise
d) both physical and mental exercise
Which of the following statements describes Nancy Denney’s model of physical and cognitive aging.
a) Denney uses the word exercise to refer to physical exercise.
b) Unexercised abilities generally have a lower peak of performance; exercised abilities generally have a higher peak.
c) Only crystallized intelligence, not fluid intelligence, is affected by exercised
d) Skills that are not exercised by age 30 can never be improved.
b) Unexercised abilities generally have a lower peak of performance; exercised abilities generally have a higher peak.
According to Denney, any skill that is not fully exercised can be ___________, if the individual begins to ___________ that ability.
Improved; Exercise
Research examining correlations between __________ and __________ help developmentalists understand the effects of _________ ________. Specifically, many of the same characteristics that are linked to increased or decreased risk of _______ _____ and _______ are also linked to the rate of _________ or the _____________ of _________ in the middle years.
Health; Cognition; Secondary Aging; Heart disease; Cancer; change; maintenance; intellectual skill
_______ ________ seems to help maintain ______ _________ int he middle adult years, very likely because it helps to maintain ______ _______.
Physical exercise; cognitive abilities; cardiovascular fitness.
Erikson viewed middle age as a period when _______________________________.
attention turns to creation of a legacy that nurtures and guides the next generation
The seventh of Erikson’s stages, in which middle-aged adults find meaning in contributing to the development of younger individuals.
Generativity versus stagnation Stage.
Which of the following individuals is exhibiting generatively? The person who______.
a) believes that having children is important for one’s identity
b) is doing volunteer work training youth
c) has come to terms with what he/she has done with his/her life
d) feels that his/her life has had little meaning
b) is doing volunteer work training youth
The optimum expression of generativity requires:
turning outward from a preoccupation with self, a kind of psychological expansion toward caring for others
Those who fail to develop generatively often suffer from a “pervading sense of stagnation and personal impoverishment [and indulge themselves] as if they were their one and only child
Erikson’s view of those who do not express generatively.
3 difficult tasks a person must confront at mid-life.
- Accepting one’s own mortality
- recognizing new physical limitations and health risks
- adapting to major changes in most roles
Life events that explain middle adulthood stresses
- is preferable to a theoretical perspective that proposes a universal crisis.
- focuses on normative, non-normative events, & middle-aged adults’ response to them
a theoretical perspective on middle adulthood that focuses on normative and non-normative events and how adults in this age group respond to them.
Life Events Approach
4 factors that can create a crisis in mid-life
- loss of a parent or coping with parent’s inability to self-care
- work-related issues
- shifts in parent-child relationships
- many these factors may be long-lasting
Middle-aged adults are sometimes referred to as the sandwich generation because:
a) financial burdens of retirement begin to push in on these persons.
b) these individuals are squeezed for help from both children and their own parents.
c) time begins to seem as if it were passing faster than ever before.
d) the changes in role status cause these individuals to feel less needed.
b) these individuals are squeezed for help from both children and their own parents.
On average, it is clear that middle adulthood is likely to be a time when more help is given to children and parents than is received. T or F
True
the stage in the family life cycle when all the children have left home
Empty Nest Syndrome
____________ is the term given for the cumulative negative effects of caring for an elderly or disabled person
Caregiver burden
Which of the following is not likely to be a factor in determining who cares for an aging parent?
a) The proximity of the grown child to the parent.
b) The adult child who has no children still at home.
c) The sex of the parent and the adult child.
d) The number of adult children in the family
d) The number of adult children in the family
The scant research on friendships in middle adulthood suggests that:
the total number of friendships is lower in these years than in young adulthood
There are other bits of research suggesting that mid-life friendships are as __________________ and ________________ as those at earlier ages.
Intimate;Close
Friendship depends less on ________________ than on a sense that ________________________.
frequent contact, friends are there to provide support as needed
Which of the following tends to happen to vision as we age?
a) Increased blood flow to the eyes, resulting in blurred peripheral vision.
b) An expanded field of vision, though with reduced lens focus.
c) An enlarged blind spot
d) An increase in the density of the optic nerve
c) An enlarged blind spot
A significant minority of older adults suffer from diseases of the eye, such as ______________ or ______________, that further diminish visual acuity and adaptability.
cataracts;glaucoma
Vision loss has greater _________________ effect on an elderly person’s sense of well-being
Negative
both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies suggest that, for the range of sounds used in normal human speech, the loss after age 60 is such that a given sounds has o be about 1-2 decibles louder each year for the individual to report that he hears it
Loss of ability to hear high frequency sounds
even when the sounds is loud enough, older adults have more difficulty identifying individual words, they have just heard
Difficulty with word discrimination
the loss of ability to discriminate individual words is even greater in such situations
Problems hearing under noisy conditions
a persistent ringing in the ear they have impaired quality of life because of it
Tinnitus
ability to taste the four basic flavours does not seem to decline over the years of adulthood. taste buds are constantly being replaced
Changes in Sense of Taste
deteriorates in old age
Changes in Smell
loss of sensitivity to touch can lead to significant declines in the quality of life. extremities (usually feet) are the first body parts that decline is sensitivity
Changes in Touch
What is the value/benefit of friends in late adulthood?
- life satisfaction
- self esteem
- decreased loneliness
- support network when family unavailable
Contact with friends in older adulthood:
a) can decrease life satisfaction as the elders mourn the “good old days”
b) can actually increase depression because these adults watch each other’s health deteriorate.
c) is less important than contact with family in influencing life satisfaction
d) has a positive impact on self esteem and overall life satisfaction
d) has a positive impact on self esteem and overall life satisfaction
Research findings indicate that men’s social networks provide men with _____________, as do women’s social networks for women.
a) financial support
b) a list of travelling companions
c) emotional support
d) a list of good restaurants
c) Emotional Support
What do marital stability and marital satisfaction, on average, increase in middle adulthood?
as couples get older, the number of shared friends they have increases and the number of non-shared friends decreases.
Improvements in marital satisfaction may derive from middle-aged adults’ increased sense of ____________- a kind of marital ____________
control
self-efficacy
Marital satisfaction is higher int he late adult years than when _________
children are still at home
Middle adulthood years are from age _____ to _____.
a) 35 to 55
b) 40 to 55
c) 40 to 65
d) 50 to 65
c) 40 to 65
Which of the following statements is true about the brain at mid-life?
a) There is no difference in the distribution of electrical activity in the brains of alcoholics and non-alcoholics
b) Cognitive tasks activate a larger area of brain tissue in middle-aged adults than they do in younger adults.
c) In middle age, more new synapses are formed than are lost.
d) Synaptic density continues to increase across adulthood.
b) cognitive tasks activate a larger area of brain tissue in middle-aged adults than they do in younger adults.
Most people in their middle years find themselves in the most powerful positions in their lives. T or F
True
Which of the following statements is true about the continuity and change of personality?
a) masculinity and femininity are correlated with self-esteem in adults of all ages.
b) The Big Five personality traits are relatively stable across adolescence and adulthood
c) personality consistently changes with age
d) Traits are gained across adulthood, but traits are not lost.
b) The Big Five personality traits are relatively stable across adolescence and adulthood.
The scientific study of aging is called _____.
a) senescence
b) The Hayflick Limit
c) Life expectancy
d) gerontology
d) Gerontology
What happens to dendritic density with aging?
a) it continues to thicken.
b) More redundant neural pathways are added.
c) It begins to thin as dendrites are lost and not replaced.
d) The loss of density is equally distributed throughout the brain.
c) It begins to thin as dendrites are lost and not replaced.
Which of the following illustrates what Erikson called integrity?
a) accepting the imminence of death
b) maintaining a strong relationship with one’s spouse despite health problems
c) wanting to give back to the community
d) establishing an identity
a) accepting the imminence of death
Reflecting on past experiences is called…..
a) senility
b) senescence
c) reminiscence
d) waste of time
c) reminiscence
List 3 aspects of the disengagement theory
- Shrinking of life space
- Increased individuality
- Acceptance of these changes
Marital satisfaction in late adulthood:
a) increases for elder women, but decreases for elder men
b) tends to drop as health becomes problematic
c) is higher than when children were still at home
d) drops initially, but then plateaus
c) is higher than when children were still at home.
Which of the following words best applies to long-term marriages in late adulthood?
a) passionate
b) committed
c) intense
d) romantic
b) committed
Which of the following accurately sums up elder adults’ feelings about their children?
a) Elder adults describe fewer positive emotions when interacting with their children than when interacting with their friends.
b) Elder adults feel that their children are their only real friends.
c) Older individuals generally describe their relationships with their children as unhappy and unsatisfying.
d) Elder adults tend to live life vicariously through their children.
a) Elder adults describe fewer positive emotions when interacting with their children than when interacting with their friends.
5 Causes of Dementia
- alzhemer’s disease (most common),
- intercurrent illnesses,
- infections,
- metabolic disturbances
- drug intoxications
3 major factors that interact to impact longevity
- smoking,
- low levels of physical activity
- being significantly underweight or overweight
To achieve ego integrity, the older adult must come to terms with (3 things) __________________________. Erikson hypothesized that failure to achieve ego integrity in late adulthood would result in _____________________ because there would be too little________________.
- current and past identify
- how life has been lived
- choices made, opportunities gained & lost;
- feeling of hopelessness & despair;
- time to make changes before death
Successful aging has, in total, 4 components:
- Good physical health
- Retention of cognitive abilities
- Continuing engagement in social & productive activities
- Individual’s subjective sense of life satisfaction
The term gerontologists use to describe maintaining one’s physical health, mental abilities, social competence, and overall satisfaction with one’s life as one ages.
Successful aging as argued by John Rowe and Robert Kahn.
Acceptance Stage of grief/dying (Kubler-Ross)
- final stage
* dying person must grieve fro all that will be lost with death
Denial Stage of grief/dying (Kubler-Ross)
- psychological defence that may be highly useful in the early hours and days after diagnosis
- “not me!” “i don’t feel sick!”
Anger Stage of grief/dying (Kubler-Ross)
- replaces denial and can be expressed in thoughts of “it’s not fair!” or expression of anger toward God, the doctor, nurses, or family members
- response to the sense of loss of control and helplessness
Bargaining Stage of grief/dying (Kubler-Ross)
- patient tries to make deals with the doctors, nurses, family members and even God
- “if i do everything you tell me, then i’ll live till spring.”
Depression Stage of grief/dying (kubler-Ross)
depression and despair is necessary in preparation for acceptance
