Chapter 16: Physical and Cognitive Development
in Middle Adulthood
Learning Goals
Learning Goal 1: Explain how midlife is changing and define middle adulthood.
A. Describe how psychology’s view of middle adulthood is changing.
B. Define middle adulthood.
C. Discuss the characteristics of middle age.
Learning Goal 2: Discuss physical changes in middle adulthood.
A. Describe and discuss the visible signs related to middle adulthood.
B. Describe the trend in height, weight, strength, joints, and bones in middle adulthood.
C. Describe the decline of vision, hearing, and the cardiovascular system in middle adulthood.
D. Discuss the changes in sleeping patterns experienced in middle age.
E. Discuss the changes in health and disease between early adulthood and middle adulthood.
F. Define chronic disorders.
G. Discuss the effects of stress on the immune system and the cardiovascular system.
H. Discuss the impact of culture, personality, and relationships on health.
I. Describe and discuss Type A and Type B behavioral patterns and their impact on health.
J. Discuss the idea of hardiness.
K. Discuss the role of social relationships on health status.
L. Describe the change in the main cause of death.
M. Describe the changes in sexuality.
N. Describe and discuss different sexual problems and their treatments.
O. Describe and discuss sexual attitudes and behaviors in middle adulthood.
Learning Goal 3: Identify cognitive changes in middle adulthood.
A. Define crystallized and fluid intelligences.
B. Describe and discuss how intelligence changes in middle adulthood.
C. Describe the change in the speed of information processing.
D. Describe and discuss the different views of memory.
E. Discuss expertise and the difference between experts and novices.
F. Describe and discuss the changes in practical problem solving.
Learning Goal 4: Characterize career development, work, and leisure in middle adulthood.
A. Describe and discuss work patterns in midlife.
B. Discuss career challenges and changes.
C. Define and describe leisure time.
D. Discuss the impact of leisure time on health.
Learning Goal 5: Explain the roles of religion and meaning in life during middle adulthood.
A. Describe the differences between men and women concerning religion.
B. Discuss the recent trends in attitudes about religion.
C. Describe and discuss the impact of religion on health.
D. Discuss the possible reasons religion impacts health.
E. Discuss the relationship between religion and coping skills.
F. Describe and discuss the main needs for meaning that guide people.
Overview of Resources
Chapter Outline / Resources You Can UseThe Nature of Middle Adulthood / Learning Goal 1: Explain how midlife is changing and define middle adulthood.
Changing Midlife
Defining Middle Adulthood / Personal Application 1: Young Whippersnappers
Physical Development / Learning Goal 2: Discuss physical changes in middle adulthood.
Physical Changes
Health and Disease
Mortality Rates
Sexuality / Lecture Suggestion 1: Gender Differences in Health and the Effect of SES
~Classroom Activity 1: Type A Behavior Pattern
~Classroom Activity 2: Menopause
Cognitive Development / Learning Goal 3: Identify cognitive changes in middle adulthood.
Intelligence
Information Processing / Lecture Suggestion 2: The Concept of Stress
~ Classroom Activity 3: Adult Problem Solving
Careers, Work, and Leisure
/ Learning Goal 4: Characterize career development, work, and leisure in middle adulthood.Work in Midlife
Career Challenges and Changes
Leisure / Lecture Suggestion 3: Work, Leisure, and Intellectual Growth
Lecture Suggestion 4: Social Structures Regarding Work, Leisure, and Education in Adulthood
Video: Interview with Stay-Home Dad
Religion and Meaning in Life / Learning Goal 5: Explain the roles of religion and meaning in life during middle adulthood.
Religion and Adult Lives
Religion and Health
Meaning in Life / Lecture Suggestion 5: How Superman Found Meaning in Being a Quadriplegic
~ Classroom Activity 4: Prayer and Stress
Personal Application 2: Friends in High Places
Review / Lecture Suggestion 6: Guest Lecture Idea
~Classroom Activity 5: The Song of Developmental Psychology
~ Classroom Activity 6: Wise Consumers of Information
~Classroom Activity 7: Critical-Thinking Multiple-Choice Questions and Suggested Answers
~Classroom Activity 8: Critical-Thinking Essay
Questions and Suggestions for Helping Students Answer the Essays
LResearch Project 1: Song Lyric Values
LResearch Project 2: Archival Research
Resources
Lecture Suggestions
Lecture Suggestion 1: Gender Differences in Health and the Effect of SES
Learning Goal 2: Discuss physical changes in middle adulthood.
The purpose of this lecture is to examine research on gender differences in health and the effect of socioeconomic status (SES), particularly education levels.
Gender Differences
According to the Men’s Health Web site (http://www.menshealth.org/code/facts.html):
· Men have higher death rates for all 15 leading causes of death and die six years younger.
· Men represent 50% of the work force, yet account for 94% of all on-the-job fatalities.
· Men know less about health and take less responsibility for it.
· Men are less likely to see themselves as ill or susceptible to disease or injury when they are more susceptible.
Whether healthy or ill, women engage in far more health-promoting behaviors than men and have much healthier lifestyles. Compared with men, women:
· have healthier diets
· have lower blood pressure and do more to control it
· sleep more
· have larger social networks and more intimate and active social relationships
According to the Society for Women’s Health Research (http://www.womenshealthresearch.org/):
· Women who smoke are more likely to have a heart attack and develop cancer than men who smoke. Smoking puts a woman at higher risk than a man for diabetes, high cholesterol, and a stroke. Women also have a harder time quitting smoking than men.
· It is more common for women to be obese than men. Changes in hormones may play a role in excess weight gain for women.
· Women and men seem to experience pain in different ways. Women seem to report pain more often than men do and have more persistent and severe pain. Some studies have shown that women handle pain better than men do and are able to use more coping strategies.
· Women are more likely to develop an autoimmune disease than men. This is because women have enhanced immune systems compared to men, which increases women’s resistance to many types of infection but also makes them more susceptible to autoimmune diseases.
Effect of SES
Adler et al. (1994) reported that SES is one of the strongest predictors of health and illness, and therefore it is essential to examine its influence. Individuals with higher SES tend to have better health. Rates of illness and mortality for almost all diseases and conditions follow this trend. Poverty often results in poor nutrition, substandard housing, inadequate prenatal care, and limited health care (Otten & others, 1990).
The Centre for the Advancement for Health (http://www.cfah.org/factsoflife/vol7no12.cfm) reports that more specific than SES is the effect of lower educational levels on health.
· Mortality rates overall and for specific diseases (including heart disease and cancer) are higher in the United States for individuals with lower educational or income status. Exceptions to this include death rates for breast cancer and external causes in women.
· The number of people who smoked cigarettes, the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, declined substantially between 1974 and 1995, but the rates of decline differed significantly for people with different levels of education. By 1995, people who had not completed high school were more than twice as likely to smoke as those with a college degree.
· Diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are more common in individuals with lower levels of education. The prevalence of these diseases varies also by income, race, and gender.
· The rates at which excess body weight and obesity have increased differ by level of educational attainment and gender. In general, however, individuals with lower levels of education are more likely to be overweight or obese than better-educated individuals.
· Data from 2001 indicate that among adults ages 25–44 with less than a high school education, the death rate (per 100,000 people) from motor vehicle crashes was 27.3; for high school graduates, the rate was 20.7; and for those with at least some college, the rate was 8.7.
· Mothers with less than 12 years of education are less likely to have received care in the first trimester of pregnancy than mothers with 16 or more years of education. Also, women with less than a high school diploma are almost 10 times more likely to smoke during pregnancy.
· In other countries around the world—both developed and developing—a strong positive relationship exists between education and health: better health is associated with higher levels of education, regardless of whether health is measured using morbidity and mortality rates or self-reports of health status.
Sources:
Adler, N. E., Boyce, T., Chesney, M. A., Cohen, S., Folkman, S., Kahn, R. L., & Syme, S. L. (1994). Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient. American Psychologist, 49, 15–24.
Otten, M. W., Teutsch, S. M., Williamson, D. F., & Marks, J. S. (1990). The effect of known risk factors on the excess mortality of black adults in the United States. JAMA, 263, 845–850.
Lecture Suggestion 2: The Concept of Stress
Learning Goal 3: Identify cognitive changes in middle adulthood.
This lecture can be used to examine the effects of stress on health. Knowing how the body responds to stress may help students see the connection between tension and disease. According to Hans Selye (1976), the physiological response to stress follows a predictable course as it goes through a series of stages.
In the first stage, the alarm stage, the autonomic nervous system is activated, adrenaline begins to flow, cardiac output increases, blood pressure rises, the respiratory rate increases, and the pupils dilate. This stage may last for just a few minutes or may go on for 24 hours or more.
In the next stage, the resistance stage, the body adapts to the stressor. Hormones are released to help cope with the physiological changes that are occurring, and efforts are made to limit the stress response as much as possible. The resistance stage may last for a brief time or for years depending on the nature of the stressor. A near car accident produces a residual response for about 20 minutes. A terminal illness may put the body in a resistance mode until death.
In the third stage of the stress response, the adaptation qualities of the body are depleted. The stage is called exhaustion, and it is characterized by the development of a severe illness. The body can no longer fight off the stressor. The immune system is weakened. If the stress is not relieved, the body will eventually die. If the stressor is removed, the exhaustion stage serves as the beginning stage on the road to recovery. Repeated exposures to stressors that cause the exhaustion stage diminish the body’s reserves and eventually lead to death.
Though almost everybody responds to stress in the same way, not everybody perceives the same activities or events to be stressful. One woman may experience severe stress at the loss of her husband in an automobile accident. Another woman may actually recover more quickly from stress due to the loss of her husband after a long illness. Thus, it is the perception of the event, not the event itself, which leads to the physiological response to stress.
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) argued that one’s cognitive interpretation of the situation determines whether a situation will produce stress for an individual. The person first engages in primary appraisal, which is the assessment of an event, to determine whether its implications are positive, negative, or neutral. Then, the individual engages in secondary appraisal which is the assessment of whether one’s coping abilities and resources are adequate to overcome the harm, threat, or challenge posed by the potential stressor.
Though individuals will appraise situations differently, research has found some factors that increase the likelihood that a situation will be perceived as stressful.
· Situations that produce negative emotions are more likely to produce stress.
· Situations that are uncontrollable or unpredictable are more likely to produce stress.
· Ambiguous situations are more likely to produce stress.
· When an individual is required to accomplish simultaneous tasks, stress is more likely to occur.
Sources:
Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
Selye, H. (1976). The stress of life. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lecture Suggestion 3: Work, Leisure, and Intellectual Growth
Learning Goal 4: Characterize career development, work, and leisure in middle adulthood.
The purpose of this lecture is to expand on Santrock’s discussion of work and leisure. Kohn (1980) found that there is a reciprocal relationship between the degree of thought and independent judgement that work requires (substantive complexity), and a person’s flexibility in coping with intellectual demands. People with more complex work requirements tend to be more cognitively flexible and more likely to continue to engage in complex work. There are several reasons work complexity is tied to cognitive functioning. Mastery of and success in complex work may increase individuals’ confidence and cognitive abilities. Complex work may also broaden individuals’ horizons, opening them up to new experiences and encouraging them to be more self-directed. Individuals who engage in complex work also are more likely to pursue intellectually demanding leisure activities. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the choice of work and leisure activities (Papalia & others, 1996).
Spillover hypothesis: Learning is carried over from work to leisure because personality factors influence the selection of leisure activities and work.
Compensation hypothesis: Individuals pursue leisure activities to make up for what is missing at work.
Resource provision–depletion hypothesis: “Work promotes or constrains certain kinds of leisure activities by providing or depleting resources of time, energy, and money” (Papalia et al., 1996, p. 304).
Segmentation hypothesis: Work choices and leisure activities are independent.
Sources:
Kohn, M. L. (1980). Job complexity and adult personality. In N. J. Smelser & E. H. Erikson (Eds.), Themes of work and love in adulthood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.