• Aging brings: – Diminished vigor – Decline in fertility • Menopause usually
experienced around age 50
– Men experience no
equivalent to menopause
– Only at age 75 do most men and women report little
sexual desire
Physical Development
• With increasing life
expectancy comes
heightened demand for nursing homes, hearing aids, and other things elderly people use.
• Females tend to outlive
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Physical Development
• Why can’t we live forever?
– Chromosome tips called telomeres wear down
– Aging cells die without being replaced with perfect genetic replicas
– Evolutionary biologists say that our species survives best when we raise our young and then stop consuming
resources
Physical Development
• Chronic anger and
depression increase risk of ill health and premature death
• Death-Deferral
phenomenon – happens when older people live to reach a big event, such as their birthday or a holiday, and then die shortly after.
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Physical Development
• Sensory Abilities Reduced
by Aging: – Visual sharpness – Muscular strength – Reaction time – Stamina – Vision – Sense of smell – Hearing
– Eye’s pupil shrinks with aging
Physical Development
• Aging adults are:
– More susceptible to life-
threatening illness like cancer or pnemonia
– Less likely to experience short-term ailments like the flu or common cold
• Older workers have lower
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Physical Development
• Aging slows neural processing • Brain regions important to
memory atrophy with aging
• Atrophy of frontal lobes late in
life (inhibition control) explains blunt questions
• Exercise promotes
neurogenesis in the
hippocampus (memory); also helps maintain telomeres
(chromosome tips)
Physical Development
• Dementia & Alzheimer’s
– Dementia = mental
disintegration or erosion by strokes, brain tumors, or alcohol dependence
– Alzheimer’s = first memory deteriorates, then reasoning
• Symptoms = loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce ACh
(acetylcholine)
• Physically active non-obese
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive Development
• Teens and Twenties: time
we experience many memorable firsts
• Younger people do better
when asked to “recall” things, but when asked to “recognize” things older and younger people were equal
Cognitive Development
• Remembering seems to
depend on the type of
information we are trying to retrieve:
– Meaningless information-
younger people are better (nonsense syllables, etc.)
– Meaningful information –
older people are better (more knowledge and experience)
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Aging and Intelligence
• Wechsler (1972) said “the
decline of mental ability with age is part of the general aging process of the organism as a whole”
– Cross sectional study = different people at one time
• In 1980s study found that “until
late in life, intelligence remained stable”
– Longitudinal study = same people over a period of time
Aging and Intelligence
• Today we recognize two
kinds of intelligence: – Crystallized – our
accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
– Fluid – our ability to reason speedily and abstractly;
tends to decrease during late adulthood
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Aging and Intelligence
• Terminal Decline – the near-
death drop in a person’s mental ability (based on proximity to death)
Social Development
• Age of early 40s signifies
transition to middle adulthood
– This is where the popular “midlife crisis” is said to occur
• Unhappiness • Job dissatisfaction • Divorce
• Anxiety • Suicide
– NO evidence that such things are triggered by this age range
– Such effects are usually triggered by major life events
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Social Development
• Social Clock – the culturally
preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
– Varies from era to era and
culture to culture
Social Development
• Two dominant aspects of
adulthood:
– 1. Intimacy = forming close relationships
– 2. Generativity = being productive and supporting
future generations
• Also termed “love and
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Social Development
• When will adult bonds of
love most likely survive? – When both people…
• Have similar interests and
values
• Share emotional and
material support
• Are willing participants in intimate self-disclosure
• Seal their relationship with marriage or other legal commitment
Social Development
• Will “test driving” marriage
reduce the divorce rate? – Those who cohabit before
marriage have higher divorce rates and marital dysfunction
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Social Development
• 90% of heterosexual adults
get married
• Marriage IS a predictor of
happiness, health, sexual satisfaction, and income
• At least five-to-one ratio of
positive to negative
interactions is encouraged
• Relationship must be
somewhat equitable
Social Development
• Empty Nest – when children
are fully raised and moved away from home
– For most couples this is time to refocus on their
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Social Development
• Work – helps to define who
we are. (“Who are you?” and “What do you do?”)
• Happiness is having work
that fits your interest, provides a sense of
competence, and gives a feeling of accomplishment
Social Development
• When people are asked
what part of their past they would most like to change, the most common answer is “taken my education more seriously and worked
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Social Development
• Happiness is slightly higher
among young and older adults, slightly lower at middle adulthood
• Amygdala shows
diminishing activity in older adults in response to
negative events (no change in response to positive
events)
Social Development
• At all ages, bad feelings
associated with negative events fade faster than good feelings.
• As years go by, feelings
mellow; highs become less high, lows become less low
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Death and Dying
• Most difficult separation is
from a spouse
• Grief is more severe when
death of loved one comes suddenly and unexpected
• Integrity is a feeling that
one’s life has been
meaningful and worthwhile
Continuity and Stages
• Both are actually true
• Those who focus on experience
and learning see development as a slow, continuous process
• Those who emphasize biological
maturation see development as series of stages or steps
• We all take a different amount
of time to go through stages, but complete them in order
UNIT 5: DEVELOPMENT
Stability and Change
• Personality – evidence
found for both stability and change
– Temperament is more stable than other characteristics
– First 2 years of life are NOT a good predictor of traits
– We all change with age, becoming more self-
disciplined, stable, agreeable, and self-confident
• End of Unit 5 Development