Module 54 REVIEW

• 54-1 What physical changes occur during middle and late adulthood?

• Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac output begin to decline in the mid-twenties and continue to decline throughout middle and late adulthood.
• Women’s period of fertility ends with menopause around age 50. Men experience a more gradual decline in fertility and sexual response.
• In late adulthood, the immune system weakens, increasing susceptibility to life-threatening illnesses.
• Chromosome tips (telomeres) wear down, reducing the chances of normal genetic replication.
• But for some, longevity-supporting genes, low stress, and good health habits enable better health in later life.

• 54-2 How does memory change with age?

• As the years pass, recall begins to decline, especially for meaningless information, but recognition memory remains strong.
• Developmental researchers study age-related changes (such as memory) with cross-sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (retesting the same people over a period of years).
• “Terminal decline” describes the cognitive decline in the final few years of life.

• 54-3 How do neurocognitive disorders and Alzheimer’s disease affect cognitive ability?

• Neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), formerly called dementia in older adults, are marked by cognitive deficits.
• Alzheimer’s disease causes the deterioration of memory, then reasoning. After 5 to 20 years, the person becomes emotionally flat, disoriented, disinhibited, incontinent, and finally mentally vacant.

• 54-4 What themes and influences mark our social journey from early adulthood to death?

• Adults do not progress through an orderly sequence of age-related social stages. Chance events can determine life choices.
• Evidence does not indicate that adults experience a “midlife crisis” or that distress peaks in midlife.
• The social clock is a culture’s preferred timing for social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
• Adulthood’s dominant themes are love and work, which Erikson called intimacy and generativity.

• 54-5 How does our well-being change across the life span?

• Our self-confidence and sense of identity tends to strengthen across the life span.
• Surveys show that life satisfaction is unrelated to age. Positive emotions increase after midlife and negative ones decrease.
• As we age, we experience fewer extremes of emotion and mood.

• 54-6 A loved one’s death triggers what range of reactions?

• People do not grieve in predictable stages, as was once supposed.
• Strong expressions of emotion may not purge grief, and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid.
• Erikson viewed the late-adulthood psychosocial task as developing a sense of integrity (versus despair).

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which of the following changes does not occur with age?
   1. Visual sharpness diminishes.
   2. Distance perception is less acute.
   3. Adaptation to light-level changes is less rapid.
   4. The lens of the eye becomes more transparent.
   5. Senses of smell and hearing diminish.
2. As telomeres shorten, aging cells may die without being replaced with perfect genetic replicas. This process is slowed by
   1. smoking.
   2. obesity.
   3. stress.
   4. aging.
   5. exercise.
3. Olivia and Jackson plan to get married next year. This significant life event will allow them to achieve Erikson’s stage of
   1. competence.
   2. generativity.
   3. intimacy.
   4. identity.
   5. integrity.
4. Brain scans of older adults show that the ________, a neural processing center for emotions, responds less actively to negative events (but not to positive events), and it interacts less with the hippocampus, a brain memory-processing center.
   1. amygdala
   2. hypothalamus
   3. pineal gland
   4. thyroid gland
   5. thalamus
5. Which of the following is true of menopause?
   1. Both men and women experience menopause around the age of 50.
   2. Men experience menopause around 50 years of age, but women experience menopause around 65 years of age.
   3. Women experience menopause around 50 years of age, but men experience menopause around 65 years of age.
   4. Women experience menopause around the age of 50, but men don’t experience menopause.
   5. Men experience menopause around the age of 65, but women don’t experience menopause.
6. Which of the following would be considered an example of Erikson’s concept of integrity?
   1. A 25-year-old meets and marries the love of his life.
   2. A 35-year-old earns a lot of money, though she doesn’t particularly enjoy her job.
   3. An 85-year-old looks back at a life well-lived and feels satisfied.
   4. A 40-year-old takes pride in her work and how she is raising her children.
   5. A 20-year-old decides to become a physician.

Practice FRQs

1. Describe two ways in which cognitive ability declines during adulthood. Name one factor that can slow the decline.

Answer

1 point: There is a decline in recall—the ability to remember factual information—over the course of adulthood. Pages 561–562

1 point: There is a decline in speed of processing, such as the solving of a novel problem or reaction time, over the adult years. Pages 561–562

1 point: Exercise can help reduce cognitive decline. Page 561

2. Numerous biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors affect the way we age. Explain one example for each of the three that contributes to successful aging.

(3 points)