Tier 2

Question 1

Neurological changes in aging, 2x primary and 2x secondary

Answer 1

Primary
- Loss of dendrites
- Reduced dopamine and serotonin production
Secondary
- Neurofibrillary tangles - tangles of dead dendrites
- Senile plaques - hard clusters of dead neurons

Question 2

Two structural changes in our brains during early adulthood

Answer 2

1. Synaptic density declines beyond pruning which happens in childhood and adolescence, leading to slower fire rates.
2. Two growth spurts in prefrontal cortex, one associated with abstract thinking and dual representation whilst the other is associated with response inhibition / integration of limbic system / using emotions in when making judgments instead of letting emotions cloud our judgement.

Question 3

Two structural changes in brain during middle adulthood

Answer 3

1. DENDRITIC loss leading to slower fire rates
2. Old model showed neural loss, but new research explains that neurons don’t die but instead go through changes in complex chemical processes.

Question 4

Two structural changes in brain during late adulthood

Answer 4

1. Even further continuation of dendritic loss, leading to slower fire rates
2. Cortex shrinks, more specifically prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum

Question 5

Two neurological changes across adulthood

Answer 5

1. Decrease in dopamine production and receptors
2. Decrease in serotonin receptors and transporters
3. Further decrease in serotonin production associated with Alzheimer’s
4. Decrease in glutamate which is associated with synaptic plasticity

Question 6

Two changes in the function of the brain across adulthood

Answer 6

1. Reduced blood flow during late adulthood, especially in frontal cortex, leading to less effective processing
2. Decline in working memory - especially spatial information and complex tasks, although this does not occur when it comes to verbal information
3. Slower processing speed because of degradation of myelin sheats and increase in amyloid-beta proteins

Question 7

Neurological changes in brain across adulthood, primary and secondary

Answer 7

Primary

• Decrease in dopamine production and receptors
• Decrease in serotonin receptors and transporters
• Dendritic density declines

Secondary

• Senile plaques, hard clusters of dead/dying neurons
• Neurofibrillary tangles, tangles of dead dendrites
• White matter hyperintensities, decrease in white matter due to events such as strokes

Question 8

Explain why changes in brain are described as heterogenous

Answer 8

Several factors such as sleep, weight, head trauma, education, resting and excercise time affecting:

1. Decline rate, hwo rapidly the changes happen
2. At which point the changes start occuring

Question 9

What is G composed of and how does it change across adulthood

Answer 9

G is general intelligence, composed of crystallized intelligence which is knowledge we learn across life, as well as fluid intelligence which is how to use the intelligence learned and how to be able to adapt and think flexibly.
Crystallized intelligence is increased with adulthood and fluid intelligence is decreased.

Question 10

What is the P-fit model, what evidence supports it? (29)

Answer 10

The P-fit model suggests that an integrated network located in the parietal and frontal lobes of the brain are associated with fluid intelligence, which has been shown with the help of neuroimaging.

Question 11

What is wisdom, how is it tied to intelligence, how does it change with age and what cultural differences are there.

Answer 11

Wisdom is superior knowledge, judgment and advice as well as knowledge of great depth. When used it is well-intended. There is personal knowledge which is
tied to oneself, having self-insight, life management, knowing how to cope with difficult situations. There is also general wisdom, tied to the world around oneself.
Life-insight, being able to give advice and support to others. Wisdom is not equal to intelligence but it is related to it, and it is the same with age.
Wisdom is gained by experiences which in turn are often gained by age, and these experiences are also associated with knowledge gained which increases
crystallized intelligence, in that way they are connected. As well as fluid intelligence which explains how well one uses their knowledge. Different cultures place different values on wisdom, for example in Japan wisdom is greatly respected and is deemed attractive.

Question 12

What is dual process of cognition, what is the “dual” and what types of cognitions fall in to the types

Answer 12

Dual process of cognition is the theory that our cognition is split into two categories, one automatic and one effortful. It is unknown whether these interfere with each other or not.
Automatic: Quick, emotion based, context based, unconscious and high capacity
Effortful: Slow, rule-based, conscious, controlled, limited capacity, requires working memory

Question 13

What age differences are seen in how adults use dual processes? What are the
implications for older adults’ cognitive functioning? How are the ways older adults
process information adaptive / maladaptive for them?

Answer 13

Older people use the automatic type in the dual process theory of cognition, which is more emotion based, quick, context based, unconscious and has a high capacity, whilst younger adults use both.
The implications for older adults cognitive functioning is that they have a more difficult time using their
active effortful cognitive processing and so they rely more on the automatic part. This is adaptive because of the use of a less effortful and quicker cognitive process but maladaptive because they might be more prone to thinking errors. The experience they possess may also lead to a better use of type 1 processing.

Question 14

Theoretical ideas about how middle-aged and older adults handle stereotypes of aging

Answer 14

Resilience theory - refers to how people confront and reject negative stereotypes, which leads to them having a more positive self-perception, which is common among older adults. Leads to being less susceptible to stereotypes
Labeling theory - refers to how people believe in the stereotypes which leads to them applying the stereotypes to themselves, older adults tend to do this more often when it comes to age-related stereotypes. Leads the them being more susceptible to stereotypes.

Question 15

Stereotype threat, how does it affect older peoples cognition?

Answer 15

Stereotype threat is when there are negative stereotypes which one is afraid to confirm. In older people this stereotype threat affects their cognitive
ability by worsening it, older people that believe in these negative stereotypes will perform worse at a task (despite their innate ability) in fear of
confirming it, whilst older adults who do not believe in the stereotypes will perform better. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 16

Hayflick limit

Answer 16

The hayflick limit explains how cells only have a limited amount of times they can divide themselves. This is related to the telomere which is shortened
by every division of the cell. Researchers estimate that a cell can divide itself from 40-60 times before running out of telomere, and they explain this by
looking at the cell of a fetus (when it can divide 40-60 times) and comparing it to that of an adult (which could only divide up to 20 times). I think humans
haven’t reached the hayflick limit, as when the telomere reaches a critical point the cell mutates and dies.

Question 17

What contributes to DNA mutations that are thought to limit the human life span?

Answer 17

Free radicals (highly reactive chemicals produced randomly in normal metabolism) damage cells. Researchers show that antioxidants which prevent the forming of free radicals decrease the risk of several age-related diseases.

Chronic stress increases the speed of which changes telomeres occur, leading to a shorter life span.

Question 18

What characterizes the transition to adulthood? Cultural differences in transition?

Answer 18

Occupation, comitting to partnership and parenthood, growing a sense of responsibility. Different cultures acknowledge this transition in different ways, some cultures military, other bar mitzvah.

Question 19

What are individual and social consequences of aging

Answer 19

Individual consequences: Reduced ability to take care of themselves leading to dependency of others. Visual loss leading to reduced mobility, severe visual loss leads to complete dependency of others. Memory can be affected by hearing loss since we get reminded of things with sounds, which leads to cognitive decline. Not hearing leads to feelings of shame. Olfactory and gustation changes lead to food tasting less and becoming boring, which can lead to malnutrition + loss of memory (because of smell) and not being able to smell burnt or bad food.

Social consequences are that interactions demand more of the person ENVIRONMENT which leads to need of accomodation to the person. Visual and hearing loss lead to Isolation, loneliness and depression due to these.

Question 20

What is the neural efficiency hypothesis and what evidence supports it?

Answer 20

The neural efficiency hypothesis explains that more intelligent people process information more efficiently and less activity in the brain is needed. Research has shown that higher intelligence leads to increased efficacy in neural processing but they don’t know how.

Question 21

Describe two aspects of emotional intelligence. How is emotional intelligence linked to cognitive intelligence (e.g., IQ)?

Answer 21

One aspect of emotional intelligence is trait-like.
Trait-like IE is how well a person understand their disposition of traits and abilities related to emotions and emotional processing.
Ability IE is how well a person can understand their own and others emotions, distinguishing between them and how appropriate their emotional processing is in response to different social contexts.

IE is linked to IQ in the way that both describe having knowledge and using that knowledge appropriately and adaptively. One can draw a parallel between fluid intelligence and ability IE, and crystallized intelligence with trait-like IE.

Question 22

Describe two age-related differences in impression formation. What do researchers suggest are behind these differences?

Answer 22

When there is a first impression which is negative followed by a second impression which is positive, older adults were more likely to stick to the negative first impression than younger adults. When there is a positive first impression and negative second impression, older people were more likely to revise their attitude from positive to negative than younger adults. Research explain that this is due to older people having a negativity bias, which is when negative information holds a higher value for an individual in comparison to positive information, and despite having been presented with positive information the negative bias is firm. The reason for this thought is because of older adults tendency to not change their negative impression of someone when presented with positive information as well as changing their impression of someone from positive to negative as soon as a negative impression is presented. Another explanation for this is that older people have more life experience and use a more rule-based judgement, and take in all the information they get, whilst younger people are more prone to taking in new information and are more concerned with situational consistency of new information.

Question 23

What is the correspondence bias? What age-related differences are there in this bias? What are some conditions that affect this difference?

Answer 23

The correspondence bias is the tendency to label attributes to a person based on their actions instead of perceiving their actions as a part of environmental
factors. Relying on dispositional explanations instead of situational explanations. Young adults do this in relation to older adults, perceiving their actions
as part of their dispositions when they can be fully explained by the older adults situations. Due to older adults life experiences they tend to have a more
dialetical approach, taking all information in to account on a higher level and explaining behaviours as part of dispositions and situations. However, in
more negative relationship situations, older adults tend to make correspondence biases more than younger adults, likely due to their negativity bias. This
is also the case if the relationship between the older adult and the person is a close relationship, older adults also do this if their strong beliefs are violated.

Question 24

What is the positivity effect? How does it relate to SOC models?

Answer 24

The positivy effect explains the tendency of older adults to focus on positive information whilst avoiding negative information when making judgements and
remembering events. Older people allocate less attention to negative information and vice versa when recalling autobiographical events. Younger adults allocate
equally. The reason for this redirection of focus of information is to increase ones’ emotional well being and happiness. It relates to the SOC model SAVI, strength and vulnerability integration model, which
explains how older adults have a harder time regualting emotional distress. The positivity effect lets older adults focus on positive emotions and information
in order to avoid negative emotions as they are more demanding.
It is also related to SOC since there is a reduction in resources which leads to them selecting certain situations in concordance with their
goals (well being, feeling good), optimizing potentiation of these gains by focusing on the positive information and by doing so compensating for the losses.

Question 25

What is personal control? What are two broad ways that people view personal control?

Answer 25

Personal control is to what degree a person perceives themselves being able to influence their performance. Having a high personal control means one thinks
they can change their performances, whilst low control means they think that their performance is under the influence of others. Personal control is either
seen as entity (innate cause, what one is born with) and skill (what one can learn). Personal control is associated with well-being.

Question 26

Describe one of the two theoretical ideas about maintaining personal control when aging.

Answer 26

Brandstäter AAI

• Assimilative activities: Actions that prevent or aleviate loss of abilities which are important for ones self esteem
• Accomodation: Shifting goals to neutralize or lessen impact of negative self evaluations
• Immunizing mechanism: Using strategies to avoid or declines in important aspects of one’s self view

Heckhausen
Primary changes: Focused on changing environment (finding a new job when getting fired)
VS.
Secondary changes: Focused on changing oneself (I didn’t even like that job anyway)

Primary changes are considered more adaptive and is used more in early/middle adulthood, but as functioning declines secondary change is used more.

Question 27

What is collaborative cognition? Why is it an considered an example of SOC?

Answer 27

Collaborative cognition is when people accomodate cognitions for each others when performing tasks or remembering events in order to reduce demand on cognition. One example of this is when elderly
couples remember different parts of the same event. This is considered as an example of SOC because older people SELECT a story to remember, OPTIMIZE the memory by remembering only part of it and by doing so COMPENSATING for ones’ own decline in cognition as well as the partners decline.

Question 28

Describe the three crises of adulthood according to Erikson. Evaluate the evidence examining these crises.

Answer 28

Early adulthood: Intimacy vs isolation. Finding someone one can be intimate with and which one can share all aspects of oneself with, setting grounds for future relationships. E: The development of this need for intimacy begins earlier, and it might be related to attachment figures.

Middle adulthood: Generativity vs stagnation. Feeling a concern for younger generations, sustaining the society, children and grandchildren, or having none
of those feelings and being self-concerned. E: There is evidential support for generativity being related to well being, but the direction is uncertain.

Late adulthood: Ego integrity vs ego despair. Either thinking that one will live on through society and ones’ children, reminiscing about and
evaluating ones’ life, or thinking that it’s all too late. E: Reminiscence does not necessarily have to be positive, and can potentially be maladaptive by
leading to rumination. However, it can also reduce death anxiety.

All in all these crises are not stage like but can be considered as cycle-like, and they can occur in different ages.

Question 29

What is the “midlife crisis”? Provide three findings from research that suggest this
idea is false.

Answer 29

The idea that people entering a certain age in middle adulthood experience a crisis as they are faced with their mortality, leading to major actions such as
divorcing or changing one’s appearence. This is not supported by research.
1. People experiencing these crisis attribute them to life stressors which can occur at any given point in life.
2. It seems as people are going through a midlife correction, realizing they are not happy with the state of their life thus wanting to make changes.
3. Cross cultural studies show that these kinds of crisis is mostly prominent in western countries, and does not apply to other cultures.

Question 30

What are possible selves? Are there age-differences in possible selves?

Answer 30

Possibles selves are what we could become, what we hope to become (hoped-for selves) and what we fear to become (feared-for selves).
Hoped for selves are family-oriented at young adulthood, then turns to personal-oriented with adults in their 30s, leading back to family oriented around
40-59 years old, then turning back to personal-oriented after the age of 60. Younger people tend to have more hoped for selves, they think they can achieve those hoped for selves and they avoid their feared for selves. Older adults have less hoped for selves and perceive both them and feared for selves as out of their control. A general feared for across all ages is to have bad health.

Question 31

Describe the “plaster hypothesis” according to Costa and McCrae. Using the Big 5 as the definition of personality, evaluate the evidence of Costa and McCrae’s claims.

Answer 31

The hard plaster hypothesis explains that personality changes are stable and unchangeable after the age of 30, whilst soft plaster hypothesis describes
that personality changes after the age of 30 is possible (but not by a lot). The hypothesis can not be refuted as rank-order change is stable when one does not take into account biological changes. Since it is logical that biological changes also change personality. Studies have been deficient in trying to refute the hypothesis, their methods have been deficient by doing too few assessments and not looking at rank-order changes.

Question 32

Conscientiousness peak at middle adulthood and is thereafter stable
Neuroticism has a drastic decline during aging, almost non-apparent in late adulthood.
Agreeableness increases during adulthood
Openness and extroversion decreases during adulthood

Answer 32

Conscientiousness peak at middle adulthood and is thereafter stable
Neuroticism has a drastic decline during aging, almost non-apparent in late adulthood.
Agreeableness increases during adulthood
Openness and extroversion decreases during adulthood

Question 33

Describe three changes in friendships across adulthood. Consider number, network,
and functions.

Answer 33

Early adulthood: wide network, friend of friends, socialize and “network” with people, recreational relationships. Function is to receive important information

Middle adulthood: Higher density of network, smaller width, friends are still friends even though one does not have continous contact with them, friend
of spouse, strong relationship with close circle. Function is to receive support in roles.

Late adulthood: People beginning to fall off, network decreasing, one might lose ones’ spouse and therefore all connections they had through the spouse. Focus is mutual care.

Question 34

What types of themes are seen for friendships?

Answer 34

Emotional: A person you can gain emotional support from and to whom you can talk about your struggles. Deep care and support.
Sociability: Someone you have fun with, going to parties etc
Communal: Friendships linked to activities and mutual interests such as sports or school

Question 35

Compare and contrast activity and disengagement theories.

Answer 35

Activity theory explains how older adults in order to stay healthy, activate themselves by doing activities, having social interactions etc. Staying active
physically leads to a better well being, and having social interactions in comparison to being isolated reduces risk of depression and also increases health.

Disengagement theory describes that older adults due to their reduced functioning have to disengage from society, staying at home and steadily reclusing from
society and activities as a natural part of preparing for death.

Both describe ways for older adults to cope with their reduced well being, but they use opposite methods for this.

Question 36

What is SST? How is it fit the SOC model? In what ways does it incorporate activity
and disengagement theories?

Answer 36

SST is the socioemotional selectivity theory. It describes how ones life goals are related to ones’ perceived life expectancy. When expectancy is high, one’s goals are information-focused goals, when it is limited, emotional-focused goals.Older adults as they near death select and adapt their actions to maximize their emotional wellbeing. They will decide to interact with people which will have positive emotional effects on them, and avoiding those that will do the opposite. They also decide which actions and behaviours to perform in order to further increase and maximize emotional positivity.

It incorporates activity theory because of elderly deciding to spend time with their family and friends etc, and also disengagement theory because one avoids certain activities/people.

Question 37

Describe three differences between men and women where their friendships are concerned.

Answer 37

1. Womens share more intimacy in friendships
2. Men share more activities than women do
3. Women tend to have larger social networks than men

Question 38

What is homogamy? How does it relate to assortative mating?

Answer 38

Assortative mating explains how people tend to search for and find partners with similar looks, interests, values, age etc (this is homogamy).
Assortative mating also explains that we tend to end up with people that are available to us (proximity)

Question 39

What is the battered woman syndrome? (should it be called battered “woman”?)
What micro- and macro-system issues play a role in it?

Answer 39

The battered woman syndrome is a pattern of abuse in relationships of which victims are predominantly females. Microsystems that plays a role is isolation.
Macrosystems that play a role are views on genders, on abuse, laws, religions

Question 40

In what way has singlehood changed historically? How have these changes affected
single people? Under what conditions is staying single a problem for someone?

Answer 40

Singlehood used to be negative, now acceptable. Later age. The conditions of which staying single is a
problem is when there are cultural pressures, family pressures, social norms such as when one reaches older age. Before women didn’t feel complete without
a man and men felt need of having a woman because of societal pressures.

Question 41

What types of cohabitation are seen across the world? What is most common in
Sweden? Under what conditions is cohabitation related to relationship health?

Answer 41

There is limited cohabitation, premarital cohabitation and substitute marriage.
Cohabitation marriage is extremely common in Sweden. Cohabitation is related to realtionship health because people use it as a test before marriage, to see
whether or not they are capable of living together.

Question 42

Where marriage (pair bonding) is concerned, what contributes to a successful relationship? What are the signs that a marriage is in trouble? When is marital satisfaction highest? Lowest? Why?

Answer 42

1. Age, the later in life the relationship begins the higher success rate.
2. Feeling equal, exchange theory, each partner contributes with something different but important to the relationship
3. Homogamy, being relatively similar to each other. ‘

4 horsemen: Criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling.

Marital satisfaction is at its highest after retirement when children have moved out, at its lowest when children are school-aged.

Question 43

What are the psychological effects of divorce? Of losing a spouse through death?
When are these effects more likely?

Answer 43

Depends on which end, gender and at what timing.
Women in middle-age initiating leads to self growth. Women receiving lead to rumination and vulnerability. More economically impacted. Some people have a hard time letting go and moving on.
Losing a spouse leads to losing network. Widowed spouse increased mortality. Men have increased rates of remarrying after becoming widows. Prolonged grief if it happened during young adulthood, also has a greater impact if it is sudden.

Question 44

Describe recent changes in parenthood. What are some changes seen across adulthood
in parenthood?

Answer 44

Generally becoming parents much later, women tend to wait longer.
New roles, grandparenthood and great-grandparenthood.

Question 45

Describe four conclusions researchers have come to about grandparenthood.
The relationships vary, it’s a new role and it is for most people a very satisfying and meaningful role.

Answer 45

Remote relationship - not having that much contact with grandchildren, due to geographic or revenge
Companionate relationship - When the relationship is warm and pleasurable, grandparents perceive it as nice not to have day to day responsibilities
Involved relationship - Living in the same household, taking continuous care of the child.

Question 46

What is career construction theory? What are two ideas that fit this theory?

Answer 46

People choose their careers based on their own actions, characteristics and social contexts.

1. Hollands theory: Different personality types choose different occupations that fit the personality. Consistent with niche picking (gene-environment correlation, when people are able to they will pick environments that fit their genes better).
2. Social cognitive career theory: You choose careers where you feel self-efficacy, that you are competent in the area and there are no barriers in doing it.

Question 47

What is a developmental coach? A mentor? How do they help a person with their career?

Answer 47

A developmental coach helps a person focus on their goals, motivation and aspirations in order to help them achieve what they want by applying themselves.
A mentor is someone that teaches, and acts as a model, helping the new employee do the work required in their present role and preparing them for future roles.’

Question 48

What are the most common reasons people change their occupations? Who is more likely to do so? When is career change associated with psychological adjustment? When is it not?

Answer 48

Changing occupation is associated with psychological adjustment and well being when it is voluntary, leads to a higher perceived self control and acceptance of risk taking.
It is not associated with psychological adjustment when involuntary, instead leads to distress and anxiety, loss in self-esteem and changes in family relationships.

Question 49

What are common stereotypes about older workers? What is some evidence that these stereotypes are wrong?

Answer 49

That they are physically and cognitively weaker. However, they take less sick days and produce less accidents in work. And they have experiental information about the workplace, and can learn new things if needed.

Question 50

Describe four reasons for retirement. How are these reasons tied to well-being?

Answer 50

Age - legal retirement
Health
Family situation
Financial need

Crisp or blurred.
It is associated with well being if voluntary, if not then it can lead to worsened.

Question 51

What is burnout? What seems to cause it? Why is it a psychologial and physical health risk?

Answer 51

Loss of energy and motivation for work, feeling exploited, decrease in meaning with work. Caused by prolonged periods of pressure at work. Increases with years at the job,
and with helping jobs. Obsessive passion.
Health risks: Less ability to regulate negative emotions due to weakened connections in the brain, leading to emotional outbursts and poor judgement.

Question 52

What are two types of passion for work? How are they related to well-being?

Answer 52

Obsessive: negative, less activity in other parts of life, leads to more burnout, conflict, can’t stop working
Harmonious: Linked to satisfaction, freely engages/disengages, less burnout

Question 53

What are the psychological benefits of leisure activities?

Answer 53

Improves every aspect of life
Leads to higher well-being
Dependent on the enjoyment of leisure activity, not involvement

Question 54

Depression

Answer 54

Highest prevalence in women 40-49
Risk factors: life stressors (especially chronic), being female, poverty, minority, lack of social support, taking care of the ill, being widowed (primarily in elderly because of prevalence), decrease in serotonin and dopamine (elderly). Prevalence decreases in late adulthood.

Question 55

What is delirium? What causes of delirium?

Answer 55

Loss of consciousness, confusion, loss of memory, disorientation, disorganized thinking and personality change. Causes are dehydration, increased age, substance withdrawal/intoxication, sleep deprivation, exposure to toxins and medications.

Question 56

Cultural definitions of death

Answer 56

Some cultures celebrate death whilst other grieve.

Some cultures define clinical death as death whilst others define sickness, old age etc as death.

Question 57

Compare and contrast the three medical definitions of death.

Answer 57

Clinical death: Respiratory systems stop working, heartbeat stops.
Wholebrain death: Brain stops functioning, breathing stops, brain stem reflexes stop, entire brain is non functioning. Coma with unknown causes.
Persistent vegetative state: Brain stem still working, cortex stops working permanently. No cortical functions.

Question 58

Describe age-related differences in how adults feel about dying.

Answer 58

Young adults feel cheated
Middle adults start confronting their own mortality
Older adults are more accepting of death

Question 59

Kubler ross theory of dying

Answer 59

5 stages:
1. Denial
2. Anger 
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Not a stage theory because they come in different orders, together and not always in that order.

Question 60

Describe the contextual theory of dying.

Answer 60

It explains that there is no right way of coping with dying. Identifies 4 dimensions of the issues or tasks a dying person is faced with: Bodily needs, psychological security, interpersonal relationships and spiritual hope and energy.

Question 61

What is death anxiety and how is it manifested? What have experts recommended for reducing or coping with death anxiety?

Answer 61

Death anxiety is anxiety experienced towards ones own future death. Anxiety over pain, not existing, shame of ones state, what happens next, losing ones relationships, survivors guilt, not having the time to meet ones goals etc. Manifestations can be private, public or non-conscious.
Terror management theory suggests that one finds views and activities that will preserve ones existence to live on and to manage their death anxiety. One should seek meaningful values and activities to aleviate the anxiety.

Question 62

What do experts agree are important tasks for those are terminally ill or know they will die soon?

Answer 62

1 Managing final aspects such as planning how one wants to spend their last minutes.
2 Managing after death aspects such as what to do with the body, writing a will etc.
3 Choosing what they want to do.
4 Anticipatory socialization: closure in relationships before death.

Question 63

What are bereavement, grief, and mourning?

Answer 63

Bereavement is state caused by losing someone
Grief is the emotions caused by bereavement
Mourning is the manifestation of grief

Question 64

What are the “steps” that describe the process of grieving?

Answer 64

First is to acknowledge the death and accept that they are gone. Second is to handle the emotions. Third is to change the environment. Fourth is letting go.

Question 65

Describe the four-component model of grief. What components are considered normative and non-normative? Why are they different?

Answer 65

1. The context of loss (sudden, prolonged)
2. Subjective meaning associated with loss (meaning of life, economical change)
3. Changing representation of the lost relationship over time
4. Coping and regulating the emotions

Coping and regulation - non-normative to ruminate as a coping strategy, problematic and causing more distress

Question 66

What is the “dual” in the dual process model of grief? How are they related to well-being?

Answer 66

One process is loss-related, focusing on the loss of the person, grieving, denying the restoration process
The other process is restoration-related, focusing on doing new things and avoiding the grief. Loss related is associated with worse well being, restoration related with wellbeing.

Question 67

What are the two components of adaptive grieving dynamics? How are they dynamic?

Answer 67

Lamenting and heartening

Lamenting: Experiencing / expressing negative distressful emotions.
Heartening: Experiencing / expressing positive uplifting emotions.

When grieving we shift between these two dynamics:

integrating: assimilating internal and external changes, integrating past, present and future into a new reality
tempering: changed realities are too overwhelming for the individual so they avoid change

Question 68

Describe two ways that the grieving process differs across people.

Answer 68

Sudden/prolonged, prolonged leads to grieving beforehand, sudden are worse

Strength of relationship: if stronger relationship then sudden death will lead to less guilt. Stronger relationship leads to greater grief.

Question 69

Compare and contrast ambiguous grief with disenfrachised grief.

Answer 69

Ambiguous grief is when someone is missing and presumed dead but it is not a fact. Still psychologically present.
Disenfranchised grief: when someone dies and grief is experienced but not acknowledged by others

Question 70

What characterizes “complicated” or “prolonged” grief. What are some conditions under which prolonged grief is more likely. Describe why.

Answer 70

Complicated grief is characterized by seperation anxiety and traumatic anxiety. Preoccupation with loss of someone, impacting on ones functioning. Traumatic anxiety includes difficulty believing the loss, experiencing anger and mistrust, and that the person is still there. It is more likely when losing a child, spouse at young age, sudden death and losing parent early.

Question 71

12) What contributes to DNA mutations that are thought to limit the human lifespan?

Answer 71

Free radicals (highly reactive

Question 72

What is “emerging” adulthood? Why does Arnett argue for this idea? What evidence
suggests that he is correct? What evidence suggests that he is wrong?

Answer 72

It’s the phase inbetween adolescence and adulthood, longer periods of exploring love, occupations, and themselves.

1. Identity exploration
2. Instability
3. Feeling inbetween
4. Self-focused
5. Possibilities

Does not cover low socioeconomoc status,
New stage means you can’t skip it, which some do
cultural differences

Question 73

Describe changes across adulthood in three of the five sensory systems. What changes
are primary and what changes are secondary aging? What creates these changes?

Answer 73

Primary:
Vision: Dark adaptation, becoming nightblind, noticeable between 60 and 70
Olfactory and gustation: degrade in sensitivity
Secondary:
Audition: Tinnitus - different reasons
Olfactory and gustation: Degrade sensitivity due to medications and toxins

Question 74

Describe one of the three models currently used to link changes in older adults’ brains
with changes in their cognitive functioning. What evidence is there to support the model?

Answer 74

Harold - Older adults use both hemispheres while performing cognitive tasks in comparison to young adults using only one. The reason for this is because older people had reduced laterization in prefrontal lobe, they use neural resources from the whole brain to compensate for the decline in other parts.

Question 75

Using the information-processing perspective, describe two changes in attention, two changes in processing, and two changes in memory that are tied to aging. Are these changes considered primary or secondary aging?

Answer 75

Processing: Processing speed declines, effortful processing declines with age
Attention: Inhibitory loss (easily distracted), difficulty dividing attention at several things at once (multitasking)
Memory: Working memory declines with age. Explicit memory declines, more with episodic memory than semantic memory, more with recall than recognition.

Question 76

Describe the EIEIO model. Give examples (preferably your own) of each type of aid.

Answer 76

External training: Doing something physical
Internal training: Doing something in the head
Explicit: something very clear and “stated”
Implicit: something understood and implied.
External explicit: Writing a list
External implicit: Highlighting
Internal explicit: Making a list in your head
Internal implicit: Priming

Question 77

What are three forms of cognition that are thought to be post-formal operations? In what way are these not formal operations?

Answer 77

Post-formal operations are pragmatic, flexible and understanding all elements and complexities of a perspective.
Formal operations are absolute, follow a strict line, based on experiences and logic.

Dialetic: Advanced cognitive process of seeing all pros and cons with a situation, seeing it from several perspectives.
Problem finding: Focus is on finding the problems instead of solving them
Flexible: taking multiple contexts into account, there is not one truth.

Question 78

Compare and contrast three forms of dementia—what do they have in common and what makes them different?

Answer 78

Alzheimer’s disease: Rapid cell death, neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques, scientist believe due to inflammation but not confirmed.
Vascular dementia: Results of small cerebral accidents (loss of blood flow and oxygen to brain) basically mini strokes. Risk factors: smoking and people with pulmonary or vascular disease.
Parkinsons disease dementia: Loss of dopamine production cutting off the reward system for motor function, leading to motor deficits, hand tremors, balance problems, rigid muscles. As disease continues it leads to dementia.

Commonalities: All are degenerative, eventually fatal.
All lead to cognitive decline, significant loss of function.
Inappropriate social behavior
Inability to take care of oneself
Changes in personality are common

Question 79

Describe the three types of gene-environment correlations. Give an example of each.

Answer 79

Passive gene-environment correlation: when the environment supports the genes, for example when two highly intellectual parents provide their children with intellectually stimulating environments

Evocative gene-environment correlation: When our genes elicit a specific response in our environment, for example the halo effect, good looking people tend to be treated better than bad looking people.

Active gene-environment correlation: When we choose our environments based on our genes, intelligent people will seek intellectually challenging environments, further increasing their capabilities.

Question 80

Compare and conntrast gene-environment interactions with gene-environment
correlations. Compare and contrast gene-environement interactions with epigentic effects.

Answer 80

Gene-environment correlations explain how genes contribute to the environment one is exposed to, while gene-environment interaction explains how our genes may be more or less sensitive to certain environments (example teenager smoking weed leading to schizophrenia).
Epigenetic effects however explain how a change in ones phenotype caused by an environmental factor is passed on to offspring without an actual change in dna.