Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

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Chapter 13

• Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle
  Adulthood

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Changing Midlife

• Today, many 50-year-olds are in better shape,
  more alert, and more productive than 40-year-olds
  a generation or two ago
• Middle age is starting later and lasting longer
• Jung -- Midlife is the afternoon of life
• Increasing percentage of population is made up of
  middle-aged and older adults
• Best-educated and most affluent cohort

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Defining Middle Adulthood

• Middle adulthood -- developmental period
  beginning about 40 and extending to 6065 years
• period of declining physical skills and
  increasing responsibility
• shrinking time left in life
• reach and maintain satisfaction in career
• individuals make choices

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Gains and Losses

• Late midlife may be characterized by the loss of
  a parent, the last child leaving the home,
  becoming a grandparent, preparation for
  retirement, and actual retirement
• Overall, gains and losses may balance each other
  in midlife
• losses may begin to dominate gains for many
  individuals in late midlife
• Midlife is characterized by individual variations

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Physical Changes

• Some of the visible signs
• Skin begins to wrinkle and sag
• Areas of pigmentation in skin produce age spots
• Thinning and graying hair
• Interest in plastic surgery, Botox, weight
  control, and vitamins may reflect the desire to
  take control of the aging process

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Height and Weight

• Individuals lose height in middle age
• Many gain weight
• body fat makes up 20 percent or more of weight in
  midlife as compared to 10 percent in adolescence
• almost 1/3 of adults 4059 years are classified
  as obese
• obesity increases probability of other health
  issues
• (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
  2006)

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Vision and Hearing

• Accommodation of the eye -- ability to focus and
  maintain image on the retina declines between 40
  and 59 years
• more need for glasses and/or bifocals
• Hearing also declines after age 40
• sensitivity to pitches decreases
• men lose sensitivity earlier than women
• resulting from exposure to occupational noise

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Cardiovascular System

• High blood pressure and cholesterol issues become
  problematic
• Womens blood pressure rises at menopause and
  typically remains higher than mens
• Exercise, weight control, proper dietary patterns
  can help decrease problems
• Metabolic syndrome is an increasing problem
• Characterized by hypertension, obesity, and
  insulin resistance

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Lungs

• Little change in lung capacity through most of
  middle adulthood
• In late 50s, proteins in lung tissue become less
  elastic, decreasing lung capacity
• Smokers experience most significant changes
• lung capacity improves with quitting smoking

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Sleep

• Beginning in 40s, more wakeful periods are more
  frequent, and there is less of the deepest sleep
• More time lying awake results in feeling less
  rested
• Sleep problems are more common for those who use
  a higher number of prescription and
  nonprescription medications, are obese, are
  depressed, or have cardiovascular disease

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Health habits through the years

• What are health habits that can contribute to
  lower vitality? How is it lowering vitality?
• Think of a bad health habit that you or someone
  you know exhibits and think of ways to change or
  manage the habit to become healthier.

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Health and Disease

• Frequency of accidents declines
• Individuals are less susceptible to colds and
  allergies
• Stress is found to be a factor in disease

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Chronic Disorders

• Chronic disorders are rare in early adulthood
• Chronic disorders -- slow onset and long duration
• Stress is found to be a factor in disease
• Culture affects cardiovascular disease
• (Hertz, Unger, Ferrano, 2006)

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Mortality Rates

• In middle age, many deaths are caused by a
  single, readily identifiable cause
• Leading causes
• heart disease
• cancer
• cardiovascular disease
• Men have higher mortality rates than women for
  all of the leading causes of death
• (National Center for Health Statistics, 2008)

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Sexuality

• Climacteric -- midlife transition in which
  fertility declines
• Osteoporosis
• Menopause
• womens menstrual periods completely cease
• side effects of menopause vary
• cross-cultural studies reveal wide variations

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Treating Effects of Menopause

• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) -- augments
  declining levels of reproductive hormone
  production by the ovaries
• usually estrogen and progestin
• negative side effects for HRT
• increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular
  disease
• Decreased use of HRT has shown a related decline
  in the incidence of breast cancer

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Hormonal Changes in Middle-Aged Men

• Most men do not lose capacity to father children
• Modest decline in sexual hormone level and
  activity
• Male menopause probably has less to do with
  hormonal change than with psychological
  adjustment to overall decline
• Testosterone levels decline and can reduce sexual
  drive
• Most erectile dysfunctions stem from
  physiological problems
• treatment has focused on drug therapy

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Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

• Crystallized intelligence -- individuals
  accumulated information and verbal skills
• Fluid intelligence -- ability to reason
  abstractly begins to decline in middle adulthood
• When studying intelligence, whether data is
  collected cross-sectionally or longitudinally
  makes a difference in results

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Speed of Information Processing

• Perceptual speed begins declining in early
  adulthood and continues declining in middle age

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Memory

• Controversy about whether memory declines in the
  middle years -- most experts agree there is some
  decline, at least in late middle age
• More time is needed to learn new information
• The slowdown has been linked to working memory --
  the mental workbench where individuals
  manipulate and assemble information when making
  decisions, solving problems, and comprehending
  written and spoken language
• Memory decline is more likely to occur when
  individuals do not use effective memory strategies

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Expertise

• Expertise shows up more in middle adulthood
• Expertise involves having extensive, highly
  organized knowledge and understanding of a
  particular domain
• result of many years of experience, learning, and
  effort

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Work in Midlife

• Central during the middle years
• Reach peak of position and earnings
• Middle-aged adults may experience age
  discrimination
• May have multiple financial burdens
• Time of evaluation, assessment, rebalance, and
  reflection

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Career Challenges and Changes

• Globalization of work
• Developments in information technologies
• Downsizing of organizations
• Early retirement
• Concerns about pensions and health care
• Some career changes are self-motivated others
  are the result of job loss

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Leisure

• Leisure -- pleasant times after work when
  individuals are free to pursue activities and
  interests of their own choosing
• midlife changes may produce more time for leisure
• Adults in midlife need to begin preparing for
  retirement
• leisure can be a part of this preparation

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Religion and Adult Lives

• Majority of middle-aged adults profess religious
  beliefs and consider spirituality a major part of
  their lives
• For some, religion is a major influence to some
  adults but may play little or no role in others
  lives
• Females show stronger interest and participate
  more

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Religion and Health

• Researchers have found that religious attendance
  is linked to
• a reduction of blood pressure and hypertension
• increased longevity
• Religion promotes health
• lifestyle issues
• social networks
• coping with stress

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Meaning in Life

• Frankl said that the three most distinct human
  qualities are
• Spirituality
• Freedom
• Responsibility