Human Lifespan & Development Textbook & PowerPoints

Measurement of psychological characteristics

1. Cross-sectional 2. Longitudinal Cross-Sequential

1. Stanford-Binet 2. WISC/WAIS

IQ Stopped @ 18

Analyzed both geniuses and normal people and found that intelligence actually improved between 20-50. Discovered that Cross-Sectional resea

Due to each cohorts unique life experiences: quality of education improves, cultural opportunities and sources of information change every d

Cross-Sequential Research

Inc. avg. IQ over time comes from comparing test scores

Wider education and experience, better nutrition, fewer toxins, smaller family size.

A combination of cross-sectional and longitudal research.

1. Verbal Meaning 2. Spatial Orientation 3. Inductive Reasoning 4. Number ability 5. Word Fluency

Multidirectional, multicultural, multicontextual, and plastic

Accumulation of facts, information, and knowledge that comes with education and experiences within a particular culture.

1. Analytical - 2. Creative 3. Practical

Abstract planning, strategizing, information processing, verbal skills, logic. Indication: multiple-choice test, brief essays, recall of inf

Imagination, appreciation of the unexpected or unusual, originality, vision. Indications: Inventiveness, Innovation, Ingenuity, Resourcefuln

Ability to adapt behaviors, understanding and assessing real problems, ability to apply knowledge and skills. Indicated by: street smarts, s

Intellectual Tools passed down from generation to generation which may assist in learning within societies

1. Linguistic 2. Logical-mathematical 3. Musical 4. Spatial 5. Body kinesthetic 6. Naturalistic 7. Social understanding - interpersonal 8. S

All people can have a small amount of each but some are more gifted in certain areas than others.

Selective optimization compensation

Try to make the best of their lives by compensating for physical and cognitive losses. They try to become more proficient in activities to d

Intuitively, automatically, strategically, flexibly. They are less stereotypic.

Ignoring stress, or considering it as a challenge, not a threat. Problem focused coping - attacking the problem. Emotion-focused coping - c

• Extroversion- outgoing, assertive, active • Agreeableness - kind and helpful • Conscientiousness - organized, -openess • Neu

Genes, culture, early childhood, experiences made during adolescence and early adulthood.

The specific lifestyle and social context adults settle into that are compatible with their personality needs and interests.

Environment, changes can cause people to act differently.

Men and women becoming similar as they grow older through middle age

The idea that a person of a certain gender take on the other genders role and traits later in life.

A period of unusual anxiety, radical reexamination, and sudden transformation associated with middle age, but most likely more related to hi

Its is the most important support system, however if immediate family is not fulfilling this part you may have a group that is "like family"

Group of people who guide and socialize an individual as they go through life

Happiness, comfort, and self-respect. May be achieved through marriage or cohabitation

• Less stress from kids • Higher incomes • Spending more time together • Relationships usually get better over time

Income decreases, weakens family ties.

Usually happens within 5 years, tend to end in divorce more often than first marriages.

The person who takes primary responsibility for celebrating family achievements, gathering family together, and keeping in touch with family

Respected, loved, emotionally distant.

Active in day to day life, live near, seen often.

Independent with own lifestyle and household. Choose how generational interaction occurs.

Grandparents who take over the raising of their grandchildren as a result of their adult children's extreme social problems.

Generation of middle-aged people who are squeezed by the needs of the younger generation and the older generation

It becomes more meaningful and more important, salary and benefits rise with seniority

Planning and actual occur in middle age. Usually anticipated with joy, and a mutual decision between spouses. Main decision is based on fina

Study of old age.

Medical specialty devoted to old age

Doctors - illness, gerontologists - socially constructed problem.

All irreversible and universal physical changes over time

Physical illnesses or changes common to aging but cause by an individual's habits.

Shrinking of lens, causing vision to be cloudy, opaque, and distorted.

Optic nerve damage, causing sudden and total blindness

Retinal deterioration

Compares body to a machine; wears down due to inadequate nutrition, disease, pollution, and other stresses.

Focus on body as a whole; aging is normal natural result of the genetic plan for the species

Accumulation of minor accidents that occur during cell reproduction cause aging. Mutations occur in process of DNA repair.

All five: verbal, spatial, inductive, number, word.

Takes longer for the information to register, holds the information for a split second after it is received. Deficits can be compensated for

Forgetting who or what was source of fact, idea, or conversation

Facts, definitions, data, concepts.

Information that is an unconscious or automatic memory, habits, emotional responses, routines

Integrity v. despair

Older adults seek to integrate their unique experience with the community. Death brings life affirming involvement in the present. The more

New experiences incorporated into a stable sense of identity- distortion of reality/denial of any major change

Altering self-concept to adapt to new experiences; over adjustment.

Older person choses to cope with physical and cognitive losses by making changes to strengthen self.

Emphasize change and readjustment

Each person experiences changes of late adulthood and behaves the same way.