(11) Adult Development

Question 1

What is physical development like in early adulthood?

Answer 1

• Golden age of physical fitness:
• Peak od muscular strength
• Manual dexterity most efficient
• Senses at their sharpest
• Healthiest of all age groups
• Death primarily accidental (e.g. traffic accidents)

Question 2

What is intellectual development like in early adulthood?

Answer 2

Longitudinal studies show general intelligence relatively stable until after 60

Question 3

What is Crystallized intelligence?

Answer 3

Skills, knowledge

Question 4

What is Fluid intelligence?

Answer 4

abstract thinking, reasoning

Question 5

What is physical development like in middle adulthood?

Answer 5

• Slight (often undetectable) deterioration in physical function
• Loss of reserve capacity
• Sense become less acute:
• Presbyopia (sight, close vision bad)
• Hearing loss
• Taste

Question 6

What is intellectual development like in middle adulthood?

Answer 6

• Increase in crystallised, decrease in fluid, little change in general measures of intelligence
• 40-50-year olds are best at practical problem-solving (Denney & Palmer, 1981)

Question 7

What is physical development like in late adulthood?

Answer 7

• Continuing, accelerated deterioration of physical capabilities
• But, wide variation in both the extent and the nature of physical deterioration

Question 8

What areas can life expectancy change?

Answer 8

• Life expectancy increasing in almost all societies, but difference in:
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Social class

Question 9

What is Damage based theory?

Answer 9

body is worn out by use of the environment

Question 10

What is Primary ageing?

Answer 10

gradual deterioration (can’t slow down)

Question 11

What is Secondary ageing?

Answer 11

disease, abuse, illness etc (can slow down)

Question 12

What is intellectual development like in late adulthood?

Answer 12

• Drop in fluid intelligence and problem-solving ability
• But very wide variation, many ‘mentally active’ octogenarians
• Notable declines in memory and information processing abilities

Question 13

What is Biological hypotheses?

Answer 13

neurological deterioration in the brain

Question 14

What is Processing hypotheses?

Answer 14

less efficient at processing, encoding, binding etc (longer to retrieve)

Question 15

What Contextual consideration need to be noted when looking at late adulthood memory?

Answer 15

e.g. SES and IQ predict memory performance

Question 16

What is dementia?

Answer 16

A loss of cognitive function severe enough to interfere with normal daily activities and social relationships

Question 17

What causes dementia

Answer 17

Caused by diseases affecting the CNS including cardiovascular disorders

Question 18

What are early signs of dementia?

Answer 18

loss of memory for recent events or familiar tasks (short term, not long term)

Question 19

What happens in later stages of dementia?

Answer 19

changes in personality, cannot perform basic everyday functions

Question 20

What six domains characterizes dementia?

Answer 20

Characterised by cognitive impairment in six domains: attention, executive function, learning and memory, language, perceptual-motor function, social cognition

Question 21

How are you diagnosed with dementia?

Answer 21

• Evidence of significant decline in one or more cognitive domain
• Cognitive deficits must be sufficient to interfere with independence in everyday life

Question 22

How can Protein build-up cause Alzheimer?

Answer 22

plaques and tangles, loss of connections between neurons

Question 23

How can Genetic causes cause Alzheimer?

Answer 23

only 50% of early onset and 40% of late onset explained by genetic factors

Question 24

How can Environmental factors cause Alzheimer?

Answer 24

study of 3700 men born in Japan 1900-1919 but lived in Honolulu during adulthood (White et al, 1996) 7-10% of Japanese in Honolulu

Question 25

What can help alzheimers?

Answer 25

• Drugs
• Cognitive stimulation
• Life story work (reflecting on life)

Question 26

What is an adult Secure attachment?

Answer 26

more satisfactory and stable long-term relationships

Question 27

What is an adult Avoidant attachment?

Answer 27

distance themselves and close off from potentially rewarding relationships

Question 28

What is an adult Anxious attachment?

Answer 28

clingy, fear of abandonment and worry about negative feelings

Question 29

Can attachment be categorised?

Answer 29

• Others argue that adult attachment does not fall into categories – instead we should have a two-dimensional model (Fraley et al, 2000)
• Avoidance – anxiety
• More precise and valid to use dimensions

Question 30

What components are there in the biomedical theory?

Answer 30

• Biomedical theories: Rowe and Kahn (1998) note three components:
  1. Absence of disease
  2. Maintenance of physical and cognitive functioning
  3. Active engagement with life
• But is a disease-free older age realistic?

Question 31

What is the psychosocial theory of successful ageing?

Answer 31

• Focus on life satisfaction, social participation and overall well-being
• Happiness is maintained in older people

Question 32

What is successful ageing defined as?

Answer 32

-They defined successful ageing as having good health and functioning, in addition to other factors

Question 33

What % of adults say theyre ageing successfully?

Answer 33

75%