Chapter 14

Question 1

Activity theory

Answer 1

Considers the continuation of activities performed during middle age as necessary for successful aging.

Question 2

ageism

Answer 2

Discrimination against people because of increasing age.

Question 3

continuity theory

Answer 3

Suggests that personality remains stable and behavior becomes more predictable as people age.

Question 4

delirium

Answer 4

Acute confusional state, which is potentially a reversible cognitive impairment that often has a physiological cause.

Question 5

dementia

Answer 5

Generalized impairment of intellectual functioning that interferes with social and occupational functioning. Includes Alzherimer’s, Lewy body disease, frontal-temporal dementia and vascular dementia.

Question 6

depression

Answer 6

Most common, yet most undetected and untreated, impairment in older adulthood.

Question 7

developmental theories

Answer 7

Same as continuity theory.

Question 8

disengagement theory

Answer 8

The oldest psychosocial theory that states that aging individuals withdraw from customary roles and engage in more introspective, self-focused activities.

Question 9

gerotranscendence

Answer 9

A theory that proposes that the older adult expeirnces a shift in perspective with age. A person moves from a materialistic and national view of the world to a more cosmic and transcendent one causing an increase in overall life satisfaction.

Question 10

gerontological nursing

Answer 10

Requires creative approaches for maximizing the potential for older adults.

Question 11

gerontology

Answer 11

Study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging.

Question 12

nonstochastic theroies

Answer 12

Biological theory that views aging as the result of genetically programmed physiological mechanisms within the body that control the process of aging.

Question 13

reality orientation

Answer 13

A communication technique that makes an older adult more aware of time, place, and person. Purposes include restoring a sense of reality, improving the level of awareness, promoting socialization, elevating independent functioning, and minimizing confusion, disorientation and physical regression.

Question 14

reminiscence

Answer 14

Recalling the past. Uses the recollection of past to bring meaning and understanding to present and resolve current conflicts.

Question 15

stochastic theories

Answer 15

Biological theory that views aging as the result of random cellular damage that occurs over time.

Question 16

validation therapy

Answer 16

An alternative approach to communication with a confused older adult. Validation therapy accepts the description of time and place as stated by the confused older adult.