Lifespan Development — Unit 4

Social status

Is adulthood considered a lifestage or a social status?

Senescence

• a pattern of gradual age related declines in physical functioning that begin around age 30

  • organs/body systems peak from emerging adulthood into early adulthood

Breakdown of connective tissue

What causes changes in skin

Reproductive changes for women

• changes in quality of ova and rate of ovulation

• chromosomal abnormalities accumulate as egg cells age (higher risk for pregnancy loss/miscarriage

• irregular ovulation can be influenced by drug/alcohol abuse, environmental toxins, obesity, etc

Reproductive changes for men

• retain reproductive capacity into older adulthood

• number and quality of sperm decline

• sperm can be affected by anything that interferes with bodily function such as fever, stress, drug abuse, alcoholism, radiation, and environmental toxins

Medical model

• diagnosis or impairment for an individual

• individual-level problem

• needs a “cure” or “solution”

• associated with negative attitudes 

Social model

• moves beyond medical model

• natural variation in the human experience

• barriers are disabling 

• associated with more positive attitudes

Epistemic cognition

• the ways in which individuals understand the nature of knowledge and how they arrive at ideas, beliefs, and conclusions 

Post formal reasoning

• integrates abstract reasoning with practical considerations, recognizing that most problems have multiple causes and solutions

Dualistic thinking

• at the start of college

  • believing that phenomena are right or wrong and there is no in between

  • hard for students to grasp that contradictory arguments can each have supporting evidence

Relativistic thinking

• think becomes for flexible

  • knowledge is viewed as relative and dependent of the situation

  • sometimes goes too far where people believe that all possible solutions are equally correct 

Relative judgment

• final stage

  • carefully evaluate options and choose the most adequate solution

Pragmatic thought

• reflective judgment in real world context

Positives for college

• attending college is associated with advances in moral reasoning, identity development, social development 

• positive impact for all institutions 

• influenced by student activity in campus life

Challenges for first generation

• higher risk for dropout 

• less academically prepared/active on campus

• economic circumstances

• cultural mismatch

• influenced by the college environment 

Strengths of non-traditional students

• readiness to learn, problem centered orientation toward learning, clearer goals

Challenges for non-traditional students

• practical details (limitation to class times, not designed for non traditional students)

Investigative personality

• enjoys working with ideas; likely to select a scientific career

Social personality

• enjoys interacting with people; likely to select a human services career

Realistic personality

• enjoys working with objects and real-world problems; likely to select mechanical career

Artistic personality

• enjoys individual expression; likely to select a career in the arts, including writing and performing arts

Conventional personality

• prefers well-structured tasks, values social status; likely to select a career in business

Enterprising personality

• enjoys leading and persuading others, values adventure; likely to select a career in sales, politics 

Identity vs role confusion

One of Erikson stages where aspects of identity begin to emerge

• political, religious views, gender and sexual identity, and ethnic identity

Intimacy vs isolation

One of Eriksons stages where the problem during this stage is: developing the capacity for intimacy and making a permanent commitment to a romantic partner 

moratorium

• if someone is still in the _________ stage, then they are less likely to form intimate relationships

Social clock

A timetable based on social norms for age-related life events such as occupational entry, marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Men

____ prefer younger mates who are attractive and have domestic skills 

women

_______ prefer earning potential, intelligence, height, and moral frequency, same age or slightly older in mate selection

Intimacy

One of Sternbergs Three Components: emotional engagement, warm communication, closeness, connectedness, and caring for the other person’s well-being

Reasons to have a child

• experiencing the parent-child bond; growth, learning, and fun experiences that come with raising a child; and the desire to help someone grow into a productive adult

Passion

One of Sternbergs Three Components: happiness that accompanies intense physical attraction, physiological arousal, and cognitive preoccupation

Commitment

One of Sternbergs Three Components: grows as people spend more time together, create shared goals, and solve problems together

Disadvantages of having a child

• loss of freedom, costs a lot of money,decline in marital satisfaction

Paid family leave

• can help ease this burden by alleviating career and financial stress from the equation, but not all countries support this, including the United States

Wear and tear theory

Theory that suggests that we just get worn out from continuous use

Free radicals

A highly reactive, corrosive substance that forms when a cell is exposed to oxygen; through chemical reactions, free radicals destroy DNA, proteins, and other cellular materials

Telomeres

• tiny caps of DNA located on chromosomes that become shorter with continuous cell division

  • shorten past a threshold of being capable of division —> associated with the development of disease

presbyopia

• farsightedness, the inability to focus the lens on close objects (~40s)

presbycusis

• age-related hearing loss becomes apparent  (~50s)

Skin aging

• loosening attachments between the dermis and epidermis

• loss of fat in the hypodermis —> causes wrinkling

• Women experience changes sooner and more quickly than men do because their dermis is thinner and they experience hormonal changes

Muscular and skeletal aging

• rate of decline in muscle mass and strength tends to accelerate in the 40s

  • by 60, 10-15% of muscle mass and strength are lost

• isometric contractions (yoga) is generally retained

• many individual differences

• weight gain because metabolic rate slows down (healthy diet can stave off some weight gain)

Four stage balance tets

• what you do: begin with your feet side by side, then do seni-tandem stance, then tandem stage, then one leg (10 seconds each stage)

• what you want at 65: successfully holding each position for 10 seconds = good balance  

Angel wall test

• what you do: stand with your back against a wall, with your arms raised to form a “w” shape, slide your arms up to make a “y” shape while keeping your arms and back in contact with the wall

• what you want at 65: a fluid motion without pain or compromise

The sinking yogi tests

• what you do: stand up, cross your legs, and lower our self to the floor without using your hands, the n try to get up without your hands, 10 points deducted for every time you put your hands down

• what you want at 65: 8 points

Menopause

The end of menstruation and a woman’s reproductive capacity.

Perimenopause

Transition to menopause in which the production of reproductive hormones declines and symptoms associated with menopause first appear, such as hot flashes

Fluid intelligence

Intellectual ability that reflects basic information processing skills, including working memory, processing speed, and the ability to detect relations among stimuli and draw inferences; underlies learning, is not influenced by culture, and reflects brain functioning

crystallized intelligence

Intellectual ability that reflects accumulated knowledge acquired through experience and learning

Cocktail part effect

• the ability to follow one conversation and then switch to another becomes more difficult 

Inhibition

• the ability to resist interference from irrelevant information to stay focused on the tasks at hand becomes more difficult

Processing speed

What is the greatest change in the information processing theory during middle adulthood

Generativity vs stagnation

The seventh stage in Erikson’s theory in which adults seek to move beyond a concern for their own personal goals and welfare in order to guide future generations and give back to society

Midlife crisis

A period of self-doubt and stress attributed to entering midlife once thought to contribute to a major reorganization of personality in midlife; now thought to occur in a small minority of adults and to be related to history more than age

Sandwich generation

• scrambling to meet the needs of both dependent children and the elderly parents