Adulthood and Aging final review

Whole brain death

all brainstem reflexes have permanently stopped working, and breathing has permanently stopped

• or when person is in a coma and cause of coma is unknown

persistent vegetative state

occurs when cortical functionality has ceased

Patient self determination act

requires health care facilities using medicare money to inform patients about right to state preferences for terminal care

differences in facing death

• younger adults are less accepting of death than older adults

• middle aged is when people usually confront own mortality and undergo change in sense of time until death

five stages of acceptance of death

• denial

• anger

• bargaining

• depression

• acceptance

Corr 4 dimensions of facing death

• physical needs - pain management, fatigue, changes in appearance - addressing involves providing comfort and managing pain

• psychological needs - emotional and mental responses to dying - fear depression etc.

• interpersonal attachments - impact of dying on relationships with friends, family, and other people in social circle

• spiritual energy and hope - searching for meaning, purpose, and connection in the face of death

Terror management theory

dresses why people engage in certain behaviors to achieve particular psychological states based on concerns about mortality

• ensuring contiuuation of life is primary motive for underlying behavior

Grief process

1. acknowledging reallity of a loss

2. working through the emotional turmoil

3. adjusting to environment where deceased is absent

4. loosening ties to the deceased- involves re-arranging our social network etc,

four component model of understanding grief

• context of loss

• continuation of subjective meaning associated with loss

• changing representations of loss relations over time

• role of coping/ emotional processes

dual process model of grieving

• loss oriented concerns - breaking bonds/ ties, denial/ avoidance of restoration changes

• restoration oriented concerns- adapting to new situations without person - denial/avoidance grief, doing new things to distract

Model of grieving dynamics

• lamenting vs. heartening - grieving responses that are distressing, disheartening, or painful vs. grieving responses that are gratifying, uplifting, or pleasurable

• integrating vs tempering- assimilating internal and external changes catalyzed by grief inducing loss and reconciling differences in past, present, and future realities vs. avoiding chronic attempts to integrate changed realities

death of one’s parent

• buffer against death removed

• makes one consider own mortality more and accept own death

Holland’s personality theory

people choose their careers based on their individual traits and occupational skills/interests

social cognitive career theory

career choice is the result of social cognitive theory

• self efficacy- belief in your abilities

• outcome explanations- what you think will happen in a specific situation

• interests (what you like)

• goals

• supports and barriers ( things that help or block you)

Super’s theory of career development

continuum along which people move through their working years, more congruent occupational behaviors —> more maturity

• implementation task- cycle through series of jobs in early 20s

• stabilization task- selecting an occupation

• consolidation task- working way up to achieve goals such as being promoted to desired position, mid 30s and ownwards

Burnout

depletion of energy and motivation, loss of occupational idealism, and feeling one is being exploited

• leads to decrease in quality of services

• increases with age and years on the job

• less ability to regulate negative emotions due to weakened connections between the amygdala, cingulate cortex, and PFC

• poorer judgement and emotional outbursts

work - family conflict

feeling of being pulled in multiple different directions by incompatible demands from one’s family and job

Themes underlying adult relationships

• affection and emotional support - intimacy, self- disclosure

• social compatibility- friends are sources of entertainment

• communal nature - participating in activities of mutual interest

socioemotional selectivity theory

says social contact is motivated by selective social interaction to fulfill a variety of goals

• connecting with younger people/ fitting in

• self concept building

• emotional regulation

factors influencing marital success

• communication styles

• how well they handle conflict

• financial situation

• feelings of equality

• similarity of values

• age of partners at the time of marriage

• exchange theory- each partner contributing something to the relationship that the other would be hard pressed to provide

vulnerability- stress adaptation model

marital success depends on how well partners handle stressful events

• marital quality is highest at the beginning, goes down after the birth of a child, and rises again later in life after children move out

• decline in marital satisfaction happens when couples settle into a routine

predictors of divorce

• communication styles and how couples deal with conflict

• feelings of equality

• lack of positive emotions in discussion of events of the day

• destructive pattern of demand- during conflict one partner places demand on the other and one withdraws physically or emotionally

multidimensional assessment

• physical

• cognitive skills

• everyday functionality

• psychological functioning

• social and environmental resources

mini mental state exams

screening of basic measures of mental competence to screen for cognitive impairment

depression in older adults

• withdrawal

• frequent tearfulness

• unexplained pain

• excessive worry

• feeling slowed down

• weight changes

• worthlessness/ helpless

risk factors for depression in older adults

• living in a nursing home

• lack of social connections

• recent loss

• being unmarried/ widowed

• chronic illness

• being a caregiver

delerium

disturbance of consciousness that develops rapidly, caused by medical conditions, substance intoxication, medical side effects, sleep deprivation

symptoms

• attention difficulties

• memory

• oreientation

• rambling speech

• sleep/wake

• personality/ mood changes

Lewy body dementia

• visual hallucinations

• unpredictable episodes disorganized thinking

• interfere w daily life

• balance issues

• paranoia

• movement symptoms similar to Parkinson’s

Huntington’s disease

progressive, ultimately lose ability to care for selves physically and mentally, swallowing difficulties, profound cognitive defecits, involuntary flicking of arms and legs, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, personality changes, slurred speech and articulation difficulties

Korsakoff’s disease

confabulation to hide gaps in memory, can be treated if caught early and alcohol consumption stopped

Hooker - aspects of personality

• state processes - transient changes in personality effected by situation and emotional state

• self- regulatory processes- related to primary and secondary control, how one either changes their environment to match their goals or adapt to the environment to further their goals, and self-efficacy- how much belief they have in their own abilities

• cognitive processes- how they connect the pieces to create their life story

five factor model

• extraversion - decreases w age

• agreeableness - increases w age

• conscientiousness - peaks in middle age

• neuroticism - disappears later in life

• opens to experience

personality adjustment

developmental changes in terms of adaptive value and personality

• like becoming more introverted after becoming a mother

personality growth

ideal end states such as increased self-transcendence, wisdom, and integrity

Jung’s theory

each aspect of someone’s personality must be in balance with all the others

• like introversion vs extroversion

• people move toward integrating these dimensions as they age, with midlife being an especially important period

Erikson

• trust vs mistrust

• shame vs autonomy

• initiative vs guilt

• industry vs inferiority

• identity vs confusion

• intimacy vs isolation

• generativity vs stagnation

• integrity vs despair

criticisms - some aspects are not specific or belong to a specific historical situation

McAdams generatively theory

generatively thru concern for the next generation and belief in the goodness of human enterprise

• concern - general personality tendency in caring for young individuals

• action - actual behaviors that promote the well being of the next generation

midlife reflection

period of re-organization of values along with general cognitive changes

• re-evaluating one’s roles and making the necessary corrections

• occurs over an extended period of time

• changes can be positive and negative

McAdam’s life story model

describes the way people create life stories for themselves based on where they have been/ are going and who they will become

• created and revised through adulthood

• generatively marks an attempt to create an appealing ending for future generations

• may indicate beliefs/ values

• common themes - agency (power, achievement), and communion

age based double standard

younger adults judge older adults more harshly than older adults for forgetfulness but younger adults judge adults positively for being more responsible despite memory defecits

changes in social beliefs w aging

social beliefs often change w aging, such as marriage is more important than a career

labeling theory

people assimilate to match a stereotype they have been labelled as

• older adults are more likely to integrate stereotypes into their self perception

resilience theory

confronting a negative stereotype results in rejection of that view

cognitive style

how we approach solving problems

• older adults social judgment biases are predicted by degree to which they need closure

• age-related changes leads them to come to quick and concise answers to conserve resources

personal control

degree to which person feels their performance in a situation depends on something one personally does

• effects physical health, memory, intelligence, adjustment/ survival in different care settings

• personal control varies by domain

control strategies

• assimilative strategies - used when someone must prevent losses important to self esteem

• accomodations- involve re-adjusting one’s goals and aspirations

• immunizing mechanism- alter the effect of self discrepant information

primary control

changing the environment to suit one’s goals

secondary control

re-apprasing the environment in light of one’s declining function

• turning inward towards self and assessing the situation

emotional intelligence

ability to recognize their own and other’s emotions

• can be viewed as trait that reflects the person’s success at processing emotional information and using it appropriately in social contects

• increases with age, may be related to higher well being

impression formation

older adults are more willing to change 1st impressions from positive to negative

negativity bias

older adults will often let their initial impressions stand because negative information is more striking than positive

• at disadvantage in forming impressions when social context is demanding

correspondance bias

relying only on dispositional information and ignoring situational information

causal attributions

• when confronted with ambiguous situations, older and younger adults are more likely to make interactive attributions

• when confronted with negative situations, older adults are more likely to blame the primary character for the conflict

• older adults are more likely to base judgments on their own beliefs

collaborative cognition

occurs when two or more people work together to solve a cognitive task

• helps facilitate memory in older adults

• prefer to collaborate when perceiving defecits in problem solving

• social context can facilitate in memory performance