Ch 13
This is Erikson's adult stage in which people seek to be productive and contribute something lasting to the world
What is Generativity vs. Stagnation?
This is the term for the condescending, slow, high-pitched way some people speak to older adults.
What is elderspeak?
This theory says older adults narrow their social circles and focus on emotionally meaningful relationships as they recognize time is limited
What is socio-emotional selectivity theory?
This is the name for the Big Five personality traits, spelled out as an acronym.
What is OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)?
This Erikson stage, experienced in emerging adulthood, involves forming close bonds or risking loneliness and social isolation.
Intimacy v Isolation
This term describes the group of people who travel through life with you and provide a protective layer of social support
What is a social convoy?
This cellular aging theory focuses on the shortening of these protective caps on chromosomes as a key mechanism of aging
What are telomeres?
This term describes older adults who are physically infirm, very ill, or cognitively disabled and at high risk of needing nursing home care
What are frail elders?
True or false: Mandatory retirement at a fixed age is legal in most U.S. occupations.
False
This type of memory — remembering to do something in the future — actually shows a paradox in older adults who often perform better on real-life tasks than lab tests
What is prospective memory?
According to Sternberg, these are the three components that make up complete love.
What are passion, intimacy, and commitment?
These are the five basic self-care tasks used to measure functional independence in older adults
What are the ADLs — dressing, eating, ambulating, toileting, and hygiene?
These two theories of aging directly contradict each other — one says withdrawal is natural, the other says it is caused by ageism
What are disengagement theory and activity theory?
This term describes the period when adult children move back in with parents, straining the household but also reflecting economic realities
What is the boomerang generation (or swollen nest)?
This principle describes how older adults and caregivers adjust goals and strategies to maintain functioning despite declining abilities
What is selective optimization with compensation?
This term describes non-biological individuals who are accepted and treated as full family members.
What is fictive kin?
This neurocognitive disorder primarily attacks the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, causing personality and emotional changes rather than memory loss first
What is frontotemporal NCD (Pick's disease)?
This is the term for the obligation adult children feel to care for aging parents, which varies widely across cultures and income levels
What is filial responsibility?
This is the most common reversible condition that is frequently mistaken for a neurocognitive disorder in older adults
What is depression?
These two proteins, when they form plaques and tangles in the cerebral cortex, are the definitive markers of Alzheimer's disease found on autopsy.
What are beta-amyloid (plaques) and tau (tangles)?
This person becomes the unofficial communications hub of a family, preserving its history and keeping members connected
What is a kinkeeper?
This phenomenon occurs when ageist treatment causes older adults to become more dependent, confused, or passive than they would otherwise be
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy (of ageism)?
These theories argue that a person's social category — gender, ethnicity, income, age — shapes and limits their experience of late adulthood more than individual choices do.
What are stratification theories?
This demographic shift describes the change in the proportion of older versus younger people in a population, driven by longer lifespans and lower birth rates
What is a demographic shift?
This concept from Chapter 15 describes the compounding effect of being disadvantaged across multiple social categories — race, gender, age, and income — simultaneously and cumulatively over a lifetime
What is intersectionality?