MIDDLE

ADULTHOOD
Physical Development

 Sensory Changes
 Vision
 Cornea flattens, lens loses flexibility, and
accommodative ability declines, leading most adults
in their 40s to show presbyopia.
 Loss of rods in middle age coupled with increases in
the vitreous’ opacity results in night vision declining
twice as fast as day vision.
 Hearing
 In the 50s, presbycusis, becomes apparent. First
limited to high-pitched sounds and more apparent in
setting with background noise, by late adulthood
hearing loss extends to all sound frequencies.
 Skin, Muscular, and Skeletal Changes
 Skin becomes less taut and shows signs of aging,
worsened by exposure to sun.
 Declines in strength and endurance become
noticeable, but the rate and extent of change is
influenced by physical activity.
 Men and women tend to gain body fat and lose
muscle.
 Reducing caloric intake and remaining physically
active helps adults retain their physical physique and
competencies.
 Bone density reaches its height in the mid to late
30s,after which adults tend to experience gradual
bone loss, making bones thinner, more porous, and
more brittle and easily broken,
 Reproductive Changes
 Women experience menopause in midlife; the
average age is about 51.
 Hot flashes are the most common symptom of
perimenopause.
 The loss of estrogen increases some health risks,
such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.
 The timing of menopause is influenced by heredity
but also by lifestyle choices.
 Women’s experience of menopause is influenced
by personal characteristics, circumstances, and
societal views about women and aging.
 Men’s reproductive ability declines gradually and
steadily over the adult years, but most men
continue to produce sperm throughout adulthood.
Cognitive Change During
Middle Adulthood
Cognitive Age-Related Change
Capacity
Crystallized Increases steadily over the adult years
Intelligence and declines modestly in late adulthood.
Fluid Begins to decline in the 20s and continues
Intelligence throughout adulthood.
Attention With age, adults show more difficulties
with divided attention and inhibition.
Declines tend to vary with the individual
and task.
Most healthy adults compensate for
declines and, until old age, show few
differences in everyday settings.
Working Declines from the 20s through the 60s.
Memory Changes in working memory are
influenced by declines in attention and in
Cognitive Change During
Middle Adulthood
Cognitive Age-Related Change
Capacity
Processing Declines steadily from the 20s into the 90s.
Speed The more complex the task, the greater
the age-related decline in reaction time.
Declines in processing speed with age
predict age-related declines in memory,
reasoning, and problem-solving tasks, and
the relationship between processing
speed and performance on cognitive
tasks becomes stronger with age.
Expertise With age, most adults develop and
expand their expertise.
It is expertise that permits middle-aged
and older adults to compensate for
declines in processing speed.
Learning (for adults who
return to higher education)
 Adults enroll in higher education for many
reasons: to change careers, improve career
opportunities, increase income, or gain personal
enrichment.
 Returning students often approach learning
differently than traditional-age college students.
 Most experience conflicting demands of family,
household, school, and work.
 Returning students need support from family and
friends – emotional support but also tangible
assistance in making progress toward educational
goals.
Socioemotional
Development
 For Erik Erikson, the psychosocial task of middle
adulthood is cultivating a sense of generativity.
 Adults fulfill generative needs through
volunteering, teaching, and mentoring others in
the workplace and community.
 Generativity is associated with well-being.
 The most popular stereotype about middle age is
the midlife crisis, a stressful time in the early to
middle 40s when adults are thought to evaluate
their lives.
 Successfully traversing the midlife crisis requires
that adults modify their life structure, reevaluate
their goals and their relations within their social
context, and develop a sense of generativity.
 The midlife crisis is not universal and depends on
individual factors and circumstances rather than
age.
LATE
ADULTHOOD
Physical and Cognitive
Development
 Life expectancy has increased over the last
century but varies with contextual factors such as
gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and
culture.
 The loss of neurons increases from middle
adulthood through older adulthood. Dendritic
loss contributes to declines in synapses and an
overall loss of brain volume, especially in
prefrontal cortex. Reductions in myelination
contribute to slower communication among
neurons.
 Structural changes in the eye make it difficult to
see in dim light and to adapt to dramatic
changes in light.
 Vision may be impaired by the presence of
cataracts and macular degeneration.
 Hearing loss from presbycusis increases from
middle into older adulthood.
 Older adults compensate for sensory losses by
modifying their behaviors and environment as well
as through surgery and medication.
 With age, changes in the cardiovascular and
respiratory systems reduce the flow of oxygen to
the body.
 The immune system becomes less efficient and
adaptive and more likely to malfunction.
 Older adults are at higher risk of illnesses, cancers,
and autoimmune diseases.
 Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by
widespread brain deterioration and the presence
of beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary
tangles in the cerebral cortex.
 Alzheimer’s disease progresses through several
predictable steps, proceeding from memory
problems, which broaden to severe cognitive and
communication problems, personality changes,
and ultimately the inability to respond to stimuli.
 A person’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease
increases with age and varies with gender and
ethnicity.
 Genetic factors influence susceptibility to
Alzheimer’s disease.
 Education is associated with a lower risk for
Alzheimer’s disease, as is social and physical
activity.
 Declines in working memory are influenced by
reduced sensory capacity and reduced
processing speed.
 The various types of long-term memory show
different patterns of change.
 People remain adaptive problem solvers
throughout adulthood.
 Adults perform best on everyday problems that
are relevant to the contexts they experience in
their daily lives.
 With age, adults are more likely to report turning
to spouses, children, and friends for input in
making decisions.
 Wisdom does not necessarily come with age but
rather with the opportunity and motivation to
pursue it development.
 Experience, particularly expertise in solving the
problems of everyday life, is associated with
wisdom.
Socioemotional
Development
 Self-conceptions are more multifaceted,
complex, and stable in old age that at other
periods of life.
 Most older adults maintain a positive view of
themselves by accepting their weaknesses and
compensating by focusing on their strengths.
 Reminiscence and life review help adults find
continuity in their lives, come to term with choices,
and assign meaning to their lives.
 Erikson posed that the task of older adulthood is
to develop a sense of ego integrity, the sense that
life has been well lived and the ability to see one’s
life within a larger global and historical context.
Assignment

 Compare and contrast Alzheimer’s Disease from