Chapter 11 Notes: Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

• Adolescence: The developmental transition between childhood and adulthood,

involving major physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes. It lasts from about age
11 until 19 or 20. Early adolescence presents opportunities for growth, but also risks.
Risky behaviours (drinking alcohol, drug abuse, sexual and gang activity, firearms)
tend to increase, but most adolescents do not experience major problems.
• Puberty: The process of reaching sexual maturity and the ability to reproduce.
• Physical Development:
• Puberty involves changes such as: Enlargement and maturation of primary
sex characteristics (organs directly related to reproduction) and development
of secondary sex characteristics (physiological signs of sexual maturation like
breast development and body hair growth). An adolescent growth spurt (sharp
increase in height and weight) precedes sexual maturity. Early or late
maturation can have psychological effects, depending on how the adolescent
and others interpret the changes. Negative effects are most likely when
adolescents are much more or less developed than peers; do not see changes
as advantageous; and experience multiple stressful events concurrently.
Contextual factors (ethnicity, school, neighbourhood) also play a role.
• The Adolescent Brain: The adolescent brain is still maturing. A second wave
of gray matter overproduction, especially in the frontal lobes, occurs, followed
by pruning of excess nerve cells. Continuing myelination of the frontal lobes
facilitates cognitive processing maturation. The limbic system matures before
the frontal lobes, predisposing adolescents to impulsivity and risk-taking.
Adolescents become more interested in peers and social relationships, show
increased impulsivity and risk-taking, and may experiment with drugs and
alcohol. The underdeveloped frontal cortical systems may explain why
adolescents seek thrills, have difficulty focusing on long-term goals, and are
influenced by peers. The brain’s slow development during teenage years
makes it susceptible to both beneficial and harmful environmental influences.
Cognitive stimulation is crucial for brain development, while adolescent drug
use can have devastating effects.
• Physical and Mental Health: Concerns include:
• Physical Activity: Many adolescents do not meet recommended
guidelines. Physical activity declines sharply upon entering puberty.
Adolescents from less affluent families and ethnic minorities tend to
be less active.
• Sleep: Sleep deprivation is common among adolescents. Most
adolescents do not get the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep.
Biological changes (later secretion of melatonin) and early school start
times contribute to sleep problems. Sleep deprivation can negatively
affect motivation, irritability, concentration, school performance,
driving, and increase risks for obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental
health, and attention/behavioural problems.
 • Eating Disorders: Anorexia nervosa (self-starvation) is characterised
by distorted body image, extreme dieting, difficulty maintaining weight,
excessive exercising, and interrupted menstruation.
• Substance Use:
• Alcohol: Alcohol use is a global concern among adolescents.
Heavy drinking can lead to various health problems.
• Marijuana and Tobacco: Adolescent tobacco use is particularly
concerning due to the high risk of addiction. Cigarette smoking
increases the risk of various cancers and other diseases. E-
cigarette use is increasing among adolescents, raising
concerns about potential progression to traditional cigarettes.
Parental influence and behavioural interventions can help
prevent or stop smoking.
• Depression: Depression is a concern in adolescence. Risk factors
include family conflict, abuse/neglect, substance use, sexual activity,
and parental history of depression. Alcohol/drug use and sexual
activity are stronger predictors of depression in girls. Treatment options
include hospitalization, psychotherapy, and medication (SSRIs).
Combined medication and cognitive behavioural therapy seems most
effective.
• Suicide: Firearms are a leading cause of death by injury and homicide
among adolescents. Easy access to firearms in the United States is a
major factor.
• Cognitive Development:
• Formal Operations: Piaget's final cognitive development stage, characterised
by the ability to think abstractly. This includes using symbols, understanding
metaphors, and forming/testing hypotheses. Abstract thought has emotional
implications, allowing adolescents to appreciate concepts like freedom and
exploitation. Formal reasoning is a learned ability influenced by culture and
experience.
• Language Development: Adolescents' vocabulary expands, and they can
define and discuss abstractions (love, justice, freedom). They become more
skilled in social perspective-taking (tailoring speech to another's point of
view). Teenage slang is part of developing an independent identity.
• Moral Reasoning: Kohlberg’s theory proposes stages of moral development,
ranging from preconventional (focused on punishment/obedience) to
postconventional (focused on universal ethical principles). Kohlberg's system
has been criticised for not accurately representing non-Western cultures and
for not adequately addressing the role of emotions.
• Educational and Vocational Issues:
• Influences on Educational Success: Personal motivation, cultural
expectations, and socioeconomic factors play a role.
• Gender Differences in Academic Achievement: Gender stereotypes and
societal roles can influence course and occupation choices.
• The School Environment: School quality, including a safe environment,
resources, and positive school culture, influences student achievement.
Teacher expectations and student participation in rule-making are also
important. The transition from elementary to middle/junior high school can be
challenging for some students.
• Media Multitasking: Frequent media multitasking can negatively affect
attention, behaviour inhibition, and task switching, leading to poorer
academic performance.
• Preparing for Higher Education or Vocations: Factors influencing career
goals and college decisions include socioeconomic status, family
background, and personal interests. Work during college can have both
positive and negative effects, depending on the number of hours worked.
Changes in the workplace necessitate higher education or training. Easing the
transition to the workplace could involve strengthening vocational education.
Chapter 12 - Psychosocial Development in Adolescence
• A central concern during adolescence is the search for identity, which has
occupational, sexual, and values components.
• Erik Erikson described the psychosocial conflict of adolescence as identity versus
identity confusion. The virtue that should arise from this conflict is fidelity.
Sexuality
• Homosexual identity formation has been described as a series of steps, from
sensitization; identity confusion; identity assumption; to commitment.
• For gays and lesbians, coming out, or publicly acknowledging their sexual
orientation, involves a process of disclosure to family, friends, and others.
• Research has shown a positive relationship between coming out to parents and
psychological well-being, especially when parents are supportive.
• Coming out is associated with higher levels of self-esteem and decreased levels
of depression.
• In one study, people with a strong sense of their transgender identity who also had
a strong sense of belonging to a transgender community showed positive effects
on well-being, self-esteem, and life satisfaction.
• Sexual activity is a normative developmental task of adolescence. The
percentage of high school students in the United States who report having had
sexual intercourse increases with each grade.
• Early sexual activity (before age 15) is associated with problem behaviors such as
substance abuse, delinquency, and school-related problems.
• Risk factors for early sexual activity include:
• Early puberty
• Poverty
• Poor school performance
• Lack of career goals
• A history of sexual abuse or parental neglect
• Cultural or family patterns of early sexual experience.
• Teens are more likely to have sex and to take risks while having sex if they believe
their peers are also having and approve of sex or are pressuring them to have sex.
• Teens who have supportive relationships with their parents are more likely to
delay intercourse and to use safe sex practices when they finally do so.
Relationships with Family, Peers, and Adult Society
• Although relationships between adolescents and their parents are not always easy,
full-scale adolescent rebellion is unusual.
• For the majority of teens, adolescence is a fairly smooth transition.
• Negative emotions and mood swings are most intense during early adolescence.
• By late adolescence, emotionality tends to become more stable.
• Adolescents whose parents later divorced showed more academic, psychological,
and behavioural problemsbefore the breakup than peers whose parents did not
later divorce.
• Adolescents in cohabiting families, like younger children, tend to have greater
behavioural and emotional problems than adolescents in married families.
 • Adolescents from families headed by gay or lesbian parents do not appear to show
differences in a wide variety of outcomes, including cognitive development, gender
identity, and adjustment problems.
• Changes in sibling relationships in many ways mirror the changes we see in the
relationships of adolescents and their parents.
• As adolescents spend more time with peers, they spend less time with siblings.
• The influence of peers normally peaks at ages 12 to 13 and declines during middle
and late adolescence.
• Risk-taking, especially in early adolescence, is higher in the company of peers than
when alone, even when potential negative consequences are made clear.
• Friendships tend to become more reciprocal, more equal, and more stable,
although many friendships are still fleeting.
• Greater intimacy, loyalty, and sharing with friends mark a transition toward
adultlike friendships.
• Adolescents begin to rely more on friends than on parents for intimacy and
support.
Antisocial Behaviour and Juvenile Delinquency
• Early-onset type is more serious; it is linked to neuropsychological deficits and
difficult temperament.
• Late-onset type tends to arise temporarily in response to the changes of
adolescence.
• Chronic delinquency is associated with:
• Poor parenting practices
• Association with antisocial peers
• Exposure to violence.
• Successful interventions involve parental skills training, providing supportive
services, and improving community ties.

Chapter 13 - Physical and Cognitive Development in Emerging and Young Adulthood

• For many young people in advanced technological societies, entrance into
adulthood is not clearly marked; it takes longer and follows more varied routes
than in the past.
• Some developmental scientists suggest that the late teens through the
midtwenties has become a transitional period called emerging adulthood.
Physical Development
Health and Fitness
• Emerging adulthood is a time of peak physical functioning. However, lifestyle
choices can affect health and longevity.
• The leading cause of death for young adults in the United States is accidents.
• Obesity is a major health concern among young adults and increases the risk of
chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some
cancers, arthritis, and back problems.
 • Genetic factors, along with environmental and behavioural factors, contribute to
the obesity epidemic.
• Regular exercise helps maintain desirable body weight, builds muscle, strengthens
bones, boosts the immune system, promotes cognitive functioning, and even
reduces anxiety and depression.
• Adequate sleep improves learning of complex motor skills and consolidates
previous learning.
• Chronic sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours of sleep each night for three or more
nights) can seriously worsen cognitive performance.
• Sleep deprivation has been linked to depression.
• Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
• Alcoholism, a chronic disease involving dependence on use of alcohol, causing
interference with normal functioning and fulfilment of obligations, affects millions of
Americans.
• Heavy drinking over the years may lead to cirrhosis of the liver, other
gastrointestinal disorders (including ulcers), pancreatic disease, certain
cancers, heart failure, stroke, damage to the nervous system, psychoses, and
other medical problems.
• Adolescents and emerging adulthood appear to be sensitive periods for the onset
of depressive disorders.
• Women are more susceptible than men to major depressive disorder in part
because of their tendency to ruminate about their problems.
• Genes that affect the action of hormone receptors, stress response systems,
and synaptic plasticity may influence a person’s ability to respond adaptively to
stressful events. This sensitivity may then make that person more sensitive to the
influence of environmental stress, especially early in development.
Sexual and Reproductive Issues
• Most young adults in the United States have had sexual intercourse.
• Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), which includes physical discomfort and
emotional tension for up to 2 weeks before a menstrual period, is experienced by 25
to 50 percent of menstruating women.
• Infertility affects about 7 percent of U.S. couples.
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a major health problem, and young
adults are more likely to be diagnosed with STIs than are older adults.
• Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STI in the United States, followed by
gonorrhea and syphilis.
• The most common cause of HIV infection in the United States is via male-to-male
sexual contact.
Cognitive Development
Perspectives on Adult Cognition
• Beyond Piaget’s formal operations, adult thought processes are often qualitatively
different than the thought processes of adolescents.
• Reflective thinking is “active, persistent, and careful consideration” of
information or beliefs.
 • Reflective thinkers continually question facts, draw inferences, and make
connections. In other words, they frequently and spontaneously engage in critical
thinking.
• Postformal thought recognizes that the “right answer” may vary from situation to
situation, solutions must be realistic, ambiguity and contradiction are typical, and
emotion and subjective factors play a role in thinking.
• According to Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence, doing well in life involves
more than just exam grades. The triarchic theory of intelligence is comprised of
three elements: componential, experiential, and contextual knowledge.
• Componential knowledge is the analytic aspect of intelligence, which helps
people do well on standard IQ tests and other academic challenges.
• Experiential intelligence is insightful or creative, allowing people to think originally.
• Contextual knowledge is practical intelligence or “street smarts,” which enables
people to adapt to their environment.
• An important aspect of practical intelligence is tacit knowledge: “inside
information, ” “know-how, ” or “savvy” that is not formally taught or openly
expressed. Tacit knowledge is commonsense knowledge of how to get ahead—how
to win a promotion or cut through red tape. It is not well correlated with measures
of general cognitive ability, but it may be a better predictor of managerial
success.
• Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to four related skills: the abilities to perceive,
use, understand, and manage, or regulate, emotions—our own and those of
others—so as to achieve goals. Emotional intelligence enables a person to
harness emotions to deal more effectively with the social environment.
• To measure emotional intelligence, psychologists use the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso
Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), a 40-minute battery of questions that
generates a score for each of the four abilities, as well as a total score.
Moral Reasoning
• Culture affects the understanding of morality.
• Cultures like the United States tend to focus on individual autonomy, whereas
cultures like China are more concerned with group dynamics and harmony.
Education and Work
• The transition to higher education is often accompanied by stress as emerging
adults adjust to the new environment and to the demands of college work.
• Socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity affect access to postsecondary
education.
• Working during college may affect the likelihood of attending graduate programs.
• Spillover hypothesis says that there is a carryover of cognitive gains from work to
leisure that explains the positive relationship between activities in the quality of
intellectual functioning.
• Substantive complexity refers to the degree to which a person’s work requires
thought and independent judgment.
Chapter 14 Notes - Psychosocial Development in Emerging and Young Adulthood
Personality Development: Four Views
There are four approaches to personality development:
• Normative-stage models are based on the idea that people follow a basic sequence
of age-related psychosocial changes.
• Timing-of-events models propose that adult psychosocial development is
influenced by the specific important events that occur in a person's life, the timing of
the events and the person's reaction to the events.
• Trait models focus on measuring and charting changes in personality traits or facets
over the lifespan.
• Typological models identify broad personality types, or styles.
Normative-Stage Models
• Erik Erikson proposed a normative-stage model that describes psychosocial
development in terms of a sequence of crises.
• Each stage is marked by a major psychosocial challenge that must be resolved
for further development to proceed in a healthy fashion.
• Successful resolution of each challenge results in the emergence of a particular
virtue, or strength.
• Erikson saw the development of intimate relationships as the crucial task of
young adulthood.
• The virtue that should arise from the conflict of identity versus identity confusion
is fidelity.
• Among the typical developmental tasks of young adulthood are leaving the
childhood home for advanced schooling, work, or military service; developing new
and more intimate friendships and romantic relationships; and developing self-
reliance and independence.
Timing-of-Events Model
• Bernice Neugarten pointed out that the course of development is now more varied
than in the past, when social norms tended to dictate when major life events, such
as marriage, parenthood, and retirement, should occur.
• The timing-of-events model says that the course of development depends on
when events occur in people's lives—whether they are on time or off time in relation
to a social clock.
• The social clock is a set of cultural norms or expectations for the times of life when
certain important events, such as marriage, parenthood, entry into work, and
retirement, should occur.
• When people's lives deviate too much from the social clock, they may experience
stress and difficulty adapting.
• Early parenting has been associated with declines in well-being and an increased risk
of depression when compared to on-time parenting.
• Because women’s fertility declines with age, norms regarding late parenting are
generally felt more strongly by women than men.
Trait Models
 • Trait models of personality assume that people have underlying personality traits,
or facets, that are relatively stable over time.
• These traits can be measured and charted.
• A leading proponent of this approach is Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, who have
studied age-related changes in the Big Five factors of personality (also called the
five-factor model): neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience,
conscientiousness, and agreeableness.
• Conscientiousness tends to be highest in middle age.
• Compared to people who continue to work, retirees tend to increase in
agreeableness and decrease in activity.
• Those who become unemployed against their will show decreases in agreeableness
and conscientiousness.
• This relationship is stronger, especially in men, the longer the unemployment
persists.
• Middle-aged men who remarry tend to become less neurotic.
• Those who divorce decrease in extraversion.
• Increases in extraversion and agreeableness, along with decreases in neuroticism,
are associated with high perceived social support.
• Culture may affect which features of the personality emerge as important or the
processes that involve personality change over time.
Typological Models
• Typological models identify broad personality types or styles.
• These types tend to show continuity over time.
• Typological research seeks to complement and expand trait research by looking at
personality as a functioning whole.
• Researchers have identified three personality types: ego-resilient, overcontrolled,
and undercontrolled.
• These three types differ in ego resiliency (adaptability under stress) and ego
control (self-control).
• Ego-resilient people are well-adjusted: self-confident, independent, articulate,
attentive, helpful, cooperative, and task-focused.
• Overcontrolled people are shy, quiet, anxious, and dependable; they tend to keep
their thoughts to themselves and to withdraw from conflict.
• They are the most subject to depression.
• Undercontrolled people are active, energetic, impulsive, stubborn, and easily
distracted.
• Ego resiliency interacts with ego control to determine whether or not behavior is
adaptive or maladaptive.
• Facebook profiles are more likely to reflect actual individual differences in the
Big Five factors of personality than an idealised version of who you are.
• This is most true for extraversion and openness, and least true for neuroticism.
Foundations of Intimate Relationships
Friendship
 • Most young adults have friends but have increasingly limited time to spend with
them.
• Women's friendships tend to be more intimate than men's.
Love
• Robert J. Sternberg's triangular theory of love proposes that love has three
elements or components: intimacy, passion, and commitment.
• Intimacy, the emotional element, involves self-disclosure, which leads to
connection, warmth, and trust.
• Passion, the motivational element, is based on inner drives that translate
physiological arousal into sexual desire.
• Commitment, the cognitive element, is the decision to love and to stay with the
beloved.
• The degree to which each of the three elements is present determines what type of
love people feel.
Marital and Nonmarital Lifestyles
• In many Western countries, today's rules for socially acceptable lifestyles are more
flexible than they were during the first half of the twentieth century.
• People marry later, if at all; more people have children outside of marriage, if at all;
and more people end their marriages.
• Some people remain single, some remarry, and others live with a partner of either sex.
• All in all, there is no such thing as a 'typical' marriage or family.
Parenthood
• Marital satisfaction typically declines during the child-raising years and often
does not rebound until the children have left home, a pattern found among couples
in both the United States and other countries.
• This decline is steeper for women than for men.
Work
• Combining work and family roles can be challenging.
• Working parents often experience role overload, role conflict, and stress, and may
face problems of work-family balance, especially mothers of young children.
• Cross-cultural studies have suggested that the general relationship between
work-family balance and well-being holds across countries.
• However, the effects are stronger in individualistic cultures than collectivistic
cultures and in cultures that are more egalitarian with respect to gender roles.
When Marriage Ends
• Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the infliction of physical, sexual, or psychological
harm by a current or former partner or spouse.
• Approximately 27 percent of women and 11 percent of men in the United States have
experienced some form of physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an
intimate partner.
• The true extent of IPV is difficult to ascertain because victims are often too afraid
or ashamed to disclose to others or make an official report to legal authorities.
• Women disproportionately experience multiple forms and more severe levels of
IPV in individual relationships and across the lifespan.
 • Male-to-female partner violence is more repetitive and is more likely to result in
injury or death.
• More than one-third of female homicides are perpetrated by a current or former
intimate partner.
• Conservative estimates suggest that women are roughly 6 times more likely than
men to die at the hands of an intimate partner, with homicide typically occurring
as a culmination of a long history of abuse.
• Same-sex relationships are also affected by IPV.
• Same-sex IPV rates are similar to those in heterosexual relationships.
• Bisexual women have a significantly higher prevalence of physical violence,
rape, or stalking by an intimate partner than either heterosexual or lesbian
women.
• Although these rates indicate IPV occurrence, much less is known about specific risk
factors and patterns of IPV perpetration among sexual minority couples.
Relationships at Midlife
Social Contacts
• Social relationships are vitally important; both their quantity and quality are
predictive of mental health, physical health, and mortality.
• Social networks tend to become smaller and more intimate at midlife.
Friendships
• Friendships persist and are a strong source of emotional support and well-being,
especially for women.
• Loneliness is predictive of increases in blood pressure, even when such variables
as age, gender, race, and cardiovascular risk factors are taken into account.
Relationships with Maturing Children
• Middle age is a time of reappraisal of relationships with grown children.
• Relationships between middle-aged adults and their parents are usually
characterised by a strong bond of affection.
• The two generations generally maintain frequent contact and offer and receive
assistance.
• Aid flows mostly from parents to children.
• As life lengthens, more and more aging parents become dependent for care on
their middle-aged children.
• Acceptance of these dependency needs may be the outcome of a filial crisis.
• Caregiving is typically a female function.
• When an ailing mother is widowed or a divorced woman can no longer manage alone,
it is most likely that a daughter will take on the caregiving role.
Other Kinship Ties
• Grandparents are increasingly important sources of emotional support for their
grandchildren.
• Grandparents’ roles vary widely in different ethnic groups and in different family
situations.
Chapter 15 Notes - Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood
Middle Age: A Social Construct
• The concept of middle age came into use in industrial societies as an increasing life
span led to new roles at midlife.
• The span of middle adulthood is often subjective.
• Middle adulthood is a time of both gains and losses.
• Most middle-aged people are in good physical, cognitive, and emotional condition.
They have heavy responsibilities and multiple roles and feel competent to handle
them.
• Middle age is a time for taking stock and making decisions about the remaining
years.
Physical Development
Physical Changes
• The aging brain can be described in two ways: as working more slowly and as
having difficulty juggling multiple tasks.
• This general process affects multiple tasks across many different areas—from
understanding complex language to driving a car skillfully to learning new skills.
• What these disparate tasks have in common is the necessity to quickly process
complex information and pay attention to relevant stimuli while simultaneously
ignoring irrelevant stimuli.
• The ability to ignore distractions gradually declines with age, which makes
multitasking increasingly challenging.
• With increasing age, there is a decrease in the volume of gray matter.
• Myelin, the fatty sheath that lines nerve axons and helps impulses move more quickly
through the brain, also begins to break down with age.
• The specific location and extent of these changes in the gray and white matter are
associated with the severity of processing slowdown and the area of cognition in
which it occurs.
• Declines are neither inevitable nor necessarily permanent.
• Adults with a high level of education start off ahead and hence may function at a
higher level for a longer period of time.
• Two factors that do seem to be important are keeping both body and mind busy.
• Physical activity and fitness are associated with higher white and gray matter
volume.
• Physical activity in midlife is positively associated with cognitive function during
midlife itself, as well as with protection against future cognitive decline.
• Aerobic exercise and resistance training interventions are effective in improving
attention, processing speed, executive function and memory, although effects
are generally modest in size.
• Adults who read and write on a regular basis or who work in a cognitively
stimulating environment are more likely to retain their cognitive functions.
• Meditation affords cognitive benefits to middle-aged adults and may help offset
declines.
 • Cognitive interventions and mental stimulation have also been shown to be
effective in improving functioning.
• Even if declines do occur, knowledge based on experience can compensate for the
physical changes.
Sexual Activity
• The single most important factor determining sexual activity is the presence of a
partner.
• Health is also important, and good health has been repeatedly associated with
sexual activity and satisfaction.
• Menopause matters as well
• Other factors, such as surgery, medications, and too much food or alcohol, can also
impact sexual activity.
• Body image can influence the desire to have sex.
• A couple’s relationship quality is important too.
Cognitive Development
Measuring Cognitive Abilities in Middle Age
Seattle Longitudinal Study:
• The Seattle Longitudinal Study is a major, long-term, multi-cohort study of adult
intelligence.
• The study has shown that cognitive abilities tend to peak in middle age.
• Declines tend to be gradual and often do not manifest themselves until late
adulthood.
• There is considerable individual variation in the pattern of cognitive aging.
• The study has challenged the notion that cognitive decline is inevitable in middle
age.
Fluid and Crystallised Intelligence:
• Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve novel problems that require little or no
previous knowledge, such as discovering a pattern in a sequence of figures.
• Crystallised intelligence is the ability to remember and use information acquired
over a lifetime, such as finding a synonym for a word.
• Fluid intelligence tends to decline with age, whereas crystallised intelligence
tends to increase or remain stable.
The Distinctiveness of Adult Cognition
Expertise:
• Mature adults show increasing competence in solving problems in their chosen
fields.
• This competence is due to specialised knowledge, or expertise.
• Expertise is a form of crystallised intelligence that is related to the process of
encapsulation.
• Encapsulation is the process that allows expertise to compensate for declines in
information-processing ability by bundling relevant knowledge together.
• Expertise develops as adults accumulate experience in a particular domain.
• Experts notice different aspects of a situation than novices do, and they process
information and solve problems differently.
 • Their thinking is often more flexible and adaptable.
• Experts assimilate and interpret new knowledge more efficiently by referring to a rich,
highly organised storehouse of mental representations of what they already know.
• Cognitive performance is not the only ingredient of expertise.
• Expert thinking often seems automatic and intuitive.
• Experts generally are not fully aware of the thought processes that lie behind their
decisions.
Integrative Thought:
• Postformal thought seems well suited to the complex tasks, multiple roles, and
perplexing choices and challenges of midlife.
• An important feature of postformal thought is its integrative nature.
• Mature adults interpret what they read, see, or hear in terms of its meaning for them.
• Instead of accepting something at face value, they filter it through their life experience
and previous learning.
Creativity
• Creativity is the ability to produce work that is both novel and appropriate.
• Creativity is not limited to artistic pursuits.
• It can be expressed in many different ways, such as in scientific discoveries,
technological innovations, and social and political reforms.
• Extraordinary creative achievement requires deep, highly organised knowledge of a
subject and a strong emotional attachment to the work.
• A person must first be thoroughly grounded in a field before she or he can see its
limitations, envision radical departures, and develop a new and unique point of view.
Work and Education
• A majority of older Americans now remain active in the labor force after retirement
from their career job.
• Those people who have retired or entered partial retirement are generally more
interested in volunteering.
• People may continue working to maintain their physical and emotional health and
their personal and social roles or simply because they enjoy the stimulation of
work.
• Others work primarily for financial reasons.
• Complex work may improve cognitive flexibility.
• Many adults participate in educational activities, often to improve work-related
skills and knowledge.

Chapter 16 Notes - Psychosocial Development in Middle Adulthood

Looking at the Life Course in Middle Age
• There is renewed interest in midlife research as a result of the changing
demographics.
 • Newer work, utilising previously unavailable longitudinal data and more
sophisticated statistical techniques, has allowed researchers to more carefully track
individual trajectories of change and stability.
Change at Midlife: Theoretical Approaches
• In psychosocial terms, middle adulthood was once considered a relatively stable
period of development in which little change occurred.
• Middle-aged adults were rarely the object of direct study.
• When they were involved in research, such research was more likely to focus on their
role as parents and the ways in which they affected their children's development
or on their role as caregivers for elderly parents.
• When research on midlife was conducted, it utilised primarily cross-sectional
designs in which adults of different ages were compared to each other.
• This work obscured individual trajectories and patterns of change and stability.
• It focused primarily on average changes in middle-aged adults under the assumption
that after the rapid changes of childhood and adolescence and before the
declines of late adulthood, development was relatively stable.
• Erikson's psychosocial theory describes the seventh stage of the life span as the
stage of generativity versus stagnation.
• Generativity is "a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation".
• It encompasses procreativity, productivity, and creativity and thus is much broader
than just having children.
• People who do not find an outlet for generativity risk becoming stagnant and self-
absorbed.
• Generativity is expressed in different ways, depending on individual preferences and
cultural norms.
• Highly generative people tend to be well-adjusted and are more likely to have open-
ended life stories that feature themes of redemption.
• The timing-of-events model, proposed by Neugarten, holds that the course of
development depends on when certain events occur in people's lives.
• Social clocks are age-graded expectations for life events.
• Adherence to a social clock lends predictability to life, and people are generally
happier when they keep pace with their peers.
• Normative life events are those that generally occur at predictable times and
follow a predictable sequence.
• Nonnormative events, by contrast, are unpredictable, such as a job loss or an
unexpected illness.
• Early parenting, for instance, has been associated with declines in well-being and
an increased risk of depression when compared to on-time parenting.
• Because women's fertility declines with age, norms regarding late parenting are
generally felt more strongly by women than men.
• Women are likely to feel increasing pressure to have children with age, and this
affects adjustment to midlife.
 • While women who have children report declines in reproductive anxiety over
time, women who do not have children are more likely to express anxiety about
reproductive aging.
• Despite the multiple challenges and variable events of midlife, many middle-aged
adults show remarkable resilience.
The Self at Midlife: Issues and Themes
• There is an increase in positive emotions with age and a decrease in negative
emotions.
• Emotional well-being tends to increase with age.
• Well-being in midlife is generally high, but some studies show a dip.
• Well-being shows a U-shaped curve over the life span, declining from early
adulthood to middle age, and then rising after that point.
• Well-being gradually and smoothly increases until at least the age of 70.
• This shift occurs sooner for those people who are temperamentally higher in well-
being or who come from countries with higher levels of well-being as a whole.
• Despite the midlife dip in well-being, the term midlife crisis is now considered an
inaccurate representation of what most people experience.
• Crises are not experienced only during midlife, although they are somewhat more
common during that time, and not all people experience them.
• People who do have crises at midlife generally also have crises at other times in
their lives as well, so a midlife crisis may be a manifestation of a neurotic
personality rather than a developmental phase.
Narrative Psychology: Identity as a Life Story
• The field of narrative psychology views the development of the self as a continuous
process of constructing one’s life story - a dramatic narrative to help make sense of
one’s life and connect the past and present with the future.
• This evolving story provides a person with a 'narrative identity'.
• Some narrative psychologists view identity itself as this internalized script or
story.
• People follow the script they have created as they act out their identity.
• Midlife often is a time for revision of the life story.
• Studies in narrative psychology are based on a standardized 2-hour life-story
interview.
• The participant is asked to think of his or her life as a book, to divide the book into
chapters, and to recall eight key scenes, each of which includes a turning point.
• People's scripts tend to reflect their personalities.
• Highly generative adults tend to construct generativity scripts.
• These scripts often feature a theme of redemption, or deliverance from suffering
and are associated with psychological well-being.
• The tendency to develop narratives in which events are generally interpreted as
being positive and negative events are closely examined and processed for their
meaning is associated with well-being and adjustment.
Relationships at Midlife
• Social relationships are vitally important.
 • Both their quantity and quality are predictive of mental health, physical health,
and mortality.
• The social convoy theory, proposed by Kahn and Antonucci, holds that people
move through life surrounded by concentric circles of intimate relationships on which
they rely for social support.
• The composition of the convoy changes, but its function - to meet needs for
intimacy and support - remains relatively constant.
• The size of the convoy and the amount of support it provides are positively
associated with well-being and negatively associated with loneliness and
depression, especially for women.
• However, as Carstensen's theory predicts, social networks tend to become
smaller and more intimate at midlife.
Consensual Relationships
• The quality of midlife friendships often makes up for what they lack in quantity of
time spent.
• Especially during a crisis, such as a divorce or a problem with an aging parent, adults
turn to friends for emotional support, practical guidance, comfort,
companionship, and talk.
• The quality of such friendships can affect health, as can lack of friendships.
• Loneliness, for example, is predictive of increases in blood pressure, even when
such variables as age, gender, race, and cardiovascular risk factors are taken into
account.
• Friendship quality impacts psychological variables as well.
• While in early adulthood, loneliness, depression, well-being, and social integration
are affected by the number of friends a person has, in late adulthood, the quality
of friends is what matters.
• While more older adults lack a confidant and often feel lonely as a result, when
they do have good friends, they report more satisfaction as a result of contact with
their friends than do younger adults.
• Those older adults with higher-quality friendships have better psychosocial well-
being.
• This is especially true in times of crisis: depressed adults with high-quality
friendships have a lower suicide riskthan those who do not have good friends.
Relationships with Maturing Children
• Middle-aged parents must come to terms with a variety of changes in their
relationships with their growing children.
• For parents who strongly identify with their role, this can be a difficult time as they
must adjust to the loss of the parenting role.
• Children are no longer dependent and may challenge parents' authority and advice.
• Relationships can be strained by conflict over grown children's lifestyles, choices
of friends, or romantic partners.
• Parental satisfaction may decline, especially for mothers, but generally tends to
remain high (Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010).
 • Parents who are heavily invested in their children's lives may have a difficult time
letting go.
• Parents who see their children as failures may feel that they themselves are
failures.
• On the other hand, watching one's children become self-sufficient, successful
adults can bring a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
• Relationships can be strained when grown children move back home after college
or a job loss or when they are unable to make it on their own financially.
• As the timing-of-events model would predict, a grown child's delayed departure
from the nest or return to it may produce family stress.
• From the adult child's point of view, the provision of financial support from a
parent can threaten self-efficacy.
• While living with parents can provide much needed financial and emotional
support, it can also threaten a sense of independence.
Other Kinship Ties
• Family relations in middle and late adulthood can be complex.
• With increasing longevity, middle-aged couples with limited emotional and financial
resources may need to allocate them among two sets of aging parents as well as
provide for their own (and possibly their own adult children’s) needs.
• Many adult children express a sense of ambivalence toward the care of their aging
parents or in-laws.
• Ambivalence may emerge out of the struggles found in trying to juggle competing
needs.
• Most couples are willing to contribute time or money, but not both, and few have
the necessary resources or inclination to support both sets of parents.
• Couples tended to respond more readily to the needs of the wife's parents,
presumably because of her greater closeness to them.
• African American and Hispanic couples are more likely than white couples to
provide consistent assistance of all types to parents on each side of the family.
• In recent years, researchers have called those in their forties and fifties who are
squeezed between caring for both their own children and their aging parents the
'sandwich generation'.
• As the worldwide aging population increases, balancing the roles of how to care for
aging parents as well as children will become an increasingly important global
issue.

Chapter 17: Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

• Global Aging Trends: The world's population is aging, leading to changes in
demographics and elder care needs. The Global Age Watch Index ranks countries
based on income security, health status, capability, and enabling environment for
older adults. Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden lead the rankings, while Afghanistan,
Malawi, and Mozambique are at the bottom.
• Types of Aging:
• Primary aging is the gradual, inevitable process of bodily deterioration that
begins early in life and continues regardless of efforts to prevent it. This is a
natural biological process.
• Secondary aging results from disease, abuse, and disuse, factors that are
often within a person's control. This type of aging highlights the impact of
environmental and lifestyle choices.
• Classifications of Older Adults:
• Chronological age: "Young old" (65-74), "old old" (75-84), and "oldest old" (85
and above). These terms are social constructs and may not accurately reflect
an individual's functional abilities.
• Functional age: How well a person functions physically and socially
compared to others of the same chronological age. This classification
emphasizes individual variations in aging.
• Gerontology and Geriatrics:
• Gerontology is the study of aging and the aging process.
• Geriatrics is the branch of medicine concerned with aging and medical
conditions associated with old age.
• Longevity and Life Expectancy:
• Life expectancy is the average number of years a person is expected to live,
based on factors like birth year, current age, and health status.
• Longevity refers to the actual length of life.
• Life span is the maximum number of years a member of a species can live.
The longest documented human life span is 122 years.
• Theories of Aging:
• Genetic-programming theories propose that aging is genetically
programmed. For example, cells have a limited number of divisions (Hayflick
limit) before they stop dividing and die.
• Variable-rate theories suggest that aging is influenced by environmental and
lifestyle factors:
• Wear-and-tear theory: The body wears out over time due to
accumulated damage.
• Free-radical theory: Unstable molecules called free radicals damage
cells and tissues, contributing to aging.
• Rate-of-living theory: A faster metabolism is associated with a shorter
lifespan. This theory has limitations as exercise increases metabolism
but is linked to longevity.
• Caloric Restriction and Longevity: Research indicates that drastically reducing
calorie intake can extend lifespan in various species, including monkeys. Calorie-
restricted monkeys also show less age-related brain atrophy. However, maintaining a
very-low-calorie diet is challenging for humans. Intermittent fasting is being explored
as a more feasible alternative for mimicking the effects of calorie restriction.
• Physical Changes with Age:
 • Organ and System Functioning: Changes in organ and system functioning
vary widely among individuals. Some systems decline rapidly, while others
show minimal change. For example, lung capacity often decreases due to
reduced lung volume and muscle atrophy. The immune system weakens with
age, making older adults more susceptible to infections. Cardiovascular
health declines, with increased risk of irregular heartbeat and reduced blood
pumping capacity. Digestive issues, like swallowing problems and nutrient
absorption difficulties, become more common.
• Reserve Capacity: This refers to the body's ability to handle stress and
physical demands. Reserve capacity declines with age, making older adults
less able to cope with strenuous activities.
• The Aging Brain: Brain volume and weight gradually decrease, particularly in
the frontal and temporal lobes, including the hippocampus, which is crucial
for memory. However, the brain compensates for age-related decline by
reorganizing neural circuitry and activating different brain areas. Cognitive
decline is more likely when brain changes accelerate.
• Vision: Age-related vision changes are common, including reduced visual
acuity, contrast sensitivity, and depth perception. Common eye conditions in
older adults include:
• Cataracts: Cloudy areas in the lens, causing blurred vision. Cataract
surgery is a common and effective treatment.
• Age-related macular degeneration: Degeneration of the macula
(central part of the retina), leading to blurred central vision. Treatments
exist to slow progression but cannot reverse damage.
• Glaucoma: Increased pressure in the eye that damages the optic
nerve, leading to vision loss. Early treatment can help manage the
condition.
• Hearing: Hearing impairment increases with age, affecting a larger proportion
of men than women. Hearing aids can be helpful but are not always affordable
or effective in all situations.
• Sleep: Older adults tend to experience changes in sleep patterns, including
reduced deep sleep and increased nighttime awakenings.
• Physical and Mental Health:
• Physical activity is crucial for maintaining physical and cognitive health in
late adulthood. It can help prevent chronic diseases, improve cardiovascular
health, and enhance cognitive function. Unfortunately, many older adults are
physically inactive.
• Dementia:
• Dementia is not an inevitable part of aging. Several factors can protect
against cognitive decline, including personality traits like
conscientiousness, higher education levels, challenging jobs,
bilingualism, and an active lifestyle.
• Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia,
characterized by progressive memory loss and cognitive impairment.
 Its development is influenced by genetic factors (e.g., APOE gene) and
potentially modifiable lifestyle factors.
• Depression: While not a normal part of aging, depression is often
underdiagnosed in older adults. Risk factors include chronic illness, disability,
and social isolation.
• Cognitive Development:
• Intelligence and Processing: Some cognitive abilities, such as processing
speed and abstract reasoning, may decline with age. However, other abilities,
like vocabulary and knowledge, may remain stable or even improve.
• Memory:
• Short-term memory, particularly the ability to hold information in
mind while working with it (working memory), often declines with age.
This decline can affect tasks like remembering instructions or following
conversations.
• Episodic memory, the ability to recall specific events and
experiences, also declines with age. This can make it difficult to
remember recent events or conversations.
• Semantic memory, which involves general knowledge and facts,
remains relatively stable with age. This means that older adults can
retain their knowledge of the world and language.
• Procedural memory, involving skills and habits, also remains largely
intact. For example, older adults can still ride a bike or play a musical
instrument if they learned these skills earlier in life.
• Wisdom: Wisdom is not solely determined by age. It is a complex trait that
combines knowledge, judgment, and understanding of life's complexities.
While some older adults demonstrate wisdom, it is not an automatic outcome
of aging. Factors like personality, experience, and self-reflection contribute to
its development.
• Cognitive Functioning and Health: Cognitive functioning in late adulthood is
influenced by a complex interplay of factors, including genetics, lifestyle choices,
health status, and social and environmental influences.
These notes highlight important concepts and details from Chapter 17. Please note that this
is a summary based solely on the information presented in the provided source material and
our conversation history.

Chapter 18: Psychosocial Development in Late Adulthood

• Personality Development:
• Erikson's Theory: The eighth and final stage of psychosocial development is
Ego Integrity vs. Despair. This stage is characterized by a process of life
review in which older adults reflect on their life experiences and strive to make
sense of them. Those who successfully resolve this crisis develop ego
integrity, characterized by feelings of satisfaction and acceptance of their
 lives. Those who are unable to resolve this crisis may experience despair,
marked by regrets and a sense that life has been meaningless. ****
• Personality Traits: Research suggests that personality traits, particularly
those within the Five Factor Model (FFM), are relatively stable throughout
adulthood, including late adulthood. This model includes the traits of
openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness,
and neuroticism. However, some age-related changes may occur, with older
adults showing increases in agreeableness and conscientiousness. ****
• Personality and Well-being: Personality traits can influence both mental and
physical health in late adulthood. **** Individuals high in neuroticism tend to
report more negative emotions, experience higher levels of stress, and may
engage in unhealthy behaviors. Conversely, conscientiousness is associated
with better health habits, reduced risk of chronic diseases, and greater
longevity.
• Personality Stability and Change: While personality traits exhibit stability,
some changes can occur with age. Increases in agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and extraversion are associated with improved physical
and mental health. **** These personality traits can also influence the coping
styles individuals use to manage stress.
• Well-being in Late Adulthood:
• Coping with Stress:
• Cognitive-appraisal model: This model suggests that how individuals
cope with stress depends on their assessment of the situation and their
resources for dealing with it. ****
• Problem-focused coping: Involves taking direct action to address the
problem. This approach is more common in situations where the
individual believes they have control over the outcome.
• Emotion-focused coping: Involves managing emotional responses to
stress, such as seeking social support or engaging in relaxation
techniques. This approach is more prevalent in situations where the
individual perceives limited control over the stressor.
• Age Differences in Coping Styles: While both problem-focused and
emotion-focused coping are used across the lifespan, older adults
tend to use more emotion-focused coping than younger adults,
especially when dealing with uncontrollable stressors. ****
• Religiosity and Spirituality: Studies have found a positive association
between religiosity and well-being in late adulthood. Religiously active older
adults tend to report higher levels of life satisfaction, better physical health,
and greater resilience in the face of adversity. **** This association may be
attributed to factors such as social support, a sense of meaning and purpose,
and coping mechanisms provided by religious communities.
• Models of Successful Aging: Researchers have proposed various models to
define and understand successful aging. **** These models often emphasize
factors such as:
 • Physical and Cognitive Health: Maintaining good physical and
cognitive function is considered crucial for successful aging.
• Active Engagement: Remaining actively engaged in social and
productive activities is another key component. This engagement can
provide a sense of purpose, foster social connections, and contribute
to overall well-being.
• Subjective Well-being: Feeling satisfied with life and experiencing
positive emotions is an essential aspect of successful aging.
• Practical and Social Issues Related to Aging:
• Living Arrangements: As individuals age, their living arrangements may
change due to factors such as declining health, limited mobility, or financial
constraints. **** Common living arrangements for older adults include:
• Living with Adult Children: This arrangement can provide practical
and emotional support but can also create challenges for both
generations. Shifting power dynamics and differing expectations about
autonomy can lead to friction. ****
• Retirement Communities: These communities offer a range of
housing options and services, allowing older adults to maintain
independence while having access to support when needed. ****
• Assisted Living Facilities: These facilities provide a higher level of care
than retirement communities, offering assistance with activities of
daily living, such as bathing, dressing, and medication management.
****
• Nursing Homes: Nursing homes provide 24-hour care for individuals
with significant health or cognitive impairments. ****
• Elder Abuse: Elder abuse is a serious problem that affects a significant
number of older adults. It can take various forms, including physical,
emotional, sexual, financial abuse, and neglect. **** Risk factors for elder
abuse include cognitive impairment, functional dependence, social isolation,
and strained family relationships.
• Social Contact and Support:
• Social Convoy Theory: This theory suggests that individuals maintain
a social network, or "convoy," that provides support and
companionship throughout their lives. This convoy may change in
composition over time, but its function remains crucial for well-being.
****
• Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: This theory proposes that as
individuals age, they become more selective in their social
interactions, prioritizing relationships that provide emotional
fulfillment and support. ****
• The Multigenerational Family: Changes in family structures have led to the
emergence of multigenerational families, where multiple generations live
together or provide support for each other. This arrangement can present both
benefits and challenges. ****
• Personal Relationships in Late Life:
• Marital Relationships:
• Marital satisfaction: Research suggests that marital satisfaction often
follows a U-shaped pattern across the lifespan, with higher levels of
satisfaction in the early and later years of marriage. **** Older couples
often report greater emotional intimacy and fewer conflicts.
• Spousal Caregiving: As spouses age, one partner may take on the role
of caregiver for the other. While providing care can be rewarding, it can
also create significant stress and strain on the relationship. ****
• Widowhood: The death of a spouse is a significant loss for older
adults, leading to emotional distress, loneliness, and potential
changes in social and financial circumstances. Women are more likely
to experience widowhood than men. ****
• Nonmarital Lifestyles and Relationships:
• Never-married Singles: Older adults who have never married may
have strong social networks and experience fulfilling lives. **** They
may face unique challenges, such as a lack of spousal support or
social stigma.
• Cohabitation: Cohabitation in late adulthood is becoming increasingly
common. This arrangement may provide companionship and practical
support without the legal complexities of marriage. ****
• Gay and Lesbian Relationships: Older gay and lesbian couples face
similar challenges and rewards in their relationships as heterosexual
couples. They may encounter additional barriers related to social
stigma and discrimination. ****
• Friendships:
• Friendships remain important in late adulthood, providing
companionship, emotional support, and a sense of belonging. Older
adults often prioritize close friendships and invest in maintaining these
relationships. ****
• Friendships can also contribute to physical and mental health,
providing a buffer against stress and promoting social engagement.
• Nonmarital Kinship Ties:
• Parent-Child Relationships: The relationship between older parents
and their adult children is characterized by mutual support and
affection. **** The balance of support may shift as parents age, with
children providing more assistance.
• Childlessness: While not having children may have been viewed as a
disadvantage in the past, research suggests that childless older adults
can experience fulfilling lives and develop strong social networks. ****
• Sibling Relationships: Sibling relationships often become more
important in late adulthood, providing emotional support and
companionship. Sisters tend to play a key role in maintaining family
connections. ****
Chapter 19: Dealing with Death and Bereavement
• The Many, Changing Meanings of Death and Dying:
• Cultural Context: Death and dying are universal experiences influenced by
cultural and historical contexts. Different cultures have distinct customs and
rituals surrounding death, disposal of the dead, mourning practices, and
expressions of grief. Examples of diverse cultural practices include Irish
wakes, Jewish shivas, and the Mexican Day of the Dead. These cultural
practices provide frameworks and meaning for individuals to navigate the
complexities of death and loss.
• Mortality Revolution: Developed countries experienced a significant decline
in death rates during the 20th century. Increased life expectancy and
advancements in medical care shifted death primarily to a phenomenon of
late adulthood. This shift led to death becoming less visible and less
frequently encountered in daily life.
• Thanatology: The study of death and dying, known as thanatology, emerged
as a field of study to address the growing need for understanding and
compassionately dealing with death. This field encompasses various
perspectives on death, including biological, social, cultural, psychological,
and ethical considerations.
• Care of the Dying: The hospice movement arose to provide humane and
compassionate care for terminally ill individuals. Hospice care focuses on
palliative care, emphasizing pain and symptom management, emotional
support, and enhancing the quality of life for individuals with a limited life
expectancy. While hospice care can be provided in various settings, including
homes, hospitals, and specialized facilities, the primary goal is to allow
individuals to die peacefully and with dignity, surrounded by loved ones and
receiving care tailored to their needs.
• Facing Death and Loss:
• Changes Near Death: Individuals approaching death may experience a range
of physical and psychological changes, including social withdrawal, altered
sleep patterns, decreased appetite, and increased preoccupation with the
afterlife. These changes reflect a shift in focus and priorities as individuals
confront their mortality.
• Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): NDEs are profound subjective experiences
reported by some individuals who have been close to death. While NDEs
encompass a wide range of experiences, common themes include feelings of
peace and detachment, out-of-body sensations, encounters with deceased
loved ones, and life review. While scientific explanations for NDEs focus on
neurological and physiological responses to extreme stress and oxygen
deprivation, these explanations do not fully account for the subjective and
spiritual dimensions reported by many individuals.
 • Kübler-Ross's Stages of Dying: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed a five-stage
model to describe the emotional responses individuals may experience when
facing their own death or the death of a loved one. These stages include
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, this
model has been subject to criticism and modification, as not everyone goes
through all stages or in a linear fashion.
• Grief and Bereavement: Grief is a natural emotional response to loss and is
a multifaceted process influenced by cultural norms, personal experiences,
and the nature of the relationship with the deceased. Bereavement refers to
the period of mourning and adjustment following a loss. While traditional
models often conceptualize grief as a series of stages, contemporary research
highlights individual variability in grieving styles and emphasizes the
importance of resilience.
• Grief Work: Traditional models of grief suggest a three-stage process: shock
and disbelief, preoccupation with the deceased, and resolution. However, this
model has been challenged by findings that individuals may not follow a linear
path through grief and that many bereaved individuals adapt and find meaning
in their loss without extensive grief work.
• Resilience in Bereavement: A growing body of research highlights the
concept of resilience in bereavement, demonstrating that many individuals
exhibit resilience and adapt to loss without prolonged distress. Factors
associated with resilience include personality traits (low neuroticism, high
extraversion), secure attachment styles, an internal locus of control, prior
experiences with adversity, and access to social support.
• Significant Losses:
• Understanding Death Across the Lifespan: The understanding of death
develops gradually throughout childhood and adolescence, influenced by
cognitive and emotional maturity. Children often exhibit magical thinking and
may struggle to grasp the irreversibility and universality of death. However, by
around the age of 10, most children have developed a mature understanding
of the biological aspects of death. Adults' understanding of death may be
shaped by religious beliefs, cultural norms, and personal experiences.
• Children and Death: Children's responses to death and bereavement vary
depending on their age, developmental level, and the nature of their
relationship with the deceased. It is important to approach discussions about
death with honesty and sensitivity, using age-appropriate language and
providing opportunities for children to express their emotions.
• Death of a Parent: The loss of a parent is a significant life event that can
impact individuals across the lifespan. It can evoke feelings of grief, sadness,
anger, and even relief, depending on the nature of the relationship with the
deceased parent. For children and adolescents, parental death can disrupt
attachment bonds, influence development, and require adaptation and
support. Adults may experience the loss of a parent as a marker of their own
mortality and a transition into a new stage of life.
 • Death of a Spouse: Widowhood is a particularly challenging transition,
especially for older adults. The loss of a spouse often leads to emotional
distress, loneliness, and changes in social and financial circumstances.
Women are more likely to experience widowhood than men due to longer life
expectancies.
• Death of a Sibling: While less studied than other types of loss, the death of a
sibling can have a profound impact, particularly in late adulthood. Sibling
relationships often represent lifelong bonds, and their loss can evoke a
complex mix of emotions, including grief, sadness, loneliness, and a sense of
diminished family history. The impact on surviving siblings can vary depending
on factors such as closeness, shared experiences, and the circumstances of
the death.
• Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues: The "Right to Die":
• Suicide: Suicide is a complex issue with significant psychological, social, and
ethical implications. Individuals contemplating suicide often exhibit warning
signs, such as verbal expressions of hopelessness, changes in behavior,
social withdrawal, and giving away possessions. It is crucial to take all
expressions of suicidal intent seriously and seek professional help.
• Hastening Death: Advancements in medical technology have raised complex
ethical questions about the "right to die" and the role of medical intervention
in end-of-life care. The debate surrounding hastening death often involves
distinctions between passive and active euthanasia, as well as the legality and
ethics of assisted suicide.
• Euthanasia:
• Passive euthanasia: Involves withholding or withdrawing life-
sustaining treatment, allowing a terminally ill individual to die naturally.
This practice is generally considered legally and ethically permissible.
• Active euthanasia: Involves taking direct action to end a person's life,
typically through the administration of lethal drugs. This practice is
illegal in most jurisdictions.
• Advance Directives: Advance directives are legal documents that specify
an individual's wishes regarding medical treatment in the event they become
unable to make decisions for themselves due to incapacitation or terminal
illness. Advance directives include living wills and durable powers of attorney.
• Assisted Suicide: Assisted suicide involves providing a terminally ill
individual with the means to end their own life, typically through the
prescription of lethal medication. This practice is legal in a limited number of
jurisdictions and remains a subject of intense ethical and legal debate.
• Diversity Concerns: End-of-life decision-making often intersects with issues
of social and cultural diversity, including religious beliefs, family dynamics,
and cultural perspectives on death and autonomy. It is crucial to approach
these complex issues with sensitivity and respect for individual values and
preferences.
• Finding Meaning and Purpose in Life and Death:
• Meaning and Purpose: The search for meaning and purpose in life is a
fundamental human need that may become particularly salient as individuals
confront their own mortality. Engaging in activities that provide a sense of
purpose, fostering meaningful relationships, and leaving a positive legacy can
contribute to a sense of fulfillment and peace.
• Life Review: Life review is a process of reflecting on one's life experiences,
often prompted by aging, illness, or the awareness of limited time. Life review
can involve reminiscing about past events, re-evaluating relationships, and
seeking to understand the meaning and significance of one's life journey. Life
review therapy can be a helpful tool for facilitating this process.