Aging | Noba. Introduction. Due to positive health trends the population of older adults is increasing steadily. Activity Theory Of Aging Sociology MajorUnderstanding the psychology of aging will be more important than ever to support this group and help them thrive. Photo: Woody Hibbard, https: //goo. VP7pfz, CC BY 2. 0, https: //goo. JD0cjj]We are currently living in an aging society (Rowe, 2. Indeed, by 2. 03. Baby Boomers reach age 6. U. S. older population will be double that of 2. Furthermore, because of increases in average life expectancy, each new generation can expect to live longer than their parents’ generation and certainly longer than their grandparents’ generation. As a consequence, it is time for individuals of all ages to rethink their personal life plans and consider prospects for a long life. When is the best time to start a family? Theory of generations (or sociology of generations) is a theory posed by Karl Mannheim in his 1923 essay, "The Problem of Generations." This essay has been described. Free Sociology Books is a publisher of free Sociology Textbooks to help studetns fight the rising cost of College textbooks. Learn more about Human Kinetics by connecting with us below! About Our Products: Book Excerpts: Catalogs : News and Articles : About Us: Career Opportunities. Traditionally, research on aging described only the lives of people over age 65 and the very old. Contemporary theories and research recognizes that biogenetic and. Will the education gained up to age 2. What is the right balance between work, family, and leisure throughout life? What's the best age to retire? How can I age successfully and enjoy life to the fullest when I'm 8. In this module we will discuss several different domains of psychological research on aging that will help answer these important questions. Overview: Life Span and Life Course Perspectives on Aging. Just as young adults differ from one another, older adults are also not all the same. In each decade of adulthood, we observe substantial heterogeneity in cognitive functioning, personality, social relationships, lifestyle, beliefs, and satisfaction with life. This heterogeneity reflects differences in rates of biogenetic and psychological aging and the sociocultural contexts and history of people's lives (Bronfenbrenner, 1. Fingerman, Berg, Smith, & Antonucci, 2. Theories of aging describe how these multiple factors interact and change over time. They describe why functioning differs on average between young, middle- aged, young- old, and very old adults and why there is heterogeneity within these age groups. Life course theories, for example, highlight the effects of social expectations and the normative timing of life events and social roles (e. They also consider the lifelong cumulative effects of membership in specific cohorts (generations) and sociocultural subgroups (e. Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2. Settersten, 2. 00. Life span theories complement the life- course perspective with a greater focus on processes within the individual (e. This approach emphasizes the patterning of lifelong intra- and inter- individual differences in the shape (gain, maintenance, loss), level, and rate of change (Baltes, 1. Both life course and life span researchers generally rely on longitudinal studies to examine hypotheses about different patterns of aging associated with the effects of biogenetic, life history, social, and personal factors. Cross- sectional studies provide information about age- group differences, but these are confounded with cohort, time of study, and historical effects. Cognitive Aging. Researchers have identified areas of both losses and gains in cognition in older age. Cognitive ability and intelligence are often measured using standardized tests and validated measures. The psychometric approach has identified two categories of intelligence that show different rates of change across the life span (Schaie & Willis, 1. Fluid intelligence refers to information processing abilities, such as logical reasoning, remembering lists, spatial ability, and reaction time. Crystallized intelligence encompasses abilities that draw upon experience and knowledge. Measures of crystallized intelligence include vocabulary tests, solving number problems, and understanding texts.There are many stereotypes of older adults.They are sometimes seen as slow because of changes in cognitive processing speed.They are though, on average, excellent at drawing on personal experience and knowledge.And they tend to outperform young adults when it comes to social and emotional challenges.Image: Alex E. Proimos, https: //goo.Sb. W8, CC BY- NC 2. Virtual Grand Piano Serial Keygen Website . FIlc. 2e]With age, systematic declines are observed on cognitive tasks requiring self- initiated, effortful processing, without the aid of supportive memory cues (Park, 2. Older adults tend to perform poorer than young adults on memory tasks that involve recall of information, where individuals must retrieve information they learned previously without the help of a list of possible choices. For example, older adults may have more difficulty recalling facts such as names or contextual details about where or when something happened (Craik, 2. What might explain these deficits as we age? As we age, working memory, or our ability to simultaneously store and use information, becomes less efficient (Craik & Bialystok, 2. The ability to process information quickly also decreases with age. This slowing of processing speed may explain age differences on many different cognitive tasks (Salthouse, 2. Some researchers have argued that inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information, declines with age and may explain age differences in performance on cognitive tasks (Hasher & Zacks, 1. Finally, it is well established that our hearing and vision decline as we age. Longitudinal research has proposed that deficits in sensory functioning explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities (Baltes & Lindenberger, 1. Fewer age differences are observed when memory cues are available, such as for recognition memory tasks, or when individuals can draw upon acquired knowledge or experience. For example, older adults often perform as well if not better than young adults on tests of word knowledge or vocabulary. With age often comes expertise, and research has pointed to areas where aging experts perform as well or better than younger individuals. For example, older typists were found to compensate for age- related declines in speed by looking farther ahead at printed text (Salthouse, 1. Compared to younger players, older chess experts are able to focus on a smaller set of possible moves, leading to greater cognitive efficiency (Charness, 1. Accrued knowledge of everyday tasks, such as grocery prices, can help older adults to make better decisions than young adults (Tentori, Osheron, Hasher, & May, 2. How do changes or maintenance of cognitive ability affect older adults’ everyday lives? Researchers have studied cognition in the context of several different everyday activities. One example is driving. Although older adults often have more years of driving experience, cognitive declines related to reaction time or attentional processes may pose limitations under certain circumstances (Park & Gutchess, 2. Research on interpersonal problem solving suggested that older adults use more effective strategies than younger adults to navigate through social and emotional problems (Blanchard- Fields, 2. In the context of work, researchers rarely find that older individuals perform poorer on the job (Park & Gutchess, 2. Similar to everyday problem solving, older workers may develop more efficient strategies and rely on expertise to compensate for cognitive decline. Research on adult personality examines normative age- related increases and decreases in the expression of the so- called "Big Five" traits—extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to new experience. Does personality change throughout adulthood? Previously the answer was no, but contemporary research shows that although some people’s personalities are relatively stable over time, others’ are not (Lucas & Donnellan, 2. Roberts & Mroczek, 2. Longitudinal studies reveal average changes during adulthood in the expression of some traits (e. Longitudinal research also suggests that adult personality traits, such as conscientiousness, predict important life outcomes including job success, health, and longevity (Friedman, Tucker, Tomlinson- Keasey, Schwartz, Wingard, & Criqui, 1. Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2. In contrast to the relative stability of personality traits, theories about the aging self- propose changes in self- related knowledge, beliefs, and autobiographical narratives. Responses to questions such as “Tell me something about yourself. Who are you?” "What are your hopes for the future?" provide insight into the characteristics and life themes that an individual considers uniquely distinguish him or herself from others. Ageing - Wikipedia. here. Ageing or aging (see spelling differences) is the process of becoming older.The term refers especially to human beings, many animals, and fungi, whereas for example bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially immortal. In the broader sense, ageing can refer to single cells within an organism which have ceased dividing (cellular senescence) or to the population of a species (population ageing). In humans, ageing represents the accumulation of changes in a human being over time,[1] encompassing physical, psychological, and social changes. Reaction time, for example, may slow with age, while knowledge of world events and wisdom may expand. Ageing is among the greatest known risk factors for most human diseases: [2] of the roughly 1. The causes of ageing are uncertain; current theories are assigned to the damage concept, whereby the accumulation of damage (such as DNA oxidation) may cause biological systems to fail, or to the programmed ageing concept, whereby internal processes (such as DNA methylation) may cause ageing. Programmed ageing should not be confused with programmed cell death (apoptosis). The discovery, in 1. Ageing versus immortality[edit]. Immortal Hydra, a relative of the jellyfish. Human beings and members of other species, especially animals, necessarily experience ageing and mortality. Fungi, too, can age.[3] In contrast, many species can be considered immortal: for example, bacteria fission to produce daughter cells, strawberry plants grow runners to produce clones of themselves, and animals in the genus Hydra have a regenerative ability by which they avoid dying of old age. Early life forms on Earth, starting at least 3. Such organisms (prokaryotes, protozoans, algae) multiply by fissioning into daughter cells; thus do not age and are innately immortal.[5][6]Ageing and mortality of the individual organism became possible with the evolution of sexual reproduction,[7] which occurred with the emergence of the fungal/animal kingdoms approximately a billion years ago, and the evolution of seed- producing plants 3. The sexual organism could henceforth pass on some of its genetic material to produce new individuals and could itself become disposable with respect to the survival of its species.[7] This classic biological idea has however been perturbed recently by the discovery that the bacterium E. Even within humans and other mortal species, there are cells with the potential for immortality: cancer cells which have lost the ability to die when maintained in a cell culture such as the He. La cell line,[9] and specific stem cells such as germ cells (producing ova and spermatozoa).[1. In artificial cloning, adult cells can be rejuvenated to embryonic status and then used to grow a new tissue or animal without ageing.[1. Normal human cells however die after about 5. Hayflick Limit, discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1. Effects of ageing[edit]. Enlarged ears and noses of old humans are sometimes blamed on continual cartilage growth, but the cause is more probably gravity.[1. A number of characteristic ageing symptoms are experienced by a majority or by a significant proportion of humans during their lifetimes. Teenagers lose the young child's ability to hear high- frequency sounds above 2. Hz.[1. 3]In the mid- 2. Wrinkles develop mainly due to photoageing, particularly affecting sun- exposed areas (face).[1. After peaking in the mid- 2. People over 3. 5 years of age are at risk for developing presbyopia.[1. The cause is lens hardening by decreasing levels of α- crystallin, a process which may be sped up by higher temperatures.[2. Around age 5. 0, hair turns grey.[2. Pattern hair loss by the age of 5. Menopause typically occurs between 4. In the 6. 0–6. 4 age cohort, the incidence of osteoarthritis rises to 5. Only 2. 0% however report disabling osteoarthritis at this age.[2. Almost half of people older than 7. By age 8. 0, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery.[2. Frailty, defined as loss of muscle mass and mobility, affects 2. Atherosclerosis is classified as an ageing disease.[3. It leads to cardiovascular disease (for example stroke and heart attack)[3. The maximum human lifespan is suggested to be 1. The oldest reliably recorded human was Jeanne Calment who attained 1. Dementia becomes more common with age.[3. About 3% of people between the ages of 6. The spectrum ranges from mild cognitive impairment to the neurodegenerative diseases of Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. Furthermore, many types of memory may decline with ageing, but not semantic memory or general knowledge such as vocabulary definitions, which typically increases or remains steady until late adulthood[3. Ageing brain). Intelligence may decline with age, though the rate may vary depending on the type and may in fact remain steady throughout most of the lifespan, dropping suddenly only as people near the end of their lives. Individual variations in rate of cognitive decline may therefore be explained in terms of people having different lengths of life.[3. There might be changes to the brain: after 2. Age can result in visual impairment, whereby non- verbal communication is reduced,[4. Macular degeneration causes vision loss and increases with age, affecting nearly 1. This degeneration is caused by systemic changes in the circulation of waste products and by growth of abnormal vessels around the retina.[4. A distinction can be made between "proximal ageing" (age- based effects that come about because of factors in the recent past) and "distal ageing" (age- based differences that can be traced to a cause in person's early life, such as childhood poliomyelitis).[3. Ageing is among the greatest known risk factors for most human diseases.[2] Of the roughly 1. In industrialised nations, the proportion is higher, reaching 9. Biological basis[edit]. At present, researchers are only just beginning to understand the biological basis of ageing even in relatively simple and short- lived organisms such as yeast.[4. Less still is known of mammalian ageing, in part due to the much longer lives of even small mammals such as the mouse (around 3 years). A model organism for studying of ageing is the nematode. C. elegans, thanks to its short lifespan of 2–3 weeks, our ability to easily perform genetic manipulations or to suppress gene activity with RNA interference, or other factors.[4. Most known mutations and RNA interference targets that extend lifespan were first discovered in C. The factors proposed to influence biological ageing[5. Programmed factors follow a biological timetable, perhaps one that might be a continuation of the one that regulates childhood growth and development. This regulation would depend on changes in gene expression that affect the systems responsible for maintenance, repair and defence responses. Damage- related factors include internal and environmental assaults to living organisms that induce cumulative damage at various levels.[5. There are three main metabolic pathways which can influence the rate of ageing, discussed below: It is likely that most of these pathways affect ageing separately, because targeting them simultaneously leads to additive increases in lifespan.[5. Programmed factors[edit]The rate of ageing varies substantially across different species, and this, to a large extent, is genetically based. For example, numerous perennial plants ranging from strawberries and potatoes to willow trees typically produce clones of themselves by vegetative reproduction and are thus potentially immortal, while annual plants such as wheat and watermelons die each year and reproduce by sexual reproduction. In 2. 00. 8 it was discovered that inactivation of only two genes in the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana leads to its conversion into a potentially immortal perennial plant.[5. The oldest animals known so far are 1. Antarctic sponges,[5. Clonal immortality apart, there are certain species whose individual lifespans stand out among Earth's life- forms, including the bristlecone pine at 5. Hayflick states that the bristlecone pine has no cells older than 3. New England) at 5. Greenland shark at 4. Such organisms are sometimes said to exhibit negligible senescence.[6. The genetic aspect has also been demonstrated in studies of human centenarians.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |