Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
1
Chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in
middle adulthood (40s and 50s)
Physical development
 hair grays and thins, new lines on face, new body shape
 life-threatening health episodes
 worries: diseases, losing independence, mental capacities
Vision
 thickening of the lens, making it less flexible, adaptable
 By age 60, presbyopia
 lenses get yellower making it harder to distinguish colours
 the vitreous develops opaque areas, making it harder to
see at night and increasing sensitivity to glare.
Hearing
14% aged 45-64 have hearing loss: presbycusis
 men’s hearing declines earlier and at a faster rate
Skin
3 layers: (1) the epidermis (2) the dermis (3) the hypodermis.
* epidermis gets less firmly attached to the dermis
* dermis gets thinner
* fat in the hypodermis diminishes
 Result: wrinkling and loosening of the skin
 Women’s skin ages faster than men's
Muscle-fat makeup
 increase in body fat and loss of lean muscle mass
 fatty deposits within abdominal cavity
 fat beneath the skin and on the limbs actually decreases
 size of abdomen ↑ 6-16% in men, and 25-35% in women
 men: back, upper abdomen; women: waist, upper arms
 continued exercise offsets these changes
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
2
Skeleton
 ↓ in bone density is 8-12% for men, 20-30% for women
 disks in spinal column collapse, reducing height by as
much as 1 inch by age 60
 bones fracture more easily and heal more slowly
 exercise and calcium intake can slow this process
Reproductive system: fertility declines.
 in women: cycle shortens from 28 days to 23 by late 40s,
and become more irregular. Ovulation is also irregular,
and some ova may be defective
 menopause at age 51 (wide range - 42 to 58)
o causes a decrease in estrogen  reproductive organs
shrink; genitals less easily stimulated; vagina
lubricates more slowly; decreased elasticity of skin;
loss of bone mass
 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) - increases
risks of cancer
 diet, exercise, not smoking, plant estrogens
 in men: the quantity of semen and sperm decrease after
age 40.
o there is no “male menopause”
o 20% of men by age 60 have impotence problems
Health and Fitness
Sexuality: drop in frequency is slight
- those who had sex often in 20s-30s continue in midlife.
- associated with psychological well-being
- men and women take longer to feel aroused, reach
orgasm
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
3
Illness and disability
 men are more vulnerable to most health problems
 economic disadvantage predicts poor health, premature
death
cancer
 death rate due to cancer is 10X what it was in early
adulthood (34% of all deaths)
 damage to the p53 gene is involved in 60% of cancers
 inherited proneness to certain cancers exists - e.g. familial
breast cancer (lack of BRCA1 or BRCA2)
 40% of cancer patients are cured
 breast cancer is the leading type for women;
prostate cancer is the leading type for men; lung
cancer is #2 for both sexes; then colon cancer;
then rectal cancer
cardiovascular disease: 27% of deaths in middle adulthood
 atherosclerosis + with high blood pressure +
high blood cholesterol
 heart attack: blockage of normal blood supply to
an area of the heart, causing the heart muscle in
that region to die.
 Over 50% die before getting to the hospital;
another 15% die during treatment; another 7-10%
die over the next few years
 arrhythmia: irregular heartbeat. Can prevent the
heart form pumping enough blood, causing
faintness; can allow clots to form in the heart’s
chambers, can travel to the brain (stroke)
 angina pectoris: indicate oxygen-deprived heart
 angioplasty: catheter & balloon flatten the
plaques to allow blood to flow better
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
4
osteoporosis: severe age-related bone loss. 25% of
postmenopausal women, and most people over 70 (of both
sexes) are affected
 decline in estrogen at menopause
 calcium, vitamin D, weight-bearing exercise,
stopping smoking, stopping alcohol and caffeine,
HRT
Hostility and anger
 followed 35-to-59 year-old Type A men for 8 years
o more than twice as likely as Type Bs to develop heart
disease
 expressed hostility is the key factor – greater
cardiovascular arousal, health complaints, illness
 necessity of finding ways to handle stress constructively
Stress management
 people use 2 general strategies when coping with stress:
o problem centred coping
o emotion-centered coping
 Exercise: exercise helps adults handle stress better.
o sense of self-efficacy
 Optimism: Seeing most experiences as controllable,
being committed to an involvement in daily activities, and
seeing change and obstacles as challenges  “hardy”
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
5
Gender and aging
 the cultural image of older women contrasts with women’s
new feelings of assertiveness, confidence, versatility
o rated as less attractive and with more negative
characteristics than middle aged men.
o men judge middle aged women more harshly
o possibly due to the ideal of sexual attractiveness in
women
Mental Abilities
Crystallized intelligence increases steadily into late
adulthood.
Fluid intelligence decreases beginning in the late 20s or
early 30s! This is possibly due to a general slowing of the
CNS.
 wide variability in age-related intelligence changes
 above average intelligence, complex occupations,
stimulating leisure pursuits  slower and smaller decline
 flexible personality, good marriage, good health, high SES
Information Processing
 as we age, reaction time slows down, especially when the
tasks are complex
 slows at a faster rate for women than men
 neural network view: as neurons die, breaks in the
networks appear. Information gets rerouted, but the
system is now less efficient.
 information-loss view: older adults lose more
information as it passes through the system, causing the
system to slow down to inspect and interpret new
information
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
6
Attention
 sustaining 2 tasks at once becomes harder as we age
 harder to switch back and forth between mental
operations
Memory
 amount of information we can retain in working memory
diminishes from 20s to 60s
 we use elaboration less often as a technique to hold
information in memory
 general factual knowledge, procedural knowledge,
knowledge related to one’s occupation do not decline and
may increase into midlife
Practical problem solving
 we actually get better at this as we age
 more experience and expertise
 peaks between 40 - 50, may be sustained for some time
Vocational life and cognitive development
 the more cognitively flexible you are, the more likely you
will be to seek out challenging work that permit autonomy
 those with complex, autonomous jobs increase their
cognitive flexibility
 Having a stimulating non-routine job generalizes to other
realms in life too - such people tend to seek out
stimulating leisure pursuits
Becoming a student in midlife
 students over age 25 now make up 44% of those enrolled
 women are the majority of adult learners – about 58%.
 In adult learners over the age of 35, 65% are women
Lifespan overheads, chapter 15: physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood
7
 1st year re-entry women tend to feel self-conscious,
inadequate, and scared to talk in class
o often pulled in several directions by career, family, and
school.
o support systems - family, kids, friends, the institution,
and the workplace can value, aid, and encourage
these efforts in numerous ways
 improved ability to integrate knowledge, and so find
material more meaningful than many traditional-age
students.
 provide counter-stereotypical models for younger people