Exam 1 The Demography of Aging Challenges Opportunities Young old 55 85 Oldest old 85 and older Centenarians 100 years old and over Chronological age calendar age Perceived age age you think of yourself as Biological age the functioning of your vital systems what physical activities you can still do Psychological age the functioning of psychological abilities can you do the things society expects you to do given your age Factors responsible for increases in life expectancy Reduction in acute disease because of advances in medical and public health Reduction in infant mortality Reduction in female mortality at child birth Treatment advances in chronic diseases medical and lifestyle Cohort A group of people who were born in the same year Population aging term for shifts in the age distribution of the population towards older ages We are shifting from a pyramid shape to a rectangle shape Older people are living longer now that they use to so we have almost as many older people living as we do younger Factors related to the changing age structure of the US Increase in average life expectancy Change in immigration patterns Change in fertility patterns across cohorts Implications of changing age structure population aging Medical and technological advances challenges and high disability rates Changing family structure caregiving o Fewer children mean fewer caregivers o Changes in divorce population Evolving social insurance systems o Predicted increase in long term care services in the future o Multiple chronic conditions heart disease cancer diabetes Alzheimer s disease o Age to be eligible for social security is rising o Dependency ratio Proportion of employed to dependent portions of population New role for older adults o They have TIME to help fulfill society s needs Ageism Myths and Stereotypes about Aging Ageism Systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old similar to racism and sexism this is an inappropriate negative treatment Attitudinal stereotypes and beliefs and behavioral discrimination Factors that form the theoretical basis of ageism Fear of death in western society Emphasis on youth culture Emphasis on productivity Manner in which aging originally researched Isolation from the community Inadequate housing and income Unnecessary institutionalized Untreated mental and physical illnesses Examples of ageism New Ageism Tendency to help older adults because all older people must need help Outcomes of Ageism In the media Older adults remain underrepresented in films and on TV anti aging ads cause pressure to hide signs of aging and gender in the media women focus on appearance and mean focus on performance In family relationships Interacting with family members can be demoralizing to older adults and too much care can promote excessive dependency In the health care system physicians limit the number of older patients they are poorly reimbursed and their concerns are often trivialized that everything is okay and that they are just feeling that way because they are getting old In employment older workers are perceived as disinterested in promotion less flexible expensive for the organization and slow learners In social policies criticized as benefiting the old at the expense of the young healthcare utilization social security and Medicare and education policies mostly focus on young people Ways to combat ageism Cite ageism so others can see that it is a problem Formal education and continuing education Needs based vs age based programs Build intergenerational programs coalitions Life Span Development and Research Methods Key Points in the lifespan developmental theory Paul Baltes said that abilities develop over your whole life Multidirectional characterized by both growth and loss ex as our vocabulary increases our processing speed decreases Plasticity Degree development is modifiable ex memory loss we can intervene and slow it down when we know it is a possible problem Historical Context historical events trends influence development Multiple Causation biology cognition emotion and social relationships and interactions Developmental Influence Age graded influences Occurs in a similar way to most people in a particular age group ex menopause graduating high school voting History graded influences Occurs in a similar way to most people in a particular cohort or generation ex usage of the internet 9 11 Non normative influences Unusual events that are unique to an individual ex winning the lottery death of a family member divorce Experimental Studies Interventions that have an experimental group a control group an independent variable and a dependent variable Used to study memory and to see the correlation of two variables Correlation does NOT equal causation Just because one thing happened does not mean another thing will Cross Sectional Studies Several groups of different aged people studied at one point in time Allows us to study age difference Advantage less costly to conduct Disadvantage confound age and cohort people born during the same year have similar experiences through life Longitudinal Studies Allows you to see how things change with age by studying one group of same aged people at different points over time Allows us to study age changes Advantages gives the most accurate results Disadvantages time cost and subject attrition people dropping out of the study for specific reasons Ways to Obtain Information Questionnaire Self report Systematic Observations observer bias Physiological Measures o People best report their own behavior but they also may say what they think people want to hear or may not remember if it was from a long time ago o Captures behavior that the person could be unaware or but there could be o This study is often used on infants since they cannot talk o Recording characteristics and responses ex height blood pressure hormone levels o This can be used to tell us peoples stress levels Draw two smiley faces next to the bonus 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