Adulthood Middle and Late Adulthood

¶ … Adulthood

Middle and Late Adulthood

Health Measures

Briefly describe different measures of health in middle age. Evaluate how they contribute to the cognitive and social changes associated with middle adulthood.

During the phase of middle adulthood, the individual should have developed a set of lifestyle habits with regard to nutrition, exercise, sleep schedule and work that are intended to protect health and well-being. Health measures during this phase are largely contingent upon lifestyle habits and ingrained behaviors. This is demonstrated by the most salient health threats during this phase. According to Cantu (2010), during middle adulthood the "leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer, and accidents." (Cantu, 1)

This means that from a cognitive and social perspective, research has shown health measures to be highly related to stable and community-oriented behaviors. According to Perrig-Chiello et al. (2008), "high levels of self-preoccupation in middle age are negatively related to psychological and physical well-being in old age." (p. 27) This suggests that the long-term prospects of middle adulthood are highly contingent upon the socialization and normalization of healthy lifestyle behaviors. Both sources noted above remark on middle adulthood as a time at which the subject should have developed a 'life span' approach to behaviors, with long-term interests influencing lifestyle patterns.

Lessening of Abilities

Middle adulthood often presents the first time a person must confront the lessening of abilities. Using your knowledge of this realization and the accompanying research about this issue, evaluate how you can best use this awareness in the pursuit of your professional direction.

First and foremost, I would it valuable to recognize that middle adulthood will inherently bring these changes. Therefore, coping with the lessening of abilities must become the subtext for one's life as one ages. From a professional development perspective, I would consider it imperative to impart to my clients the notion that behavior and lifestyle changes can help to delay this diminishing of abilities but also that a certain amount of tolerance must be attained for this diminishing. According to Bastable (2008), in order to instruct older adults on both coping and making lifestyle changes, "gerogogy must accommodate the normal physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that occur at this phase of growth and development." (p. 181)

It would also be incumbent upon me to emphasize the shift in focus during this phase of the life cycle toward family and profession. Greater abilities in these areas should be seen as compensation for otherwise diminishing skills from one's youth. On the point, Lachman & James indicate that an emphasis in "middle age is on separating from one's family of origin (though still remaining in connection), becoming intimate with a partner, developing skills in work, and rearing children. The emphasis in later middle age is on facilitation of others and the responsible use of power." (Lachman & James, p. 21)

Functioning in Late Adulthood

Evaluate this question: Is new cognitive development possible during late adulthood?

How could you use your answer in the pursuit of your anticipated career (clinical psychologist) direction for yourself and for others?

Though the subject will generally be in a state of cognitive decline with the onset of later adulthood, there are ways to stimulate new cognitive development. From the perspective of a clinical psychologist, this development must be stimulated through a clearer understanding of how older adults reason and retrieve information. According to Gates (2006), this is done largely through deductive rather than inductive reasoning strategies and that this invokes the need for specific memory exercises such as mnemonics. Gates suggests that "improving memory requires making the effort to use good associations, such as the elaborative rehearsal, which means creating good associations that in turn, produce good retrieval cues and improve memory." (Gates, 1)

A strategy of this nature can help to produce new and lasting memory strategies in compensation for diminishing neurological acuity. Crawford (2009) also reports that there is a positive gain from maintaining social and community-oriented activeness into one's late-adulthood. Here, Crawford indicates that "in many varieties of culture, elders fare best when they retain social status and opportunities for community participation." (Crawford, p. 4) for the clinical psychologist, this means encouraging an active and socially engaged lifestyle as a way of stimulating continued cognitive experience.