1. CHAPTER ONE
Studying Adult Development and Aging

2. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Learning Objectives
• What is gerontology? How does ageism relate to
stereotypes of aging?
• What is the life-span perspective?
• What are the characteristics of the older adult
population?
• How are they likely to change?

3. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Gerontology – the study of aging from maturity
through old age
• Myths of aging lead to the negative
stereotypes of older people.
• What are some of the myths and stereotypes about
aging?
• Do you have any erroneous beliefs about aging?
• Do you harbor any stereotypes about older people?

4. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Ageism - a form of discrimination against older
adults based on their age.

5. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging

6. Ageism Quiz
Take out a blank sheet of paper and number 1 to 41

7. Ageism Quiz
Mark T (true) or F (false) next to each number.
1. Young, enthusiastic individuals are more
creative than old people.
2. Most women experience severe physical
symptoms during menopause.
3. Menopause often results in a nervous
breakdown.
4. Most adult children anxiously await putting their
parents into some form of institution.

8. Ageism Quiz
1. Men experience a midlife crisis.
2. Most adults 65 years or older are financially
insecure.
3. Most adults 75 or older are in nursing homes or
other institutions.
4. Only rarely does an older adult produce a great
product in art, science, or scholarship.
5. Contemporary nuclear families have little contact
with the extended family.

9. Ageism Quiz
• Mothers, compared to fathers, experience great
distress when the last child leaves the nest.
• Aging parents reverse roles with their adult
children.
• Remarriages among older adults are generally not
successful.
• After menopause, women don’t enjoy sex very
much.
• Older adults are not very interested in sexual
activities.
• Impotence is psychological, except, with old men,
it is inevitable.

10. Ageism Quiz
1. Men are more interested in sex than women.
2. The majority of people have the same job for a
lifetime.
3. Work is central to one’s self-worth.
4. Retirement often results in physical and
psychological health deterioration.
5. One’s personality is relatively stable during
adulthood.
6. Adults become more conservative and
inflexible.
7. Older adults are more difficult to motivate than
younger ones.

11. Ageism Quiz
1. Older adults get rattled more easily than younger
adults.
2. Achievement motivation is highest in young
adulthood.
3. Older adults should remain active to keep their
spirits up.
4. Older adults prefer to reduce their activities and
friendships.
5. Old dogs can’t learn new tricks.
6. A failing memory is the worst intellectual problem in
older adulthood.
7. In older adulthood, memories of the past are much
clearer than memories of recent events.

12. Ageism Quiz
1. Given declines in a number of cognitive abilities in
older age, old people don’t benefit much from
educational opportunities.
2. Intellectual performance peaks in early adulthood and
then steadily declines.
3. Older adults illustrate more wisdom than younger
folks.
4. Older adults who were most able in their youth decline
the fastest intellectually.
5. The primary reason women live longer than men is
that women do not have to work as hard.

13. Ageism Quiz
1. Soon, the human lifespan will increase to 150 or 200
years of age.
2. Adults over 65 are generally unhealthy.
3. It is possible to worry yourself sick.
4. Most older adults become senile sooner or later.
5. Women are more likely to have a mental disorder
than men.
6. Unmarried adults are more likely to have mental
illness than married partners.
7. Most people facing death attempt to deny it.
Long Answers Short Answers

14. Ageism Quiz
Long Answers Short Answers

15. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Aging Stereotypes
• Stereotype 1: Physical
– Most people over 65 are physically impaired. Large
percentages live in nursing homes.
• Stereotype 2: Cognitive
– People over 65 are unable to think clearly,
remember well, or learn new things. A large
percentage is “senile.”

16. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Aging Stereotypes
• Stereotype 3: Emotional
– People over 65 are unhappy, fearful, and
depressed. Psychological problems are rampant in
old age.
• Stereotype 4: Social
– People over 65 are isolated, alone, and
disconnected from family and friends. Poverty is
endemic in the later years.

17. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
• Number 1. Physical
– Large percentage live in nursing homes.
• Fact: Although most older adults do suffer
from at least one chronic disease, the vast
majority report no impairments in their ability
to function. Only 5% of older Americans live in
nursing homes.

18. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
• Number 2. Cognitive
– People over 65 can’t think clearly.
• Fact: Although losses in thinking, speed, and
memory do occur with age, the vast majority
of older adults are alert, mentally capable,
and definitely able to learn. Only about 5-7%
have Alzheimer's disease.

19. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
• Number 3. Emotional
– People over 65 are unhappy.
• Fact: Anxiety, depression, and unhappiness
are no more prevalent among the old than the
young. In fact, rates of many emotional
disorders are at their lowest ebb among
people over 65.

20. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
• Number 4. Social
– People over 65 are isolated.
• Fact: Older adults are typically in close
contact with family, and even those over age
85 have at least one close friend. With 12%
of older Americans living under the poverty
line, compared to one-fourth of American
children under age 6, dire poverty is twice as
common at life's beginning than at its final
stage.

21. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
The Life Span Prospective
LSP divides human development into two phases:
1. Early (childhood and adolescence)
2. Later (young adulthood, middle age, and old age)

22. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
The Life Span Prospective
• Paul Baltes (1987) identified FOUR key features:
– Multidirectionality
Development involves both growth and decline
– Plasticity
One’s capacity is not predetermined. Many skills can be trained
or improved with practice
– Historical context
We develop within a certain set of circumstances determined by
the historical time in which we are born and the culture in
which we grew up
– Multiple causation
A wide variety of forces shape development:
biological, psychological, socioeconomic, and life-cycle forces

23. Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
The Life Span Prospective
• Emphasis: development takes a lifetime to complete
• Which part of life is most important?
Childhood? Youth? Middle age? Old age?
• No one part of life is more or less important

24. The Demographics of Aging
Population Trends in the United States

25. The Demographics of Aging
Population Trends in the United States

26. The Demographics of Aging
Population Trends in the United States

27. The Demographics of Aging
Population Trends in the United States

28. Diversity of Older Adults in the U.S.

29. Population Trends Around the World
2000
% age 65 and older

30. Population Trends Around the World
2030

31. Issues in Studying Adult Development & Aging
Learning Objectives
• What three main forces shape development?
• What are normative age-graded influences,
normative history-graded influences, and non-
normative influences?
• How do culture and ethnicity influence aging?
• What are the nature-nurture, stability-change,
continuity-discontinuity, and the “universal versus
context-specific development” controversies?

32. Issues in Studying Adult Development & Aging
Forces of development
– Biological forces
Genetic and health related
– Psychological forces
Internal perceptual, cognitive and personality factors
(characteristics that make people individual)
– Sociocultural forces
Interpersonal, societal, ethnic
(the overall context in which we develop
– Life-cycle forces
How the same event, or above forces, affects people at
different points in their life

33. Interactions that Shape Us

34. Issues in Studying Adult Development & Aging
Interrelations between the Forces: Developmental Influences
• Normative age-graded influences
occur to most people of a particular age –
puberty, menopause, etc.
• Normative history-graded influences
most people in a specific culture experience at the same time –
biological – epidemic
psychological – particular stereotypes
sociocultural – changing attitudes towards sexuality
• Non-normative influences
random events important to an individual, but not to most people –
winning the lottery, an accident or job loss
(unpredictable; can turn life up-side-down over night)

35. Issues in Studying Adult Development & Aging
Culture and Ethnicity
• Definition of culture
shared values, norms, beliefs and customary habits and ways of living.
• Importance to gerontology
how people define person, age, and life course varies across cultures
• Solid and fluid qualities of ethnic group identities
fluid – change over time
Colored People -->Negros-->Black Americans-->African Americans

36. How Old are You?
The Meaning of Age Definitions of Age
• Primary Aging • Chronological Age
normal, disease free development years since birth
• Secondary Aging • Biological Age
changes related to disease, lifestyle,
and environmentally induced changes measure of the functioning of various
vital, life-limiting, organ systems
• Tertiary Aging
rapid loss occurring shortly before • Psychological Age
death (“Terminal Drop”) functioning level of psychological
abilities used to adapt to change:
memory, intelligence, motivation,
feelings, etc

37. Core Issues in Development
• The nature-nurture issue
genes or environment? “Movie - Trading Places”
• The stability-change issue
the degree to which people stay the same over time
• The continuity-discontinuity controversy
whether developmental change is a smooth progression ( continuity)
over time or a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity)
Plasticity – capacity not fixed; can be improved with practice
• The universal versus context-specific
development controversy
one path to development or several?
Example: !Kung tribe -----> don’t track age; has no meaning
compare to US where age is everything
Can one theory explain development in both groups?

38. Research Methods
Learning Objectives
• What approaches do scientists use to measure
behavior in adult development and aging research?
• What are the general designs for doing research?
• What specific designs are unique to adult
development and aging research?
• What ethical procedures must researchers follow?

39. Research Methods
Measurement in Research
• Reliability
consistent measure each time
• Validity
measures what it is supposed to measure

40. Research Methods
Methods of Research
• Systematic observation
– Naturalistic (watch as it happens naturally)
– Structured (set up situation to elicit a certain behavior)
• Sampling behavior with tasks
create tasks that are thought to sample the behavior of interest
i.e. grocery list to test memory
• Self-reports
Ask the participant to report on topic of interest
• Representative sampling
Populations – broad groups i.e. all students taking Geriatrics
Sample – a subset of the population

41. Research Methods
General Designs for Research
• Experimental design
– Independent variables – manipulated – experiential group
– Dependent variables – no manipulation – control group
• Correlational design
– Relational between two variables
– Cause and effect cannot be determined
• Case studies
– Single individual
– Studied in great detail

42. Designs for Studying Development
• Age effects (within subjects)
differenced caused by age
• Cohort effects
differences caused by experiences and circumstances
unique to the generation to which one belongs
• Time-of-measurement effects
differences stemming from sociocultural, environmental,
historical or other events at the time the data is obtained
• Cross-sectional designs
testing different age groups at the same time
• Longitudinal designs
testing same individual repeatedly at different points
• Sequential designs
different combinations of cross-sectional or longitudinal
studies

43. Research Methods

44. Research Methods

45. Research Methods

46. Research Methods

47. Research Methods
Integrating Findings from Different Studies
• Meta-analysis
results from many studies
• Powerful tool
Allows scientists to determines whether a finding generalizes across many
studies that used different methods

48. Research Methods
Conducting Research Ethically
• Minimize risks to research participants.
• Describe the research to potential participants.
• Avoid deception.
• Results should be anonymous or confidential.

49. Ageism Quiz Answers
(long version)
Go Back Next Slide

50. Your Ageism Quotient
1. Young, enthusiastic individuals are more creative than old people. This is partly true. But
creative production varies over the lifespan, depending upon the type of skill, discipline, and
endeavor.
2. Most women experience severe physical symptoms during menopause. False. Experiencing
menopause in middle age (50s), women report wide differences in onset, progression, and
symptoms of menopause.
3. Menopause often results in a nervous breakdown. False. Most women do not experience such
severe symptoms. Prior depression and/or pre-menopausal expectations do increase the risk for
post-menopausal depression.
4. Most adult children anxiously await putting their parents into some form of institution. False.
While there are particular frustrations for adult children being in the middle of the sandwich (their
children and parents being the bread), most families remain close and caring. Only a small
minority of aging parents are in retirement communities or nursing homes. Most older adults
remain in residence and are cared for by a spouse and/or adult child. Typically, a daughter is the
primary care-giver for aging parents.
5. Men experience a midlife crisis. False. While both older men and women experience the major
transitions of children leaving the nest, retirement, income reduction, and erosion of physical,
psychological, and social assets, most aging adults are able to deal constructively with such
changes.
Next Slide

51. 6. Most adults 65 years or older are financially insecure. False. One the one hand, the
overwhelming percentage of older adults report financial insecurity as a minor problem. On the
other hand, most post-retiree adults do have less financial income than in the working years. The
relative security of older adults as related to financial stability is related to reduced expenditures,
pensions, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. Rising health costs
(doctors, tests, hospitalization, prescription drugs, and insurance), however, are eroding the
financial security of older adults.
7. Most adults 75 or older are in nursing homes or other institutions. False Although physical
dependency is one of the greatest fears of older adults, only a minority are in institutions. The
older one is, however, the greater the likelihood of living the final years in an institution; 65 and
older (5.4 percent), 75 to 84 (7 percent), 85 and older (22 percent).
8. Only rarely does an older adult produce a great product in art, science, or scholarship. False.
Noting that until recent history people died in their 50s and that most present adults retire in their
60s, much of creativity research indicates creative production in young adulthood and middle
age. Yet, many older adults have created significant works, especially those involving
experience, a sense of perspective, expertise, and wisdom.
9. Contemporary nuclear families have little contact with the extended family. False. Although
both nuclear and extended families are more distant geographically than in past American
history, family constellations remain psychologically close and positive. While contemporary
family members, compared to their predecessors, are more physically distant, the speed of
postal mail, telephone, and email allow for timely personal communication.
Next Slide

52. 10. Mothers, compared to fathers, experience great distress when the last child leaves the nest.
False. For mothers, the last bird flying away usually allows satisfaction in fulfilling a serious
gender-specific role. For both mother and father, the empty nest provides opportunities to renew a
past sense of intimacy in the evolving partnership. For most married adults and their older
children, the normalcy of the latter's leaving home, albeit physical, incorporates a sense of
continuation for established relations.
11. Aging parents reverse roles with their adult children. Partly true. For most of the relationship,
older parents and their adult children continue to act as parents and children. With greater
dependency of the parents, and sustained independence of adult children, the relationship
changes in degree of reciprocity. Adult children, if responsible, balance the increasing
dependency of their parents with the need of the latter to be as independent as they can be. Even
with severe dependence, a parent, to a child, does not become their child. They become an
important example of what the aging child will become to his/her children.
12. Remarriages among older adults are generally not successful. False. Significant factors for
successful remarriages of older adults are the need for companionship and knowledge of the
potential partner based on long-term associations.
13. After menopause, women don't enjoy sex very much. False. First, there is more to sex than
copulation. Second, both men and women experience physical changes in middle- and older-age
that change the physical responsiveness to sexual arousal. Third, many more middle-aged and
older women than men do not have a sexual partner. Fourth, responding to sexual arousal often
occurs without a partner.
Next Slide

53. 14. Older adults are not very interested in sexual activities. False. Kissing/hugging, sexual
touching, sexual intercourse, oral sex, self-stimulation, and sexual thoughts represent sexual
activities. While there is an age-related decrease in sexual activities, older adults remain sexual
active. Interestingly, the age-related decrease in partnered sexual intercourse begins in the
thirties. Partners married or living together report higher satisfaction with sexual activities than
single adults. More men, throughout the adult lifespan, report thinking about sex and its
importance, than women.
15. Impotence is psychological, except, with old men, it is inevitable. Partly True. The fear of
losing potency is a major contributor to impotency. Depression (psychological) and cardiovascular
diseases, diabetes, prostrate problems, and medications (physical) are also significant
contributors to impotence. Old men without the above conditions need not be impotent.
16. Men are more interested in sex than women. False. Men do, however, think about sex more
than women. Perhaps fortunately, much of it is fantasy.
17. The majority of people have the same job for a lifetime. False. Not only do workers advance
in jobs (historical), contemporary society facilitates numerous occupational changes in one's
working life. The technology, multi-national corporations/economy/investments/workforce age
includes multiple occupational changes for workers during the adult lifespan. Lifelong learning is
no longer a phenomenon of interest; it has become an occupational necessity.
Next Slide

54. 18. Work is central to one's self-worth. True. Prior to the latter part of the 20th
century, a man's sense of self-worth included a huge dose of his sense of work
identity, while a woman's sense of self-worth was largely defined by homemaker
and child care identities. For the last three decades, many more women have also
entered the workforce. About half of all American workers are female. Thus, many
middle-aged and older women have an identity strongly defined by home and work
senses of self-worth.
19. Retirement often results in physical and psychological health deterioration.
False. Work is important to most of us. If work is the singular contributor to a
sense of self-worth, then forced retirement (due to illness, work-related frustration,
subtle age discrimination) can result in both physical and psychological health
problems. Fortunately, most of us have other things contributing to our sense of
self-worth, such as spouse, family, friends, avocations, interests, organizations, and
volunteerism. Interestingly, in recent years, more adults are retiring earlier than the
Social Security benefits trigger of 65. Folks who retire early often do so because of
a sense of financial security. Also of interest is the finding (Friedrich 2001) that
many baby-to-aging boomers expect to both retire early and work part-time in
retirement.
Next Slide

55. 20. One's personality is relatively stable during adulthood. True. While priorities and
plans change throughout life, basic personality traits remain remarkably stable. With
the following five primary personality traits (dimensions), have you remained fairly
consistent over the years?
Neuroticism: Scoring high on this dimension indicates a tendency towards being
anxious, impulsive, self-conscious, and vulnerable. Scoring low indicates a tendency
for calmness, confidence, even-temperedness, and hardiness.
Extraversion : High scores illustrate social gregariousness, taking charge, much
energy, and seeking new challenges. Low scores illustrate reservation, quietness,
passivity, and low emotionality.
Openness to experience: Those scoring high are risk-takers and dreamers with much
imagination and curiosity. Low scores tend to be rather uncreative, conventional,
conservative, and not very curious.
Agreeableness: People who score high are caring, interact with others, appreciate
others, and want to be appreciated. Low scores tend to be critical of others (not
themselves), irritable, and suspicious.
Conscientiousness: Scoring high illustrates ambition, strong work ethic, high energy,
and perseverance. Scoring low illustrates laziness, aimlessness, disorganization, and
lack of self-discipline.
Given that our priorities and plans change throughout life, the relative stability of
primary personality traits is due to both our genetic predispositions and life-long
habits, associations, and sense of who we are.
Next Slide

56. 21. Adults become more conservative and inflexible with old age. Partly true.
Older adults, especially the very old, were involved in the American Great Depression. This
history-related factor Influenced their conservative nature in personal, financial, and political
decisions. In addition to this generational phenomenon, with age in adulthood comes the
following factors associated with a more cautious mentality:
- Decline in ability to process information as quickly
- Real and perceived loss of physical abilities
- For retirees, loss of income and, correspondingly, identity
- Loss of significant others
22. Older adults are more difficult to motivate than younger ones. Partly true. Older adults,
relative to younger ones, are more likely to be motivated by internal than external factors as a
means of compensating for losses, more likely to be dependent on others, and, perhaps more
importantly, less likely to be involved in academic or occupational competitions. But, older adults
are motivated given their perceived importance of the task and motivators.
Next Slide

57. 23. Older adults get rattled more easily than younger adults. Partly true. While
older adults, relative to younger ones, perform less well in learning new things, it is
often because older adults make many more errors of omission. That is, rather than
making a response (correct or incorrect), older adults fail to respond. This
phenomenon is especially true when the new learning requires quick processing and
responding of information. Given a slower pace of learning, as well as better
learning strategies, older adults dramatically increase their performance.
24. Achievement motivation is highest in young adulthood. False. Older adults do
have lower achievement motivation related to career advancement, as other
priorities, including realistic appraisal of competition, become more important. With
inner work standards (motivation to perform at one's best, sense of responsibility,
persistence), older adults do not show significant declines over the years.
25. Older adults should remain active to keep their spirits up. True. With advancing
age comes loss—reduced physical well-being, retirement, loss of significant others,
less active socialization. With activity, especially that involving significant others,
comes higher life satisfaction for older adults. Intimate activity involves relations
with spouse, family, friends, and meaningful organizations.
Next Slide

58. 26. Older adults prefer to reduce their activities and friendships. False. While certain
activities and acquaintances change or are reduced in older age, emotional closeness
with significant others starts to increase in middle-age. Beginning in middle-age,
selectivity of relationships becomes more important. It may be that older adults
become more selective with relationships to maintain or increase emotional ties with
others. Older adults do disengage from work; they do not disengage from social
relations. Older adults are much less likely than younger adults to engage in
strenuous physical activities. But, older adults continue to engage in physical pursuits.
27. Old dogs can't learn new tricks. False. Both old dogs and humans do learn new
things. Learning will take longer; learning goals and standards will be different; and
much of the new will not be attempted. In a youth and middle-age oriented American
society, it may be difficult to appreciate the lack of interest for many older adults in
becoming computer literate. For many older adults, aside from another
correspondence avenue with children and grandchildren, computer literacy is not
important. Maintaining driving privileges, requiring knowledge of rules of the road,
however, remains very important to many older adults.
Next Slide

59. 28. A failing memory is the worst intellectual problem in older age. Partly true. Fear of losing
one's memory is one of the greatest fears of older adults. Fear of losing one's mind, though, is
worse. Certainly by middle-age, many adults begin losing some short-term memory abilities.
Short-term memory is very important in learning new things, as well as the practical matter of
remembering daily tasks. As we age in adulthood, our short-term memory becomes more
vulnerable than long-term memory. But, even with long-term memory, remembering becomes
less accurate in adult stages of the lifespan. Folks who deal with memory best, especially after
middle-age, use memory aids such as written notes, recorders, rehearsal, and association.
29. In older adulthood, memories of the past are much clearer than memories of recent events.
Partly true. While older adults report recalling distant events better than recent ones, all of us
are subject to rehearsing, many times, events of the past very important to us. Even these
remembrances, however, are subject to missing significant aspects of the significant event. The
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will be a significant event for most American adolescents
and adults.
Many of us will remember where we were and, in general, what we were doing that day. But,
much of the specifics related to what happened that day will not be correctly remembered. Older
adults, relative to younger adults, have more trouble, without memory aids, dealing with
information in short-term working memory. Many older adults believe their memory is poorer
than it actually is.
Next Slide

60. 30. Given declines in a number of cognitive abilities in older age, old people don't
benefit much from educational opportunities. False.
Motivation and prior levels of education are key factors For life-long learning
pursuits. Fewer retirees are involved in academic or job-related educational
opportunities. The higher level of educational advancement, the more likely it is for
an older adult to seek life-long learning opportunities. And, many older adults are
active in life-long learning pursuits dealing with avocations, hobbies, organizations,
and interests. Another issue is that of accessibility. Life-long learning opportunities
via the internet, for example, are not used by older adults (or anyone else) who is
not computer literate.
Next Slide

61. 31. Intellectual performance peaks in early adulthood and then steadily declines.
False.
Intelligence represents a complex set of systems, processes, and behaviors. Some
intellectual abilities do peak in early adulthood and then decline (at different rates
and levels). Other abilities either continue to increase over the lifespan or increase,
then reach a plateau. Those intellectual abilities that do peak in earlier adulthood,
such as sensory capabilities, reaction time, and speed of processing information, are
closely related to the integrity of the nervous system. Those abilities that continue to
increase, then plateau throughout the lifespan, such as language skills, practical
intelligence, and work-related skills, are associated with learning opportunities. Since
learned abilities are also dependent on the integrity of the nervous system, serious
deterioration of the nervous system associated with cerebral disorders (stroke,
Alzheimer's disease) leads to marked erosion of learned abilities. Even into old-old
age (85 years and older), many older adults with mild to moderate chronic diseases
illustrate good intellectual performance.
Next Slide

62. 32. Older adults illustrate more wisdom than younger folks. Partly true.
To be wise requires knowledge of facts, knowledge of obtaining and providing
information, sense of personal context for making decisions, relativism for the
problem and values, and appreciation of uncertainty of possible solutions. These
attributes of wisdom require much experience. Yet, living a long life is not a
prerequisite for wisdom. There are a lot of old people who are narrow-minded.
Being exposed to, and appreciating, diverse problems, solutions, values, and people
throughout the lifespan provides us with opportunities to become wiser.
33. Older adults who were most able in their youth decline the fastest intellectually.
False. Most older adults illustrate a decline in those intellectual abilities associated
with the sensory abilities, reaction time, and speed of processing information. These
are very important aspects of intellectual behavior. Interestingly, regardless of one's
level of intellectual performance in younger adulthood, the general rate of decline is
similar for those scoring high, moderate, or low on such abilities. But, the
differences among these groups remains throughout adulthood. Thus, though all of
us will illustrate some intellectual decline as we age, the relative standings among
the three groups will remain. The more intellectual the younger adult, relative to the
less intellectual, the more intellectual the older adult.
Next Slide

63. 34. The primary reason women live longer than men is that women do not have to
work as hard. False.
For many, many generations, over different cultures, women have lived significantly
longer than men. The answer, as yet understood at the cellular level, is directly
related to the gender difference in the sex chromosome. It is genetically
determined.
35. Soon, the human lifespan will increase to 150 or 200 years of age. False.
Because of better nutrition, sanitation, medical technology, education, and medical
access, humans live longer than in past generations. But, each species has a
maximum longevity. To date, a French women achieved the record longevity before
dying—122 years and 5 months. Very few humans reach the age of 100. In 2000,
there were 65,000 centenarians. Keys to longer life are heredity, weight control,
positive psychological well-being, and avoidance of heavy cigarette smoking and
alcohol use.
Next Slide

64. 36. Adults over 65 are generally unhealthy. Partly true. While almost all older
adults report their general health, relative to others of the same age, as good, the
risk of disease rises dramatically after the mid-sixties. And, with advancing age, the
risk increases correspondingly. For example, adults over 65 represent 12.5 percent
of the population, but are responsible for 30 percent of health-care expenditures.
The majority of older adults have at least one chronic physical condition; arthritis is
the most common illness, followed by hypertension and hearing problems.
37. It is possible to worry yourself sick. Partly true. Probably regardless of age,
stress is a significant factor associated with many diseases. A high level of
sustained stress is the result of one's environment, including personal physical and
psychological conditions. Type A personalities (very competitive, impatient, hostile),
for example, are at significant risk for cardiovascular problems.
Next Slide

65. 38. Most older adults become senile sooner or later. False. The two major types of
senility are Alzheimer's Disease and cerebrovascular disease. The latter accounts
for about 20 percent of senility. The incidence of Alzheimer's Disease is
approximately 5 percent for adults 65 and older, 20 percent for those 85 and older,
and 40 percent for adults 90 and older.
39. Women are more likely to have a mental disorder than men. False. Before
older adulthood, more women, especially housewives, than men are diagnosed with
mental illness. In older adulthood, more men than women are diagnosed with
mental illness. For women, the most common types of mental illness are
schizophrenia, depression, and neurosis. For men, the most common types are
associated with alcoholism, drug addiction, and violence. In general, the less power
in society one feels, the higher the rate of mental illness.
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66. 40. Unmarried adults are more likely to have mental illness than married partners.
Partly true. Married women have a significantly higher rate of diagnosed mental
illness than married men. But, for the categories of being single, divorced, or
widowed, men have a higher rate than women.
41. Most people facing death attempt to deny it. True. While older adults are less
fearful of death than younger adults, most people do not welcome the most
personal loss of death. The sense of loss may be for one's self or the physical
association with loved ones.
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67. Ageism Quiz Answers
(Short version)
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68. Your Ageism Quotient
1. Young, enthusiastic individuals are more creative than old people. This is partly true.
2. Most women experience severe physical symptoms during menopause. False.
3. Menopause often results in a nervous breakdown. False.
4. Most adult children anxiously await putting their parents into some form of institution. False.
5. Men experience a midlife crisis. False.
6. Most adults 65 years or older are financially insecure. False.
7. Most adults 75 or older are in nursing homes or other institutions. False
8. Only rarely does an older adult produce a great product in art, science, or scholarship. False.
9. Contemporary nuclear families have little contact with the extended family. False.
10. Mothers, compared to fathers, experience great distress when the last child leaves the nest.
False.
11. Aging parents reverse roles with their adult children. Partly true.
12. Remarriages among older adults are generally not successful. False.
13. After menopause, women don't enjoy sex very much. False.
14. Older adults are not very interested in sexual activities. False.
15. Impotence is psychological, except, with old men, it is inevitable. Partly True.
16. Men are more interested in sex than women. False.
17. The majority of people have the same job for a lifetime. False.
18. Work is central to one's self-worth. True.
19. Retirement often results in physical and psychological health deterioration. False.
20. One's personality is relatively stable during adulthood. True.
21. Adults become more conservative and inflexible with old age. Partly true.
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69. 22. Older adults are more difficult to motivate than younger ones. Partly true.
23. Older adults get rattled more easily than younger adults. Partly true.
24. Achievement motivation is highest in young adulthood. False.
25. Older adults should remain active to keep their spirits up. True.
26. Older adults prefer to reduce their activities and friendships. False.
27. Old dogs can't learn new tricks. False.
28. A failing memory is the worst intellectual problem in older age. Partly true.
29. In older adulthood, memories of the past are much clearer than memories of recent events.
Partly true.
30. Given declines in a number of cognitive abilities in older age, old people don't benefit much
from educational opportunities. False.
31. Intellectual performance peaks in early adulthood and then steadily declines. False.
32. Older adults illustrate more wisdom than younger folks. Partly true.
33. Older adults who were most able in their youth decline the fastest intellectually. False.
34. The primary reason women live longer than men is that women do not have to work as
hard. False.
35. Soon, the human lifespan will increase to 150 or 200 years of age. False.
36. Adults over 65 are generally unhealthy. Partly true.
37. It is possible to worry yourself sick. Partly true.
38. Most older adults become senile sooner or later. False.
39. Women are more likely to have a mental disorder than men. False.
40. Unmarried adults are more likely to have mental illness than married partners. Partly true.
41. Most people facing death attempt to deny it. True.
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