CHAPTER 12 ADULTHOOD BODY AND MIND

Senescence

Gradual physical decline; less strong and efficient
– Pace affected more by choice and conditions than by genes.

The respiratory system

– Body naturally maintains certain oxygen levels through
homeostasis.
– Aging reduces oxygen in bloodstream; about 4 percent per
decade.
• More for some: obesity, heavy smoking, and polluted
environments
• COVID-19

Compensation

– Increase use of other senses and abilities
– Technological and medical intervention

The senses

– All senses become less acute over time; brain compensates
– Technology and behavior can help

Vision

– Peripheral vision narrows; some colors fade.
– Nearsightedness stabilizes, and reverses in midlife.

Hearing

– High sounds lost earlier than low frequency sounds
– All hearing is less acute with agee

Touch, smell, taste, balance, and pain

Less acute with age; individual variation

Sexual-reproductive system

– Sexual-reproductive system slows down with age.
– Sexual arousal occurs more slowly, orgasm takes longer, fertility
disappears.

Sexual pleasure

– Sexual activity maintained; pleasure may improve
– Some gender
– Age not determining factor

Seeking pregnancy

2% of young couples; 50% by age 40.

Postponing pregnancy

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

– Freezing ova and
sperm for later use
– Encouraging more or
fewer children
– Fertility with HIV-
positive adults

Menopause

– Menstrual periods cease completely
– production of estrogen, progesterone, and
testosterone drops
– Many physical and
psychological reactions
occur

Andropause

– Testosterone levels
drop
– Reduced sexual desire,
erections, and muscle
mass.

Drug use

cause notable effects on body, especially between ages 25 and 65.
A reminder
• Every substance, every experience, every social context
affects not just an isolated aspect of development at
one time, but the entire person over the years.

Drug use benefits

– Health improvement
• Heart disease reduction
• Cancer treatment;
• Psychological
health;
• Diabetes; insulin
• OTC drugs

Opioids

– Opioid deaths have increased every year from 2000 to 2017.
• Deaths decreased slightly in 2018, particularly among
adults aged 26 to 44.
• Deaths increased from synthetic opioids
• Deaths highest among 26- to 44- year-olds; “deaths of despair

Psychoactive drugs

– Affect emotions more than physical functioning
• Caffeine
• Marijuana
• Tobacco
• Alcohol

Obesity

– Prevalence
• Average 20 lb weight gain 25 to 60 yrs in U.S. adults
• Increase BMI
• Excess body fat increases rate of almost every chronic
disease.
– COVID-19 deaths
• Psychological consequences

What and when to eat

– Mediterranean diet
– Intermittent fasting
• Two-day fasting produced happiest participants.
– Surgery
• Saves lives;
complications

Aging brain

– Some losses and some
gains occur.
• Neurons fire more
slowly, and reaction
time lengthens.
• Cognitive reserve,
homeostasis, and
allostasis protect the
brain.
• Plasticity

Causes of brain loss

– Drug abuse
– Poor circulation
– Viruses
– Genes
– Traumatic brain injury (TMI

Recovery

– Drug abuse and TMI
– Alcohol use disorder and genetic vulnerability
– Stroke

Brain growth in adulthood

– Neurogenesis contributes significantly to hippocampal
plasticity across life span.
– Exercise increases circulation, connections, and
myelination; depression reduction.

Intelligence in adulthood

– General intelligence (g) (Spearman)
• Intelligence is one basic trait, involving all cognitive abilities,
which people possess in varying amounts.
• Intelligence cannot be measured directly but can be inferred
from subtests
• Measures of intelligence are predictive of wide range of
outcomes.

g is inborn (Spearman)

– Savage and colleagues: 1,016 genes linked to intelligence
– Geary: Mitochondria function is crucial factor
– Zelazo: No inborn g exists
• IQ is not exclusively inborn; changes in adulthood
(current scholars)

Neuroscience and g

– g arises from brain functioning
• Caudate nuclei size (Grazioplene and colleagues)
• Brain network flexibility and dynamics (Barbey)

Two clusters of intelligence (Raymond Cattell and
John Horn)

Fluid intelligence and Crystallized intelligence

Fluid intelligence

• Intelligence that makes learning info quick and thorough
• Working memory, abstract thought, and speed of thinking are
usually

Crystallized intelligence

• Accumulated learning
• Vocabulary and general information are examples

Three forms of intelligence (Robert Sternberg)

– Analytic intelligence
– Creative intelligence
– Practical intelligence

Analytic intelligence

includes all of the mental processes that foster academic proficiency by making efficient learning, remembering, and thinking possible. abstract learning, strategy selection, focused attention, and information processing.

Creative intelligence

the ability to produce new ideas, solutions, or products, often in novel and unexpected ways. It involves thinking "outside the box" and finding unique approaches to problems, imaginative.

Practical intelligence

defined as the ability that individuals use to find a more optimal fit between themselves and the demands of the environment through adapting, shaping, or selecting a new environment in the pursuit of personally valued goals

Selective optimization with compensation (Paul
and Margret Baltes)

– People try to maintain a balance in their lives.
• Compensate for physical and cognitive losses
• More proficient

Components of expertise

– Experts are intuitive.
– Experts are automatic.
– Experts are strategic.
– Experts are flexible.

Experienced adults often use

selective optimization with compensation in becoming experts.

Essential requirement for expertise

– Time
– Practice
– Climate
– Other

Family skills:
important shifts

– More women educated than before
– More women in jobs traditionally reserved for men
– “women’s work” now gender neutral

hormone replacement therapy

a treatment that involves using hormones to replace those that the body is no longer producing, such as estrogen and progesterone after menopause, or thyroid hormone if the thyroid gland isn't producing enough. HRT can be used to manage menopause symptoms, improve bone health, and potentially reduce the risk of certain conditions, but it also carries potential risks. 

expert

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority.