Lifespan Psych/Midterm 2

circadian rhythm

first menstrual period which signals the beginning of ovulation and that pregnancy is possible. Although ovulation/menstruation are often irregular for years after menarche. The average age of menarche (normal weight girls) is 12 years, 8 months

a day-night cycle of biological activity that occurs approximately every 24 hours.

In teenagers, normal hormones of the HRA axis @ puberty cause a phase delay in sleep-wake cycles which makes teens awake late and hungry..but also makes them have little appetite in the morning and no energy

the average female is about 2 years ahead of the average boy (in height). The female height spurt occurs before menarche, in boys the increase in height occurs after spermarche (1st ejaculation)

dissatisfaction with body image (leads to low self esteem)..

teens become less happy with own bodies and more superficial in what they admire in the other sex

The other people who, in an adolescents egocentric belief, are watching and taking note of his or her appearance, ideas and behavior. Which makes teens very self conscious. It can cause teens to attract attention to themselves (studs/purple hair..

.) or the opposite where they wish to hide

reasoning from a general statement, premise or principle through logical steps to figure out specifics. It begins with an abstract idea or premise and then uses logic to draw specific conclusions

top-down reasoning

middle school tends to be developmentally regressive. The average grades on report cards fall, achievement tests show less learning each year, behavior problems rise.

...Since one teacher isn't responsible for one classroom - kids learn less and risk more because no single teacher is aware of their actions.

Teachers seem impersonal and distant which makes public acclaim and personal recognition difficult...many middle school students seek acceptance from their peers--bullying increases, sexual conquests are flaunted, values change. The cool kids are the ones who are not involved in school and are antisocial to adults.

Usually, students seek peer approval in ways that adults disapprove

Negotiating the complexities of finding one's own identity. **Identity vs. role confusion..

5th stage of development**

friends typically share values and background (ex. family loyalty/ethnic) Selecting friends who are the same ethnic background helps with ethnic identity. This peer selection process is not random. The difference between a clique and a crowd is that they both have things in common but a clique is made up of friends and exclusive to others, while a crowd may not be "friends" just people with commonalities.

larger use of contraception: French teenagers are among the most likely to use condoms as well as other protective measures simultaneously (dual use).

Also French high schools provide free confidential medical care and condoms. French (European nations) sex education begins in elementary school and promotes health protection instead of sex avoidance, it also focuses more on specific types of sex.

studies confirm that increased anger after puberty is normal, but anger is usually expressed in acceptable ways

CULTURE: the culture dictates whether something is acceptable or not and how informed the teens are about effects of drugs..In Canada fewer teens smoke because advertising is outlawed, In the Middle East alcohol is illegal so their teens almost never drink, In Indonesia you aren't considered a man unless you smoke, so more boys smoke, in European nations alcohol is widely used even by children.

US boys smoke fewer cigarettes than western European teens. GENDER: Gender differences are reinforced by social constructions about proper male and female behavior: Boys use more steriods, girls use more diet drugs. Teen boys use more drugs and more often than girls. Boys are more often smokers. Girls drink alcohol younger than boys, but boys use more illegal drugs.

woman: Age 26 (first marriage), men: age 28

18% of women and 25% of men

youth in EVERY NATION gain more education and marry later than previous generations did

It benefits from youth taking risks such as enrolling in college, moving to a new state/nation, getting married, having a baby, starting a business, filming a documentary, athletic contests, enlisting in the army.

.., rescuing a stranger (these would all occur less if emerging adults weren't risk takers)

there are more accidents, more serious injuries, violent deaths, suicide, homicide, drug overdose, car accidents, drownings, unprotected sex with a new partner, driving fast without a seatbelt, carrying a loaded gun, abusing drugs, addictive gambling...

more drunk driving accidents

the possibility that one's appearance or behavior will be misread to confirm another person's oversimplified prejudiced attitudes

"threat in the air" by an African American Scholar

it begins with the thought that other people hold unspoken prejudices against ones social group and then that thought produces anxiety. Although, in reality it may just be imagined, but the mere possibility of it undermines a person's cognition and can interfere in many ways...ex.

it might make a person not attend college, cause choking in athletes, cause African American men to have lower grades in high school and older people to be more forgetful, cause women to underperform in math...the good news is that studies show that it can be eliminated when people realize that it is not true

college education advances critical thinking and post formal though..

generally the more years of higher education; the deeper and more post formal the person's reasoning becomes.

there are nine levels of complexity (during 4 yrs of college). year one: simplistic dualism (right/wrong) and progress gradually to recognize the validity of many perspectives. The 5th stage is post formal thought: a proposed adult stage of cognitive development following Piaget's 4 stages.

It goes beyond adolescent thinking by being more practical, more flexible and more dialectical

due to the interaction with other peers, diversity of the student body, professors, class discussion and books ..the social interaction and intellectual advance a person's thinking

there is continuity and improvement in attitudes. For example, positive attitudes stayed and negative ones improved. Tendency to be happier than in High School, especially those who moved away from home (they showed the largest gains in well-being).

..Although: , the rate of emotional disorders rises,example: schizophrenia

they provide encouragement to do well in school and get good jobs. They also help financially and emotionally. And in 1/3 of the world; parents arrange marriages

cohort differences can make it difficult to differentiate between developmental change and contextual differences

vital capacity decreases about 4% per decade..

breathing becomes quicker and shallower..Vital capacity is the amount of air expelled after a deep breath

high frequencies

the usual result of morbidity is the inability to do something that people usually can do, for example: vision loss could be a serious disability or a less serious disability depending on how severe the disability is (morbidity is disease)

when there is social support ..private efforts often fail.

.Examples of social support are weight watchers, AA, buddy system, and tackling one habit at a time (drinking before smoking...etc.

)

cross-sectional studies find that intellectual ability peaks at adolescence and then gradually declines. 50year-olds score better @ age 50 than at 25 due to Flynn effect. (rise in avg IQ scores that has occurred over the decades ) which makes it invalid to compare IQ scores of a cross section of adults of various ages. Even though, older adults score lower it doesn't mean that they have lost intellectual power, but the opposite is true (except the oldest adults)

the intellectual skills used in everyday problem solving..aka: tacit intelligence.

The capacity to adapt to the demands of a given situation. It is not obvious on tests..sometimes it is called "street smarts".. Practical intelligence is needed in adulthood and gradually builds over the years through experience

the brain grows to support selective expertise.

.in fact experienced adults may surpass younger adults if they specialize and harness their efforts..the accumulation of knowledge, practice and experience transforms the brain..making it intuitive, automatic, strategic and flexible.

..the quality and quantity of cognition is advanced...brains grow to support selective expertise

experts rely on past experience rather than immediate contexts (example.

.surgeons)

experts process incoming information more quickly and analyze more efficiently than non-experts. Sometimes this is even unconsciously done. Which is why an adult can tie their shoelaces in the dark.

.and why adults are better drivers. Cognitive processes are automatic from experience.

the ability to use more strategy with problems

an experienced person usually prefers a challenge

becomes more intuitive, automatic, strategic and flexible

there are no chronological boundaries for specific stages of adult development. Erikson stressed that adult stages do NOT occur in lock-step. People arrive at chronological mature positions and still continue to grow, change and develop.

Erikson's early stages are tied to a particular chronological period, but this is not true for adults.

1. Identity vs. Role confusion (adolescence to lifelong) 2. Intimacy vs. Isolation 3.

Generativity vs. stagnation 4. Integrity vs. despair

the internet has added more consequential strangers to many lives (and strengthened friendships)

people who are not in a person's closest friendship circle, but nonetheless have an impact. ex. neighbors, church members, storeclerks, parents of kid's friends.

..

the time in the lives of parents when their children have left the family home to pursue their own lives

those with more education, more income and without any children involved, race is also a factor. In the US, African American's are LESS likely to remarry

middle-aged or older mother with several adult children

a caregiver who takes responsibility for maintaining communications among family members, Ex. gathers everyone for holidays.

..

In 2012, 35% were non-white..

. 16% Hispanics, 12% African American, 5%Asian, 2% other race

a prejudice whereby people are categorized and judged solely on the basis of their chronological age

it causes needless fear, waste, illness and misery, it causes self-doubt which leads to anxiety, morbidity and leads to death, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, but causes those who don't "feel their age" to have better health, prevents older people from seeking help because they resign to illness, causes health providers to be less aggressive against elderly illnesses,

a view of aging as a process by which the human body wears out because of the passage of time and exposure to human stressors

many body functions benefit from use, such as exercise improves heart and lung function, weight training increases muscles, fiber aids in digestion. People are more likely to suffer from disuse of muscles...than overuse

cognition declines as the senses become less acute

Older adults are less proficient on difficult tasks, multi-tasking becomes harder, memory remembering names is affected, working memory shrinks with age, older adults take longer to perceive and process sensations which reduces working memory, speed of processing slows down, parts of the brain shrink and more areas of the brain are activated, speed of thought and spatial abilities decrease (although vocabulary does not), the brain slows down which impairs cognition, the output of mental abilities decline specifically the following 5: verbal, meaning, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, number ability and word fluency, with all the declines.

..the positive is that the elderly are more adept at problem solving and emotional regulation

a form of dementia characterized by sporadic and progressive loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated infarcts or temporary obstructions of blood vessels, which prevent sufficient blood from reaching the brain

caused by a stroke or a tia..

a tia is a series of strokes which interrupts blood flow to the brain---which destroys part of the brain

self-actualization is the final stage in Maslow's hierarchy which is is characterized by aesthetic, creative, philosophical and spiritual understanding...deeper spirituality, deep appreciation of nature, great sense of humor

centenarians were less likely to take antidepressants, but more likely to use pain medication. Centenarians tend to be upbeat about life

judging people on the basis of chronological age

their senses decline, reducing the sensory input

these are theories of late adulthood that emphasize the search to maintain one's integrity and identity (core self), they also emphasize ways people negotiate challenges to the self focus on individuals perceptions of themselves and their ability to meet challenges to their identity, each person ultimately depends on themself..

an example of a self theory is Erikson's "integrity vs. despair" stage

the view that elderly people want to remain active in social spheres w/ relatives, friends and community groups and become withdrawn only unwillingly as a result of ageism. This theory suggests that if the aged disengage -- it is NOT by choice. The opposite of this theory is the "disengagement theory" that suggests that they withdraw willingly.

both men and women

they volunteer, garden, they are surrounded by friends and acquaintances, they are religious, have active engagement in society and are married

compaionate grandparents..

AKA fun-loving grandparents..they entertain and spoil their grandkids especially in ways or for reasons that the parents would not. Contemporary elders are usually proud of their grandkids and care about their well-being but also enjoy their own independence.

They provide babysitting and financial help but not advice or disciple

Annette, who lives with her husband of 40 years

activities of daily life..typically identified as 5 tasks of self-care that are important to independent living...

eating, bathing, toileting, dressing and transferring from a bed to a chair

Instrumental activities of daily living ...actions such as budgeting and preparing food that are important to independent living and that require some intellectual competence and forethought.

The ability to perform these tasks may be even more critical to self-sufficency than ADL ability

1. death occurs later: (100..avg age was 40yo/ now: it is 79.

)2. death takes longer: (100: death was fast and unstoppable/now: death can be postponed) 3. place of death (100: death was at home/now: in hospitals) 4. Cause of death different (100: infectious disease & childbirth/now: diseased deaths not until after age 50 and childbirth death is rare 5.

Views after death different (100: certainty about afterlife/ now: uncertainty)

survivors often adopt a more spiritual, less materialistic view of life and are more loving and hopeful than they were before. People end up with the same realizations: 1. the limitations of social status 2. the insignificance of material possessions 3. the narrowness of self centeredness

morphine and other opiates have a double effect by having a positive effect--relieving pain--and a negative effect--speeding up death by suppressing respiration

1.

the dying person must be an adult and an Oregon resident 2. the dying person must request the lethal drugs twice orally and once in writing 3. 15 days must elapse between the 1st request and the prescription 4. Two physicians must confirm that the person is terminally ill, has less than 6 months to live and is competent...this law also requires record-keeping of annual reporting

the ceremonies and behaviors that a religion or culture prescribes for people to employ in expressing their bereavement after death...the public and ritualistic expression of bereavement, the ceremonies and behaviors that a religion or culture prescribes to honor the dead