Question 1

According to the ideas presented by Jean Piaget, older adulthood, like childhood, involves learning to accommodate, rather than assimilate, life experiences into one's sense of self-identity.

Accepted Answer

Piaget believed that assimilation and accommodation are both important, and healthy development involves finding a balance, or equilibration, between these two processes.

Question 2

Most older adults experience this period as one of increasing complexity, but also one in which emotional adjustment, happiness, and satisfaction are high.

Accepted Answer

Most studies on aging suggest that older adults experience a period of increasing complexity caused by various life transitions such as retirement, widowhood, or declining health. Despite these challenges, surveys consistently show that emotional adjustment, happiness, and life satisfaction tend to increase with age.

Question 3

Mabel is thinking about selling her home and moving to an assisted-living facility. She completes a screening interview, in which a nurse evaluates how much help she needs in bathing, dressing, toileting, feeding, grooming, and physical mobility. The behaviors the nurse evaluated are usually called:

Accepted Answer

To help determine the level of support required, health-care professionals typically assess how well a person can manage two types of daily activities. One type is activities of daily living, which includes six basic self-maintenance capabilities such as bathing, dressing, toileting, feeding, grooming, and physical mobility.

Question 4

According to Carol Ryff, psychological well-being is best studied by focusing on:

Accepted Answer

According to Carol Ryff, psychological well-being is best studied by focusing on positive adjustment, or the ability to adapt and thrive in different life circumstances. This includes six dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth.

Question 5

Compared to younger adults, older adults typically remember positive information better than negative information.

Accepted Answer

Research studies have consistently shown that older adults have a positivity bias in their memory, which means they tend to remember more positive information and experiences than negative ones. This may be due to the fact that older adults prioritize emotional well-being and tend to focus on positive aspects of life, while also being less affected by negative emotions.

Question 6

In comparison to older adults who reside in nursing homes, older adults who live in assisted-living facilities for high-income people fair _______, and those who live in assisted-living facilities for low-income people fair ________.

Accepted Answer

The text notes that research on the outcomes associated with ALFs usually reveals favorable results, and these positive outcomes are found in both expensive ALFs and those provided for low-income adults.

Question 7

Generalizing from results of the MIDUS study reported in the text, you would expect which of the following people to report the highest level of personal growth and purpose?

Accepted Answer

The results of the MIDUS study found that white Americans scored lowest on ratings of psychological well-being, and that young adults scored higher on measures of personal growth and purpose than did older adults.

Question 8

If a person's focus is on how well her life has been lived and whether or not she has made a positive contribution to her family and her social groups, she is probably an older adult focused on the developmental conflict called integrity versus despair.

Accepted Answer

This is correct as integrity versus despair is a developmental conflict that is typically experienced by older adults, and it involves reflecting on one's life and evaluating whether it was well-lived and whether one has made a positive contribution to others.

Question 9

Generalizing from results of the MIDUS study, you would expect which of the following people to report the highest level of environmental mastery?

Accepted Answer

The results of the MIDUS study found that White Americans scored lowest on ratings of well-being, and that older adults scored higher on measures of environmental mastery than did older adults.
Changing Perspectives: Assisted Living - The In-Between Choice for Frail, Older Adults

Question 10

Status passages in older adulthood differ significantly from those in other periods of the lifespan.

Accepted Answer

Status passages, or major life transitions related to social roles and identities, in older adulthood differ from those in other periods of the lifespan due to factors such as retirement, health changes, and caregiving roles.

Question 11

Erik Erikson's view of the stage of life representing older adulthood is one focused on the issues of identity versus role confusion.

Accepted Answer

Erikson saw the fundamental developmental challenge for older adults to be one of integrity versus despair.

Question 12

John is recently widowed and decides to sell his house and move to a condominium complex for seniors. John is looking forward to having his meals prepared and served in a community dining room, and also to having staff available to help him with chores such as shopping, housekeeping, and laundry. The type of facility that John is moving into would best be considered a(n):

Accepted Answer

ALFs (assisted-living facilities) typically provide small individual apartments or condominiums, meals in a common dining room, some management of medications as needed, housekeeping and laundry services, and transportation to doctors' visits or for shopping.

Question 13

Erikson's theory of a development is better described as a consistency theory than as a stage theory.

Accepted Answer

Erikson's theory specified that people go through 8 distinct stages, each different from the others and each have fairly well-defined points of transition. As such, Erikson's view is a stage perspective. Consistency theories emphasize instead a more gradual transition through life, without noticeable changes from one period of the lifespan to the next.

Question 14

Both men and women become more extroverted as they age.

Accepted Answer

The text reports that many people, and especially men, become more introverted as they age. Introversion is the opposite of extroversion.

Question 15

Typically, assisted-living facilities provide ______ care than a nursing home and ______ care than living in one's own home.

Accepted Answer

Assisted-living facilities usually provide less care than a nursing home, which is equipped to handle more severe medical conditions. However, they provide more care than living in one's own home since they offer assistance with activities of daily living, medication management, and social engagement.

Question 16

According to research conducted by Carol Ryff, maintaining a sense of autonomy and purpose in life are both linked to positive well-being in adulthood.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true according to the research conducted by Carol Ryff. In her studies, she found that individuals who reported a greater sense of autonomy and purpose in life had higher levels of well-being in adulthood.

Question 17

Carl is thinking about selling his home and moving to an assisted-living facility. He completes a screening interview, in which a nurse evaluates how much help he needs in shopping, housekeeping, laundering his clothes, preparing his meals, managing his medications and finances, and transportation. The behaviors the nurse evaluated are usually called:

Accepted Answer

To help determine the level of support required, health-care professionals typically assess how well a person can manage two types of daily activities. One type is instrumental activities of daily living, which includes areas of functioning such as telephoning, shopping, housekeeping, laundering, food preparation, transportation, and managing one's own medications and finances.

Question 18

Accommodation becomes a more difficult task when an older person becomes ill or frail, and unable to take care of daily needs.

Accepted Answer

As older people become ill or frail, their accommodation needs may become more complex and difficult to manage on their own.

Question 19

Robert Atchley believed that people's self-concept usually does not change throughout the lifespan, and his view fits better with consistency theories than with stage theories.

Accepted Answer

Robert Atchley's view aligns with consistency theories, which emphasize stability in self-concept over time, rather than stage theories that suggest changes at different life stages.

Question 20

Research suggests that an older adult's emotional and social world is typically one of increasing narrowness and emptiness.

Accepted Answer

During the majority of older adulthood, older people tend to experience more satisfaction with their interpersonal relationships.

Quiz 17: Older Adulthood: Personality and Sociocultural Development