human development final

Three paths to death

Death occurs without any warning, people decline steadily as they approach death, people have an erratic course with ups and downs.

Death as a natural part of life (eighteenth and nineteenth century)

No medicine, dying was familiar and a routine event at every stage of life and typical part of the community

Death awareness movement (late 1960s)

Talking about death becomes acceptable and Thanatology (study of death and dying) classes became the rage on university campuses

The Hmong Cultural Variations

A diagnosis of terminal illness is not discussed, the dying process is “hands-on,” and when death becomes imminent, the family gathers around loved one, dressing ill person in a traditional burial garment.

Kϋbler-Ross's Research Findings

Open communication is important and Dying people pass through five emotional stages.

Kϋbler-Ross’s five emotions regarding death and dying

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance

Problems with Kϋbler-Ross’s theory

Not all terminally ill patients want to discuss their situation, Not every culture feels it is appropriate to openly discuss death, and Not every person passes through distinctive stages adjusting to death

Middle Knowledge

Terminally ill people know they are dying but can not fully grasp it emotionally.

Guidelines for a good death

Minimize physical distress, Maximize psychological security, Enhance relationships, Foster spirituality

Dying trajectory

Expected swift death, Expected lingering while dying, Entry−re-entry

Palliative Care

A strategy designed not to cure illness but to promote dignified dying

Hospice Movement

A movement, focused on providing palliative care to dying patients outside of hospitals

Barriers to Hospice Care

People are reluctant to give up hope and admit that death is imminent and Diverge from cultural norms in which belief is not to discuss death.

Advance Directives

Written document spelling out instructions with regard to life-prolonging treatment if the person becomes irretrievably ill and cannot communicate his or her wishes

Types of Advance Directives

Living wills, Durable power of attorney for health care, Do Not Resuscitate Orders (DNR), Do Not Hospitalize Orders (DNH)

Passive euthanasia

Withdrawing potentially life-saving interventions

Active euthanasia

Taking action to help the person die

Successful Aging

Drawing on what gives one’s life meaning to live fully no matter how the body behaves, having an internal sense of self-efficacy, having support to function, living with the potential for chronic disease that may come with old age. Combines nature (personal capabilities) and nurture (environmental fit).

Normal Age Changes

Universal and progressive signs of physical deterioration that occur with age. These changes are genetically programmed and differ according to the time of onset.

Chronic Disease

Often normal aging “at the extreme.” Ex: Bone density loss, when extreme, is called osteoporosis. Many age-related diseases are not fatal but interfere with ADLs (activities of daily living).

ADL Impairments

Difficulty performing everyday tasks that are required for living independently. Become far more frequent among the old-old as the number of chronic diseases accumulates.

Instrumental ADLs

Difficulties performing everyday household tasks (cooking, cleaning). Common in advanced old age.

Basic ADLs

Difficulties performing essential self-care activities (eating, getting to the toilet). Relatively rare until the old-old years, require full-time help or nursing home care.

Socioeconomic/Health Gap

Affluent people living longer and enjoying better health. Accelerated aging process begins at the beginning of life (fetal programming hypothesis). Low birth weight, which is often linked to social class, can cause obesity and poor health later in life. Diet, illness, and life stresses can lead accelerated aging.

Presbyopia

Age-related difficulties with seeing close objects. Universal change that happens in mid-life, often leading to the need to purchase reading glasses.

Cataracts

A thickening of the lens, causing vision to become cloudy, opaque, and distorted. Can be removed in outpatient surgery and replaced with an artificial lens.

Glaucoma

A buildup of fluid within the eye that damages the optic nerve. Early stages have no symptoms, but later stages cause blindness that can be prevented if the condition is diagnosed and treated early enough.

Macular Degeneration

A deterioration of the retina. Early warning is vision that becomes spotty (e.g., some letters missing when reading). Early treatment (medication) can restore some vision, but this condition is progressive and causes blindness about five years after it starts.

Presbycusis

Characteristic age-related, permanent hearing loss. Caused by atrophy of inner ear hearing receptors. Selective problems hearing higher-pitched tones and overpowering background noise.

Osteoarthritis

Wearing away of joint cartilage.

Osteoporosis

Bones become porous, brittle, and fragile; tend to break easily.

Dementia

General label for any illness that produces serious, progressive, usually irreversible cognitive decline. Involves erosion of personhood. Typically, is an illness in advanced old age, not young-old. Considered a chronic disease.

Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder (Vascular Dementia)

Caused by multiple small strokes. Involves impairments in the vascular system (blood flow in body) where blood flow feeds the brain.

Neurocognitive Disorder Due to Alzheimer’s Disease

Age-related dementia characterized by neural atrophy and abnormal by-products, such as senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Neurons decay and wither away, and are replaced by neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. Genetically linked (Genetic marker (APOE-4)).

Continuing-Care Retirement Community

Residential complex that provides different levels of services from independent apartments to nursing home care. Designed to provide person-environment fit, allowing the person to not burden family members.

Assisted-Living Facility

For those who are experiencing ADL limitations but do not need 24-hour care. Offers care in a less medicalized setting. Residents have private rooms and personal furniture.

Median age of the population

The cutoff age at which half of the population is older and half is younger.

Memory (Older Adults)

People are more likely to attribute forgetfulness to memory loss in older adults.

Working memory

Process of transforming information into more permanent storage which worsens with age.

Executive processor

Hypothetical structure responsible for focusing attention and manipulating material into the permanent memory store.

Control Processes

The part of the information-processing system that regulates the analysis and flow of information, including memory and retrieval strategies.

Procedural memory

Information remembered automatically, like physical skills.

Semantic memory

Ability to recall facts and basic knowledge.

Episodic memory

Ongoing events of daily life; highly fragile in everyone, especially older adults.

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Suggests time left to live affects priorities and social relationships.

Integrity (Erikson's psychosocial stage)

Reviewing life and making peace, sense of usefulness and meaning in present life, sense of self-efficacy.

Intergenerational equity

Balancing the needs of the young and the old.

Age discrimination

Illegally laying off workers or failing to hire or promote them on the basis of age.

Midlife

Typically starts around age 40 and ends around age 60 or 65; characterized by diverse lifestyles and perceptions.

Midlife Body Image

Feeling physically appealing is important to happiness at every age, but body-image issues affect vulnerable midlife women.

Menopause

Defining marker is not having menstruated for a year, caused by erratic ovulation that eventually ceases.

Perimenopause

The transitional period leading up to menopause, characterized by variable symptoms.

Post-Menopause

The period after menopause, marked by a major sexual consequence that affects desire.

Big Five Personality Traits

Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness; traits that tend to stabilize by mid-twenties, with positive traits strengthening with age.

Neuroticism

Tendency toward mental health versus psychological disturbance; resilient, stable, and well-adjusted versus hostile and high-strung.

Extraversion

Outgoing attitudes (warmth, gregariousness); social and friendly.

Openness to Experience

Tendency to be risk-takers, seeking out new experiences.

Conscientiousness

Industrious worker; hardworking, self-disciplined, reliable versus erratic, irresponsible, forgetful; individuals tend to live longer.

Agreeableness

Kindness, empathy, ability to compromise; pleasant, loving, easy to get along with versus stubborn, hot-tempered, prone to fights.

Generativity

Focus on nurturing the next generation and enriching the lives of others; if not achieved, stagnation occurs, leading to no sense of purpose.

Hedonic Happiness

Happiness based on feeling good.

Eudaimonic Happiness

Happiness based on having a purpose and meaning in life.

Commitment Script

Childhood memories of feeling special and holding an enduring generative mission. Used in life stories of generative people.

Redemption Sequences

Bad events that turned out for the good; often described in the life stories of highly generative people.

Agency

Personal power; a strong sense of this is found in exceptionally generative people.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

A scale used in mid-twentieth-century psychologist test to measure intelligence

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge that tends to increase with age until later life, then begins to fall.

Fluid Intelligence

Ability to reason quickly when facing totally new intellectual tasks; linked to the nervous system and declines earlier in adult life.

Allostatic Load

The cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events

Synaptogenesis

The formation of synapses between neurons in the nervous system.

Postformal Thought

Adult form of intelligence that involves being sensitive to different perspectives, making decisions based on feelings, and being interested in exploring new questions.

Grandparent Mission

To care, function as family watchdog, step in during a crisis to help the family, serve as mentors and mediators.

Parent Care

Adult children’s care for disabled, elderly parents; a highly stressful role, usually performed by daughters.

Sandwich Generation

Adults who simultaneously care for their children and their aging parents.

Deinstitutionalized Marriage

Transformed from the standard adult institution to more of a focus on personal choices

Passion (in Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love)

Sexual arousal

Intimacy (in Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love)

Feelings of closeness

Commitment (in Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love)

Marriage or exclusive, lifelong cohabitating relationships

Romantic Love

Passion and Intimacy

Companionate Marriage

Intimacy and Commitment

Consummate Love

Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment

Commitment

Conviction of being destined for a particular person, Immensely positive emotions, dedication to partner’s inner growth.

Happy Couples communication styles

Engage in a higher ratio of positive to negative comments, Do not get personal when they disagree, Are sensitive to their partner’s need for “space”

Positive effect of divorce

Emotional growth and feelings of self-sufficiency.

Transition to Parenthood

Longitudinal studies show parenthood makes couples less intimate and happy. Heterosexual parenthood tends to produce more traditional roles and more (conflict-ridden) marital equity issues

Nurturer Father

Describes fathers who actively engage in child care and continue the breadwinner role

Shifts in the U.S. career landscape

Traditional stable vs boundary-less careers, Disappearing boundary between work and family, Longer working hours; accelerated pace of performance, Rise of independent contract, “gig” work, Magnification of income inequalities

Intrinsic career rewards

Work that is fulfilling

Extrinsic career rewards

External reinforcements like prestige and salary; less important, but still desired

Role overload

Having too much to do at work

Role conflict

Being torn between job demands and the demands of our other roles, such as family

Work-life balance

Pulling between demands of a job and family

Erratic careers of women

Moving in and out of the workforce due to care-giving responsibilities

Occupational segregation

Separation of the work world into women’s and men’s jobs

Emerging adulthood

Begins after high school and tapers off toward the late twenties, devoted to constructing an adult life.

Benchmarks of adulthood

Finished school, started career, married, children

Southern Europe cultural variations

High youth unemployment, strong norms against cohabitation, home until marriage

Scandinavia cultural variations

Plentiful jobs; free healthcare; government financed education, nest-leaving at brink of emerging adulthood

Social Clock

Shared age norms regarding what behaviors are appropriate at particular ages; usually set by society

Identity crisis

Temporary period of confusion and distress experienced while experimenting with alternatives