Adulthood

1. Adulthood It is more difficult to generalize about adulthood stages than about life’s early stages 1 v 10? 40 v 60?

2. Physical Development • Physical abilities peak in the mid-twenties (muscular strength, sensory keenness, cardiac output) • Decline in physical abilities begins imperceptibly • What types of people do you think are first to notice this? • Gradual decline in fertility, resulting in menopause for women

3. True or False • 1. Older people become more susceptible to short-term illnesses • 2. If they live to be 90 or older, most people eventually become senile • 3. Recognition memory declines with age • 4. Life satisfaction peaks in the 50s and declines with age

4. Physical Development (cont.) • Chromosome tips (telomeres) wear down with age • When cells die, it is more likely that they are not replaced with perfect genetic replicas • Sensory abilities • Visual sharpness and distance perception decline with age • Smell and hearing also decline • Pupil shrinks and the lens becomes less transparent • Retina of a 65 year old receives 1/3 as much light as your retinas do • “Don’t you need better light for reading?”

6. Health • Disease-fighting immune system weakens with age • (Partially) Due to a lifetime’s development of antibodies, those over 65 are less susceptible to short-term ailments • Neural processing does slow down (most evident on complex tasks) • By age 80, there is a brain weight reduction by 5% • Physical exercise stimulates neural connections and brain cell development (and neurogenesis in the hippocampus) • Active older adults tend to be mentally quicker • Exercise also helps maintain the telomeres

8. Alzheimer's • Strikes 3% of the world’s population by age 75 • Symptoms are NOT normal aging • Memory, then reasoning deteriorates; then the person becomes emotionally flat; then disoriented; then incontinent; then mentally vacant (can take 5-20 years) • Why? • Loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine (ACh)

9. Cognitive Development • When asked to remember the two most important events over the last half-century, most people tend to name events from their teens and twenties • Early adulthood is a peak time for memory and some types of learning • Postformal thought: understanding that there is more than one right answer or none at all • Age and memory • Age does not seem to affect recognition (but does recall) • Slower to recall information • Type of information also plays a role • Nonsense syllables or unimportant events – more errors

10. Aging and Intelligence • Do we get wiser or does or intelligence decrease with age? • Depends on what kind of intelligence we are talking about! • Crystallized intelligence: accumulated knowledge • Increases! • Fluid intelligence: ability to reason speedily and abstractly • Decreases slowly up to age 75, then more rapidly • Mathematicians and scientists produce much of their most creative work during their late 20s • Historians, philosophers, writers tend to produce much of their best work after 40! • Mental ability more strongly correlates to proximity to death, not age

11. Social Development • Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages • Young adulthood (20s-40s): Intimacy v. Isolation • Struggle to form close relationships and gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel isolated • Middle adulthood (40s-60s): Generativity v. Stagnation • Need to discover a sense of contribution to the world (usually through family and work), or they may feel a lack of purpose • Late adulthood (late 60s and up): Integrity v. Despair • Reflecting on his or her life, an older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure

12. Sense of identify, confidence, and self-esteem strengthen as we get older • Do we go through a mid-life crisis in our 40s? • No (for ¾ people) • Usually caused by an event (death, divorce, job change), not age • Happiness • Slightly higher amongst young and older adults that those middle aged • Positive feelings usually increase with age • The amygdala is not as active when processing negative events (but still active with positive events!) • Generally, feelings mellow as we get older • Less reactive • Average feeling tends to remain stable • Life is less of a roller coaster!