Late Adulthood: Cognitive changes & social & emotional challenges of ageing PDF

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Lecturer: Brenda K. Todd
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Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver

LATE ADULTHOOD: Cognitive changes & social & emotional challenges of ageing DEVELOPMENT IN LATER LIFE 

Idea  we continue to develop throughout late adulthood Been neglected until recent research (Sanrtock, 2013) Necessarily a stage of decline?

“Late adulthood” from 60 – 70 years and last until death By 2020 half of the population of UK will be aged 50+ By 2050 demographic estimates suggest that 35% of people in Europe will be aged 60+ Suggests that sciences and professions concerned with aging will have the obligation to contribute to increasing the quality of life and well-being of these million of people (Fernandz – Ballesteros & Caprara, p.129)

Gender differences In the UK, the average life expectancy in 2010 was 80 years - 82.5 years for females and 78.5 for males. The leading health risk factors for Europeans today include tobacco and harmful alcohol use. Contributing factors to this gender difference:  Health attitudes  Habits  Lifestyle – is this changing now?  Occupation  Biological factors – females more resistant to infections, as oestrogen production is protective, the additional X chromosome may be associated with more antibodies to fight off disease – see van Jaarsveld et al. (2006) Defining “age” There are a number of ways in which we can characterise age (Hayslip & Panek, 1993):  Chronological age – number of years since birth  Biological age – physical state of the body  Social age – habits, interests, behaviours, attitudes  Individual differences, ‘appropriate’ norms  Psychological age – adaptive behaviours, coping, problem solving, intelligence, wisdom  Functional age – actual ability on a variety of tasks

Theoretical neglect of the elderly

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD Later adulthood is an under-represented area within developmental psychology -One attempt at illustrating the psychological development in late adulthood was provided by Erik Erikson (1950,1963)  Based on the psychoanalytical tradition, he devised eight stages of psychosocial development  Each stage requires the resolution of an issue or crisis – as part of the ego development Erikson’s stages – younger – older adulthood Erikson’s theory (1950) is important: recognises that psychological development continues throughout the lifespan  emphasis on the relationship between the individual and society  makes culture specific assumptions 1. Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood: 20s and 30s) Care about others – without fear of losing own identity 2. Generativity vs. Self-absorption (adulthood: 40s-60s) Concern about future generations – growing awareness of mortality Generativity = struggle against stagnation that ascends during adulthood……. in the psychosocial sense …the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation and is said to stem from a sense of optimism about humanity (Wikipedia, 28.3.16) 3. Integrity versus Despair (late adulthood to death) Looking back on one’s life with integrity – seeing it as satisfying and meaningful

Theories of aging:  The life – events approach: Focus on life events rather than stages, mediating factors: physical health and family support 

Evolutionary approach: Disease not eliminated when does not affect fertility

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Cellular clock theory Limit to number of cells can divide

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Free-radical theory Free radicals which damage cells (bi-products of metabolism)

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Hormonal stress theory Stress hormones remain at a higher level during adulthood

VISION

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD Visual acuity, colour vision and depth perception decline with age The eyes no longer adapt as quickly when moving from a well-lighted place to semi-darkness Older adults may have difficulties discriminating between colours that are closely related Older adults may have difficulties determining how far or close – or high or low - an object is

HEARING, SMELL AND TASTE -Similarly, hearing typically declines -Both hearing and vision decline much more in individuals aged 75+ than those aged 65-74 years -The loss of smell and taste typically begins around the age of 60 years (Hawkes, 2006) This decline is smaller in healthier older adults Which consequences, might this have?

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD SPECIFIC CONDITIONS – LATE ADULTHOOD  Alzheimer’s disease: most common form of dementia  Arthritis: inflammation of the joints, pain, stiffness  Osteoporosis: extensive loss of bone tissue, more common in women than men Low income: related to health problems in later adulthood Conflict in relationships: related to more severe decline (e.g. diabetes or hypertension) Poor health expectations -American study (Suzman et al 1992) found that majority of people aged 80+ that continued to live in the community and that one third of these described their health as either “good” or “excellent” -Importance of social expectations: self-fulfilling prophecies -Negative messages: likely to discourage older adults from remaining active

Memory Although memory does change with age, not all aspects change in the same way    

Episodic memory – autobiographical events: when, where, places – context and emotions Semantic memory – knowledge about the world: learned material, expertise, general knowledge Explicit memory – material which an individual can consciously state Implicit memory – memory without conscious recollection; automatically performed

-Implicit memory is less likely to be affected in older age than explicit memory (Kessels et al. 2005) -Decline occurs more in episodic than in semantic memory -Memories are still there – but harder to locate... (hard to retrieve) -Older adults tend to be better on tests of recognition than on tests of recall (Beckett, 2002) “Successful ageing does not mean eliminating memory decline, but reducing it and adapting to it.” (Santrock, 2008, page 396)

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD

Ribot’s law The past is remembered better than the present (Ribot, 1982)

Holland and Rabbitt (1991) asked two groups of people to generate as many memories as possible (in 10 minutes) from three stages of life: Group B: shows result of older people living in residential homes at the time of taking part in the study (consistent results with ribot’s law) Group A: shows result of older people living with the same intellectual ability – but in their community Exemplifies the importance of context and situation Relying on memory for day-today activities  prevented loss of recent episodic memories Conversation in residential homes –> rehearsal of older memories?

Change rather than decline The previous example suggests that it could be a matter of qualitative change rather than decline Maylor (1994) Mastermind Study (formerly long-running quiz show) Was interested in their performance in relation to age Semantic memory (general knowledge) correlated with age – the older the participants, the better their knowledge Does not deny that biological changes occur: e.g. reduced activity in frontal lobe and hippocampus Still, semantic memory does not seem to decline with age...

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD

Specific strategies Kramer et al. (1999) found that performance on cognitive tasks (switching between various tasks) was improved by a simple activity – walking Noice et al. (1999) found that enacting the emotional states of characters when learning a script (65-82-year-olds) increased recall and recognition Repeated practice in memory task of list of words (Luszcz & Hinton, 1993) – improved strategies used and performance in older group (65-86 years versus 18-32 years) Strategies and practice can prevent cognitive decline Engaging in intellectually stimulating activities can serve as a buffer – examples: Reading books, reading newspapers, doing crossword puzzles, going to lecturers, listening to music... Wilson et al. (2002) found that frequent participation in cognitively stimulating activities was associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Attention in older adulthood Selective attention: Focusing on one aspect of current experience (while ignoring what is irrelevant) decreases in older adults (Peirce & Anderson, 2014; Ben-David et al, 2013) Other aspects of attention show minimal decline. Sustained Attention: Maintaining focus on stimuli as good as that for middle-aged But individual differences which may be associated with increased falls (O’Halloran et al, 2011)

Wisdom Wisdom is expert knowledge about life Insight into human development Good understanding of life matters and problems Good judgement Good coping abilities Wisdom, opposed to intelligence, focuses more on human conditions and pragmatic concerns Why is wisdom valued less in the West NOW than in the past, or in some other cultures?

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD

Intelligence Crystallised Intelligence: Store of learned experience, such as general knowledge Often culture-bound Fluid Intelligence: Applied to novel problems requiring little or no previous knowledge Abilities that reflect efficient information processing

Some data supporting the distinction between Crystallised and Fluid intelligence has been derived from cross-sectional designs In 1953, Schaie (1988) tested people from the age of 22-70 years – the average of these scores showed a decline However, in 1963, 1979 an 1977 participants were tested again (longitudinal design) and no decline was observed due to age

Possible explanation: Cohort effects Whole generations perform differently from previous and subsequent generations Nutrition Education Technology Healthcare

Verbal intelligence: Deary et al. (1999) found that individuals with better education and higher social class were less likely to experience decline in verbal ability due to age

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD Jorm et al. (1998) similarly found verbal intelligence to be a good indicator of successful ageing – defined by living in the community, positive self-rating of health and better cognitive functioning Importance of social and contextual factors How study cognition in later life? Cross-sectional designs Comparison of participant scores in different age conditions Shows decline in performance with age Longitudinal designs Compare same people at different time periods No decline in performance observed See Shaie (1988) and Wood, Littleton and Oates (2003) Findings from longitudinal studies: -Individual differences in who will show decline -Diverse experiences of those tested – less likely that standardised tests will do justice to individual abilities (Dittman-Kohli et al., 1990) -Remember this difference in design when evaluating studies...

Successful ageing Maximizing gains and minimising losses Baltes et al. (1999) -Selection -Optimisation -Compensation Positive ageing: Happiness and later adulthood: Blanchflower and Oswald (2008) happiness has a U-shaped curve throughout life Statistically, people are happiest in younger life, take a dip around the age of 40 years, before then increasing again in happiness with a second peak around the age of 70 years Measured based on respondents from 72 countries Older adults may experience a sense of reduced control The importance of feeling in control was illustrated by Langer (1983) who carried out a study in a residential home -Group 1: addressed with speeches stressing the importance of individual responsibility for their own life, decision making etc -Group 2: addressed by the same person, however this time, the speeches emphasised the responsibility of staff Results: Group 2: 71% became less capable over the following 3 weeks Group 1: 93% showed overall improvement during the 3 weeks

Lecture 9 – lifespan LATE ADULTHOOD Similar to disability in old age (not only a result of impairments) but also society’s attitudes - ‘control’ in later adulthood influences impairment  Langer’s study (1983) demonstrates this, as differences were based simply on the messages given Examples of ‘Powerful Old People’: Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India at age 67 , Nelson Mandela, became president of South Africa at age 76 Changes in personality Shift from extroversion to introversion - for both men and women (Beckett, 2006) General approach to life - dealing with stressful situations by adapting rather than confronting cause of problem Disengagement (Cumming & Henry, 1961) Generally reduced involvement in the outer world Choice or forced?

Critique It is problematic to use a single group covering a broad age range Older adults should not be treated as a homogenous group (with the same characteristics) Individual differences Culture and experience Think about this when reading literature on the topic

Conclusions       

Age can be defined in various ways, some more objective than others Some losses – some gains Qualitative changes rather than decline? The importance of social context Social expectations and attitudes Individual differences, culture, SES, gender Complex interactions between biology and social circumstances...