Intro to Lifespan Perspective

Why should we study ageing?

Development is a lifelong process

What is the lifespan perspective?

Emphasises the fuller view of an individual throughout all of life and the changes that come with

How does socioemotional processing change with age?

Older adults tend to report positive relationships with fewer close social partners and are disproportionately oriented toward positive stimuli compared to younger adults

What is stereotype threat?

A phenomenon whereby people perform worse on a task because they’re worried about confirming a negative stereotype about a group they belong to

What did Lamont et al. (2015) find using memory tasks and the priming effect?

Stereotype threat affected people’s performance negatively

What did Levy et al. (2009, 2015) find regarding attitudes towards ageing and health issues?

People who had a positive view on ageing had less heart attacks

What did Levy et al. (2009, 2015) find regarding views on ageing and the brain?

Hippocampi volume decreased significantly more over the years in people who had a negative view on ageing

How many people will be aged 60 or older by 2050?

2 billion

What is ontogenesis?

The development of an individual organism over its lifetime

What is lifelong process? (Baltes, 1987)

No age period holds supremacy in regulating the nature of development

What is multidirectionality? (Baltes, 1987, 1999)

Even within a single domain of human experience, development can involve changes in different directions

What are gains and losses in ageing?

A more accurate way of perceiving ageing rather than just all losses

What is plasticity?

How far an ability can be modified

What is historical context in ageing?

Development is influenced by the sociocultural conditions in a given historical period, and how those conditions change over time

What is contextualism?

Individual development is shaped by a complex interaction between three categories of influence, age & history-graded factors + nonnormative factors

What are age-graded factors?

Factors that are predictable and universal for most people at a particular age

What are history graded factors?

Factors that affect a large group of people at the same time, because they experience the same historical or social event

What are non-nonnormative factors?

Unique or atypical events that affect one individual’s development

What is multidisciplinary in the context of ageing?

In addition to informing psychological research, human development illuminates and informs anthropology, biology, sociology, economics, and policy

How do social networks change with age?

Decrease in size and increase in social pruning

What is the value of positive social networks with age?

Better cognitive function, reduced signs of dementia, better stroke recovery & lower risk of morbdity/mortality

How do the quality of social relationships for older people compare with younger adults?

More positive emotions with greater satisfaction

What is the ageing paradox?

Despite declines in physical and cognitive health, older adults often report positive relationships & well-being

How are social preferences affected by age? (Fung et al., 1999)

When their time horizons were expanded, older adults shift their typical preference for familiar social partners

Whereas limited time horizons shifted both age groups toward preferring familiar social partners

What is socioemotional selectivity theory? (Carstensen, 1995)

Perceived constraints on time horizons motivate people to optimise emotionally meaningful experiences in the present

How is positivity affected by ageing? (Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998)

Positive affect tends to increase and negative affect tends to decrease as we grow older

How did older people perform in the Dot Probe Task? (Mather & Carstensen, 2003)

Older adults are faster to attend to positive stimuli and slower to attend to negative stimuli.

How did older people perform when emotional regulation was tested? (Luong & Charles, 2014)

Appraised the task and the confederate more positively

Endorsed goals to perform well on the problem-solving task

Less likely to endorse goals to change their partner’s opinions

What is Gerontology?

The scientific study of aging from maturity through old age.

What are the 4 features of the life-span perspective?

Multidirectionality, plasticity, historical context, and multiple causation.

What is Selective Optimisation with Compensation?

A strategy where people select key abilities, optimize them, and compensate for declines.

What are the 3 types of ageing?

• Primary aging (normal changes)

• Secondary aging (disease/lifestyle-related)

• Tertiary aging (rapid decline before death)