Developmental Psychology Final Exam Study Guide

What happens during menopause?

Highlight = important terms Highlight = important people Highlight = important concepts **Anything bolded is a “vocab term”

1. Physical changes associated with Middle Adulthood (double standard for  appearance, menopause, perimenopause, sexual factors, visual problems, loss of  taste and smell, middle age spread)

• Double standard for appearance

o Older women tend to be viewed in unflattering terms Don't forget about the age old question of What is the formula for payback period?

o Aging men are more frequently perceived as displaying a maturity that  enhances their stature

• Menopause: cessation of menstruation (40-60 years) If you want to learn more check out How to calculate mass and center of gravity?

o Hot flashes – symptom for some, but not everyone

What are the stages of perimenopause?

o About 10% of women experience severe symptoms, but many more  report no adverse symptoms

o Marks the point at which a traditional pregnancy is no longer possible o Production of female sex hormones begin to drop, producing a variety  of hormone-related age changes

• Perimenopause: period beginning around 10 years prior to menopause when  hormone production begins to change We also discuss several other topics like What is the equation for gdp?

o Marked by sometimes radical fluctuations in hormone production,  resulting in some of the same symptoms that are found in menopause • Sexual factors

o Frequency of intercourse tends to decline

o Many report more sexual freedom and enjoyment compared to earlier  in life

What is usually the first sign of glaucoma?

o Higher possibility for more problems during intercourse (pain, ED) • Visual problems

o Vision and visual acuity (sharpness- ability to discern fine details)  begin to decline around 40 years

▪ Presbyopia: the loss of acuity up close (not a disease)

▪ Cataracts: lens of the eye becomes more opaque, making  

vision blurry (is a disease)

▪ Glaucoma: increased pressure within the eye (is a disease) If you want to learn more check out What is the meaning of training specificity?

o Dynamic acuity (ability to discern details that are moving) may decline  more rapidly than static acuity

• Loss of taste and smell

o Taste buds replenished at a slower rate after 40 years

o Smell receptors deteriorate

o Overeat and over-salt food

• Middle age spread: putting on extra weight

o Metabolism slows

2. What is the average life expectancy in the US according to the text? • For a person born in 2010, it’s 78 years

3. Normative Crisis Model

• NCM: the approach to personality development that is based on fairly  universal stages tied to a sequence of age-related crises

• In other words, people go through stages and how they approach life depends  on the stage of life they are in

4. Life Events Model

• LEM: the approach to personality development that is based on the timing of  particular events in an adult’s life rather on age per se

• Focuses on what they are engaged in

5. Erikson (penultimate stage), Valliant, and Levinson’s theories • Erikson 

o Generativity vs. Stagnation We also discuss several other topics like What are the two types of diabetes?

▪ Stage Theory- focused on “crisis”

▪ Stagnation- focus on trivial aspects of life

▪ Generativity- concern for the next generation

o Generativity vs. Stagnation stage: stage during middle adulthood in  which people consider their contributions to family and society (from  the text)

• Valliant If you want to learn more check out What is affinity in biology?

o Another crisis theory

o Ages 45-55

o “Keeping the meaning vs. rigidity”

o Accept imperfection in self and others

o Rigidity = isolation

• Levinson 

o Seasons of Life

o Early Adulthood

▪ “The Dream”

▪ Enact plans for achieving goals

▪ Settle down in their 30’s

o Criticisms of midlife crisis theory

▪ Midlife crisis: fact or myth?

▪ Effect of pop culture

6. Big 5 Personality traits (Costa and McCrae)

• OCEAN

o Openness to experience: interested in trying new things, very creative o Conscientiousness: attention to detail and how things happen o Extraversion: very friendly and outgoing, get energy from being with  people

o Agreeableness: flexible with different approaches to things

o Neuroticism: someone who tends to worry and has problems with  change

7. Work and careers (general attitude, burnout)

• Burnout: a situation that occurs when workers experience dissatisfaction,  disillusionment, frustration and weariness from the job

o Most common among highly trained professionals and helping  professions

• Unemployment

o Financial and psychological effects

• Changing careers

• Time of greatest productivity, success and earning power

• Relationship between age and work seems to be positive

8. Divorce (who is at risk for midlife divorce); characteristics of 2nd marriages • 1 in 8 women in her first marriage will get divorced after age 40 • 1 in 4 of all divorces were by people 50 and older

• Three main reasons for divorce

o People in middle adulthood spend less time together than in earlier  years

o Feelings of romantic, passionate love may subside over time

o Infidelity

• Remarriages (reasons)

o Avoid social consequences of divorce

o Divorced people miss the companionship that marriage provides o Provides clear economic benefits reserved for spouses, such as sharing  the cost of a house and medical benefits

• Remarriages (difference from 1st)

o Older couples tend to be more mature and realistic in expectations o Look at marriage in less romantic terms than younger couples (more  cautious)

o Likely to show greater flexibility in terms of roles and duties

9. Empty nest syndrome; Role reversal/Sandwich generation; Boomerang children;  midlife crisis

• Empty nest syndrome: sadness from children leaving home

o Some see it as difficult whereas others see it as a positive thing

• Role reversal/sandwich generation: couples who in middle adulthood must  fulfill the needs of both their children and their aging parents

• Boomerang children: children in 20s and 30s return home to live with  middle-aged parents

• Midlife crisis 

o Uncertainty and indecision about direction of their life

o Desire to correct past mistakes

o Future depends on resolution of midlife crisis

10. Define ageism

• Ageism: prejudice and discrimination of older people

11. Factors related to improved life span

• Female

• Moderate to light drinker

• Exercise

• Sexual relations

• Education

• Rural living

• Marriage

• Friends

• Easy-going personality

12. Aging theories (Genetic Programming; Wear and Tear)

• Genetic Programming: theories that suggest that our body’s DNA genetic  code contains a built-in time lime limit for the reproduction of human cells o DNA has built-in limit for reproduction of cells (telomeres)

o Hormones

o Immune system

• Wear and Tear: theories that the mechanical functions of the body simply  wear out with age

o Mechanical functions of body wear out

o Free radicals may cause negative effects on other cells of the body ▪ Free radicals: electrically charged molecules or atoms that are  produced by the cells of the body

13. Major causes of death (contributions to these illnesses)

• Heart Disease

o Atherosclerosis: a cholesterol/triglyceride plaque forms (blocks) o Hypertension

• Stroke

• Cancer

o Lung

o Colon

14. Define gerontology

• Gerontology: the study of old age

15. Stability vs. change in personality

• Basic personality traits remain stable (agreeableness, satisfaction, intellect,  extroversion, energy, acceptance of change)

16. Robert Peck’s theory, Erickson’s Theory (last stage), Selectivity Theory • Robert Peck 

o Ego Differentiation vs. Work-role Preoccupation: the theory that  those in old age must redefine themselves in ways that do not relate to  their work roles or occupations

o Body Transcendence vs. Body Preoccupation: a period in which  people must learn to cope with and move beyond changes in physical  capabilities as a result of aging

▪ Knowing what you can and can’t do anymore

o Ego Transcendence vs. Ego Preoccupations: the period in which  elderly people must come to grips with their coming death

▪ “I don’t have time to do anything” vs. “I have time to make  

meaning of my life”

• Erik Erikson 

o Ego Integrity vs. Despair: characterized by a process of looking back  over one’s life, evaluating it and coming to terms with it

▪ I met my goals vs. I didn’t and now I’m sad and regret it

• Selectivity Theory 

o Social networks become more selective as we age

o Don’t need social interaction in the same way that young people do ▪ Information

▪ Affirmation

17. Grandparenting (3 styles, benefits for grandchildren, trends in relationships) • Involved: actively engaged in grandparenting and have influence over their  grandchildren’s lives

o Hold clear expectations about the ways their grandchildren should  behave

• Companionate: more relaxed; act as supporters and buddies to their  grandchildren

• Remote: detached and distant, and they show little interest in their  grandchildren

18. Functional death/Brain death

• Functional death: the absence of a heartbeat and breathing (can be reversed  with CPR)

• Brain death: a diagnosis of death based on the cessation of all signs of brain  activity, as measured by electrical brain waves

19. 3 concepts of death 

• Permanence

• Universality

• Non-functionality

20. Child, adolescent, and adult concepts of death (and perspective towards death) • 2 to 6 year olds

o View death as temporary and reversible

o May APPEAR unaffected by the death of a loved one

o May take responsibility for the individual’s death

o Develop a concept of death = age 5

• 6 to 9 year olds

o May take responsibility for death of someone else

o Understand that death is final = age 9

• 9 to 12 year olds

o May take responsibility for death of someone else

o Can probably handle most of the information one would give to an  adult

o Can understand customs involved with death

• 12 to 19 year olds

o Understand the permanence, universality and non-functionality of  death but this is limited to the realm of possibility

o Personal fable induces a sense of invulnerability

o Romanticize death as an enduring abstract state

o Risky behavior causes most adolescent deaths

o Adolescents with chronic illness feel angry and cheated

21. Common childhood reactions towards death

• Negative behavior

• Increased activity

• Dependency

• Regressions

22. Age of highest rate of suicide for Caucasian men

o Age 85 and older

23. Know Kubler-Ross’ stages of adjustment to death and criticisms of this work • Denial

o Resist the idea that they are dying

o Order more tests

o “There must be some mistake”

o Defense mechanism

o Helps individual come to terms with the news of illness

• Anger

o Direct anger at others

o “Why me?”

o Angry at God, family members and health professionals

• Bargaining

o Try to negotiate way out of death

o Will dedicate lives to good

▪ “I will dedicate myself to charity”

o Ask to live until milestone event

▪ “Just let me spend Christmas with the family”

• Depression

o Reactive depression: depressed about loss of function

o Prepatory depression: depressed about things coming in the future  (missing a grandchild’s birth, not seeing their business grow, etc.) • Acceptance

o Fully aware that death is approaching

o No positive or negative feelings

o “At peace” with death

• Criticisms

o Stages only apply to those who know that they are dying and have  time to process death

o The stages are not universal

o The stages do not occur in the same sequence for everyone

24. Reactive depression; Preparatory depression

• Discussed in previous question

25. Be prepared to answer a question of two about some cultural variations in funeral  customs 

• Mourners in Balinese funerals in Indonesia

o Show little emotion because they believe they must be calm in order  for the gods to hear their prayers

• Mourners at African American funerals

o Encouraged to show their grief and the funeral rituals are meant to  allow attendees to display their feelings

• Traditional Hindu practice in India (now illegal)

o Suttee- a widow was expected to throw herself into the fire that  consumed her husband’s dead body

• Ancient China

o Servants were sometimes buried (alive) with their masters’ bodies 26. Hospice (text info only)

o Hospice care: care provided for the dying in places devoted to those who are  terminally ill

o Designed to provide a warm, supportive environment for the dying o Typically removed from treatments that are painful, and no extraordinary or  invasive means are employed to make their lives longer

o Emphasis is on making patients’ lives as full as possible, not on squeezing out  every possible moment of life at any cost

o Hospice patients appear to be more satisfied with the care they receive than  those who receive treatment in more traditional settings

27. Bereavement vs. Grief (know definition and stages of grief)

• Bereavement: knowledge that you’ve lost someone

• Grief: the actual emotional reaction to losing someone

• Stages of grief

o Shock and denial

▪ Shut down emotionally (feeling numb)

▪ Your mind’s way of protecting the body

▪ Yearning and searching

o Protest stage

▪ Realization of the loss

▪ Occurs approximately one week after loss

o Despair

▪ Realization of the finality of the death

▪ Time when the individual is most susceptible to illness

o Acceptance

o Accommodation

28. Middle Adulthood speaker

• Mary (47 years old)

o Grew up in multiple states in the South

o Planning ahead

▪ Advice for us – networking, focus on people skills, “disagree  agreeably”

o Gardening

o Water project

o Burn out ???? job switch

▪ Started paying attention to her health more

o Positive view of stagnation

29. Late Adulthood speakers

• Louise (75 years old) and Dan (77 years old)

o Met at a topless bar (this was a joke- actually met when he was  travelling for military- airforce)

o High marital satisfaction

o Companionate

o Qualities for a life-long partner: honesty, integrity

o Career selection: you have to truly like doing it

• Coach Myers (64 years old)

o Involved with grandchildren

▪ Sees his grandkids every day and have sleepovers every  

weekend

▪ Live 8 houses down from each other

o Softball coach at Auburn

▪ Oldest head coach at Auburn

o “A happy wife is a happy life”

o Qualities for a life-long partner: they fulfill you, they make you better ▪ “Married my best friend”

• Coach Cochran (59 years old)

o Football coach from Ft. Benning

o “Grandchildren by proxy” through former athletes

o Advice for us – stay active; don’t think you can’t do stuff just because  you get older

o Qualities for a life-long partner: encouraging, accepting, supportive