Late Adulthood
Ch 17-19
Developmental Psychology
Jen Wright
The aging process
Aging can be beautiful!
what ages?
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All internal systems
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Immune system
Muscles, joints, bones
Sexual/reproductive system
Brain
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Cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.
Sense organs
Sleep
Cognitive processing
Physical appearance
Attitudes
different kinds of aging
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Universal aging
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Probabilistic aging
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Secondary aging
Chronological aging
Biological aging
Social aging
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Primary aging
Ageism
Population aging
universal/biological aging
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Senesence
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The universal biological processes of a
living organism approaching an advanced
age.
Oganismal senescence
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Increasing homeostatic instability
Declining ability to respond to stress
Increasing risk of disease, dysfunction,
disability
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Cellular senescence
It was once believed that normal cells were in
principle immortal
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Environmental factors responsible for cell death
Now we know that most (but not all) cells die
Hayflick limit
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Number of times a cell will divide before dying
52 times in 20% oxygen (normal air)
70 times in 3% oxygen (human internal conditions)
what controls cell division?
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Cells possess molecular clocks
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Telomeres
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Non-coding appendix on ends of
DNA
Shortened by mitosis
At certain length, cell will no
longer divide
Protective mechanism against
chromosome destruction,
mutation, and cancer
Other forms of programmed cell
death
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E.g. apoptosis
Triggered by mitochondria
biological theories of aging
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Aging clock theory
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Telomere theory
Evolutionary theory
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Late-acting deleterious mutations not
selected against
Earlyacting
disease
Passing
on genes
Middleacting
disease
Lateacting
disease
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Wear and tear theory
Error theory
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Somatic mutation theory
Free-radical theory
Accumulative waste theory
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How long is a normal life?
maximum life span
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the oldest possible age that members of a
species can live
under ideal circumstances for humans
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approximately 122 years
average life expectancy
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the number of years the average newborn in
a particular population group is likely to live
centenarians
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People living to be 100+ years old
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55,000 in US in 2005
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30,000 in Japan
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1 in 50 women, 1 in 200 men
Okinawans 5x more likely
450,000 world-wide
Super-centenarians: 110+ years
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Reviewing lives of different
centenarians
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Many differences in lifestyles
Yet, they were similar in four ways…
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diet was moderate
work continued throughout life
family, friends, community ties were
important
exercise and relaxation were part of daily
routine
Nun study
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n
w2lafKIEio
Top 4 disease-related deaths
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cancer
Heart disease
Cerebrovascular disease
Pulmonary disease
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Other diseases that occurs with
increasing frequency with age:
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Arthritis
Cataracts
Osteoporosis
Type 2 diabetes
Hypertension
Alzheimer’s disease
aging prevention
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Artificial extension of telomeres
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Increased sirtuins – repair damage to DNA
Organ/tissue repair and rejuvenation
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Trade-off between aging and cancer
Vitamin D naturally lengthens
Free-radical therapy
Stem cells
Organ/tissue replacement
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Artificial and cloned organs/tissue
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Caloric restriction
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60% of required
calories
Reduction in Type2
diabetes, cancer
Extension of life in all
species tested
Intermittent fasting
Erickson’s stages
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Adolescence: Identity achievement
Young Adulthood: Developed network of
intimacy
Mid-life: Generativity vs. Stagnation
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Creating/giving vs. “self-absorption”
Late-life: Integrity vs. Despair
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Life-review
generativity
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Creative life projects
Feeling needed by people
Helping younger generation develop
Influence in community or area of interest
Productivity and effectiveness
Appreciation/awareness of older generation
Broader, more global perspective
Interest in things beyond family
shift in motivation
integrity
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Life-review: was one’s life meaningful?
Regrets involve four major themes:
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Mistakes and bad decisions
Hard times
Social relationships
Missed educational opportunities
Reminiscence therapy: discussing past activities
and experiences with another individual or group
Wisdom
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Acceptance of life circumstances
Finding meaning/purpose
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Dimensions of well-being
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Self-acceptance
Purpose in life
Positive relationships
Environmental mastery
Personal growth
Autonomy
personality
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Conscientiousness predicts lower mortality
risk from childhood through late adulthood
Low conscientiousness and high neuroticism
predicts earlier death
Older adults characterized by negative
affect do not live as long as those
characterized by more positive affect
volunteerism
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Older adults benefit from altruism and
engaging in volunteer activities
Helping others may reduce stress hormones,
which improves cardiovascular health and
strengthens the immune system
Volunteering is associated with a number of
positive outcomes
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More satisfaction with life
Less depression and anxiety
Better physical health
Social networks
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Convoy Model of Social Relations:
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individuals go through life embedded in a personal
network of individuals from whom they give and
receive social support
Social Support:
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Improves physical and mental health
Reduces symptoms of disease
Increases one’s ability to meet health-care needs
Decreases risk of institutionalization
Associated with lower rates of depression
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Social Integration
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Greater interest in spending time with a small circle of
friends and family
Low level of social integration is linked with coronary
heart disease
Being a part of a social network is linked with longevity,
especially for men
Four-generation families have become more
common because of increased longevity
Great-grandparents can transmit family history to
future generations
Selective Optimization with Compensation
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Successful aging is linked with three
main factors:
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Selection: need to select those activities
of most value
Optimization: maintain performance
through practice and use of technology
Compensation: find constructive ways to
accommodate/work around increasing
disability
Social aging
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Unlike gender/ethnicity
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Doesn’t apply for entire life.
(potentially) applies to everyone.
Ageism
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Negative stereotypes associated with age
negatively influence performance, function, and
well-being.
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Stereotypes against older adults are often negative
Most frequent form is disrespect, followed by
assumptions about ailments or frailty caused by age
Positive stereotypes associated with age positively
influence performance, function, and well-being.
Development of dementia
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Loss of intellectual ability in elderly people
has traditionally been called senility.
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The pathological loss of brain function is
known as dementia—literally, “out of mind,”
referring to severely impaired judgment
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dementia
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irreversible loss of intellectual functioning caused by
organic brain damage or disease
becomes more common with age, but it is abnormal
and pathological even in the very old
Alzheimer’s disease
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First described by German psychiatrist
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Generally diagnosed in people over 65
years
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Early-onset (before 65 years) only 5-10% of
patients
Several genetic causes
4.5+ million American suffer from it
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Alois Alzheimer (1906)
5% of 65-74 years
Nearly 50% of 85+
1 in 6 women over 55; 1 in 10 men over 55
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http://www.alz.org/brain/01.asp
DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE
Symptoms of Pre-dementia
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Early symptoms similar to age-related or
stress-induced memory loss
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Subtle cognitive difficulties
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Executive function of attentiveness
Planning, flexibility
Abstract thinking
Impairment in semantic memory
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Difficulty remembering recently learned facts
New memory formation
Mild confusion/Apathy
As early as 5-10 years (some say 20 years)
before official diagnosis
Moderate stages
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Hindering of independence
Paraphasias
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Phonemic paraphasia - Mispronunciation, syllables
out of sequence. e.g. "I slipped on the lice (ice) and
broke my arm."
Verbal paraphasia - Substitution of words
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Semantic paraphasia - The substituted word is related to
the intended word. e.g. "I spent the whole day working on
the television, I mean, computer."
Remote paraphasia - The substituted word is not really
related to the intended word. e.g. "You forgot your lamp, I
mean, umbrella."
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Memory problems worsen
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Start of failure to recognize friends/
relatives
Behavioral changes
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STM and LTM
Wandering
Sundowning
Irritability
Labile affect
Progression is typically 2-10 years
Advanced stages
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Complete dependence
Significant language impairment
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Eventual loss of speech
Apathy, exhaustion
Loss of mobility, ability to feed
oneself
External causes of death
Progression is typically 1-5 years
•Plaques
•Amyloid-beta proteins
• Tangles
•Neurofibrillary congestion
Causes?
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Several competing hypotheses:
Cholingeric hypothesis
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Caused by reduced synthesis of acetylcholine
Increase in acetylcholine doesn’t cure dementia
Amyloid hypothesis
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Caused by amyloid beta deposits caused by APP
(chr21)
Universal development in Down Syndrome by 40
Gene that leads to excessive deposits in early-onset
Transgenic mice
Weak correlation with neuron loss
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Tau hypothesis
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Caused by tau protein abnormalities
Formation of neurofibrillary tangles
Herpes simplex virus (HSV1) hypotheis
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Cold sore virus
May be responsible for up to 60% of cases
Promotes formation of beta amyloid plaques
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Uses APP for transportation
Causes inflammation in brain
HSV1 found in brain cells of Alzheimer’s patients
Cheap available drugs for treatment
Risk factors
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Obesity
High blood pressure
Head trauma
High cholesterol
Being American!
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Higher rates in
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Japanese-Americans than Japanese
African-Americans than Africans
Depression
Lower rates in highly educated
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Beneficial consequences of learning and memory
Other forms of dementia
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The second most common cause of dementia is a stroke
Vascular dementia (VaD), also called multi-infarct
dementia (MID)
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Subcortical Dementias
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Forms of dementia that begin with impairments in motor ability
and produce cognitive impairment in later stages
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a form of dementia characterized by sporadic, and progressive, loss
of intellectual functioning caused by repeated infarcts, or
temporary obstructions of blood vessels, which prevent sufficient
blood from reaching the brain
Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Multiple Sclerosis are
subcortical dementias
Reversible Dementia
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dementia caused by medication, inadequate nutrition, alcohol
abuse, depression, or other mental illness can sometimes be
reversed
population aging
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Increased age of population
Two causal factors
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Asia/Europe face severe population aging
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Rising life expectancy
Declining fertility
Average age approaching 50
Economic implications
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More savings/less spending
Increased health care
Less education
Retirement/social security
Population aging