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Late Adulthood
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Flashcards
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Emotional and Self-Development, Sleep Patterns, Physical Changes, Sensory Decline and Aging and Chronic Health Problems
Terms in this set (66)
Western Cultures and Portrayal of late adulhood
"bleak and grim"
Western countries have found that older adults often encounter ageism
Attitudes toward older adults are generally more negative than toward younger adults (competence at work-related tasks to physical attractiveness)
However it is changing to become more positive: depict older adults as adventurous, active, and intelligent
ageism
prejudice and discrimination based on age
Older adults applying for jobs are often assumed to be on the decline and lacking in cognitive sharpness and physical stamina
found that older adults often experience being ignored or patronized and are assumed to have difficulty hearing or understanding simple instructions
Asian, African and Latin American Cultures and Portrayal of Late Adulthood
View of late adulthood is quite favorable
Traditional Cultures and Portrayal of Late Adhulthood
The older people become, the more authority and respect they have
Substages of Late Adulthood
Young-old: ages 60-74
Old-old: ages 75-84
Oldest-old: 85+
Those among the oldest-old are at higher risk for a wide range of problems that include
physical and cognitive disabilities, social isolation, and psychological disorders (depression)
Far more likely than the other two groups to have difficulties performing activities of daily living (ADLs)
activities of daily living (ADLs)
daily requirements of life for adults, such as bathing, dressing, food preparation and eating, house keeping and paying bills
gerontologists
researchers on aging
concept of functional age
age that indicates the actual competence and performance of older adults; may be higher or lower than chronological age
Developed countries are faced with difficult challenges in the decades ahead due to the rising ____
OADR (old-age dependency ratio
old-age dependency ratio (OADR)
in a population, the ratio of persons age 65 and over to persons age 20-64
gender differences in life-expectancy
at age 65 women have a longer life expectancy than men
reasons for gender differences
men are more likely to smoke and drink excessively, but it is also due to genetics
Ethnic group differences in life expectancy
Whites have a life expectancy that is about 5 years longer than for African Americans
Higher for Asian Americans and Latinos than Whites and African Americans
Traditionally, in all societies, most elderly people have been ____
poor
because once they stopped working their incomes stopped too, there was no pension system for older adults until recently
Primary aging
inevitable biological aging that takes place in all members of the human species
secondary aging
the decline in physical functioning that takes place due to lifestyle behaviors such as unhealthy diet, insufficient exercise, and substance abuse, as well as environmental influences such as pollution
All of us are subject to _______ aging, _________ aging can be mostly avoided or at least minimized
primary; secondary
Physical changes
hair continues to become grayer and thinner (loses pigments)
skin continues to wrinkle and sag
Bones continue to thin
height declines, posture stoops due to loss of bone mass in spinal column
skin thins and veins become more visible
body weight declines
teeth become yellower, loss of enamel (food coffee and tea)
Loss of teeth
age spots
pools of dark pigment due to the accumulation of decades of exposure to the sun
Vision changes
cornea becomes hazier, leading to lower visual acuity and higher sensitivity to bright lights
cataracts
progressive thickening of the lens causing vision to become cloudy and distorted
cataracts are the number one cause of blindness in late adulthood
macular degeneration
loss of clarity in the center of the visual field, due to aging of the visual system
if untreated, it leads to blindness
glaucoma
loss of peripheral vision, can be treated with medicated eye drops, but if left untreated will eventually lead to blindness
decline in vision has pervasive effects on older adults'
more difficult for them to carry out daily activities such as driving a car; automobile accidents rise sharply after age 80
Housekeeping, meal preparation, and personal grooming may become more laborious and prone to error
Reading becomes more difficult and may require large-print books or an especially large font on the computer screen
leisure activities such as watching television or going to a theater may be less enjoyable with impaired vision
Changes in hearing
declines steadily
The structures of the inner ear become less flexible and less efficient
The auditory nerve that transmits information from the ear to the brain begins to deteriorate
tinnitus
hearing ringing, buzzing, or other sounds without an external cause
Effects of hearing loss
makes it difficult to carry on even a simple conversation
leads to social withdrawal, as older adults begin to avoid contacts with others because conversations are strenuous and stressful
loneliness and depression
cognitive decline
Changes in taste and smell
taste buds on the tongue decline
cells in the smell receptors of the nose diminish
olfactory bulbs start to shrivel
Impairments in taste and smell sometimes lead to ____________
malnutrition
Declines in taste and smell make eating less enjoyable
Changes in Sleep Patterns
People take longer to fall asleep and wake up more often during the night
The amount of time spent in Stage 1, the lightest sleep, increases, and time spent in the deepest sleep of Stage 4 and REM sleep decreases
They develop a preference for ___________ over ___________
morningness; eveningness
sleep apnea
sleep-related respiratory disorder in which breathing actually stops for 10 seconds or more numerous times in the course of a typical night, as the air passage to the lungs closes, resulting in a sudden loud snore as the airway opens again and the sleeper awakens
Common among older adults who are obese or who drink alcohol heavily, and it is substantially more common among men than among women
Treatment includes continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP): ventilation device blows a gentle stream of air into the nose during sleep to keep the airway open
Changes in sleep in late adulthood are due partly to _______ aging but also to psychological and medical conditions that include
primary;
anxiety and medical conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis, prostate enlargement, shrinking bladder, reduced blood circulation
Chronic health problems in late adulthood
arthritis, osteoporosis, and hypertension
Arthritis
disease of the joints that especially affects the hips, knees, neck, hands, and lower back
women more often affected than men
due simply to decades of using the joints, which eventually wears out the cartilage that cushions joint movement
fluid in the joints that acts as a shock absorber also diminishes as part of primary aging
________ can also help relieve the symptoms of arthritis
exercise
osteoporosis
rises sharply for women in midlife
Although the decline in bone mass is steepest for women in the decade following menopause, the process continues in late adulthood and the risk of osteoporosis continues to rise
Health authorities recommend that women receive regular bone density checks after menopause
hypertension
high blood pressure
rising rates of hypertension in late adulthood are due to primary aging, as the heart muscle becomes stiffer and pumps less efficiently over time
secondary aging factors that contribute to hypertension
walls of the arteries become more rigid and accumulate plaque due to consumption of foods high in cholesterol and fat
stress elevates blood pressure
people in poverty are at high risk for hypertension due to a combination of high-fat diets and chronic stress
Persons with hypertension are at high risk for _____ _______ and _______
heart attacks; strokes
Health Care and Health Promotion in late adulthood
older adults consume far more medical care resources than any other age group in the population
successful aging
There are three components to the successful aging model: 1) maintaining physical health, including low risk of disease and disability; 2) maintaining cognitive functioning; and 3) continued engagement with life, including relations with others as well as productive activity (through paid work or volunteering)
Declines in cognitive functioning take place in certain neurotransmitters, most notably _____________
acetylcholine
dopamine
influences movement and motor coordination
acetylcholine
involved in the functioning of memory
parkinson's disease
extreme reduction in dopamine levels leading to severe difficulties in motor control
dementia
condition that entails losses in cognitive functioning severe enough to interfere with daily life
Alzheimer's disease
distinctive pattern of structural decline in the brain that accounts for over half of cases of dementia
Memory for recent events is affected first, but gradually earlier events and persons are forgotten as well.
Ultimately, even awareness of the people, places, events, and facts most familiar and most valued is lost
Factors influencing alzheimers
there is an early onset form that has a genetic basis and runs strongly in families
A specific gene known as the ApoE gene that signals high risk for Alzheimer's disease has been identified
diets high in fats and sugars increase the risk of developing the disease
Maintaining a high level of cognitive activity appears to be another protective factor against developing the disease
late adulthood is often a time of ___________ and _____
contentment; peace
six positive and six negative indicators to asses their motional status (ages 25-74)
positive: cheerful, "calm and peaceful," and "in good spirits."
negative: nervous," "hopeless," and "worthless."
Positive emotions were stable from emerging adulthood through middle adulthood and then increased sharply in late adulthood
Negative emotions declined steadily across the age range
Physical and cognitive problems that attribute to social emotional states
when physical disabilities are severe enough to make self-care tasks difficult or impossible, elf-esteem declines and the risk of depression rises
Rates of depression are especially high among older adults who live in nursing homes or other long-term care settings
Depression is high in the early stages of dementia, as older adults realize the worsening and incurable nature of their condition
The death of a spouse is most commonly experienced in late adulthood
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
(Erikson) People in late adulthood either achieve a sense of integrity of the self by accepting the lives they have lived or yield to despair that their lives cannot be relived
Ego integrity means looking back on one's life and accepting the outcome of it—including the choices that turned out well along with the mistakes and disappointments—and concluding that overall it was a life well lived.
despair in late adulthood entails regrets about the course of one's life, and the bitter conclusion that it has not gone well and now cannot be changed.
integrated personality
the person who accepts becoming older and looks at the past, present, and future with contentment
Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory
As people grow older, they perceive time to be limited, and therefore they adjust their priorities to emphasize emotionally meaningful events, experiences, and goals.
older adults prefer to withdraw from relationships that are not emotionally rewarding and focus on the relationships that mean the most to them
Older adults seek to maintain and develop relationships that are low in conflict and high in mutual enjoyment, and drop the rest.
______ is the feeling of knowing information in long-term memory, but being unable to retrieve it at the moment.
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
According to your text, ______ are examples of secondary aging that lead to changes in the brain during late adulthood
smoking, exercise, and cognitive stimulation
Beyond infant and child mortality, which of the following makes up the vast difference in life expectancy between developed and developing countries?
Access to health care in late adulthood
Older adults maximize their emotional well-being by becoming increasingly selective in their ______
social contacts
Retirement satisfaction tends to be especially high for ______.
well-educated people who had high-status jobs
There is a strong positive correlation between wisdom and ______.
education level
What is the inevitable biological aging that takes place in all members of the human species, as it takes place in all living organisms?
primary aging
Which of the following neurotransmitters is explicitly involved in the functioning of memory and decline in late adulthood?
acetylcholine
Your grandparents are interested in solving puzzles, playing card games, watching educational television, and reading books. How do these activities affect the primary aging process?
they enhance mental abilities and slow cognitive decline
Your uncle died 9 years ago and since that time, your 68-year-old aunt has been lonely and looking for companionship. How likely is it that your aunt will find someone and eventually remarry?
Not very likely, because there are so many more widows in late adulthood than widowers.
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