Perception and intelligence Essay Example for Free

Perception and intelligence Essay Popular ideas of human development need revision to encompass the experience of older persons. In our too quick assumption that old age is a relentless downhill course, we ignore the potential of older persons for strength as well as for a richer emotional, spiritual, and even intellectual and social life than may be possible for the young. Overall physical health of the body plays critical role in determining the energies and adaptive capacities available to older people. They experience a great deal more acute and chronic disease than the younger population. If significant breakthroughs occur in research and treatment of diseases of the aged (heart disease, cancer, arthritis, chronic arteriosclerosis, and acute and brain syndromes), one can envision a very different kind of old age. Assuming adequate environmental supports, including proper nutrition, old age could become a time of lengthy good health with a more gentle and predictable decline. The Process of Becoming Old The kind of personality one carries into old age is a crucial factor in how one will respond to the experience of being old; personality traits produce individual ways of being old. But we will explore the general characteristics of old age and the changes that are fairly common to the aging population at least in the west particularly in the United States, which could also be attributable to other countries (Butler et al. , 1998). Physical changes: Some of the outward alterations experienced by older persons are graying of hair, loss of hair and teeth, elongation of ears and nose, loss of subcutaneous fat, particularly around the face, wrinkling of skin, fading of eyesight and hearing, postural changes, and a progressive structural decline that may result in a shortened trunk with comparatively long arms and legs. Not all of these changes happen to everyone-nor at the same rate. Recent researches have revealed that some or perhaps many of these changes are results of disease states that occur with greater frequency in late life and may be treatable, either by slowing the course of the disease or by preventing it entirely. The potential for life can be lengthened and enhanced, but mysterious flow of human existence from birth to death will prevail (Schaie Willis, 1996; Hurlock, 1982 Peterson, 1989). Although internal changes are not as readily observable as external ones, they are nevertheless are pronounced and as widespread. The muscles tend to become progressively less elastic over time. The most obvious consequence of diminished muscle tone is tiredness and decreased physical strength (Peterson, 1989). The density of our bones become more porous, brittle, fragile (Belsky, 1999) and are subject to fractures and breaks, which are increasingly slow to heal as age progresses (Hurlock, 1986). Internal organs go through a marked transformation. Atrophy is particularly marked by spleen, liver, testes, heart, lungs, pancreas, and kidneys. Perhaps the most marked change of all is in the heart and least and the last affected are the gastrointestinal tract, the urinary tract, and the smooth muscle organs. The senses: Vision and hearing become less sensitive with age. But most of this deterioration is cumulative, beginning early in life. The sensitivity of the other sense of taste, touch, smell and balance also decline with age, though the implications of these changes are generally less serious than for vision and hearing (Schaie Wills, 1996 Peterson, 1989). The motor system: The brain’s rate of electrical activity declines during old age and the conduction speed of the impulses along neuronal fibers throughout the body also decreases. There is slowing down in reaction time-the ability to quickly and accurately take action after a signal to respond appears- with age. It has three major components: sensory transmission time; motor execution time, and central processing time, which involves interpretation, decision, and association. The decreasing speed of processing information could account for many of the observed age differences in learning, memory, perception, and intelligence (Schaie Willis, 1996; Peterson, 1989; Belsky, 1999).