Analysis Of Melissa Lee Phillips's 'The Mind Of Midlife'

Critical Reasoning Paper 2

In the article “The Mind of Midlife “ by Melissa Lee Phillips presents the argument that although older people work slower and are forgetful they still have the capability to obtain new knowledge. Throughout the passage she acknowledges the fact that people who are in their Middle Ages brains actually has the ability to maintain its youth but can also rewire itself incorporating decades of experiences and behaviors. She also implies that the middle aged mind is calmer, less neurotic and is better at sorting through social situations; to support her thought she takes on information by other researchers. For instance, she uses a quote from cognitive neuroscientist Patricia Reuter – Lorenz which says “There is an enduring

Which throughout article she does a good job of doing. The first claim she makes is that people who are middle aged are better at solving social situations and are able to get what needs to be done more efficiently than young adults. The first example that supports her argument would be a research by Reuter-Lorez states that “They show that the middle-aged brain is capable of altering how it does things in order to accomplish the task at hand. “Compensation through some brain mechanisms may make up for losses in others,” the explanation of this study is that because people who in their middle age are able to use both hemispheres of their brain at a lower level of difficulty it allows them to perform steadily on

The Being provided with the study guide to Psychology 102, I was exposed to many examples that supported and contradicted the main points of the article. Mara Mather researched information that came to the conclusion that “Older adults tend to focus more on positive information and less on negative information than their younger counterparts” which makes sense because according to the study guide the active role of schemas in the brain is that “If information does not fit, it will be ignored or forgotten” (Unit 2, T3). I’ve also learned that the “Ability to think critically challenge assumptions, evaluate evidence, consider alternative explanations and defend conclusions with sound reasoning’s” (Unit 2, 49, T5). But this is only found evident I people who are in their middle to late twenties. The author does not support this idea because the author strictly says that middle aged people age 45 to 64 have the most difficulty to think critically and challenge assumptions. “Well-rehearsed activities do not require conscious attention, we are programmed to respond to many situations in a mindless way” (Unit 2, 49, T4). Also she did not consider whether people who are older are capable to perform more efficiently because they have experienced more things than someone who may be just out of college or starting a career. They