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Questions and Answers
Which of the following best describes social competence as a cluster of intelligence?
Which of the following best describes social competence as a cluster of intelligence?
What is the significance of the 'g-factor' in intelligence measurement?
What is the significance of the 'g-factor' in intelligence measurement?
How do fluid and crystallised intelligence differ as one ages?
How do fluid and crystallised intelligence differ as one ages?
Which of the following defines primary mental abilities according to the psychometric approach to intelligence?
Which of the following defines primary mental abilities according to the psychometric approach to intelligence?
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What does multidimensionality in life-span intelligence indicate?
What does multidimensionality in life-span intelligence indicate?
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Which aspect of intelligence is primarily influenced by acquired knowledge and cultural experiences?
Which aspect of intelligence is primarily influenced by acquired knowledge and cultural experiences?
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What is most likely the effect of having a flexible attitude on intellectual abilities as individuals age?
What is most likely the effect of having a flexible attitude on intellectual abilities as individuals age?
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Which type of reasoning acknowledges that truth can vary based on context and subjective factors?
Which type of reasoning acknowledges that truth can vary based on context and subjective factors?
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What primarily distinguishes postformal thought from formal operational thought?
What primarily distinguishes postformal thought from formal operational thought?
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Which factor is NOT associated with higher intelligence levels in terms of social outcomes?
Which factor is NOT associated with higher intelligence levels in terms of social outcomes?
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How do cohort differences impact intellectual change over time?
How do cohort differences impact intellectual change over time?
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According to the dual component model, which term best describes the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence?
According to the dual component model, which term best describes the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence?
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Which type of reasoning involves evaluating evidence-based thoughts?
Which type of reasoning involves evaluating evidence-based thoughts?
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What do older adults tend to rely on more when making decisions?
What do older adults tend to rely on more when making decisions?
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In practical problem solving, which domains are assessed through observed activities?
In practical problem solving, which domains are assessed through observed activities?
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Which characteristic is associated with someone demonstrating wisdom?
Which characteristic is associated with someone demonstrating wisdom?
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What does the concept of metacognition involve?
What does the concept of metacognition involve?
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What does the Consensus/Common Wisdom Model emphasize regarding knowledge?
What does the Consensus/Common Wisdom Model emphasize regarding knowledge?
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Which of the following is NOT a layer of personality analysis according to the content?
Which of the following is NOT a layer of personality analysis according to the content?
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What do personal concerns reflect in an individual?
What do personal concerns reflect in an individual?
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In a moral dilemma involving loyalty and justice, what is chiefly highlighted?
In a moral dilemma involving loyalty and justice, what is chiefly highlighted?
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Which of the following traits is associated with the decrease in neuroticism as people age?
Which of the following traits is associated with the decrease in neuroticism as people age?
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According to the Five-Factor Model, which personality trait is most likely to peak in middle age?
According to the Five-Factor Model, which personality trait is most likely to peak in middle age?
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In Erikson's psychosocial development theory, what crisis is centered around the conflict of generativity versus stagnation?
In Erikson's psychosocial development theory, what crisis is centered around the conflict of generativity versus stagnation?
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What is a key aspect of life narratives in McAdams's Life Story Model?
What is a key aspect of life narratives in McAdams's Life Story Model?
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Which factor does NOT significantly affect personal concerns as individuals age?
Which factor does NOT significantly affect personal concerns as individuals age?
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What does the midlife crisis concept primarily emphasize in adult development?
What does the midlife crisis concept primarily emphasize in adult development?
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What do generative actions promote according to McAdams’s model?
What do generative actions promote according to McAdams’s model?
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Which characteristic is NOT considered a facet of extroversion in the Five-Factor Model?
Which characteristic is NOT considered a facet of extroversion in the Five-Factor Model?
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What is a common theme among the goals addressed in life narratives?
What is a common theme among the goals addressed in life narratives?
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Study Notes
Defining Intelligence
- Intelligence is more than just a set of pre-determined characteristics
- Intelligence involves three main cluster: problem-solving, verbal ability, social competence.
- Intelligence is multidimensional: it includes various facets like problem-solving and social skills.
- Intelligence is multidirectional: some abilities might improve while others decline over time, depending on practice and experience
- Intelligence is plastic: abilities can change based on experience and practice - if you don't use it, you can lose it
- Intelligence is interindividually variable: individuals differ in their strengths and weaknesses.
Measuring Intelligence
- Psychometric approach is commonly used to measure intelligence.
- Binet (1906) introduced the concept of Intelligence Quota (IQ).
- Spearman (1927) proposed the "g-factor" theory, which represents a general capacity for intelligence.
- Secondary mental abilities are groups of related primary mental abilities.
- Primary mental abilities are hypothetical constructs that organize various skills (e.g., number, word fluency, spatial orientation).
Dual Component Model
- Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to adapt to new situations and process information quickly, this declines with age.
- Crystallized intelligence includes accumulated knowledge and experience, this increases with age.
What is Intelligence Associated With?
- Higher IQ is associated with better academic achievement, higher wages, and reduced risk of antisocial behavior and mental disorders.
- Intelligence is not related to life satisfaction or marital happiness.
Moderators of Intellectual Change
- Cohort differences are observed in intelligence between generations (e.g., your grandparents might have different cognitive patterns compared to you).
- Information processing speed and working memory decline with age.
- Environmental engagement, challenging activities, personality traits (e.g., flexibility), and health (including social connections and socioeconomic status) can positively influence intelligence over time.
Differences in Thinking
- Piaget proposed that people adapt to their environment by assimilating new information into existing knowledge and accommodating existing knowledge to new experiences.
- Postformal thought represents a more complex level of reasoning, where truth is relative, solutions are context-specific, and emotions play a role in decisions.
Dilemma: Peer Mentor
- Formal operational thinking follows rules strictly and might lead to reporting a student for plagiarism.
- Postformal thinking considers a broader context, including the student's understanding of plagiarism, the potential impact on the relationship, and the fact that the assignment has not been submitted.
Reflective Judgment
- It is a way adults reason through dilemmas.
- It has three stages: pre-reflective reasoning (beliefs accepted at face value), quasi-reflective reasoning (acknowledgment of uncertainty), and reflective reasoning (evidence-based evaluation).
Everyday Reasoning
- Older adults tend to search for less information and avoid risks in decision-making.
- Decision-making based on acquired knowledge and experience (crystallized intelligence) is less affected by age compared to decisions relying on fluid intelligence.
- Practical problem-solving involves everyday tasks like food preparation, telephone use, and medication intake.
- Older adults are more likely to adapt their problem-solving strategies based on the specific situation.
Wisdom
- Wisdom is an integrated understanding of life's meaning and challenges, gained through experience.
- It involves expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life, encompassing difficult matters, superior knowledge, good intentions, and a balance of intellect and virtue.
Consensus/Common Wisdom Model
- Intellectual humility involves acknowledging the limits of one's knowledge and being open to new information and perspectives.
- Recognition of multiple perspectives means valuing different viewpoints and understanding the context.
- Understanding uncertainty and change implies acceptance of life's inherent ambiguity and the constant need for adaptation.
- Integration of opinions and compromise involves synthesizing various viewpoints to find common ground based on morals and cultural contexts.
Personality: Levels of Analysis
- Personality is analyzed at three levels: dispositional traits, personal concerns, and life narratives.
Dispositional Traits
- The Five-Factor Model (Costa and McCrae) identifies five main personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
- Neuroticism generally decreases with age, especially in women.
- Extroversion slightly decreases with age.
- Openness to experience tends to decline in older age.
- Agreeableness slightly increases with age.
- Conscientiousness peaks in middle age and continues increasing until age 70.
Personal Concerns
- These are the things that are important to a person and their goals in life.
- They are explicitly contextual and change over time based on life experiences.
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
- Erikson proposed eight stages of psychosocial development, each representing a significant conflict that must be resolved to progress.
- The epigenetic principle states that each stage builds upon the previous one and their successful resolution is essential for continued development.
Extensions of Erikson’s Theory
- Logan suggests that Erikson's eight stages are cyclical, repeating over the lifespan (Trust>achievement>wholeness).
- Slater emphasizes the central crisis of generativity vs. stagnation and includes struggles like pride/embarrassment, responsibility/ambivalence, career productivity/inadequacy, and parenthood/self-absorption.
- Kotre notes that there are multiple opportunities to express generativity, not just one specific state.
McAdams’s Model of Generativity
- Generativity is a combination of societal and inner forces.
- It focuses on:
- Generative concern: interest in taking care of future generations.
- Generative action: actions that promote the well-being of the next generation (e.g., volunteering).
Life Transitions
- Theories of life transitions argue that adults go through stages of significant changes and adaptations.
- Levinson's "Seasons of a Man's Life" suggests that crises are followed by periods of stability.
- Midlife crisis involves reevaluating one's roles and dreams, potentially leading to adjustments and corrections.
Life Narratives
- McAdams’s Life Story Model emphasizes that individuals create a personal narrative throughout life, encompassing their life experiences, goals, and aspirations.
- This narrative serves as a sense of identity and develops over time, aiming to achieve coherence, credibility, openness, differentiation, integration of opposing aspects, and alignment with sociocultural contexts.
- Common life story themes include agency (power, autonomy) and communion (love, belonging).
Whitbourne’s Identity Theory
- Individuals develop a sense of how their life should progress, which can influence their perceptions of and adjustments to their life experiences.
Problems With Stage Theories
- Stage theories are difficult to verify through empirical research because it's challenging to define and measure a stage and not all individuals may reach certain stages.
- Stage theories often emphasize crises, which may not realistically reflect the continuous struggles and adjustments that individuals experience.
- They are often culturally specific and might not generalize well across diverse cultures.
McAdams’s Life Story Model
- People shape their life stories throughout their lives, incorporating their past, present, and future.
- The goal is to develop a life story that is coherent, credible, open to possibilities, differentiated, reconciles different aspects of oneself, and integrates with sociocultural contexts.
Life-Span Construct
- People's identities change over time
- The life-span construct helps to create a unified sense of one's past, present, and future
- The life-span construct is composed of two parts:
- Scenario - expectations about one's future, like a roadmap for how we want our lives to unfold
- Life story - a narrative of our experiences, forming our autobiography
- Whitbourne's Model posits that people maintain their self-views using:
- Identity Assimilation - adapting to change by incorporating new experiences into our existing framework (more common in older adulthood)
- Accommodation - revising our self-views to account for significant changes (more common in emerging adulthood)
Possible Selves
- Possible selves are formed by imagining our future selves:
- Ideal Self - who we want to become
- Feared Self - who we are afraid of becoming
- Age-related differences in possible selves:
- Emerging adults prioritize family concerns
- Established adults prioritize personal concerns
- Middle-aged adults focus on family concerns associated with "letting go" of children
- Older adults shift back to personal concerns, emphasizing remaining active and healthy
- Emerging adults tend to be more optimistic about their possible selves compared to older adults, who may perceive less personal control over them
Self-Concept and Well-Being
- Self-concept is an integrated pattern of self-perceptions, encompassing:
- Self-esteem - how we value ourselves
- Self-image - how we see ourselves
- Older adults compartmentalize their self-concepts more compared to other age groups
- Self-perceptions of aging remain relatively stable over time
Kegan’s Theory of Self-Concept
- Kegan's theory links self-concept to cognitive-developmental levels
- The theory proposes six stages of development, each corresponding to a cognitive development stage, from reflexes to needs and interests
Self-Evaluation of Memory
- Metamemory is an individual's knowledge and beliefs about their memory functioning
- Memory monitoring refers to awareness of our current memory processes and activities
- Age differences in memory knowledge and monitoring:
- Older adults may have less knowledge about memory functioning
- Older adults often perceive memory as more unstable and anticipate age-related decline, leading to a sense of reduced control over memory processes
- Despite these perceptions, older adults' ability to monitor memory does not decline with age
- Individuals demonstrating better memory monitoring tend to utilize more effective memory strategies
Memory Self-Efficacy
- Memory self-efficacy is the belief in our ability to perform specific memory tasks
- Individuals can understand memory processes but still feel incapable of executing specific memory tasks effectively
- Lower memory self-efficacy in older adults is associated with poorer memory task performance
Factors Influencing Memory
- Physical exercise, diet, multilingualism, and cognitive functioning all contribute to memory performance
- Semantic memory (general knowledge) can support recall
- Negative stereotypes can adversely impact memory performance
Memory Strategies
- Memory strategies are intentional tactics for improving memory retention and retrieval
- Types of memory strategies:
- External memory aids: rely on environmental resources
- Internal memory aids: involve mental processes
- Examples of external memory aids:
- Appointment books
- Grocery lists
- Examples of internal memory aids:
- Mental imagery
- Rote rehearsal
- The "memory palace" technique is a notable mnemonic strategy: Involves visualizing a familiar location and associating items to specific locations within that space
- Other effective memory strategies include:
- Paying attention
- Linking new information to existing knowledge
- Encoding processes: Organizing information meaningfully
E-I-E-I-O Model of Memory
- Developed by Camp et al. (1993)
- Categorizes memory aids based on:
- Type of memory involved (explicit or implicit)
- Type of memory aid used (external or internal)
- Explicit memory: Conscious and intentional recollection
- Implicit memory: Effortless and unconscious recollection
- External memory aids: Rely on environmental resources
- Internal memory aids: Rely on mental processes
- E-I-E-I-O model components:
- Explicit Memory
- External Aids: Appointment books, grocery lists
- Internal Aids: Mental imagery, rote rehearsal
- Implicit Memory
- External Aids: Color-coded maps, sandpaper letters
- Internal Aids: Spaced retrieval, conditioning
- Explicit Memory
Efficacy of Interactive Video Gaming in Older Adults
- A study by Ramnath et al. (2021) evaluated the impact of a 12-week active video gaming intervention on cognitive function among older adults with memory complaints
- 45 participants (age average: 72.4 years) were randomly assigned to an IVG group or a comparison group
- IVG sessions involved playing games on the X-Box Kinect (e.g., ten-pin bowling, boxing)
- Findings revealed that the IVG group demonstrated significant improvements in:
- Global cognitive performance
- Reaction times
- Functional capacities (e.g., distance walked in six minutes)
- The IVG group outperformed the comparison group
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