Psychology Exam 1

• Biological
• Psychological
• Sociocultural

• physiological factors
• genetics
• ex-plaques/tangles

• cognition
• emotions
• personality
• ex-language tip of the tongues

• social context
• history
• culture
• ex-dutch hunger winters

• changes are continuous over the life span
• only the survivors grow old
• individuality matters
• normal aging is different from disease

individuals remain the same even though they change

aging indivduals are increasingly self selected

people vary within and between age groups

intrinsic aging process are different from those associated with illness

• young-old 65-74
• old-old 75-84
• oldest-old 85+

• functional age
• biological age
• psychological age
• social age

how people actually perform

• age of bodily systems
• heart rate, blood pressure, bone strength

reaction time, learning ability, memory, intelligence

social roles, parental, grandparental status, work role, retirement

• normative age-graded
• normative history graded
• nonnormative

cultural norms

events that affect everyone

• random events
• idiosyncratic

• sex and gender
• race
• ethnicity
• socioeconomic status
• religion

increase in amount of adults 65 and older

• multiple levels of the environment as they affect the individuals
• multiple systems interact to influence development

norms, roles and attitudes about age have an impact on the shape of each person’s life

• not just for older adults but most often aimed at them
• assumption that all members of a group behave or act in the same way

proposed that certain points in life a persons biological, psychological and social changes come together to influence our personality defining each stage of development as a crisis or turning point

• choose areas of focus
• maximize performance in these areas
• make up for losses in one area with gains in other

people make changes in their identities in response to experiences that challenge their current view of themselves

the tendency to interpret new experiences in terms of a person’s existing identity

• the dynamic equilibrium that occurs when people tend to view themselves consistently but can make changes when called for by their experiences
• Piaget Schema Accommodation
• when you change your schemas in response to new information about the world you are

people use their existing schemas as a way to understand the world around them

propose that aging and death are built into the hard wiring of all organisms and therefore are part of the genetic code

are based on the assumption that aging reflects unplanned changes in an organism over time

the view the key to prolonging life is to restrict calorie intake because it is thought to have beneficial impact because it reduces formation of free radicals.

in an experimental study the factor that the experimentor manipulates

in an experimental study the factor that the experimenter observes

age isn’t a true independent variable because it can not be manipulated

• years of a persons birth
• influences relative to history at time of birth

• how many years the person has lived
• change within individual

study of changes across ages in one cohort at a time

study of cohort differences at one time of measurement

study consist of different combinations of the variable age, cohort, and time of measurement

• shows extent of relationship between two variables
• can be negative or positive
• strength is indicated by how close it is to 1 or -1
• no ability to detect causality

• laboratory
• qualitative
• archival
• survey
• epidemiology

• need to obtain full informed consent
• and have a debriefing after completion of study