Chapter 24

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Chapter 24 25 Late Adulthood

• Cognitive Development
• Decline in information processing
• Mental disorders in old age
• Pyschosocial Development
• Eriksons integrity vs. despair
• Factors influencing psychosocial development

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Cognitive Capacities

• With age it takes longer for information to
  register in sensory register
• Older adults have smaller working memory capacity
  than younger adults
• Explanations for Decline
• inability to screen out distractions and inhibit
  irrelevant thoughts
• decline in total mental energy

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• Older adults unable to gather and consider all
  data relevant to logical analysis and decision
  making
• rather, they rely on prior knowledge, and
  experience
• Long-term Memory
• Knowledge Base memory for vocabulary remains
  unimpaired and can increase with age
• areas of expertise relatively unimpaired
• possible to learn better retrieval strategies,
  but does not overcome age-related problems in
  memory and control

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Mental Disorder Dementia

• Irreversible loss of intellectual functioning
  caused by brain disease. More than 70 diseases
  can cause dementia
• Many aspects of thought and behavior are
  impaired. Causes confusion and forgetfulness
• Rises sharply with age. 1 of people in 60s rate
  doubles every 5 years, stabilizes at 30

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Alzheimers Disease

• Disorder characterized by proliferation of
  plaques and tangles
• abnormalities in cerebral cortex that destroy
  brain functioning
• Plagues formed from protein called B-amyloid
• Tangles are twisted mass of protein threads
  within cells

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• Disorder characterized by proliferation of
  plaques and tangles
• Outside the neurons, plagues appear which contain
  amyloid, a protein that reduces immunity and
  destroys surrounding cells.
• Inside the neurons, tangles appear which are
  twisted mass of protein threads.

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• Age is chief risk factor
• Progressive in nature
• Alzheimers is partly genetic
• ALZHSvariant of the ApoE gene (allele
  4)increases risk
• allele ApoE2 dissipates protein that causes
  plaques

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• Gender, ethnicity, and especially age affect the
  odds of developing it
• women at greater risk than men
• more common in North America and Europe than in
  Japan and China
• less common among Asian Americans than European
  Americans

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Cerebrovascular Dementia

• A stroke occurs when the blood supply to a part
  of brain is interrupted or severely reduced.
• Brain tissue is deprived of oxygen and nutrients.
  Within a few minutes to a few hours, brain cells
  begin to die.
• Strokes leave dead brain cells, producing
  degeneration of mental ability. Obstruction of
  blood vessels prevent sufficient supply of blood
  to brain.

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• Result of genetic and environmental forces
• Indirect hereditary influences through high blood
  pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes
• Cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol use, high salt
  intake, low dietary protein, obesity, inactivity,
  and stress are environmental causes.
• Men are more prone.

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Subcortical Dementia

• Begin with motor ability impairments and later
  produce cognitive impairment
• degeneration of neurons in area of brain that
  produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter essential
  to normal brain functioning
• Parkinsons disease most common

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Psychosocial Development

• Self theories adults make choices, confront
  problems, and interpret reality to be themselves
  as fully as possible Erikson and Maslow
• Stratification theories Social forces limit
  individual choice and direct life at every stage,
  especially late adulthood
• Dynamic theories change and readjustment rather
  than either the ongoing self or legacy of
  stratification

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Self- Theories

• Eriksons integrity vs. despair
• Many older people do a life reviewthe
  examination of ones own past life
• Wisdom
• broad, practical, comprehensive approach to
  lifes problems, reflecting timeless truths
• expertise in life fundamentals, permitting
  exceptional insight and judgment in complex and
  uncertain matters

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Stratification Theories

• By Age
• Disengagement theoryaging increasingly narrows
  ones social sphere, resulting in role
  relinquishment, withdrawal, passivity
• Activity theoryelderly people need to remain
  active in a variety of social sphereswith
  relatives, friends, and community groups. If
  elderly withdraw, they do so unwillingly due to
  ageism
• dominant view now supports activity theory

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Stratification by Gender Ethnicity

• Many older women impoverished because of
  male-centered economic policies
• pension plans based on continuous employment
  more unlikely to be situation for women with
  children
• women more likely to be caregivers for frail
  relatives, often sacrificing their independence
  and well-being

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• Ethnicity and race as social constructs whose
  usefulness is determined by ones society or
  social system
• Ethnic discrimination and racism cause
  stratification, shaping experiences of both
  minorities and majorities

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Dynamic Theory

• The person as well as the social context in which
  they exist is changing.
• Continuity theory- maintenance of self through
  adaptive changes to find continuity in
  discontinuity.

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Relationships in Late-adulthood

• The social convoy
• Long term marriages
• Friendship
• Younger generations