Do people and life get better as they become older? Seniors could possibly look forward to retiring after investing more than half of their lives on a particular job. However, do they imagine sitting down and resting for the remainder of their lives? Older adults have a new perspective about getting older these days. Baby Boomers, especially, will sustain their youth and they view aging much differently than their parents did in the past. Hopes of traveling, physical exercise, hobbies, and even sports are continued interest in the continued future for older adults (Rehr & Mellor, 2005).
However, when life has other provisions such as aging, the outcome can be much different than what is expected. Some mother, father, or even sister or brother
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Life events influence the continued development of elderly individuals which makes seniors more likely to become more stressful (Santrock, 2012).
This paper will focus on the grim reality of elder abuse. Elder abuse which is also called elder maltreatment, includes psychological, physical, sexual abuse, neglect by care giver or self-neglect, and financial exploitation (Dong, Advancing the field of elder abuse: future directions and policy implications., 2012). Unfortunately, it is uncertain how many people are suffering from elder abuse, but studies do suggest that female elders are abused at a higher rate than males (National center on elder abuse administration on aging, n.d.). Although the number is uncertain, there is still a great concern which needs to be addressed. However, studies do know that one in 10 older adults do experience some form of elder abuse (Dong, Advancing the field of elder abuse: future directions and policy implications., 2012). With the continued growing population of elders, elder abuse stands for immediate attention and is far more common than
Activity theory of aging suggest that when elderly people interact with the community and include activities in their daily routine they are their happiest (Baird, 2011, p. 187). Ariel stated that “everyone need some form of release” (Lemmon, 1995).
McKie, David. (2007). Beaten down: Fear and violence in Canada's nursing homes. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
Getting old and aging are things that have become difficult points for many and despite
As adults enter the stage of later adulthood, many changes will begin to develop for each person. The aging process includes transitioning from work life to retirement, changes to roles, social positions, social policies, determining living accommodations with healthcare needs, and relationships with families and peers. The stage known as the golden years comes with great challenges while adjusting to the many changes in a person’s life. (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2010). Transition from work to retirement
As our age moves up in years and we become senior citizens we slowdown in productivity and begin to re-explore life as
Elders in the United States should not have to go through situations of abuse like the one Mildred Mortenson suffered. However, this type of situations happen more often than they should and sadly, there is not enough being done to prevent it. Elder abuse should be recognized as an increasing and very serious problem in our society. As elders grow more physically frail and begin to depend on others to meet their basic needs, they tend to become vulnerable to intentional abuse and neglect within their own home as well as assisted living facilities such as nursing homes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to know exactly how many elders are being abused across the Nation. Due to under-reporting, variations in the definition of elder abuse,
Elder abuse includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect, exploitation and abandonment of our older generation (Falk, 2012). The people that cause these injuries include the elderly person’s own family and staff members of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical rehabilitation facilities and hospitals (NCOA, 2017). There is approximately 1 in 10 older adults that have experienced some type of elder abuse in the United States (NCOA, 2017). Within these staggering numbers, only 1
During the late 1900’s, many different psychosocial theories were used to define how human beings behave during the later years of life, but how well do these theories hold up today? In order to determine this, I asked my two grandmothers, Dana Russo (73) and Jane Steinthal (78), to answer a series of questions to determine if their retirement locations correlated with behaviors described in different theories of aging. While both sets of grandparents lived in New York at one point in time, Dana and her husband Richard permanently retired down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida a few years ago and both sets of grandparents go back and forth from each state once each year in order to unwind and visit family and friends. In each of the interviews, I
The continuity theory of aging is the belief that older adults will usually maintain the same relationships, behaviors, and activities as they did in their earlier years. Kali and Cavanaugh (2016) identify that people tend to cope with daily life when growing older by applying familiar strategies learned from their past experiences (Kali and Cavanaugh, 2016). This means that as an individual adjusts to changes associated with the normal aging process, the individual’s past decisions, experiences, and behaviors will form the foundation for his or her present and future behaviors and decisions (Minhat, Rahmah, & Khadijah, 2013). Maintaining the same activities, habits, and patterns of thought is the most common strategy for adaptation as people begin to age as this maintains existing internal and external structures (Minhat, Rahman, & Khadijah, 2013). In a study that involved elderly aged adults, they found that they were more likely to actively be involved in a leisure activity if the activity had been performed at a young age (Minhat, Rahman, & Khadijah, 2013). This study confirms that older adults typically strive to continue doing as much as possible what
There is a general assumption that as we age we will experience a decreased quality of life. We feel that as our sight, hearing and joints begin to fail us and we realise that we are approaching the end of our lives we assume that we will become “grumpy old” men and women. However research consistently, and surprisingly, shows that older adults in fact often report a greater satisfaction with life as they age. Not only that, they are actually better at emotional regulation than younger adults(Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000). Researchers have described this as Socioemotional Selectivity theory(Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). One of the
The elderly population is faced with many challenges as they age. One of the challenges is elder abuse. Globally, elderly abuse is a major social problem that has worsened over time. Physical, sexual, emotional or psychological and financial abuses are some of the forms of abuse the elderly population are subject to. Has memory problems such as dementia, lack of support and physical disabilities are some causes or risk factors of elderly abuse. The consequences of such abuse going unresolved is have health issues, such as depressions, anxiety, stress, long term-psychological issues and even death. Moreover, “elderly abuse is often defined as a repeated or single act, or lack of appropriate action, that happens in any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes distress, injury, or suffering to an older person” (Kilvik et. al., 2015). The prevalence of Elder abuse is that of a world-wide issue caused by perpetrators, such as family members, friends, healthcare professionals, relatives and strangers. Interventions and prevention measures are put into place to help older adults suffering from the after math of abuse. As the elderly population grow, elder abuse increases. what are the different forms of elderly abuse? What are the various risk factors of elder abuse?
High levels of activity do not necessary mean they will live longer but that they will have a high life satisfaction. • Conflict: The elderly compete with younger generations for jobs and resources. • Age Stratification: The elderly both affect and are affected by social change.
Aging is multidimensional change involving psychological, social and physical forms of a person. It can be depicted as an increasing weakening of the physical and mental capacities bringing about a synchronous decrease in both the limit of the body to keep up homeostatic balance and also the flexibility of the individual to
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Firstly as human beings we progress through the life course which is very ambiguous in nature. There are various life altering events which can dramatically influence individuals such as becoming a parent for the first time, marriage, divorce, retirement and the death of a parent or a sibling. Additionally the most frequently occurring life changing incident for individuals that range in age from thirty five to sixty years of age was the death of a parent. Henceforth the unfortunate passing of a parent had been a key indicator of individuals entering middle age. This particular study on life altering events that occur in adulthood has multiple strengths and weaknesses. In addition one of the strengths in this professional journal article is that the author provides valid evidence that human being may react differently to various life events. The underlining meaning that each individual attaches to life events can determine what type of reaction that the person may display as they are experiencing the coinciding repercussions of the incident. This can also correlate with the individual’s response regarding the death of a parent and whether the person had formed a close and meaningful relationship with the deceased family member. Additionally I experienced the death of my eighty nine year old grandmother approximately two years ago due to a terminal form of small cell lung cancer. I surmised that because we had formed a close relationship her passing was a difficult