• Aging

    • Aging

    Morituri Salutamus: Poem for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Class of 1825 in Bowdoin College BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

    For age is opportunity no less
    Than youth itself, though in another dress,
    And as the evening twilight fades away
    The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

    Langer and Rodin

    Langer, E., & Rodin, J., (1976) The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: A field experiment in an institutional setting. JPSP, 191-198.

    One floor in a nursing home was told that the staff was there to help them. Despite the care, 71% got worse in only 3 weeks. In the other floor, they were encouraged to make decisions for themselves, and the residents actually improved. They were more active and happier. They were more mentally alert and more active.

    This study was on the effects of allowing personal decision making among nursing home residents.

    "The ability to sustain a sense of personal control in old age may be greatly influenced by societal factors, and this in turn may affect one's physical well being" "more successful aging -- occurs when a individual feels a sense of usefulness and purpose"

    A feeling of helplessness may contribute to psychological withdrawal, disease, and death.

    Rodin, J., & Langer, E. J. (1977). Long-term effects of a control-relevant intervention with the institutionalized aged. Journal of personality and social psychology, 35(12), 897.

    YouTube Video:

    A psychology of possibility

    As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

    “All research passes through three phases. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” -Arthur Schopenhaur (as cited by Langer, 2012)

    “If at first an idea isn’t abrupt, then there’s no hope for it.” -Albert Einstein (as cited by Langer, 2012)

    Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolution

    Mindset

    Health is more than the absence of illness

    Positive Emotions and Longevity

    Danner, Snowden, and Friessen 2001

    Explanatory Style

    Aging Module

    Learning Outcomes

    by Tara Queen and Jacqui Smith

    Facts about Aging Quiz

    Consider the kinds of things simulated by an aging simulation suit (see below). How does this affect your understanding of old age?

    Ryff’s 6 dimensions of psychological well-being

    Image of Definitions of theory-guided dimensions of well-being
    Ryff, C. D. (1995). Psychological well-being in adult life. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4(4), 99–104).

    Older adults tend to report higher environmental mastery (feelings of competence and control in managing everyday life) and autonomy (independence), lower personal growth and purpose in life compared to younger adults, and similar levels of positive relations with others and self-acceptance as younger individuals (Ryff, 1995).

    However, this research was cross-sectional; what are the limitations of cross-sectional research? Between group differences, cohort effects

    1. Ethan decides to retire from his career at the age of 52, Brandon at 61, and Akiva keeps working into his seventies. These differences reflect the ______ in the lives of adults.
      1. parametrics
      2. nomothetics
      3. indiographics
      4. heterogeneity
    2. ______ theories of development emphasize the effects of life events and social roles. Life span theories of development tend to place greater emphasis on processes that occur within each individual.
      1. Generational
      2. Lifetime
      3. Life course
      4. Quantitative
    3. One of the primary types of research in developmental psychology is the ______ study, in which the same people are observed over time
      1. analogue
      2. cross-sectional
      3. longitudinal
      4. sequential
    4. Dr. Rainwood conducts research examining the differences between people of different ages. She always remembers that this particular kind of research, called ______ studies, can be susceptible to effects related to history and the time of her research.
      1. cross-sectional
      2. quasi-experimental
      3. longitudinal
      4. structure equation modeling
      5. cross-sequential
    5. Professor Zithrow is explaining fluid intelligence as her class covers cognitive changes associated with aging. Which of the following tasks would she be least likely to discuss on this topic?
      1. vocabulary tests
      2. logical reasoning
      3. remembering lists
      4. reaction time
      5. spatial ability
    6. Given that it is generally related to life experiences and accumulated knowledge, which kind of intelligence do you think would be more substantial in an older adult versus a young child?
      1. Triarchic intelligence
      2. Crystallized intelligence
      3. Specific intelligence
      4. Fluid intelligence
    7. Which approach to the study of intelligence examines performance on tests of intellectual functioning that employ standardized tests and validated measures?
      1. The meta-analytic approach
      2. The psychometric approach
      3. The non-parametric approach
      4. The nomothetic approach
    8. Katrina has noticed that her mother seems less able to focus on answering a specific question while simultaneously suppressing attention to less relevant information. This skill, called ______, normally declines as people age.
      1. cognitive compartmentalization
      2. paradoxical plasticity
      3. contradictory inhibition
      4. attentional malleability
      5. inhibitory functioning
    9. Declines in ______ have been well-established by research and help explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities.
      1. crystallized intelligence
      2. social networks
      3. hearing and vision
      4. volitional motivation
      5. pain threshold
    10. Brendon is taking a multiple-choice test in his psychology course. Brendon has to compare each of five possible answers to information he has previously learned, and then identify the correct response. What kind of task is this?
      1. transitory
      2. serial
      3. recognition
      4. recall
      5. parallel
    11. Which of the following personality traits has been found to predict important life outcomes, such as job success, health, and longevity?
      1. conscientiousness
      2. religiosity
      3. assertiveness
      4. intelligence
    12. Marita has always lived by several important clichés. They include, “Age is just a number; You are only as old as you feel; I am only as old as I think I am.” These illustrate the concept of ______ age.
      1. chronological
      2. subjective
      3. relative
      4. cohort-based
      5. objective
    13. Which of the following concepts is promoted by the Convoy Model of Social Relations?
      1. Contributing to the next generation is the only way to achieve a sense of generativity
      2. People approaching the end of their life must conduct a life review to decide if their years have been well-spent
      3. Only people with a consistent set of peers will be content in their elder years
      4. As people age, it is necessary for them to reduce the number of social networks
      5. Social connections are held together by exchanges in social support, which change with age.
    14. Bess is 76 years old, and finds that she is happier with just a few close friends. Bess’s behavior is consistent with Carstensen’s ______ theory
      1. Peer Reduction and Magnification
      2. Cohort
      3. Selective Optimization with Compensation
      4. Socioemotional Selectivity
      5. Convoy Model of Social Relations
    15. Which of the following questions might you expect to see on a measure of one’s global subjective well-being?
      1. Do you have any children?
      2. Do you feel that your life is as good as it can be?
      3. What sort of exercises, if any, do you do? How frequently?
      4. What is your favorite kind of food to eat when you dine out?
      5. Do you think that the current presidential administration is doing a good job?
    16. ______ well-being refers to the emotional component of well-being and includes measures of positive (e.g., happiness and contentment) and negative affect (e.g., stress and sadness).
      1. Dynamic
      2. Conventional
      3. Hedonic
      4. Interactional
      5. Emotional
    17. There are many factors that contribute to the increased life expectancy in the 20th century. Evidence from twin studies finds that about ______ percent of the variance in life spans is accounted for by genes.
      1. 75
      2. 50
      3. 100
      4. 25
      5. 5
    18. Rowe and Kahn (1997) defined three criteria for successful aging. They included which one of the following?
      1. active engagement in social and productive activities
      2. reconciliation related to past conflicts
      3. financial stability in the retirement years
      4. having a solid sense of religious direction
      5. successful parenting and/or grandparenting experiences

    Aging Wikipedia Pages

    Major Neurocognitive Disorders

    Dementia etymologically refers to out of mind

    1. Evidence of significant cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains (complex attention, executive function, learning and memory, language, perceptual-motor, or social cognition) based on:
      1. Concern of the individual, a knowledgeable informant, or the clinician that there has been a significant decline in cognitive function; and
      2. A substantial impairment in cognitive performance, preferably documented by standardized neuropsychological testing or, in its absence, another quantified clinical assessment
    2. The cognitive deficits interfere with independence in everyday activities (i.e., at a minimum, requiring assistance with complex instrumental activities of daily living such as paying bills or managing medications) [i.e., dysfunctional]
    3. The cognitive deficits do not occur exclusively in the context of delirium… which is acute and short term and often due to medication problems, dehydration, etc.

    Dementia is chronic, more gradual, major neurocognitive disorders are not acute

    Neurocognitive domains

    Cognitive domain Examples of symptoms or observations Examples of assessments
    Complex attention (sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, processing speed) Major: Has increased difficulty in environments with multiple stimuli (TV, radio, conversation); is easily distracted by competing events in the environment. Is unable to attend unless input is restricted and simplified. Has difficulty holding new information in mind, such as recalling phone numbers or addresses just given, or reporting what was just said. Is unable to perform mental calculations. All thinking takes longer than usual, and components to be processed must be simplified to one or a few. Mild: Normal tasks take longer than previously. Begins to find errors in routine tasks; finds work needs more double-checking than previously. Thinking is easier when not competing with other things (radio, TV, other conversations, cell phone, driving) Sustained attention: Maintenance of attention over time (e.g., pressing a button every time a tone is heard, and over a period of time). Selective attention: Maintenance of attention despite competing stimuli and/or distractors: hearing numbers and letters read and asked to count only letters. Divided attention: Attending to two tasks within the same time period: rapidly tapping while learning a story being read. Processing speed can be quantified on any task by timing it (e.g., time to put together a design of blocks; time to match symbols with numbers; speed in responding, such as counting speed or serial 3 speed).
    Executive function (planning, decision making, working memory, responding to feedback/ error correction, overriding habits/ inhibition, mental flexibility) Major: Abandons complex projects. Needs to focus on one task at a time. Needs to rely on others to plan instrumental activities of daily living or make decisions. Mild: Increased effort required to complete multistage projects. Has increased difficulty multitasking or difficulty resuming a task interrupted by a visitor or phone call. May complain of increased fatigue from the extra effort required to organize plan, and make decisions. May report that large social gather are more taxing or less enjoyable because of increased effort required to follow shifting conversations. Planning: Ability to find the exit to a maze; interpret a sequential picture or object arrangement Decision making: Performance of tasks that assess process of deciding in the face of competing alternatives (e.g., simulated gambling) Working memory: Ability to hold information for a brief period and to manipulate it (e.g., adding up a list of numbers or repeating a series of numbers or words backward) Feedback/error utilization: Ability to benefit from feedback to infer the rules for solving a problem Overriding habits/inhibition: Ability to choose a more complex and effortful solution to be correct (e.g., looking away from the direction indicated by an arrow; naming the color of a word’s font rather than naming the word; Stroop test). Mental/cognitive flexibility: Ability to shift between two concepts, tasks, or response rules (e.g., from number to letter, from verbal to key-press response, from adding numbers to ordering numbers, from ordering objects by size to ordering by color)
    Learning and memory (immediate memory, recent memory [including free recall, cued recall, and recognition memory], very-long-term memory [semantic; autobiographical], implicit learning) Major: Repeats self in conversation, often within the same conversation. Cannot keep track of short list of items when shopping or of plans for the day. Requires frequent reminders to orient to task at hand Mild: Has difficulty recalling recent events, and relies increasingly on list making or calendar. Needs occasional reminders or re-reading to keep track of characters in a movie or novel. Occasionally may repeat self over a few weeks to the same person. Loses track of weather bills have already been paid. Note: Except in severe forms of major neurocognitive disorder, semantic, autobiographical, and implicit memory are relatively preserved, compared with recent memory Immediate memory span: Ability to repeat a list of words or digits. Note: Immediate memory sometimes subsumed under “working memory” (see Executive Function) Recent memory: Assesses the process of encoding new information (e.g., word lists, a short story, or diagrams). The aspects of recent memory that can be tested include 1) free recall (the person is asked to recall as man words, diagrams, or elements of a story as possible) 2) cued recall (examiner aids recall by providing semantic cues such as “List all the food items on the list” or “Name all of the children from the story” and 3) recognition memory (examiner asks about specific items -e.g., “was ‘apple’ on the list?” or “Did you see the diagram or figure?”). Other aspects of memory that can be assessed include semantic memory (memory of facts), autobiographical memory (memory for personal events or people), and implicit (procedural) learning (unconscious learning of skills).
    Language (expressive language [including naming, word finding, fluency, grammar, and syntax] and receptive language Major: Has significant difficulties with expressive or receptive language. Often uses general-use phrases Mild: has noticeable word-finding difficulty. May substitute general for specific terms. May avoid use of specific names of acquaintances. Grammatical errors involve subtle omission or incorrect use of articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etcetera Expressive language: confrontational naming (identification of objects or pictures); fluency (e.g., name as many items as possible in a semantic [e.g., animals] or phonemic [e.g., words starting with “f”] category in 1 minute) Grammar and syntax (e.g, omission or incorrect use of articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs): Errors observed during naming and fluency tests are compared with norms to assess frequency of errors and compared with normal slips of the tongue. Receptive language: Comprehension (word definition and object pointing tasks involving animate and inanimate stimuli): performance of actions/activities according to verbal command.
    Perceptual-motor (includes abilities subsumed under the terms visual perception, visuo-constructional, perceptual-motor, praxis and gnosis) Major: Has significant difficulties with previously familiar activities (using tools, driving motor vehicle parentheses, navigating in familiar environments; is often more confused at dusk, when shadows and lowering levels of light change perceptions. Mild: may need to rely more on maps or others for directions. Uses notes and follows others to get to a new place. May find self lost or turned around when not concentrating on task. Is less precise in parking. Needs to expend greater effort for spatial tasks such as carpentry, assembly, sewing, or knitting. Visual perception: Line bisection tasks can be used to detect basic visual defect or attentional neglect. Motor-free perceptual tasks (including facial recognition) require the identification and or matching of figures- best when tasks cannot be verbally mediated (e.g., figures are not objects); some require the decision of whether a figure can be “real” or not based on dimensionality. Visuoconstructional: Assembly of items requiring hand-eye coordination, such as drawing, copying, and block assembly. Perceptual-motor: Integrating perception with purposeful movement (e.g., inserting blocks into a form board without visual cues; rapidly inserting pegs into a slotted board). Praxis: Integrity of learned movements, such as ability to imitate gestures (wave goodbye) or pantomime use of objects to command (“Show me how you would use a hammer”). Gnosis: Perceptual Integrity of awareness and recognition, such as recognition of faces and colors. 
    Social cognition (recognition of emotions, theory of mind) Major: Behavior clearly out of acceptable social range; shows insensitivity to social standards of modesty in dress or political, religious, or sexual topics of conversation. Focuses excessively on a topic despite the group's disinterest or direct feedback. Behavioral intention without regard to family or friends. Makes decisions without regard to safety (e.g, inappropriate clothing for weather or social setting). Typically, has little insight into these changes. Mild: Has subtle changes in behavior or attitude, often described as a change in personality, such as less ability to recognize social cues or read facial expressions, decreased empathy, increased extraversion or introversion, decreased inhibition, or subtle or episodic apathy or restlessness. Recognition of emotions: Identification of emotion in images of faces representing a variety of both positive and negative emotions. Theory of Mind: Ability to consider another person's mental state (thoughts, desires, intentions) or experience - story cards with questions to elicit information about the mental state of the individuals portrayed, such as "Where will the girl look for the lost bag?” or "Why is the boy sad?”
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    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB
    & (n.d.). Adult Development. BYU-I Books. https://books.byui.edu/-JMyB

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