Developmental Psychology

Physical Development in Late Adulthood

Group Members

Juvaria Akbar - Roll# 01 Muhammad Hamza - Roll# 02 Rehab Fatima - Roll# 03 Bisma Hamid - Roll# 04 Aiman Nazir - Roll# 05 Nayab Fatima - Roll# 06 Taiba Khalid - Roll# 07 Mehak Haroon - Roll# 08 Maheen Imtiaz - Roll# 09

Ageism

Prejudice or Discrimination on the basis of a person’s age. It is a belief that the elderly people are less able and inferior to young people.

Reaction Time

It is obvious that physical skills decline as people grow older. Older people are able to perform short coordinated manual tasks but a long series of

tasks becomes difficult for them. Reaction Time is the time between the onset of stimuli and the actual muscle activity

that indicates a reaction to it. Studying the reaction time is the scientific way of separating the effects the central

nervous system (CNS) from the ability of the rest of the body to perform manual tasks.

Sensory Abilities - Vision

Eye lens become less transparent, thicker and less elastic.This tends to cause farsightedness. Increasing age causes the chances for retina changes.Floaters are actually particles suspended in the gel-like substance that fill our

eyes.Dry Eye is stemmed from diminished tear production.

Sensory Abilities – Vision (Cont.)

Senile Macular Degeneration is the deterioration of eye’s Macula. Macula is the small area in the retina responsible for central vision. Cataracts make eye lens foggy and person sees things as blurry and less colorful. Glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to your eye's optic nerve and gets worse

over time.

Sensory Abilities - Hearing

Hearing difficulties can occur as a person increases in age. Older adults have more difficulty in hearing something when there is a background

noise. Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) is the loss of hearing that gradually occurs in

most of us as we grow older. It is one of the most common conditions affecting older and elderly adults.

Sensory Abilities - Speech

A common perception about older adults is that they talk irrelevant and off the topic frequently.

In Apraxia of speech, the messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted and the person cannot move his or her lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly, even though the muscles are not weak.

Dysarthria results from impaired movement of the muscles used for speech production.

Sensory Abilities – Smell

Ability of Smell declining with age is called presbyosmia and is not preventable. Both the number of fibers in the olfactory bulb, along with olfactory receptors decrease

noticeably with age. Even in the absence of disease, olfactory receptor neurons undergo apoptosis at a

baseline rate in each person.

Sensory Abilities - Taste

Younger adults have an average of taste buds around 250 while the average drops to a 100 in older adults.

It results in a decline in the taste ability of older adults.

Skeletal System

Entire skeletal system becomes stiff and rigid. Diseases like Arthritis can occur with increasing age. Osteoporosis is a medical condition in which bones become brittle and fragile from

loss of tissue, typically as a result of hormonal changes, or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.

Skin

Skin becomes darker and coarser. Wrinkles begin to appear. Results in some weight loss in the older adults. Overall skin undergoes paleness causing the darkening of skin specially under eyes.

Teeth

All the chewing, grinding, and biting wears away the enamel - that hard, outer layer of the teeth.

Loss of teeth is an important physical aspect in older age. It can also occur due to some gum problems as well.

Hair

Hair become thin, stiff and gray with growing age. Baldness could occur in males. Facial hair could occur in females.

Locomotion

Average locomotion decreases with aging. Elder people walk slowly and often need some support. As the bones become weak and the joints become less greasy, it causes trouble while

movements.

Prostate Cancer

Leading cause of death among older males. Can be caused by:

Eating excessive dietary fats. Drinking too much alcohol. Smoking. Too little exercise.

Alzheimer’s Disease

It is progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain. It is the commonest cause of premature senility.

Source of affliction and debilitation. Symptoms:

Decrease in one’s ability to learn, handle complex tasks. Trouble with remembering things, people and places. This is a genetically inherited disease.

Gastric Issues

Elderly seem to get ulcers. Digestive issues in adults are mainly due to decline in secretion of gastric juices.

Relation B/W Physical and Mental Health

There is a strong relation between mental and physical health of a person. Married men have better health than unmarried men due to family care. Social resources are important for good mental health in females. Economic resources can highly effect the mental health.