Type:
Solution Manual
Resource:
Adult Development and Aging Biopsychosocial Perspectives
Edition:
4th Edition
Author(s):
Susan Krauss Whitbourne Stacey B. Whitbourne
Chapter 1 Themes and Issues in Adult Development and Aging As the opening chapter to the book, the material covered here provides the orientation to the course. There is enough material in this chapter to cover two to three lectures. During the first lecture, it is particularly important to provide students with a sense of excitement about the field. Reflect on your own enthusiasm for teaching this topic and, if appropriate, relate personal experiences that have led you to want to become involved in adult development and aging. It would also be useful to find out why students have chosen to taken the course, as it is quite likely that many of them are there for personal reasons as well. Lecture Guidelines There is a logical break between the theoretical issues in the first part of the chapter and the demographic material presented at the end. The lecture on demography can begin with a discussion of current issues relevant to aging, such as the effect on the population of the "graying of America". A discussion of the "Baby Boomers" would also be interesting, as many of the students have parents in this generation. Videos and Films There are many potentially relevant materials to include in the lectures based on this chapter. Keep your eyes open for news items that concern aging in the U.S., Canada, and the world relevant to the economy, social trends, and population dynamics. Ageism can be illustrated by showing scenes from humorous portrayals of aging characters in a stereotyped fashion, such as the Simpson's, a classic cartoon series with a wealth of material on aging. Non-stereotypic older adults can also be shown to counter these negative representations such as older persons engaging in activities that would not normally be associated with aging. There are two excellent films by PBS: “The Way We Get By” (http://www.pbs.org/pov/waywegetby/) and Frontline “Living Old” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/livingold/view/). Because there are many statistics to summarize in the demography section, it is helpful to provide anything that will put a human face to the numbers. There is an excellent series available on YouTube divided into five parts, called “The World’s Oldest People”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjd8_9dtLHo Discussion questions The biopsychosocial perspective Why is the biopsychosocial perspective important? How does the material in this course relate to other courses that students have taken which employ an interdisciplinary perspective?
Four principles of adult development and aging Do you feel that you are a different person than you were when you were younger? Do you know of individuals who illustrate the principle of individual differences in development? What are the important intraindividual dimensions that psychologists should study? What are the implications for the field when you consider that the only people we can study in old age are those who survived? How can you be a survivor? Name some changes that you think are age-related and see if they are in fact age- or disease-related. How many of the CDC "Five Ways to Shorten Your Life" lifestyle habits do you follow? The meaning of age How would you define a person as an "adult"? Do you feel that you qualify as an adult? What are appropriate criteria to use for this distinction other than or in addition to age? What are the pros and cons of using these age-based divisions? How could the alternative indices of age be implemented in a practical sense so that they would replace chronological age? Can you come up with examples of the three types of influences on development? Social factors in adult development and aging How is identity affected by gender? Why is race a difficult concept to measure? Do you feel that the U.S. Census measure of race is an appropriate one? What might be its problems? How has your social class affected your own life so far? How do you think social class will affect your life in the future? What sorts of influences do you think that social class has on people's lives and why is it important in development? How has your religion affected your own development? Why do you think religion has not been examined in previous research on adult development and aging? The Baby Boomers grow up: Changes in the middle-aged and older population in the United States and the world What are the implications of an aging population? Will the aging Baby Boomers change the way that we think about aging? What are the implications of changes in the racial and ethnic distribution of the aging population?
Chapter 2 Models of Development: Nature and Nurture in Adulthood Lecture guidelines This is a heavily theoretical chapter and can be tough going for students who are eager to move on to learning more concrete information about adult development and aging. Depending on the nature of the class and its size, the lecture can be oriented toward more or less theoretical aspects of the material by providing a conceptual orientation (more theoretical) or concrete examples (less theoretical). Because this material previews much of what is to come in later chapters, it is also possible to use this chapter as a way to plant the "seeds" for these later concepts and discussions. Depending on the length of the class, it is advisable to break this chapter into two or more lectures, dividing it along the lines of biological vs. psychosocial theories. Biological theories can occupy an entire class period, particularly when combined with videos (see below). Some students may need extensive background in concepts of genetics. These will be important for later chapters, particularly Chapter 5, in which the genetic contributions to Alzheimer's disease are discussed. The psychosocial theories provide an opportunity to present some substantive material that may be of greater inherent interest to students in psychology and other social sciences as it previews concepts that will not appear until much later in the course, such as personality development and family issues. Videos and films The topic of developmental models is an important one to break up with relevant videos and films because the concepts are inherently dry and theoretical for some students. There are ample resources on biological theories of aging. The best ones that I have found are on the PBS series called “NOVA Science Now”: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/ which aired several segments about the genetics of aging. A popular movie that contains interesting twists about age and time is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” To illustrate concepts of ageism, you can also show here an y of many episodes from “The Simpsons” featuring older adults. There is also an excellent example in the Seinfeld episode called “The Old Man,” in which the characters each confront and older adult who is depicted in a funny but stereotypical fashion. Examples of identity assimilation and identity accommodation can also be provided from film or television shows in which characters either resist changing (identity assimilation) or change excessively (identity accommodation) in response to an event that challenges their identities. A good example of identity assimilation is "Driving Miss Daisy" which, in the first scene of the movie, shows the struggle she experiences as she is faced with accommodating to her loss of the ability to drive. Discussion questions
Models of individual-environment interactions How does the notion of contextual influences on development relate to concepts such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status? How do "nature" and "nurture" interact in development throughout life? Which model do you feel is most appropriate for understanding development? Why is it important to an interactionist model to emphasize the concept of reciprocity? How has your life involved niche-picking? Can you think of examples from your life when an action you took or decision you made had an outcome on a later event? Psychological models of development in adulthood Do you feel that Erikson's theory provides a reasonable framework for understanding development throughout life? What are its weaknesses and what are its strengths? Some critics of Erikson's theory feel that the theory is narrowly focused on heterosexual relationships in adulthood. Others argue that Erikson made an unreasonable distinction between development in men and women in that he suggested that intimacy precedes identity for women. What do you think of these criticisms? Why is identity balance considered an optimal way of reacting to the aging process? Provide some examples of age-related thresholds either in your own life or in the life of other people you have known. How did the people involved adapt to these thresholds? Why are psychological models of development necessary? What do they add to biological theories? Sociocultural models of development How does the life course perspective relate to the concepts of social clock and age-graded normative influences discussed in Chapter 1? How does the ecological perspective link models of development that focus on external processes to those that focus on processes within the individual? Why do you think disengagement theory was popular at one time? Do you know anyone who exemplifies disengagement theory? Activity theory? Continuity theory? What type of involvement in society would make you happiest when you get older? Why? How do older minority individuals (especially women) manage to cope with discrimination? What is your social clock? Do you think that the social clock is helpful or harmful when people think about themselves and their lives? Biological approaches to aging in adulthood Is aging necessary? What would the world (or universe) be like if there was no aging? What will be the implications of mapping the human genome? What would you like most to learn about the genome and how would this information be of relevance to you? Can aging be programmed by our genes? What if the process of replicative senescence could be stopped?