LATE ADULTHOOD

Let’s Take a True or False Quiz 1) Older people become more susceptible to short-term illness. 2) During old age many of the brain’s neurons die. 3) If they live to be 90 or older, most people eventually become senile. 4) Recognition memory—the ability to identify things previously experienced declines with age. 5) Life satisfaction peaks in the fifties and then gradually declines after age 65.

Life Expectancy Worldwide, life expectancy increased from 49 years in 1950 to 67 in 2004, and to 80 and beyond in some developed countries. What changes has this “graying” of society and the U.S. specifically has this created?

Sensory Abilities Some things do diminish with age: visual sharpness, distance perception, and adaptation to changes in light level are less acute.

Furthermore Muscle strength, reaction time, vision, sense of smell, and hearing all begin to decline in late adulthood.

The Science of Vision “With age, the eye’s pupil shrinks and it’s lens becomes less transparent, reducing the amount of light reaching the retina. In fact, a 65 year-old retina receives about one-third as much light as its 20 year-old counterpart. Thus, to see as well as a 20-year-old when reading or driving, a 65 year-old needs three times as much light—hence the question, “don’t you need better light for reading?”

Physiological Changes with Age The immune system DOES weaken with age, making older people more susceptible to life threatening ailments such as cancer and pneumonia. However, they are LESS likely to be afflicted with short-term ailments such as the flu and cold viruses (this is attributed to a lifetime of building immunity.)

Neural Processing Aging does slow our neural processing. Older people do take more time to react, solve puzzles, as well as remember names.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Up to age 95 the incidence of mental disintegration doubles roughly every 5 years. A series of small strokes, a brain tumor, or alcohol dependency can damage the brain and result in dementia, a mental erosion. Dementia can also be caused by Alzheimer’s disease which effects 3% of the world’s population over the age of 75.

A word about Alzheimer’s Myers notes that forgetting where the car keys are does not indicate Alzheimer’s, but forgetting how to get home may indicate a problem.

TERMS Crystalized Intelligence: Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills. Increases with age. Fluid Intelligence: Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.

Death and Dying Women are 5 times more likely to lose a spouse than men. A study in Denmark showed that parents who lose a child are 67 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who do not.

Please Read and Explain “Love, why I’ll tell you what love is: it’s you at 75 and her at 71, each of you listening for the other’s step in the next room, each afraid, that a sudden silence, a sudden cry, could mean that a lifetime’s talk is over.”

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Stages of Dying Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance