Sociology and Social Science

This article discusses the challenges faced by older adults in processing garden path sentences, measuring intelligence, and more. It also explores the Stroop Effect and the Big 5 personality traits. The article delves into the differences between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and why cross-sectional studies comparing people of different age groups are not always accurate. It also discusses the implications of the tip of the tongue phenomenon and why NART is used for measuring intelligence in older adults. Finally, the article explains the concepts of ego integrity, healthy dependency, and how bad dependency can result from good motives.

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Sociology and Social Science
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Understanding Why Older People Experience Difficulties when Processing
Garden Path Sentences
Older people experience difficulties in processing garden path sentences because of
their tendency to rely a lot on the heuristic like good enough processing in order to make up
for the deficits related to age that arise from time to time as far as the capacity of their
working memory is concerned (Stuart-Hamilton, 2012). They therefore endorse incorrect
interpretations of sentences that contain optionally transitive verbs and show a reduced
availability of accurate interpretations of the subordinate clauses that usually contain absolute
and reflexive transitive verbs (Kirkwood & Austad, 2000).
Understanding the Implications of “A Slow Horse will Save More Time
than a Fast Horse”
Older people tend to be slower than younger people, something that can be witnessed
easily at a neurological level. Brain activities of older people to sentences that are tough to
predict are slower and weaker. Yet older people tend to gain a rather disproportionate
advantage due to this, when compared with the process of recognizing words that are in
isolation. A slow horse saves more time than a fast horse. If one horse runs at forty
kilometers in an hour and another at twenty kilometers in an hour, then the race distance
when cut from forty kilometers to twenty kilometers will result in thirty minutes getting
saved for the horse that is faster, and a full hour being saved for the horse that is slower.
Similarly when older people react less quickly, facilitation, which effectively decreases
computational distance, will be more beneficial to the older participants (Stuart-Hamilton,
2012).

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Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
The Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon refers to the incapability of retrieving even a
single word from memory in addition to partial recall, as well as the feeling that the process
of retrieval is an imminent one. It is a subjective feeling that people in their old age very
commonly go through (Carey, 2018).
Understanding why NART is used for Measuring Intelligence in Older
Adults
The National Adult Reading Test or NART as it is commonly known, is used widely
for the estimation of premorbid ability. It is useful for measuring intelligence in older adults
as it is reliable, it can predict a substantive proportion of the IQ variance, and it is resistant to
psychiatric or neurological disorder.
Understanding why Syntactic Simplicity is considered to be an Instance of
Regression Hypothesis
The Regression Hypothesis is something that has been applied to morphology,
phonology, vocabulary and grammar (Carey, 2018). Regression Hypothesis is usually
characterized by simple and syntactic sentence structures which is why the phenomenon of
syntactic simplicity is something that may be regarded to be just one other instance of the
Regression Hypothesis (Stuart-Hamilton, 2012).
Differences between Cross Sectional Study and Longitudinal Study
The most important difference that can be identified between the longitudinal studies
and the cross sectional studies is that the cross sectional studies are those that entail the

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interview of fresh samples of people every time such studies are carried out while
longitudinal studies when conducted, tend to follow the exact same sample of people for
study and over a considerable period of time.
Understanding why Cross Sectional Studies comparing People of Different
Age Groups are not Always Accurate
There is no real dimension of time as far as cross sectional studies are concerned. The
attendance rate or the response rate also tends to be low and cross sectional studies even tend
to exhibit what may be termed as recall bias. The results or outcome of any type of cross
sectional study thus tends to get invalidated rather easily.
Why the Results of any Cross Sectional Study may not be Applicable All
Persons Involved in the Study
The outcome of a cross sectional study may not be applicable for all persons who are
involved in the study namely because of the fact that the response rate and the attendance rate
of participants is something that tends to differ from one participant to another. There is little
consistency that one can expect in a cross sectional study with regard to the attendance and
response rate.
Why can it Not be Concluded that Poor Cognitive Function causes Poor
Physical Health
Poor cognitive function is brought about specifically due to high levels of nocturnal
systolic blood pressure or SBP. Poor physical health on the other hand can be the result of a
variety of internal bodily dysfunctions. Hence it cannot be properly concluded that poor

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cognitive function causes poor physical health. Poor cognitive function is a disability but it
cannot necessarily influence the overall physical health of a person, which is dependent on a
large variety of biological factors (De Grey, 2008).
Understanding Stroop Effect
Any type of demonstration of interference that is detected specifically in the reaction
time of a particular task may be referred to as the Stroop Effect. It is widely made use of in
both clinical practice as well as investigation and has been named after the researcher, John
Stroop who is responsible for having published this effect for the first time in the English
language in the year 1935.
Understanding what the Big 5 is all about
The Big 5 refers to the five basic personality dimensions or personality traits as
defined and identified by modern day psychologists. These are agreeableness, extroversion,
neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness. Out of these extraversion and neuroticism are
seen to be more stable in men rather than in women while conscientiousness, agreeableness
and openness experience are found to be stable in both women as well as men.
What the ID, Ego and Superego Reveal about the Personality with
Advancing Age
The ID refers to the component of pleasure in the human personality, ego constitutes a
part of the personality that concerns itself with reality while super-ego refers to t internalized
all values, morals as well as standards which become ingrained in the individual by his
parents and the company that he grows up in. With advancing age the ID declines in

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intensity, making the personality of a person not as focused on pleasure as he was in his
youth (Horton & Spieler, 2007). The ego becomes stronger and the desire to be as wise and
as realistic as possible is quite profound (Altman, 2018). The super ego gets suitably
developed with advancing age, with a person becoming far more altruistic and moralistic than
he had been in his youth (Bostrom, 2005).
Understand Ego Integrity
Ego integrity is the term that has been developed by Eric Erikson in order to describe
the last of his eight different psychosocial development stages. It represents the type of post
narcissistic love that is associated with the human ego, the type of experience that conveys a
spiritual or other worldly sense.
How Bad Dependency can Result from Good Motives
A good example of how bad dependency can result from good motives maybe
witnessed in the use of anti depressants. A person taking anti depressants to feel
psychologically motivated and better can develop a dependency over time on the use of this
drug. He may end up having to take this drug even when he is a happy frame of mind, just
because he has got so addicted to it.
Understanding Healthy Dependency
A good example of healthy dependency is the dependency on companionships. It is
perfectly safe and healthy to rely or depend on a fruitful happy human relationship in order to
feel good and motivated about life.

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References
Bostrom, N. (2005). The fable of the dragon tyrant. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31(5), 273-
277.
Carey, B. (2018). Older Really Can Mean Wiser. Retrieved from
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Carey, B. (2018). The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind. Retrieved from
https://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/the-older-mind-may-just-be-a-
fuller-mind/
De Grey, A. D. (2003). The foreseeability of real anti-aging medicine: focusing the
debate. Experimental Gerontology, 38(9), 927-934.
Horton, W. S., & Spieler, D. H. (2007). Age-related differences in communication and
audience design. Psychology and Aging, 22(2), 281.
Kirkwood, T. B., & Austad, S. N. (2000). Why do we age?. Nature, 408(6809), 233.
Lawrence K. Altman, M. (2018). Parsing Ronald Reagan’s Words for Early Signs of
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ronald-reagans-words-for-early-signs-of-alzheimers.html
Lawrence K. Altman, M. (2018). Parsing Ronald Reagan’s Words for Early Signs of
Alzheimer’s. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/health/parsing-
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Stuart-Hamilton, I. (2012). The psychology of ageing: An introduction. Jessica Kingsley
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