Chapters 9-13

• Emerging adulthood: a lengthy transition period during which many individuals are exploring their identity, career paths, and romantic relationships
• Key features of emerging adulthood:

  1. Identity exploration
  2. Instability
  3. Self-focus
  4. Feeling in between
  5. The age of possibilities
• Criticisms of emerging adulthood:

  • culturally not universal
  • may apply only to young adults from middle and upper class
  • not a stage at all
• Bowlby's attachment theory posited that infants' attachment experiences with their caregivers serve as the internal working model or mental representation for future interpersonal relationships
• Attachment and adult relationships:

  • Securely attached infants
  • engage in more stable adult romantic relationships
  • Avoidant attachment infants
  • lower level of social initiative and prosocial behaviour
  • higher level of social anxiety and loneliness
• 3 categories of adult attachment:

  1. Secure
  2. positive views about relationships, closeness is easy, not overly concerned about romantic relationships
  3. Avoidant
  4. hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships, once involved they distance themselves from partner
  5. Anxious (resistant)
  6. demand closeness, less trusting, more emotional, jealous and possessive
• Sternberg's triangle of love:

  1. Intimacy
  2. Commitment
  3. Passion
• Sternberg's triangle of love combinations:

  1. Liking + commitment = companionate love
  2. Commitment + passion = fatuous love
  3. Passion + liking = romantic love
  4. Consummate love = all 3
• Consequences of falling:

  • hospitalization
  • broken or fractured bones (hip fracture)
  • negative mental health outcomes
  • fear of falling, loss of autonomy, greater isolation
• Vision and aging:

  • decline of accommodation of the eye
  • darkness adaptation decline
  • visual field declines (peripheral vision)
  • cataracts (thickening of lens)
  • glaucoma
  • macular degeneration
• John Horn:

  • fluid intelligence declines from middle adulthood onward, crystallized intelligence increases
  • Fluid intelligence: ability to reason abstractly and solve problems
  • Crystallized intelligence: accumulated information and verbal skills
• Seattle longitudinal study:

  • verbal memory, spatial skills, inductive reasoning, and vocabulary peak in middle adulthood
  • numerical computations and perceptual speed decline in middle and late adulthood
  • peak performance in middle adulthood for some aspects of crystallized (verbal ability) and fluid intelligence (spatial orientation)
  • declines after 60 years for most skills except verbal comprehension
• Longitudinal design: practice effects inflate the scores and cover up cognitive decline in middle adulthood

  Cross-sectional design: cohort effects due to educational attainment, occupational structures, changes in healthcare
• Working memory and aging:

  • working memory capacity declines, slowdown of learning new information
  • less efficient interference control and decreases in information processing speed
• Implicit memory stays largely intact with age
• Semantic vs episodic memory:

  • Semantic memory
  • improves during middle adulthood and is relatively spared in later adulthood
  • ability to retrieve specific information declines
  • Episodic memory
  • episodic memory declines with age
  • accuracy of memory declines with age
• Reasons for decline in working memory:

  • perception and speed processing
  • strategy use, attention, and inhibition
• Wisdom is expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgement about important matters. This practical knowledge involves exceptional insight into human development and interactions, good judgement, and an understanding of how to cope with difficult life problems
• Baltes et al. (2006) on wisdom:

  • high levels of wisdom are rare
  • factors other than age are critical for wisdom to emerge
  • personality variables such as openness to experience, generativity, and creativity were better predictors of wisdom than cognitive factors
• Wisdom keepers and elders:

  • four characteristics of a respected elder are
  • emotional wellbeing
  • community engagement
  • spirituality
  • physical health
• Stress and gender: women and men differ in the way they experience and respond to stressors

  • women are more vulnerable to social stressors (romance, family, work)
  • more likely to become depressed when they encounter stressful life events
  • men respond to stress in a fight-or-flight manner
  • women respond to stress in a tend-and-befriend manner
• Socioemotional selectivity theory: older adults become more selective about their social networks

  • older adults place a higher value on emotional satisfaction
• Selective optimization with compensation theory: strategy for improving health and wellbeing in older adults. Successful aging is linked to 3 factors:

  • Selection of meaningful goals
  • Optimization of developmental potential by acquiring, applying, and refining goal-relevant means through practice and investment of time and effort
  • Compensation for losses by acquiring new resources or activating unused resources for means of pursuing goals
• Grey divorce: divorce among those aged 55 and over. Reasons for increased divorce:

  • increased longevity
  • women entering the workforce
  • social acceptance of divorce
• Empty nest syndrome: feelings of great loss and grief when adult children move away from home
• Successful aging: individuals whose physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development is maintained longer than for most individuals

  • being active and engaged
  • perceived control over the environment
  • self-efficacy
  • mental stimulation and flexibility
• Hospice: a program committed to making the end of life as free from pain, anxiety, and depression as possible

  • Palliative care: reducing pain and suffering and helping individuals die with dignity
• Kubler-Ross' stages of dying:

  1. Denial and isolation
  2. Anger
  3. Bargaining
  4. Depression
  5. Acceptance