Physical and Cognitive Development

in Middle Adulthood (40-60 years)

Dr. LY Piseth
Psychiatrist
Tel: 012 650 600
Email:lypiseth888@yahoo.com
 Physical Development
• Physical Changes
The gradual physical changes begun in early
adulthood continue in midlife
• -Vision: is affected by presbyopia, or loss of the
accommodative ability to see in dim light, and
diminished color discrimination.
• -Hearing: Middle-aged people experience hearing
loss called presbycusis, which begins at high
frequencies and spreads to other tones.
 Physical Development
• -Skin: The skin wrinkles, loosens, and starts to
develop age spots, especially in women and
people exposed to the sun.
• -Muscle: Muscle mass declines and fat
deposits increase, with men and women
developing different patterns of fat
distribution. Continued exercise can offset
changes in strength and weight.
 Physical Development
• -Skeleton: Bone density declines in both sex
but to a greater extent in women, especially
after menopause. Loss in height and bone
fractures can result.
 Physical Development
• -Reproductive System:
• --In Women: The Climacteric in women occurs
gradually over 10-year period as estrogen
production drops and concludes with
menopause. Menopause is a biocultural event
affected by hormonal changes as well as
societal beliefs and practices.
 Physical Development
• -Reproductive System:
• --In Men: Although men also experience a
climacteric, their reproductive capacity
declines without ending.
 Physical Development
• Health and Fitness
• -Sexuality: Frequency of sexual activity among
married couples remain fairly stable in midlife,
dropping only slightly, and associated with
psychological well-being. Intensity of sexual
response declines more, due to physical
changes of climacteric.
 Physical Development
• Health and Fitness
• -Illness and Disability:
• --The death rate from cancer increases 10-fold from
early to middle adulthood. Cancer is the leading killer of
middle-aged women.
• --Cardiovascular disease has declined in recent decades,
but it remains a major cause of death in middle
adulthood, especially among men. Symptoms include
high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis,
heart attack, arrhythmia, and angina pectoris
 Physical Development

• Health and Fitness

• -Illness and Disability:
• --Osteoporosis: affects one in four
postmenopausal women and the majority
people of both sexes over age 70.
 Physical Development
• -Hostility and Anger: Hostility is the
component of the Type A behavior pattern
that predicts heart disease and other health
problems, largely due to physiological arousal
associated with anger.
 Physical Development
• Adapting to The Physical Challenges of Midlife
-Stress Management: The changes and
responsibilities of middle adulthood can cause
psychological stress, with negative
consequences for the cardiovascular, immune,
and gastrointestinal systems. Effective stress
management includes both problem-centered
and emotion-centered coping.
 Physical Development
• Adapting to The Physical Challenges of Midlife
-Exercise: Regular exercise confers many
physical and psychological benefits, making it
worthwhile for sedentary middle-aged people
to begin exercising.
 Physical Development
• Adapting to The Physical Challenges of Midlife
-An Optimistic Outlook: Hardiness is made up
of three personal qualities: control,
commitment, and challenge. By inducing a
generally optimistic outlook on life, hardiness
helps people cope with stress adaptively.
 Physical Development
• Adapting to The Physical Challenges of Midlife
• -Gender and Aging: A Double standard:
Negative stereotypes of aging discourage
older adults of both sexes.
 Cognitive Development
• Changes in Mental Abilities
• -Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence: Gains from
early to middle adulthood in skills that tap
both crystallized intelligence and fluid
intelligence. A exception is perceptual speed, a
fluid skill that drop steadily from the twenties
to the eighties.
 Cognitive Development
• Changes in Mental Abilities
• -Individual and Group Differences: Large
individual differences among middle-aged
adults remind us that intellectual
development is multidimensional,
multidirectional, and plastic. Some people
decline intellectually in their forties due to
disease or very unfavorable environments.
 Cognitive Development
• Changes in Mental Abilities
• Women show an earlier decline in perceptual
speed but gain in other mental abilities over a
longer period than do men.
 Cognitive Development
• Information Processing
• -Speed of Processing: Speed of cognitive processing
slows with age, a change that researchers explain
with either the neural network view.
• -Attention: Slower processing speed makes it harder
for middle-aged people to divide their attention,
focus on relevant stimuli, and switch from one task
to another as the situation demands.
 Cognitive Development
• Information Processing
• -Memory: Adult in midlife retain less
information in working memory, largely due to
a decline in use of memory strategies.
Training, practice, improved design of tasks,
and metacognitive knowledge enable midlife-
aged and older adults to compensate for
decrements in processing speed, attention, and
memory.
 Cognitive Development
• Information Processing
• -Practical Problem Solving and Expertise: Middle-aged
adults in all walks of life often become good at
practical problem solving, largely due to development
of expertise, which peaks in midlife.
• -Creativity: Creativity in middle adulthood shifts from
generating unusual products and expressing oneself to
integrating experience and knowledge in unique ways
and fulfilling altruistic goals.
• -Information Processing in Context
 Cognitive Development
• Vocational Life and Cognitive Development
At all ages and in very different culture, the
relationship between vocational life and
cognitive development is reciprocal.
 Cognitive Development
• Adult Learners: Be Coming a Student in Midlife:
• --Characteristics of Returning Students
• --Supporting Returning Students
• --Benefits of Returning to College
• Often motivated to return to college by life transitions,
women make up the majority of the growing number of
adult students, especially those over age 35. Returning
students must cope with lack of recent practice at
academic work, stereotypes of aging, and multiple role
demands.
 Cognitive Development
• Social support from family and friends and
institutional services suited to their needs can
help returning students succeed. Further
education brings personal rewards, new
relationships, inter generational
communication, and reshaped life paths.
THANKS