Psy110

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median age

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the age at which 50% of a population is older and 50% is younger

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late life expectancy

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the additional number of years a person in a given country can expect to live once reaching age 65

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young-old

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people in their 60's and 70's

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old-old

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age 80 and older

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divided attention task

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difficult memory challenge involving memorizing material while simultaneously monitoring something else

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memory-systems perspective

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a framework that divides memory into three types: procedural, semantic, episodic

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procedural memory

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The most resilient & longest lasting type of memory.
Refers to material, such as well learned physical skills, that we automatically recall without conscious awareness.
Driving, sports, bicycling.

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semantic memory

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A moderately resilient type of memory.
Refers to our ability to recall basic facts.
Elderly can perform just as well as young.

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semantic memory example

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vocabulary
older people tend to do better because they've learned more and have had longer to code for it

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episodic memory

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The most fragile type of memory, involving recall of the ongoing events of daily life.
Highly fragile in everyone.
Real differences between young and old.

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Information Processing memory model

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Conceptualizes having a memory as occurring in stages.
Problem: not much info can get through gateway system transforming material into permanent storage.

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Working memory

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permanent storage in the information processing model

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Information Processing stages

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Sensory > STM > LTM
Sensory: deciding what to pay attention to
STM: info stored in chunks, avg 6-8
LTM: permanent, working storage

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Frontal Lobe hypothesis

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frontal lobe deterioration may cause
smaller bin space
loss of ability to selectively attend

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socioemotional selectivity theory

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Laura Cartensen
A theory of aging describing how the time we have left to live affects our priorities and social relationships.
Belief that, as people reach later life, they focus on enhancing quality of the present & place priority on spending time with their closest attachment figures.

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age discrimination

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illegally laying off workers or failing to hire or promote them on the basis of age

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old-age dependency ratio

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Fraction of people over age 60 to younger working-age adults (15-59).
This ratio is expected to rise dramatically as boomers retire.

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normal aging changes

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universal, often progressive, signs of physical deterioration intrinsic to aging process

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normal aging changes examples

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vision worsening, bifocals, hearing loss, loss of bone density

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chronic disease

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Any long-term illness that requires ongoing management. Most chronic diseases are age-related and are the endpoint of normal aging changes.

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Chronic disease examples

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can stem from normal aging changes
bone density loss becomes osteoporosis
worsening vision becomes cataracts, glaucoma, or macular degeneration

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ADL

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Activities of daily living

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ADL problems

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difficulty in performing everyday tasks that are required for living independently

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Instrumental ADL problems

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Difficulties in performing everyday household tasks.

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Instrumental ADL problem examples

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cooking, cleaning, shopping, housework

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Basic ADL Problems

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Difficulty in performing essential self-care activities.

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Basic ADL Problems examples

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rising from a chair, eating, going to the toilet, dressing

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socioeconomic/health gap

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The disparity, found in nations around the work, between the health of the rich and poor. At every step up the socioeconomic ladder, people survive longer and enjoy better health.

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Presbyopia

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Age-related midlife difficulty with near vision caused by the inability of the lens to bend. Might need bifocals.

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Presbycusis

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Age-related difficulty in hearing, particularly high-pitched tones, caused by the atrophy of hearing receptors located in the inner ear.

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Elder speak

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A style of communication used with an older person who seems to be physically impaired, involving speaking loudly and with slow, exaggerated pronunciation, as if talking to a baby

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Reaction Time

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The speed at which a person can respond to a stimulus. A progressive increase in reaction time is universal to aging.

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Dementia

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The general term for any illness that produces serious, progressive, usually irreversible cognitive decline

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Alzheimer’s disease

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A type of age-related dementia characterized by neural atrophy and abnormal by-products of that atrophy, such as senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles

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Vascular dementia

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A type of age-related dementia caused by multiple small strokes

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Continuing care retirement community

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A housing option characterized by a series of levels of care for elderly residents, ranging from independent apartments to assisted living to nursing home care.
People enter the community in relatively good health and move to sections where they can get more care when they become disabled

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Assisted-living facility

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A housing option providing care for elderly people who have instrumental ADL impairments and can no longer live independently but may not need a nursing home

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Day-care program

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A service for impaired older adults who live with relatives, in which the older person spends the day at a center offering various activities.

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Nursing home

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aka Long term care facility
A residential institution that provides shelter and intensive care-giving, primarily to older people who need help with basic ADL’s

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Erikson's Stage

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Integrity v Despair
If successful, people believe they have fulfilled their human purpose in living. This feeling is necessary for a person to accept impending death.

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Nursing home residents

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mainly very old and female
often upon trauma or dementia
poor, no family

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Dementia symptoms

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Early
Forget basic semantic information
Middle
Serious impairments in memory, language, judgement
Inappropriate actions e.g. wandering, recklessness
Late
Bedridden, unable to talk, eat, swallow
procedural memories gone

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Kubler-Ross' stages

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Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

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Kubler-Ross objections

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These are emotions, not stages
wavering between emotions happens

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Middle Knowledge

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The idea that terminally ill people can know that they are dying yet at the same time not completely grasp or come to terms emotionally with that fact

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Kubler-Ross stage theory of dying

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that people who are terminally ill progress through five stages in confronting their death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

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Dying trajectory

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The fact that hospital personnel make projections about the particular pathway to death that a seriously ill patient will take and organize their care according to that assumption

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Dying trajectory problems

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Deaths don't occur according to a programmed timetable

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Palliative Care

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Any intervention designed not to cure illness but to promote dignified dying.

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Hospice Movement

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A movement, which became widespread in recent decades, focused on providing palliative care to dying patients outside of hospitals and especially on giving families the support they need to care for the terminally ill at home.

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Advance Directive

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any written document spelling out instructions with regard to life-prolonging treatment if individuals become irretrievably ill and cannot communicate their wishes

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Living Will

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A type of advance directive in which people spell out their wishes for life-sustaining treatment in case they become permanently incapacitated and unable to communicate.

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Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care

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A type of advance directive in which people designate a specific surrogate to make health-care decisions if they become incapacitated or are unable to make their wishes known.

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DNR

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Do Not Resuscitate
A type of advance directive filled out by surrogates (usually a doctor in consultation with family members) for impaired individuals, specifying that if they go into cardiac arrest, efforts should not be made to revive them.

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DNH

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Do Not Hospitalize
A type of advance directive put into the charts of impaired nursing home residents, specifying that in a medical crisis they should not be transferred to a hospital for emergency care.

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Passive Euthanasia

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Withholding potentially life-saving interventions that might keep a terminally ill or permanently comatose patient alive.

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Active Euthanasia

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A deliberate intervention that helps a terminally ill patient die.

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Physician Assisted Suicide

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A type of active euthanasia in which a physician prescribes a lethal medication to a terminally ill person who wants to die.