5th Edition
Psychology
Stephen F. Davis
Emporia State University
Joseph J. Palladino
University of Southern Indiana
PowerPoint Presentation by
Cynthia K. Shinabarger Reed
Tarrant County College
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Copyright © Prentice Hall 2007
9-1
Chapter 9
5th Edition
Development
Across the Lifespan
Ontogenetic Development
Phylogenetic Development
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9-2
Chapter in Perspective
• From the moment of conception until the
moment of death, we change physically,
cognitively, and psychosocially.
• Lifespan developmental psychology is
concerned with the systematic physical,
cognitive, and psychosocial processes that
lead to these changes that occur
throughout life.
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9-3
Basic Issues In Developmental
Psychology
• To what degree does development result
from nature (heredity) and to what extent
is it a product of nurture (environmental
factors)?
• In behavior genetics, a relatively new
field that combines psychology and
biology, researchers seek to provide
answers to the nature-or-nurture question.
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9-4
Basic Issues In Developmental
Psychology
• Longitudinal
studies are
conducted to
evaluate changes
over a period of
time.
• Cross-sectional
studies are used to
obtain information
at a particular point
in time.
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9-5
Basic Issues In Developmental
Psychology
• Groups composed of participants born in
the same year are called cohorts or
cohort groups.
• In a cohort design, we compare the
responses of different cohorts.
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9-6
Heinz Werner:
Orthogenic Principal
• Development proceeds from a state of :
– Globality to
– Differentiation to
– Integration to
– Disintegration.
• This is Isomorphic
• There is a Macro structure and a Micro
structure of this process.
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9-7
Epigenetic Theories
• Development proceeds in a genetically
determined sequence of invariant stages
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9-8
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Conception occurs when a sperm and an
ovum unite to form a one-cell structure
called a zygote.
• The zygote moves from the fallopian tubes
to the uterus (womb), a fist-sized, pearshaped organ, and attaches itself to its
inner wall.
• Through a process of cell division called
mitosis, the zygote reproduces itself.
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9-9
Development From
Conception To Birth
• From the 2nd to 9th weeks after fertilization,
when the major organ systems are formed, the
developing human is called an embryo.
• Not all zygotes become embryos, however;
nearly one-third of implanted zygotes are
rejected from the uterus through miscarriage
(spontaneous abortion).
• The zygotes of most of these early miscarriages
are defective in some way.
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9-10
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Chromosomes are segments of genetic material
located in the nucleus of each cell.
• Human cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes
(numbered according to size), one of each pair
being inherited from each parent.
• The chromosomes carry genes, which are the
basic units of inheritance and the genetic
blueprints for development.
• The general chemical name for genetic material
is deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.
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9-11
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Chromosomes are
actually large
segments of DNA.
• The unique genetic
blueprint for your
development is
contained in the
chromosomes
located in the
nucleus of each cell.
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9-12
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Most human traits are controlled by a number of
different genes, a phenomenon termed
polygenic inheritance.
• The sex of a child is determined by the father.
• The sperm may carry either an X or a Y sex
chromosome.
• When the sperm contributes an X chromosome,
the pair of sex chromosomes will be XX, and the
baby will be female.
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9-13
Development From
Conception To Birth
• If the sperm contributes a Y chromosome,
the pair of sex chromosomes will be XY,
and the baby will be male.
• A gene located on a sex chromosome (X
or Y) is called a sex-linked gene.
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9-14
Development From
Conception To Birth
• From the 9th week until birth, the developing child is
called a fetus.
• The fetus is suspended in a fluid-filled amniotic sac
that cushions it against sudden movements or
blows to the mother.
• The placenta is an organ that develops even more
rapidly than the fetus during the early months of
pregnancy.
• The placenta allows an exchange of nutrients from
the mother to the developing child and an exchange
of waste products from the developing child to the
mother.
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9-15
Development From
Conception To Birth
• The mother’s
blood vessels
intertwine with
those that lead to
the child through
the umbilical cord.
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9-16
Development From
Conception To Birth
• If a pregnant woman’s diet is inadequate,
the baby is more likely to be born
prematurely (at or before 37 weeks) or to
have a low birth weight (less than 5.5
pounds).
• Low-birth-weight infants are 40 times more
likely than normal-weight babies to die
before their first birthday.
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9-17
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Countries that have high numbers of low-birthweight infants include Canada, Germany, Iran,
Japan, China, and Norway.
• Compared with other industrialized countries, the
United States has a relatively high infant mortality
rate; in fact, 40 countries rank higher than the
United States in the rate of infants who survive to
their first birthday.
• The most important factor in causing this high rate
of infant mortality is the lack of adequate prenatal
care due to lack of adequate financial resources.
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9-18
Development From
Conception To Birth
• A wide variety of factors, including drugs,
alcohol, and viruses, can affect the
developing fetus.
• A teratogen is any biological, chemical, or
physical agent that can lead to birth defects.
• A critical period is a specific time during
development when certain processes
should occur or when damage to normal
development can take place.
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9-19
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Almost all drugs cross the placenta freely; among
those that are harmful to the fetus are antibiotics
(such as tetracycline), barbiturates, large doses of
vitamins A and B6, and an acne preparation
(Accutane).
• Even aspirin and caffeine are suspected of causing
harm to the fetus.
• Fetal tobacco syndrome, a condition characterized
by retarded fetal growth resulting in lower birth
weight and hyperactivity, can occur if a mother
smokes as few as five cigarettes per day during
pregnancy.
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9-20
Development From
Conception To Birth
• Scientists have been aware for many years that
children of alcoholic parents exhibit learning and
developmental problems like low birth weight,
small head size, and mental retardation.
• The identification of the fetal alcohol syndrome
(FAS) awakened the scientific community to the
dangers of alcohol use during pregnancy.
• The signs of FAS include small head, flat
midface, hearing loss, heart defects, and low
intelligence.
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Development From
Conception To Birth
• Technological advances have greatly enhanced
our ability to detect defects in the developing
fetus.
• The ultrasound procedure involves directing
high-pitched sound waves (more than 20,000
cycles per second) toward the fetus.
• The sounds pass through the body and bounce
back like the sonar waves used by submarines.
• A computer converts these echoed sound waves
into a sonogram, an outline image of the fetus,
uterus, and placenta.
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Development From
Conception To Birth
• Amniocentesis involves inserting a needle
into the amniotic sac to withdraw about an
ounce of amniotic fluid.
• Fetal cells floating in the amniotic fluid are
then analyzed.
• Analysis of chromosomes can reveal the
sex of the fetus as well as the presence of
chromosomal abnormalities such as Down
syndrome, which occurs in about 1 in 800
births.
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Development From
Conception To Birth
• Unless the baby is premature, birth occurs
approximately 266 days after fertilization,
or 280 days after the last menstrual
period.
• The first stage of the birth process, labor,
begins when the pituitary gland and uterus
release a hormone, oxytocin, that
stimulates contractions of the uterus.
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Development From
Conception To Birth
• The second stage of the process is delivery, the
actual birth of the baby.
• At birth, the average newborn in the United
States weighs 7.5 pounds and is approximately
20 inches long.
• Most of the drugs used to reduce the pain of
labor and delivery cross the placenta and are
associated with a number of adverse short- and
long-term effects on infants.
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9-25
Development From
Conception To Birth
• During the birth process, some babies
experience anoxia, or lack of oxygen.
• Anoxia occurs for several reasons: The
contractions may compress the umbilical cord,
the baby may squeeze the cord, or the cord may
be wrapped around the baby.
• Medication given to the mother usually crosses
the placenta and may interfere with the baby’s
breathing, thus depriving the baby of even more
oxygen.
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9-26
Development In Infancy
• Newborns enter the world equipped with
several reflexes.
• The rooting reflex is a reflex in which the
infant turns its head in the direction of a
touch on its face.
• The palmar or grasp reflex consists of a
very strong hold on any object placed in
the palm.
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9-27
Development In Infancy
• The Moro reflex is a startle reflex in
response to a loud noise or the sensation
of being dropped.
• The Babinski reflex is a reflex in which
the infant’s toes fan upward when the
bottom of the foot is stroked.
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9-28
Development In Infancy
• Very young infants can recognize their
mother’s voice just hours after birth.
• Although estimates of the newborn’s visual
acuity range from 20/300 to 20/800, visual
acuity improves to about 20/20 by 6 to 12
months.
• Taste and smell receptors are present and
probably functioning by the 4th month of
prenatal development.
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9-29
Development In Infancy
• Research on newborns in the United
States has shown that they are also
quite capable of learning through
classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and imitation.
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9-30
Development In Infancy
• Maturation is the biological unfolding of an
organism according to the plan stored in its
genes.
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9-31
Development In Infancy
• Before birth, the brain develops at an
amazing rate, adding up to 250,000 new
nerve cells each minute.
• Inherited characteristics and the
environment interact to determine the
course of growth.
• Some precocious babies develop
physical and cognitive abilities at an early
age; others are slower to develop.
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Development In Infancy
• When a baby’s development is seriously
delayed, remedial steps can be taken.
• Psychologists and pediatricians may use
the Bayley Scales of Infant Development
to determine whether an infant is average,
above average, or below average in
behavioral and intellectual development.
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9-33
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Three types of temperament in young
children have been identified: easy, slowto-warm-up, and difficult.
• Although heredity seems to play an
appreciable role in determining
temperament, the mother’s child-rearing
attitudes also can influence adolescent
temperament.
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9-34
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Sigmund Freud believed that the
personality develops as a child deals with
conflicts between biological urges and the
demands of society.
• Psychosocial crises, or conflicts between
psychological needs and societal
demands, were proposed as the main
determinants of personality by Erik
Erikson.
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Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Erikson's psychosocial crises for childhood
include:
– basic trust versus basic mistrust (birth to
age 1.5 years),
– autonomy versus shame and doubt (1.5
to 3 years),
– initiative versus quilt (3 to 7 years), and
– industry versus inferiority (7 to 10
years).
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9-37
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Attachment refers to an intense reciprocal
relationship occurring between two people,
usually a child and an adult.
• Studies of young monkeys conducted by
Harry and Marguerite Harlow indicated
that attachment was determined by
contact comfort, rather than by the
presence of food.
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9-38
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• In addition to demonstrating the importance of
contact comfort, the Harlows found that raising
baby monkeys in isolation in the laboratory had
a detrimental effect on the animals’ social
behavior.
• A major conclusion of the Harlows’ research was
that even though attachment was important, it
did not ensure normal social development.
• Environmental contact (nurture) with members of
one’s own species is needed for this kind of
development.
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9-39
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• John Bowlby’s ethological theory of
attachment stresses the adaptiveness of
attachment.
• Bowlby believes attachment evolved
because of its adaptive value; infants are
protected when parents or caregivers are
near.
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Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• One way to determine the kind of
attachment a baby has developed is to
observe the baby’s reaction to being put in
a strange situation, such as an unfamiliar
playroom and the departure of the familiar
caregiver.
• Mary Salter Ainsworth reports four main
types of attachment: securely attached,
avoidant and anxious-ambivalent.
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Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• The baby's style of attachment can
influence relationships established during
adulthood and may even persist through
several generations.
• The percentages of different types of
attachment may vary from culture to culture.
• Not much is known about how attachment
styles may influence individuals’ behaviors
as adults.
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9-42
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Most fathers work away from the home
and are gone quite a bit of the time.
• Despite this father-absent pattern, infants
do establish attachments with their fathers
at about the same age they form
attachments with their mothers.
• The types of interactions displayed by
fathers with their infants may differ from
those shown by mothers.
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9-43
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Comparisons of the attachment of infants
who attended day-care centers with that of
infants who were cared for at home by
their mothers in the United States reveal
that infants who attended day-care centers
did not differ from infants who were raised
at home.
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Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Children may derive some benefits from
good day care, which may be more
important for children from disadvantaged
homes.
• A good day-care center should function as
much like a good parent as possible.
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9-45
Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• Typically composed of classmates, selected
friends, or other children in the
neighborhood, the peer group offers
children many opportunities for feedback
concerning their abilities, intelligence, and
values as they grow into young adults.
• The peer group can foster the development
of self-esteem and a sense of autonomy.
• Peer group influences can be negative,
however.
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Psychosocial Development
In Childhood
• According to Rice, children “spend more
time watching television than engaging in
any other activity (including playing and
eating) except sleeping.”
• Although there is continuing debate over
whether exposure to media violence leads
to violence, 50 years of research indicates
that the link between media violence and
aggression is substantial and has grown
stronger.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Cognitive development refers to the
changes that occur in our thought
processes as we pass through life.
• Cognitive development and
intelligence go hand in hand.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Jean Piaget proposed that cognitive
development progresses through a series
of qualitative stages.
• Through his research Piaget identified the
processes by which children gain new
knowledge.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Assimilation is the process by which we
incorporate new information into our
accustomed way of thinking.
• Accommodation is the process of altering
our ways of thinking (schemas) so that we
can include new information that does not
fit into existing ways of thinking.
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9-50
Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Jean Piaget proposed that cognitive
development progresses through a series
of qualitative stages.
• During the sensorimotor stage (birth to
age 2), infants learn to coordinate their
senses and their motor behavior.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Before symbolic communication is
possible, infants must learn the principle of
object permanence.
• Object permanence refers to the fact that
a person or object does not cease to exist
when it is not directly perceived.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• During the preoperational stage (ages 2
to 7), the child gains the ability to use
symbolic representations for objects and
events that are not physically present.
• This stage is also characterized by
egocentrism, the inability to see
situations from another person's point of
view.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Children in the concrete operational
stage are able to represent objects
mentally and engage in logical reasoning
about the world around them through the
use of these mental representations, but
they are not yet able to think abstractly.
• During this stage, thought becomes more
logical.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Piaget demonstrated
that preoperational
children do not grasp
the principle of
conservation, the
understanding that a
change in the size or
shape of a substance
does not change the
amount of that
substance.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Lev Vygotsky stressed the social context in
which a child learns.
• According to Vygotsky, the social interaction
experienced by children facilitates learning and
performing skills that are beyond their current
capabilities.
• Vygotsky introduced the term zone of proximal
development to describe tasks that are too
difficult for the child to master alone.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• The zone is the distance between the
actual ability level the child has reached
on his or her own and the level of potential
development that can be reached with
guidance or supervision.
• The role of the teacher or adult is to
provide help or assistance (known as
scaffolding) during a teaching session.
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Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• A stage theory of moral development was
proposed by Lawrence Kohlberg.
• The three major levels of morality are:
– preconventional (adherence to standards to
avoid punishment or receive reinforcement),
– conventional role conformity
(internalization of standards and values), and
– autonomous moral principles (complete
internalization of control over moral conduct).
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9-58
Cognitive Development
In Childhood
• Carol Gilligan argues that Kohlberg’s theory was
developed only with male participants but has
been applied to women as well.
• According to Gilligan, men tend to have a more
absolute view of morality and are more
concerned about not interfering with the rights of
others.
• By contrast, women are more concerned with
the context in which a behavior occurs and the
relationships involved.
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Adolescence
• In contemporary U.S. society, no single
event marks the passage from childhood
to adulthood.
• Children experience an extended period of
adolescence, which lasts roughly from
age 12 to age 20.
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Adolescence
• Pubescence is a period of rapid growth,
maturation of sexual organs, and
appearance of secondary sex
characteristics that precedes puberty.
• Puberty is the time at which an individual
achieves full sexual maturity.
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Adolescence
• Primary sex characteristics are
characteristics directly related to
reproduction.
• Secondary sex characteristics are sexrelated characteristics that develop during
adolescence and are not directly related to
reproduction.
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Adolescence
• By the time they reach adolescence, many
individuals have entered Piaget’s final
stage of intellectual development, the
formal operational stage.
• This stage is characterized by abstract
thinking—the ability to think in terms of
possibilities as opposed to concrete reality.
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Adolescence
• Although many adolescents can think and
solve problems in an adult manner, much
of their thought and behavior continues to
be somewhat childish and contradictory.
• The personal fable is a feeling shared by
many adolescents that one is not subject
to the same rules as other people.
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Adolescence
• The imaginary audience is the
adolescent’s assumption that everyone
else is concerned with his or her
appearance and behavior.
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Adolescence
• Erikson’s fifth psychosocial crisis deals
with identity versus identity confusion.
• The development of a strong sense of
personal identity and intimacy may take
different courses for boys and girls.
• The new roles open to the adolescent also
are influenced by ethnic and racial
background, geographic locale, family
values, and societal values.
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James Marcia: Identity
• Two Primary and interacting events:
– Crisis. Significant events or changes demand
an adaptation.
– Commitment. The resulting adaptive
decision, or lack of it, makes for a continuing
or new commitment.
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James Marcia’s Identity Achievement Theory
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Adolescence
• In individualistic cultures such as the United
States, adolescents who have explored the
alternatives and adopted a well-chosen set of
values and goals have reached identity
achievement.
• In other instances, the frustrations of this stage
of development may cause adolescents to
accept uncritically the values and desires of their
parents.
• In this situation, called foreclosure, the
adolescent’s unique identity is not allowed to
develop.
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Adolescence
• An adolescent may develop a negative
identity by adopting behaviors opposite to
those that are expected.
• Identity diffusion occurs when the
adolescent has few goals and is generally
apathetic about schoolwork, friends, and
the future.
• A moratorium is a period during which an
adolescent may try several identities
without intending to settle on a specific one.
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Adolescence
• The adolescent peer group provides
feedback and helps adolescents achieve a
sense of identity and belonging.
• Some peer groups, however, may interfere
with satisfactory adaptation to society.
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Adolescence
• Family attitudes play a major role in
determining whether adolescents,
especially girls, develop eating problems
such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
• Family relations are also an important
variable in predicting juvenile delinquency
and other instances of adolescent distress;
parenting is the most powerful and
“effective way to reduce adolescent problem
behaviors.”
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Adolescence
• Adolescence is the stage of life in which
most individuals begin to make sustained
personal commitments.
• Such commitments may be to another
person, a religious cause, career
preparation, or a social program.
• Commitments help the adolescent develop
a sense of identity and accomplishment.
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Early Adulthood
• Early adulthood lasts roughly 20 years,
from approximately age 20 until age 40.
• Early adulthood is usually characterized by
good health.
• It is also the time at which we reach the
peak of physical and sensory fitness.
• In our early twenties we possess our
maximum strength and our greatest
sensitivity in both vision and hearing.
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Early Adulthood
• Whether or not intellectual abilities decline
during adulthood is a subject of debate.
• K. Warner Schaie conducted cohort
studies to determine whether intelligence
actually declines with age.
• His results indicated that most people
actually improve in basic mental ability
during adulthood.
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Early Adulthood
• Even though Schaie does not believe that a
decline begins until late adulthood, others
disagree and suggest that intellectual
abilities continually decline as a person
grows older.
• There may well be a decline in fluid
intelligence, which involves the ability to
see new relations, solve new problems,
form new concepts, and use new
information.
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Early Adulthood
• A second type of intelligence, crystallized
intelligence, appears to increase throughout
life.
• Crystallized intelligence involves the
ability to retrieve and use information that
has been learned and stored.
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Early Adulthood
• According to Erikson, early adulthood is
characterized by the psychosocial crisis of
intimacy versus isolation.
• If individuals are not able to make the
sacrifices and compromises needed to
establish strong commitments, they will be
isolated from others.
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Early Adulthood
• A young adult who is able to establish intimate
relationships faces a number of important
decisions.
• Among those decisions are whether to marry or
cohabit.
• Both marriage and cohabitation have benefits and
costs.
• For example, married people are healthier and
tend to be happier than unmarried people.
• With nearly a million divorces granted each year
in the United States, however, it is clear that
marriage is difficult.
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Early Adulthood
• Whether and when to have children is another
major issue of young adulthood that has both
costs and benefits.
• If you wait until you are in your mid- to late
twenties or older to have children, you will have
greater earning power, and you will be able to
provide a better lifestyle and education for your
children.
• Most of the advantages of having children when
one is younger are related to the effects of
aging.
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Early Adulthood
• Diana Baumrind has found that 77% of
parents use one of three parenting styles:
– authoritarian,
– authoritative, or
– permissive.
• Each parenting style is associated with a
different set of habits and behaviors.
• Different cultures may emphasize different
parenting styles.
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Early Adulthood
• Because women, regardless of age, make
up the majority of poverty-status adults,
the term feminization of poverty is
appropriate.
• The poverty differential between men and
women becomes even greater in cases of
divorce or separation in families with
children.
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Early Adulthood
• This sex difference in poverty is not limited
to the United States and other industrialized
nations; it is a global problem (63% of the
world’s illiterate are women).
• Illiteracy sets a vicious cycle into motion:
Illiterate women marry at an early age, take
poor-paying jobs, have large families, are
likely to experience divorce, and are faced
with severe poverty.
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Early Adulthood
• Career development is one of the major
tasks young adults face.
• It is important to avoid conflict between
career development and family values.
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Middle Adulthood
• Middle adulthood encompasses the
period from approximately age 40 to age
65.
• The physical changes that began during
early adulthood become more noticeable
during middle adulthood.
• Changing sensory abilities may require
new ways of adapting to the environment.
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Middle Adulthood
• Many people now need reading glasses to
adjust to presbyopia, the farsightedness
that often accompanies aging.
• The most pronounced hearing deficit,
presbycusis, is reduced ability to hear
sounds at higher frequencies.
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Middle Adulthood
• A detectable loss of sensitivity in other
senses, such as taste and smell, does not
occur until at least age 50.
• The gradual decline that began in early
adulthood eventually results in a reduction
of more than 10% in physical strength.
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Middle Adulthood
• Women undergo a series of hormonal
changes, known as menopause, that
mark the end of childbearing.
• The decrease in estrogen production that
accompanies menopause may result in
osteoporosis, a condition in which the
bones become thinner and prone to
fractures.
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Middle Adulthood
• We can expect the gradual decline in fluid
intelligence and the gradual increase in
crystallized intelligence that began in early
adulthood to continue during middle
adulthood.
• During middle adulthood, one’s occupation
takes on added significance.
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Middle Adulthood
• The midlife crisis is a potentially stressful period
that typically occurs during the mid-forties and is
brought on when a person comes to grips with
mortality issues and begins to review his or her
life and accomplishments.
• The percentage of men who experience the
classic midlife crisis may be quite low (less than
15%), and a sizable proportion (over 30%) report
a satisfying adjustment to midlife.
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Middle Adulthood
• For women, age-related stress tends to
occur later, in the late forties and early
fifties, when parenting responsibilities have
decreased and there is time to cope with
other issues.
• As more women return to college and enter
the labor force, however, the likelihood of a
midlife crisis appears to be decreasing.
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Middle Adulthood
• Erikson believes that during our early
forties we face the crisis of generativity
versus stagnation.
• To be generative is to have concern for the
next generation and for the perpetuation of
life.
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Middle Adulthood
• The empty nest syndrome is a period of
adjustment for parents after all children
have left home.
• Many individuals report an improvement in
marital satisfaction after their children have
left home.
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Middle Adulthood
• Despite the benefits of having raised independent
children, aging parents of middle-aged Americans
may require additional care and attention, thus
adding another source of stress.
• Another source of stress that may be reintroduced
after the empty nest adjustment period is the
return of the birds to the nest.
• These returning offspring are known as
boomerang children.
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Late Adulthood
• Late adulthood is the period from
approximately age 65 until death.
• Despite the physical changes that occur in
late adulthood, keep in mind that
chronological age may not be a good
predictor of ability or performance in
elderly people.
• Hence researchers distinguish between
the young-old and the old-old.
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Late Adulthood
• The young-old appear physically young for
their advanced years, whereas the old-old
show definite signs of decline.
• Despite the young-old and old-old
distinction, predictable physical changes
come with advancing age.
• For example, many older people must
contend with impaired vision and hearing.
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Late Adulthood
• For many, the middle-adulthood problem
of farsightedness is replaced by the
development of more serious problems,
such as cataracts.
• The gradual decline in sensitivity to taste
and smell that began in middle adulthood
continues until the late seventies; after
that, the majority of people experience a
very sharp drop in olfactory ability.
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Late Adulthood
• The ability to regulate body temperature
also declines noticeably during old age.
• Although older people do not possess the
physical strength that characterizes young
adulthood, this decline does not render
them unable to perform such activities as
taking care of their houses, doing yard
work, and playing tennis.
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Late Adulthood
• The slowness of old age is reflected in longer
reaction times and an increase in the time
required to process information.
• Physical appearance also changes with
advancing age.
• People shrink as they grow older.
• Elderly people also experience changes in their
sleep patterns.
• Most of the systems of the body become more
susceptible to disease during old age.
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Late Adulthood
• Dementia is a condition of general
intellectual decline involving loss of
memory and disorientation.
• Unfortunately, the number of people
predicted to suffer from dementia is
increasing.
• One form of dementia, Alzheimer’s
disease, is irreversible, and there is no
long-term treatment at present.
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Late Adulthood
• Even with the physical problems associated with
old age, the average life expectancy in the
United States has increased at a steady rate.
• Better medical care and improved nutrition have
extended the number of active years before
illness or disability really begins.
• Moreover, it appears that people who provide
emotional support and do things for others live
longer.
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Late Adulthood
• Although longer life expectancies are a
relatively new phenomenon in the United
States, some areas of the world—Peru,
Pakistan, the former Soviet Union, Japan,
and Iceland—are famous for the longevity
of their inhabitants.
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Late Adulthood
•
These people seem to share four
characteristics:
a) Their diets are high in fruits and vegetables
and low in meat and fat,
b) both relaxation and exercise are part of
their daily routine,
c) they work throughout their lives, and
d) family and community activities are
important to them.
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Late Adulthood
• If the elderly are taught strategies to
enhance encoding and are provided with
retrieval cues, their memory capability may
not differ from that of young adults.
• If people remain intellectually active, fluid
intelligence may not decline.
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Late Adulthood
• Ageism is the tendency to view the elderly
in a negative manner.
• In many instances, ageism leads to
isolation of elderly citizens and keeps them
from making valuable contributions to
society.
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Late Adulthood
• The psychosocial crisis of integrity
versus despair occurs during late
adulthood.
• To accept one’s impending death, one
must be able to put one’s life in
perspective and attach meaning to it.
• The crisis of integrity versus despair is
reflected in the way people adapt to
retirement.
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Late Adulthood
• The keys to successful retirement include
good planning and preparation,
satisfaction with one’s accomplishments,
good health, and freedom from financial
worries.
• Over 90% of elderly U.S. citizens live in a
community, rather than in an institution
such as a nursing home.
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Late Adulthood
• Owing to physical or financial limitations,
however, not all elderly people are able to
live in their own homes.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Attitudes toward death change with age.
• Children do not have an accurate
conception of death until they attain the
ability to perform concrete operations.
• They believe that death is reversible—that
a dead friend or pet can return to life.
• Although adolescents understand the
nature of death, they do not have a
healthy respect for its implications.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• For some adolescents, death may seem
the only way out of an intolerable situation.
• Young adults rarely think of their own
death.
• During middle adulthood noticeable
physical changes, coupled with the death
of one’s own parents, bring the realization
that death is inevitable.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Although death may be imminent, the
elderly are more understanding and
accepting of this eventuality than younger
adults.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has identified five
stages that an individual may go through
in confronting death:
– denial,
– anger,
– bargaining for extra time,
– depression, and
– acceptance.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• The emotional and role changes that
follow a death are called bereavement,
and the people whose emotions and roles
change are known as the bereaved.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Grief, which is a normal part of
bereavement, progresses through four
stages:
– shock and denial,
– intense concern,
– despair and depression, and
– recovery.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Mourning involves the behavioral changes
associated with bereavement.
• Social support is a key ingredient in successful
coping with death and bereavement.
• In Western nations the hospice movement has
taken the lead in the delivery of such support
services.
• The hospice is more a philosophy of treatment
than a set of buildings and equipment.
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Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• In addition to providing normal medical
services for the terminally ill, hospice
physicians and staff are trained to give
more personalized care and more time to
terminally ill patients and their families.
• This philosophy of warm, personal
concern and care is not confined to
hospitals; it can be implemented just as
effectively in the home.
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