PS 277 – Adulthood
and Aging
Dr. Mike Pratt
PS277: Adulthood & Aging –
Introductory Lecture 1
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Course Information & Goals
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My Background
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Everyday Views and Myths of Later Adulthood
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Life Span Perspective on Development
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Darwin’s Life Story and Aging Process
Contact Information
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Dr. Michael Pratt
Office: 2024 Science Building
Telephone: x2824
E-mail: mpratt@wlu.ca
Office Hours: Thursday 10:30-12:00 pm
TA: Eric Theriault
I. Introductory Material
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Course syllabus on my Psych Dept webpage
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Field placements and paper assignment
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Evaluations
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Class discussions
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My vision issues
Course Goals
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Encourage you to think about development across the
lifespan, not just during childhood/adolescence
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Get you to learn about how people study development
in later life scientifically, some things they’ve found out
so far and all the questions that remain!
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Spend some quality time with older adults as volunteer
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Give you an interest in finding out more about aging
II. My Interests, Background
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Trained as a developmental psychologist
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Interested in development across the lifespan – have
taught courses on children, adolescents, and adults
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Research interests in adulthood and aging – moral
development, family stories, parenting and grandparenting, environmental concern –see lab information
on my webpage
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Some clinical training working with families, children and
adolescents
My Maternal Grandmother – Carrie
Anne Watts - 1904?
My Parents & Grandmother – Ted and
Louise Pratt, 1949
My Maternal Grandmother’s Paternal
Grandparents – Watts Family, England, c. 1875
My Grandchildren, Maxwell and Ellie
– Christmas, 2009 – 7th generation
III. Studying the Life Cycle – Life
Span Views
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Generally distinguish segments of lifespan in
more detail within 2 major periods:
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Early Period: Infancy, childhood, adolescence,
emerging adulthood
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Later Period: Young adulthood, midlife, youngold, old-old adults
The Far Side View – Some Common
Stereotypes of Aging
Facts on Aging Quiz
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Some aspects of intelligence decline with old age
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The majority of older adults say that they are happy most of the time
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The majority of older adults will at some point end up in a nursing home
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Suicide is more common among the elderly than any other age group
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Rarely does someone over the age of 65 produce a great work of art,
science, or scholarship
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Most older adults are preoccupied with death
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Older adults are set in their ways – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
What Are Some Implications of
Stereotypes/Myths about Aging?
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Others may “expect” problems and thus create them
(self-fulfilling prophecy) – e.g., treating older adults as
very dependent in nursing home contexts (Langer’s
work)
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Older adults may anticipate these problems for
themselves and thus create them too – feeling
incompetent
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We may “overlook” serious problems, thinking they’re
just typical – e.g., dementias
Social Implications of Aging in the
Canadian Population
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Aging adults are the fastest-growing segment of the
population in Canada (60% growth from 1981 to 2001 in
old-old group, over 85) + Baby Boomers coming!
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Older adults are often seen as “burden” on rest of
society – demanding resources, in conflict with young
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Important to remember that older adults are diverse,
more multi-cultural, better educated, more healthy than
in past
Comments, reactions?
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IV. Paul Baltes’ Integrated
Perspective on Lifespan Development
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Bio-cultural framework
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Multi-directionality of development
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Plasticity
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Adaptation in later life – the SOC model
Paul Baltes (1939-2006)
Bio-Cultural Model
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Influences of nature and nurture – always intertwined
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Human biology and the genome become less favorable
later in life (e.g., diseases of later life – Alzheimer’s)
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Why? Hard to eliminate these problems from the
genome, since selection operates on reproductive
potential, which is lower in later life
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Need for environment to sustain high levels of function
increases with age – e.g., recent improvements in life
span due to medical research and technology
Allocation of Resources in
Development – Multidirectionality
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Growth functions = early life
Maintenance, resilience functions = mid-life, adulthood
Regulation of loss functions = late life
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STILL: Older adults may show some gains – ex.,
broader lessons in their stories, but more losses –
memory for details
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Children show some losses – ex., breadth of phoneme
perception declines, but more gains – language
development
Plasticity in Development – “Teaching
Old Dogs New Tricks?”
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Older adults show declines on average in test
performance in later life – e.g., spatial rotation skills
(Schaie & Willis, 1986)
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Older adults also show considerable plasticity of
development through improvement in training studies –
e.g., spatial rotation if given training in strategies
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Comparative training studies show that plasticity is
greater for younger adults than elderly, however
Artur Rubenstein – Pianist (1887 –
1982)
A Model of Goal Regulation (SOC
Framework)
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Selection + Optimization + Compensation in
Managing Losses of Later Life
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Arthur Rubenstein example in 80’s for playing fast
passages on piano:
Chose easier pieces (Selection)
Practiced them more (Optimization)
Played slow parts slower for contrast with the fast
parts, which couldn’t do as fast (Compensation)
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IV. Charles Darwin in Late Life (18091882)
Darwin’s Life Story – A Whole Person
View of Adulthood and Aging
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Born in February 1809 in well-to-do English family
Mother died young, when Darwin was 8, raised by older sisters
A poor student who liked hunting and collecting in nature, “amount to
nothing” comment of father
Voyage at 22 on HMS Beagle as key early life experience (1831-1836) and
turning point
Became an independent “gentleman” scholar on return
Married cousin Emma in 1838, 10 children born to couple, lost 2
Developed theory of evolution through natural selection in 1839 or so,
spent many years gathering support, finally published in 1859
Experienced severe health problems throughout adulthood, both mental
and physical, anxious over unconventional implications of theory
Spent last 25 years of life working out implications of theory for humans,
other life forms, carrying out research
Died at age 73, in 1882