Physical & Cognitive Development in
Middle Adulthood
Middle Adulthood
This eye condition, which becomes more common in middle adulthood and beyond, occurs when pressure in the fluid of the eye increases because the fluid cannot drain properly or because too much fluid is produced.
What is glaucoma?
This group of middle adults is known for needing to take care of both their children and their aging parents.
What is the sandwich generation?
This term is used to describe the universal and irreversible changes that occur as people get older. It is also known as senescence.
What is primary aging?
This American psychologist examined the different ways people cope with aging. She described four different personality types based on her research.
Who is Bernice Neugarten?
While brain death refers to the cessation of all signs of brain activity, this type of death refers to the absence of a heartbeat and breathing?
What is functional death?
What are the back and legs?
In Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory, middle adulthood is characterized by this-versus-stagnation. Success in this stage is described as looking beyond oneself and making contributions to others, while failure, known as stagnation, can lead to floundering, frustration, and boredom.
What is generativity?
Sandra just turned 84, but she is very healthy, lives independently, and exercises several times a week. Her functional age might be described as this.
What is young old?
While more and more late adults are living at home, many late adults move into this type of facility, which allows people to live in independent housing with the support of medical care to the required extent.
What is assisted living?
By this age, children understand the universality and finality of death.
What is nine-years-old?
While the female one of these is more obvious, marked notably by menopause, the male counterpart is less noticeable and may be marked by enlargement of the prostate gland and erectile dysfunction.
What is the climacteric?
An involved grandparent is actively engaged in the lives of their grandchildren, often mirroring the roles of parents. A remote grandparent is detached and distant, but this type of grandparent is somewhere in the middle, acting as a support and buddy to grandchildren.
What is a companionate grandparent?
While there is no cure for Alzheimer's, the most promising drugs focus on the loss of this neurotransmitter, abbreviated Ach.
What is acetylcholine?
This theory of successful aging suggests that late adults simply need to maintain their desired level of involvement in society to maximize their sense of well-being and self-esteem?
What is continuity theory?
This controversial practice is also known as "mercy killing."
What is euthanasia?
This term describes a rule or principle which is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups. For example, women and men experience this when it comes to aging--society expects women to hide their aging, while men are more often considered to be "wise" or "distinguished" with age.
What is a double standard?
The third stage of partner abuse occurs after the physical abuse has occurred and involves the batterer feeling remorse, apologizing, and assuring the partner it won't happen again. This third stage can be one of the reasons the abused partner stays in the relationship.
What is the loving contrition stage?
As the heart slows down with age, blood flow to this organ is reduced, also decreasing the amount of oxygen and glucose used by this organ.
What is the brain?
This term describes the process in which people concentrate on particular skill areas to compensate for losses in other areas.
What is selective optimization?
While grief is the emotional response to a loss, this is simply the acknowledgement of the objective fact that one has lost someone to death.
What is bereavement?
While memory loss is minimal during middle adulthood, this type of memory could be impacted by decreased retrieval efficiency.
What is long-term memory?
While normative-crisis theories focus on personality development due to age-related events, these theories focus on personality development due to particular events in someone's life (which may or may not be related to age).
What are life events theories (or models)?
According to developmental psychologist Timothy Salthouse, cognitive training/mental exercise does not improve cognitive function. Rather, he suggests that people who stay mentally active across the lifespan enter into late adulthood with this, allowing them to continue to perform at relatively high mental levels, despite underlying declines.
What is cognitive reserve?
While wordy, Robert Peck's developmental tasks in late adulthood describe stages people progress through following retirement. In the second developmental task, late adults consider changes in their physical capabilities due to age. Those who cope with and move beyond those changes experience body transcendence. Those who don't may experience this, which can negatively impact personality development.
What is body preoccupation?
A health care proxy, someone who can make healthcare decisions when a patient cannot do so for himself, can be designated in a living will or in this legal document.
What is a durable power of a attorney?