Chapter 1: Studying Adult Development and
Aging
1.1: Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Gerontology, the scientific study of aging from maturity through old age, has changed our
understanding of aging and the aging process.
Aging reflects the individual differences you have come to expect across people as they
change over time.
Many myths about old people persist.
These myths of aging lead to negative stereotypes of older people, which may result in
ageism, a form of discrimination against older adults based on their age.
Ageism has its foundations in myths and beliefs people take for granted, as well as in
intergenerational relations.
It may be as blatant as believing that all old people are senile and are incapable of making
decisions about their lives.
It may occur when people are impatient with older adults in a grocery store checkout line.
Or it may be as subtle as dismissing an older person’s physical complaints with the question
“What do you expect for someone your age?”
*The Life-span Perspective
The life-span
perspective divides human development into two phases:
an early phase (childhood and adolescence) and
a later phase (young adulthood, middle age, and old age).
The early phase is characterized by rapid age-related increases in people’s size and abilities.
During the later phase, changes in size are slow, but abilities continue to develop as people
continue adapting to the environment.
Viewed from the life-span perspective, adult development and aging are complex
phenomena that cannot be understood within the scope of a single disciplinary approach.
Understanding how adults change requires input from a wide variety of perspectives.
Moreover, aging is a lifelong process, meaning that human development never stops.
One of the most important perspectives on lifespan development is that of Paul Baltes, who
identified four key features of the lifespan perspective:
Multidirectionality Plasticity
Development involves both growth One’s capacity is not
and decline; as people grow in one predetermined or set in concrete.
area, they may lose in another and Many skills can be trained or
at different rates. improved with practice, even in
For example, people’s vocabulary late life. There are limits to the
ability tends to increase degree of potential improvement.
throughout life, but reaction time
tends to slow down.
, Historical Context Multiple Causation
Each of us develops within a How people develop results from a
particular set of circumstances wide variety of forces.
determined by the historical time Development is shaped by
in which we are born and the biological, psychological,
culture in which we grow up. sociocultural, and life-cycle forces.
The life-span perspective emphasizes that human development takes a lifetime to complete.
It sets the stage for understanding the many influences we experience and points out that
no one part of life is any more or less important than another.
Basing their theories on these principles, Baltes et al. (2006) argue that life-span
development consists of the dynamic interactions among growth, maintenance, and loss
regulation.
In their view, three factors are critical:
1. As people age, they begin to focus on or select those abilities deemed essential for
functioning.
2. People then optimise their behaviour by focusing on this more limited set of
abilities.
3. Finally, people learn to compensate for declines by designing workaround strategies.
Taken together, this Selective Optimisation with Compensation (SOC) explains how people
shift and more resources to maintain function and deal with biologically related losses as we
grow old, leaving fewer resources to be devoted to continued growth.
This shift in resources has profound implications for experiencing aging and for pointing out
ways to age successfully.
*The Demographics of Aging
The proportion of older adults in the population of developed countries has increased
tremendously, mainly due to better health care over the past century and to lowering
women’s mortality rate during childbirth.
People who study population trends, called, demographers, use a graphic technique called a
population pyramid to illustrate these changes.
By 2050, the number of older adults in developing countries will have increased
dramatically.
The tax will increase to be able to maintain the older pensioners.
The Diversity of Older Adults
Older women outnumber older men.
This is also true for each major ethnic and racial group.
Older adults in the future will be better educated.
By 2030 it is estimated that 85 % will have a high school diploma, and 75 % will have a
college degree.
Better-educated people tend to live longer, mostly because they have higher incomes, which
give them better access to good health care and a chance to follow healthier lifestyles.
Internationally, the number of older adults is also growing rapidly.
, These rapid increases are due to mostly improved health care, lower rates of death in
childbirth and lower infant mortality.
Nearly all countries are facing the need to adapt social policies to incorporate these
changing demographics and resulting societal needs.
Economically powerful countries around the world, such as China, are trying to cope with
increased numbers of older adults that strain the country’s resources.
Economic conditions in different countries have a powerful effect on aging.
One way to see this is to ask whether the parents of adults in households in developing
countries are alive.
All of these countries will need to deal with an increased demand for services to older adults
and in some cases, competing demands with children and younger and middle-aged adults
for limited resources.
1.2: Issues in Studying Adult Development and Aging
Developmentalists place special emphasis on four forces: biological, psychological,
sociocultural, and life cycle.
These forces direct our development much as an artist’s hands direct the course of a
painting or sculpture.
Following from the forces that shape adult development and aging are questions such as:
What is the relative importance of genetics and environment on people’s behavior?
Do people change gradually, or do they change more abruptly?
Do all people change in the same way?
These questions reflect controversies that historically underlie the study of human
development:
The nature–nurture controversy, the change–stability controversy, the continuity –
discontinuity controversy, and the “universal versus context-specific development”
controversy.
Having a firm grasp on the forces and controversies of development is important because it
provides a context for understanding why researchers and theorists believe certain things
about aging or why some topics have been researched a great deal and others have been
hardly studied at all.
*The Forces of Development
Developmentalists typically consider four interactive forces:
1. Biological forces include all genetic and 2. Psychological forces include all internal
health-related factors that affect perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and
development. personality factors that affect
Examples of biological forces include development.
menopause, facial wrinkling, and Collectively, psychological forces
changes in the major organ systems. provide the characteristics we notice
about people that make them
individuals.
3. Sociocultural forces include 4. Life-cycle forces reflect differences in
interpersonal, societal, cultural, and how the same event or combination of
ethnic factors that affect development. biological, psychological, and
Sociocultural forces provide the overall sociocultural forces affects people at
Aging
1.1: Perspectives on Adult Development and Aging
Gerontology, the scientific study of aging from maturity through old age, has changed our
understanding of aging and the aging process.
Aging reflects the individual differences you have come to expect across people as they
change over time.
Many myths about old people persist.
These myths of aging lead to negative stereotypes of older people, which may result in
ageism, a form of discrimination against older adults based on their age.
Ageism has its foundations in myths and beliefs people take for granted, as well as in
intergenerational relations.
It may be as blatant as believing that all old people are senile and are incapable of making
decisions about their lives.
It may occur when people are impatient with older adults in a grocery store checkout line.
Or it may be as subtle as dismissing an older person’s physical complaints with the question
“What do you expect for someone your age?”
*The Life-span Perspective
The life-span
perspective divides human development into two phases:
an early phase (childhood and adolescence) and
a later phase (young adulthood, middle age, and old age).
The early phase is characterized by rapid age-related increases in people’s size and abilities.
During the later phase, changes in size are slow, but abilities continue to develop as people
continue adapting to the environment.
Viewed from the life-span perspective, adult development and aging are complex
phenomena that cannot be understood within the scope of a single disciplinary approach.
Understanding how adults change requires input from a wide variety of perspectives.
Moreover, aging is a lifelong process, meaning that human development never stops.
One of the most important perspectives on lifespan development is that of Paul Baltes, who
identified four key features of the lifespan perspective:
Multidirectionality Plasticity
Development involves both growth One’s capacity is not
and decline; as people grow in one predetermined or set in concrete.
area, they may lose in another and Many skills can be trained or
at different rates. improved with practice, even in
For example, people’s vocabulary late life. There are limits to the
ability tends to increase degree of potential improvement.
throughout life, but reaction time
tends to slow down.
, Historical Context Multiple Causation
Each of us develops within a How people develop results from a
particular set of circumstances wide variety of forces.
determined by the historical time Development is shaped by
in which we are born and the biological, psychological,
culture in which we grow up. sociocultural, and life-cycle forces.
The life-span perspective emphasizes that human development takes a lifetime to complete.
It sets the stage for understanding the many influences we experience and points out that
no one part of life is any more or less important than another.
Basing their theories on these principles, Baltes et al. (2006) argue that life-span
development consists of the dynamic interactions among growth, maintenance, and loss
regulation.
In their view, three factors are critical:
1. As people age, they begin to focus on or select those abilities deemed essential for
functioning.
2. People then optimise their behaviour by focusing on this more limited set of
abilities.
3. Finally, people learn to compensate for declines by designing workaround strategies.
Taken together, this Selective Optimisation with Compensation (SOC) explains how people
shift and more resources to maintain function and deal with biologically related losses as we
grow old, leaving fewer resources to be devoted to continued growth.
This shift in resources has profound implications for experiencing aging and for pointing out
ways to age successfully.
*The Demographics of Aging
The proportion of older adults in the population of developed countries has increased
tremendously, mainly due to better health care over the past century and to lowering
women’s mortality rate during childbirth.
People who study population trends, called, demographers, use a graphic technique called a
population pyramid to illustrate these changes.
By 2050, the number of older adults in developing countries will have increased
dramatically.
The tax will increase to be able to maintain the older pensioners.
The Diversity of Older Adults
Older women outnumber older men.
This is also true for each major ethnic and racial group.
Older adults in the future will be better educated.
By 2030 it is estimated that 85 % will have a high school diploma, and 75 % will have a
college degree.
Better-educated people tend to live longer, mostly because they have higher incomes, which
give them better access to good health care and a chance to follow healthier lifestyles.
Internationally, the number of older adults is also growing rapidly.
, These rapid increases are due to mostly improved health care, lower rates of death in
childbirth and lower infant mortality.
Nearly all countries are facing the need to adapt social policies to incorporate these
changing demographics and resulting societal needs.
Economically powerful countries around the world, such as China, are trying to cope with
increased numbers of older adults that strain the country’s resources.
Economic conditions in different countries have a powerful effect on aging.
One way to see this is to ask whether the parents of adults in households in developing
countries are alive.
All of these countries will need to deal with an increased demand for services to older adults
and in some cases, competing demands with children and younger and middle-aged adults
for limited resources.
1.2: Issues in Studying Adult Development and Aging
Developmentalists place special emphasis on four forces: biological, psychological,
sociocultural, and life cycle.
These forces direct our development much as an artist’s hands direct the course of a
painting or sculpture.
Following from the forces that shape adult development and aging are questions such as:
What is the relative importance of genetics and environment on people’s behavior?
Do people change gradually, or do they change more abruptly?
Do all people change in the same way?
These questions reflect controversies that historically underlie the study of human
development:
The nature–nurture controversy, the change–stability controversy, the continuity –
discontinuity controversy, and the “universal versus context-specific development”
controversy.
Having a firm grasp on the forces and controversies of development is important because it
provides a context for understanding why researchers and theorists believe certain things
about aging or why some topics have been researched a great deal and others have been
hardly studied at all.
*The Forces of Development
Developmentalists typically consider four interactive forces:
1. Biological forces include all genetic and 2. Psychological forces include all internal
health-related factors that affect perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and
development. personality factors that affect
Examples of biological forces include development.
menopause, facial wrinkling, and Collectively, psychological forces
changes in the major organ systems. provide the characteristics we notice
about people that make them
individuals.
3. Sociocultural forces include 4. Life-cycle forces reflect differences in
interpersonal, societal, cultural, and how the same event or combination of
ethnic factors that affect development. biological, psychological, and
Sociocultural forces provide the overall sociocultural forces affects people at
