Spring 2026 PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING- Exam 1

Exam...

geriatics

The branch of medicine specializing in medical care, treatment of disease, health problems of older adults.

gerontology

The study of the biological, behavioral, and social phenomena from maturity to old age.

Chronological Age

Measured in months or years since birth, often referred to as the 'sands of time'.

Biological Age

Reflects longevity, biological functioning, and physical appearance.

Functional age

Comparative competency level

Psychological age

Adaptability cognitively, personally, and socially

Social age

Culture's expectation of how one should act and behave based on chronological age

Magic age of 65

60 is considered to be the official year of entry into older adulthood

Age eligibility for full Social Security retirement benefits

Increasing to 67

Young-Old

Ages 65-74

Old-Old

Ages 75-84

Normative Aging

What is considered a usual, normal, or average outcome

Qualitative

Same or different

Quantitative

Amount how much

Nurture

Environmental influences and life experiences

Life-Cycle forces

How all the above independently or combined affects individuals at different points in their life

Oldest-old

Ages 85+

Subjective age

Middle-aged and older adults often feel younger than they're chronologically

Positive Aging

The ability to find happiness and well-being even in the face of physical and/or psychological challenges

Successful Aging

What is considered an ideal rather than average outcome

Nature

Biological hereditary and genetic factors

Nonnormative Life Events

Events or experiences that do not happen to everyone or occur at an unusual time in life

Normative history-Graded Influences

Influences associated with time, including societal evolution, wars, economic influences

Normative Age-Graded influences

Biological or chronological events associated with chronological age

Sociocultural forces

Interpersonal, societal, cultural, and ethnic factors

Psychological forces

All internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors

Biological forces

Genetic and health-related factors

Biopsychosocial framework

Provides a complete overview of how and what shapes human development over the lifetime

Metatheoretical

Is the viewpoint that guides orientation developmental research

Meta

Means 'More than beyond'

Mechanistic Meta Model

Research approach focuses on environmental, or the nurture aspect of development

Organismic Meta Model

Research approach focuses on the biology, or nature of development

Contextual Meta Model

'Push and Pull' Bidirectional interaction of nature and nurture

Life Span Development

Research approach focuses on the quantitative nature of the organism and the nurture of its environment

Gains > Losses

Indicates Young Adulthood

Gains = Losses

Indicates Middle Adulthood

Gains < Losses

Indicates Older Adulthood

Cohort

Generation of the research participants (Individuals born about the same time)

Time of Measurement

Conditions that prevail when research is conducted

A type of research design(s)

Cross-sectional design, Longitudinal design, Time-lag design, and Sequential design

Confounded factors

The effects of two or more factors may be difficult to differentiate from one another

Reliability

Is the measure dependable, consistent?

Validity

Are we measuring what we think we are measuring (accuracy)?

Internal validity

Can we accurately identify the factor(s) responsible for an outcome?

External validity

Do findings from one participant sample generalize to another sample from the same population?

Ecological validity

Do our tests measure real-world functioning?

Sampling

Ideal if our samples are randomly selected

Experimental Approach

Involves independent and dependent variables

Confounds

Researchers measured levels of a categorical Independent Variable (factor)

Blue Zones

Areas where people have longer + healthier lives

Life expectancy

Average number of years people are expected to live in a certain culture/cohort.

Life expectancy increase since 1900

Life expectancy has increased 65% since 1900.

Current life expectancy

About 79 years.

Life span

Max longevity, or extreme upper limit of time that members of a species can live (approximately 120 years in humans).

Health span

Active life expectancy - living to a healthy old age.

Dependent life expectancy

Living a long time.

Compression of mortality

A greater proportion of deaths occur during a narrow time period at the upper limit of human life span.

Morbidity

Illnesses and disability occur only during a narrow time period immediately prior to death.

Primary aging

Inevitable, normal biological processes that are universal across all species.

Intrinsic aging

Aging that comes from within, beginning at birth and gradual over time.

Secondary aging

Not inevitable nor universal; attributed to disease, disuse, and abuse.

Time clock theory

Life span of species determined by a genetic blueprint or time clock at the cellular level.

Telomeres

Lose length after each cell division; compound structures at the end of chromosomes.

Immune theory

Immune system becomes less efficient with age, resulting in fewer or inferior invaders.

Evolutionary theory

Members of a species are genetically programmed to live long enough to bear and rear their young.

Error theory

A stochastic theory of biological aging at the molecular level.

Wear and tear theory

Rate of living and expended energy contribute to aging.

Stress theory

Prolonged exposure to stress contributes to aging.

Cross-linking theory

Build-up of damaging substances affects metabolic functioning.

Free radical theory

Unstable molecules causing damage contribute to aging.

Factors influencing longevity

Marital status, cognitive ability, subjective feelings about health, and emotional well-being.

Maximizing longevity

No smoking, dietary habits, physical activity, adequate medical care, intellectual stimulation, social engagement, and sleep.

Changes with age

Includes changes in skin/hair, musculoskeletal system, decrease in reserve capacity, osteoporosis, and respiratory and cardiovascular functioning.

Brain weight changes

Peaks at ages 20-50 and then declines, with a shrinkage in brain volume of approximately 10% by the 10th decade.

Scaffolds in the brain

Alternative neural circuitry built to offset age-related decline in functioning.

Leading causes of mortality (65+)

Heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

Activities of daily living (ADL)

Basic self-maintenance tasks such as eating, dressing, bathing, and toileting.

Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL)

More complex activities needed to carry out the business of daily life, such as preparing meals and managing money.

The SOC Model

Founded on the basic assumption that individuals engage in adaptation throughout their lives. They are capable of learning and changing and calling upon extra (reserve) capacity that they might not need to use under ordinary circumstances.

The Ecological Model

Based on the premise that the interaction between a person and his or her environment results in some level of adaptation, which is measured in terms of a person’s emotional (affective) well-being and behavior.

Research on the relationship between chronological age and how old a person feels has found that young adults feel ______, and older adults feel ________.

 

just about their own age; younger than they are

Which of the following terms would be considered by older adults to be the most favorable?

 

Older adults

Which older adult is most likely to be found living in a nursing home on a permanent basis? 

 

A European American woman

Nature/nurture is an important theme in developmental psychology. Nature refers to _______ and nurture refers to ________.

 

genetic factors; environmental factors

According to the Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) model, which of the following best explains how older adults maintain effective functioning despite age-related declines?

Note: The SOC model proposes that successful aging involves selection (prioritizing goals), optimization (maximizing performance in valued domains), and compensation (using alternative strategies or aids to offset losses), rather than attempting to maintain all abilities or withdrawing from activity.

 

They selectively focus on fewer important goals, optimize their remaining abilities, and compensate for losses using alternative strategies.

According to the Ecological Model of Aging, which situation best illustrates the concept of person–environment fit in older adulthood?

Note: The Ecological Model of Aging  emphasizes that functioning and well-being depend on the balance between individual competence and environmental press. Problems arise when environmental demands exceed the person’s abilities, leading to maladaptive outcomes.

 

An older adult experiences stress and functional difficulty when environmental demands exceed their physical or cognitive abilities.

An 80-year-old woman with mild mobility limitations lives in a second-floor apartment with no elevator. When she moves to a ground-floor unit with grab bars and wider doorways, her daily functioning improves.

 

Enhancing intrinsic motivation through activity engagement

The two-stages-of-life viewpoint, which was influential in early developmental psychology, is best characterized by which of the following assumptions?

 

Childhood and adolescence are periods of development, whereas adulthood is a period of stability followed by inevitable decline.

Which of the following is the best example of a nonnormative life event?

 

Becoming widowed at age 30 due to a sudden accident

Georgina enjoys eating in a new restaurant every weekend and taking a vacation to a different place every year. Georgina would be considered ________ compared to Madge, who likes to eat at the same restaurant every week and return to the same vacation spot every year. 

 

psychologically younger

Which of the following is NOT an important aspect of the lifespan developmental perspective? 

 

Development proceeds in only one direction.

Age is a(n) _____ variable. 

organismic

Human life span _____.  

 

has stayed the same since 1900

Which developmental research design confounds (is unable to separate) age and cohort? 

 

Cross-sectional

Which method of research is best for keeping track of age-related changes over time in an individual person (intra-individual variability)? 

Longitudinal

A researcher places rats that always lived in a deprived environment into a new “enriched” environment with an exercise wheel and toys to stimulate the rats’ problem-solving capabilities. After two weeks in the enriched environment, the rats seem more alert than they were before. The researcher decides to try the same thing with a new sample of rats, which also seem more alert after spending two weeks in the new environment. This means that the findings were replicated on the second sample of rats. However, when the researcher wants to know whether the rats became more alert because of the exercise wheel or because of the toys, we are concerned with the issue of _____.

 

internal validity.

In which kind of research studies are participants randomly assigned to levels of an independent variable?

 

Experimental studies

A developmental scientist with a mechanistic metamodel _____. 

 

focuses on quantitative differences between age groups

According to the organismic metamodel, _____. 

 

the developing organism acts upon rather than reacting to the environment

Which correlation shows the weakest association between two variables? 

 

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