Week 6

Assignment #3: (if I did well on #2 don't need to do it) -- Due July 31 

* Related to aging and adulthood

* Purely informative paper about any topic related to death and dying that you want to learn about / talk about / share

Day 1 - Test

Day 2:  Chapter 15

15: 525 - vocational life and cognitive development

16: 553-end of 16

17: 597 (cognitive interventions)

18: 629-632 (retirement)

SA. 15

* Describe some of the common physical changes that occur in middle age

* Describe some of the changes in mental abilities that occur in middle age

SA. 16

* Describe how personality may change during middle age

* Discuss how relationships may change during middle age

SA. 17

* Discuss the importance of nutrition and exercise on aging

* Summarize either the changes in memory or language processing that can occur during late adulthood

SA. 18

* Describe either Erikson's theory of ego integrity/despair or Peck's Tasks of ego integrity

* Describe some of the social theories of aging

SA 19

* Summarize how attitudes towards death change with age

* Discuss a person's "right to die"

Chapter 15

• The Challenges of Aging
• At what age is a person old?
•  
• Middle adulthood
• 40-65
• Contemporary view: midpoint, not end of life
•  
• Muscle-fat makeup in middle adulthood
• Middle-age spread common; fat gain in torso
• Gradual muscle decline
• Can be avoided
• * Low-fat diet fruit, vegetable, grain
• * exercise, especially resistance training
•  
• Climacteric and menopause
• Gradual end of fertility
• * Menopause follows 10-year climacteric
• * Age range from late 30s to late 50s
• * earliest in no-childbearing women, smokers
• Drop in estrogen
• * Shorter monthly cycles, eventually stop
• * Can cause problems (sexual functioning, cholesterol)
•  
• Double standard of aging
• Men rated more positively, women more negatively
• Evolutionary roots; media, social messages
•  
• Cohort effects in verbal abilities
• * Cross-sectional studies showed older subjects scored less than younger subjects, peaking at 18, then declining
• * Longitudinal study proves abilities stay the same roughly over lifespan - stable, increasing until mid30s, some to mid50s, then declined
•  
• Individual and group factors in high intelligence scores
• Lifestyle
• High Education
• Complex job or leisure
• Lasting marriage
• high SES
•  
• Personal
• Flexible personality
• healthy
• gender
• cohort
• perceptual speed
•  
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Week 6 Day 3

• Fluid v crystallized intelligence
• Attention part of fluidity that fades
• Role of friendships on longevity 

Week 6 Day 4

• Generativity v. Stagnation
• G: Thoughts of death put aside, lasting happiness (time to give back)
• S: Sense they've done nothing for next generation
• Research supports Erikson's theory
•  
• Levinson's Stages
• Preadulthood 0-22
• Early adulthood 22-45
• Midlife transition 40-45
• Middle adulthood 40-60
• Late adulthood 60-? 
•  
• Stages of Adulthood
• How pervasive are midlife crisis?
• 40's reassess record the truth about adolescent and adult
• Only minority of adults experience crisis
• General well-being and life satisfaction tend to be high during midlife
• One study found 25$ of adults experienced midlife crisis
• Negative life events, not aging
• Adult experts generally agree crises is exaggerated
•  
• Limitations of Levinson
• Conclusions based on people born in older cohort with stable families and careers
• Sampled few non-college low SES adults (esp women)
• Middle-aged participants might not have remembered accurately, self assessment
• Studies of new gens with diverse SES are needed 
•  
• The Family life cycle
• Sequence of phases that characterizes development of most families
• * In early adulthood, people live on their own, marry, have children
• * Middle age, children leave home parental responsibilities lessen
• * Late adulthood retirement, aging, death of spouse
•  
• Love and Marriage
• Romantic Love (strong in early adulthood)
• Affectionate Love (middle adulthood)
•  
• Empty Nest
• Most couples feel better when kids move out