©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Chapter 15: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Boundaries of middle age are being pushed upward  More people lead healthier lifestyles; medical discoveries are holding off the aging process  Middle age is starting later and lasting longer  Midlife serves as an important preparation for late adulthood  An increasing percentage of the population is made up of middle-aged and older adults  “Rectangularization” of the age distribution

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Middle Adulthood: the developmental period that begins at approximately 40–45 years of age and extends to about 60–65 years of age  For many, middle age is a time for:  Declining physical skills and increasing responsibility  An awareness of the young-old polarity  Transmitting something meaningful to the next generation  Reaching and maintaining career satisfaction  A reassessment of life’s priorities

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Middle adulthood is the age period in which gains (growth) and losses (decline) balance each other  Late Midlife (55 to 65) is likely to be characterized by:  Death of a parent  Last child leaving the parental home  Becoming a grandparent  Preparation for and actual retirement  Individual variations are common

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Physical Changes:  Usually gradual; rates of aging vary  Wrinkling and sagging of skin  Appearance of aging spots  Hair becomes thinner and grayer  Nails become thicker and more brittle  Yellowing of teeth  Height tends to shrink in middle age, due to bone loss in the vertebrae  Many gain weight, which is a critical health problem in middle adulthood

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Sarcopenia: age-related loss of muscle mass and strength  Especially common in the back and legs  Exercise can reduce these declines  Cushions for bone movement become less efficient, often leading to joint stiffness and more difficulty in movement  Progressive bone loss

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Accommodation of the eye (ability to focus and maintain an image) experiences sharp declines between 40– 59 years  Difficulty viewing close objects  Reduced blood supply decreases visual field  Hearing can start to decline by the age of 40  Hearing loss occurs in up to 50% of individuals over the age of 50  High-pitched sounds are typically lost first

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Midlife is often a time for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease  Blood pressure typically rises in the 40’s and 50’s  At menopause, a woman’s blood pressure rises sharply, remaining higher than that of men into the later years  Metabolic Syndrome: a condition characterized by hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance  Exercise, weight control, and a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can help to reduce many cardiovascular problems

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Lung tissue becomes less elastic at about age 55  Decreases lung’s capacity  Nonsmokers have much better lung capacity  Wakeful periods become more frequent in the 40’s  Less deep sleep (stage 4)  Feeling less rested in the morning

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Frequency of accidents declines  Individuals are less susceptible to colds and allergies  Chronic Disorders: characterized by a slow onset and a long duration  Rare in early adulthood but increase in middle age  Men have higher rates of fatal chronic conditions, while women have higher rates of nonfatal chronic conditions  Stress is a key factor in disease, especially if cumulative

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Immune system functioning decreases with normal aging  Link between stress and cardiovascular disease can be indirect  Stress can lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices  Chronic emotional stress is associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, and early death  Culture plays an important role in coronary disease  Immigration modifies healthy practices even as genetic predispositions remain constant

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Chronic diseases are the main cause of death during middle adulthood  Heart disease  Cancer  Cerebrovascular disease  In the 1 st half of middle age, cancer claims more lives than heart disease; trend is reversed during the 2 nd half of middle age  Men have higher mortality rates than women

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Climacteric: the midlife transition in which fertility declines  Menopause: time in middle age (late 40’s to early 50’s) when a woman’s menstrual periods completely cease  Perimenopause: transitional period; often takes up to 10 years  Heredity and experience influence the onset of menopause

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Cross-cultural studies show that the menopausal experience varies among women, but it is not generally as negative as it was once thought to be  Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is controversial because it has been linked to increased risk of stroke, dementia, and cancer

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Hormonal Changes in Men:  Most men do not lose the ability to father children  Modest decline in sexual hormone level and activity  Erectile Dysfunction is common in middle-aged men  May stem from physiological problems  Sexual Attitudes and Behavior:  Sexual activity occurs less frequently in middle adulthood  Middle-aged men are more interested in sex than middle- aged women  Living with a spouse or partner makes all the difference in terms of engaging in sexual activity

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Crystallized Intelligence: an individual’s accumulated information and verbal skills  Continues to increase in middle adulthood  Fluid Intelligence: the ability to reason abstractly  May begin to decline in middle adulthood  Some cognitive functions peak during middle adulthood, while others decline  Depends on how studies are conducted  Cross-sectional studies show more decline than longitudinal studies

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 The Seattle Longitudinal Study: study of intellectual abilities in adulthood years  Peak performance on vocabulary, verbal memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial orientation was attained in middle age  Decline in numerical ability and perceptual speed  Declines in memory, word fluency, and perceptual speed in middle adulthood were linked to neuropsychologists’ ratings of individuals’ cognitive impairment in late adulthood  Extensive individual differences

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Speed of information processing declines moderately during middle adulthood  Multiple potential causes  Memory declines may occur exclusively during the later part of middle age or in late adulthood  Starting in late middle age, more time is needed to learn new information  Linked to changes in working memory  Memory decline is more likely to occur when individuals do not use effective memory strategies

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Expertise:  Expertise often shows up more in middle adulthood than in early adulthood  Distinguishing experts from novices:  Experts are more likely to rely on accumulated experience  Experts often process information automatically and analyze it more efficiently  Experts have better strategies and shortcuts to solving problems  Experts are more creative and flexible in solving problems

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Work is central to one’s life during middle age  In the U.S., about 80% of people aged 40 to 59 work  Midlife is a time of evaluation, assessment, and reflection about work roles and future goals  Far more couples today have to plan two retirements

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Currently, middle-aged workers face many challenges:  Globalization and exporting of jobs  Rapid development in technologies  Downsizing and restructuring of companies  Early retirement  Concerns about pensions and health care  Some midlife career changes are self- motivated, others are the consequence of losing one’s job

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Leisure: pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing  Leisure opportunities may be expanded in middle adulthood, as people may have more money, more free time, and paid vacation  Compared with those who never took vacations, men who went on annual vacations were 21% less likely to die over the 9 years studied, and 32% less likely to die of coronary disease  Constructive and fulfilling leisure activities help individuals prepare psychologically for retirement

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  More than 70% of middle-aged adults are religious and consider spirituality a major part of their lives  Role of individual differences  Increase in spirituality tends to occur between late middle adulthood and late adulthood  Women have consistently shown a stronger interest in religion than males  Religious commitment helps to moderate blood pressure and hypertension and is associated with increased longevity

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Frankl (1984) emphasized each person’s uniqueness and the finiteness of life  Frankl identified the three most distinct human qualities as:  Spirituality  Freedom  Responsibility  In middle adulthood, the reality of approaching death often forces people to examine the meaning of their life

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Baumeister has argued that the quest for the meaning of life may be understood in terms of four main needs:  Need for purpose  Need for values  Need for a sense of efficacy  Need for self-worth