Aging is term used when describing an individual of an older nature. According to Anderson, (2010), the aging procedure occurs throughout an individual’s lifespan. All individuals are all associated in this procedure and none can avoid it. When an individual is young, aging is connected with development, maturation, and uncovering. Many individual capabilities max prior age 30, while other capabilities are ongoing through life. The aging procedure also produces collective and inner change and deprivation into individuals lives. However, as individual’s age, older members of the family die, while some friends may become weak and pass away. Some mental abilities are well preserved into elderly age. From premature adulthood, there is a reduction in mental fields such as processing tempo, logical thinking, recollection and decision making activities, few of which is foundation by a decrease in a common cognitive components (Anstey, Stankov, & Lord, 1993). A comprehension of standard physiological aging is a theory by the growth in illness related with expanding sequential age. Age-relate...
The older person that I interviewed was my great-grandfather, Kay Wilson. He is eighty-three years old and is currently retired, living at home. Wilson was born on February 27, 1934 and raised in Sylacauga, AL by his mother. His father was not active in his life, but his grandparents were his main caretakers growing up.
With healthcare in the United States advancing so rapidly, there are new ways to treat just about any kind of illness every day. With being able to treat illnesses in new ways, and also the advancement of medical equipment, comes the possibility of a lot more people living up into their 90’s, and maybe even getting to reach 100. The aging population, which keeps growing every so rapidly, will be using up a lot more sources as the years go by. This means, that we need to educate more doctors and nurses, etc., and also make more living facilities for older adults. The question that comes up in my mind, is when is “old” actually”. Most people stereotypically consider ages 75 and older old, but that doesn’t mean they are actually “old”, does it?
Desjarlais, R., & Throop, C. J. (2011). Phenomenological approaches in anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 87-102. doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092010-153345.
Prominent musician, Celine Dion, once said, “There’s no such thing is aging, but maturing and knowledge. It’s beautiful, I call that beauty.” To many, growing old is just a natural, beautiful part of life. It is inevitable. It is inescapable. The functionalist perspective of sociology states that the elderly perform a function in order to keep society running with ease. Functionalists focus on the disengagement theory and how people tend to disengage from society as they approach death. Symbolic interactionists focus on how environmental factors and relationships with others affect the aging experience, focusing on the activity theory and the continuity theory (Carl, 2011, p. 220). Conflict theorists focus on the discrepancies that arise between different age groups. They also focus on the economical side of aging and the issues that may arise due to an active elderly population (Carl, 2011, p. 221).
This paper is on dementia, a late-life disorder, as it pertains to the geriatric population. “It is estimated that 24.3 million people around the world have dementia and that, with an estimated 4.6 million new cases every year, we can expect about 43 million people and their families to have to handle the challenge of dementia by 2020.” (McNamera, 2011) I will cover three relevant points concerning this disorder that cause changes in the brain.
An interview was arranged with an older adult to discuss issues related to aging. The interview was designed to gain appreciation and understanding of an older adult. One theory of aging came into mind when I thought about this topic. Erik Erikson Life-Course and Personality Development theory, “Erikson described the task of old age as balancing the search for integrity and wholeness with a sense of despair.” NS is the older adult that I conducted the interview with. I’ve decided to pick NS to interview because she is very positive about life and her age. Everything that I have come across about aging is negative such as depression, isolation, and illness.
Senioritis: Real Disease Or Just An Excuse? Senioritis is defined by the “sickness” of high school seniors. It has the biggest impact on students during the second semester of senior year and it is characterized by the lack of motivation to stay engaged. Many of the soon-to-be graduates tend to slack off by the end of the school year.
Aging occurs at the biological, psychological and social levels. With numerous theories of aging spanning over many disciplines, no one is truly certain why we age or how we cope with it. Fortunately, our knowledge of how the body regulates or governs the rate of aging is slowly being demystifyied and we now know more about this process. Activity and disengagement are two major psychosocial theories which describe how people develop in old age.
Knapton, S 2014, ‘Brains of elderly slow because they know so much’ Telegraph Media Group, published in the Journal of Topics in Cognitive Science, viewed on the 22nd of march 2014
In an attempt to define ageing one must take in consideration the biophysiological together with the psychosocial aspects; these two aspects are intertwined.
The lives of people never remain in stasis; instead, as a human develops, his or her life path changes accordingly with his or her gains and losses in cognitive and physical ability. This essay will discuss how these changes in life path affect people in middle adulthood (40 – 60) with reference to Erikson’s developmental theory and give examples of how these changes impact social function. It will use peer-reviewed journal articles and books as references to form a reliable information base when discussing the theories and scientific outcomes of aging. It will begin by explaining and critiquing Erikson’s developmental theory and then continue to discuss the kinds of changes being made in middle adulthood and the impact of these
The world is said to reach a population of 9.2 billion people in 2050. The economy of a country is affected in multiple ways; one of the factors affecting the progression of an economy is the life expectancy. In the past decade, the sizes of families are decreasing due to many reasons such as low fertility rates, economic reasons, high education, and etc. causing an increase in the elderly population. Over the years, the life expectancy is continuing to rise at a phenomenal rate as the technologies advance to protect myriads of lives. The increased ageing population has been putting constant pressure on the economies to provide for the sick and the unemployed. In turn, this hinders the progress of the economy. But on the contrary, the increase in older citizens in an economy has also benefitted t...
Older adults are a very knowledgeable population and have had a lot of life experiences. As people age, things start to change physically, mentally, and socially. It’s important to understand the process of aging, so that older adults can be taken care of properly. I interviewed P.R. who is a 71-year-old male that lives alone in his home. P.R. is a retired coal miner, and is currently living off his social security and savings. He lives close to both his daughter and son, who frequently help him out with things that are needed. P.R. was able to give me a lot of insight about specific challenges that he has experienced in his life that is associated with aging. I will be discussing challenges that P.R experienced physically, mentally,
When you consider ageism, you think about people being labeled as other 's sees fit. It 's just another term to judge or deny people of their humanity. When you think about people in their late adulthood what comes to mind? Some may think about gray hair, saggy skin, dentures, and a wheelchair. So my question is why? According to (Palmore, 2005, p. 90) “Ageism is a social disease, much like racism and sexism” in that it considers people as part of a category and not as individuals, creating “needless fear, waste, illness, and misery.” The more people grow and develop, they will learn that aging must go on.
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.