Lecture 11: Middle Adulthood

physical growth decline progresses

vision, hearing, body → skin, skeletal/muscular syste

women changes

decreased estrogen, shortened menstrual cycle days, end of menstruation/reproductive capacity (menopause)

mood disorders during menopause

Increased risk for mood disorders among women with histories of mood disorder

hormone replacement therapy (HRT) pros

counteracts hot-flashes, vaginal dryness, and some bone deterioration

hormone replacement therapy (HRT) risks

heart attack, stroke, blood clots, breast cancer, gallbladder disease, deaths from lung cancer

psychological reaction to menopause

Physical symptoms can trigger various emotional responses (e.g., loss of sexual appeal, sense of relief, free from worry about birth control)

reactions might be culturally specific

AA, mexican american, and highly educated women report less instability/moodiness

menopause is affected by

practices and cultural beliefs, not just hormones

men changes

decreased testosterone, quantities of semen/sperm, blood and changes to penile tissue

erectile dysfunction affectd by:

Disorders of nervous, circulatory, and endocrine systems, pelvic injury, anxiety/mood disorder, loss of interest in partner

sex

Slight decrease in frequency (among married couples); similar rates in early adulthood

sex in middle adulthood associated with

marital happiness and views toward relationship

illness

cancer and cardiovascular diseases (leading causes of death); unintentional injuries decrease

US death rates

exceed those of most other industrialized nations (poverty, lack of access to healthcare)

High mortality rates found among:

Low income ethnic minorities: inadequate healthcare and diet, accumulative stress, racism

Osteoporosis (bone density loss)

More prevalent among women (decrease of estrogen) but same rates between sexes by age 70

stress

Various challenges occur, requiring stamina (but previous stress experiences might facilitate coping)

problem focused coping

seeking solutions to the problem

Emotion-focused coping

caring for one’s emotional state

intellectual abilities accrued throughout life might help with problem solving:

accumulated knowledge, verbal fluency, reasoning, rapid analytic thinking

Increase in cognitive abilities in recent generations

Previous age cohorts showed a decrease (advances in education, technology, healthcare, environmental stimulation)

Crystallized intelligence maintains/increases:

accumulated knowledge, judgement, mastery of social conventions, vocab, and logical reasoning

Fluid intelligence tends to decline:

info processing speed, analytic speed, working memory (STM), and visual detection of relationships

is cognitive function (crystallized/fluid intelligence) at its peak in middle adulthood?

yes

decreases in cognition related to:

neural degeneration and cognitive processing

neural degeneration (neural network view)

neural pathways die/break, creating new neural networks around the breaks (taking longer)

cognitive processing (info-loss view)

info gets lost as it travels through the cognitive system requiring more time to find it

Decreased info processing speed

Affecting short term memory, reasoning, problem solving performance

Decreased selective attention (focus)

More challenging to: tune out irrelevant stimuli, multitask

skill

improves with practice/age

generativity

Greater involvement in social commitments; extended family, community based organizations, society

stagnation

self-indulgent lifestyles; Attaining life goals (marriage, career, children) but are self-serving and focus more on what they can get (than give)

Higher generative people:

well adjusted, low in anxiety/depression, high in autonomy, high self-acceptance, high life-satisfaction, socially successful

Experience generativity in different ways:

Parenting, mentoring, teaching, volunteering, other forms of productivity/creativity such as the arts

Time of self-evaluation/reflection:

Can manifest as a mid-life crisis (not so common) or Can manifest as a turning point (more common)

Shift in focus from self toward human relations/society

Preoccupation with passing the torch to younger generations (valliant)

Levinson’s 4 developmental tasks

young-old, destruction-creation, masculinity-femininity, engagement-separateness