Early Adulthood
Which of Erikson's stage is this?
Intimacy vs Isolation
Define semantic memory
General knowledge of the world. Does not slow with age
List the 3 subgroups of adulthood...extra points if you can name their ages
Young old (60-75)
Old old (75-85)
Oldest old (85+)
True or false--Age-related memory decline is associated with changes in the ratio of white to grey matter in the brain and decrease in the volume of the hippocampus.
False
Act out one of the 5 types of marriage conflict and explain whether it is successful or unsuccessful
Stable/Enduring:
- Validating: have disagreements, but the disagreements rarely escalate. Partners express mutual respect, even when they disagree, and listen well to each other
- Volatile: squabble a lot, disagree, and don’t listen to each other very well when they argue, but they still have more positive than negative encounters, showing high levels of laughter and affection
- Avoidant: called conflict minimizers, don't try to persuade each other; they simply agree to disagree, without apparent rancour, a pattern sometimes described as "devitalized"
Unsuccessful:
- Hostile/engaged: have frequent hot arguments, but they lack the balancing effect of humour and affection
- Hostile/detached: fight regularly (although the arguments tend to be brief), rarely look at each other, and lack affection and support
What are the 3 stages of Levinson's Life Structure?
- novice phase
- mid-era phase
- culmination phase
Which of Erikson's stages are middle adults experiencing?
Which of Erikson's stages are we in?
integrity vs despair
What are robert sternberg's 3 concepts of love?
Passion, intimacy and commitment
Act out an example of "life review" (last of Erikson's stages)
an evaluative process in which elders make judgments about past behaviour
What is Postformal Thought?
What are "types of thinking that are associated with a hypothesized fifth stage of cognitive development". Examples include: relativism, dialectical thought, reflective judgement
Vaillant argued there is a stage between "intimacy vs isolation" and "generativity vs stagnation". What is it?
List the 3 theories about activity in late adulthood...extra points if you can define them
- activity theory: the idea that it is normal and healthy for older adults to try to remain as active as possible for as long as possible
- disengagement theory: an alternative theory that states it is normal and healthy for older adults to scale down their social lives and to separate themselves from others to a certain degree
- continuity theory: the idea that older adults adapt life-long interests and activities to the limitations imposed on them by physical aging (activities persists but in modified ways)
Which theory is this: Older adults adapt their activities to the limitations caused by physical aging
Continuity theory
Act out the 3 components of the successful ageing paradigm
- good physical health
- retention of mental abilities
- continued engagement in social and productive activities
What is the difference between crystallized and fluid intelligence?
- crystallized: depends heavily on education and experience, skills that every adult learns growing up
- fluid: more "basic" abilities that depends on the CNS (ex. memory, speed, abstract reasoning)
Name this term:
Selective optimization with compensation
List Cohen's 4 stages of mid-to-late life creativity...bonus points if you can define them
Re-evaluation phase (50’s): Reflect on past accomplishments and future goals. Increasing sense of time limitations increases the desire to create
Liberation phase (60’s): Retired, so freer to create, more tolerant of failure, and willing to take risks
Summing-up phase (70’s): Knit accomplishments together into a meaningful, cohesive story
Encore phase (80’s): Desire to complete unfished work, or fulfill desire that have been pushed aside
What does the concept "use it or lose it" entail?
The concept use it or lose it means if you know something or a certain skill and you don’t use it then over time you will forget it. Like amy and saxophone.
Act out someone going through the liberation stage (one of Cohen's 4 stages of mid-to-late life creativity)
Retired, so freer to create, more tolerant of failure, and willing to take risks
Name this term:
sociologists' term for the tendency to mate with someone who has traits similar to one's own (people are drawn to those who are of a similar age, education, social class, ethnic group membership, religion, attitudes, interests, and temperament)
Assortative mating (homogamy)
Are midlife crises real? Explain using at least one of 3 related terms
The realization of the inevitability of death, along with other indicators of time passing, seemed to be a universal phenomenon that hit people during their 40s.
Now, however, the timing and nature of major life events have changed dramatically.
Several studies since the 1980s have failed to identify distinct ages at which measures of “mid-life crisis” occurred
3 terms:
Life events approach
Role conflict
Role strain
List the 3 aspects of disengagement theory (the theory that states it is normal and healthy for older adults to scale down their social lives and to separate themselves from others to a certain degree)
- Shrinkage of life space: as people age they interact with less people
- Increased individuality: older people are less governed by strict rules
- Acceptance of these changes: healthy older adults disengage from roles and relationships, turning more inward away from others
What is the difference between semantic and episodic memory and how do these fare in middle adulthood?
Semantic memory is general rules or things that are very basic and you can easily pick up on. Episodic memory is based on experiences like cooking when you do it a lot then you can remember it more clearly next time. During middle adulthood semantic memory might stay the same but episodic can be easily forgotten especially when you forget things easily.
Act out an example of "continuity theory" (one of the activity theories)