Germinal period
- Neurogenesis in hippocampus may be lifelong
Prenatal development: Embryonic
Period
- From 3-8 weeks after conception
- Blood vessels from trophoblast form placenta
- Structure attached to the uterus
- Provides nourishment and oxygen from the mother
to the developing embryo
- Connected to embryo via the umbilical cord
The embryo (6-7 weeks gestational age)
- Major structures (organs, limbs, brain) start to develop
- Vulnerable to damage from harmful agents
- Growth occurs in two patterns
- Cephalocaudal – From head to tail
- Proximodistal – From the midline outward
Prenatal development: Fetal period
- From 9 weeks post-conception until birth
- Major structures continue to develop Growth
- Age of viability = First chance of survival outside uterus
(24 weeks)
Prenatal development age milestones
Prenatal brain development
- Stem cells produced along neural plate
- Neural groove appears during 3rd week
- Eventually turns into neural tube
- Neural tube becomes brain and spinal cord
- Neurogenesis (formation of neurons) mostly completed
after five months of gestation
- Gray matter
- Regions of brain that contain cell bodies
- Responsible for movement and cognitive activity
- White matter
- Axons that form neural pathways
- Covered with myelin – Fatty substance that aids
neurotransmission
- Connects gray matter areas
- Conducts neural impulses
Teratogens
- Environmental factors that can contribute to birth
defects
- Effects depend on:
- Timing – Earlier is usually worse
- Number – Teratogens may interact
- Exposure – More is usually worse
- Genetics – Sex, genetic vulnerability
Critical periods of prenatal development
Specific teratogens: Alcohol
- Leading preventable cause of intellectual disability
Possible outcomes:
- Cognitive and behavioral problems
- Fetal death
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
Specific teratogens: Tobacco
- Includes all nicotine delivery methods (vaping, gum,
patch) and secondhand smoke
- Possible outcomes:
- Low birth weight, premature birth, miscarriage
- Ectopic pregnancy (fertilized egg implants itself
outside of the uterus)
- Placenta previa (placenta lies low in the uterus and
covers all or part of the cervix)
- Placenta abruption (placenta separates prematurely
from the uterine wall)
 - Stress
Specific teratogens: Legal and illegal drugs - High stress increases prematurity/low birth weight
- Both prescription and over-the-counter medications risk
- Difficult to determine effects of illegal drugs - Poor stress management (e.g., alcohol use)
- People may use more than one drug - Possibly associated with attention and anxiety
- People may have other unhealthy behaviors problems
- Possible outcomes:
- Problems with brain development Weight gain during pregnancy
- Low birth weight, stillbirth, miscarriage
- Neonatal abstinence syndrome

Specific teratogens: Pollutants

- Lead, pesticides, mercury, radiation, BPA
- Possible outcomes
- Problems with brain development
- Learning problems
- Sensory impairment
- Miscarriage, low birth weight, premature birth - Depression – Feelings of sadness and worthlessness
that
Specific teratogens: Diseases interfere with daily function
- Toxoplasmosis – Caused by parasite in raw meat, cat - Increased risk of:
feces, dirt - Prematurity and low birthweight
- Possible outcomes: Premature birth, stillbirth, - Poor emotional and attentional control
brain/eye defects - Many medications are possible teratogens
- Sexually transmitted diseases - Baby blues – Feelings of sadness lasting about a week
- Possible outcomes: after birth
- Transmission of STD - Postpartum depression – Longer-lasting depression
- Premature birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, ectopic starting in first month after birth
pregnancy
Specific teratogens: Paternal factors
- Rubella (German measles) - Age over 40 associated with increased risk of:
- Mostly preventable through vaccination - Miscarriages, autism, birth defects, achondroplasia
- About half of infected people have no visible (bone growth disorder) and schizophrenia
symptoms - Men more likely to smoke
- Possible outcomes: - Men more likely to encounter environmental hazards
- Vision and hearing problems (e.g., chemicals) at work
- Intellectual disability
- Heart defects Prenatal assessment
- Ultrasound – Sound waves used to examine the fetus
Specific teratogens: Maternal age - Look for structural defects, growth problems,
- Over 35 – Associated with increased risk of: multiple fetuses
- Genetic disorders, prematurity, miscarriage, - Check age, location of placenta, heart rate
stillbirth - Typically done 16-20 weeks into pregnancy
- Diabetes and high blood pressure - May also be used to check fetal position during other
- Older mothers typically more confident and stable tests
- Teenage – Associated with increased risk of prematurity
and low birthweight Prenatal ultrasound
- Often have poor nutrition and medical care
- More likely to drink, smoke, and use drugs

Specific teratogens: Maternal factors

- Gestational diabetes – Body can’t manage glucose
appropriately
- Associated with prematurity, stillbirth, difficult birth
due to large baby size, breathing problems
- Hypertension – Too much pressure on artery walls
- Associated with prematurity and low birth weight
Both diabetes and hypertension endanger mother’s
health - Amniocentesis – Sample amniotic fluid
- Weight gain – Should be about 25 pounds - Chorionic villus sampling – Sample placenta
- Too much increases risk of diabetes, hypertension, - Both used to check for genetic defects
difficult birth - Recommended for:
- Too little suggests baby isn’t growing properly - Mothers over 35
 - Early tests suggest a problem Stages of birth: Third stage
- Family history of genetic problems - Placenta delivered within 20 minutes of birth
- Episiotomy stitched up (if necessary)
Infertility
- Infertility – Inability to conceive within 12 months Stages of birth for a vaginal delivery
- Affects 10-15% of couples in the US
- Male factors the cause in about 1/3 of these – usually
low sperm production
- Female factors the cause in about 1/3 of these
- Failure to ovulate
- Pelvic inflammatory disease – Infection of
reproductive
organs, often caused by STD

Reproductive technology
- In vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Remove eggs and fertilize outside the body
- Reinsert fertilized egg in the uterus
- Gamete intra-fallopian tube transfer (GIFT)
- Implant both sperm and ova into the fallopian tube
- Zygote intra-fallopian tube transfer (ZIFT)
- Sperm and ova are fertilized outside of the body
- Zygote implanted in the fallopian tube
- May not be covered by insurance

Potential complications of pregnancy

- Ectopic pregnancy – Zygote implants in the fallopian
tube instead of the uterus
- Preeclampsia (toxemia) – Increased blood pressure and
leakage of protein in urine
- Accounts for about half of maternal deaths in US
- Eclampsia – When preeclampsia causes seizures
- Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)
- Usually caused by chromosomal abnormalities
Preparation for childbirth
- Good health, mindset, information
- Choosing where to give birth
- Choosing health care provider
- Lamaze method
- Teaching mother to be in control during birth
- Emphasis on relaxation, focus, supportive partner
Stages of birth: First stage
- Begins with uterine contractions
- Increase in duration, frequency, intensity
- Braxton-Hicks’s contractions = False labor
- Other signs of labor:
- Bloody discharge from the cervix
- Amniotic sac ruptures (“water breaks”) – but only
happens now in about 15% of pregnancies
- Cervix dilates to 10cm (4 inches)
- Typically lasts 12-16 hours
Stages of birth: Second stage
- Baby passes through birth canal
- Takes about 10-40 minutes
- Use combination of contractions and pushing
- Normally babies delivered head-first
-Then rotated so that shoulders come through separately
- Episiotomy – Incision made between the vaginal
opening and anus to avoid tearing the tissue
Epidurals
- Epidural block – Local anesthetic injected in area around
spine
- Intended to relieve pain without slowing labor
- Used in 50% of hospital births in US
Cesarean sections
- Cesarean section – Surgical procedure to remove baby
through abdomen
- Usually done when problems occur or are expected
- Multiple birth
- Baby not positioned correctly or too big
- Mother’s or baby’s health in danger
- Major surgery
- Longer recovery time than vaginal birth
- Risk of infection
- May prevent later vaginal birth
Induced labor
- Labor produced by medical intervention
- Medications
- Artificial rupture of the membranes
- Used when:
- Labor has not naturally started two weeks past due
date
- Baby has stopped growing
- Prenatal environment unhealthy (e.g., infection, not
enough amniotic fluid, placenta separates from uterine
wall)
- Mother’s health puts her or her baby at risk
- Water broke, but no contractions

Neonatal assessment: Apgar test
- Performed at 1 and 5 minutes after birth
- 5 characteristics rated from 0-2
- Appearance (color)
- Pulse (heart rate)
- Grimace (reflex response)
- Activity (muscle tone)
- Respiration
- Score of 5 or less is cause for concern
APGAR Scores
Neonatal assessment: NBAS
- Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS)
- Measures 46 aspects of functioning covering:
- Breathing
- Motor control
- Response to stimulation
- Social interaction
- Gives information about how to interact with babies
Possible problems in newborns: Anoxia
- Anoxia – Lack of oxygen to brain
- Hypoxia – Low oxygen levels
- Could occur during pregnancy (teratogens,
maternal health)
- Could occur during birth
- Umbilical cord kinked or prolapsed
- Can cause brain damage or death
Possible problems in newborns: Low birth weight
- Low birth weight – Less than 5.5 pounds
- May lack enough fat to maintain body temperature
- More at risk for infection
- Often a sign of a poor prenatal environment
Possible problems in newborns: Preterm birth
- Preterm birth – Before 37 weeks gestational age
- Often caused by teratogens, illness, stress
- May need intensive medical care
- May have lifelong medical or developmental
problems
- Respiratory distress syndrome – Weak and irregular
breathing
Possible problems in newborns: Small-for-date
- Small-for-date – Weigh less than 90% of babies of same
gestational age
- May be full term or preterm
- Associated with increased risk of death
- Often a sign of a poor prenatal environment
Chapter 3: Infancy and Toddlerhood
Physical growth
- Average newborn in U.S. weighs 7.5 lbs and is 20 inches
long
- Typically lose 5% of weight soon after birth
- Birth weight doubles by 4 months, triples by 1 year
- Change in proportions – At birth, head is 25% of our
length, by adulthood it’s 20% of our length
Brain development in infancy: Neurons
- Parts of a neuron
- Cell body
- Dendrites – Receive information
- Axon – Sends information
- Myelin sheath – Insulates axon
- Synapses - Connections
- Changes in neurons
- Synaptogenesis – Formation of connections
- Caused by proliferation of dendrites
- Synaptic blooming – Period of rapid neural growth
- Synaptic pruning – Reduce unused neural
connections to increase brain efficiency
- Experience determines what’s maintained and
lost Development of myelin sheath
Parts of the brain
- Cortex
- Thin outer covering of the brain
- Involved in voluntary activity and thinking
- Two hemispheres, each divided into four lobes
- Frontal lobe – Thinking, planning, memory, and
judgment
- Parietal lobe – Processing information about touch
- Occipital lobe – Processing visual information
- Temporal lobe – Processing auditory information and
Language
The two hemispheres
Processes of brain maturation
- Lateralization – Different functions become localized
primarily on one side of the brain
- Neuroplasticity
- Brain’s ability to change, both physically and
chemically
- Environmental stimulation
- Hormonal processes/medications
- Enhance its adaptability to environmental change
- Compensate for injury
Infant sleep
- Newborns typically sleep 16.5 hours per day
- Polyphasic – Several sleep periods throughout day
- About 50% of sleep time in REM stage
- Time spent in sleep and in REM decrease with age
Sudden unexpected infant deaths
- Death of infant under 1 year old, no obvious cause
- Most common types:
- Unknown causes (due to lack of thorough
investigation)
- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – Possibly caused by
brainstorm abnormalities
- Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed
- About 3500 deaths per year
- Overall rate declined after 1990s “Back to Sleep”
campaign
- Rate of accidental strangulation/suffocation increased
starting in late 1990s
- Possible risks of co-sleeping?
- Cultural factors
Infant reflexes
- Reflexes - Involuntary movements in response to
stimulation
- Some related to feeding
- Rooting, sucking
- Some replaced by voluntary behaviors later
- Grasping, stepping
- Indicate functioning of nervous/sensory system
- Eyeblink, Babinski, Moro, tonic neck
Motor development
- Progress from reflexes to voluntary movement
- Cephalocaudal pattern (head to tail)
- Example: Gain head control before ability to walk
- Proximodistal pattern (from the center out)
- Example: Grasp with whole hand first, then fingers
later
- Average age as well as range of typical ages
- Example: Average sitting age 7 months (range 5-9)
Motor skills
- Ability to move bodies and manipulate objects
- Fine motor skills
- Muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes
- Enable coordination of small actions
- Palmar grasp (4 months) – Use fingers and
palm, but not thumb to grasp objects
- Pincer grasp (9 months) – Use thumb and
forefinger to grasp object
- Gross motor skills
- Large muscle groups that control our head, torso,
arms, and legs
- Larger movements
- Generally, develop before fine motor skills
Sensory capacities
- Vision – Poorly developed at birth
- Newborn range of vision – 8-16 inches
- Prefer large patterns, contrasting colors
- Depth perception present by 6 months
- Experience very important for proper development
- Hearing – Almost fully developed at birth
- Present by 7th month of prenatal development
- “Cat in the Hat” study
- Recognize familiar voices and sounds
- Can initially differentiate between many language
sounds, but this ability disappears*
- Touch and pain – Fully developed at birth
- Smell and taste – Fully developed at birth
- Newborns prefer sweet tastes
- Newborns recognize and prefer their mother’s scent
Habituation
- Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated
presentations
- Used to test cognitive and perceptual processes
- Predictive of later cognitive ability
Nutrition
- Breast milk considered ideal diet
- Easier to digest than formula
- Contains antibodies that reduce illness risk
- Helps moms too
- Helps uterus regain pre-pregnancy size
- Lower rates of breast/ovarian cancer, diabetes
- It’s free! (Though pumping equipment isn’t)
Introducing solid foods
- Usually around 4-6 months old
- Start with semi-solid foods (rice/oatmeal cereal)
- Introduce one new food at a time (allergy check)
- Finger foods by 10-12 months
Types of malnutrition
- Marasmus – Starvation due to lack of calories and
protein
- Lose fat and muscle until bodies can’t function
- Kwashiorkor – Protein-deficient diet
- Often occurs when another child starts breastfeeding
- Loss of appetite and abdominal swelling
Possible effects of malnutrition
- Death
- Lower IQ scores
- Behavioral and attention problems
- Early malnutrition has worst effects
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
- Children continuously trying to make sense of world
- Schema – Framework for organizing information
- Assimilation – Fitting new information into an existing
schema
- Accommodation – Expanding schema to incorporate
new information
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage
- Use sensory input and motor skills to explore world
- Reflexes (birth-1 month)
- Primary circular reactions (1-4 months) – Repeated
actions involving body
- Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months) – Repeated
actions involving objects/environment
- Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12
months) – Combine actions to achieve goals
- Object permanence develops by 8 months
- Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months) – Explore
world in trial-and-error manner
- Beginning of representational thought (18-24 months)
– Can use symbols to represent ideas (pictures, words,
make-believe)
Infant ages for the six substages of the sensorimotor
period
Criticisms of Piaget’s theory
- Infants understand concepts earlier than he thought
- Experience not always required
- Possible vs. impossible events
Infant memory
- Infantile amnesia – Inability to recall memories from
first few years
- Lack of language skills?
- Lack of understanding of “self”?
- Deferred imitation – Imitation after delay
- Present by 6 months of age
- Infant memory is context-dependent
Language
- System of communication using symbols to create
meaning
- Includes oral, written, and signed communication
Components of language
- Phoneme – Smallest unit of sound in a language
- Morpheme – Smallest unit of meaning in a language
- Semantics – Rules we use to determine meaning
- Syntax – Rules for constructing sentences
- Pragmatics – Rules for communicating
- Contextual information helps determine meaning
Language development
- 2 months – cooing (vowel sounds)*
- 7 months – babbling (simple syllables)*
- Gets more conversational over time*
- Add gestures, intonation, facial expression
Theories of language development: Learning theory
- We learn language through reinforcement (Skinner) and
imitation (Bandura)
- But:
- Children learn too fast for reinforcement
- Children say things they’ve never heard before
- Language development looks similar across cultures
Theories of language development: Nativism
- Language is a biologically-based ability
- Chomsky – Language acquisition device
- Hard-wired knowledge of grammar in brain
- Deep structure – How an idea is represented in
universal grammar
- Surface structure – How an idea is represented in any
one language
Theories of language development: Critical period and
social pragmatics
- Critical period – Must learn language by puberty
- Environmental input is crucial
- Applies primarily to first language acquisition
- Social pragmatics – Focus on social aspects of language
- Language is tool to communicate and connect
- Language is tool to understand others and be
understood
Brain aspects of language use
- Broca’s area – Left frontal lobe near motor cortex
- Responsible for motor aspects of language
production
- Wernicke’s area – Left temporal lobe near auditory
cortex
- Responsible for understanding and creating meaning
Drawing of brain showing Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Types of emotions
- Basic emotions
- Happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust
- Appear early in infancy
- Self-conscious emotions
- Envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment
- Appear between 1 and 2 years
- Require self-awareness, social understanding
Regulation of emotions
- Social referencing – Look to others for cues on how to
act
- Facial expressions are important clues
- Visual cliff studies
- Emotional self-regulation – Strategies we use to control
our emotional states to attain goals
- Initially requires assistance from others
- Control improves with experience and brain
maturation
Attachment
- Close bond associated with security
- Infant-caregiver attachment is basis for future
relationships
- Influence confidence and curiosity as toddlers
- Influence self-concept
Theories of attachment
- Freud – Infants are oral creatures
- Will become attached to mother through feeding
- Harlow disagreed
- Infant monkeys raised with wire or cloth mother
- Preferred cloth mother
- “Contact comfort” is basis for attachment
- Bowlby – Attachment important for survival
- Infant behaviors (e.g., crying) promote attachment
- Secure base – Parental presence that gives the child
a sense of safety
- Caregivers must be responsive to the child’s needs
- Caregiver and child must engage in mutually
enjoyable interactions
- Erikson – Trust vs. mistrust
- Most important goal of infancy: Developing a basic
sense of trust in one’s caregivers
- Caregivers need to be responsive to infant’s needs
- Situations that impair responsiveness can create
mistrust
- Example: Premature birth, parental stress
Erikson: Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
- Most important goal of toddlerhood: Developing a basic
sense of independence
- Caregivers need to be encourage appropriate
independence
- Negative reactions/restrictions will prevent
independence
- May affect self-esteem and initiative later
Chapter 4: Early Childhood
Brain development in childhood: Brain weight
- Brain is 75% of adult weight by age 3, 95% by age 6
- Growth caused by:
- Myelination
- Development of dendrites
Brain development in infancy: Brain growth
- Prefrontal cortex – Improvements in attention,
planning, inhibition
- Hemispheres grow during childhood
- Left – Improvements in language
- Right – Improvements in spatial skills
- Corpus callosum connects hemispheres
- Improved coordination/communication
- Neuroplasticity – Brain’s ability to change structure and
function in response to experience or damage
Sexual development in early childhood
- Sexual arousal does not indicate sexual desire
- Erections or vaginal lubrication may occur in infants
- Self-stimulation and curiosity common in young
children
- May indicate problem but may also be normal
- Parental responses may affect later
attitudes/behavior
Piaget’s preoperational stage
- Use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas
- Operation – Logical manipulation of information
- Symbolic function substage (2-4 years)
- Mentally represent an object that is not present
- Rely on perception in problem solving
- Intuitive thought substage (4-7years)
- Greater dependence on intuitive thinking
- Use immature reasoning to understand world
Elements of preoperational thought
- Pretend play – Learn and represent learning
- Egocentrism – Belief that other people have same
thoughts/perceptions they do
- Centration – Focusing on only one characteristic of an
object to the exclusion of others
- Classification errors
- Animism – Attributing life-like qualities to objects
- Transudative reasoning – Inferring connections
between
unrelated situations
Conservation
- Ability to recognize that moving or rearranging matter
does not change the quantity
- Preoperational children can’t conserve
- Centration – Focus on height of liquid in containers
but fail to account for shape of container
- Transudative reasoning – If they look different, they
must be different
- Unable to perform necessary operation (mentally
reverse actions)
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive
development
- Cognitive development facilitated by:
- Cultural products (language, writings, and concepts)
- Social interactions with adults and more learned
peers
- Zone of proximal development – Tasks a child can’t do
independently, but can do with support
- Scaffolding – Temporary support given to do a task
- Gradually decrease support as skills improve
- Teachers should teach within child’s ZPD
- Piaget believed children should discover concepts on
their own
- Children talk to themselves to solve problems or clarify
thoughts
- Initially speak out loud, later use private (inner)
speech
- Piaget believed this was egocentric
Memory
- Sensory memory (also called sensory register)
- Briefly stores sensory input in its raw form
- Short-term/working memory
- Where current conscious mental activity occurs
- Adults: 7 items, 5-year-olds: 4 items
- Executive function – Self-regulatory processes
(including use of memory strategies)
- Improvement caused by nature and nurture
- Long-term memory – Permanent
- Declarative (Explicit) – Memories for facts or events
that we can consciously recollect
- Semantic – Facts and knowledge not tied to a
timeline
- Episodic – Tied to specific events in time
 - Nondeclarative (Implicit) – Automated skills that do
not require conscious recollection
Neo-Piagetians
- New interpretations of Piaget’s theory
- Similarities: Constructivism, qualitatively different
stages with increasingly complex thinking
- Difference: Improvements in information processing
increase complexity of thinking
Children’s understanding of the world
- Theory-theory – Children generate theories to explain
experiences/concepts
- May not be accurate
- Theory of mind – Ability to consider others’ thoughts
- Diverse-desires – People may have different desires
- Diverse-beliefs – People may have different beliefs
- Knowledge access – People may not have access to
information
- False belief – People may believe something not true
- Hidden emotion – People may not express real
feelings
- Crucial for social interaction
Components of theory of mind
Autism spectrum disorder
- Deficits in social interaction
- Lack of theory of mind
- Often avoid interacting with others
- Deficits in communication (verbal and nonverbal)
- Parroted speech (echolalia) or limited speech
- Repetitive patterns of behavior or interests
- Often adjust poorly to change
- May include self-injurious behavior
- Not the same as intellectual disability
- Children with ASD may be hard to test
- Variation in skills and symptoms
- Affects 1 in 88 children (more common in boys)
- Cause unknown
- Genetic factors (identical twin concordance rate
90%)
- Environmental factors? (e.g., pollution, chemicals)
- Vaccines NOT linked to autism development
Erikson: Initiative vs. guilt
- Initiative – Motivation to do things
- Autonomy – Ability
- Caregivers should praise efforts
- Avoid harsh criticism
Self-concept and self-esteem
- Self-concept – Self-description in categories
- Categorical self – External qualities (e.g., physical
descriptors, favorite
activities/possessions)
- With age, focus more on internal qualities
- Self-esteem – Evaluative judgment of self
- Often positive in young children due to lack of
comparison
Self-control
- Response initiation – Ability to delay action until you
have evaluated all of the information
- Response inhibition – Ability to stop a behavior that has
already begun
- Delayed gratification – Ability to hold out for a larger
reward by forgoing a smaller immediate reward
- Marshmallow test – Predicts good academic
performance, health
Baumrind’s parenting styles
- Based on two dimensions
- Control/expectations
- Warmth/responsiveness
- Each dimension can be high or low
- Authoritative – High control and high responsiveness
- Emphasis on communication, appropriate
negotiation
- Associated with children’s competence and
confidence
- Authoritarian – High control and low responsiveness
- Parents may be overly strict and aloof
- Children may fear rather than respect parents
- Permissive – Low control and high responsiveness
- Parents provide little structure and allow child to
make the rules
- Associated with insecurity, poor self-discipline
- Uninvolved – Low control and low responsiveness
- Associated with worst outcomes for children
Parenting styles and culture
- Baumrind’s model assumes authoritative is best
- Creates qualities valued in individualistic cultures
- Creates qualities valued in middle-/upper-class SES
- Some groups value authoritarian parenting
- Collectivistic – Obedience and compliance more
valued
- SES – Working-class jobs emphasize obedience and
compliance; parents may encourage these qualities
Parten’s classification system
- Unoccupied play – Children’s behavior seems random
and goal-less
- Solitary play – Children play by themselves, different
activities from others
- Onlooker play – Observing others playing without
joining in
- Parallel play – Children play alongside each other, using
similar toys, but do not directly interact
- Associative play – Children interact and share toys, but
are not working toward a common goal
- Cooperative play - Children interact to achieve a
common goal
- May take on different tasks to reach that goal
Child abuse and neglect
- Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act:
 - Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent
or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or
emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act
or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of
serious harm.
- Each state has own definition based on this Act
- Types of child maltreatment
- Neglect – Most common
- Physical abuse
- Psychological maltreatment
- Sexual abuse
- May occur separately or in combination
Chapter 5: Middle and Late Childhood Physical growth
Brain development in middle/late childhood: Brain
growth
- Frontal lobes become more developed (especially ages
10-12)
- Improvements in logic, planning, attention, and
memory
- Myelination in:
- Association areas (areas where sensory, motor, and
cognitive function connects) – Improves information
processing speed and reaction time
- Hippocampus (transfers information from short term
to long-term memory)
Childhood obesity: Physical aspects
- Body Mass Index (BMI) – Ratio of height to weight
- Overweight = BMI at or above 85th
percentile for age
- Obese = BMI at or above 95th percentile for age
- Associated with insulin resistance, inflammation, knee
problems, cardiovascular disease
- Both in childhood and in adulthood
Childhood obesity: Cognitive aspects
- Processed sugars and saturated fats linked to:
- Poorer relational memory skills
- Weakened blood-brain barrier in brain
- Overweight children have poorer executive functioning
- Problems controlling impulses and delaying
gratification
Childhood obesity: Psychosocial aspects
- Increased risk of depression and low self-esteem
- Increased risk of bullying and teasing
- “Oblivobesity” (Katz, 2015) – Lack of recognition that
children are overweight or obese
- May prevent parents or children from seeking help
Childhood obesity: Intervention and treatment
- Parents can encourage:
- Practicing inhibition
- Making good food choices
- Increasing physical activity
- Parents can avoid:
- Using shame and guilt
- Overemphasizing diet
Piaget’s concrete operational stage
- Use logical principles in solving problems involving the
physical world
- Solve problems tied to their own direct experience
- Difficulty solving hypothetical/abstract problems
- Inductive reasoning – Multiple premises believed to be
true are combined to obtain a specific conclusion
Elements of concrete operational thought
- Classification – Understand hierarchies, subclasses
- Identity – Some qualities constant despite change
- Reversibility – Some things can return to original state
if changed
- Conservation – Changing one quality can be
compensated for by changes in another quality
- Decentration – Consider multiple dimensions
- Seriation – Arrange along quantitative dimension
Information processing
- Middle childhood shows improvements in:
- Attention
- Working memory
- Metacognition and use of memory strategies
- Mediation deficiency – Don’t understand why
strategy is useful
- Production deficiency – Don’t use strategy
without prompting
- Utilization deficiency – Use strategy ineffectively
- Knowledge base
- Critical thinking
Language development
- Vocabulary growth – Know 40,000 words by age 9
- New understanding of words
- Categories/uses of objects
- Less literal interpretation of meaning
- Better grammar
Bilingualism
- Understanding/using two languages
- May not be equally used or proficient
- Bilingualism has cognitive advantages
- Better understanding of languages overall
- May help learn new words faster
Communication disorders
- Fluency disorders affect the rate of speech
Stuttering – Sounds, syllables, or words are repeated
or last longer than normal
- Articulation disorder – Inability to correctly produce
phonemes
- Voice disorders – Problems with pitch, loudness, and
quality of the voice
Theories of intelligence: General vs. specific
- General intelligence factor – Common ability underlying
intellectual abilities
- Ability to learn, reason, and adapt
- Can be assessed by variety of tasks
- Specific intelligence – Measure of specific skills in
narrow domains
Theories of intelligence: Sternberg’s triarchic theory
- Analytical intelligence – Academic problem solving and
performing calculations
 - Convergent thinking – Looking for correct answer
- Creative intelligence – Adapt to new situations and
create new ideas
- Divergent thinking – Generating many novel
solutions
- Practical intelligence – Demonstrate common sense
- True intelligence involves balance of all three
Important components for creativity
Theories of intelligence: Gardner’s multiple
intelligences
- Eight intelligences separate from each other
- Unclear how many there actually are
- Intelligence vs. ability vs. talent?
Howard Gardner’s eight specific intelligences
Measuring intelligence
- Tests must be reliable – Consistent over time
- Tests must be valid – Measure intelligence, not
something else
- Standardization
- Give test to people at different ages
- Compute average score each age level
- Flynn effect – Increased scores on intelligence tests due
to better nutrition, education
Intelligence quotient
- Measure of intelligence that is adjusted for age
- Mental age – Age at which a person is performing
intellectually
- IQ = mental age ÷ chronological age × 100
- Most modern intelligence tests based on the relative
position of a person’s score among people of the same
age (not this formula)
Children with disabilities: Types of learning disabilities
- Dyslexia – Difficulty reading
- Phonological processing deficits common
- Dysgraphia – Writing disability
- Often associated with dyslexia
- Dyscalculia – Difficulty with math
- May involve working memory and processing deficits
Children with disabilities: Attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder
- Inattention and/or hyperactive and impulsive behavior
that interferes with normal functioning
- Associated with academic and social challenges
- May be caused by poor dopamine regulation, poor
frontal lobe development
- Can treat with behavior therapy and/or medication
Erikson: Industry vs. inferiority
- Industry – Being busy and achieving goals
- May feel inferior if don’t measure up to peers
- Could affect future performance
Self-understanding
- Self-concept – Beliefs about general personal identity
- More realistic than in previous ages
- Able to incorporate others’ perspectives
- Self-esteem – Evaluative judgment of self
- Self-efficacy – Belief that you are capable of achieving a
specific task/goal
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
- Preconventional morality
- Focuses on self-interest (avoid punishment, get
reward)
- Most common in children but can be seen in adults
- Conventional morality
- People care about the effect of their actions on
others
- Obey rules, gain approval
- Postconventional morality
- Higher, universal ethical principle of conduct
- May or may not be reflected in the law
Lawrence Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning
Friends and peers
- Increasingly important for self-esteem
- Conceptualization of friendship changes with age
Conceptualizations of friendship: Bigelow & La Gaipa
(1975)
- Reward-cost – Friendship focuses on mutual activities
- Good friend = someone with similar interests
- Normative expectation – Focus on conventional
morality
- Good friend = someone who’s kind and shares with
you
- Empathy and understanding
- Good friend = loyal, committed, share intimate
information
Conceptualizations of friendship: Selman (1980)
- Stage 0 (momentary physical interaction) – Friend =
who you are playing with right now
- Stage 1 (one-way assistance) – Friend = someone who
does nice things for you
- Stage 2 (fair weather cooperation) – Friend = someone
who treats you fair,
- Stage 3 (intimate and mutual sharing) – Friend =
someone you can trust with secrets
- Stage 4 (autonomous interdependence) – Friend =
someone who accepts you and vice versa
Peer relationships and popularity
- Sociometric assessment measures attraction between
members of a group
- Used to assess popularity in group settings
- Popular = many positive votes, few negative ones
- Rejected = many negative votes, few positive ones
- Controversial = many votes of both types
- Neglected = few votes of either type
- Average = some positive votes, very few negative
ones
- Subtypes of popular and rejected children
- Popular-prosocial children – Good academic and
social skills
- Popular-antisocial children – Often display
relational aggression
- Rejected-withdrawn children – Shy, easy targets
because they don’t retaliate
- Rejected-aggressive – Aggressive, loud, and
confrontational
Bullying
- Students perceived as “weak” or ‘different” at risk
- Many bullies have high self-esteem
- Lack empathy, like to dominate
- Many bullied children don’t ask for help
- Important to know warning signs
- Associated with depression, substance abuse, suicide
Family life
- Berger’s family tasks:
- Providing food, clothing and shelter
- Encouraging learning
- Developing self-esteem
- Nurturing friendships with peers
- Providing harmony and stability
Family life: Lesbian and gay parents
- Research shows little or no differences between
children raised by same-sex or opposite-sex parents
- Beliefs about same-sex couples may influence legal
policies that affect families (e.g., adoption)
Family life: Divorce
- Associated with increased risk of:
- Behavior problems
- Problems in adult relationships
- But most children of divorced parents do okay
- Quality of relationships important
- Amount of disruption/change important
- Child personality characteristics important
Family life: Cohabitating and blended families
- Cohabitation may be short-lived and
therefore, disruptive to child
- Blended family – Includes kids from previous
relationships
- Parents and kids may have different ideas about how
stepparents “should” behave
- Stepparents may treat stepchildren differently from
their own
- Managing feelings is important
Chapter 6: Adolescence
Sexual maturation
- Primary sexual characteristics – Changes in
reproductive organs
- Growth of uterus, penis, testes
- Release of reproductive cells
- Menarche – First menstruation
- Spermarche – First ejaculation of semen
Male reproductive system
Female reproductive system
- Secondary sexual characteristics – Visible physical
changes that signal sexual maturity but aren’t involved in
reproduction
- Males – Voice deepening, facial hair
- Females – Breast development, hips
broaden
Socioemotional aspects of puberty
- Racial/ethnic differences in typical age of puberty
- Early puberty in girls associated with adjustment and
behavioral issues
- Gender role intensification
- Girls may downplay successes
Adolescent brain
- More interconnected and specialized
- Corpus callosum thickens
- Connections strengthened between hippocampus
and frontal
lobes
- Myelination and synapse development continue
- Increase thinking and processing skills
 - Decrease plasticity
- Pruning in gray matter increases efficiency
- Limbic system regulates emotion and reward
- Linked to hormonal changes in puberty
- Related to novelty seeking
- Teens weigh risks/rewards differently than adults
- Increased dopamine associated with more attention
paid to rewards, less to risks
- Oxytocin makes social connections more rewarding
-Combined with immature frontal lobes, may produce
poor decision making
Eating disorders: The basics
- Often begin in teen years
- Affect both males and females
-Twice as common in females
- Common across cultural groups
- Anorexia nervosa more common in non-Hispanic
Caucasian people
- Interaction of biological, environmental, and
psychological factors
- Often associated with distorted body image
DSM-5 eating disorders
Eating disorders: Consequences
- Short-term and long-term health consequences
- Anorexia: Osteoporosis, heart failure
- Bulimia: Digestive problems, tooth decay, heart
trouble
- Binge eating: High blood pressure and cholesterol,
diabetes
- Anorexia nervosa has highest death rate of any
psychiatric condition
Eating disorders: Treatment
- Tailored to individual needs
- Medical care
- Nutritional counseling
- Medications (e.g., antidepressants)
- Psychotherapy
- Maudsley Approach actively involves parents
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – Identifying
distorted thinking patterns and changing inaccurate
beliefs
Piaget’s formal operational stage
- Understand abstract principles with no physical
reference (e.g., beauty, freedom, morality)
- Hypothetical-deductive reasoning – Developing
hypotheses based on what might logically occur
- Understand transitivity – A relationship between two
elements is carried over to other elements logically
related to the first two
- If A<B and B<C, then A<C
Adolescent egocentrism
- Heightened self-focus
- Imaginary audience – Belief that those around them are
as concerned and focused on them appearance as they
themselves are
- Personal fable – Belief that one is unique, special, and
invulnerable to harm
Consequences of formal operational thought
- Greater introspection (thinking about one’s thoughts
and feelings)
- Idealistic – Insisting on high standards of behavior
- Hypocrisy – Pretend to be what they are not
- Pseudostupidity – Approach problems at overly
complex level that is too complex and fail because the
tasks are too simple
Information processing
- Executive functions competent in adolescence
- Self-regulation (ability to control impulses may still
fail)
- Deductive reasoning emerges
- Use general principle to propose specific conclusions
- Dual-process model
- Intuitive thought is automatic, fast, and emotional
- Analytic thought is deliberate, conscious, and
rational
Self-concept and self-esteem
- Self-concept develops – Abstract reasoning, ability to
consider future
- Self-understanding often full of contradictions
- Self-esteem now includes perceptions of competency in
romantic and career areas
Erikson: Identity vs. role confusion
- Confusion and experimentation regarding identity and
one’s life path
- Psychological moratorium – Delay commitment to an
identity while exploring the options
- Most identity formation may not occur until early
adulthood
Marcia’s four identity statuses
Facets of identity
- Religious identity
- Political identity
- Vocational identity
- Gender identity
Ethnic identity
- How people come to terms with who they are based on
their ethnic or racial ancestry
- Requires consideration of positive and negative beliefs
- Resolution may depend on status and
dominant culture - Intermediate period between adolescence and
- High-status groups tend to explore less adulthood
- Early adulthood
Ethnic identity formation (Phinney, 1990) - Ages 26-45
- Unexamined ethnic identity: little consideration of
issues Arnett’s characteristics of emerging adulthood
- Lack of exposure to ethnic identity issues - Age of identity exploration
- Little thought to the question of ethnic heritage - Age of instability
(similar to diffusion) - Age of self-focus
- Adopting family’s ethnicity with little thought - Age of feeling in-between
(similar to foreclosure) - Age of possibilities
- Ethnic identity search: Exploring the customs, culture,
and history of one’s ethnic group Cultural variations in emerging adulthood
- Often caused by event that “awakens” person to - Influenced by governmental policies and programs
their ethnic group - Free college education
- Immersion in ethnic culture - Unemployment benefits
- Achieved ethnic identity: Appreciation/understanding - Housing allowances
of ethnic heritage
- Usually follows exploration - Influenced by individualistic/collectivistic views
- May be unrelated to involvement in customs and - Individualistic
values of their ethnic culture - Financial independence important
- Lots of freedom to explore identity and leisure
Other aspects of ethnic identity formation - Collectivistic
- Often little exploration in high school - Ability to financially support parents important
- MAMA cycling – Moving back and forth between - Less freedom to explore identity and leisure
moratorium and achievement
- Bicultural identity – View self as part of both the ethnic When does adulthood begin?
minority group and the larger society - Traditionally marked by marriage and parenthood
- Multiracial identity – May be harder to establish - Economic and social changes have affected that
- May be questioned by others - Delay marriage and parenthood
- Extend education
Relationships with parents - Financial independence and self-responsibility currently
- Most teens and parents get along viewed as more important
- Possible conflicts about autonomy - But may be SES/cultural differences
- May have more conflicts with mothers
- Parents tend to control daughters more Factors influencing living arrangements
- Cultural factors may affect this - Postponing or avoiding marriage/cohabitation
- Secure attachment has positive outcomes - Lack of employment and lower wages
- Better emotional well-being and peer relationships - Higher education
- Less drug abuse and criminal behavior
Physical development in our 20s
Relationships with peers - Physical maturation complete
- Homophily – Associate with people similar to us - Functioning at its peak in:
- Deviant peer contagion – Peers reinforce problem - Muscle strength
behavior - Reaction time
- Healthy peer relationships important for well-being - Sensory abilities
- Cliques – Groups of individuals who interact frequently - Cardiac functioning
- Crowds – Groups characterized more by shared - Reproductive system
reputations or images than actual interactions - Motor skills
- Lung capacity
Stages in dating process
- Romantic relationships form in mixed-sex peer groups Physical development in our 30s
- Middle adolescence: Brief, casual dating or group dating - Lens of the eye starts to stiffen and thicken
with established couples - Presbyopia – Difficulty focusing on close objects
- Late adolescence: Exclusive, intense relationships often - Sensitivity to sound decreases
lasting a year or more - Hair starts to thin and become gray
- May interfere with friendships - Skin becomes drier and wrinkles start to appear
- Declines in:
Chapter 7: Emerging and Early Adulthood - Response time
- Ability to recover from physical exertion
Emerging and early adulthood - Immune system functioning
- Emerging adulthood - Reproductive capacity
- Ages 18-25
Waist circumference
Sex and gender
- Sex – Physical or physiological differences
- Gender – Social or cultural distinctions associated with
a given sex
- Social construct – Concept created by cultural and
societal norms
- Children socialized to conform to certain gender
roles based on biological sex and assigned gender
- Gender role – Society's concept of how men and
women are expected to act and behave
Gender identity
- Sense of self as a member of a particular gender
- Separate from sexual orientation
- Cisgender – Individuals who identify with a role that
corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth
Being transgender
- Individuals who identify with a role that is different
from their biological sex
- May occur in different ways (e.g., agender,
genderfluid)
- Not all transgender people choose to physically
transition
- Transgender people likely to experience harassment,
discrimination, bullying, and violence
- Transgender individuals of color face additional
financial, social, and interpersonal challenges
Sexuality in adulthood
- Human sexuality – People's sexual interest in and
attraction to others
- Includes capacity to have erotic experiences and
responses
- May be experienced and expressed in a variety of
ways
- Biological and physical aspects = Human
sexual-response cycle
- Emotional aspects = Expression of bonds or feelings
- Social aspects = How social messages affect sexuality
- Spiritual aspects = Spiritual connection with others
through sexuality
Sexual response cycle
- Physiological responses occurring during sexual activity
- Excitement – Intrinsic motivation to pursue sex arises
- Plateau – Period of sexual excitement with increased -
heart rate and circulation
- Orgasm – Release of tension
- Resolution – Unaroused state before the cycle begins
again
The brain and sex
- Brain translates nerve impulses into pleasurable
sensations
- Brain controls nerves and muscles used in sexual
activity
- Brain regulates the release of hormones
- Cerebral cortex is origin of sexual thoughts and
fantasies
- Limbic system is origin of emotions and feelings
- Hypothalamus receives input from the limbic system
- Libido – General desire for sexual activity
Endocrine glands
Hormones and sex
- Oxytocin released during sexual intercourse when
orgasm achieved
- Believed to be involved with maintaining close
relationships
- Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) triggers egg
maturity and stimulates sperm production
- Luteinizing hormone (LH) triggers the release of a
mature egg during ovulation
- In males, testosterone appears to contribute heavily to
sexual motivation
- Vasopressin involved in the male arousal phase
- Relationship between hormones and female sexual
motivation not well understood
- Estrogen increases motivation, progesterone
decreases it
Sexual responsiveness
- Men – sexual responsiveness tends to peak in the late
teens and early 20s
- Begins a slow decline in the late 20s and into the 30s
- Women – sexual responsiveness often peaks in late 30s
or early 40s
- May be due to greater self-confidence and reduced
inhibitions about sexuality
Cultural and societal views on sexuality
- Often influenced by religion
- Media shapes views of sexuality
- Body image
- Social scripts about relationships
- Sexual roles of men and women
- Views and practices about premarital sex and
cohabitation differs across cultures
Sexual orientation
- Emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex or
gender
- Also includes sense of identity and community
associated with specific sexual orientation
- Kinsey: Sexual orientation is a continuum
Some types of sexual orientation
- Heterosexuality – Attraction to individuals of the
opposite sex/gender
- Homosexuality – Attraction to individuals of one's own
sex/gender
- Bisexuality – Attraction to any sex or gender
- Pansexuality/polysexuality may include nonbinary
attractions
- Asexuality – No sexual attraction to any sex/gender
Development of sexual orientation
- Awareness usually develops by early adolescence
- Experiences/behavior not necessary
- Believed to be biologically based
- Concordance rate high in identical twins
- Correlation with exposure to prenatal androgens
- Maternal immune hypothesis – Maternal immune
response to Y-linked protein changes with births of
subsequent sons
Sexual orientation discrimination
- American culture heteronormative – Supports
heterosexuality as the norm
- Homophobia – Negative attitudes and actions toward
people identified or perceived as LGBT
- Institutionalized – Policies that discriminate against
LGBT people (e.g., health insurance benefits)
- Internalized– LGBT people believe negative views
- LGBT people more likely to experience discrimination
and harassment
- May combine with racial discrimination
Cognitive development: Postformal thought
- Basing decisions on what is realistic and practical, not
idealistic
- Making adaptive choices
- Not as influenced by what others think
- Experience teaches us those possibilities ≠ reality
Cognitive development: Dialectical thought
- Bring together salient aspects of two opposing
viewpoints or positions
- Adolescents tend to think in dichotomies
- Dialectical thought more realistic because nothing’s
perfect
Cognitive development in early adulthood
- Does everyone reach formal operations and beyond?
- Formal operational thought influenced by experience
and education
- Experience in abstract thinking
- May be related to specific education received
- Abstract thinking in one area ≠ abstract thinking in all
areas
Stages of career development (Patton & McMahon,
1999)
- Stage One: In childhood, select careers based on what
appears glamorous or exciting
- Stage Two: Teens consider abilities and limitations
when narrowing choices
- Stage Three: Older teens/emerging adults’ narrow
choices further
- Consider requirements, rewards, and downsides of
careers
- Compare possible careers with interests, values, and
future goals
- Some may “fall-into” careers due to factors other
than interest
- Stage Four: Settle in careers by mid-to-late 30s
(Super, 1980)
- Some people may feel trapped if little opportunity
for advancement
Gender, careers, and sexism
- Sexism – Prejudice or discrimination based on a
person's sex or gender
- May influence career choices and advancement
- May influence educational opportunities and views
of behavior
- Occupational sexism – Discriminatory practices,
statements, or actions in the workplace
- Women make 78 cents for every dollar a man earns
Descriptions of the Big Five personality traits
Personality changes in adulthood
- Neuroticism and openness decrease with age;
conscientiousness increases
- Life events (e.g., divorce, illness) may produce their own
changes
- Conscientiousness predicts important life outcomes:
- Job success
- Health and longevity
- Quality of relationships
Attachment in young adulthood
Attachment in early adulthood: Bartholomew (1990)
- Two dimensions:
- Attachment related-anxiety – Fear of rejection or
abandonment
- Young adults show more of this than other adults
- Attachment-related avoidance – Fear of opening up,
becoming dependent, losing autonomy
Four-category model with the two dimensions of
Attachment
Attachment in early adulthood: Influences and
outcomes
- Early attachments influence later ones
- But other relationships also affect adult attachments
- Secure people likely to have secure partners
- Not clear why this is
- Insecure attachments associated with:
- Lower satisfaction
- More conflict
Relationships with parents
- Good relationship with parents helps transition to
adulthood
- Both parents and children have to reappraise
relationship
- Parents who have trouble regarding children as
adults may hinder development
- Living at home may exacerbate this
Relationships with siblings
- Frequency of sibling interactions decline in early
adulthood
- College, other relationships, jobs
- Must retain bond so can re-establish closeness later
- Conflict typically declines
- Quality of relationship in childhood associated with
quality of relationship in adulthood
- Unusual for siblings to initiate closeness in adulthood
Erikson: Intimacy vs. isolation
- Must establish identity first
- Intimate relationships = Friendships and romantic
relationships
Attraction
- What makes people like/love each other
- We’re attracted to people based on:
- Similarity
- Consensual validation – Having others like and
believe in the same things we do makes us feel validated
in our beliefs
- Self-disclosure – Frequent, accepting, empathetic
communication
- Proximity – Physically near us
- Mere exposure – Tendency to prefer things we see
more frequently
Friendships
- In our twenties, intimacy needs may be met in
friendships, not romances
- Women’s and men’s friendships differ (Tannen, 1990)
- Friendships between men: Sharing information,
providing solutions, or focusing on activities
- Friendships between women: Sharing weaknesses,
emotions, or problems
- Friendships may diminish once a person has a partner
or single friends may be replaced with couple friends
Sternberg’s theory of love
- 3 components
- Passion – Intense physical attraction
- Intimacy – Sharing feelings, personal thoughts, and
psychological closeness
- Commitment – Conscious decision to stay together
Sternberg’s triangular theory of love
Adult lifestyles: Hooking up
- Uncommitted sexual encounters (not formal dating)
- Friends with benefits – Friends having casual sex
without commitment
- Hookup attitudes influenced by social attitudes
- Potential risks:
- Unbalanced emotional investment
- Feelings of regret, guilt, depression
- Often associated with drug/alcohol use
Adult lifestyles: Online dating
- Online communication vs. face-to-face meetings
- Fewer sensory cues to create first impressions
- Anonymity makes it easier to become intimate
- People often disclose more quickly online
- Exchanges can be focused more on emotional
attraction than physical appearance
- Online daters report valuing communication and
personality characteristics over sexual attraction
Adult lifestyles: Cohabitation
- Cohabitation rates and length increasing
- Possible causes:
- Increased individualism and secularism
- Better economic options for women
 - Increased enrollment in post-secondary education
- Rates and attitudes may vary across cultures
Adult lifestyles: Marriage
- Marriage rates may increase due to legalization of
same-sex marriage
Cultural influences on marriage
- Endogamy – Social rules about acceptable marriage
partners (e.g., race, religion, SES)
- Many cultures endorse homogamy – Marriage
between people who share social characteristics
- Arranged marriages still common in some cultures
- Often related to economic opportunities
Marital harmony
- Gottman: Good communication is key
- “Marriage killers”: Contempt, criticism,
defensiveness, and stonewalling
- Accumulated positive deposits can help in times of
conflict
- Interventions include:
- Increasing positive regard
- Strengthening the couple’s friendship.
- Improving communication and conflict resolution
Intimate partner abuse
- Highest rates in women aged 18-24
= May include rape, physical abuse, stalking,
psychological aggression
- Physical violence most common for male victims
- Associated with physical and psychological
consequences
The parent-child relationship
- Bidirectional – Both parties influence each other
- Parenting strategies influenced by:
- Parents’ personality traits
- Experiences growing up
- Child’s characteristics
- Socioeconomic factors
- Cultural expectations
Chapter 8: Middle Adulthood
Primary and secondary aging
- Primary aging
- Age-related changes caused by biological factors
- Molecular and cellular factors, oxidative damage
- Secondary aging
- Age-related changes caused by
controllable factors
- Unhealthy lifestyle, lack of exercise,
poor diet
Physical changes in middle adulthood: Hair
- Graying hair
- Hair follicles produce melanin, which colors hair
- With aging, hair follicles produce less melanin
- Typically begins in 30s, but depends on race/genetics
Thinning hair
- Hair follicles produce less new hair, strands shrink
- Male-pattern baldness related to testosterone
Physical changes in middle adulthood: Skin
- Skin dries and loses the underlying layer of fat
- Wrinkles
- Loss of muscle tone
- Skin appears droopy
- Wrinkles, dark spots, blotchy skin
- Aggravated by sun exposure
Physical changes in middle adulthood: Muscles
- Sarcopenia – Loss of muscle mass and strength that
occurs with aging
- Caused by decline of growth and anabolic hormones,
especially testosterone
- Also caused by decreased physical activity
- Can start as early as 40 years of age
- Contributes significantly to decreased life quality,
increase in health care costs, and early death in older
adults
- Muscle-to-fat ratio also changes
- Fat accumulates in the stomach area
Physical changes in middle adulthood: Lungs
- Lung capacity decreases with age
- Thinning of the bones can change the shape of the
rib cage and result in a loss of lung expansion
- Weakened diaphragm muscles
- Results in shortness of breath and feeling tired
- Usually minimal in healthy, active non-smokers
- But may have significant effects on smokers and
people with chronic lung problems
Sensory changes in middle adulthood: Vision
- Presbyopia – Loss of elasticity in the lens of the eye
- Harder to focus on close objects (e.g., small print)
- Floaters – Little spots or “cobwebs” in visual field
- Occur when vitreous humor shrinks
- Decreased scotopic sensitivity – Ability to see in dim
light and adjust to changes in light levels
- Dry eye syndrome – Eye does not produce tears
properly or tears evaporate too quickly
Interior of the human eye
Health concerns in middle adulthood: heart disease
- Can include heart defects and rhythm problems
- Cardiovascular disease – Narrowed, blocked, or
stiffened blood vessels
- Atherosclerosis – Buildup of fatty plaque in the
arteries
- Increased risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and
cardiac arrest
- Risk factors include family history, smoking, poor diet
Atherosclerosis
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Hypertension
- High blood pressure – Heart has to work harder to pump
blood throughout body
- Systolic pressure – Pressure in the blood vessels
when the heart beats
- Diastolic pressure – Pressure in the blood vessels
when the heart is at rest
- Increased risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney damage
- Lifestyle changes often effective
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Cancer
- Collection of diseases in which cells divide without
stopping and spread into surrounding tissues
- May form tumors that interfere with bodily functioning
- Malignant tumors invade nearby tissues
- Metastasizing – Spreading throughout body
Cancer
Health concerns in middle adulthood: High cholesterol
- Cholesterol – A waxy, fatty substance carried by
lipoprotein molecules in the blood
- Necessary to create hormones and digest fatty foods
- Most are low-density lipoproteins (LDL)
- High LDL levels can form plaque in the arteries,
leading to heart attack and stroke
- High-density lipoproteins (HDL) absorb cholesterol and
carry it to the liver to be flushed from the body
- High HDL levels can reduce the risk of heart attack
and stroke
- Triglycerides – A type of fat in the blood used for energy
- High levels can also increase heart disease and stroke
risk
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Diabetes mellitus
- Body can’t control blood glucose
- 90-95% of adult cases are Type 2
- Insulin resistance – Cells in muscles, liver, and fat
tissue don’t use insulin properly
- Insulin = Hormone that helps cells use glucose for
energy
- Number of cases quadruples after age 45 (from 4.3
million to 13 million adults)
- Different rates across and within racial/ethnic groups
- Other risk factors: Diet, obesity, inactivity, family
history
- Increases risk of limb amputation, retinopathy, heart
attack, stroke, kidney failure
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Metabolic
syndrome
- Cluster of cardiometabolic risk factors, including:
- Large waist circumference
- High blood pressure
- Elevated triglycerides
- Increases diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk
- Increasing activity and losing weight can help
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Rheumatoid
arthritis
- Inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling,
stiffness, and loss of function in the joints
- Immune system attacks the membrane lining of joints
- Symptoms include joint pain and swelling but also
fatigue and fever
- Genetic component with environmental trigger
Rheumatoid arthritis
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Heartburn
- Stomach acid backing up into the esophagus
- Sometimes linked to eating fatty or spicy foods,
caffeine, smoking, and eating before bedtime
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) – Lower
sphincter muscle in the esophagus relaxes too frequently
and stomach acid flows into the esophagus
- Can injure the lining of the esophagus and:
- Cause discomfort (short-term)
- Increase esophageal cancer risk (long-term)
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Gallstones
- Hard particles that develop in the gallbladder
- Made of fatty materials, bile pigments, and calcium
deposits
- Can block bile or pancreatic ducts
- Risk factors include family history, high-calorie and carb
diet, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Crohn’s disease, and
obesity
Health concerns in middle adulthood: Sleep
- Adults require 7 hours of sleep per night
- Sleep apnea and insomnia most common causes
- Pain and stress also interfere with sleep
- Health consequences include:
- Impaired memory and glucose and immune
functioning
- Increased cancer, diabetes, and hypertension risk
Exercise, nutrition, and weight in middle adulthood
- Exercise recommendations
- 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity
exercise, including at least 10 minutes or aerobic exercise
- Muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week
- Any activity will have health benefits
- Nutrition recommendations
- Less than 2300mg (1 teaspoon) of sodium per day
- Most adults consume 3440 mg
- Less than 10% of calories per day from saturated fats
- In average American diet, 15% of calories from
saturated fats
- Less than 10% of calories per day from added sugars
- In average American diet, 15% of calories from
added sugars
- Metabolism – Process by which the body converts food
and drink into energy
- Slows during midlife due to muscle mass decrease
- Adults should increase exercise, eat less, and watch
nutrition to maintain earlier physique
- Obesity associated with health problems, including
increased dementia risk
- Fat cells may produce harmful chemicals that
promote inflammation in blood vessels in the brain
Climacteric
- Midlife transition when fertility declines
- Biologically based but impacted by environment
- Men experience reduction in reproductive ability
- Women lose reproductive ability
Female sexual and reproductive health
- Perimenopause – Ovaries stop releasing eggs and
hormone production decreases
- Menopause – 12 months without menstruation
- Possible effects:
- Hot flashes – Surges of adrenaline
- Disrupted sleep
- Painful intercourse
- Increased osteoporosis risk
- Depression, irritability, and weight gain not menopausal
Symptoms of menopause
Hormone replacement therapy
- Estrogen sometimes used to treat menopause
symptoms
- But associated with:
- Breast cancer
- Stroke
- Development of blood clots
- Greater emphasis on non-hormonal treatments
- Eating soy, practicing relaxation
- Avoiding caffeine and alcohol
Menopause and ethnicity
- White women more likely to disclose psychometric
symptoms
- Depression, irritability, forgetfulness, and headaches
- African American women more likely to disclose
vasomotor symptoms
- Hot flashes, night sweats, flushing
- Chinese and Japanese women reported fewest
symptoms
Menopause and culture
- Menopause-related language reflects experiences
- Example: No Hmong word for “hot flashes”
- Significance of menopause varies
- Liberating experience or loss of youth and
womanhood?
- May depend on expected social norms
- May depend on cultural views of aging
Male sexual and reproductive health
- Men don’t lose ability to father children
- Erectile dysfunction increases with age
- Main causes: Diabetes, kidney disease, alcoholism,
and atherosclerosis
- Prostate enlargement
- Declines in testosterone
- Associated with diabetes, obesity, high blood
pressure, and testicular cancer
Sexuality in middle adulthood
- Most middle-aged adults sexually active
- Women may experience painful intercourse and
decreased desire
- Men may need more stimulation to get/maintain
erection
Brain functioning in midlife
- Older adults use more of the brain than younger adults
- Brain demonstrates plasticity
- White matter increases into 50s
- Focus on positive information more than negative
- Better decision making, especially financial
Crystallized and fluid intelligence
- Crystallized intelligence – Accumulated knowledge
acquired throughout life
- Semantic knowledge, vocabulary, and language
- Increases with age
- Fluid intelligence – Capacity to learn new ways of
solving problems and perform activities quickly
- Decreases with age
Flow
- Mental state of being completely present and fully
absorbed in a task
- Achieving great joy or intellectual satisfaction
- Not concerned with extrinsic rewards
Tacit knowledge
- Knowledge that is pragmatic or practical
- Learned through experience (not explicitly taught)
- Using skills and solving problems in practical ways
- Increases with age
Gaining expertise
- Expert – Someone with specialized skills and knowledge
in certain area
- Intuitive – Less reliance on specific rules and steps
- Automatic – Process information faster/more
efficiently
- Strategic – Use knowledge to generate ideas
- Flexible – Take on more challenging tasks
- Expertise can’t make up for all cognitive losses
- Novice – Someone who has limited experiences with
a particular task
Workplace climate at midlife
- Job satisfaction tends to peak in midlife
- Higher pay, more autonomy
- But not for everyone
- Glass ceiling – Organizational discrimination that
limits women’s career advancement
- Job burnout – Being disillusioned/frustrated at work
- Lack of paid vacation, overtime pay
Workplace challenges in midlife
- Primarily economic in nature
- Fewer hours/having to switch to part-time
- Pay cuts
- Loss of retirement savings
- Lack of opportunities for middle-aged adults
- Cheaper to hire young workers
- Younger workers farther from retirement
- Difficulty relocating
Leisure
- Time off from work and duties
- Beneficial for mental and physical health
- Watching TV is more than half of leisure time
- Men spend more time in leisure than women
- Gap smaller for parents
- America has less paid time off than other countries
- But workers don’t always use this time off
- Feel pressure from boss/coworkers
- Worries about things piling up
Socioemotional development: Midlife crisis
- Levinson (1978) – Midlife transition (40-45) is a time of
- Reevaluating previous commitments
- Making dramatic changes if necessary
- Expressing previously ignored talents or aspirations
- Feeling more urgency about life and its meaning
- Middle adulthood (45-50) – Committed to new choices
- Levinson (1978) – Midlife crisis was a normal part of
development
- Difficulty reconciling reality with dreams about
future
- Later research suggests midlife crisis is uncommon
- Most common among highly educated
- Often triggered by major life event, not fear of aging
Stress
- Pattern of physical and psychological responses after
threatening event
- Disrupts homeostasis and coping abilities
- Major life events and daily hassles
- Associated with illness and physical wear and tear
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
- Three-phase model of stress
- Alarm – Mobilization of physiological resources
- Resistance – Organism attempts to cope
- Exhaustion – Organism’s resources depleted
Socioemotional factors and stress
- Type A behavior - Competitive, impatient, hostile, and
time-urgent
- Associated with increased risk of heart disease
- Hostile, competitive people have heightened arousal
- Social integration – Number of social roles one has
- Associated with reduced stress, better health
Caregiving and stress
- Caregiving associated with greater stress
- Includes social isolation, financial problems
- Can affect physical and mental health
- Female caregivers experience more stress
Stress management and coping
- Problem-focused coping – Actively addressing the event
that is causing stress
- Emotion-focused coping – Regulating emotions that
come with stress
- Biofeedback - Technique where the individual is shown
bodily information that is not normally available to them
(e.g., heart rate), and then taught strategies to alter this
signal
Erikson: Generativity vs. stagnation
- Generativity – Procreativity, productivity, and creativity
- Concern with leaving positive legacy
- Caring for people, products, and ideas
- Associated with good cultural knowledge and
adaptation
- Not feeling needed or challenged may result in
stagnation
Midlife relationships: Kinkeeping
- Keeping the family connected and promoting solidarity
and continuity in the family
- Organizing family gatherings
- Keeping track of family history
- Providing advice and support
- Strengthening bonds
- Can be stressful when interferes with other duties
- May include caregiving activities
Midlife relationships: Empty nest
- Time period when children are grown up and have left
home
- Empty nest syndrome: Emotional distress parents
experience after children have left home
- Cultural differences
- Mainstream American culture: Role strain relief for
parents
- Chinese culture: Loss of emotional and financial
support
Middle adult lifestyles: Singlehood and dating
- Single adults not worse off than married adults
- May depend on reasons/circumstances
- Most important reasons for dating:
- Companionship
- Romantic activities
- Sexual fulfillment (decreases in later life)
Middle adult lifestyles: Marriage
- 48% of adults age 45-54 are married
- Marital satisfaction tends to increase in midlife
- Children leave home
- Have learned to work out problems
- But may be attrition effect
Middle adult lifestyles: Divorce
- 27% of adults age 45 to 54 were divorced
- 57% of them are women
- 2/3 of divorces are initiated by women
- Enhancers better themselves and seek better
relationships
- Competent loners use their experience to grow
emotionally, but choose to stay single
- Most divorces occur in first 5-10 years of marriage
- Early divorces tend to be angrier and more
conflictual
- Later divorces often reflect growing apart
Middle adult lifestyles: Dating post- divorce
- Most adults date within 1 year of divorce
- More likely in young adults
- Children can complicate dating
- Gatekeeping – Parents regulate the flow of
information about new romantic partners
Middle adult lifestyles: Remarriage
- Remarriage rate declined 16% since 2008
- But has increased for adults 55 and older
- Men more likely than women to remarry
- Whites more likely than other groups to remarry
- Potential problems with family roles/expectations
- Child-focused parent allows the child’s views,
reactions, and needs to influence the re partnering
- Adult-focused parent expects that the child can
adapt and should accommodate to parental wishes
Grandparenting
- Cherlin and Furstenberg’s grandparent styles (1986)
- Remote (30%): Live far away or have distant
relationship
- Contact is typically made on special occasions
- Companionate (55%): Do things with grandchild but
have little authority or control over them
- Involved (15)%: Take a very active role in grandchild’s
life
- May include grandparents who raise their
grandchildren
- Cultural factors may influence grandparent
involvement
Friendships in midlife
- Friendships are beneficial
- Increased sense of belonging and security
- Less depression and anxiety
- Reduced adverse effects of stress
- Poor social connectedness associated with a larger risk
of premature mortality than cigarette smoking, obesity,
and excessive alcohol use
- Female friendships associated with support
- Confidants important for mental health
- May be hard due to competing responsibilities
- Male friendships often involve shared consumption of
alcohol
- Quality/quantity of friendships in young adulthood
important
Internet and workplace friendships
- Internet friendships can be intimate
- Social anxiety, autism, geographical location
- Workplace friendships can make work more pleasant
- People often spend lots of time at Work
- Mentoring, social support, resources
Women in midlife
- Aging stressful in cultures that emphasize youth and
attractiveness
- Double standard of aging: Aging men are viewed as
“distinguished” and aging women are viewed as “old”
- Women valued for reproductive capabilities may be
considered old after menopause
- Men valued for achievements and not considered old
until they are physically unable to work
- Attitudes about aging vary by race, culture, and sexual
orientation
- Older Asian women age attain greater respect
and have greater authority
- White women have more stereotypes about aging
- Lesbians are less negative about aging and looking
older
Religion and spirituality
- Religiosity – Engaging with a formal religious group’s
doctrines, values, traditions, and members
- Spirituality – Intrapsychic sense of connection with
something transcendent
- Both associated with better quality of life
- More common in women, older adults
- But may be influenced by cultural practices
Chapter 9: Late Adulthood
Life expectancy vs. lifespan
- Life expectancy – Average number of years that
members of a population (or species) live
- 2015 worldwide: 71.4 (females 73.8, males 69.1)
- 2012 U.S.: 79.7 (females 81.9, males 77.3)
- Affected by behavior, ethnicity, location
 - Today’s children may live shorter lives than parents
- Lifespan – Greatest age reached by any member of a
given population (or species
- For humans, the lifespan is 120-125
Gender differences in life expectancy
- Women have better genetic/developmental stability
- Better immune functioning
- Lower rates of mental illness
- Estrogen has protective effect on circulatory system
- Better health behaviors
Age categories in late adulthood
- Young–old (65-84) – Good health, social engagement,
cognitive functioning
- Oldest-old (85- 99) – Increased health problems, care
needs
- Centenarians (100+) – Often in good health until 90s,
rapid terminal declines close to death
Theories of aging: Programmed theories
- Follow a biological timetable
- Programmed longevity – Genes promote or decrease
longevity
- Cellular clock theory – Cells lose ability to reproduce
- Declines in immune system functioning
- Hormonal stress theory – Hypothalamus doesn’t
work as effectively, leading to metabolic problems
A closer look: Cellular clock theory
- Telomeres – Sequences of DNA at ends of
chromosomes
- As cells reproduce, telomeres get shorter
- When telomeres get too short, the cell may:
- Turn itself off (cellular senescence)
- Die (apoptosis)
- Continue to divide and become abnormal (like in
cancer)
A closer look: Immunological theory
- Metabolic stress – Body’s life-sustaining activities
- Innate immune system - Skin, mucous membranes,
cough reflex, stomach acid, and specialized cells that
alert the body of an impending threat
- With age these cells lose their ability to communicate
- Adaptive immune system – Tonsils, spleen, bone
marrow, thymus, circulatory system and the lymphatic
system that work to produce and transport T cells
- With age we produce fewer T cells
closer look: Hormonal stress theory
- Hypothalamus doesn’t regulate hormones as well
- Linked to excess of the stress hormone cortisol
- The more stress we experience, the more cortisol
released
- Related to increased development of diabetes, thyroid
problems, osteoporosis, and orthostatic hypotension
Theories of aging: Damage/error theories
- DNA damage due to increased age, exposure to harmful
agents (UV radiation, hydrocarbons)
- Damage to mitochondria – Uses oxygen to produce
energy from food
- Generates less energy for cell, leading to cell death
- Free radical theory
- Free radicals – Oxygen molecules missing an electron
- Create instability in surrounding molecules by
taking electrons from them
- May cause damage in cells and tissue (cancer,
cataracts)
Physical changes in late adulthood: Overview
- Heart muscles thicken with age
- Arteries become less flexible
- Lung capacity diminishes
- Kidneys become less efficient in removing waste
- Bladder loses ability to store urine
- Neurons lose some functioning, but new ones produced
- Lots of variability
- Genetics, lifestyle, and disease all play a role
Physical changes in late adulthood: Body shape and
composition
- After age 30, people tend to lose lean tissue
- Reduces the amount of water in your body
- Bones lose some minerals and become less dense
- Early stages – Osteopenia, Later stages –
Osteoporosis
- Body fat increases after age 30
- Older individuals may have almost 30% more fat than
when they were younger
- Fat tissue builds up toward the center of the body,
including around the internal organs
Physical changes in late adulthood: Skin and hair
- Skin becomes thinner, less elastic, loses fat, and no
longer looks plump and smooth
- Veins and bones seen more easily
- Scratches and cuts take longer to heal
- Bruise more easily
- Age spots, wrinkles, dryness, increased risk of skin
cancer
- Skin aging heavily influenced by sun exposure
- Hair follicles stop producing new hairs
- Continued graying due to loss of pigment
Physical changes in late adulthood: Muscles
- Sarcopenia – Loss of muscle tissue as a natural part of
aging
- Physically active people will lose less
- Caused by:
- Reduction in nerve cells responsible for signaling
muscles to move
- Decreased ability to turn protein into energy
- Inadequate calories/protein to sustain muscle
mass
- Leads to weakness and loss of stamina and mobility
- Increases frailty and likelihood of falls and fractures
Physical changes in late adulthood: Height and weight
- Height loss related to changes in bones, muscles, and
joints
- People typically lose almost 1⁄2 inch every 10 years
after age 40
- Generally lose 1-3 inches total
- Men often gain weight until about age 55
- Women usually gain weight until age 65
- Late life weight loss occurs because fat replaces lean
muscle tissue
Sensory changes in late adulthood: Vision
- Cataracts – Clouding of the lens of the eye
- Macular degeneration – Center of retina deteriorates
- Loss of central vision
- Glaucoma – Fluid buildup in eye damages optic nerve
- Loss of peripheral vision
Vision changes in aging
Sensory changes in late adulthood: Hearing
- Almost 25% adults aged 65-74 have disabling hearing
loss
- 50% adults aged 75 and older
- Presbycusis – Gradual loss of hearing in late adulthood
- Tinnitus – Ringing, hissing, or roaring sound in the ears
- Balance problems caused by decline in inner ear
functioning
Sensory changes in late adulthood: Taste and smell
- Gradual loss of taste buds starting in 50s
- Usually not noticeable
- Presbyosmia – Loss of smell due to aging
- Produces most changes in sense of taste
- Decrease in olfactory receptor neurons
- Could indicate other neurological conditions
- Related to quality of diet
Sensory changes in late adulthood: Touch
- Reduced or changed sensations of vibration,
temperature, and pressure
- Increased risk of injury
Sensory changes in late adulthood: Pain
- 60%-75% of elders report some chronic pain
- But older adults generally less sensitive to pain
- Can conceal conditions requiring medical attention
- Pain can produce cycle of disability
- Pain → reduced activity → more pain with activity
- Also contributes to weight gain, sleep problems,
depression
Health concerns in late adulthood:
- Cancer
- Heart disease
- Osteoarthritis
- Bones
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disea
- Shingles
Brain functioning in later life
- Brain loses 5% to 10% of weight ages 20-90
- Shrinkage of neurons, lower number of synapses,
and shorter length of axons
- Other brain changes:
- Reduced activity of genes involved in memory
storage, synaptic pruning, plasticity, and glutamate and
GABA (neurotransmitters) receptors
- Loss in white matter connections – neurons work less
efficiently
- Loss of synapses in hippocampus and basal forebrain
- Larger regions of brain activated during complex
tasks
- Impaired executive functioning, working memory
- Scaffolding theory of aging and cognition
- Brain adapts to neural atrophy by building
alternative connections (scaffolding)
- Brain can compensate for age-related changes
- “Brain training” programs not effective
- Activity, social engagement, learning new skills better
Parkinson’s disease
- Caused by deterioration of substantia nigra
- Decreased dopamine in brain
- Characterized by motor tremors, loss of balance, poor
coordination, rigidity, and difficulty moving
- Combination of genetic and environmental factors
(Especially brain injury)
Sleep problems in late life
- Insomnia – Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep
- Sleep apnea – Repeated short pauses in breathing
during sleep
- Restless legs syndrome – Tingling, crawling feeling in
legs
- Periodic limb movement disorder – People to jerk and
kick their legs every 20 to 40 seconds during sleep
- Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder – Muscles
move during REM sleep, and sleep is disrupted
Cognitive changes in late adulthood: Working memory
- Central executive most negatively affected by age
- Difficulty allocating cognitive resources
- Difficulty monitoring effectiveness of cognitive
strategies
- Learning two new tasks simultaneously is difficult
- Other types of working memory tasks (e.g., digit span)
aren’t as affected
Cognitive changes in late adulthood: Long-term
memory
- Episodic memory shows greater age-related declines
than semantic memory
- Require recall of event and timeline
- Older adults often outperform younger adults on
semantic tasks
- But more tip-of-the-tongue events
- Implicit (procedural) memory shows few declines with
age
Cognitive changes in late adulthood: Prospective
memory
- Remembering things, we need to do in the future
- Time-based – Remembering to do something at future
time
- Event-based – Remember to do something when a
certain event occurs
- More age-related declines for time-based prospective
memories
Other memory changes in late adulthood
- Recall vs. recognition
- Recognition tasks easier because they require less
cognitive Energy
- Older and younger adults perform similarly on
recognition tasks
- Older adults do show declines in recall memory
- The “age advantage”
- Older adults can use knowledge or experience to
compensate
- Cognitive activity often more efficient
- Better decision making
Cognitive changes in late adulthood: Attention
- Affected by changes in sensory functioning and speed
of information processing
- Older adults less able to selectively focus and ignore
distractors
- Older adults have greater difficulty shifting attention
Cognitive changes in late adulthood: Problem solving
- Older adults use more effective strategies than younger
adults to solve social and emotional problems
- Use more efficient strategies and expertise to
compensate for cognitive decline
- Performance on tasks that require processing non-
meaningful information quickly decline with age
- May not translate into real-world problem solving
Reasons for age-related cognitive differences
- Processing speed theory – Slowing nervous system
affects
ability to process information
- When speed is not a factor, few age-related
differences
- Inhibition theory – Older adults have difficulty
suppressing irrelevant information
- Directed forgetting – Ask people to forget or ignore
certain information
- Older adults do more poorly at directed forgetting
tasks
- Laboratory tasks tend to be meaningless
- Overreliance on cross-sectional research
- Lack of practice
- Sensory deficits
Cognitive development in late adulthood: Intelligence
and wisdom
- Mechanics of intelligence – Basic information
processing
- Dependent on brain functioning and decline with age
- Similar to fluid intelligence
- Pragmatics of intelligence – Cultural exposure to facts
and procedures
- Maintained with age, may compensate for declines
in other areas
- Similar to crystalized intelligence
- Wisdom – Ability to use the accumulated practical
knowledge for good judgment and decision making
- Dependent on experience and personality, not just
age
Neurocognitive disorders
- Used to be called “dementia”
- Major Neurocognitive Disorder
- Significant decline in one or more cognitive areas
- Interferes with independent functioning
- Minor Neurocognitive Disorder
- Modest decline in one or more cognitive areas
- Does not interfere with independent functioning
Types of neurocognitive disorders: Alzheimer’s disease
- Memory decline extends to personality changes,
behavior problems, loss of self-care skills
- Caused by genetic and environmental factors
The timeline of Alzheimer’s disease
Neurological causes of Alzheimer’s disease
- Formation of beta-amyloid plaques
- Block cell communication
- May trigger inflammatory response causing neuronal
death
- Malfunctioning of tau protein
- Forms twisted strands called tangles that disrupt
neuronal transport system
- Nutrients and oxygen can’t get to neurons, and they
die
Plaques and tangles
Types of neurocognitive disorders: Vascular
neurocognitive disorder
- Blockage of cerebral blood vessels
- Generally, affects one part of the brain, not all
- Personality not affected
- More abrupt onset, shorter course
- Risk factors:
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Heart disease, hypertension, history of strokes
Types of neurocognitive disorders: Neurocognitive
disorder with Lewy bodies
- Lewy bodies – Microscopic protein deposits in neurons
- Affect neurotransmitters (dopamine and serotonin)
- Impaired thinking, movement, behavior and mood
Atchley’s retirement stages
- Remote pre-retirement phase – Thinking about
retirement
- Immediate pre-retirement phase – Making concrete
plans
- Actual retirement
- Honeymoon phase – Participate in activities
- Disenchantment phase – Experience emotional let
down
- Reorientation phase – Adjust to retirement
- Simplify plans
- Regular routine
Ageism
- Prejudice based on age
- Belief in stereotypes can affect well-being
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- Stereotype threat
- May ignore health problems, not seek treatment
- Nonwhite elders may face both ageism and racism
- Triple jeopardy – Ageism, racism, and sexism faced
by nonwhite elderly women
Erikson: Integrity vs. despair
- Retrospective accounting of life
- Integrity:
- Finding meaning in one’s life and accepting one’s
accomplishments
- Acknowledging disappointments/failures
- Feeling contentment and accepting others’
deficiencies
- Erikson: Integrity = wisdom
- Despair can come from bitterness and resentment
Social networks in late adulthood
- Convoy model of social relations – Social connections
maintained by exchanges in social support
- Close relationships (family, close friends) stable
- Peripheral relationships (coworkers, neighbors) less
stable
- Socioemotional selectivity theory – Motivation for
social contact changes with age
- Optimizing positive affect rather than acquiring
information
- Prioritize time spent with emotionally close
significant others
- Smaller social networks
Loneliness vs. solitude
- Loneliness = Discrepancy between the social contact a
person has and the contacts a person wants
- For women, often caused by social isolation
- For men, often caused by emotional isolation
- Associated with lack of self-worth, impatience,
desperation, and depression
- Solitude = Gaining self-awareness, taking care of the
self, being comfortable alone, and pursuing one’s
interests
Late adult lifestyles: Widowhood
- Viewed as being significant life stressor
- Adjustment depends on:
- Extraversion and self-efficacy
- Emotional support received from others
- Context of death (e.g., predictability)
- Widowhood mortality effect – Higher risk of death after
the death of a spouse
Substance abuse in late life
- Most commonly used:
- Alcohol
- Prescription opioids (painkillers)
- Benzodiazepines
- May be overused instead of psychotherapy
- Marijuana
- May increase as current Baby Boomers age
Successful aging
- Rowe and Kahn (1997):
- Relative avoidance of disease, disability, and risk
factors
- Maintenance of high physical and cognitive
functioning
- Active engagement in social and productive activities
- Baltes: Selective optimization with compensation
- Elder makes adjustments to continue living as
independently and actively as possible
- Compensate by choosing other ways to achieve their
goals
- Example: Finding alternative transportation when
can’t drive
Chapter 10: Death and Dying
Defining death: Physical death
- Uniform Determination of Death Act:
- Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory
functions, or
- Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire
brain, including the brain stem
Death process (Bell, 2010)
- Weeks before passing
- Reduced appetite
- Increased sleep, restlessness, disorientation, care
needs
- Days before passing
- Decreased consciousness, blood pressure, urine
volume
- Pauses in breathing
- Murmuring to people others cannot see
- Reaching in air or picking at covers
- Days to hours before passing
- Comatose-like state
- Inability to swallow
- Extremities and skin become cold and discolored
- Shallow breaths
Defining death: Social death
- Dehumanizing and withdrawing from someone who is
terminally ill (Glaser & Strauss, 1966)
 - Ignoring them, talking about them if they were not
present, making decisions without consulting them first
- Visiting less often, talking about superficial topics
- May occur with friends/family or health care
providers
- Why does this happen?
- Feelings of inadequacy
- Wanting to distance oneself from the reality of death
- Need for emotional distance to protect against grief
and burnout
Causes of death: The world
- World Health Organization:
- 68% of deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer,
diabetes, and chronic lung diseases
- 23% from communicable diseases, neonatal and
maternal mortality, and nutritional problems
- 9% from injuries
How people understand death: Infants and young
children
- Infants:
- React to separation caused by death
- May lose weight, sleep less, become sluggish and less
interactive
- Early and middle childhood:
- Believe death is temporary or reversible (up to age
9)
- Worry they may have caused the death (e.g., by
misbehaving or wishing it)
How people understand death: older children and
adolescents
- Late childhood:
- Understand death is permanent and universal
- But may think that people die because they did
something “bad”
- May worry about their family dying
- Adolescence:
- Understand death as well as adults
- May become preoccupied with death
- Personal fable produces feelings of unique
invulnerability
- May engage in risky behaviors
Advance care planning
- Documents pertaining to end-of-life care
- Advance directives are initiated by patient
- Living wills specify health care wishes
- Durable power of attorney for health care names
someone
to make health care decisions
- Medical orders are written by a medical professional on
behalf of a seriously ill patient
Euthanasia
- Intentionally ending one’s life when suffering from a
terminal illness or severe disability
- Active – Intentionally causing death, usually through
a lethal dose of medication
- Physician-assisted suicide – A physician prescribes
the means by which a person can die
- Allowed in 6 states as of 2016
- Passive – Withdrawing life-sustaining support
Religious practices after death: Hindu
- Belief in reincarnation means funerals
occur quickly
- Body is cremated and ashes are (if possible) dispersed
in one of India’s holy rivers
Religious practices after death: Orthodox Judaism
- Body washed and wrapped in a simple white shroud and
placed in plain wood coffin
- Males are also wrapped in their prayer shawls
- Burial must occur as soon as possible after death
- Family members gather and receive visitors (sitting
shiva)
Religious practices after death: Muslim
- Deceased are buried as soon as possible
- Community is involved in the ritual
- Body is washed and wrapped in a plain white shroud
(kafan)
- Prayers are said, followed by the burial
- Body is placed directly in the earth without a casket
- Positioned on the right side, facing Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Religious practices after death: Roman Catholic
- Anointing of the Sick occurs before death
- Final communion
- Funeral rites include wake, mass, and burial
Grief, bereavement, and mourning
- Grief – The normal process of reacting to a loss
- Bereavement – The period after a loss during which
grief and mourning occurs
- Duration depends on attachment and circumstances of
loss
- Mourning – The process by which people adapt to a loss
- Greatly influenced by cultural beliefs, practices, and
rituals
Typical grief reactions
- Mental, physical, social and/or emotional responses
- Feelings of numbness, anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness
and despair
- Difficulty concentrating, sleep and eating problems,
loss of interest in pleasurable activities, physical
problems, and even illness
- Typically lessen within 6-10 weeks
Complicated grief
- Feelings of disbelief, a preoccupation with the dead
loved one, distressful memories, feeling unable to move
on with one’s life, and a yearning for the deceased
- May last six months or longer
- May be hard to distinguish from major depressive
disorder
- Requires examination of client’s history
- More likely to occur with traumatic forms of
bereavement
Disenfranchised grief
- Grief that is not socially recognized
- Often associated with stigmatized situations
- Losing loved ones to AIDS or suicide
- Abortions
- May be associated with losses not taken seriously
 - Death of a pet or ex-spouse - Viewing death as normal part of life may help
- Psychological losses (e.g., partner developing
Alzheimer’s disease) Worden’s four tasks of mourning
- No formal mourning practices or recognition by others - Acceptance that the loss has occurred
- Lack of social support may intensify symptoms - Working through the pain of grief
- Adjusting to life without the deceased
Anticipatory grief - Starting a new life while still maintaining a connection
- Grief that occurs when a death is expected with the deceased
- Survivors can prepare for the eventual loss
- Example: Losing loved one to long-term illness
- May bring feelings of relief
- May cause some guilt too

Kübler-Ross’ stages of death

- Process of adjustment
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
- Important to consider psychological needs of dying
people

Kübler-Ross’ stages of death: Criticisms

- Questionable validity
- Stages may not help person adapt
- Overreliance on model may assume set pattern
- No set timetables
- Order of stages not universal

Dual-process model of grieving

- Two types of orientations of grieving people
- Loss orientation emphasizes feelings of loss and
yearning (looking back)
- Restoration orientation emphasizes reestablishing roles
and activities (looking forward)
- Bereaved person must shift back and forth

Grief: Loss of a child

- Bereaved parents have increased risk of mortality,
physical
and mental health problems
- 8% of bereaved mothers attempted or committed
suicide within 6 months (Archer, 1999)
- Intensity of grief may vary with:
- Age of child
- Circumstances of death
- Frequency of childhood death in society

Grief: Loss of a parent

- Normative life event in adulthood
- Unmarried sons have hardest time coping
- May produce adjustment problems in childhood
- Adults may be too preoccupied to attend to
children’s needs
- Children may not understand death
- Lack of medical understanding
- Confusing terminology (“went to Heaven”)

Mourning
- Are people given enough time?
- Workplace leave policies
- Emotional and practical adjustment
- Support groups may be helpful