Teen Stereotypes

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).

Chapter 14 starts off by looking at the way adults in middle adulthood view life. By this point in their life, they feel they have “grown up” and they are out of the life is still about to happen phase that young adults experience. This changes their subject well-being, which is the individual’s overall satisfaction with life and her general happiness. To measure this, questionnaires or interviews asking the person to rate her life and feelings about her life are conducted. Contrary to what some might believe, income does not make a major impact on a person’s life satisfaction.

Waldinger has access to real evidence and data on happiness and satisfaction over adult development. Waldinger states that in 1938 they began to track the lives of the lives of two completely different group of men. The first group were sophomores at Harvard College, the second group consisted of boys from Bostonś poorest neighborhoods and those from troubled families. Throughout the seventy five years of conducting this study, the clear message that kept reappearing was that strong and comforting relationships allow us to remain happier and healthier. By being involved with the study firsthand, Robert Waldinger gives his audience a reason to continue

Berger (2008) state that late adulthood, which begins at age 65, is the final stage of the life span development process that culminates through the death of an individual. During the course of the twentieth century the notion of late adulthood changed significantly (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). The average person’s life expectancy increased probably by 30 years. This changed the proportion of North Americans over 65 years from 1900s one in 30 to a projection by the year 2040 that it will be one in five. This drastically changed the perceptions of late adulthood (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). For example,

However to teenagers happiness means fame, position, joy, contentment and having peace of mind. Just as Paul Brenner asserted in his book “If life is a game why am I not having fun” He

The youth of the black community are perceived as violent because of the brutal past the previous generations had to go through. “I think the African American community… [understood that] … somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys … they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it and that context is being denied.” If a white teen was put into the same situation, the results would have been distinct from the outcomes of a black male teen.

a child because they are absent in her adult life. The author continuously uses the comparison of her happy childhood and adolescent years to her unhappy adulthood, but recent studies do not support her statement. According to studies examining the relationship between happiness in adulthood and self -appraised happiness has a surprisingly small relationship to age (Inglehart, 1990; Latten, 1989; Stock, Okun, Haring & Witter, 1983).

In today’s modern world, our mindset in fashion are all based on fantasy; new brands/branding, trends and many more. We all live in a society whereby we tends to buy things that are attractive. Even though we don’t have enough money for such items such as cloths, borrowing or lending money from others would better off the cost. In fashion, a question came to mind, what type of people are mostly portrayed especially in magazine covers?

According to the article, Here’s Scientific Proof That Life Gets Better As You Get Older, older adults are happier because they appreciate the little things in life. I do agree with this statement. Older adults know how to appreciate and are grateful for the small things in their life. I believe it is because they know that they do not have many days in front of them than they do behind them. According to the article, “Older adults assign higher value to ordinary experiences and everyday pleasures.” Some examples may be calling their grandchildren to schedule a dinner date, or going for a walk or bike ride, or even volunteering at a local soup kitchen.

Every generation claims that their successive generations are worse than them. Baby boomers (born in 50s to 60s) thinks that their generation is exceptional and spark the start of comparison between them and the younger generations. Millennials (80s to 90s babies) are often children of boomers, and lazy is a common stereotype parents like to label it on their kids. The reason behind parents that make such a strong accusation on their children is simply because they see the utter disappointment in their kids. However, parents sometimes ignore the fact that a child’s behavior is a reflection of themselves as they are the ones who raised them. I believe bad habit such as lazy is not something that is there all the time, children pick up the habit

The myth that old age is typically associated with decreased happiness is one that can perhaps be easily believed at first glance. Never having experienced old age, it is easy to think: “all of one’s friends must be either dead or dying; disease at old age must be rampant; one’s partner may have already passed; the only thing one is looking forward to must be death” so therefore old age must be a time of unhappiness. In addition, this “age-happiness” bias is reported even by older individuals when attempting to rate their happiness at 70 vs. 30 years old (Lacey et al. 2011). However, research in the field of psychology does not fully support the assertion that old age should be equated with unhappiness (Lacey et al., 2011). Quite the contrary, many studies point to the conclusion that aging can actually increase happiness (Lacey et al., 2011). However, it is important to explore other factors that may contribute to that being the case, such as one’s expectations when it comes to aging, cultural expectations.

A breakdown of happiness level for married and unmarried people in US is revealed by two of the bar charts, above chart shows the percentage based on range of age and the other uncovers influence of children on married mates. It can be noticed that married people achieve their life satisfaction higher than the one whereas single persons over 65 years of age are the greatest achievement. On the other hand, individuals who have children appear their enjoyableness less than 50%.

Happiness usually is derived from feelings of independence, competence, self-esteem, or relating well to other people (Sheldon et al., 2001). One aspect of adulthood that still remains the same, despite generational changes, is the development and maintenance of relationships. Erik Erikson spoke of young adulthood as the “Intimacy-Versus-Isolation Stage.” During this period, the focus is on developing close, intimate relationships

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

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.