PSYC2740 corrects the historical assumption that psychological development effectively stops after adolescence — adulthood and aging involve genuine, well-documented cognitive, social, and identity changes across decades.
Cognitive changes across adulthood
PSYC2740 examines cognitive aging research showing a more nuanced pattern than simple decline — fluid intelligence (processing speed, working memory) tends to decline gradually with age, while crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge and vocabulary) often remains stable or even increases well into late adulthood, challenging simplistic narratives about aging and cognitive decline.
Social and identity development in adulthood
The course covers Erikson's adult psychosocial stages (intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair) and socioemotional selectivity theory, which explains why older adults often report higher emotional wellbeing and more selective, meaningful social relationships despite facing more physical health challenges — a counterintuitive but well-replicated finding.
Key topics in PSYC2740
- Fluid vs. crystallized intelligence across the adult lifespan
- Cognitive aging: what genuinely declines and what remains stable or improves
- Erikson's adult psychosocial stages: intimacy, generativity, integrity
- Socioemotional selectivity theory and the aging paradox of wellbeing
- Healthy aging vs. pathological cognitive decline (e.g., dementia)
- Social relationship changes and their effect on wellbeing across adulthood
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Worked example: the aging paradox explained by socioemotional selectivity theory
- Paradox: Despite facing more health problems and losses, older adults often report higher emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction than younger adults
- Theory: Socioemotional selectivity theory holds that as people perceive their remaining time as more limited, they prioritize emotionally meaningful goals and relationships over expansive, future-oriented ones
- Behavioral pattern: Older adults tend to maintain smaller, more emotionally significant social networks, deliberately trimming less meaningful relationships
- Lesson: This isn't decline or disengagement — it's an adaptive, motivated shift in priorities that genuinely supports emotional wellbeing
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Frequently asked questions
Fluid intelligence refers to the capacity to reason, solve novel problems, and process information quickly, independent of prior knowledge — this type of cognitive ability tends to peak in early adulthood and shows a gradual decline with age. Crystallized intelligence refers to accumulated knowledge, vocabulary, and expertise built up through life experience and education — this type of cognitive ability often remains stable or can even continue increasing well into late adulthood, since it reflects a lifetime of accumulated learning rather than raw processing speed. PSYC2740 teaches this distinction because it directly challenges an oversimplified narrative of aging as uniform cognitive decline — while certain cognitive functions genuinely do decline with typical aging, others remain stable or improve, which is why, for example, older adults may perform worse on tasks requiring rapid novel problem-solving under time pressure but can perform as well as or better than younger adults on tasks drawing on accumulated knowledge and expertise.
Socioemotional selectivity theory, developed by Laura Carstensen, proposes that as people's perception of remaining time in life shifts — whether due to advancing age or other circumstances that highlight time limitations — their goal priorities shift accordingly, moving away from expansive, future-oriented goals (like building new knowledge or broad social networks) toward more emotionally meaningful, present-focused goals (like deepening a smaller number of close relationships and savoring positive experiences). PSYC2740 teaches this theory because it offers a compelling, well-supported explanation for a genuinely counterintuitive research finding: despite typically facing more health challenges, losses, and physical limitations, older adults consistently report equal or higher emotional wellbeing than younger adults in many studies — the theory suggests this isn't despite aging but partly because of an adaptive, motivated psychological shift that comes with a changed perception of time, deliberately prioritizing what genuinely matters emotionally rather than spreading attention across a wider but less deeply meaningful range of goals and relationships.