Developmental_Psychology__Notes

Developmental Psychology:   QUESTION 1:   Forces that determine the nature of development during adulthood: 1) Explain how the interaction of biological, sociocultural and life-cycle forces shape a person’s development and, therefore, could explain individual differences in development during adulthood. 2) Explain how normative and non-normative influences determine the degree to which the combination of biological, psychological, sociocultural and life-cycle forces will be common or unique according to Baltes.   1) Biological, psychological, socio-cultural and life cycle-forces shape us as we mature and direct our development. Biological forces are genetic and health-related factors that affect development like menopause, facial wrinkling, and changes in the major organ systems. Psychological forces are internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional and personality factors that affect development; together these provide the characteristics we notice about people that make them individuals. Sociocultural forces are interpersonal societal, cultural and ethnic factors. Sociocultural forces provide the overall contexts in which we develop. Life-cycle forces reflect differences in how the same event or combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces affects people at different points in their lives. Life-cycle forces provide the context for the developmental differences of interest in adult development and aging. One way of looking at how these interact with each other is by looking at the biopsychosocial framework. Together with life-cycle forces, the biopsychosocial framework provides a complete overview of the shapers of human development. Each of us is a product of a unique combination of these forces. Even identical twins growing up in the same family, in the same house, going to the same schools eventually have their own unique friends, partners, occupations, and so on. As an example, let’s say that we want to know how people feel about forgetting. We would need to consider several biological factors, such as whether the forgetting was caused by an underlying disease. We would also have to consider psychological factors such as what the person’s memory ability has been throughout his or her life and about his or her beliefs about what happens to memory with increasing age. We would need to know about sociocultural factors, like the influence of social stereotypes about forgetting. Finally, we would need to look at the age of the person when a forgetting experience occurs. Not focusing on all of the forces would provide an incomplete view of how the person feels. 2) According to Paul Baltes, there are three sets of influences that interact to produce developmental change over the life span: Normative age-graded influences: Are experiences caused by biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces that are highly correlated with chronological age. Some of these, such as puberty, menarche, and menopause, are biological. These normative biological events usually indicate a major change in a person's life; for example, menopause is an indicator that women can no longer bear children without medical intervention. Normative psychological events include focusing on certain concerns at different points in adulthood, such as a middle-aged person's concern with socializing the younger generation. Other normative age-graded influences involve sociocultural forces, such as the time when first marriage occurs and the age at which someone retires. Normative age-graded influences typically correspond to major time-marker events, which are often ritualized. For example, many younger adults formally celebrate turning 21 as the official transition to adulthood, getting married typically is surrounded with much celebration, and retirement often begins with a party celebrating the end of employment. These events provide the most convenient way to judge where we are on our social clock.   Normative history-graded influences: Are events that most people in a specific culture experience at the same time. These events may be biological (such as epidemics), psychological (such as particular stereotypes), or sociocultural (such as changing attitudes toward sexuality). 'Normative history-graded influences often give a generation its unique identity, such as the baby-boom generation (people born roughly between 1946 and 1960), generation X (people born between roughly 1965 and 1975), and generation Y (sometimes called the Echo Boomers or the Millennial Generation, born between 1979 and 1994). These influences can have a profound effect. For example, the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, fundamentally changed attitudes about safety and security that had been held for decades.   Non-normative influences: Are random or rare events that may be important for a specific individual but are not experienced by most people. These may be favorable events, such as winning the lottery or an election, or unfavorable ones, such as an accident or layoff. The unpredictability of these events makes them unique. Such events can turn one's life upside down overnight. An example here is Senator John McCain, who at the age of 72 became the oldest person to be nominated for a first term as president. Also Dara Torres, who at the age of 41, began the oldest women to compete in swimming at the Olympics and win a medal. Life-cycle forces are especially key in understanding the importance of normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and non-normative influences. For example, history-graded influences may produce generational differences and conflict; parents' experiences as young adults in the 1960s and 1970s (before AIDS, instant messaging, and global terrorism) may have little to do with the complex issues faced by today's young adults. In turn, these interactions have important implications for understanding differences that appear to be age related. That is, differences may be explained in terms of different life experiences (normative history-graded influences) rather than as an integral part of aging itself (normative age-graded influences). Paul Bates: Life-span perspective includes four factors namely: Multidirectionality; Plasticity; Historical context; Multiple Causation which is how people develop results from a wide variety of forces-biological, socio-cultural, psychological and life-cycle forces. QUESTION 2:   By using examples from the characteristics of adult development discussed in your prescribed book, explain the following core issues in development: a) Nature-nurture b) Stability-change c) Continuity-discontinuity d) Universal versus context-specific development   Nature-nurture: The extent to which inborn, hereditary characteristics (nature) and experiential, or environmental, influences (nurture) determine who we are makes up the nature–nurture controversy. Until 1980’s most theorists viewed adult development and aging from a predominantly nature position, that certain changes occur in your life as you get older and one can do little to alter their course.   Recently recognition that nature and nurture interacts. No features of lifespan development are exclusively to either heredity or environment; instead, development is always shared by both. Nature and nurture our mutually interactive influences. To explain a person's behaviour and discover where to focus intervention, one must look at the unique interaction for the person between nature and nurture. An example is a person's life expectancy which is largely based on genetics and environmental influences. Nature wise some people's genetic heritage can give them a longer lifespan of others. Nurture wise people can increase or decrease their life expectancy through environmental factors such as disease, toxic chemicals, access to high-quality medical care etc.   Stability-change:   The stability-change controversy concerns the degree to which people remain the same over time. Stability at some basic level is essential for us to recognise that one is still the same individual as time goes by. We also like to believe that we can change ourselves if we so desire. Little controversy about whether children change in some ways from birth to age 18. Much controversy about stability & change in adults and how specific characteristics are defined & measured. For many gerontologists whether stability or change is the rule depends on what personal aspect is being considered and what theoretical perspective one is adopting. The five factor personality model by Costand McCrae research shows that people's personality traits stopped changing by the age of 30 and is then very stable over their lifetime. Another model by Utsula Staudinger and colleagues show that personality change more over the lifetime, especially on adjustment and growth. Continuity–discontinuity:   Derivative of the stability- change controversy. This controversy concerns whether a particular development phenomenon represents a smooth progression over time (continuity) or a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity). -Continuity focus on the amount of characteristics a person has. -Discontinuity focus on the kinds of characteristics a person has. Within the discontinuity view lies the issue of how adaptable people are in situations as they age. Plasticity refers to the believe that capacity is not fixed but can be learned or improved with practise. For example, before neuroscience people believed that the brain as related to memory remained constant and only due to illness or old age started deteriorating. Modern science shows that memory can be compensated for and through training, by doing aerobic exercises; a person's cognitive skills can be improved.   Universal versus context specific development:   Concerns whether there is just one path of development or several. An example is the Kung tribe in Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Contrasts sharply with adults in America. Can one theory explain  development in both groups' Some theorists argue that such differences are simply variations on a fundamental development process as an example of Nestle and Cadbury’s chocolates are all part of the same basic manufacturing process. Opposing view is the differences between people not just variations on the theme adult development and ageing are inextricably intertwined in the context in which they occur. Person’s development is a product of complex interactions with the environment and these interactions are not fundamentally the same in all environments. Each environment has its own set of unique procedures that shape development.               Question 3:   Explain the reasons why Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields came to the following conclusion: “Confounding of the three effects (age, cohort and time-of–measurement effects)… is the most serious problem in adult development and aging research.”  Also refer in your explanation to problems which occur in cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs with regard to these effects. Extra:  In a concluding paragraph, briefly explain how sequential designs might alleviate some of the interpretation dilemmas caused by the confounding factors.   Age effects:  Reflects differences caused by underlying processes, such as biological, psychological, and sociocultural changes, they are inherit changes within a person and are not caused by the passage of time per se.   Cohort effects: Are differences caused by experiences and circumstances unique to the generation to which one belongs.  To define a cohort may not be easy, because they can be very specific, as in all people born in one particular year.   Time-of -measurement effects:  Reflect influences of the specific historical time when one is obtaining information.   The point in time in which a researcher decides to do research could lead him or her to a different conclusion about what is studied.   Confounding: Is any situation in which one cannot determine which of two or more effects is responsible for the behaviors being observed.   Every study of adult development and aging is built on the combination of three building blocks: age, cohort and time-of-measurement. Investigators have attempted to identify and separate age effects, cohort and time-of-measurement effects when conducting adult development and aging research.   Because all three these effects are interrelated it has not been an easy task, for example: If one is interested in 40-year olds, one must select the cohort that was born 40 years ago. Age and cohort are confounded in this example, because we don’t know if the behaviors that is observed occurs because the participants are 40 years of age or because of specific life experiences the participants has had as a result of being born in a particular historical period.   A fundamental interest in understanding how people change distinguishes developmental researchers from others.  They look at the ways people differ across time, and to do this they need to know the difference between age change and age difference. An age change occurs in an individual’s behavior over time; therefore one must examine the same person at more than one point in time, for example:  a person’s memory at 40 and at 75 may not be the same any more.   An age difference on the other hand is obtained when two or more people of different ages are compared. Age differences can sometimes reflect age change, so if age change is what we really want to understand we should design our research with that goal in mind.   The following research designs are used to gather data about age differences and age change:   Multiple cohorts and age groups are examined at a single point in time with cross-sectional designs.  Only age differences can be identified and age and cohort are confounded. Because people are only tested at one point in their development, nothing is learned about the continuity of that persons development, for example:  if a person at age 50 remembers grocery items well we will not be able to tell if that person is still able to do so at age 80, because the person would only be tested at either age 50 or age 80, but not at both.   The use of extreme age groups (young and older adults) is problematic in that:   1) The samples may not be representative, so we must be careful not to read too much into the results; 2) Age should be treated as a continuous variable, and not as a category (“young” and “old”); and; 3) The measures may not be equivalent across age groups, so the reliability and validity of each measure should be checked in each age group.   If used carefully cross-sectional designs can provide useful information. Longitudinal designs examine one cohort over two or more times of measurement.  The same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives. Age change can be identified but have several problems:   1) Practice effects - this may result from the fact that performance may improve over time simply because people are tested over and over again with the same measures. 2) Participant dropouts – because over a period of time some of the participants may move away, lose interest or some may even die. This can also end up with positive selective survival ( for example, the surviving participants are the ones who were the most healthy at the beginning of a study) or negative selective survival (when the surviving participants are the ones who were less healthy at the beginning of a study). 3) The ability to apply the results to other groups is limited because only one cohort is followed.   Thus researchers using longitudinal designs run the risk of uncovering a developmental process that is unique to that cohort. This design is more time consuming and expensive so it is not used very often. More than one cross-sectional or longitudinal design is involved in sequential designs.  It involves different combinations of the two studies. The same age ranges are involved in these multiple cross-sectional designs; however the participants are different in each wave of testing. Although these designs are complex and expensive they are important because they help disentangle age, cohort and time-of measurement effects.  QUESTION 3: Introduction: Gerontologists rely on primary designs in planning their research. They mainly work with experimental-, correlational- and case studies. The specific design chosen for research depends in large part on the questions the researchers are trying to address. Once the general design is chosen, gerontologists must decide how to measure possible changes/age differences that emerge as people develop. The design is based on three key variables: Age, Cohort, Time of Measurement. Age effects: Reflects differences caused by underlying processes, such as biological, psychological, and sociocultural changes. They are inherent changes within a person and are not caused by the passage of time per se. Usually represented in research by chronological age. Cohort effects: Are differences caused by experiences and circumstances unique to the generation to which one belongs. To define a cohort may not be easy, because they can be very specific, as in all people born in one particular year/specific e.g. baby-boom cohort. Time-of -measurement effects: Reflect influences of the specific historical time, sociocultural, environmental, or other events when one is obtaining information. The point in time in which a researcher decides to do research could lead him or her to a different conclusion about what is studied. Confounding: It is any situation in which one cannot determine which of two or more effects are responsible for the behaviours being observed. Every study of adult development and aging is built on the combination of three building blocks: age, cohort and time-of-measurement. Investigators have attempted to identify and separate age effects, cohort and time-of-measurement effects when conducting adult development and aging research. Because all three these effects are interrelated it has not been an easy task, for example: if one is interested in 40-year olds, one must select the cohort that was born 40 years ago. Age and cohort are confounded in this example, because we don’t know if the behaviours that is observed occurs because the participants are 40 years of age or because of specific life experiences the participants has had as a result of being born in a particular historical period. A fundamental interest in understanding how people change distinguishes developmental researchers from others. They look at the ways people differ across time, and to do this they need to know the difference between age change and age difference. An age change occurs in an individual’s behaviour over time; therefore one must examine the same person at more than one point in time, for example: a person’s memory at 40 and at 75 may not be the same any more. An age difference on the other hand is obtained when two or more people of different ages are compared. Age differences can sometimes reflect age change, so if age change is what we really want to understand we should design our research with that goal in mind. The following research designs are used to gather data about age differences and age change: Multiple cohorts and age groups are examined at a single point in time with cross-sectional designs. (problems: age and cohort). Developmental differences are identified by testing people of different ages at the same time. Only age differences can be identified; and age and cohort are confounded. Problem: Because people are only tested at one point in their development, nothing is learned about the continuity of that persons development, for example: if a person at age 50 remembers grocery items well we will not be able to tell if that person is still able to do so at age 80, because the person would only be tested at either age 50 or age 80, but not at both. The use of extreme age groups (young and older adults) is problematic in that: 1. The samples may not be representative, so we must be careful not to read too much into the results; 2. Age should be treated as a continuous variable, and not as a category (“young” and “old”); and 3. The measures may not be equivalent across age groups, so the reliability and validity of each measure should be checked in each age group. If used carefully cross-sectional designs can provide useful information. Longitudinal designs (Problems: age and time) examine one cohort over two or more times of measurement. The same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives. Age change can be identified but have several problems: 1. Practice effects - this may result from the fact that performance may improve over time simply because people are tested over and over again with the same measures. 2. Participant dropouts - because over a period of time some of the participants may move away, lose interest or some may even die. This can also end up with positive selective survival ( for example, the surviving participants are the ones who were the most healthy at the beginning of a study) or negative selective survival (when the surviving participants are the ones who were less healthy at the beginning of a study) 3. The ability to apply the results to other groups is limited because only one cohort is followed. Microgenetic studies: E.g. 12-18 months with kids testing them every week. Very useful to track changes as a result of intervention. These studies look in detail at the performance of those who learned and improved after training to those who did not; and search for differences in either the pattern of performance in the memory tests or in the details. Thus researchers using longitudinal designs run the risk of uncovering a developmental process that is unique to that cohort. How could researchers alleviate some of the problems by using Sequential Designs': More than one cross-sectional or longitudinal design is involved in sequential designs. It involves different combinations of the two studies. The same age ranges are involved in these multiple cross-sectional designs; however the participants are different in each wave of testing. Although these designs are complex and expensive they are important because they help disentangle age, cohort and time-of measurement effects. Sequential designs represent different combinations of cross sectional/longitudinal studies. Consists of two or more cross sectional studies conducted at two or more times of measurement. Includes the same age ranges however participants different in each wave of testing. Longitudinal Sequential design is two or more longitudinal designs and two or more cohorts. Each Longitudinal design begins with the same age range. Follows people for the same time. This design is more time consuming and expensive so it is not used very often. In conclusion: Sequential designs are the most powerful. Provide the richest source of information about developmental issues. They are costly. To follow same people over period of time, needs complex data analysis, time, money. Not a viable option for researchers. QUESTION 5: “DISCUSS: the contribution of THE BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF AGEING TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR BIOLOGICAL & PHYSIOLOGICAL AGEING.” Introduction: The processes of ageing are multi-factorial in origin. There is a dynamic interaction between the psychological, socio-cultural and life-cycle of all human beings, factors that will be touched on later in the summary. For purposes of this question it is important to look specifically at the biological and physiological hypotheses and have a broad overview on what some of the more important ones are. To date there is no existing theory that does a complete job at explaining all the normative changes we experience. Various theories: 1) Rate-of-Living Theories: One interesting theory purports that people only have so much energy to expend in a lifetime. This hypothesis suggests that ageing caused by an increased rate of damage to cells and tissues associated with the increased metabolism of growth and maturity. Pertinent here are two additional variations: Diet: CR or Calorie Restriction diets have been investigated with Rhesus Monkeys suggesting that reducing calories lowers the risk of premature death, slows down a wide range of normative age-related changes and in some cases results in longer life spans than normal diets do. This is still just supposition and not proven with humans, although it does tie in with the fact that it precludes other life threatening diseases e.g. Heart disease, diabetes, hypertension etc. Interesting Cross-cultural finding that Okinawans who eat only ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- 60% of normal Japanese diet, have 40 times as many centarians. Moreover incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer is ½ of the rest of Japan. A last variation involves the hormonal regulatory system’s adaption to stress. Although stress as such does not cause ageing, the body’s ability to deal with it undergoes significant decline with age. These changes have been shown to correlate with several diseases common in later life. Such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, cognitive defects. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- 2) Cellular Theories: a) Hayflick limit: These theories link the causative agents as being on a cellular level. Number of times cell division possible places finite value on the life span of a complex organism. This phenomenon is called the after its discoverer, Leonard Hayflick. E.g. Human fetal tissue able to divide 40 – 60 x’s. Average human adult cell - + 20 times. Evidence suggests that the tips of chromosomes (called telomeres) play a major role. An enzyme called telomerase is needed in DNA replication to fully replicate the telomeres. But telomerase is not normally present in cells, so with each replication the telomeres become shorter. Ultimately, the chromosomes become unstable and cannot replicate because the telomeres become too short b) Cross-linking: A second cellular theory is based on a process called cross--linking. Certain proteins in human cells interact randomly and produce molecules that are linked in such a way as to make the body stiffer. These proteins are called Collagen and contribute roughly a third of the body protein. The more cross-links of this Collagen tissue, the stiffer the tissue. With ageing the number of cross links increases. Hence the link between muscles of the heart, and arteries becoming stiffer with age. Even though cross-linking occurs it is probably not an adequate explanation of ageing. c) Free radicals: This is perhaps the most well-known theory. This type of cellular theory proposes that aging is caused by unstable molecules called free radicals. Free Radicals may cause cellular damage which in turn impairs the functioning of the organ or may block the effects of important molecules. Blocking these with antioxidants incl. Vitamins A,C,E and coenzyme Q has proved effective against the appearance of age related diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular. Programmed-Cell-Death Theories: There is a rising interest in the theory of cell death being a function of physiological processes, the innate ability of cells to self-destruct and the ability of dying cells to trigger key processes in other cells. It is not yet clear how this self-destruct program is activated nor do we understand how it works. It may become the key to understanding how genes and physiological processes interact with psychological and sociocultural forces to produce aging. Conclusion: The psychological impact of ageing has some correlation with so-called psychological ageing, which refers to the functional level of the person’s abilities to adapt to environmental demands. The more intact the intellectual faculties (memory, intelligence, feelings, motivation) the greater the likehood of maintaining skills, self-esteem and personal control. Sociocultural age refers to the specific set roles individuals adopt in relation to other members of the society and culture to which they belong. Depending on the value that the given society places on aging (e.g. The Japanese and a number of indigenous groups in South Africa e.g., Xhosas revere the aged and hold them in high esteem.) Let us not forget that humans, as social beings, are affected by their surroundings and both their own activities and the activities of others. As sentient beings, we develop values and attitudes to our place in society and to society in general. The longer we live, the greater the impact social and psychological factors may have on us. E.g. how must it feel to see societal values change from your own, to have your values considered to be old fashioned' How must it feel to see the people around you, your friends or your partner die' Acquiescent functionalism: Attributes problems within an elderly population to the difficulties in adjusting to growing old”. Structured dependency:“Maintains that the dependency of old age is a social construction and relates to old age by virtue of class, occupation and wider gender issues, which society reinforces. True aging changes are intrinsic; they are a feature of chronological development. To the observer, the difficulty exists in determining the true aging processes, and there are many theories seeking to explain these and to separate them from a natural wasting of body reserves through lack of use or inability to use them or from pathologies which are seen more frequently among the aged. It is better not to stereotype people, as individuality in both lifestyle and physiological reserves plus individuality of the aging processes means that the aged are not a homogenised group of society. QUESTION 6: Discuss the influence of genetic factors, environmental factors, ethnic and gender differences on longevity. In a concluding paragraph, give an example of how the interaction between these factors could influence longevity. Longevity is the number of years one lives, as jointly determined by genetic and environmental factors. There and two types of longevity, Average Longevity and Maximum longevity. Average longevity is commonly referred to as average life expectancy. It’s the age at which half of the individuals who are born in a particular year will have died. Average longevity has been increasing since the 1900’s, with the most rapid increase occurring in the first half of the 20th century. The decline in infant mortality rates was because of better health care and diseases such as smallpox and polio had been eliminated. Health care also decreased the number of women who died during childbirth. Better health care meant many more people could live to old age. Average longevity is calculated at birth, the projected age at which half of the people born in a certain year will have died; it takes into account people who have died at any age, from infancy onwards. So for example if a group of people are born, 78 years later half of them will is still alive. Maximum longevity is the oldest age at which any individual of a species lives. Scientist estimate the maximum age for humans to be 120 years, the reason being that the cardiovascular system has its limits. Researchers are differentiating between active life expectancy and dependant’s life expectancy. Active life expectancy is living to a healthy old age this active life expectancy ends when one loses independence or must really on other for most activities (daily living, cooking meals, bathing). Dependant life expectancy is simply living a long time dependent on others. How many active and dependent years one has in late life depends on a great deal on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Average longevity is influenced by genetic, environmental, ethnic and gender factors. Genetic factors: Longevity runs in the family, if your mother lives to 80 years you can expect to add 4 years to your life. Better genes determines how well people cope with certain disease as they get older. Environmental factors: What are the environmental factors; diseases, toxins, lifestyle and social class. Diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease reduce longevity. Toxins include pollution in the air and water; there could be toxins in the fish, bacteria and cancer causing chemicals in our drinking water. Air Bourne pollutants are a major agent on shortening longevity. The Lifestyle a person lives; do they smoke, and do they exercise regularly' Social class, the lower social class you are means reduced access to proper goods and services such as adequate medical care. Most ethnic minority groups cannot afford medical insurance. AIDS (immunodeficiency syndrome) reduces age longevity by as much as 30 years by 2010. Ethnic Difference: People in different ethnic groups do not have the same average longevity at birth. African Americans average life expectancy at birth is roughly 6.5 years lower for men and about 5 years lower for women that European Americans. There are substantial differences in most environmental variable between European American and other ethnic groups. People in minority groups are at greater risk for disease and hazards (homicide). They may have less access to health care and healthy lifestyles for economic reason. People in minority groups who do make it to old age have a genetic advantage. Gender Factors:  Why are there more old women and less old men' Well we don’t really know for sure. USA females have a 7 year edge over males. In terms of births, there are 106 boys to 100 girls. When they get the ages 65 and 69, there are 81 men for every 100 women. When they get to the ages between 80 and 84, there are 53 men for every 100 women. By the age 100 there are 27 men to every 100 women. One of the reasons could be is that men are more susceptible to infectious diseases. Men have a higher metabolic rate and women have higher brain-to-body weight ratio and lower testosterone levels. The interaction of these factors are numerous, each one can affect each other. If a man is in an ethnic minority group his average longevity will decrease because of environmental factors, he may not have access to good health services and he may be exposed to more toxins. However if he inherited good genes it may increase his life span but the fact that he is a man may also decrease his life span because there are less men over 90 than women. All these factors interact and intertwine to affects an individual’s longevity. Question 6: Introduction: The word longevity: It is a formal term denoting the length or duration of the life of an animal or plant, often used to indicate an unusually long life. The average human life-span of threescore and ten years cited in the Bible has been attained only in recent years in areas of the world where man has been largely freed from disease and social and economic disadvantages. In the period around the American Revolution, the average life span was less than 35 years. By 1920, in the United States, the average life span had risen to 54 years; and by 1992 the median life span was 75.8 years. Studies indicate that females are likely to live longer than males. Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan, the longest-lived person authenticated, lived 120 years. In other words: Longevity is the number of years one lives, as jointly determined by genetic and environmental (G &E) factors. There and two types of longevity, A. Average Longevity and B. Maximum longevity. Average longevity is commonly referred to as average life expectancy. It’s the age at which half of the individuals who are born in a particular year will have died. AL is affected by G and E factors. Average longevity has been increasing since the 1900’s, with the most rapid increase occurring in the first half of the 20th century. The decline in infant mortality rates was because of better health care and diseases such as smallpox and polio had been eliminated. Health care also decreased the number of women who died during childbirth. Better health care meant many more people could live to old age. How do we calculate longevity' Average longevity is calculated at birth, the projected age at which half of the people born in a certain year will have died; it takes into account people who have died at any age, from infancy onwards. Thus an average longevity of 78 years at birth means that 78 years after a group of people are born, half of them will still be alive. If it is computed at another point in the life span, the calculation is based on everybody that’s still alive at that time. Maximum longevity is the oldest age at which any individual of a species lives. Scientist estimate the maximum age for humans to be 120 years, the reason being that the cardiovascular system has its limits. Researchers are differentiating between active life expectancy and dependant’s life expectancy. Active life expectancy is living to a healthy old age. This active life expectancy ends when one loses independence or must rely on others for most activities (daily living, cooking meals, bathing). Dependant life expectancy is simply living a long time dependent on others. How many active and dependent years one has in late life depends on a great deal on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Average longevity is influenced by genetic, environmental, ethnic and gender factors. Genetic factors: Longevity runs in the family, if your mother lives to 80 years you can expect to add 4 years to your life. Better genes determines how well people cope with certain disease as they get older. Human Genome project in 2003 also mapped genes-made significant genetic discoveries how to overcome certain life threatening diseases lurking is these areas. Try to replace faulty cells by implanting curative cells that could wipe out the faulty ones. Environmental factors: What are the environmental factors' Diseases: Diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease reduce longevity and social class. Toxins include pollution in the air and water; there could be toxins in the fish, bacteria and cancer causing chemicals in our drinking water. Air Bourne pollutants are a major agent on shortening longevity. Lifestyle - Lifestyle a person lives; do they smoke, and do they exercise regularly' The Social class, the lower social class you are means reduced access to proper goods and services such as adequate medical care. Most ethnic minority groups cannot afford medical insurance. AIDS (immunodeficiency syndrome) reduces age longevity by as much as 30 years by 2010. Ethnic Differences: People in different ethnic groups do not have the same average longevity at birth. African Americans average life expectancy at birth is roughly 6.5 years lower for men and about 5 years lower for women that European Americans. There are substantial differences in most environmental variables between European American and other ethnic groups. People in minority groups are at greater risk for disease and hazards (homicide). They may have less access to health care and healthy lifestyles for economic reasons. People in minority groups who do make it to old age have a genetic advantage. Gender Factors: Why are there more old women and less old men' We are not sure. USA females have a 7 year edge over males. In terms of births, there are 106 boys to 100 girls. When they get the ages 65 and 69, there are 81 men for every 100 women. When they get to the ages between 80 and 84, there are 53 men for every 100 women. By the age 100 there are 27 men to every 100 women. One of the reasons could be is that men are more susceptible to infectious diseases. Men have a higher metabolic rate and women have higher brain-to-body weight ratio and lower testosterone levels. The interaction of these factors are numerous, each one can affect each other. If a man is in an ethnic minority group his average longevity will decrease because of environmental factors, he may not have access to good health services and he may be exposed to more toxins. However if he inherited good genes it may increase his life span but the fact that he is a man may also decrease his life span because there are less men over 90 than women. All these factors interact and intertwine to affects an individual’s longevity. QUESTION 7: a) Explain how Kurt Lewin’s equation regarding the interaction between the person and the environment [B=f(P,E)] is represented in the competence and environmental press theory of Lawton and Nahemow. b) Apply the above-mentioned theory to the situation of a fairly happy, well adjusted elderly person (an imaginary or real person – maybe one of your research participants) by doing the following: * Give a brief description of the person. * Give a brief description of the environment in which he/she lives. * Explain, on the basis of the above-mentioned theory, how the person-environment interaction takes place and how it contributes to his/her level of adjustment.   Introduction: Behaviour does not occur in a vacuum, it occurs in an environment. Thus in order to determine the role which environments play in our lives we need a framework for interpreting how people interact with them. Theories of person-environment interactions help us to understand how people view their environment and how these views change as people age. Most theories on person-environment interaction start from the same basic theory - Kurt Lewin’s person-environment interaction equation: B = f(P,E). This relationship defining person-environment interactions means that behaviour (B) is a function of both the person (P) and the environment (E). Most theories also emphasise the importance of people’s perceptions of their environments. Even though certain aspects of the environment such as crime and housing quality is important, personal choice also plays a major role. For e.g. a person may have the opportunity to live in a crime free environment, but still choose to stay in a crime ridden environment in order to be close to family.   Competence and Environmental Press: In their competence and environmental press theory Lawton and Nahemow express the person-environment interaction. Competence is the theoretical upper limit of a person’s capacity to function and environments can be classified on the basis of the varying demands they place on the person, a notion called environmental press. Lawton and Nahemow posit that competence involves five domains: biological health, sensory-perceptual functioning, motor skills, cognitive skills and ego strength. These domains are lifelong and are thought to underlie all other abilities. However, these components are not easy to measure as most of them involve the environment in some way. For e.g. the development of cognitive skills depends on the environment in which a person develops. Thus we have to set for a rough estimate of one’s true competence. Furthermore, environmental press can include any combination of three types of demands: physical, interpersonal or social. Physical demands including things such as having to cook, clean and care for oneself, social demands include things such as having to conform to the culture and traditions that one is part of, and interpersonal demands include factors such as the various demands placed on a person to work on relationships and get along with people.   Lawton and Nahemow’s model takes from these ideas and assert that behaviour is a result of a person of a particular competence level acting in an environment of a specific press level. QUESTION 8:   Discuss the relationship between normative brain aging and information-processing, and memory and intellectual functioning during adulthood.   Introduction: Observing age related changes in the brain is difficult. Typically indirect evidence such as memory tests have been used however advances in imaging are enabling new levels of brain observation. This research is vital to understanding debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.   Age related changes to the brain: Age related changes begin very subtly and are hard to tie to specific behaviours. Changes in the brain occur mainly at the level of individual brain cells called neurons. Since neurons die and cannot be regenerated (like heart muscles), the effects of age-related neural change are important to understand. Neurons are made up of: i. Dendrites: these pick up chemical signals from other neurons. ii. Cell body: the signals are brought into the cell body and converted to an electrochemical impulse and sent down the axon to the.. iii. Terminal branches: which act like a transmitter station. iv. Neurotransmitters: are released at the terminal branches and carry the info to the next neuron’s dendrites. The gap between dendrites of different neurons is called the synapse.   Neurons undergo a wide range of normative age related changes. Normally this does not produce much change in behaviour but when it does, disease is typically present. Structural changes in neurons: For reasons unknown, neurons in certain parts of the brain develop neurofibrillary tangles (NT) in which fibres in the axon become twisted together. Large concentrations of NTs are associated with behavioural abnormalities (e.g. in Alzheimers disease). Some degree of normal tangling occurs as we age. Changes in the dendrites are complex. As neurons die new dendrites grow as well as lengthen. This capability of the brain to adapt to current requirements is called plasticity. Eventually however the loss of neurons outstrips dendrites ability to compensate. Damaged and dying neurons sometimes collect around a core of protein and produce neuritic-plaques. These increase with age; large numbers however are associated with abnormal ageing. It is possible that abnormal brain ageing occurs when losses greatly outnumber gains before very old age. Changes in communication between neurons: Neurotransmitters, the vehicle through which neurons communicate also undergo age-related change. Neurotransmitter pathways are groups of neurons that that use the same neurotransmitter. Age related changes occur along several of these pathways. One such pathway is one responsible for controlling motor movements; it uses the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine decreases with age, if extremely so we develop Parkinson’s disease. Age related decline is also observed in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and is linked to memory problems. Acetylcholine is linked to Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.      How do these changes relate to the information-processing: Multiple studies have found that reaction time in cognitive tasks (such as avoiding a fast moving object) slows down with age. There are 3 types of reaction time: simple reaction time (responding to one stimulus), choice reaction time (more than one stimulus and each requires a different response) and complex reaction time (making many decisions about when and how to react). One study (the Baltimore Longitudinal Study) indicates that the degree to which reaction time changes with age depends on gender and the type of task. Other evidence shows people with higher ability decline slower than those with less initial ability. Overall men are consistently faster than women across the adult life span. But people do slow down as they age. Why so' Most researchers believe that physiological changes in the brain rather than changes in higher level cognitive processes are responsible for age related slowing. Two variations on this theme are: i)             Neural loss: One way of understanding thinking is a computational process where connections between many neurons are made. Efficient thinking is making the fewest connections between information entry and thought/answer exit. Cerella argues that reaction time in adults is slower as they develop breaks in the route and bypasses are required, increasing the number of connections required.   ii)            Information loss: Myerson looked not at links but what happens at processing in each link line. His work is based on some assumptions that impact on the information processing: overall processing is made up of how long each processing step takes, it depends on how much info is available at the beginning of each step, info gets lost during processing (like a repeated photocopy). Myerson therefore views age-related slowing as a global process that is not localised in specific age-sensitive components. What strategies do aging people put into place when studying information' Two strategies are generally used: i) organise it (e.g. separate note pads) and ii) establish links to help remember the info. Evidence suggests that older students do not put these strategies into place as much as younger adults. Further, evidence suggests that the spontaneous production of effective strategies is not a sufficient account of age differences in memory performance. More research to differentiate the quality of implementation of strategies as opposed to their production is needed.     How these changes relate to memory and intellectual functioning: As noted above mental processing speed is affected by age and may well be one of the most important contributors to a decline in memory and intellectual functioning. Re intellectual functioning, a slower processing speed as one ages compromises older adults ability to attend to and select critical elements from all incoming information. But do all components of mental processing slow equivalently' It appears that with age there are multiple influences on the speed of mental processing. Cautious examination of information may be one influence, how fast the individual detects and processes the stimulus is another. Another way of looking at age-related changes impacting on intellectual functioning is to explore the interrelationships between different mental abilities. This area of study has resulted in the identification of secondary abilities. Primary abilities include verbal meaning, spatial orientation and secondary abilities include visual organisation, auditory organisation, long term storage and retrieval, fluid and crystallised intelligence. Most developmental research into secondary abilities has been on the two latter abilities as these forms of intelligence are associated with age differently: Fluid intelligence consist of the abilities that make you a flexible and adaptive thinker, This includes being able to draw inference, and see the relations between concepts independent of previous knowledge and experience. It reflects the abilities needed to respond to any situation especially new ones. Crystallised intelligence is the knowledge that you have acquired through life experience and education in a particular culture. It includes breadth of knowledge and its recall, comprehension with communication, and judgement. Crystallised intelligence is partly based on underlying fluid intelligence (e.g. breadth of vocab depends on how fast one can make connections with new words). Fluid intelligence declines significantly through adulthood whereas crystallised intelligence increases with age. The latter is the case since new knowledge is added through the years; the former likely from accumulated effects of disease, injury, aging and maybe lack of practice. The implications of this are: i) that learning becomes more difficult with age (e.g. learning a language at 17 and 70); ii) intellectual development varies significantly from one set of skills to another. Beyond overall trends, individual differences in the two forms of intelligence also vary. Individual differences in fluid intelligence remain relatively uniform over time whereas individual differences in crystallised intelligence increase or remain stable with age. This is largely because we get less chance to practice our inductive reasoning and abstract thinking (fluid) but we can improve our vocab by choosing to read more (crystallised).        Conclusion: We are really only just beginning to understand age-related changes in the brain. The extent to which they impact on information processing, memory and intellectual functioning being a case in point. Many have attempted to find remedies. For those who believe that age-related change in the brain is mainly physiological remedies such as supplementing the body with minerals and nutrients have been explored. However in a review of compounds thought to affect the brain mechanisms underlying memory, McDaniel, Maier and Einstein conclude that there is little evidence to support the idea that there are specific ‘brain specific nutrients’ that enhance memory. For those who believe that personal behaviour can moderate age-related brain behaviour, personal remedies could be developed in order for example to maximise the ongoing development of one’s fluid intelligence. Either way be it either or both or more than the sum of the two, much more research is needed to first understand the relationship between brain ageing and behaviour.   QUESTION 9: Discuss Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman’s stress and coping paradigm and, in view of this paradigm explain age and individual difference in the experience and handling of stress.   Introduction:   Stress is induced by life events. Lazarus and Flokman point out stress is defined by the person and that no two people experiences stress the same event in exactly the same way.  Each individual has a specific tolerance for stress depending on general level of adjustment, the internal and external resources available to that person, flexibility of learned coping mechanisms and the degree and type of stress being experienced. The rise in stress that results from emotional hazardous situations motivates the individual to bring into play coping mechanisms or problem solving behaviours.   The role of stress:   Development is shaped by four forces biological, psychological, socioeconomic/cultural, and life cycle forces. The interaction of these forces influences life expectancy and can induce stress.   Biological Forces:   Include all genetic and health related factors. The primary goal of across adulthood is to have high quality of life .There is a wide range of physical changes taking place during old age (adulthood stage) such as body, mobility, bones, skin etc. Older adults are vulnerable to chronic diseases such as arthritics. Being able to get around on once own is an important part of remaining independent. Illness can severely limit movement thereby reduced independence.  These changes can increase the stress levels. In contrast .having a health body enables an older adult to continue with physical activities and daily routines.   Psychological Forces:   Include internal perception, cognitive, emotional and personality factors. Age related changes have profound psychological effects on older adults. The psychological abilities are crucial to adapt to changing environment. These abilities consist of memory, intelligence, feelings, personal control, appearance etc. Aging comes with progressive loss of these abilities. The degree to which older adults perceive that he/she is in control of his life reduces the stress level i.e. able to care for himself, make his own decisions, feels competent. On the other hand, if he is made to feel incapable of making decision, treated like a child rather than an adult contribute to stress. The loss of memory and muscles coordination has the same psychological effects as changes in appearance. These changes can be stressful to older adults.   Sociocultural Forces:   Include interpersonal, societal, cultural and ethnic factors. Cultural and ethnicity provide status, social setting, living conditions and personal experiences across all ages. Culture shapes peoples core belief s. Ethnicity defines ones sense of identity. Very little is known about how culture and ethnicity affect how people experience aging.    Life Cycle Forces:   One of the four basic forces of development that reflects differences in  how the similar event affects people at different points in their lives such death of the loved one. This event affects people across ages.   The role of stressh:   The research indicates that people differ in their physiological responses to stress. If the duration of stress is short it will have little effect on health. Prolonged stress has great effect on the person’s nervous system, immune system suppression can lead to increased vulnerability to viral infections, increased risk to hypertension and impaired memory. It is crucial in particular for older adults to activate learned coping mechanism within a relatively short period to prevent health risks.   Stress and Coping Paradigm: Stress and coping paradigm point out that stress is not an environmental stimulus or a response but interaction of thinking person and an event. The transitional model of stress alludes to the fact that each time a person is confronted with an event he/she makes judgement as whether it is stressful depends on the resources available and his/her interpretation. The resources include acquired experience of dealing with the same situation before, influence of the four, development forces, access to information about event and ability to get help.   The physiological abilities change with increasing age, older adults often have few physical resources to deal with stressful situation. The situation that was appraised as less stressful in middle aged may be appraised as stressful later in life.    Lazarus and Folkman describe three types appraisal of stress:   1) Primary Appraisal: The event is classified into three groups based on the significance it has on the person’s well being. People decide which events are potentially stressful and which ones are not. Irrelevant: An event that does not affect us personally. Positive/benign: An event that has good effects (achievements).   2) Secondary Appraisal: An event is judged as harmful, challenging and threatening. Secondary appraisal involves evaluating of the perceived ability to deal with the stressful situation. It where an individual recognises that he/she is facing a challenge for which his/her coping strategies have proved ineffective.   3) Reappraisal: Reappraisal involves making a new primary and secondary appraisal resulting from changes in the situation. Re appraisal can either increase or reduce stress. Challenging events may be appraised in the same way and same event can be appraised differently at any point in time.   The three types of appraisal show that determining whether an event is stressful is a dynamic process. The physiological abilities change with increasing age, older adults often have few physical resources to deal with stressful situation. The situation that was appraised as less stressful in middle aged may be appraised as stressful later in life.   Coping Mechanisms:   Coping is defined as different attempts to deal with stressful event. Coping is learned and not automatic. The aim of the coping mechanisms is to restore the person to level of functioning that will enable him/her to cope effectively and adaptive manner with the challenge being faced, Lazarus and Folkman explain coping as complex and evolving process of dealing with stress. When individuals are facing a stressful event they often do not cope very well. In addition coping refers to managing the situation not overcoming or controlling it. Many stressful situations cannot be changed; the best way is to learn to live with them.   Different coping mechanism in which people use to cope:   Problem focused coping: Involves confronting the problem head on. Doing something directly about the problem at hand.   Emotional focused coping: dealing with ones feelings about stressful situation. Talking about feelings and seeking support.   Religion: Many people believe that their relationship with God is an important aspect of coping. Faith in God is used as coping strategy.   How well people cope depends on the number of factors such as health. People who are healthy are better able to deal with stressful situations. Further these factors play an important role in handling stress effectively namely positive attitude about ones abilities to resolve the situation, problem solving abilities explore various options to find a solution, social skills and social support.   Aging and the Stress and Coping Paradigm:   There are two important age related differences in the stress and coping paradigm. People across the ages experience stress in different areas. Young adults experience stress in the area of finance, work, family and personal life than older adults. The stress experienced by older adults is age related than role related. For example environmental stress may be caused by immobility rather than a specific role. As people get older they become better at managing their lives to avoid stress.   The coping strategies used by different age groups are different even when they are faced with similar situation .The older adults more like to use cumulative experience of dealing with the same situation. The young adults tend to rely on defensive coping strategies. The middle aged people are more like to use interpersonal strategies such as information seeking when they are facing chronic diseases unlike older adults. The older adults will run to God for relief.   Stress and Coping Framework:   Schooler‘s theory brings another perceptive about how older people manage stressful situations. He applied Lazarus‘s model of stress and coping to person-environment interaction. Schooler’s theory deals with the relation between everyday environmental stressors and adaptive responses. He investigated the impact of three stressors on older adults’ i.e. environmental changes, mobility and major life events on health. He also examined the effects of social support system on older adults in dealing with stressful situations. He claimed that social support may buffer the effects of stress.  His findings shows that absence of social support system may influence evaluating of the situation as threatening. For example living alone is more likely to be viewed more stressful than when one has family and friend proving support. His findings is in contrast with Lazarus theory who suggested that whether a person feel stressed depends on how he/or she evaluate the situation at hand.   In summary there many factors associated with stress and coping mechanism among older adults. The health promotion programs aimed at improving the health of the older adults such as health risk assessments, physical fitness, nutrition, self efficacy programs etc support successful aging and reduce level of stress among older adults.  QUESTION 11: Cognitive development continues beyond formal operations. Discuss this statement by referring to relevant theories and research findings.   Introduction:   One of the most exciting discoveries about the cognitive development of adults is that it continues beyond formal operations. This refutes the idea that no further cognitive development takes place during the adult years and that a peak of development is reached in young adulthood. It challenges Piaget’s view that the formal operational level of cognitive development reached in adolescence is the final stage of development.   Relevant definitions:   Cognitive Development: The development of intelligence, i.e. thinking, conceiving, reasoning, problem-solving etc. Formal Operations: Conceiving abstract concepts and thinking about them in a systematic way, governed by a generalized, logical structure that provides solutions to problems never seen before and that may never be encountered again; forming a hypothesis and testing it until it is confirmed or rejected. Problem solving is therefore logical and methodical. Post formal Thought: Thought that recognizes that truth varies across situations; that solutions must be realistic to be reasonable; that ambiguity and contradiction are the rule rather than the exception; that emotion and subjective factors play a role in thinking. Fluid Intelligence: Abilities that make a person a flexible and adaptive thinker, able to draw inferences and to understand relations among concepts, independent of acquired knowledge and experience. Crystallized intelligence: Knowledge acquired through life experience and education in a specific culture.   Features of Post formal Thought:   The features of post formal thought are found in the findings of various researchers. An important feature evident throughout these findings is that emotion and logic are integrated and that the emphasis should be on  people’s solutions to problems in the real world.  This means that social aspects of learning are involved in adult cognitive development too. It also becomes more evident that adults’ style of thinking changes across adulthood. Older adults do not rely on authority for knowing as young adults do, they realize that truth is ambiguous and contradictory and that thinking should be more flexible. Reaching an optimal level of cognition means that older adults learn to accept that other points of view are also viable and that they must synthesise these into a solution that is workable: emphasis is placed on being effective in the real world. These features become more evident in the discussion of research findings.   Research on Post formal Thought:   Research Findings:   Riegel et al said that adults’ thinking is not restricted to logical, hypothetico-deductive thoughts as described in Piaget’s stage of formal operations. This also only described how people arrive at one correct solution to a problem, while how adults discover new problems and accept a number of possible solutions are not described. In formal operations, ideas are described as being generated in an unconstrained way; these conflicts with the idea that adults often limit their thinking in response to social or other realistic constraints.    Perry found that adolescents rely very much on the expertise of authority to decide between right and wrong, while continued development of thinking involves the development of increased cognitive flexibility. The first step is a shift towards relativism, which means realizing that more than one explanation of facts could be correct, depending on one’s point of view. Relativism frees you from having only a single framework, but leads to skepticism: when you’re free from the influence of authority, you lose the certainty of relying on logic only.   To develop beyond skepticism, adults develop commitments to certain viewpoints, as they realise they’re their own authority and must commit to a certain position, and that others have different positions which they are equally committed to. Mature thinkers can thus understand many perspectives on an issue, which is different from thinking in formal operational terms.   King and Kitchener’s research also contradicts Piaget’s formal operational level. They mapped the development of reflective thought after almost 20 years of research. This involves how people reason through dilemmas involving issues like current affairs, religions and science. A systematic progression of thinking was developed, which consists of 7 stages: Stages 1–3 represent pre-reflective thought: There is no understanding yet that knowledge is uncertain. Knowledge is seen as absolutely/temporarily concrete and beliefs are justified through authority, or, failing that, rational or intuitive justifications are used. Stages 4+5 represent quasi-reflective thought: Now the person sees that some problems contain an element of uncertainty; evidence is used to justify beliefs, but not very effectively. Stages 6+7 represent true reflective judgment: The person realizes that knowledge must be constructed, that claims about knowledge must be evaluated within context and that conclusions are open to re-evaluation. Beliefs are justified via evidence or argument, or as the most complete or compelling understanding of an issue.   King and Kitchener believe that one moves from pre-reflective to reflective judgment through gradual progression and qualitative shifts. They distinguish between optimal level of development and skill acquisition.   Optimal level of development: The highest level of information-processing capacity which a person is capable of, which increases with age and is marked by abrupt changes followed by periods of relative stability. Each change indicates the start of a new developmental level of thinking, and the period of stability indicates the time needed to become proficient in using the new skills.   Skill acquisition: The gradual, somewhat haphazard process through which people learn new abilities. People progress through many small steps to acquire new skills before they’re ready for the next change.   Kitchener and King believe the optimal level gives one an indication of the highest stage a person has achieved in cognitive development, but probably not the level which will be used most of the time. A person’s environment doesn’t provide the necessary support for high-level performance (especially about knowledge), therefore, if the necessary supports are there, he\she will show a level of thinking and performance far higher than shown on a daily basis.   Kramer, Kahlbaugh and Goldston’s research led them to identify three styles of thinking. 1) Absolutist thinking: Firmly believing that there is only one correct solution to problems and that personal experience provides truth. This is often seen in adolescents and young adults. 2) Relativistic thinking: Realizing that there are many sides to an issue and that the right answers depends on the circumstances. This is often seen in young and early middle-aged adults. This thinking can lead to cynicism and the person is usually not strong on one position. 3) Dialectical thinking: Seeing the merits in different viewpoints and being able to synthesize them into a workable solution. This synthesis often leads to a strong commitment and a definite plan of action.   Both the Reflective Judgment model and the three stages of thinking involve a movement away from “I’m right because I’ve experienced it” to “I’m not so sure because your experience is different.”  Both also provide insight into how young adults are likely to approach life problems. These three stages have been used widely in the study of post formal thought, but assessment of older adults seem  to indicate an increase in dualistic reasoning. More relativistic thinking is associated with higher levels of education and marks the point where the learning process becomes inherently social.   Labouvie-Vief found that when adults gain the ability to integrate emotion with logic, they are better equipped to deal with life problems. The main goal of adult thought is effectiveness in handling everyday life, so adults’ choices are made on pragmatic, emotional and social grounds. Mature thinkers realize thinking is a social phenomenon that demands compromises and tolerance of ambiguity and contradiction. Blanchard-Fields’ findings reiterate that emotion and logic are brought together in adulthood.    Gender Issues:   Some researchers argue that men and women think in similar ways, while others disagree, saying that described thinking styles reflect a male bias. Blenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule identified five ways of knowing in women; where each way of knowing reflects a higher level of complexity: 1) Silent knowing: Passive acceptance of others’ knowledge and one’s own incompetence. 2) Received knowing: Accepting ideas that are concrete, absolute, and dualistic (e.g. good vs. bad) from authorities. 3) Subjective knowing: Using personal and private intuitions as the major source of understanding and authority. 4) Procedural knowing: Adopting the dominant viewpoint and using a systematic and deliberate process of analysis in two ways: a) using impersonal strategies based on criteria of justice and fairness to establish what is right, and b) using interdependence and caring as the basis for establishing truth. 5) Constructed knowing: Being articulate about the self, reflecting one’s own personal point of view while tolerating contradiction and ambiguity.   Orr and Luszcz found that education, not age, predicts realistic knowing, but not constructed knowing. They say that women use subjective knowing more than men, while men use procedural knowing more than women. Procedural knowledge decreased and constructed knowing increased with increasing evidence of relativistic knowing. These results show minimal differences between men and women’s ways of thinking.   Factors that contribute to functioning on a post formal level:   There are distinct age-related declines in the structure and process of cognitive functioning, but we should also consider the functioning structure of everyday behaviour that is cognitively demanding.   Decision making:   According to research, older adults seem less effective in decision making when the situation is unfamiliar to them; when they are under time pressure, and when the decision making involves a high degree of working memory capacity. Younger adults make decisions quicker, but older adults need less information, search for less information and rely on easily-available information, but the quality of decision making is not any lower than that of the younger adults.   Problem solving:   Some people are better at solving problems than others. This may be because of the kind of activities we use regularly vs. those we use only occasionally.   Denney’s research into this led to the model of unexercised and optimally exercised abilities. Unexercised ability is the normal, healthy adult would exhibit without practice or training, eg fluid intelligence, which doesn’t depend on training. Optimally exercised ability is the ability a normal, healthy adult would demonstrate under the best conditions of training or practice, eg crystallized intelligence, as the component skills are used daily, like vocabulary ability.   Denney says the overall developmental course of both abilities is the same: they increase until late adolescence or early adulthood and slowly decline after that. At all ages there is a difference in favor of optimally exercised ability, but the difference is less in early childhood and old age.   Practical problem solving:   Denney and Pearce found that performance peaks during midlife and decreases after that, as predicted by Denney’s model. Other researchers found continued improvement until at least 70, and that performance on practical problem solving clearly increases from early adulthood to middle age.   The development of a level of functioning characterized by expertise and wisdom:   Expertise (Acquired knowledge):   Charnes and Bosman define expertise as using a novel way to solve difficult problems, having extensive knowledge about a particular topic and being highly practical. Many adults in late adulthood have jobs that demand complex decision making, abstract reasoning and memory for a lot of information. The general explanation for this is that older adults compensate for poorer performance through expertise, and they can then bypass steps needed by younger adults. Research shows that expertise helps aging adults to compensate for losses in other skills eg skills associated with fluid intelligence.   Rybash, Hoyer and Roodin created the idea of encapsulation, which is the idea that the process of thinking (eg attention, memory, logical reasoning) become connected to the products of thinking (eg knowledge of world history). This process of encapsulation allows expertise to compensate for decrements in underlying processing ability. Encapsulation reflects the idea that, in adulthood, knowledge becomes more and more specialized, based on experience; which reflects a lesser role of age-related neurological development and social demands for increased specialization of knowledge and expertise. Knowledge encapsulation implies that the idea that the processing underlying cognitive changes in later life generally slows down is wrong.   Wisdom:   Baltes and Kunzmann said that the implicit conceptions of wisdom are widely shared within a culture and include exceptional levels of functioning, a high degree of personal and interpersonal competence and good intentions. Baltes, Kunzmann and Staudinger describe wisdom as an expert system dealing with the meaning and conduct of life. Sternberg defines it as the application of tacit knowledge and values toward the achievement of the common good.   Wisdom is not the same as creativity; it is the growth of expertise and insight. Wisdom is not necessarily associated with older adults, it is rather related to extensive life experience with the problem that is faced. Research shows a wise person is someone who can integrate thinking, feeling and acting into a coherent approach to a problem. This implies empathy is an important aspect of wise people, because automatic responses are overcome to show concern for core human experiences and values. Baltes and Staudinger found that the most important characteristic related to wisdom is cognitive style and creativity. Laboufe-Vief argues that the integration of affect and cognition in adulthood leads to the ability to act wisely. Personal growth across adulthood is important, so age does not guarantee wisdom, it just provides the time for it.   Conclusion:   The possible stages of cognitive development beyond formal operations present a counter to the stereotype of inevitable decline. Evidence supporting a separate stage of cognitive development beyond formal operations is growing.                  QUESTION 12:   Aging adults have to adjust to changes that are often debilitating. Discuss the issue of personal control in the lives of aging adults and how they can be assisted to retain a positive view of the self.   Personal control is the degree to which one believes that one’s performance in a situation depends on something that one personally does. A high sense of personal control implies a belief that performance is up to you and a low sense of personal control implies that your performance is determined by forces other than your own. As one gets older one finds the need to become more and more dependent on others to assist. If it’s not driving to and from the shops, it’s lifting heavier parcels, helping with the finances or figuring out how to use a new electronic gadget.   Personal control guides behaviour and well-being. It also plays a role in memory performance, intelligence, in depression and in adjustment to and survival in institutions. The general consensus is that personal control is multidimensional in that one’s sense of control depends on which domain is being assessed, for example whether its health or memory. Grob, Little and Wanner found an increase in perceived control over social and personal issues up to early middle age and thereafter a decline into old age.   Brandtstadter proposes that the preservation and stabilisation of a positive view of the self and personal development in later life involves three interdependent process: 1) Assimilative activities: These prevent or alleviate losses in domains that are personally relevant for self-esteem and identity. One may join in activities which require social interaction like, bridge classes or playing bowls. 2) Accommodations: Are put in place to readjust ones goals and aspirations to lessen or neutralise the effects of negative self-evaluations. So, instead of being involved in many activities, one may select fewer and dedicate more time to the family. 3) Immunising mechanisms: These alter the effects of self discrepant evidence. If one is confronted with evidence that one’s memory is declining one can look for alternative explanations or simply deny the evidence.   Similarly Heckhausen and Schultz view control as a motivational system that regulates human behaviour. They believe control strategies can be divided into primary and secondary control. Primary control involves bringing the environment in line with ones desires and goals and secondary control involves bringing oneself in line with the environment. Typically an example would be down scaling one’s family home from a house to something smaller or perhaps even a retirement village.   Primary control has primacy over secondary control. Primary control lets people shape their environment to suit their goals and desires so it has a more adaptive value to the individual. The major function of secondary control is to minimise losses or expand levels of primary control.   As we enter old age the maintenance if primary control increasingly depends on secondary control processes due to threats of primary control as a function of biological decline that occurs as we get older.   Life stages will determine how adaptive ones control/beliefs are. For older adults focus is on a sense of control on how to master everyday demands. These could vary from needing minimal help like washing the windows to being totally dependent on others to take full care of one. QUESTION 15: RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS ARE A KEY ASPECT OF BEING HUMAN BUT THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF FRIENSHIPS DIFFER DURING CHILDHOOD AND ADULTHOOD.  DISCUSS THE UNIQUE ROLE PLAYED BY FRIENDSHIP RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS THE ADULT LIFE SPAN.    What is a friend: Someone to share with. Someone who can tell you the truth.  To have fun with. Help develop self-esteem, self-awareness, self-respect. Help to get us socialized into new roles throughout adulthood. Important throughout adulthood partly because life satisfaction is largely related to the quantity and quality of friendship contacts. In all walks of life, people are happier who have many friends than those who only have a few. They determine how much we enjoy life. Friendships are important in life at every age.  They are usually based on mutual values and interests.  They usually develop among people of the same generation or at the same stage of family life ho validate each other’s beliefs and behaviour. The meaning of friendship doesn’t change much over a life-span but the context and content may change.   Some friendship theories:   Three themes which underlie adult friendships: (These 3 dimensions are found in friendships among adults of all ages.) 1) Emotional basis of friendship: Includes self-disclosure, expressions of intimacy, appreciation, affection, support. All are based on trust, loyalty and commitment. 2) Shared and communal nature of friendship: Participate in and support activities of mutual interest. 3) Sociability and compatibility: Sources of amusement, fun, recreation and keep us entertained.   Socio-emotional selectivity: Social contact is motivated by goals:  1. Information seeking: exploring the world, how and where they fit in, what others are like. Meeting many new people is essential to do this.  2. Self-concept 3. Emotional regulation: people become more selective about who they choose to have contact with. Young Adults:  Information seeking is main goal. Replace relationships they lose. Older people:  Emotional regulation (they have fewer opportunities to make new friends and are also more selective. Midlife:  Three goals are in balance.   Rook’s Theory: Older adults compensate for the loss of friends (usually due to death) in 3 ways: 1) Forming new ties. 2) Redefining the need for friends. 3) Developing alternative non-social activities.   Nature and importance during various stages of adulthood:   Older adults: Friendships no longer typically linked to work and parenting. Focused on companionship and support. Most have close friends. Tend to be less intimate than in earlier years. Numbers decline, but friends still important even in the face of disability etc (email/tel). Those with active circle of friends are healthier and happier. Life satisfaction more strongly related to quantity and quality of friends that to family. Friends may be important because older people don’t want to be burdens to family. The reciprocity of friendships foster independence and paying back of indebtedness over time. Friends are fun.  (Applies to all walks of life). Develop fewer new relationships. The fact that people choose friends is important as older people often feel control over their lives slipping away. Common interest, social involvement and mutual help. Retirement communities:  friends can take the place of faraway family. Morale depends more on how often they see friends than on how often they see their children. Spend more active leisure time with friends. Friends help them rise above daily concerns. Enjoy time spent with friends more than with their families. Help compensate for the lack of a spouse. Life satisfaction is overall better when spending time with a spouse than with friends. Powerful sense of immediate enjoyment, while family provides greater emotional support and security.   Early adulthood / Young adults: Friendships typically linked to work and parenting. Limited time to spend with friends due to building careers and caring for babies. Develop more relationships that older adults. More intimate that in later life.   Middle age: Busy with family and work. May be engrossed in building up security for retirement. Friendships persist. Strong source of emotional support and well-being. What friendship lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Turn to friends for practical guidance eg help in dealing with maturing children and ageing parents or a woman who delayed parenthood till late thirties/forties becomes friends with much younger mothers as well as with professional colleagues several years older than her. Develop more relationships that older adults.                  Gender differences in friendships:  Men: Base friendship on shared activities or interests. (eg bowling, fishing, talking sports). Men traditionally like to compete, therefore they seldom confide as women do. Competition forms part of their friendships, eg playing games, but the emphasis is on the social element and not on who wins or loses. Less intimate than women’s. (no matter how one defines intimacy). Older men:  See friends less, more in groups than one-on-one and consider friendship less important than women do.   Woman: Intimate and emotional sharing. Confiding in others is the basis of friendships. Get together to discuss personal matters. Have more close relationships than men. (The negative aspect to this is that instead of putting women at an advantage over men, research shows that friends can get on people’s nerves and can make high demands. Women tend to be less happy when these things happen even when they have lots of friends.) Older and formerly married women: Intimacy: they need to know they are valued and wanted despite physical and other losses. QUESTION 16:   Duel-earner couples are found more often nowadays than ever before. This situating result in benefits well as costs for persons involved in this arrangement. What are the main benefits and costs of dual-earner arrangements and how can the benefits e optimised and the costs be dealt with in the most positive way' In your discussing refer to:- cognitive and personality characteristics of adults as factors that play important roles in dual-earner relationships. Introduction:   Definition of Relationships  (Formal relationships are characterised by two parties male and female mainly in the form of a couple living together and other forms of relationship, etc. This passage will describe the (benefits and costs associated with these types of living arrangements especially during the current economic times, modern lifestyle,  and the optimisation of such benefits.   Cognitive Factors:   South African women more liberal now adding to the couple more strength in terms of finance when a second income comes into the picture certainly this has been a case here when we observed many women in marriages being able to participate in the economy and moreover reduced the pressure on me to provide as originally was the trend. On average American wives who work full time contribute 40 percent of family income. People living together they can wisely make the most of what they have by coming together and rationalising the living arrangement. There are certain costs that come with the dual earner relationship like time and energy demands, conflicts between work and family roles, rivalry between spouses. According to Sternberg’s research on wisdom he defines it as the application of tacit knowledge and values toward the achievement of the common good. Apart from the stress life that working couples find themselves it is possible to come to intelligence understanding and means of creaming the benefits of living together. The Piaget’s formal operational thought can help dual earner couples to optimise their benefits by arriving at solutions in a logical and methodical manner. This is achievable through a logically structured solution that each partner is certain about it as have being part of the process and contributed towards the answer i.e. who is getting college studies next year' The answer might be since the wife is close to a promotion and this course will boost those chances may be I (husband) can take a break at my studies and she (wife) takes the course because after she has graduated and promoted we stand a better chance of being financially able. Dual earner couples can maximise their cognitive decision making capabilities further by encouraging each other as above to take further studies as this according to Piaget’s improves especially on Adults the formal thought operation. This could be achieved by allowing each other to grow in specialised fields so that the benefits will be reaped off by the couple for instance if the wife is good in accounting the husband should encourage her to be highly trained in that field so that there will be much benefits for the family not only monetary but also from the thinking point of view because of the knowledge she would have acquired. Post formal thought gives us a new dimension of thinking and arriving at decisions which could be very helpful for dual earner couples. This is employed by applying critical thinking techniques that enable couples to migrate from standard rules and regulations for coming to decisions to a more flexible approach based on a process of shifting information for instance you can make an example like this one ( I think the kids would be better off in a private school although it’s expensive but they will get the best education and once they are grown up they will get better jobs to support themselves and allow the partner to voice his/her opinion as well. Most matured couples apply in their thinking the process called relativism which is a process where there is an understanding that there are many sides of the issue but one can choose one and still allow others to have their different viewpoints. This is sometimes difficult when it comes to family responsibilities because for example the husband might be of the view that the women is solely responsible for parenting and the women believes in role sharing. Dialectical thinkers are different from relativistic thinkers in the way that they see the merits in the different viewpoints but can synthesis them into a workable solution which produces a strong commitment in the relationship and a definite plan of action that moves towards one direction. This can be practically demonstrated by couples coming together and looking at their different point of views and dividing tasks and responsibilities accordingly.    Personality Characteristics:   Roberts and Del Vecchio tells us that their findings that trait stability peaks in the middle age and that this is because when identity certainty is strong in areas for example of choosing the environments that fit well with one’s identity, the ability to assimilate more experience into one’s identity. This can be used as a benefit to couples have attained stability in their lives and will find that more congruent decisions are made with self and partners including the family benefits more. Amongst other things that are important for couples are personal concerns of individuals that should be brought to the front in terms of understanding the aspirations of partners the way they think, their goals, strategic issues, and their general personality. It is easy for the couple to benefit when they personally know each other and have defined their goals and aspirations in life and this will stop problems encountered in relationships when for instance the husband may help with the kids but his career takes precedence and is usually more ambitious and earns more than his wife and usually sees it as her choice to add a career to her primary domestic roles. Jung advocates two important age-related trends in personality development. The first relates to the introversion-extraversion distinction and it is important for dual earner couples for the two to be balanced. An extravert in a relationship might like to go out all the time using all the income in shopping and games, etc and this should be balanced by a partner who is an introvert or try to act like one. Feminity and masculinity according to Jung plays an important role in our personality development. This is interpreted by the fact that both men and women in their stages of growth tend to suppress certain stereotypes and these usually come out in late adulthood when people begin to behave in ways that earlier in life would have considered feminine and women behave in ways that they formerly would have thought masculine. Dual earner couples will benefit a lot from the understanding that roles and responsibility shift in adulthood and this can enhance the relationship and further strengthen the bond. If husbands felt that the washing of dishes was more feminine this theory tells that at a late stage the husband will tend to like to wash dishes and change nappies more often putting a benefit to the relationship. There are important stages mentioned by Erik Erikson in his summary of his Psychosocial development theory when he mentions the young adulthood stage where in a relationship there is intimacy and love. Young couples can benefit a lot from this stage in their relationship and can reap benefits associated with their close relationship in terms of partnering in everyday issues as friends without competing against each other rendering cooperation in every issue to be tackled. When the relationship grows according to Erikson it reaches a stage called adulthood where there is much generativity rather than stagnation and this brings about many benefits to the couple like divided labour and shared household as the couples start to care more about each other. Ego is one of the central structure of a person and Loevinger identified stages of ego development that could help us to critically analyse certain personality traits especially in couples with the aim of maximising benefits associated with certain personalities. The individualistic personality type will have a respect for individuality with the dominant trait of more increased tolerance for oneself and others. In dual earner scenarios you will find that an individualistic character will be more inclined and driven to act in a situation with the purpose of helping. At Loevinger’s autonomous level comes a high tolerance for ambiguity with conflicting needs both within oneself and others. In a couple environments autonomous people will have the ability to face conflicts rather than shying away from it. Conflicts like family roles and work in dual earner couples could therefore be easily solved by autonomous people. According to Ryff people operating at the environmental mastery dimension are able to manipulate and make great use of resources and opportunities. Apart from other benefits extra income is a plus in the relationship when one member of the couple is able to work extra hours and become innovate in other avenues to boost income of the family. In today’s fast paced environment there is growing demand and need for individuals to have personal growth and have a purpose in life according to Ryff. This kind of attitude and behaviour will put the couple in a advantageous positions when it comes to financial coping strategies as they will be ahead of the game. QUESTION 19: Discuss grief as an active process and point out which factors will influence the grieving process. Introduction: Bereavement is the state or condition caused by loss through death. Grief is the sorrow, hurt, anger, guilt, confusion. Mourning concerns the ways in which we express our grief. A life span view of loss through death: 1) Feelings associated with death and dying are personal and powerful. It is a process. 2) We realize that death is not something that happens only to one age group. 3) Many concerns of dying people have to do with their age. The most obvious difference comes in the extent to which people feel cheated, or possibly angry. 4) An important factor that affects dying older adults is that the community view their deaths as less tragic than the deaths of younger people. Consequently older adults receive less innse care as they are viewed as less valuable. Experiencing grief: Perhaps you know from own experience. It is complicated an personal. There is just no right way to grieve. The grieving process is often described as reflecting many themes and issues that people confront. There is no sequence that people pass through. When people near to us die, we must reorganize our lives, and establish new patterns of behavior, and redefine relationships with family and friends. Attig considers grief to be the process by which we relearn the world. It involves choices in coping. Grief is an active process and Worden states we must do the following: Acknowledge the reality of the loss. We must overcome the temptation to deny the reality of our loss. Work through the emotional turmoil. Must find effective ways to confront and express the complete range of emotions felt and not avoid or repress them. Adjust to the environment where the deceased is absent. Define new patterns of living that adjust meaningfully to the fact that the deceased is not present. Loosen ties to the deceased.  Free ourselves from the bonds of the deceased to re-engage with our social network. Survivors must come to terms with the physical world of things, places and events as well as one’s spiritual place in the world. Avoid making certain mistakes. Grieving is a highly individual experience. The process that works well on one person may very well not work on another person. Don’t underestimate the time amount of time people need to deal with the various issues. Researchers agree that about a year is necessary, often two years. We must also be sensitive for cross-cultural differences in grieving. In particular, what is viewed as appropriate ways of emotional expression. Recovery may be a misleading term. It is more appropriate to say that we have learnt to live with our loss, than to say that we have recovered from it.   There are no consistent findings with personality traits that help buffer people from the effects of bereavement. Going to church or being very spiritual and generally helps people deal with bereavement better. Research shows that older adults suffer the least health consequences compared with middle aged adults, who suffer the strongest following bereavement. Lack of social support and kinship is two risk factors. The loss of a child is the most difficult, followed then by a spouse or partner and parent Normal grief reactions: Disbelief; Sadness; Guilt; Confusion; Loneliness; Happiness; Denial; Anger; Fear; Helplessness;  Acceptance; Lack of enthusiasm; Shock; Hatred; Anxiety; Emptiness; Relief; Absence of emotion.   People recognised the need to give survivors timed to deal with their emotions. Muller and Thompson found five themes to how people experience grief. Coping: this is what people do to deal with their loss in terms of what helps them. Affect: People's emotional reactions to the death of their loved one. Change: the ways in which survivors lives changed as a result of the loss and personal growth is a common experience. Narrative: the story is survivors tell about their deceased loved ones. Relationship: who the deceased person was and the nature of the ties between that person and a survivor. Grief over time: Some people grieve over many years. Reports show that there are even people who never stop grieving, and thus never learn to live with the loss. Research indicates a relationship between health and stress. Bereaved individuals who reported stress before the death were in a poorer health state then those not experiencing stress. An important implication can be interventions to reduce stress. Therapeutic counsellors reported better outcomes when religious or spiritual issues are included in the therapeutic process. Coping with grief: The four component model: this model proposes that understanding grief is based on four things: 1. The context of the loss. This is the risk factors such whether the death was expected. 2. Continuation of subjective meaning associated with loss. Evaluations of everyday concerns to major questions about the meaning of life. 3. Changing representations of the lost relationship over time. 4.The role of coping and emotion-regulation processes that cover all coping strategies used to dealing with grief. This model relies heavily on emotional theory and dealing with grief is a complex process that can only be understood as a complex outcome that unfolds over time. Another one is the due process model: It focuses on two broad types of stressors: Loss-oriented stressors (those focusing on the loss itself) and restoration-oriented stressors (those relating to adapting to the new life situation). This is a dynamic process and shows how bereaved people cycling back and forth between dealing with the grief and trying to move on with their life. Conclusion: Death is the last life-cycle force on the same psychological and social forces that is influential throughout a person's life help people deal with death. We can understand death through an interaction of psychological forces (coping skills, intellectual and emotional understanding of death, sociocultural forces). A person's understanding of death develops as a result of psychological forces and confront grief depends on many things, including the quality of the support system of the person.