Unit 6

Question 1

from when to when is middle adulthood?

Answer 1

40 to 65

Question 2

What is middle adulthood marked by?

Answer 2

narrowing life options, shrinking future as children leave home and career paths become more determined
-> wide variations in attitudes and behaviors
- some individuals seem physically and mentally young at age 65, others feel old at age 40

Question 3

what period of life is middle adulthood?

Answer 3

a contemporary period of life

Question 4

What can we encounter in middle adulthood in both physical and cognitive domains of development?

Answer 4

progressive declines, sustained performance and compensating gains

Question 5

How does vision change during middle adulthood?

Answer 5

affected by presbyopia (loss of ability to focus vision on near objects)
-> caused by thickening and hardening of the lens, the focusing mechanism of the eye
-> lens cannot adapt its shape when needed to see objects up close to the face
-> affects entire population by the age of 50

Question 6

the vitreous develops opaque areas, reducing the amount of light reaching the retina, what do they cause?

Answer 6

reduced vision in dim light, increased sensitivity to glare, diminished color discrimination at the green-blue-violet end of the spectrum

Question 7

What is glaucoma?

Answer 7

a disease in which poor fluid drainage leads to a buildup of pressure within the eye, damaging the optic nerve
-> risk increases
-> typically progresses without noticeable symptoms and is leading cause of blindness

Question 8

how do we call age-related hearing loss?

Answer 8

presbycusis
-> begins around age 50 with a decline in detection of high frequencies and then spreads to other tones

Question 9

What three layers does the skin consist of?

Answer 9

Epidermis (outer protective layer)
Dermis (middle supportive layer)
Hypodermis (inner fatty layer)

Question 10

What happens to the skin over the years?

Answer 10

• the epidermis becomes less firmly attached to the dermis
• fibers in the dermis thin and lose their elasticity
• cells in both, epidermis and dermis decline in water content
• fat in the hypodermis diminishes, leading the skin to wrinkle, loosen and feel dry

Question 11

What increases as well regarding the skin in middle age?

Answer 11

age spots (pigmentflecken), wrinkles on forehead and around eyes (crow’s feet), skin gradually loses elasticity and begins to sag

Question 12

How does the Muscle-Fat Makeup change?

Answer 12

there is a decline of muscle mass and an increase of fat deposits with notable sex differences in fat distribution
-> men accumulate more on the back and upper abdomen and women around the waist and upper arms

Question 13

Are there ways to compensate for both - excess weight and muscle loss?

Answer 13

yes, a low-fat diet and regular exercise, including resistance training

Question 14

How does aging influence the skeleton?

Answer 14

bone loss affects both men and women, but women lose bone at a greater rate as they approach menopause
result: height loss and bone fractures

Question 15

What does it lead to when bone loss is very great?

Answer 15

osteoporosis
-> increases from middle to late adulthood (fivefold in women and triples in men)
-> may not be evident until fractures occur

Question 16

What is the climacteric and how does it affect the reproductive system in men and women?

Answer 16

• Climacteric: Midlife transition in which fertility declines.
• In women: It brings an end to reproductive capacity.
• In men: Fertility diminishes but is retained.

Question 17

How do the reproductive changes happen in women?

Answer 17

occur gradually over a 10-year period (peri menopause) during which the production of estrogen drops
-> number of days in a monthly cycle shortens from 28 to 23 and cycles become more irregular

Question 18

what does the climacteric concludes with?

Answer 18

menopause
-> the end of menstruation and reproductive capacity

Question 19

What is the average age of menopause?

Answer 19

50 years but the timing varies among individuals
-> happens earlier in women who are thin or malnourished or who smoke

Question 20

What happens after menopause?

Answer 20

estrogen declines further
-> causes reproductive organs to shrink in size, the genitals to be less easily stimulated and the vagina to lubricate more slowly during arousal

Question 21

What are some side effects of climacteric?

Answer 21

emotional and physical symptoms
-> mood fluctuation and hot flashes (results of decreases in estrogen levels - causes endocrine system to release higher amounts of other hormones - affect temperature control)

Question 22

Which influence do the hormonal changes of the climacteric have on the mood?

Answer 22

depressive symptoms
-> women who have a history of depression or experiencing high amounts of stress are at greater risk
-> with final menstrual period: depression diminishes

Question 23

Do men also experience a climacteric?

Answer 23

yes, but there is no male counterpart to menopause
-> quantity and motility of sperm decrease from the twenties on and quantity of semen diminishes after age 40
-> negatively affecting fertility in middle age

Question 24

does sperm production continue throughout whole life?

Answer 24

yes!

Question 25

What is the andropause?

Answer 25

age-related declines in the male sex hormone testosterone.

Question 26

How does the male erection change in middle adulthood?

Answer 26

more stimulation required for an erection, and it is harder to maintain
-> erectile dysfunction: man unable to achieve an erection sustainable for intercourse
-> 20 to 40% by age 60 report difficulties in attaining an erection

Question 27

What belief is there about intelligence throughout the years?

Answer 27

that intelligence inevitably declines in middle and late adulthood as the brain deteriorates
-> peak in performance at 35, then drop into old age

Question 28

What influence does the cohort effects have on intelligence?

Answer 28

each new generation experienced better health and education and more cognitively stimulating everyday experiences than the one before it

Question 29

what is crystallized intelligence?

Answer 29

Skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery of social conventions
-> Abilities acquired because they are valued by the individual’s culture
-> on intelligence tests, items that measure vocabulary, general information, verbal comprehension and logical reasoning

Question 30

What is fluid intelligence?

Answer 30

Depends more heavily on basic information- processing skills
-> ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analysing information, and capacity of working memory.
-> Intelligence test items measuring spatial visualization, digit span, letter–number sequencing, and symbol search.

Question 31

How does crystallized intelligence change throughout life?

Answer 31

gains steadily through middle adulthood

Question 32

how does fluid intelligence change throughout the life?

Answer 32

begins to decline in the twenties

Question 33

what changes occur in mental abilities during adulthood?

Answer 33

5 factors gained in early and middle adulthood include both crystallized and fluid skills
-> midlife is time when some most complex mental abilities are at their peak

Question 34

How does the perceptual speed change during life?

Answer 34

decreased from the twenties to the late eighties

Question 35

What shows late in life greater decrements, fluid factors (spatial orientation, numeric ability, perceptual speed) or crystallized factors (verbal ability, inductive reasoning and verbal memory)?

Answer 35

fluid factors

Question 36

How does the speed of processing change over the years?

Answer 36

Response time increases steadily from the early twenties into the nineties

Question 37

How does age affect simple and complex reaction time tasks?

Answer 37

• In simple reaction-time tasks (e.g., pressing a button in response to a light), response time increases with age.
• In complex reaction-time tasks (e.g., pressing different buttons for different light colors), older adults are more disadvantaged

Question 38

what are the 2 approaches that explain the causes of age-related slowing of cognitive processing?

Answer 38

Approach 1: