1. How often and why do people lose significant brain function before age 65?

2. How do vision and hearing change during adulthood?

3. What visible changes take place in the skin and hair between ages 25 and 65?

4. What visible changes take place in body shape between ages 25 and 65?

5. What aspects of body functioning keep adults from recognizing that their bodies are working less well over time?

6. How are men and women affected by the changes in sexual responsiveness with age?

7. What are some of the factors that diminish fertility?

8. How have advances in medicine helped people with fertility problems?

9. What are the advantages and disadvantages of HRT for women?

10. Why do many doctors consider the term andropause misleading?

11. What changes in tobacco use have occurred, where, and with what consequences?

12. How does obesity affect health and well-being?

13. What are some solutions to obesity? What drawbacks are there to these solutions?

14. What diseases and conditions are less likely in people who exercise every day?

15. In what different ways do men and women deal with stress? What biological factors help explain these differences?

16. Why have traditional diseases of affluence become more common among the poor?

17. Why does health vary between and within SES and ethnic groups?

18. What differing opinions exist about g?

19. What does cross-sectional research on IQ scores throughout adulthood usually find? What does longitudinal research on IQ scores throughout adulthood usually find?

20. Why do cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of intelligence reach different conclusions?

21. How does cross-sequential research control for cohort effects?

22. How is fluid intelligence different from crystallized intelligence?

23. What are Sternberg’s three fundamental forms of intelligence?

24. What is the basic idea of selective optimization with compensation?

25. What might a person do to optimize ability in some area not discussed in the book, such as playing the flute, growing tomatoes, or building a cabinet?

26. How do athletes compensate for the physical losses that come with age?

27. What factors contribute to expertise?

28. Using a specific example, demonstrate how an expert’s intuition might aid ability.

29. How does automatic thinking lead to expert performance?

30. Why might strategy be the most important difference between a skilled person and an unskilled one?

31. Give an example of how an expert in a profession of your choice might think flexibly.