Late Adulthood

Late adulthood (old age) is generally considered to begin at about age 65. Erik Erikson suggests
that at this time it is important to find meaning and satisfaction in life rather than to become
bitter and disillusioned, that is, to resolve the conflict of integrity vs. despair. It has been
estimated that by the year 2030, Americans over 65 will make up 20% of the population. Many
older people are happy and engaged in a variety of activities. Life expectancy is increasing in the
world’s richest nations, which translates into an increased emphasis on the physical, cognitive
and emotional needs of the growing numbers of older adults. This area of developmental
psychology is called, “late adulthood.”

Physical Development

Aging

Aging in late adulthood profoundly affects appearance, sensation and motor abilities. An older
adult's appearance changes as wrinkles appear and the skin becomes less elastic and thin. Small
blood vessels break beneath the surface of the skin, and warts, skin tags, and age spots (liver
spots) may form on the body.

For example, an older adult may become mistrustful (trust vs. mistrust), feel more guilt about not
having the abilities to do what they once did (initiative vs. guilt), feel less competent compared
with others (industry vs. inferiority) lose a sense of identity as they become dependent on other.

A person's mobility and dexterity will naturally decline as they age, which makes completing
everyday tasks more difficult. This can gradually cause people to care for themselves and
prevents them from being social, pursuing interests, or taking part in activities they enjoy.

Physical Changes

Late adulthood is the stage of life from the 60s onward; it constitutes the last stage of physical
change. Average life expectancy in the United States is around 80 years; however, this varies
greatly based on factors such as socioeconomic status, region, and access to medical care. In
general, women tend to live longer than men by an average of five years. During late adulthood
the skin continues to lose elasticity, reaction time slows further, and muscle strength diminishes.

Changes in the Brain

The aging process generally results in changes and lower functioning in the brain, leading to
problems like memory loss and decreased intellectual function. Age is a major risk factor for
most common neurodegenerative diseases, including mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's
disease, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease.
Changes in Memory

Memory also degenerates with age, and older adults tend to have a harder time remembering and
attending to information. In general, an older person's procedural memory stays the same, while
working memory declines. Procedural memory is memory for the performance of particular
types of action. In contrast, working memory is the system that actively holds multiple pieces of
transitory information in the mind where they can be manipulated.

Increased Dependency

As people age, they become more dependent on others. Many elderly people need assistance in
meeting daily needs as they age, and over time they may become dependent on caregivers such
as family members, relatives, friends, health professionals, or employees of senior housing or
nursing care. Many older adults spend their later years in assisted living facilities or nursing
homes, which can have social and emotional impacts on their well-being. Older adults may
struggle with feelings of guilt, shame, or depression because of their increased dependency.

While most individuals experience these stages, not all people go through every stage. The stages
are not necessarily linear, and may occur in different orders or reoccur throughout the grief
process. Some psychologists believe that the more a dying person fights death, the more likely
they are to remain stuck in the denial phase, making it difficult for the dying person to face death
with dignity. However, other psychologists believe that not facing death until the very end is an
adaptive coping mechanism for some people.

Cognitive Development

The impact of cognitive changes:

The impact of cognitive changes in late adulthood is influenced by earlier cognitive abilities,
socioeconomic status and educational status. Childhood intelligence predict cognitive ability at
age 80; and socioeconomic status and educational level predict cognitive status after age 70
better than do health ratings or the presence or severity of medical conditions

Measuring Older Adults’ Intelligence:

To measure the intelligence of older adults, researchers often use the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

Scores on the WAIS subtests yield a verbal IQ, a performance IQ, and a total IQ.

Older adults tend not to perform as well as younger adults on the WAIS, but the difference is
primarily in nonverbal performance.

The Seattle Longitudinal Study:

 In the Seattle Longitudinal Study of Adult Intelligence, researchers measured six primary
mental abilities:

1. Verbal meaning

2. Word fluency

3. Number

4. Spatial orientation

5. Inductive reasoning

6. Perceptual speed

During young old age, the slopes of decline for several of the primary mental abilities have
significantly flattened.

Every day problem solving ability:

Everyday problem-solving ability increases from young adulthood to middle age, but decreases
in older age.

Cognitive processing speed reaches its peak during early adulthood and declines from midlife
onward with age-related cognitive slowing widely Many factors affect cognitive development in
late adulthood, including physical changes such as hearing loss, a slowing of information
processing in the brain, and increased difficulty in focusing and problem-solving ability.

The Sensory Register

Aging person has a more difficult time hearing or seeing, that information will not be stored in
memory. This is an important point, because many older people assume that if they cannot
remember something, it is because their memory is poor. In fact, it may be that the information
was never seen or heard.

The Working Memory

Older people have more difficulty using memory strategies to recall details (Berk,
2007). Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity responsible for
temporarily holding information available for processing. As we age, the working memory loses
some of its capacity. This makes it more difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time
or to remember details of an event.  
The Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory involves the storage of information for long periods of time. Retrieving
such information depends on how well it was learned in the first place rather than how long it has
been stored. If information is stored effectively, an older person may remember facts, events,
names and other types of information stored in long-term memory throughout life. The memory
of adults of all ages seems to be similar when they are asked to recall names of teachers or
classmates. And older adults remember more about their early adulthood and adolescence than
about middle adulthood (Berk, 2007). Older adults retain semantic memory or the ability to
remember vocabulary.

Younger adults rely more on mental rehearsal strategies to store and retrieve information. Older
adults focus relies more on external cues such as familiarity and context to recall information.

Wisdom

Wisdom is the ability to use common sense and good judgment in making decisions. A wise
person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles they encounter in
their daily lives. Does aging bring wisdom? While living longer brings experience, it does not
always bring wisdom. Those who have had experience helping others resolve problems in living
and those who have served in leadership positions seem to have more wisdom. So it is age
combined with a certain type of experience that brings wisdom. However, older
adults generally have greater emotional wisdom or the ability to empathize with and understand
others.

Problem Solving

Problem solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly (a kind of
task which might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes) declines with age.
Older adults are able to resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others such as
family and friends. They are also less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on
important matters such as medical care.

Social Development

When we are young, we like to imagine who we want to be when we grow up: the career we'll
have, the partner we'll find, or what our children will look like. As we age and enter adulthood,
the events we dreamed about for all those years begin to shape our social development.

Social development in adulthood is primarily shaped by life events, rather than age and physical
development like it is for kids and teens. While adulthood can be viewed in stages, they are
not strict stages. The characteristics of each stage do not fade away over time. Intimacy may be a
concern of older adults even if they are primarily concerned with generativity.

Stages of Social Development in Adulthood

According to Erik Erikson’s "psychosocial stages of development", there are three stages of

social development that occur during young, middle, and older adulthood. Those stages are:

 Intimacy vs. Isolation (19 to 40 years): Adults begin to focus on building stronger

relationships and pursuing romantic partners. Forming more intimate and loving
connections is a primary goal.
 Generativity vs. Stagnation (40 to 65 years): Adults at this age are concerned with
building their careers, raising children, and engaging in other activities. They are also
concerned with caring for others and finding ways to make the world a better place.
 Integrity vs. Despair (65 to death): Adults begin to reflect on their life and either feel
ashamed of past mistakes, satisfied with their life, or a mixture of both.

Stages of Career Development

From childhood to the mid-20s, people experience a growth stage in career interests. We begin
to form ideas about what types of jobs we might like or dislike. During the exploration stage,
we begin to actively pursue a career through education and training. In the mid-20s to mid-40s,
people may reach the established stage where they begin to feel settled and stable in their
careers, and feel as if they are making a difference. Eventually, many people enter
a maintenance stage and become even more comfortable and stable in their careers. Finally, as
people begin to feel less invested in their work, they enter a decline stage and retire.

Characteristics of Social Development in Adulthood

The two primary social development characteristics in adulthood are intimacy and generativity.

Intimacy Early and emerging adulthood is the point at which we begin to deeply desire and
actively pursue close and intimate relationships. Intimacy is the process of feeling appreciated,
understood, and cared for by someone else, and causing someone else to feel that way through
sharing personal thoughts and feelings with one another.

When adult relationships include similar interests and values, intimate self-disclosure, and
emotional support, they are the most satisfying kind of relationship and often the most enduring.
Intimacy during adulthood can take the form of dating, cohabitating, marriage, partnerships,
friendships, and co-parenting. We start to form our own families: blood-related or otherwise.
Although adults often have far fewer friendships than in earlier stages of life, they are still much
happier when they are not left alone.

Generativity refers to a person's concern for other people and a need to guide and contribute to
younger generations. We all want to make our mark on the world. This is especially true for
adults who want to have something to pass down to later generations.

Factors Affecting Social Development in Adulthood

As previously mentioned, major life events play a huge role in social development in adulthood.
Several stages in life such as getting married, having children, buying a home, becoming
grandparents, and other events and crises shape the social life of an adult.

Marriage Marriage and long-term partnership are commonly the most significant bond in an
adult's life. In Western culture, people tend to marry for love, and 95 percent of Americans are
either married or want to be. Marriage is a predictor of happiness, physical and mental health,
income level, and sexual satisfaction in adulthood. Other studies have found that crime rates are
lower in neighborhoods with high marriage rates.

Recently, more people are choosing to live together before marriage and/or not to marry than in
previous generations. Divorce rates are known to be higher for couples, who live together before
marriage, but divorce rates have started to level out and even decline compared to previous
generations.

Children For most people, having a child is a happy event and the outcome of a love
relationship. It is a major life change but one that can add more meaning and joy to a person's
life. Raising children, however, is incredibly challenging. Children take up a lot of time,
emotional energy, and money, and they add additional stress to an adult's life. One of the goals
of adulthood is for a person to feel like they left their mark. In many ways, children serve as a
way for people to pass down their legacy.
Midlife Crisis For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the phrase
"midlife crisis" is a 40-year-old male who is deeply unhappy with his life and decides to quit his
job, buy a $100,000 car, and travel the world. However, the idea that reaching the age of middle
adulthood triggers deep dissatisfaction and initiates a crisis in a person's life is largely a myth.
Unhappiness, marital dissatisfaction, and job dissatisfaction are triggered by life events, not age.

As a person approaches late adulthood, they begin to reflect on their life and determine if they
have met their goals. Some may say they wished they worked harder, got a better education, or
told their parents they loved them more often. Several factors can affect social development in
late adulthood as these thoughts emerge. Older adults become empty nesters, enter into
retirement, become grandparents, and begin to face the ever-approaching reality of death and
dying.

Empty Nesters After having a child, especially a firstborn child, adults experience high levels of
satisfaction within their marriage. However, as time goes by, the child-rearing years can become
more stressful. Eventually, that glorious day comes when all the children have grown up and left
the house. Well, it is glorious for some parents. Others find it a very difficult transition. As
empty-nesters, many adults see a spike in marital satisfaction and, contrary to popular belief, do
not always experience a crisis or become depressed once their children leave home. Couples can
maintain meaningful relationships with their grown children, while also focusing more on
exploring activities and spending time with one another.

Retirement For older adults (65+), generativity becomes less important, and eventually, they
decide to retire. However, retirement can affect older adults in many different ways. People in
retirement may miss their jobs, especially if they have strong work values. They may become
depressed, inactive, and generally unhappy with life.

Death and Dying One important part of older adulthood is an increasing number of encounters
with the reality of death. Older adults have likely experienced the loss of parents, relatives, and
friends. Many learn from their experiences with death and use it to be more open to life and find
a sense of meaningfulness in their own lives. For others, the grief of so much loss can be
overwhelming. It plays a large role in shaping the social development of an adult, especially if
there is a sudden loss. Erikson noted that the crisis older adult’s face is integrity vs. despair.
Older adults either feel content with their life, if many of their goals at earlier stages were
accomplished, or feel regret and despair. Their time is almost up and they didn't accomplish
everything they planned to do.