HDE 100C: Chapter 1 - Terms/Concepts

Biopsychosocial Perspective

a view of development as a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social processes

The Four Principles of Adult Development and Aging

1. Continuity Principle - changes are continuous over the life span

2. Survivor Principle - only the survivors grow old

3. Individuality Principle - individuality matters

4. “Normal” aging is different from disease

Gerontology

the scientific study of the aging process

Geriatrics

the medical speciality in aging

Identity

a composite of how people view themselves in the biological, psychological, and social domains of life

Principle 1. Continuity Principle

the changes that people experience in later adulthood build on what they lived through in their earlier years

Principle 2. Survivor principle

an idea that people who live to old age outlive the many threats that could have caused their deaths at earlier ages

Principle 3: Individuality

a principle of adult development and aging that asserts that as people age, they become more different from each other

Interindividual Differences

differences between people

Intraindividual Differences

variations within the same individual

Multidirectionality

the idea that development can proceed in multiple directions within the same person

Principle 4. “Normal” aging is different from disease

the principle that growing older does not necessarily mean growing sicker

Primary aging (or normal aging)

a set of changes built into the hard-wiring of an organism that progresses at different rates among individuals but are universal, intrinsic, and progressive

Secondary (or impaired aging)

changes due to disease

Tertiary Aging

the rapid loss of functions experienced at the very end of life

Optimal Aging

growing older in a way that slows or alters the process

baby boom generation

describes people born in the post-world war 2 years of 1946-1964

millennials

(1981-1996) the generation reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century

Emerging Adulthood

the transition prior to assuming the full responsibilities associated with adulthood normally associated with the years 18 to 29

Sub-groups use ten year breakpoints of 65+ years old

• young old = (65-74 yrs old)

• old-old = (75-84 yrs old)

• oldest-old = (85+ yrs old)

Centenarians

people who are 100 years and older

Supercentenarians

people who are 110 years and older

Functional Age

approach defining age based on performance rather than chronological age

Biological Age

the age of an individual’s bodily systems

Psychological Age

the performance that an individual achieves on measures of such qualities as reaction time, memory, learning ability, and intelligence

Subjective Age

the age a person feels

Social Age

calculated by evaluating where people are compared to the “typical” ages expected for people to be when they occupy certain positions in life

Personal Aging

changes that occur within the individual and reflect the influence of time’s passage on the body’s structures and functions

Normative Age-Graded Influences

influences that lead people to choose experiences that their culture and historical period attach to certain ages or points in their life span

Normative History-Graded Influences

events that occur to everyone within a certain culture or geopolitical unit (regardless of age)

Non-normative Influences

the random idiosyncratic events that occur throughout life

Gender

a social construction whereby a society or culture assigns certain tendencies or behaviors the labels of masculine or feminine

Race

a social factor indexed entirely by an individual’s self-report and used to describe the composition of a population

Ethnicity

social factor represented in the US Census as an individual’s identification as hispanic or latino, or not hispanic or latino

Diversity Index

the likelihood that two people chosen at random will be of different racial and ethnic groups

Socioeconomic status (SES)

or “social class”, reflects people’s positions in the educational and occupational ranks of a society

Whitehall ll

a survey of a large sample of British adults focusing on the relationships among health, social class, and occupation. found the importance of job level for health and mortality.

Gini Coefficient

an index of income inequality in a given economy

Religion

an individual’s identification with an organized belief system. form a set of social structures that transcend nationality and are partly connected w/ race and ethnicity. provides many people with a source of coping strategies, social support in times of crisis, and systematic basis for interpreting life experiences. different from spirituality

Spirituality

the set of beliefs that an individual holds about such areas as the afterlife, a sense of meaning in life, and feelings of connection to others. spirituality has a relationship with psychology

Life Expectancy

the avg. # of years of life remaining to people born w/in a similar period of time

Life Span

the max. length of life for a given species