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Aging and The Life Course
Aging
95
Other
Undergraduate 1
03/12/2011

Additional Other Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

ACTIVE LIFE EXPECTANCY

Definition

Measure of the number of years a person can expect to live without a disability.

Term

ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING

(ADL's)

Definition

Measure of need for help with basic functions such as eating, bathing, dressing, getting to and from the bathroom, getting in and out of bed, and walking.

Term

ACTIVITY THEORY

Definition
A theory of aging which states that the psychological and social needs of the elderly are no different from those of middle of the middle-aged and that it is neither normal or natural for older people to become isolated and withdrawn; also called the implicit theory of aging
Term

ADAPTION

Definition

A range of behaviors to meet demands; includes developing habits to confront problems and manage frustration and anxiety.

Term

AGE COHORT

Definition

Refers to people who were born at the same time and thus share similar experiences.

Term

AGE DISCRIMINATION

Definition

Negative behavior toward olders people; acting on the basis of stereotypes.

Term

AGE EFFECT

Definition

A difference due to chronological age or life course stage.

Term

AGE GRADE

Definition

Use of age as a social category to group people by status-the expectations for when the transition from one role to another whould occur.

Term

AGE INTEGRATION THEORY

Definition

A theory that recognizes that societies have both age-segregated and age-integrated institutions that can either impede or enhance the participation of the aged.

Term

AGEISM

Definition

A systematic stereotyping of discrimination against people because they are old.

Term

AGE STRATIFICATION THEORY

Definition

Underlying proposition is that all societies group people into social categories and that these groupings provide people with social identities; age is one principle of ranking, along with wealth, gender, and race.

Term

AGE STRUCTURE

Definition

The distribution of people across various age cohorts.

Term

AGE 30 TRANSITION

Definition

One of Levinson's developmental periods of adulthood; major tasks in this period are establishing a niche in society and developing competence in a chosen craft and then working at succeeding.

Term

AGE TIMETABLE

Definition

Similar to age norms but looser and more flexible; informal rules, which specify age-appropriate roles and behavior.

Term

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Definition

Severe organic deterioration of the brain that affects memory, cognitive functions, and personality to a degree sufficient to interfere with normal activities and social functioning; symptoms include impairment of memory, intellect, judgement, and orientation and excessive or shallow emotions; the most common type of dementia. 

Term

ANGINA

Definition

Chest pain that may precede a heart attack.

Term

APHASIA

Definition

Involves damage to the speech and language centers in the brain; one of the consequences of a stroke; occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen; patients may be unable to produce meaningful speech or to understand spoken or written language.

Term

ARTHRITIS

Definition

A chronic disease that causes joint inflammation and its consequences of pain; swelling and deformity.

Term

BABY BOOMERS

Definition

The generation of Americans born between 1946 and 1964.

Term

BASAL CELL CARCINOMA

Definition

Common type of skin cancer; easily cured.

Term

CATARACT

Definition

A condition in which the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, and light cannot penetrate.

Term

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

(CNS)

Definition

The brain and spinal cord.

Term

CEREBELLUM

Definition

A brain structure involved in body movements and, to some degree, balance; located at the back and base of the brain; essential in the fine-tuning of voluntary and involuntary muscular movements.

Term

CHILD DEPENDENCY RATIO

Definition

The number of persons younger than 18 relative to those of working age.

Term

CHRONOLOGICAL AGE

Definition

Number of years a person has lived.

Term

CLASSIC AGING PATTERN

Definition

Age-related declines in verbal and performance intelligence amoung people 60 and older.

Term

CLINICAL DEPRESSION

Definition

A set of symptoms that includes depressed mood, loss in pleasurable acitivities, loss of appetite, sleep disturbance, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, difficulties in thinking and concentration, psychomotor disturbances, and suicidal notions.

Term

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Definition

The study of mental processes.

Term

COHORT

Definition

The aggregate of individuals who experienced the same event within the same time interval.

Term

COHORT AGING

Definition

The continuous advancement of a cohort from one age category to another over its life span.

Term

COHORT EFFECT

Definition

A difference due to the experiences or characteristics of the particular cohort to which individual belongs.

Term

CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE

Definition

A condition in which the heart's function as a pump is inadequate to meet the body's needs.

Term

CONTINUITY THEORY

Definition

A more formal elaboration of activity theory; uses a life course perspective to define normal aging and to distinguish it from pathological aging.

Term

COPING

Definition

A state of compatibility between the individual and the environment so that the individual maintains a sense of well-being or satisfaction with quality of life.

Term

CORONARY BYPASS SURGERY

Definition

A procedure to reduce blockage of the blood vessels supplying the heart.

Term

COUNTERTRANSITIONS

Definition

Life course transitions produced by the role changes of others.

Term

CREATIVITY

Definition

A measure of divergent thinking; the production of alternative solutions to a problem or situation; most elusive mental process to define and measure.

Term

CRITICAL GERONTOLOGY

Definition

An approach that emphasizes how the forces of globalization affect policies and programs for the aged and the daily lives of older people.

Term

CROSS-LINKAGE THEORY OF AGING

Definition

A theory of biological aging; states that the accumlation of cross-linked collagen is responsible for many changes associated with aging such as the loss of elasticity of the skin, hardening of the arteries of the circulatory system, and stiffness of joints throughout the body.

Term

CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH

Definition

Research comparing people of differnt cohorts at a single point in time.

Term

CROWDED NEST

Definition

The trend of young adults returning to the parental home.

Term

CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE

Definition

Intelligence based on the information, skills, and strategies that people have learned through experience; reflects accumulated past experience and socialization.

Term

DEFERRED EXCHANGE STRATEGIES

Definition

Exchanges between individuals over the life course.

Term

DEMENTIA

Definition

A form of mental illness that mainly occurs in old age.

Term

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION

Definition

The shift from high mortality and fertility to low mortality and fertilty that causes population aging; occurs in three stages.

Term

DEMOGRPAHY

Definition

The study of the basic population processes of fertilty, mortality, and migration.

Term

DISENGAGEMENT THEORY

Definition

The first formal theory of aging; the view that normal aging involves a natural and inevitable mutual withdrawel or disengagement, resulting in decreasing interaction between an aged person and others.

Term

EARLY ADULTHOOD

Definition

One of Levinson's developmental periods of adulthood; ages 17 to 45.

Term

EARLY ADULT TRANSITION

Definition

One of Levinson's developmental stages; the era when childhood draws to a close; the developmental tasks are to begin forming an adult identity and to separate from one's family of origin.

Term

ECHO BOOMERS

Definition

The generation of Americans born between 1977 and 1994.

Term

ELDERLY DEPENDENCY RATIO

Definition

The number of persons aged 65 or older per 100 persons of working age.

Term

EMPTY NEST

Definition

Period when a couple is alone together following the departure of children from the home.

Term

ENCODING

Definition

A stage of memory whe information that is learned is stored for later use.

Term

ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION

Definition

The inability to maintain an erection sufficient for penettration or sexual intercourse.

Term

EXCHANGE THEORY

Definition

A theory that social interaction between individuals is based on rational calculations and that people seek to maximize their rewards from these exchanges and minimize their costs; exchange theorists argue that interaction between the old and the young decreases, because older people have fewer resources to bring to the exchange.

Term

EXPANSIVE WOMEN

Definition

One of Apter's types of midlife women; these women sought fundamental change in their lives in midlife.

Term

EYE BLINK CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

(EBCC)

Definition

The reflex that makes an individual blink when air is blown into the eye.

Term

FEMINIST THEORY

Definition

The central purpose is to illuminate the gendered nature of society; gender relations are the main subject matter; notions of masculinity and femininity are seen as socially constructed; emphasis is on the different ways aging is experienced by men and women.

Term

FERTILITY RATE

Definition

A measure of the incidence of births or the inflow of new lives into a population.

Term

FLUID INTELLIGENCE

Definition

Refers to the reasoning memory, and information-processing skills; involves the ability to devise novel solutions to unforeseen problems; required to identfy relationships and to draw inferences on the basis of that understanding.

Term

FRAIL ELDERLY

Definition

Older people who depend on others for carrying out their daily activites; they show some mental or physical deterioration and need care from family members.

Term

FREE RADICAL THEORY ON AGING

Definition

A theory of biological aging; the view that free radicals contribute to the aging process by forming age pigment and by producing cross-links.

Term

FUNCTIONAL AGE

Definition

A definition of age based on how people look and what they can do; functional terms, a person becomes old when he or she can no longer perform the major roles of adulthood.

Term

GENERATION

Definition

A term applied to studies of family process; refers to kinship links.

Term

GENETIC CONTROL THEORY OF AGING

Definition

A theory of biological aging; the view that the life span is programmed into the genes.

Term

GERONTOLOGY

Definition

The scientific study of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging.

Term

GLAUCOMA

Definition

A serious condition that can lead to blindness; occurs when fluid cannot leave the anterior cavitity of the eye through the normal channels; pressure builds up within the eye, gradually destroying vision.

Term

HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

(HRT)

Definition

A treatment to eliminate the physical symptoms of menopause and to provide protection against heart disease and osteoporosis.

Term

HYPERTENSION

Definition

High Blood Pressure

Term

HYPERTENSIVE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Definition

Hypertension leading to a heart attack.

Term

IMMEDIATE EXCHANGE STRATEGIES

Definition

Exchanges between individuals in goods and services at one point in time.

Term

IMMUNE FUNCTION THEORY OF AGING

Definition

A biological theory of aging based on two discoveries: (1) protective immune reactions decline with age, with the body becoming less capable of producing sufficient quantities and kinds of antibodies, and (2) the aging immune system mistakenly produces antibodies against normal body proteins, leading to a loss of self- recognition; as the immune system becomes less efficient normal aging occurs.

Term

INNOVATIVE WOMEN

Definition

One of Apter's types of midlife women; women who were pioneers in a men's world.

Term

INTELLIGENCE

Definition

A measure of intellectual ability.

Term

KANSAS CITY STUDY OF ADULT LIFE

Definition

A series of studies designed to identify how people adjusted to normal aging processes; the studies coupled on emphasis on adjustment with measures of social role performance across the life span.

Term

LEARNING

Definition

The process of acquiring knowledge and skills.

Term

LENTIGO

Definition

The discoloration or spotting that commonly appears on the face, back of hands, and forearms of people 50 or older.

Term

LIFE COURSE

Definition

The interaction between historical events, personal decisions, and individual opportunities; experiences early in life effect subsequent outcomes.

Term

LIFE EXPECTANCY

Definition

The average number of years people in a given population can expect to live; the mean age of death; a measure of the combined outcome of many births and deaths calculated by taking the sum of the ages of death of all individuals in a given population and dividing it by the number of people in that population.

Term

LIFE SPAN

Definition

The longest number of years any member of a species has been known to survive.

Term

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH

Definition

The process of sorting complex methodological issues involved in distinguishing between age effects, cohort effects, and period effects.

Term

LONG-TERM MEMORY

Definition

The permanent storage site for past experiences; involves the ability to recall distant people and events; helps people make meaningful connections between the past and the present.

Term

MELANOMA

Definition

Dangerous skin cancer, which can metastasize and send cancerous cells to other parts of the body.

Term

MEMORY

Definition

The retention or storage of knowledge.

Term

MENOPAUSE

Definition

The permanent cessation of the menstrual cycle.

Term

MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

Definition

One of Levinson's developmental stages; lasts from age 40 to 65 following midlife transition.

Term

MIDDLE-OLD

Definition

People aged 75 to 84.

Term

MIDLIFE TRANSITION

Definition

One of Levinson's developmental stages; terminates the era of early adulthood.

Term

MODERNIZATION THEORY

Definition

The view that nations can be placed on a continuum from least developed to most developed, according to such indicators as the level of industrialization or the degree of urbanization, with those exhibiting certain qualities of social structure termed modern; basic premise is that the aged were revered in the past and that modernization has caused the status of the aged to decline.

Term

MORTALITY RATE

Definition

The incidence of death in a population.

Term

MOTOR NERVES

Definition

They carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to muscles and glands throughout the body.

Term

NEURONS

Definition

Brain cells that carry information throughout the body in the form of electrical signals.

Term

OLDEST-OLD

Definition

People 85 or older.

Term

OSTEOPOROSIS

Definition

Disease that causes the outside walls of the bone to become thinner and the inner part of the bone to become spongy; in the later stages, symptoms include a loss of height, back pain, and a curving of the upper back or spine, sometimes called a dowager's hump when spinal bones weaken and slowly collapse under the weight of the upper bones.

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