Life-Span Development: Chapters 15, 16, and 17 Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development in middle adulthood and late adulthood from Chapters 15, 16, and 17 of Santrock's Life-Span Development (19th Edition).

Middle Adulthood

The developmental period occurring from approximately $40$ to $45$ years of age to $60$ to $65$ years of age, characterized by declining physical skills, increasing responsibility, heightened awareness of the young-old polarity, and the balancing of biological and sociocultural gains and losses.

Sarcopenia

An age-related loss of muscle mass and muscle strength that occurs during middle and late adulthood.

Accommodation of the Eye

The eye's ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina, which declines most sharply between the ages of $40$ and $59$, causing difficulty in viewing close objects.

Metabolic Syndrome

A condition characterized by hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance that frequently leads to the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Chronic Disorders

Health conditions characterized by a slow onset and a long duration; rare in early adulthood, they become widespread in middle age (led by arthritis, followed by hypertension) and late adulthood.

Climacteric

The midlife transition experienced by both women and men during which biological fertility declines.

Menopause

The complete cessation of a woman's menstrual periods, typically occurring in the late forties or early fifties, caused by declining estrogen production by the ovaries.

Perimenopause

The transitional period from normal menstrual periods to no menstrual periods at all, which can last up to $10$ years.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

A medical treatment designed to augment declining levels of ovarian reproductive hormones through estrogen and progestin to relieve menopausal symptoms, though associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Crystallized Intelligence

An individual's accumulated information and verbal skills, which according to John Horn continues to increase throughout middle adulthood.

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to reason abstractly and manipulate novel information, which peaks earlier in life and steadily declines from middle adulthood onward.

Seattle Longitudinal Study

An extensive longitudinal investigation of adult intellectual abilities initiated by K. Warner Schaie, assessing participants at seven-year intervals from $1956$ to $2012$ across six major mental abilities.

Working Memory

The mental workbench where individuals manipulate and assemble information; Denise Park argues its capacity becomes more limited in middle adulthood due to information overload.

Leisure

The pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing, serving as a positive buffer against stress and retirement transition.

Religiousness

The degree to which an individual is affiliated with an organized religion through participation in prescribed rituals, adherence to beliefs, and involvement in a community of believers.

Spirituality

The experiential practice of connecting with something beyond oneself in a transcendent manner and living in a way that benefits others and society.

Generativity

Erikson's concept encompassing adults' desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation, developed through biological, parental, work, or cultural means.

Stagnation

The feeling that develops when an individual senses that they have done little or nothing of enduring value for the next generation, representing the negative pole of Erikson's seventh developmental stage.

Levinson's Four Midlife Conflicts

Four major polarities identified by Daniel Levinson that an adult must resolve during the transition to middle adulthood ($40$ to $45$ years): being young vs. old, destructive vs. constructive, masculine vs. feminine, and attached vs. separated.

Grant Study

A longitudinal study conducted by George Vaillant following undergraduate men into their late forties and beyond, concluding that midlife crises are experienced by only a minority of adults.

Contemporary Life-Events Approach

A perspective stating that the developmental effect of a life event depends not only on the event itself, but also on mediating variables, life-stage context, sociohistorical context, and cognitive appraisal and coping strategies.

Fight-or-Flight Response

The stress pattern characteristic of men, in which they are more likely to react by becoming aggressive, withdrawing socially, or consuming alcohol.

Tend-and-Befriend Pattern

The stress response characteristic of women, in which they are more likely to seek social alliances, mutual support, and communal connections.

Big Five Factors of Personality

The five broad supertraits represented by the acronym OCEAN: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (emotional stability).

Cumulative Personality Model

The theory stating that with time and age, individuals become more adept at interacting with their environment in ways that foster stability and social maturity.

Empty-Nest Syndrome

A decrease in marital satisfaction experienced by parents after their children leave the family home.

Sandwich Generation

A term describing middle-aged adults squeezed by simultaneous caregiving and financial responsibilities for their adolescent/young adult children and their aging parents.

Life Span

The maximum biological limit of years an individual of a species can live, estimated at approximately $120$ to $125$ years for human beings.

Life Expectancy

The statistical number of years the average person born in a specific cohort year will probably live ($78.8$ years in the U.S. in $2019$, falling to $77.8$ in $2020$).

Latino Health Paradox

The epidemiological phenomenon whereby Latinos in the United States have a longer life expectancy than non-Latino Whites despite possessing lower average levels of income and education.

Centenarians

Individuals who have reached $100$ years of age or older; individuals living to $110$ years or older are designated as supercentenarians.

Evolutionary Theory of Aging

The view that natural selection has not eliminated harmful conditions and nonadaptive traits in older adults because evolutionary fitness benefits operate through reproductive success, which declines with age.

Cellular Clock Theory

Leonard Hayflick's theory that human cells can undergo a maximum of approximately $75$ to $80$ divisions before becoming unable to divide further.

Telomeres

Protective repetitive DNA sequences that cap the ends of chromosomes and become progressively shorter with each successive cell division.

Free-Radical Theory

A biological theory stating that aging occurs because normal cellular metabolism produces unstable oxygen molecules that ricochet through the cell, causing damage to DNA and cellular structures.

Mitochondrial Theory

A biological theory positing that aging is caused by the progressive decay and oxidative damage occurring within mitochondria, undermining cellular energy production.

Sirtuins

A family of proteins linked to longevity, cellular regulation, and DNA repair, notably including SIRT 1.

mTOR Pathway

A central cellular signaling pathway that regulates cell growth, protein synthesis, metabolism, and life-span determination.

Hormonal Stress Theory

The theory that aging in the body's hormonal system causes elevated hormone levels to persist longer during stress, decreasing overall stress resistance and raising susceptibility to disease.

Allostatic Load

The cumulative physiological wear and tear on body systems resulting from chronic neuroendocrine activation in response to persistent stressors.

Neurogenesis

The biological process of generating new functional neurons in the brain, which can occur in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb of older adults.

Delateralization

The compensatory decrease in hemispheric lateralization observed in older adults, who often recruit both prefrontal hemispheres during cognitive tasks rather than just one.

Cataracts

An age-related visual impairment characterized by a thickening and clouding of the lens of the eye, causing vision to become opaque, distorted, and blurry.

Glaucoma

An ocular disease caused by fluid buildup in the eye that increases intraocular pressure and causes progressive damage to the optic nerve.

Macular Degeneration

A degenerative disease of the retina's macula that destroys central vision while preserving peripheral visual ability.

Osteoporosis

A severe age-related loss of bone tissue that renders bones fragile and porous, causing stooped posture and increasing vulnerability to fractures, especially in women.

Late-Onset Alcoholism

The onset of alcohol abuse after age $65$, often triggered by severe life stressors such as loneliness, the loss of a spouse, or the onset of a disabling medical illness.

Perceived Control in Nursing Home Residents

The psychological feeling of personal autonomy and responsibility demonstrated by Judith Rodin and Ellen Langer to significantly cut $18$-month mortality rates among nursing home residents compared to dependent residents.