Getting Older
With this changing world around us; everyone has different feelings and thoughts about getting older. Some people are afraid to get older while others anticipate it. The select few might even try to delay the process by having surgical procedures done to have their body appear to be younger. In these next couple pages I am about to discuss the answers from interviews I preformed. All of the questions were geared towards the aging process and the person’s feelings about growing older. I asked 5 different cohorts (1) the same exact questions. The grouping of the ages was as follows: 1 person from each cohort – age 6-15, I chose 11 year old girl Kayla; age 16-25, I chose 20 year old Tara; age 26-40, I chose 27 year old
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But John and Douglas had stated positives that had already happened in their lives such as having and raising children and grandchildren along with the ability to watch them grow, mature, gain their own independence, and even begin to start a whole new family of their own.
I feel that most people below the age of around 40 go through their lives sometimes not truly appreciating the positives, but looking forward to becoming released from restrictions. I do believe the older a person gets, the wiser they become, not only from gaining knowledge as they travel down the road of life, but gaining experience and the sense to know, realize and truly appreciate how their cards of life had been dealt in front of them. When responding to the fears and bad things about the aging process the answers varied considerably. The group had had dreaded dying, your body wearing down (2), their health status (3), as well as needing long term care (4) and nursing homes (5).
Everyone knows about the biological process of aging. Typically, without using technical terms that not everyone is used to, most if not all people know that when you get older you gain wrinkles and your hair color slowly fades to white or grey. Though people know that everyone has to go through this process, some easier than others, we still fear and loathe this process. I believe that part of the international feeling of dread about
Society is big on staying and looking young. People are constantly working out, watching what they eat, and getting surgeries such as botox and breast augmentation. Our society is too concerned on looking youthful. Morrie had aging in better perspective, "The young are not wise, they have very little understanding about life. Who wants to live every day when you don't know what's going on? When people are manipulating you, telling you to buy this perfume and you'll be beautiful, or this pair of jeans and you'll be sexy It's very simple. As you grow you learn more. If you'd stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, it's growth." Aging is more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die and that you live a better life because of it.
Aging is very complex and highly individualized process which begins at conception and end with death. Variables such as physical or cognitive impairments, socioeconomic aspect, cultural values, and beliefs make an aging process unique to each individual. I interviewed an elderly woman using a set of guided questionnaires on the topic to further explore her aging experience. For the purpose of this assignment, I will refer to the client interviewed as a D.L., a changed name for a reason of privacy and confidentiality. During the interview, we explored a D.L. strategy to stay healthy, significant accomplishments of her life, hobbies and activities, retirement, and finally the goals for the future.
Late Adulthood is a time in people’s lives when they come to terms with their lives and reevaluate what they have done or accomplished in the lieu of what they still would like to accomplish for the remainder of their lives. During this stage of life adults around the ages of 65 begin to experience a variety of changes in their physical appearance and a decline in their health. The process of aging in an individual occurs at different speeds and during this stage older adults are being treated as second-class citizens especially by younger adults. The skin begins to wrinkle at an
I had the privilege of interviewing a 60 year old gentlemen who I will identify as Mr. E to protect his privacy for this assignment. The goal of my interview was to gain insight on aging from an older adult. I interviewed Mr. E in his home on a weekday evening. He expressed appreciation and was surprised that he was the focus of an interview in which his life story and thoughts would be recorded.
1) Describe your assumptions, beliefs, and perceptions about members of this group. People over 60 are most likely already retired and don’t work. Their health is not as good as the younger generation and they may visit the hospital and doctors often. They are set in old ways from their past and don’t like to experience new ideas or change. Many are
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.
The humanity of aging is a concept sometimes hard to grasp. Understanding why we are
The journey through late adulthood can be experienced in different ways. One particular movie entitled “The Bucket List” exhibits an astounding portrayal of late adulthood. In fact, there are many accounts that the movie entails about late-adulthood. This includes the illustration of Erickson’s late adulthood stage – “Ego Integrity vs. Despair,” wisdom, marriage, friendship, parent-child relationship, and death and dying in late adulthood.
Analyzing late adulthood and the death of an individual as a culmination of the life span development process one must understand late adulthood consists of. This paper will give a brief overview of ageism and stereotypes associate with late adulthood. This will explain how health and wellness techniques in the late adulthood stages can mitigate the negative effects of aging. As people age the social views and experiences changes in relationships and interactions with individuals, as he or she nears end of life. When closely approaching the end of life, a person has cultural and personal attitudes about death and dignity in late adulthood.
Largest among the growing populations is the age group 65 and older. This course required us to complete Dr. Woolf’s myths of aging quiz. This quiz has 25 questions all about aging issues. In our textbook, “Adult Development and Aging,” Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2011) state, “Everyone does not grow old in the same way. Whereas most people tend to show usual patterns of aging that reflect the typical, or normative, changes with age, other people show highly successful aging in which few signs of change occur” (p. 16). An analysis of Dr. Woolf’s myths of aging quiz will show several different areas to consider in regards to the
It is estimated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that there will be 71 million U.S. adults over the aged of 65 by 2030 (CDC, 2011, May 11). It can be certain, as was with their predecessors, that the geriatric journey for these adults will be filled with multiple anti-aging face creams and miracle hair growth products as they reluctantly cross over to the last stage of their lives. As shown not only through our media and social interactions’ growing old is not the popular choice. Ironically, the reality is that aging and dying is just as significant as our first breath. It is a journey made by everyone and everything though it is fought with a
Getting old and aging are things that have become difficult points for many and despite
As aging is a stage of development that cannot prevented, the question of “can one’s aging be more successful than another?” is posed my many. Researchers continually consider the differences between aging successfully, and aging unsuccessfully. As researchers work to complete their studies, many find a reoccurring basis of successful aging. A basis of successful aging can be set including: physical health disease free, chronic illness free, mental health disease free, among many others. The only problem with this basis is the difference from person to person in terms of what makes aging successful. As individuals age, their mental state is a large predictor of how the person will age. A positive mental state about aging, will have a more positive effect on a person’s aging process. Many factors may influence the positivity of aging, such as negative aging stereotypes and discrimination because of older age. These negative aging stereotypes include but are not limited to: older adults are not as smart, older adults are angry all the time, older adults are bad drivers, older adults are isolated and never socialize. In adult aging and development, having a positive outlook on aging will lead to better mental and physical aging.
Knowing and having an understanding of what ageing stands for, remains an important step, growing-up or growing older and ageism are theories about older individuals. Ageism includes preconceptions that elderly are categorized for their age and perceived as weak, and incapable of performing tasks and needy of others (Quadagno, 2014). Another view about elderly individuals is the way they are looked down on by the younger society, i.e. elderly are not as intelligent as their younger competitive working force. People fear what they do not know and do not understand. Age transpires as something that must be lived through in order to understand what ageing means; looking back on one’s life and seeing accomplishments made,
There are numerous ways to define successful aging. The word “aging” usually has a negative connotation. However, when putting the word success behind it introduces positive aspects that can essentially promote a long-term developmental outcome for an individual. Happening around midlife and late adulthood, successful aging is simply when an individual has complete development and maintenance of control throughout life, has achieved in the selection of goals and purposes, as well as maximization of gains and compensations of failure. This is the complete and ultimate goal for those in their late adulthood and is quite fascinating to developmental scientist. Those who engross themselves with attempting to achieve a successful aging will most likely have characteristics which in turn encourage and advocate for things such as health, growth, and vitality, maintaining social encounters and productive activities, and lastly maintaining high physical and cognitive functioning. Two developmental scientist, Vaillant & Mukamal, have discovered the factors that predict satisfaction of life are those an individual is able to control. These factors include are health habits, marital stability, years of education, and coping strategies. On the other hand those factors that are out of an individual 's control can not predict the level of happiness or satisfaction with life. These include the length of life of a family member, early health status, parental SES, and family warmth in