CFG Aging Process & Psychological Aspects 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Normal age-related changes in sleep patterns include:
- Increased total sleep time and deeper slow-wave sleep
- Longer sleep latency, more frequent awakenings, and less deep sleep (Correct answer)
- Earlier sleep onset with unchanged architecture
- Decreased REM sleep exclusively with all other stages intact
Correct answer: Longer sleep latency, more frequent awakenings, and less deep sleep
Aging is associated with reduced sleep efficiency, lighter sleep stages, earlier awakening, and more fragmented sleep even without pathology.
Question 2: The term 'ageism' as coined by Robert Butler refers to:
- Legal protections for workers over age 40
- Systematic stereotyping and discrimination against people based on their age (Correct answer)
- Physiological changes that make older adults less productive
- The tendency for older adults to withdraw from society voluntarily
Correct answer: Systematic stereotyping and discrimination against people based on their age
Butler introduced ageism in 1969 to describe prejudice against older people that parallels racism and sexism in its social impact and harm.
Question 3: Which cognitive domain typically shows the LEAST decline with normal aging?
- Processing speed
- Working memory capacity
- Verbal knowledge and vocabulary (Correct answer)
- Divided attention
Correct answer: Verbal knowledge and vocabulary
Crystallized intelligence, including vocabulary and accumulated knowledge, remains relatively stable or even improves into late adulthood.
Question 4: A financial gerontologist notices a client's sudden personality change, increased apathy, and poor financial decisions. These symptoms are MOST concerning for:
- Normal age-related personality maturation
- A depressive episode related to bereavement
- Frontotemporal dementia or other neurocognitive disorder (Correct answer)
- Adjustment disorder with anxious mood
Correct answer: Frontotemporal dementia or other neurocognitive disorder
Frontotemporal dementia typically presents with personality and behavioral changes, disinhibition, and poor executive function rather than primarily memory loss.
Question 5: The 'positivity effect' in older adults refers to their tendency to:
- Overestimate their physical health relative to peers
- Attend to and remember positive information more than negative (Correct answer)
- Underreport depression symptoms on standardized scales
- Rate financial products more favorably than younger consumers
Correct answer: Attend to and remember positive information more than negative
Research by Carstensen and colleagues shows older adults preferentially process and recall positive emotional content, which supports emotional well-being.
Question 6: According to socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), older adults prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships because they:
- Lack the energy to maintain large social networks
- Perceive time as limited and focus on goals that provide immediate rewards (Correct answer)
- Experience reduced capacity for forming new attachments
- Suffer from progressive social anxiety due to cognitive decline
Correct answer: Perceive time as limited and focus on goals that provide immediate rewards
SST proposes that awareness of a foreshortened future shifts motivation from information-seeking to emotion-regulatory goals and close relationships.
Question 7: Which factor is most strongly associated with successful psychological adaptation to retirement?
- High pre-retirement income
- Voluntary rather than involuntary retirement (Correct answer)
- Age at retirement under 62
- Working in the private rather than public sector
Correct answer: Voluntary rather than involuntary retirement
Retirement that is chosen freely is consistently linked to better psychological adjustment, higher life satisfaction, and lower depression rates compared to forced retirement.
CFG Aging Process & Psychological Aspects 3
Normal age-related changes in sleep patterns include: