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KKD 3103
HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

LATE ADULTHOOD
Chapter 14

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 OUTLINE
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1) The demographics of aging

2) Longevity
3) The third-fourth age distinction
4) Biological theories of aging
5) Physiological changes
6) Chronic disease and health issues
7) Information processing
8) Memory
 OUTLINE (continue)
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9) Creativity and wisdom

10) Depression
11) Anxiety disorders
12) Dementia: Alzheimer’s disease
 [1] THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF AGING
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 Demographers study population trends

 Use population pyramids to illustrate these trends
 The number of older adults in developed nations
will increase even more by 2050
 The number of older Asian-, Native-, and especially
Latino-Americans will continue to increase
 The number of U.S. people over 85 will increase
by 500% between 2000 and 2050
 Older Adults Globally
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 The Diversity of Older Adults
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 Older women in the U.S. outnumber older men

 True of all ethnic groups
 As of today, 50% of people over 65 have high
school diplomas
 10% currently have college degrees
 75% will have college degrees by 2030
 Better educated people live longer due to higher
incomes, giving them better healthcare access
 [2] LONGEVITY
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 Number of years a person can expect to live

 Maximum life expectancy: oldest age to which any
person lives (circa 120 years)
 Useful life expectancy: number of years a person is
expected to live free from debilitating chronic
disease
 Average life expectancy: age at which half of the
people born in a particular year will die in the U.S.
 80.4 years (women); 75.4 years (men)
 Genetic and Environmental Factors in Life
Expectancy
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 Heredity is a major factor in longevity

 Particularly true for those over 100
 Environment plays a role through the effects of
disease, toxins, and risky behaviors
 Social class plays a role due to lack of access to
health care
 The U.S. healthcare system is broken, especially
for older adults (cf. Healthy People 2020)
 Ethnic and Gender Differences
in Life Expectancy
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 Average life expectancy: Latin Americans >

European Americans > African Americans
 U.S. women live longer than men by 5 years at
birth, but only 1 year by age 85
 Men are more susceptible to fatal infectious diseases
 Complex interactions of lifestyle, genetics, and
immune functioning differences
 By age 90, however, men outperform women on
cognitive tests
 [3] THE THIRD-FOURTH AGE DISTINCTION
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 Third age: ages of 60-80 (the young-old)

 Knowledge and technological advances contribute to
their better life quality
 Fourth age: over 80 (the oldest-old)
 Few interventions have been developed to reverse this
group’s physiological, cognitive, and disease-related
declines
 The “Good News”: The Third Age (Young-Old)
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 Increased life expectancy

 Improved physical and mental fitness
 High emotional and personal well-being
 Good strategies to master life’s losses or gains
 The “Bad News”: The Fourth Age (Oldest-Old)
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 Sizeable losses in cognition and learning

potential
 Increases in chronic stress’s negative effects
 High prevalence of:
 Dementia (50% in those over 90)
 Frailty and multiple chronic conditions
 [4] BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF AGING
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 Rate-of-living theories
 Relates a creature’s metabolism and age
 Cellular theories
 Aging chromosomes’ telomeres
 Cross-linking
 Muscles and arteries less flexible due to certain
proteins
 Programmed theories
 Genetically programmed cell death
 [5] PHYSIOLOGICAL
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CHANGES
 Neuronal changes are common in older age
 Alzheimer’s and related diseases involve large
changes in:
 Declining neurotransmitters levels
 Neuritic plaques: damaged or defective neurons form
around a core of protein
 Neurofibrillary tangles: spiral-shaped masses form in
the axon’s fibers
 Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems
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 Normative age-related changes

 50% of adults over 65 have hypertension
 Declining heart muscle tissue; fat deposits; artery
stiffening due to calcification
 Transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)
 Cerebral vascular accidents
 Vascular dementia
 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
 Sensory Changes: Vision
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 Night vision problems

 Decreased adaptation
 Poorer green-blue-violent color discrimination
 Difficulties focusing and adjusting
 Loss of acuity between 20 to 60 years, especially
with low light
 Vision loss due to cataracts or glaucoma
 Sensory Changes: Hearing
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 Presbycusis: losing the ability to hear low-pitched

sounds
 Neural: loss of auditory pathway neurons
 Metabolic: diminished nutrient supply to receptor cells
 Mechanical: atrophy and stiffening of the receptor
area’s vibrating structures
 Sensory: atrophy and degeneration of receptor cells
 Sensory Changes: Other Senses
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 Taste, touch, temperature, and pain sensitivity are

not significantly age-related
 Detecting and distinguishing smells declines
substantially in many after the age of 70
 Very true of Alzheimer’s disease
 Very dangerous (e.g., gas leaks)
 Older people fall more often due to changes in
balance, eyesight, hearing, muscle tone, reflexes
 [6] CHRONIC DISEASE AND HEALTH ISSUES
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 Diabetes mellitus
 Type 1 Diabetes
 Type 2 Diabetes
 Cancer
 Health issues
 Sleep
 Circadian Rhythms
 Nutrition
 [7] INFORMATION
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PROCESSING
 Psychomotor speed: how quickly a person reacts
to make a specific response
 Slows with age in all situations, but especially in
ambiguous ones
 Occurs because older adults take longer to decide
whether they need to respond
 May explain higher driving fatality rates in very old
people
 Due to declines in the brain’s white matter that aid
faster neural transmission
 Practical Aspects of Information Processing: Driving
a Car
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 Various tests predict whether drivers should be

allowed to continue to drive
 Useful field of view (UVOF): tests information-
processing speed; extraction of relevant information
from irrelevant background information
 Clock drawing test
 AAA’s “Roadwise Review”: assesses eight
functional areas
 [8] MEMORY
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 Processes and structures involved in holding and

using information in problem-solving, decision-
making, and learning
 Small in capacity
 Without continued attention or rehearsal, the
information is “lost”
 Declines with age
 Poorer working memory and psychomotor speed
predict age-related declines in cognitive
performance
 Implicit and Explicit Memory
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 Explicit memory: conscious and deliberate

memory for previously learned information
 Semantic memory: remembering the meaning of
words and concepts
 Episodic memory: recalling information about the
world tied to a specific time or event (includes
autobiographical memory)
 Implicit memory: unconscious and automatic
memory about previously learned information as
seen through one’s behavior or reactions
 When Is Memory Change Abnormal?
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 Most people worry about memory loss and its

possible implications for disease
 A serious problem may be suspected when memory
failures interfere with everyday life
 Detecting whether memory problems are serious
requires thorough testing through:
 Physical and neurological examinations
 Batteries of neuropsychological tests
 Remediating Memory Problems
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 E-I-E-I-O framework: combines explicit vs.

implicit memory with external vs. internal memory
aids to create four types of memory interventions
 Explicit-external aids
 Explicit-internal aids
 Implicit-external aids
 Implicit-internal aids
 [9] CREATIVITY AND WISDOM
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 Creativity: ability to produce work that connects

disparate ideas in novel ways
 Predicted by how much white matter connects
distant brain regions and cognitive control over
these connections
 Generally increases through the 30s, peaking in the
early 40s
 However, the age at which people make major
creative contributions has increased during the 20th
century
 Creativity and Wisdom
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 Baltes and colleagues describe wisdom as:

 Dealing with important matters of life and the
human experience
 Superior knowledge, judgment, and advice
 Knowledge with extraordinary scope, depth, and
balance
 Being used with good intentions, combining mind
and virtue
 Wisdom is unrelated to age
 [10] DEPRESSION
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 Depression rates
 9% in younger adults compared to 4.5% in older
people living in the community; 13% in older adults
requiring home healthcare
 Higher in older immigrant Latinos than native-born;
and in older Latino- and European- than in African- or
Asian-Americans
 Fewer than 40% of U.S. adults receive adequate
treatment
 How is Depression Diagnosed in Older Adults
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 The feeling symptom cluster: dysphoria

 The physical symptom cluster
 Loss of appetite, insomnia, and trouble breathing
 Must be carefully evaluated as symptoms of
depression, because they may:
 Reflectnormal age-related changes
 Have other physical, neurological, metabolic, or substance
abuse-related causes
 What Causes Depression?
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 Biological explanations stress neurotransmitter

imbalances
 Imbalances increase with age, while depression
declines with age
 Internal belief systems play a role, e.g.,
 Believing one is personally responsible for bad events,
or thinking things will not get better
 Older people have experientially-based coping
skills to combat depression
 How is Depression Treated in Older Adults
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 Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)

are the most preferred
 Boost mood-regulating serotonin levels
 Forms of psychotherapy
 Cognitive therapy
 Behavior therapy
 [11] ANXIETY DISORDERS
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 Excessive, irrational dread about everyday situations,

including irrational severe anxiety, phobias,
obsessions and/or compulsions
 Common in older adults, partly due to loss of health,
relocation of residence, isolation, loss of
independence
 Anxiety disorders can often be successfully treated
with relaxation therapy and medications (e.g.,
benzodiazepenes, SSRIs, beta-blockers, and
buspirone)
 [12] DEMENTIA: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
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 Alzheimer’s disease (AD): one form of dementia

 Gradual declines in memory, learning, attention, and
judgment
 Confusion as to time and place
 Difficulty communicating
 Declines in personal hygiene and self-care
 Personality changes/inappropriate social behaviors
 How Is Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosed?
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 Only autopsies provide a definitive diagnosis

 Should reveal very large numbers of neurofibrillary
tangles, structural neuronal changes, and amyloid
plaques
 Diagnosis of possible AD is based on extensive
neurological, psychological, and medical testing to
rule out other causes, and interviewing the family
for their accurate reports of behavioral symptoms
 What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease?
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 Cause(s) of AD are still being studied

 Differ between its early vs. late onset (younger vs.
older than 60)
 Autosomal dominant inheritance: genes with
100% accuracy in predicting early onset AD
 Risk genes: three genes are known thus far to
increase the risk of later onset AD (e.g., APOE-
e4 gene)
 Increases risk even more if inherited from both
parents
 What Can Be Done for Victims of Alzheimer’s
Disease?
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 AD cannot be treated or prevented

 Drugs provide little long-term relief
 Some symptoms can be alleviated
 Spaced retrieval helps greatly
 An implicit-internal E-I-E-I-O method
 Teaches people to remember new information by
gradually increasing the time interval between retrieval
attempts
 Montessori educational methods also help
 Parkinson’s Disease
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 Slow hand tremors, shaking, rigidity, walking

problems; difficulties getting in/out of a chair
 Caused by deteriorating dopamine production in
the midbrain
 30-50% of sufferers develop cognitive impairments
and eventually dementia
 Symptoms are treated by:
 Drugs that raise dopamine or aid its delivery to the
brain; neurostimulators
 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
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 A form of dementia caused by repeated head

trauma such as concussions
 CTE can occur as the result of repeated brain
trauma not only in sports but also through other
causes such as military combat
 Emerging evidence shows that irrespective of the
cause, there is structural damage to various parts of
the brain that have to do with executive functions
and memory