Middle Adulthood

Question 1

Ageing

Answer 1

• Primary ageing
  – Normal age-related changes
• Secondary ageing
  – Effects of illness or disease
  – More variable
• Physical functioning
  – Peaks in early adulthood, plateaus, then starts to decline
  (about 50)
  – Organ reserve first to decline

Question 2

Physical changes

Answer 2

• Strength
• Appearance
  ◦ Skin, hair colour, body build
• Cardio-vascular system
• Respiratory system
• Sensory system
  ◦ Vision and hearing loss gradual
  ◦ Taste and smell slowly decrease
• Age-related physical changes

Question 3

Health and health-compromising
behaviours

Answer 3

• Greater focus on maintaining health in middle-age
  ◦ Body monitoring
• Both morbidity and mortality rates increase
• Australian risk behaviours according to the Australian Health
  Survey 2014–15 (abs, 2015)
  ◦ 14.5% smokers
  ◦ 17% risky alcohol consumption
  ◦ 63% overweight or obese
• Health promoting behaviours have physical and
  psychosocial benefits

Question 4

Stress Management

Answer 4

• Stress management helps limit age-related illness
• Two general strategies:
• Problem-centred coping
• Emotion-centred coping
  Exercise helps depression and anxiety by:
  o releases ‘feel good’ chemicals (neurotransmitters, endorphins and serotonin
  o reduces immune system chemicals
  o increases body temperature
  o boosts self confidence
  o takes mind off of worries
  o social interaction

Question 5

Does intelligence decline with age?

Answer 5

Early studies
Cross-sectional studies
* Affected by cohort differences
* Overestimated decline

Longitudinal studies
* Affected by biased attrition

Sequential studies
* Found no uniform pattern of change with age
across different abilities

Question 6

Protective Factors

Answer 6

Schaie (1994) identified seven factors that reduce risk of
cognitive decline:
* Absence of Chronic Disease
* Favourable Demographic Circumstances
* Intellectually Stimulating Activities
* Flexible Personality Style at Midlife
* Spouse with High Cognitive Function
* High Processing Speed
* Satisfaction with Life

Question 7

Crystallised intelligence

Answer 7

• Learned processes, stored responses
• Primary abilities
• Remain relatively stable with age

Question 8

Fluid intelligence

Answer 8

• Processing new information and reasoning ability
• Relates to neurological development
• Declines from early adulthood

Question 9

Information Processing

Answer 9

• Loss of speed of processing
• Attention and Inhibition
• Memory
• Practical problem-solving increased due to gains in
  expertise
• Neural Network View
• Breaks in the neural network, brain adapts but less
  efficient
• Information- Loss View
  experience greater loss of information
• Creativity
• Less about self expression and more altruistic goals

Question 10

Neuroplasticity in middle age

Answer 10

• Whether middle-age brains ‘have it’ is a hot
  topic
• View of decreasing cognitive ability based on
  idea of neurons inability to be replaced
• Animal testing
• Researchers looking for ways to promote
  neuroplasticity

Question 11

Practical Intelligence

Answer 11

• Application of intellectual skills to everyday
  situations
• Tested by solving real-world problems rather
  than abstract tasks
• Practical abilities increase with age, may
  improve in middle age
• Interpersonal problem-solving skills similar
  across adult age groups

Question 12

Expertise

Answer 12

• Specialised experience and knowledge in specific domain
• Experience and expertise compensate for declining abilities
• Compensatory mechanisms are domain-specific
• Most intellectual functions are maintained through middle
  age and often beyond

Question 13

Psychosocial Development

Answer 13

• Popular images of mid-life
• Boring, monotonous
• Time of crisis
• Alternative perspective
• Prime of life
• Self-descriptions most positive in 60s

Question 14

Perceptions of age

Answer 14

• More flexibility around what constitutes midlife
  than in the past
• Perceptions of life stages vary by SES, work
  role, age and gender
• Lower SES and negative health status
  associated with an older age identity
• Social markers may be important in signalling
  mid-life

Question 15

Conceptual frameworks – Carl
Jung (1933)

Answer 15

• Psyche seen as collection of conflicts
• Collective vs. personal unconscious
• Unconscious vs. conscious
• Anima - primitive female force vs. animus – primitive male
  force
• Shadow
• Unifying force of self not developed until middle age
• Process of individuation
• Self takes over the role of the ego

Question 16

Erikson

Answer 16

• Generativity versus stagnation
• Personal legacy
• Most important in middle age
• Link between generativity and wellbeing stronger for
  women than men
• Generative acts
• Agentic
• Communal
• Limited application to lesbian women

Question 17

Normative-crisis models

Answer 17

• Gould’s (1978) UCLA study
  ◦ Significant middle adult transformation
• Vaillant’s (1977) Harvard Grant study
  ◦ Invincibility gives way to limitations
• Levinson’s (1978) Yale study
  ◦ Emphasis moves from past to future
  ◦ Dream of adult accomplishment revised
• Women experience role change rather than crisis

Question 18

Personality

Answer 18

• Work on personality traits has been used to debunk the
  myth of the midlife crisis
• Costa and McCrae (1997) argued that roles may change
  with age but not personality – life events may cause
  changes in social roles but not in the psychology of the
  individual
• Traits can be categorised into five broad dimensions:
  neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experiences,
  agreeableness, conscientiousness

Question 19

Stability of traits

Answer 19

• Increasing with age:
  ◦ Conscientiousness, agreeableness, dominance, emotional
  stability
• Decreasing in old age:
  ◦ Openness to experience
• Lifespan continuity and change
  ◦ Continuity – genes
  ◦ Change – normative and non-normative events

Question 20

Normative perspective: Helson

Answer 20

• Social clock
  ◦ Age-related personal goals and expectations
  ◦ More variation than previously
• Normative events
  ◦ Age-marked or history-marked
• Non-normative events
  ◦ Largely unpredictable
  ◦ May have positive or negative impact

Question 21

Relationships

Answer 21

• Marriage and Divorce
• Feminization of poverty (single women are the
  majority of adult population living in poverty)
• Parent – Child
• Cultural variation for children’s independent
  living
• Parents that remain invested in their adult
  children’s wellbeing enhances midlife
  psychological well-being

Grandparenthood
o cultural variation in role of grandparent
o Increasingly grandparents have stepped into
the role of primary caregiver (out-of-home
care, poverty)

• Caring for aging parents
• ‘sandwich generation’
• Despite willingness can cause high levels
  of stress
• Emotional, physical and financial
• Social support is necessary for reducing
  caregiving stress

Friendships
o social networking
o selectivity in friendships, deeply valued
o Sibling friendships closer – more time;
often in response to life events

Question 22

Bereavement

Answer 22

• Parental death normative in midlife
• Feelings of loneliness, loss, guilt, uncertainty about life’s
  purpose
• Tasks of grieving
  ◦ Stocktaking
  ◦ Reminiscence
  ◦ Internalisation and passage
• May promote personal growth
  ◦ Maturity, autonomy, purpose, meaning

Question 23

Reactions to grief

Answer 23

• Initial grief reactions include psychological distress and
  reduced sense of personal mastery
• Adult children who have achieved mature relationships with their parents are less vulnerable when the parent dies than those who continue to look towards the parent for validation
  and support
• Middle-aged daughters more affected negatively than sons

Question 24

What are THE THREE TYPES OF AGEING?

Answer 24

1. Primary Ageing
   - Normal age-related changes
2. Secondary Ageing
   - Effects of illness or disease
   - More variable
3. Physical Functioning
   - Peaks in early adulthood, plateaus, then starts to decline (about 50)
   - Organ reserve first to decline