Physical and Cognitive

1

• Physical and Cognitive
• Development in
• Middle Adulthood

2
Vision Changes in Middle Adulthood

• Presbyopia
• Problems reading small print
• Bifocals if nearsighted
• Difficulties in dim light
• Reduced color discrimination
• Glaucoma risk

3
Hearing Changes in Middle Adulthood

• Presbycusis - old hearing
• Earliest, most loss in high frequencies

• Gender, cultural differences
• Men lose more hearing
• Hearing aids can help

4
Skin Changes in Middle Adulthood

• Wrinkles
• Forehead starting in 30s
• Crows Feet - 40s
• Sagging
• Face, arms, legs
• Age Spots
• After age 50
• Faster with sun exposure, for women

5
Muscle-Fat Makeupin Middle Adulthood

• Middle-age spread common fat gain in torso
• Men upper abdomen, back
• Women waist, upper arms
• Very gradual muscle declines
• Can be avoided
• Low-fat diet with fruits, vegetables, grains
• Exercise - resistance training

6
Should You Cut Calories?

• Restricted diet helps diverse animals
• Longer life
• Less disease
• Natural human experiments show benefits
• Okinawa
• Biosphere
• Hard for many people to do
• Calorie-restriction mimetics may work

7
Climacteric and Menopause

• Gradual end of fertility
• Menopause follows 10year climacteric
• Age range extends from late thirties to late
  fifties
• Drop in estrogen
• Shorter monthly cycles, eventually stop
• Can cause problems
• Sexual functioning
• Cholesterol

8
Menopausal Symptoms
9
Menopause Symptoms Around the World
10
Hormone Therapy for Menopause
11
Reactions to Menopause

• Individual differences
• Importance of child-bearing capacity
• Other interests
• Cultural differences
• Medicalization in industrial West linked to
  complaints
• Ethnic differences in North America
• Social status of aging women linked to reactions

12
Male Reproductive Changesin Middle Adulthood

• Reduced sperm and semen after 40
• Gradual testosterone reduction
• Sexual activity stimulates production

• Erection Problems
• Frequent problems may be linked to anxiety,
  diseases, injury, loss of interest
• Viagra other drugs

13
Health in Middle Age

• Over 80 rate as good or excellent
• Decline from early adulthood
• More chronic diseases than in early adulthood

14
Sexuality in Middle Adulthood

• Slight drop in frequency among married couples
• Continue patterns from early adulthood
• More sex in good marriages

• Intensity of response declines
• Slower arousal due to climacteric
• Partner may seem less attractive
• Sex still important, enjoyable to most
• Gender differences in partner availability

15
Leading Causes of Deathin Middle Adulthood
16
Cancer in Middle Adulthood

• One-third of U.S. midlife deaths, half in Canada
• More in lower SES
• Results from mutations
• Oncogenes
• Tumor suppressor genes
• Stability genes
• Can be germline (genetic) or somatic
• Often curable
• Treatment and survival
• emotionally challenging

17
Most Common Types of Cancer
18
Reducing Cancer Risks

• Know 7 warning signs
• Do self-exams
• Get regular check-ups screenings
• Weigh risks of hormone therapy
• Healthy diet

• Avoid
• Tobacco
• Too much sun
• Unnecessary X-rays
• Industrial chemicals, pollutants

19
Cardiovascular Disease

• Symptoms
• Heart attack
• Angina pectoris chest pain
• Arrhythmia
• Risk Conditions
• High blood cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Atherosclerosis

20
Reducing Heart Attack Risk

• Quit smoking
• Reduce cholesterol
• Treat high blood pressure
• Maintain ideal weight
• Exercise regularly
• Occasional wine or beer
• Low-does aspirin
• Reduce hostility, stress

21
Osteoporosis

• Severe bone loss, fragile bones
• Bone breaks can be life-threatening
• Causes
• Normal aging
• With age, bones more porous, lose bone mass
• Menopause estrogen drop speeds loss
• Heredity, size
• Lifestyle
• Women develop earlier
• men often overlooked

22
Preventing and Treating Osteoporosis

• Diet
• Vitamin D
• Calcium
• Avoid too much alcohol
• Avoid smoking
• Weight-bearing exercise
• Treatment
• Bone-strengthening medications

23
Hostility and Health

• Expressed Hostility
• Frequent angry outbursts
• Rudeness, contempt
• Disagreeable verbal and nonverbal behavior
• Health Effects
• Cardiovascular problems
• Health complaints, illnesses
• Depression, dissatisfaction
• Unhealthy behaviors

24
Managing Stress

• Reevaluate the situation
• Focus on events you can control
• Consider alternatives
• Exercise regularly
• Relaxation techniques
• Constructively reduce anger
• Seek social support

25
Problem- versus Emotion-Centered Coping

• Problem-Centered Coping
• Identify and appraise problems
• Choose and implement potential solutions

• Emotion-Centered Coping
• Control distress when situation cant be changed

26
Midlife Exercise

• Many physical and psychological benefits
• Stress management
• Barriers to beginning in middle age
• Time, energy, health, lack of facilities
• Self-efficacy
• Both helps exercise
• and is improved by it
• Choose activities that match
• personality, lifestyle

27
Hardiness

• Control
• Regard most experiences as controllable
• Commitment
• Find interest and meaning in daily activities
• Challenge
• View as normal part of life, chance for growth

28
Double Standard of Aging

• Aging men rated more positively women more
  negatively
• Evolutionary roots media, social messages
• May be declining

29
Cohort Effects in Intelligence Studies
30
Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

• Crystallized
• Skills that depend on
• Accumulated knowledge
• Experience
• Good judgment
• Mastery of social conventions
• Valued by persons culture

• Fluid
• Depends on basic information processing skills
• Detecting relationships among stimuli
• Analytical speed
• Working memory

31
Individual and Group Factors in High Intelligence
Scores

• Lifestyle
• High education
• Complex job or leisure
• Lasting marriage
• High SES

• Personal
• Flexible personality
• Healthy
• Gender
• Cohort
• Perceptual speed

32
Age-Related Slowing ofInformation Processing

• Neural Network View
• Neurons in brain die, breaking neural connections
• Brain forms new connections
• New connections are less efficient

• Information-Loss View
• Information lost at each step through cognitive
  system
• Whole system slows down to inspect, interpret
  information

33
Changing Correlations of Processing Speed with
Intelligence
34
Attention in Middle Adulthood

• More difficulties in
• Multitasking
• Focusing on relevant information
• Switching attention
• Connecting visual information
• Inhibition

• May be linked to slower processing
• Experience, practice, training help adults
  compensate

35
Memory in Middle Adulthood

• Working memory decreases from 20s to 60s
• Less use of memory strategies--may be due to
  slower processing, attention problems
• Adults can compensate
• Self-pacing
• Strategy reminders
• Relevant information
• Few changes in
• Factual Knowledge
• Procedural Knowledge
• Metacognitive Knowledge

36
Practical Problem Solving and Expertise

• Practical Problem Solving
• Evaluate real-world situations
• Achieve goals that have high uncertainty
• Helped by expertise
• Expertise
• Extensive, highly organized knowledge base
• Provides efficient, effective approaches to
  solving problems
• Organized around abstract principles
• Result of years of experience

37
Changes in Creativity

• More deliberate, thoughtful
• Less spontaneous, intensely emotional
• Sum up or integrate ideas
• Less focus on unusual
• new ideas
• Goals more altruistic

38
Vocational Life and Cognitive Development

• Cognitive and personality characteristics affect
  job choice
• Job, in turn, affects cognition
• Complex work increases cognitive flexibility
• Link to SES
• Also seek intellectually stimulating leisure

39
Becoming a Student in Midlife

• 40 of North American college students over age
  25
• 60 are women
• Reasons diverse
• Job change, better income
• Life transition
• Personal achievement, self-enrichment
• Concerns
• Academic abilities
• Aging, gender stereotypes
• Role overload - balancing demands outside school

40
Possible Sources of Support for Midlife College
Students

• Partner
• Children
• Extended family
• Friends
• Educational institution
• Workplace