PSY 217 | Human Growth & Development
Module 8: Older Adulthood
Internet Activity: Living to 100
According to many experts on aging, the average person is born with a set of genes that would allow him or her to live to 85 years of age and maybe longer. People may add 10 or more quality years to that, or subtract a substantial number of years, by taking appropriate “age-proofing” steps or by failing to do so, respectively.
To learn more about long-lived people, and to explore your prospects for becoming
a centenarian, search the Web to find answers to the following questions.
(Hint: A good starting point is www.livingto100.com, a longevity Web site created by Harvard gerontologist Thomas Perls.)
1. How many centenarians are there in the United States today? Worldwide?
How have these figures changed since the beginning of the twentieth century?
How is this number expected to change in the future?
2. To what do aging experts attribute the change in the number of centenarians?
3. What are several traits and lifestyle habits that are common to long-lived people around the world?
4. Briefly explain the relationship of each of the following to expected longevity: education level, marital status, weight, blood pressure, stress. Then explain why, according to experts on aging.
5. What advice do centenarians offer to individuals who would like to reach 100 years of age themselves?
6. Some experts have mixed feelings about the online age-o-meters and the advice that some of them dispense. What are some of their concerns? What legal and ethical issues do online resources such as these raise?
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