Developmental Exam 3

Postformal Thought

A stage of adult thinking that goes beyond formal logic by recognizing that many problems are complex, ambiguous, and may have multiple valid solutions depending on context and perspective.

Relativistic Thinking

The understanding that truth, knowledge, and morality can depend on context, culture, or perspective, rather than being absolute or universally fixed.

Dialectical Thinking

A form of reasoning that integrates opposing ideas (thesis and antithesis) to reach a more balanced or higher-level understanding (synthesis), often accepting contradiction and change as normal.

Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)

Erikson’s stage in early adulthood where individuals seek close, meaningful relationships (intimacy). Failure to form these leads to loneliness and social isolation.

Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)

A stage where adults focus on contributing to the next generation through work, parenting, or societal involvement (generativity). Failure leads to self-absorption and feeling stuck (stagnation).

Ego integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)

A final life stage where individuals reflect on their lives. A sense of fulfillment leads to ego integrity, while regret and dissatisfaction lead to despair.

William Perry’s Intellectual Growth – Dualistic Thinking

Belief that knowledge is absolute, authorities have correct answers, and problems are either right or wrong.

William Perry – Multiplicity (Multiple thinking)

Recognition that there can be multiple viewpoints and that some problems may not have one correct answer.

William Perry – Relativism

Understanding that knowledge is contextual and that beliefs and values can vary across cultures and situations.

Schaie’s Stages of Cognitive Development — Achieving, Responsible, & Executive Stage

Achieving stage
Young adults apply cognitive skills to real-life goals such as career building, family decisions, and long-term planning.

Responsible stage
Thinking becomes focused on personal relationships and responsibilities, especially caring for family and others.

Executive stage
Individuals take responsibility not only for personal life but also for broader systems like organizations, communities, or society.

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Love consists of three components:

• Intimacy (emotional closeness)

• Passion (physical attraction and arousal)

• Commitment (decision to maintain the relationship)

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (Sternberg)

Robert Sternberg proposed that intelligence is not a single ability, but consists of three interconnected types of thinking:

1. Componential (analytical) intelligence
The ability to analyze information, solve problems, evaluate ideas, and perform academic tasks. This is what is typically measured by IQ tests.

2. Experiential (creative) intelligence
The ability to deal with novel situations, use past experiences in new ways, and generate original ideas or solutions.

3. Contextual (practical) intelligence
The ability to adapt to real-world environments, solve everyday problems, and successfully “read” and respond to social or practical demands (often called “street smarts”).

Holland’s Personality Type Theory

People and work environments can be classified into six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). People are most satisfied when their personality matches their work environment.

Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized Intelligence

Fluid intelligence
Ability to solve new problems, think quickly, and process information; tends to decline with age.

Crystallized intelligence
Accumulated knowledge, vocabulary, and skills gained through experience; tends to remain stable or improve with age.

Sensory and Physical Aging — Visual Acuity, Presbyopia, Glaucoma, Presbycusis, & Osteoporosis

Visual acuity
Sharpness or clarity of vision.

Presbyopia
Age-related difficulty focusing on close objects due to reduced lens elasticity.

Glaucoma
A group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve, often due to increased pressure in the eye, potentially leading to vision loss.

Presbycusis
Age-related hearing loss, especially for high-frequency sounds.

Osteoporosis
A condition where bones become weak and brittle due to loss of bone density, increasing fracture risk.

Plasticity in the Brain

The brain’s ability to adapt, reorganize, and form new neural connections throughout life.

Selective Memory Loss

Aging affects memory unevenly: episodic memory declines most, semantic memory is relatively stable, and implicit memory is largely preserved.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory for one’s own life experiences and personal history.

Pollyanna Principle

The tendency for people to remember positive experiences more easily and accurately than negative ones.

Peripheral & Generalized Slowing Hypothesis

Peripheral slowing hypothesis
Aging-related cognitive decline is due to slower processing in the peripheral nervous system (senses and motor pathways).

Generalized slowing hypothesis
Cognitive decline occurs because the entire nervous system, including the brain, processes information more slowly.

Levinson’s “Winter of Life”

A life transition around age 60–65 where individuals begin to psychologically accept aging and shift away from central life roles.

Neugarten’s Coping Styles

Bernice Neugarten proposed that older adults differ in how successfully they adapt to aging, identifying four personality/coping styles:

1. Integrated
Older adults who accept aging positively, maintain a sense of purpose, and adapt well to life changes. They tend to be emotionally stable and satisfied.

2. Defended
Individuals who cope by denying or resisting aging. They often try to stay “young” by staying highly active or avoiding thoughts about aging.

3. Passive-dependent
Older adults who become reliant on others for support and decision-making, often feeling anxious or less confident about aging.

4. Disorganized / Disengaged
Individuals who struggle significantly with aging, showing confusion, withdrawal, or difficulty maintaining daily functioning and social roles.

Theories of Successful Aging — Disengagement, Activity, & Continuity Theory

Disengagement theory
Proposes that aging involves a natural withdrawal from social roles; largely criticized today.

Activity theory
Successful aging occurs when individuals stay socially and physically active.

Continuity theory
People age best when they maintain consistent habits, roles, and identity over time.

Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC)

Aging strategy where individuals focus on strengths (selection), improve skills (optimization), and compensate for losses using alternative methods.

Implicit, Episodic, & Semantic Memory

Implicit memory
Memory that operates unconsciously and does not require intentional recall. It includes skills and habits learned through repetition, such as riding a bike or typing. It is generally well preserved with age.

Episodic memory
Memory of personal experiences and specific events, including when and where they happened. Example: remembering your first day at university. This type of memory tends to decline most with aging.

Semantic memory
Memory for general knowledge, facts, concepts, and meanings not tied to personal experience. Example: knowing that Paris is the capital of France. It is relatively stable across adulthood and aging.

Peck’s Developmental Tasks (old age)

Robert Peck proposed that successful personality development in late adulthood depends on resolving three key psychological challenges:

1. Redefinition of self vs. work-role preoccupation
Adjusting one’s identity after retirement by finding value and purpose beyond career and occupational roles.

2. Body transcendence vs. body preoccupation
Coping with physical aging by focusing on abilities and activities that remain possible, rather than becoming overly focused on bodily decline and limitations.

3. Ego transcendence vs. ego preoccupation
Coming to terms with mortality by accepting death and finding meaning through lasting contributions (such as family, community, or achievements) instead of focusing on fear of death or self-concern.

Marriage Gradient

The marriage gradient refers to the tendency for individuals (traditionally women) to marry partners who are slightly older, more educated, and of higher socioeconomic status. It reflects a social pattern where people “marry up” in status. In modern contexts, this gradient has weakened, but it historically shaped mate selection and social inequality within marriage markets.

Holland’s Personality Type Theory (RIASEC model)

John Holland’s theory proposes that both people and work environments can be classified into six personality types. People are most satisfied and successful when there is a good match between their personality type and their job environment.

The six types are:

• Realistic: Practical, hands-on, likes working with tools, machines, or physical tasks (e.g., engineering, construction).

• Investigative: Analytical, curious, enjoys solving problems and working with ideas or science (e.g., research, science, psychology).

• Artistic: Creative, expressive, values imagination and originality (e.g., art, music, writing, design).

• Social: Helpful, people-oriented, enjoys teaching, counseling, or caring for others (e.g., education, healthcare, social work).

• Enterprising: Persuasive, leadership-oriented, enjoys managing, selling, or influencing others (e.g., business, politics, marketing).

• Conventional: Organized, detail-oriented, prefers structure and rules (e.g., accounting, administration, office work).

Secondary Aging vs. Senescence

Secondary aging
Secondary aging refers to changes that are not an inevitable part of the normal aging process, but are instead caused by external factors such as disease, lifestyle, environment, or poor health habits. Examples include heart disease, diabetes, or lung problems caused by smoking or poor diet. These changes are often preventable or treatable.

Senescence
Senescence refers to the biological process of gradual physical and functional decline with age, even in the absence of disease. It includes natural, inevitable changes such as reduced organ efficiency, slower cell repair, and decreased physical strength. Senescence is considered part of primary (normal) aging.

Genetic Programming & Wear and Tear Theories

Genetic programming theories
These theories propose that aging is biologically pre-programmed in our genes. According to this view, DNA functions like a built-in “biological clock” that limits how many times cells can divide and regulates the timing of aging processes. Eventually, this programmed decline leads to reduced bodily functioning and death.

Wear-and-tear theories
These theories argue that aging results from the accumulated damage the body experiences over time. Cells and tissues gradually deteriorate due to repeated use and exposure to harmful factors such as toxins, stress, and metabolic by-products like free radicals, which damage cells and contribute to aging.

Kübler-Ross’s Five Stages of Coping with Death

A model describing common emotional responses people may experience when facing terminal illness or impending death (not always in a fixed order):

1. Denial
Shock and disbelief; the person refuses to accept the reality of the diagnosis (“This can’t be happening.”).

2. Anger
Feelings of frustration, resentment, and unfairness, often directed at others (e.g., doctors, family, or a higher power).

3. Bargaining
Attempting to negotiate or make deals (often with God or fate) in hopes of delaying or reversing death (“If I recover, I will…”).

4. Depression
Deep sadness and grief over loss of health, future plans, and separation from loved ones.

5. Acceptance
Coming to terms with the reality of death, often marked by emotional calmness and readiness.

Cognitive Appraisal Model of Stress (Lazarus & Folkman)

This model explains that stress is not caused directly by events themselves, but by how a person interprets and evaluates them through two steps:

1. Primary appraisal
The individual evaluates the situation to decide whether it is irrelevant, positive, or stressful. If it is stressful, it is further judged as a threat, challenge, or harm/loss.

2. Secondary appraisal
The individual assesses their coping resources and abilities—whether they have enough skills, support, or strategies to manage or deal with the situation effectively.

Robert Butler – Life Review Theory

• Robert Butler, a gerontologist, proposed that in late adulthood people naturally engage in a life review, which is a process of consciously reflecting on and evaluating one’s past experiences, relationships, and life events.

• This process is often triggered by awareness of aging and the approaching reality of death. It can involve revisiting both positive and negative memories, with the goal of finding meaning, resolving conflicts, and achieving a sense of coherence or closure in one’s life story.

Gloria Heinemann & Patricia Evans – Three Stages of Adjusting to Widowhood

A sociological model describing how individuals typically adjust after the loss of a spouse:

1. Preparation
The period before or around the anticipated loss, where individuals may begin emotionally and practically preparing for widowhood (e.g., caregiving, discussing future arrangements, or mentally anticipating the loss).

2. Grief and mourning
The immediate response after the spouse’s death, involving intense emotional pain such as sadness, shock, loneliness, and adjustment to the absence of the partner.

3. Adaptation
The long-term adjustment phase where the individual gradually builds a new identity, reorganizes daily life, and develops new routines, roles, and sources of support.

Ageism

Ageism refers to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against individuals based on their age, most commonly directed toward older adults. It can involve negative beliefs (e.g., assuming older people are less capable), emotional attitudes (e.g., discomfort around aging), and discriminatory behaviors (e.g., excluding older adults from opportunities, work, or healthcare decisions). Ageism can occur at both individual and societal levels and can negatively affect mental health, self-esteem, and quality of life.

Type A & Type B Behavior Pattern

Type A Behavior Pattern
A personality/behavior style marked by high competitiveness, impatience, urgency, and hostility. Individuals are often driven, time-conscious, and easily frustrated. This pattern has been associated with a higher risk of coronary heart disease, largely due to chronic stress and related physiological responses.

Type B Behavior Pattern
A personality/behavior style characterized by relaxed, patient, and noncompetitive tendencies. Individuals are typically more easygoing and less prone to anger or time pressure. This pattern is associated with a lower risk of stress-related heart disease compared to Type A behavior.

Normative-Crisis Models vs. Life Events Models

Normative-Crisis Models
Normative-crisis models propose that development occurs through a fixed sequence of stages, and that everyone passes through the same age-related developmental tasks. Progress depends on successfully resolving normative (common, expected) crises at each stage. These crises are universal and biologically or socially driven (e.g., Erikson’s psychosocial stages). Failure to resolve them can affect later development.

Life Events Models
Life events models argue that development is shaped by the specific events individuals experience, rather than universal stages. These events can be normative (expected, like marriage or retirement) or non-normative (unexpected, like divorce, illness, or job loss). The timing, meaning, and context of these events determine their impact on development, so people’s life paths are more variable and individualized.

The Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN model)

A widely used model of personality that describes five broad dimensions of human behavior:

1. Neuroticism
The tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness, irritability, and self-doubt. High neuroticism = emotionally reactive and stress-prone.

2. Extraversion
The degree of sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and enthusiasm. High extraversion = outgoing and energized by social interaction; low extraversion = more reserved or introverted.

3. Openness to experience
The level of curiosity, imagination, creativity, and willingness to engage with new ideas or experiences. High openness = intellectual curiosity and preference for novelty.

4. Agreeableness
The extent to which a person is cooperative, compassionate, trusting, and helpful. High agreeableness = kind and empathetic; low agreeableness = more competitive or skeptical.

5. Conscientiousness
The degree of organization, responsibility, self-discipline, and goal-directed behavior. High conscientiousness = reliable and structured; low conscientiousness = more spontaneous or disorganized.

Ginzberg’s Developmental Theory of Career Choice

Eli Ginzberg proposed that career choice is a developmental process that unfolds over time through three stages:

1. Fantasy period (childhood, ~up to age 11)
Children make career choices based on imagination and fantasy, without considering skills, abilities, or real-world job constraints.

2. Tentative period (adolescence)
Individuals begin thinking more realistically about careers, considering their interests, abilities, values, and the requirements of different occupations. This stage involves exploration and shifting preferences.

3. Realistic period (early adulthood)
Career decisions become more focused and practical. Individuals explore specific options through education, training, internships, or work experience, and eventually commit to a chosen occupation.

Stages of Grief and Bereavement

A framework describing how people often adjust emotionally after the death of a loved one:

1. Shock and denial
An immediate reaction of numbness, disbelief, or emotional detachment that helps protect the individual from the full impact of the loss.

2. Confrontation and acute grief
A stage of intense emotional pain where the reality of the loss is fully recognized. Individuals may experience sadness, anger, loneliness, and longing for the deceased.

3. Accommodation
The long-term adjustment phase in which grief gradually becomes less intense. The person begins to rebuild their life, adapt to the loss, and develop a new sense of identity and routine without the deceased.

Functional Death vs. Brain Death Theories

These are two different ways of defining when a person is considered legally and medically dead:

Functional death
Death is defined by the loss of vital bodily functions, especially the absence of heartbeat and spontaneous breathing. If the heart and lungs stop permanently, the person is considered dead under this definition.

Brain death
Death is defined by the irreversible cessation of all brain activity, including the brain stem. This is typically confirmed by flat EEG readings (no electrical brain activity) and the inability to breathe independently, even if machines maintain heart function.