• The gradual ending of menstruation and a large reduction in the number of viable eggs in the ovary.
• An increase in the production of hormones to try and stimulate egg production which can cause irritability, hot flushes and night sweats.
• A reduction in sexual interest
• associated problems, such as osteoporosis, which can be caused by a reduction in the production of sex hormones
Final stage of life
The longest any human has lives is 122 years but the average of people living is 90 years old.
Intellectual development
The sensorimotor stage: birth to 1.5 or 2 years - Learning to use senses and muscles
• Babies are born with the ability to sense objects.
• Babies are also born with a range of reflexes such as the sucking reflex to enable them to feed. These reflexes lead to ‘motor actions’ controlling body muscles.
• The sensorimotor stage is a stage when thinking is limited to sensing objects and performing motor actions.
• Piaget believed that a baby would not have a working system for remembering and thinking about the world untilthey were about 18 months old.
The pre-operational stage: 2–7 years Pre-logical thinking – thinking in language but without understanding logic
• Pre-operational means pre-logical; during this stage Piaget believed that children could not think in a logical way. Children can use words to communicate but they do not understand the logical implications involved in language.
• Piaget explained that pre-operational children cannot properly understand how ideas like number, mass and volume really work. A child might be able to count to 10 but might not understand what the number 10 really means. For example, in the case of 10 buttons stretched out in a line and the same number of buttons in a pile, a young child might agree that there are 10 buttons in the line and 10 buttons in the pile, but then they might say that there are more buttons in the line because it is longer.
The concrete operational stage: 7–11 years -stage where logical thinking is limited to practical situations
• Children in the concrete operations stage can think logically provided the issues are ‘down to earth’ or concrete. In the concrete operational stage children may be able to understand simple logical puzzles.
The formal operational stage: from 11+ years -Thinking using logic and abstract thought processes – adult thinking
• With formal logical reasoning, an adult can solve complex problems in their head.
• Formal logical operations enable adolescents and adults to use abstract concepts and theories in order to be able to gain an understanding of the world beyond their own experiences.
• Adults with formal operations can think scientifically
• Abstract thinking enables us to think through complicated ideas in our head without having to see the concrete pictures.
Language development
Age: 3 months – infants begin to make babbling noises as they learn to control the muscles associated with speech
12 months: infants begin to imitate sounds made by carers such as da-da; this develops into the use of single words
2 years: infants begin to make two-word statements; the infant begins to build their vocabulary
3 years: children begin to make simple sentences, and then this develops into ability to ask questions, knowledge of words grows really quickly
4 years: children begin to use clear sentences that can be understood by strangers
5 years: children can speak using full adult grammar.
Social development
Infancy
- At 2 months start to smile at human faces
- 3 months- respond to when adults talk
- 5 months-can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
- Make first relationships – emotional attachment to carers
- Play alongside other children
Childhood
- Emotionally attached and dependent on adults that care for them
- Begin to learn social roles and behaviour
- Co-operate playing with other children
- Becoming increasingly independent
- Begin to form friendships
- Form social networks of friends who like and agree with each other
Adolescence
- Copy styles of dress, beliefs, cultural values and behaviours of their own network of friends
- Coping with development of their sexuality
- Social transition to full independence from the family
Adulthood
- Friendship networks continue to be very important
- Formation of adult sexual partnerships
- Need to find employment/establish a career
- Marriage and parenthood
- Adults in their forties and fifties experience time pressures that may limit their social activity
- Splitting time between work, care of parents, other family commitments and wider social activities
Older adulthood
- After retirement adults have more free time
- Older adults tend to increase their involvement with close friends and family rather than extend their network of social contacts
Emotional development
Infancy
- Built-in need to form an attachment with a carer
- Infants who are securely attached will grow up with the emotional resources needed to cope with uncertainty in life
Childhood
- Use of imagination to begin to understand social roles that other people play
- Begin to image a “me” – an idea of self
- Relationships with other family members influence how a child feels valued and have a sense of self-worth
- They way child get on with teachers and friends influence their self-confidence
- Child might develop a permanent sense of confidence or failure.
Adolescence
- Sense of self continues to develop
- Secure sense of identity needs to be developed
- Person needs clear understanding of identity in order to feel secure
- Self esteem may depend on the development of identity
Adulthood
- Learning to cope with emotional attachment to a sexual partner
- This involves not being to self-centred or defensive and not becoming emotionally isolated
- Risk of emotional stagnation
Older adulthood
- Older people need to develop a secure sense of self that enables them to cope with physical changes associated with ageing and death
- Might experience emotional despair
When a person is developing there are many different factors in which can affect the way that a person acts and develops.
First factor I am going to talk about is illness, for example brittle bone disease. Children born with that disease are likely to fracture or break their bones really easily because their bones do not have right amount or type of a protein which is called collagen. Child will develop a little bit differently from all the other children if they have this disease.
Alcohol has a negative influence on a child’s development before birth. Mothers who drink lots of alcohol when pregnant may give birth to undeveloped child. These children tend to have smaller heads than normally and overall are smaller. Children may have heart problems and learning difficulties.
Diet is also important factor because child will be affected by what their mother is eating during pregnancy and breast feeding. If a mother has a diet high in sugar and fat it can result in an increase of cholesterol and a risk of heart disease for her children late in their lives. Pregnant woman should eat plenty of healthy foods for a child to develop normally.
Poor housing may also influence child development. Poor housing is often associated with poor health. Dampness and mould increases the risk of allergic diseased for example asthma. Poor housing is also more likely to have problems with poor lighting, non-safety glass in windows, loose rugs and poor maintenance of stairs, which may result in accidents. Overcrowded housing may cause stress due to lack of privacy, noise and difficulties in relaxing and sleeping. Overcrowded housing may limit people’s ability to access washing facilities, TV programmes and Internet and computing facilities and is likely to make it difficult to study. People on low incomes are more likely to live in damp or overcrowded housing than people with a higher income.
Areas of low income may have poorer facilities and there are some concerns that poor people do not receive the same quality health service as other people. A low income makes it difficult to get to health or care facilities. When people can’t get to the doctors then they don’t know if their child is developing properly.
Predicted events
Marriage
Positive:
- Making emotional attachments and experiences intimacy.
Negative:
- may be feeling threatened by intimacy
- sharing possessions
- Possible loss of independence.
Leaving prison
Positive:
- Coping with freedom
- Choice
Negative
- Loss of routine
- Loss of structured environment
- Possible lack of support
- Difficulty with finding an income and housing
- Discrimination
Unpredictable
Illness and serious injury
Positive:
- Learning to adapt to physical change
Negative:
- Grief
- Loss of good health
- Depression
- Anger
- Failure to adapt to disability
Divorce
Positive:
- Coping with new lifestyle
Negative:
- Resentment
- Depression
- Grief at loss of the relationship
- Failure to adapt to new lifestyle
- Financial hardship
Physical changes associated with ageing:
- Skin becomes thinner, less elastic and more wrinkled
- Bones become less dense and more likely to fracture
- Joints become stiffer
- Person can lose height
- Muscles become weaker
Senses
- Sense of balance become impaired
- Ability to taste and smell deteriorate
- Vision deteriorate
- Hearing can decrease
Organs
- Muscles in the digestive system become weaker
- The heart is less efficient at pumping blood
- Blood pressure rises
- Nutrients from food are not absorbed as well as in earlier life
- Breathing becomes less efficient
Two theories of ageing
Activity theory
Havighurst says that if people keep involved with others in social network they will be more satisfied with life. But the criticism of this theory says that some individuals prefer to live alone and be independent. Not everyone may be able to go out and join activities.
Disengagement theory
Cumming and Henry developed this theory. They said that social structures encourage older people to withdraw from society so that younger people could take their place. Ageing is seen as a negative withdrawing from society. For many this happened when they stop work. In the 1960s many woman didn’t work and at that time according to this theory their role in society finished when their husband died. Criticisms of this theory are that:
- Many older people play an active part in their community and may continue to work in a part time job
- The theory denies that individuals have a choice
- This theory devalues older people
One of the most obvious signs of ageing are the lines and wrinkles which appear on the skin.
Hetherington, A., Rasheed, L., & Wyatt, L. (2007). BTEC National Health & Social Care. London: Hachetter Livre UK.
Strech, B. (2010). Health & Social Care Level 3 BTEC National . Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limites.