PSYC 362 exam 1

What is psychology of aging?

Psychology of aging is the scientific study of behavior in people aged 65 and older.

What is the young- old age group?

65-74 years old

What is the old- old age group?

75-84 years old

What is the old- oldest age group?

85+ years old

Demographic changes in the U.S

• the US population is getting older

• more people are living longer than ever before

• by 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be over 65

What are the factors that contribute to the demographic changes in the U.S?

• Life expectancy has increased

• people are having fewer children

What is a rectangular society?

A society in which age groups are becoming more equal in size

What is life expectancy?

The average number of years a person is expected to live.

What is lifespan?

The maximum age humans can live

Who lives longer men or women?

Women live longer, about 4 years more than men

What is dependency ratio?

The number of dependent people for every 100 working-age adults.

What age groups are considered dependents?

Children 0-18

Older adults 65+

What is the working age?

18-64 years old

What happens as more people age?

As more people age, fewer workers support more older adults which affects social security and medicare

Why do we study aging?

• The population is aging quickly

• older adults have unique physical and medical needs

• many myths exist about aging

• we are all going to age

What is ageism?

Stereotyping or discriminating against people because they are old- most of the stereotypes are false

What is Geriatrics?

Medical care of older adults

What is Gerontology?

The study if aging (biological, social, psychological)

Nature

Genetics (influence how we age)

Nurture

Environment (influence how we age)

Universal development

Universal changes happen to everyone ex: gray hair

Specific development

Specific changes happen to some people Ex: alzheimer’s disease

What is Continuity?

Gradual change over time ex: growing taller

What is discontinuity?

Stage like change ex: menopause

Stability vs change

Some things stay stable/ the same such as parts personality. Other things change like reaction time.

Baltes life span developmental perspective SOC

Aging includes both gains and losses, losses increase as we age

What does SOC stand for?

Selection: choosing important goals

Optimization: Improving skills to maintain those goals

Compensation: Adjusting when abilities decline

Ecological model of aging

• Environmental press: demands placed on a person by the environment

• Positive adaptation happens when

1. a persons skills match environmental demands

2. too much challenge: leads to being overwhelmed

3. too little change: leads to being bored

Cross sectional design (research method)

• Studies different age groups at one time

• the problem is that it confuses age and cohort effects

Longitudinal design

• studies the same people over time

• the problem is that people drop out, leading to attrition

Sequential design (research method)

• combines cross sectional and longitudinal

The three fundamental effects. CAT

• Cohort effect: differences due to generation

• Age effect: real changes due to aging

• Time of measurement effect: events happening when the study is made

Confounding

When variables are linked together, and we cant tell what caused the outcome

Correlational research

• measures the relationship between variables

• correlation does NOT mean causation

• there may be a third variable within the study

True experiment

• Manipulation

• random assignment

Quasi experiment

• no random assignment

• uses existing groups

What is normative aging?

Normal physical changes that happen to everyone

What is optimal aging?

Aging under the best personal and environmental conditions

What is pathological aging?

Aging with disease

What is primary aging?

Inevitable changes ex: wrinkles or gray hair

What is secondary aging?

Change due to lifestyle ex: heart disease or diabetes

What is Morbidity?

Illness or disease

What is mortality?

Death

Compression of mortality

• More people live close to the maximum life span

• Death happens more quickly near the end of life

Expansion of morbidity

People live longer but spend more years with illness

Hayflick limit: Genetic (programmed) theories of aging

Cells divide about 50 times

Telomeres: Genetic (programmed) theories of aging

Protective caps on chromosomes that shorten over time

Immunological theory: Genetic (programmed) theories of aging

The immune system weakens with age

Evolutionary theory: Genetic (programmed) theories of aging

The body is programmed to prioritize reproduction, not long term survival

Cardiovascular system

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death

• Heart- pumping capacity decreases with age

Arteriosclerosis

Stiffening of arteries due to normal aging

Atherosclerosis

Fat clogging the arteries due to lifestyle related factors

Osteoarthritis

Wear and tear on joints

Rheumatoid arthritis

Autoimmune disease attacking joints

Hypertension

Blood pressure thats above 140/90

Risk factors to hypertension

Obesity, salt, alcohol, smoking, genetics

ADLs

Basic self care ex: eating, bathing, dressing

IADLs

Independent living tasks ex: cooking, managing money, driving, taking medication

Primary prevention

Prevent disease before it starts

Secondary prevention

Stop existing risk factors

Vision changes

Ex: lens thickens, pupil shrinks, need more light to see, harder to see at night

common diseases: cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration

Hearing changes

• Harder to hear from high pitched sounds

• Sensitive to background noise

• very common in older adults

Sensation

Detecting stimulus

Perception

Interpreting a stimulus in the brain

Threshold

Minimum stimulation needed to detect something

Sensitivity

The ability to detect stimuli

Higher sensitivity

Lower threshold

Absolute threshold

Intensity needed to detect the stimulus 50% of the time

Signal detection

Older adults are more cautious than people think

They have fewer false alarms

Reaction time

• Reaction time slows with age

• 84%= brain processing time

• 16% actual movement time

Memory

Memory processing

Sensory memory

Visual memory

The cognitive ability to encode, store, and retrieve previously seen visual information ex: shapes, colors, objects

Auditory memory

The ability to encode, store adn retrieve sounds, workds and spoken information

Short Term Memory

The short term store holds information for a relatively brief period and has limited capacity about 5-9 units of information. Unless items enter the long term store, they will be displaced and lost as new items are added

Capacity of STM

The max amount of information that can be held in conscious awareness at one time.

Elaborative Coding & “Chunking”

Core cognitive concepts for transforming, organizing, and storing information

Long Term Memory

The store with an unlimited capacity that maintains information for weeks, months or years

Procedural memory

An unconscious, long term memory system responsible for more skills and habitats ex:riding a bike. Highly resistant to aging

Explicit memory

The conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, concepts and past events. Requires active focus to retrieve and often shows a progressive, gradual decline as we age.

Semantic memory

Long teerm system that stores general world knowledge ex: facts, vocab, concepts, independent of personal experience

Episodic memory

Memory for events and experiences that occurred at a specific place or time

Atkinson-Shiffrin Three-Stage Processing Model

A foundational theory of human memory stating that information linearly passes through three district structural stages

1. sensory memory: brief registration of environmental data

2. short term memory STM: temporary working store

3. long term memory LTM: permanent, unlimited repository

Encoding

Establishing and preparing memory traces for entry into the long term memory store

Serial Position Effect

The cognitive tendency to remember the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst

Retrieval

Recovering memory traces from the long term episodic memory store when they are needed

Reminiscence Bump

The phenomenon where most vivid memories happened between age 10-30

Memory in our Everyday Life

Terminal Drop hypothesis

The steep decline on tests of intellectual ability often shown by individuals prior to their death

Memory Training

Targeted interventions and structured exercises designed to improve cognitive processing, encoding and retrieval of information

Memory and Cognitive Decline Prevention

Cognitive aging is the gradual natural decline in processing speed and working memory that occurs over time. Prevention focuses on building cognitive reserve- the brains ability to withstand neurological damage- managing lifestyle risk factors.

Predictive and Health factors

Subjective age (hold old a person feels), resilience and psycholgoical reserve capacity. These factors drive how well individuals adapt to life changes and physical transitions

Intellectual functioning

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adults (WAIS)

Two types of intelligence

Crystallized intelligence

A function of education, experience and exposure to a specific cultural environment. It reflects in verbal abilities learned in school or information acquired over time from exposure to particular culture. Gc is thought to be maintained or even to increase from young to older adulthood

Fluid intelligence

“raw“ intelligence, meaning that it is largely a function of the integrity of the central nervous system and is relatively independent of social influences and culturally based learning experiences. It is reflected in abilities such as numerical reasoning, logic, and speed of processing info. Gf is thought to decline from young to older adulthood.

Intelligence changes regarding age

Research design characteristics