HDFS 312 Final Exam

Define standard emotions.

Short lived, situation specific, adaptive and functional.

Define mental health disorders.

Persistent and chronic, disrupts daily functioning, and disproportionate to the situation

Positive emotions across adulthood.

Increase or remain stable with age.

Negative emotions across adulthood.

Decrease with age

Emotional Well-Being Across Adulthood exceptions.

Chronic illness, cognitive decline, bereavement, and long term interpersonal conflict.

What is socioemotional selectivity theory?

As perceived future time becomes limited, people prioritize: emotionally meaningful relationships and present focused goals.

What do younger adults prioritize?

Knowledge seeking and exploration of goals.

What do older adults prioritize?

Emotional regulation and the meaning of life. Well-being improves as you age.

What is future time perspective?

How much time individuals believe they have left. This shapes motivation, goals and emotional priorities. Tends to shrink with age as there are shifts in lifetime goals.

What is the paradox of happiness?

When you actively pursue happiness, it can undermine it. Older adults are happier because they adjust goals rather than chase happiness directly.

What is the positivity effect in older adults?

They prefer positive over negative stimuli and tend to have better memory for positive information. Requires cognitive control as aging progresses.

Why do younger adults have a lower positivity effect?

Younger adults are more attentive to negative or threatening information.

What is affective reactivity?

Emotional response to stress.

What is emotional regulation?

The ability to manage emotional responses.

Emotional reactivity across the lifespan.

Older adults → less reactive to daily hassles but more reactive to interpersonal stress. This is because relationships are more emotionally meaningful as you age.

Emotion regulation across the lifespan.

Generally improves with age until very late adulthood. Older adults tend to avoid unnecessary stress and use reappraisal strategies.

Strength and Vulnerability Integration Model (SAVI)

Strengths: better emotional regulation and experience

Vulnerabilities: chronic stress and health related physiological decline

Well-being is high unless stress is prolonged and unavoidable.

Socioemotional Development and Health (SEDH) Study

Better emotion regulation → better physical health

Chronic stress negates emotional advantages

What is emotional perception?

Declines in recognizing emotions from faces alone. Performance improves with context, body language, and familiar cues.

ABC’s of personality

Affect, behavior, and cognition. These traits are relatively stable and show gradual change over time.

O.C.E.A.N

Openness- creativity and curiosity

Conscientiousness- organization and reliability

Extraversion- sociability and assertiveness

Agreeableness- kindness and cooperation

Neuroticism- emotional instability

What is rank order stability?

Same relative position compared to others. Ex: the most extroverted person stays the most extroverted.

What is mean-level change?

Average trait level changes over time. Conscientiousness grows with age and neuroticism declines with age.

Define social networks.

The number of social ties. With age, network size declines and relationship quality improves.

What is a social convoy?

Close, stable relationships over time.

The prevalence of mental disorders ________ with older age.

Decreases

What is not a symptom of depression?

Delusions

What are two main components of diathesis stress models that predict a person’s risk for developing a mental health issue?

Pre-existing vulnerabilities and current stressors

A therapist is working with a client, who recently experienced a failure at work. The client feels this work failure means they will always mess up at work. Which internal working model(s) should the therapist focus on with the client?

Stable

True or false: having feelings of anxiety means one has an anxiety disorder.

False

What do we know about aging and emotions?

Older adults have different emotional goals that may help them maintain higher emotional well-being, older adults use different strategies to regulate their emotions compared to younger adult adults, and older adults may regulate their emotions, more effectively in response to interpersonal stressors compared to younger adults.

The strength and vulnerability integration model states that to predict how _________ changes with age, we need to know _________.

Emotional well-being; how the advantages and disadvantages of aging are balanced.

Janice is often punctual and prepared for meetings. She is also manipulative and self-absorbed.. Janice is probably high on ________ and low on ________.

Conscientiousness; agreeableness.

Terrence was the class clown. He was always the fun sociable one. At his 20 year class reunion everyone commented on how, as an influencer, he still seems to be the most outgoing person in his class cohort even though with older age, he seems to have mellowed out a little bit. This is an example of:

Rank order stability.

What is homogamy?

Similarity between partners

Narcissism _________ across adulthood.

Decreases

Cohabitation across aging.

Increases over time and outcomes depend on age, education, and intent.

Marital satisfaction follows a _______ pattern across adulthood.

U-shaped. Peaks at some points and dips in others.

What is the strongest predictor of divorce?

Contempt.

Define Gottman’s Four Horsemen.

Criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling.

What is true about parenting in the United States?

People are waiting longer to have children, people are having fewer children, and there are more child free couples and single parents than in previous generations.

How much money do women make relative to men?

~80% (women make 20% less than men)

What evidence would likely support the idea of a midlife crisis?

Changes in marital satisfaction across adulthood.

What is true about the concept of a midlife crisis?

Only about 10 to 12% of middle-aged adults experience it.

Manuel, 48 years old, is an avid runner, but he has been feeling a lot of pain in his knees lately. Although he used to run a 10k effortlessly without much training., he now trains every other day to keep up his conditioning. This is an example of:

Optimization.

Why do women have more challenges saving enough money for retirement relative to men?

Women don’t earn as much as men, women live longer than men, and women are more likely than men to exit and re-enter the workforce disrupting their work benefits.

Which of the following is associated with aging in place?

More freedom.

Who is more likely to make it to their hundredth birthday? Lauren, who is one year old or Jose who is 95 years old?

Lauren

Amelia, who is 86 years old, has lived with illness and disability for much of her adult life and has required caregiver support. In contrast, Thuy who is 82 years old, was diagnosed with arthritis when she was 79 years old. Thuy has greater ________ and ________ compared to Amelia.

Healthspan; compression of morbidity.

What is formal caregiving?

Caregiving by paid professionals in the field.

What is informal caregiving?

Caregiving provided by friends or family.

What is true about caregiving?

Women are more likely to become caregivers. Some outcomes include stress and burnout, but also provides meaning and purpose to some.

What is the sandwich generation?

Middle aged individuals who are caregivers for not only their children but also to their aging parents. The feeling of being sandwiched between the demands of both generations.

Who does more unpaid household labor?

Women; social comparison group affects perception of fairness.

Define job satisfaction.

Predictors of job satisfaction include autonomy, meaning, and work life balance. White collar jobs tend to have a higher satisfaction rate.

What is burnout?

Exhaustion, cynicism, and diminished sense of accomplishment coming from a prolonged state of stress.

What is the glass ceiling?

Invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from reaching the top in the workplace.

What is the glass cliff?

Women are promoted to leadership roles during a crisis. Can lead to disaster or potential failure because of lack of preparedness.

What is imposter syndrome?

Feeling undeserving of accolades or feeling like you don’t belong there.

What is the SOC model?

Refers to selection, optimization, and compensation. People adapt to aging by choosing goals, optimizing resources, and compensating for losses.

What is the lifespan theory of control?

Primary control- changing the world to fit you

Secondary control- changing yourself to fit the world

As you age, you shift towards secondary control.

What is the gain versus loss ratio?

The pain one feels after losing something is often time stronger than feeling the pleasure of gaining something.

What are person-environment interactions?

Tension between individual needs and institutional rules affects adaptation. Poor PE fit → reduced autonomy and satisfaction

What is the stress and coping framework?

Stress is a dynamic interaction where we appraise a situation and assess our ability to handle it leading to coping strategies like problem focused or emotion focused.

Define resilience.

The ability to adapt and bounce back from adversity and stress as well as trauma.

What is Salutogenesis?

A health theory that focuses on the origins of health rather than disease. Places a emphasis on strengths that will improve your health as you age.

What is compression of morbidity?

The idea that disability and illness are concentrated into a shorter period at the end of life, allowing people to live more years in relatively good health.

What are factors of online dating?

Expands the partner pool and alters relationship trajectories.

What is “gray divorce”?

The trend of older couples divorcing after long marriages. There is a rise in gray divorces.

Define assisted living.

Provides help with routine activities, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, housekeeping, laundry, meal preparation, and managing medications in a controlled environment.

Define what a dementia village is.

A specialized secure community designed to look and feel like a normal town, providing a safe environment for people with dementia to live with greater autonomy, dignity and engagement rather than in a traditional institution.

What is anhedonia?

Loss of pleasure and enjoyment of activities once found enjoyable.

What is cognitive behavioral therapy?

Talk therapy that helps individuals become aware of unhelpful, thinking patterns, and change their behavior to cope with various problems.

__________ have reduced the average life expectancy, especially for middle aged white men without a college degree in the United States.

Deaths of Despair (rising number of deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism)

People who are longer lived have greater ________

Longevity

Even moderate drinking and later adulthood can be problematic due to drug interactions, slower metabolism of alcohol, and _____________.

Lower alcohol tolerance

___________ is a senior housing facility that represents the highest level of care.

Skilled nursing care (nursing homes)

Eudaimonic well-being represents deeper, more meaningful levels of well-being. _________ refers to short term pleasant emotional states.

Hedonic well-being.

According to early models of ____________, avoiding illness or disability is necessary. Researchers have criticized this definition and encourage focus focusing on Salutogenesis, or positive aspects of healthy aging.

Successful aging.

_____________ can delay the onset of disability by about 16 years.

Physical activity

Even though life satisfaction shows a dip during this life stage, there is not much evidence of a universal ___________.

Midlife crisis.

Personal control is important for helping people stay active in their own development. In skilled nursing facilities, ___________ can lead to older adults depending more on others for help.

Excessive caregiving.

What is the average woman’s age when she gives birth to her first child?

25.5 years

Issues Middle Aged Adults Face When Juggling Family & Work Responsibilities

Time pressure and role strain, caregiving responsibilities, lack of flexibility, long work hours, limited family-friendly workplace policies, risk of burnout or anxiety/depressive symptoms, gender inequality, financial stress, reduced time for self care

When is a person’s well-being the lowest in adulthood?

Middle adulthood (on average)

How is narcissism changing across cohorts?

Narcissism appears to be higher in more recent birth cohorts compared to earlier generations. These changes are believed to reflect cultural shifts, emphasizing individualism and self promotion rather than changes due to age itself.

How do daily or life events affect personality changes?

Major life events, such as marriage, parenthood, retirement, or illness can lead to gradual personality changes by altering responsibilities, stress levels, and social roles over time.

What outcomes are associated with increases in cohabitation?

Cohabitation is associated with varied outcomes depending on age, education and intentions. When cohabitation is viewed as a step toward marriage, outcomes tend to be more positive; when it is less intentional, relationship stability may be lower.

What gender differences exist in relationship satisfaction related to adults?

Women often report lower relationship satisfaction than men prior to divorce, which may help explain why women are more likely to initiate divorce.

What difference in job satisfaction between white collar and blue collar jobs?

Why color jobs generally provide greater autonomy flexibility, leading to higher job satisfaction compared to blue-collar jobs, which often involve more physical strain and less control.

What outcomes are associated with better personal control?

Higher personal control as associated with better health, emotional well-being, and greater engagement in life.

Is being older at the birth of your children beneficial?

Yes, this is related to better parenting.

What is a social comparison group?

A group of individuals that use a reference point to evaluate their own behaviors, contributions, outcomes, or satisfaction. Rather than comparing themselves to an objective standard people assess fairness or adequacy by comparing themselves to people who are similar to them.

How is a social comparison group relevant to household labor?

Women often compare their partners household contributions to: other men their age, other couples in their social network, and if a partner does more than a comparison group, their contribution may be viewed as fair, even if the division is unequal.