HDE 100C: Adult Development and Aging

Comprehensive vocabulary review flashcards covering biological, physical, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of adult development and aging based on HDE 100C lecture notes, study guide, and exam questions.

Chronological Age

An individual's age determined strictly by their date of birth, representing the number of calendar years they have lived on this planet.

Biological Age

A measure of an individual's physical and functional status based on physiological assessment, reflecting the estimated number of years a person is expected to have left.

Psychological Age

An individual's adaptive capacity based on their psychological abilities to cope with life circumstances and navigate environmental demands.

Social Age

An assessment of age based on expected social roles, habits, and behaviors as determined by a person's position in the life course relative to societal norms.

Lifespan Perspective

A developmental approach emphasizing the total number of years a person lives, asserting that development is lifelong and that no single age period dominates.

Life Course Perspective

A framework analyzing the meaningful developmental patterns, transitions, and social trajectories that individuals navigate across their lives within historical contexts.

Multidirectionality

A core principle of lifespan development stating that development involves concurrent growth and decline; as capacity increases in one domain, it may decrease in another and at different rates.

Plasticity

The principle that an individual's developmental capacity is not predetermined or fixed, meaning skills and neural circuits can be trained or improved with practice even in late life.

Age-Normative Influences

Biological or environmental experiences that tend to occur at a specific chronological age for most individuals in a population, such as puberty, menopause, or retirement around age $65$.

History-Normative Influences

Biological and environmental events shared by most people in a particular culture at a specific historical point in time, such as the $9/11$ attacks or the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-Normative Influences

Unpredictable, random, or rare life events specific to an individual rather than an entire cohort, such as winning the lottery or receiving a cancer diagnosis.

Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) Model

A meta-theory of successful aging proposing that individuals maximize gains and minimize losses through three interacting strategies: selection (restricting activities to fewer domains), optimization (practicing to enhance performance), and compensation (using alternative resources to counter decline).

Cohort

A group of subjects who share a particular experience during a specific period of time, such as being born in the same calendar year.

Cross-Sectional Study

A developmental research design that assesses individuals of different chronological ages at a single point in time, which is relatively inexpensive and convenient but confounds age differences with cohort differences.

Longitudinal Study

A research design that observes the same group of individuals repeatedly across multiple points in time, providing direct measures of intra-individual age changes but facing risks of participant attrition and practice effects.

Sequential Study

A developmental research design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches across multiple cohorts and testing times to disentangle the effects of age, cohort, and time of assessment.

Primary Aging

Inevitable, universal, and biologically predetermined processes of physical deterioration that occur across all members of a species regardless of disease or lifestyle.

Secondary Aging

Age-related declines resulting from disease processes, environmental abuse, or disuse, which are not universal or inevitable.

Wear-and-Tear Theory

An error theory of biological aging asserting that the body deteriorates over time because repeated use, physical activity, and cumulative environmental stressors gradually damage cells and tissues.

Lipofuscin

A yellow-brown to dark brown granular waste pigment that accumulates in postmitotic cells (such as neurons and cardiac muscle) over time, interfering with cellular signaling, transport, and metabolic functions.

Free Radical Theory

An oxidative stress theory stating that aging results from reactive oxygen species (ROS) containing unpaired, highly reactive electrons that cause cumulative damage to cellular proteins, DNA, and cell membranes.

Antioxidants

Chemical compounds that inhibit oxidation and neutralize free radicals by donating electrons, thereby protecting biological systems from oxidative stress.

Time-Clock Theory

A programmed genetic theory based on the Hayflick limit, stating that normal cells will cease dividing after reaching a built-in biological threshold of approximately $40\text{ to }60\text{ divisions}$ (replicative senescence).

Telomere Theory

A programmed genetic theory proposing that repetitive protective caps at the ends of chromosomes (telomeres) progressively shorten with each cell division until the cell enters replicative senescence.

Apoptosis

Programmed cellular suicide that systematically dismantles and eliminates potentially dangerous or mutated senescent cells without triggering an inflammatory response.

Apolipoprotein E (APOE)

A gene located on chromosome $19$ ($\text{19q13.2}$) involved in cholesterol transport; carrying the $\varepsilon4$ allele increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease, whereas the $\varepsilon2$ allele confers decreased risk.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

A protein found in the brain and spinal cord that promotes the survival, differentiation, and maintenance of neurons while increasing synaptic plasticity and facilitating learning and memory in the hippocampus.

Epigenetic Aging

The progressive accumulation of chemical modifications to DNA and histones (such as DNA methylation) across the lifespan that alters gene expression without changing the primary DNA sequence.

Caloric Restriction

The dietary regimen of reducing caloric intake without malnutrition, which lowers basal metabolic rate (BMR) and extends lifespan and healthspan in various animal models.

Sarcopenia

The gradual, age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and physical performance that occurs in older adults.

Osteoporosis

A skeletal disorder characterized by severe declines in bone mineral density and strength, accounting for over $70\%$ of fractures in older adults and occurring more frequently in women following menopause.

Osteoarthritis (OA)

The most common non-autoimmune, degenerative joint disease caused by cumulative mechanical wear and tear that leads to the erosion of articular cartilage, predominantly in the knees, hips, hands, and spine.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

A chronic, systemic autoimmune inflammatory disorder in which the immune system targets synovial membranes, causing symmetric joint pain, swelling, and potential damage to internal organs.

Hypertension

A vascular condition in which blood pressure against arterial walls is consistently elevated, affecting more than $90\%$ of individuals who reach age $65$ with normal blood pressure over their remaining lifetime.

Congestive Heart Failure

A cardiovascular condition where the heart fails to pump blood adequately, causing fluid to congest tissues and resulting in systemic edema in the legs, ankles, feet, and lungs.

Cerebral Arteriosclerosis

The thickening, hardening, and narrowing of arterial walls in the brain due to fat accumulation and calcification, impairing cerebral blood flow and increasing stroke risk.

Cataracts

An age-related visual disorder characterized by the thickening, darkening, and clouding of the eye's crystalline lens, causing visual impairment that is typically corrected through surgery.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

A progressive visual disorder caused by the deterioration of the macula in the retina, resulting in the blurriness or loss of high-acuity central vision while peripheral vision remains intact.

Glaucoma

A sensory pathology where fluid drainage inefficiency increases intraocular pressure, causing optic nerve damage and a progressive loss of peripheral vision (tunnel vision).

Diabetic Retinopathy

A microvascular complication of diabetes characterized by leakage and bleeding from damaged small blood vessels within the retina, leading to visual impairment.

Presbycusis

Age-related sensorineural hearing loss resulting from the progressive degeneration of auditory hair cells in the cochlea, leading to reduced sensitivity to high-frequency sounds.

Occipital Lobe

The posterior lobe of the cerebral cortex primarily responsible for processing visual input, situated caudal to the parietal and temporal lobes.

Myelin Sheath

A multi-layered lipid insulation surrounding neuronal axons that speeds the conduction of electrical action potentials, the degradation of which impairs structural connectivity in the aging brain.

Frontal Lobe Hypothesis

A neurocognitive hypothesis stating that the prefrontal cortex and its associated executive networks show earlier and more pronounced structural and functional declines with age than other brain regions.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

An advanced neuroimaging technique that tracks the directional diffusion of water molecules along white matter tracts to quantify axonal structural integrity.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity (rs-fMRI)

An imaging method that examines correlations in spontaneous, low-frequency blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals across brain networks while a participant is at rest.

Processing Speed Theory

Salthouse's ($1996$) theory positing that central nervous system slowing leads to cognitive decline via two mechanisms: limited time to complete downstream steps and simultaneity loss where early information fades before later processing completes.

Common Cause Hypothesis

A theoretical proposal that age-related sensory and cognitive declines do not directly cause one another, but instead stem from a shared, underlying biological aging process in the nervous system.

Sensory Deprivation Hypothesis

A theory proposing that reduced sensory input over extended periods gradually causes cognitive decline by limiting active environmental engagement and accelerating neural deterioration.

Inhibitory Theory

The hypothesis that cognitive aging deficits stem from a reduced capacity to suppress task-irrelevant information and gate attention across competing sources of stimuli.

Crystallized Intelligence

Acquired, culturally grounded knowledge, vocabulary, and facts accumulated across the lifespan through life experience and education, which typically remains stable or improves into older adulthood.

Fluid Intelligence

Basic biological information processing, abstract reasoning, and novel problem-solving capacities that operate independently of prior acquired knowledge and decline steadily from early adulthood.

Working Memory

An active cognitive system supported by the prefrontal cortex that temporarily holds and manipulates task-relevant information simultaneously to execute complex problem-solving.

Hippocampus

A seahorse-shaped structure in the medial temporal lobe essential for the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of explicit long-term memories that undergoes structural shrinkage with age.

Episodic Memory

A component of explicit long-term memory that involves the conscious recollection of personal past events tied to a specific time and place, accompanied by autonoetic awareness.

Semantic Memory

An explicit long-term memory system storing decontextualized factual world knowledge, meanings, and conceptual understanding, characterized by objective noetic awareness.

Procedural Memory

A form of non-declarative, implicit long-term memory supported by subcortical structures like the basal ganglia that stores automated motor skills, habits, and behavioral routines.

Priming

An implicit memory phenomenon in which prior subconscious exposure to a stimulus enhances the speed or accuracy of identifying that stimulus or related concepts later.

PASA Model

The Posterior-Anterior Shift in Aging model, which describes an age-related reduction in posterior occipital activation accompanied by a compensatory increase in anterior frontal activation to maintain cognitive performance.

HAROLD Model

The Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in OLDer adults model, which posits that prefrontal cortex activity during cognitive processing becomes less lateralized in older adults compared to the unilateral activation seen in younger adults.

CRUNCH Model

The Compensation-Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis, asserting that older adults over-recruit neural resources to meet low cognitive loads, but hit a ceiling where compensatory recruitment fails under high task difficulty.

STAC-r Model

The Scaffolding Theory of Cognitive Aging-revised, which proposes that the brain continuously builds secondary neural networks (scaffolding) as compensatory pathways to offset age-related structural degradation.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST)

Laura Carstensen's motivational theory stating that perceived time remaining in life, rather than chronological age, directs goal selection, leading older adults to prioritize emotionally meaningful social relationships.

Positivity Effect

A developmental pattern where older adults preferentially allocate attention and memory resources toward positive stimuli relative to negative stimuli.

Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) Model

A theoretical model proposing that older adults use well-developed emotional appraisal and avoidance strategies to preserve well-being, but experience greater physiological vulnerability and slower recovery when acute stress cannot be avoided.

Social Convoy

A dynamic, moving social network of close family and friends that accompanies an individual throughout their life, providing ongoing emotional support and socialization.

Social Input Model

A model stating that social partners tend to treat older adults more kindly, forgive them more easily, and blame them less for social missteps compared to younger adults.

Stress-Buffering Model

Cohen and Wills' framework proposing that perceived or received social resources protect psychological well-being by mitigating the adverse cognitive appraisals and physiological distress triggered by acute life stressors.