Psy 4072 Study Guide Topic Relationships Chapter 9 Marriage families parenthood o Marriage is a social institution that is legally sanctioned between a man and a woman By age 55 74 of men and women have been married Advantages include retirement health insurance survivor benefits greater happiness and higher quality of life Disadvantages include fewer financial resources lower social support an more complicated legally to terminate a marital relationship o Cohabitation effect greater likelihood of divorce among couples who cohabitate before marriage 50 60 of married couples did this more common since the 60 s o Divorce average marriage lasts 8 years Declining to premarital education people marrying later and more realistic expectations 18 of all marriages are second marriages 4 are third Divorce proneness tendency to leave when it gets tough Most divorces occur within the first 3 years Average length of a marriage is 8 years Mother offered custody 72 of the time Negative consequences to staying in an unhealthy marriage Rejecting or invalidating a spouse s communication is number one thing that leads to marital problems 10 of the adult population in the US is divorced o Parents have a greater time to indulge in their own interests after children leave the home they feel increased freedom and privacy o Medicare doesn t cover chronic long term care o Most live no more than half an hour away from at least one of the children o Protective effect of marriage have a 9 15 reduction in mortality risks greater quality of life if married Intimate relationships o Socioemotional selectivity theory People reduce the range of their network of relationships as they move through adulthood to maximize social and emotional gains and minimize risks Less interested in meeting new people or cultivating large social networks o Fearful attachment afraid of closeness with others and place no value in intimacy o Dismissive don t want to be involved in close relationships at all Intergenerational relationships o Very common o Motivated by sense of duty o Elder parents provide for a long time and children repay by taking care of them o Adult children do experience developmental changes Parents and adult children o 81 of middle aged and elderly adults have living children Filial maturity Filial anxiety Filial obligation Developmental transition where adult children begin to identify with their parents Occurs when adult children realize that they may be forced to take on the care of a disabled parent In other cultures it is expected that children will take on the care of their parents in old age Grandparents and grandparenting o 56 million grandparents o Indulge without responsibilities o Enjoy receiving affection and respect o Facilitates a reinvolvement in one s personal past o Skip generation family A situation where grandparents are raising grandchildren 5 7 million or 11 Reasons for it include o Parental substance abuse child abuse teen pregnancy unemployment divorce AIDS jail o Widowhood o 77 of all widowed adults are over age of 65 38 of men 76 of women married counterparts o Widowhood effect surviving spouse is more likely to die than o Risk of widowhood after age of 65 is greater for black women at 83 Friendships o Psychological support Vital to friendship revealing info we would normally keep a o Self disclosure secret o Enhance well being Reciprocal actions where you get benefits from being friends with other people o Interpersonal similarity o Physical attractiveness o Intelligence and competence o Characterized by reciprocity with give and take mutual support sharing companionship Independent style people private Discerning style Do not need best friends share good times with Extremely selective in choice of friends Small number of friends Elite group of friends Gregarious style Close to a fairly large number of people Still may have an elite group but they have another group of several dozen people Larger discerning style o Number of close friends remains relatively stable throughout adulthood o Solid friendships that don t change after middle age o Casual friends become less common with increasing age o Substitute friend networks with family networks o Voluntary o Mutual o Flexible o Equal o Emotional o Terminable Topic Alzheimer s Disease AD Chapter 5 111 121 dementia and related neurological disorders Prevalence historical perspectives on AD o Primary degenerative dementia o 100 000 people die each year o 4th leading cause of death in adults o Onset beyond age of 65 o 5 5 5 million Americans have it o 12 of 65 have it and 50 of 85 Signs and symptoms diagnostic issues o Impaired memory o Impaired intellect Trouble comprehending facts or ideas o Impaired judgment shot judgment o Impaired orientation time orientation can become lost in a familiar situation o Excessive or shallow emotions o Loss of intellectual ability severe enough to interfere with functioning o Memory impairments Aphasias language difficult finding a work mid sentence Apraxia motor can t put the idea and motor movement simple objects anomia together Agnosia recognize objects can t name objects using a different motor pathway that hasn t been compromised yet o Dramatic brain cell death extensive plaques and tangles pronounced brain weight shrinkage o AD is a progressive brain disease that destroys brain cells and causes memory thinking and behavior severe enough to affect daily life Treatments o Medications to soften symptoms o Cholinesterase inhibitors enzyme that takes ectocholine apart Tacrine Cognex unpleasant side effects N methyl D aspertate behavioral functions o Physical exercise proper nutrition social activities Possible causes o Slow acting virus o Cortical blood flow o Protein synthesis o Neurotransmitter deficit o Environmental toxins aluminum o Genetic component rare Neuropathology of AD underlying brain changes o Amyloid plaques senile plaques normal with aging but AD patients get a ton o Neurofibrillary tangles intracellular o Dendritic atrophy the branches of the neuron shrink o Brain shrinkage pronounced o Granulovacuolar degeneration of the neurons o Acetylcholine neurotransmitter that s in very short supply The first drug idea Impact on families and society o High cost o 70 remain at home and need around the clock attention o Cost of AD for the health care system of the nation o Adult day care facilities very important o 2 600 4 200 a month locally Topic Mental Health Issues and Treatment how we appraise