The interview participant is a 71 year-old woman named Gloria, who immigrated from to Canada 43 years ago and has worked at her job for 31 years. Despite what most people may think about older adults, she states that she feels younger than she is – while some of the reasons were explored in this interview. To begin, the first key theme is independence. Gloria mentioned that one of the most important life lessons is, “you must learn to help yourself and get by on your own.” Regarding course content, this has come up in two areas. The first was in Andrew Jenks 335. Many of the residents wanted independence in various aspects of their life and used their own independence to help each other. The second aspect is in Rowe and Kahn’s definition of successful aging, which is “the absence of disease and disability, engagement with life, and high physical and cognitive functioning” (Whitebourne & Whitebourne, 2015, p.317). Despite the many critiques of this definition, the interviewee meets most of these criteria and credits most of it to her independence. …show more content…
She mentioned that “old is not negative”. I found this theme to be interesting since the opposite is often mentioned in class. In one article, gerontophobia is mentioned, which is the “fear of aging” (Gendron et. Al, 2016, p.998). Despite the commonality of this phenomenon, this is not something that represents Gloria’s life. In addition, the author also mentions internalized ageism, which is “in group discrimination where older adults made judgements, assumptions, or denied commonality with other group members” (Gendron et. Al, 2016, p.998). Similarly, Gloria did not demonstrate this – and identified positively with other members of her age
Van Dussen, D. J., & Weaver, R. R. (2009). Undergraduate students’ perceptions and behaviors related to the aged and to aging processes. Educational Gerontology, 35, 340–355. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03601270802612255.
certain age. Studies of ageist attitudes tend to focus on negative aspects and also have a positive
So in conclusion, in this course I am looking forward to learning all about gerontology, how older adults function and how they feel when they are in those situations listed above.
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.
The elderly vary in their feelings and attitudes about growing older. A member of the older community shared that the worst thing about growing old is that there is not much future in it. However, she looks on the bright side and comments
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
The article I chose for this assignment included two passages from the book, The Gift of Years, by Joan D. Chittister (1936). Chittister wrote this book when she was 81 years old and it is a particularly poignant read because the book provides a realistic and an optimistic view about how we grow old.
This reflection paper is based on the life history interview conducted on me and a 78-year-old woman who is soon going to celebrate her 79th birthday on Sep 21st. I would call her with a fictitious name “Smita” in the entire paper to maintain and protect her privacy. The interview was about our life. It was divided into six major life categories: childhood, adulthood, identity, the present, aging, and life lessons. Having an opportunity to interview a 78-year-old woman and writing this reflective paper about the life history and experiences had made me realize that I have a lot to learn about the stages of human life. Every individual lives are different and it varies tremendously. As an interviewee my goal was to collect the details of life, different stories, and experiences that makes our life unique from the rest of the people.
Theories concerned with ageing are constructed in an attempt to objectively satisfy the inquiries that arise after studying ageing and to provide evidence based clarifications. In the context of this essay, they allow troubleshooting regarding issues around the type of support would be expected to be needed by Betty and her son. Bengtson et al, (1999) accepts the potential pragmatism of the theories nevertheless he argues that they can be generalised and unimaginative. The controversy regarding theorising ageing becomes especially relevant when they are applied in isolation failing to address that “the science and positivism are severely limiting… for understanding aspects of ageing.” Bengtson et al (1999)
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,
Adults are self-motivated learners. Adult’s great desire to learn is brought about by immediate need to solve practical problems. Adult learners decide what to learn, the need to learn, how to learn and when to learn. This concept applies to the topic of providing care to the elderly and resolving practical problems. Adults want to learn how to solve problems and why they are doing it (which is improving the emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of loved ones).As problem centered learners adult care givers take responsibility in learning ways to solve this
305). Society is constantly bombarded by messages informing us about how to reduce the signs of aging, instead of accepting the natural process (Germov, 2014, p. 305). These beliefs have lead to ageism being very common in society. Ageism is best defined as the negative attitudes, which are associated with the aging process (Novak, 2006, p. 3). Ageism involves an individual or group being stereotyped and experiencing discrimination due to their biological age (Novak, 2006, p. 3). This discrimination can be direct or indirect discrimination, victimisation or harassment (Johnson, 2013, p. 27). Unlike other individuals and groups who are stereotyped and discriminated against, those who are making these comments will one day themselves be of old
There once was a grandma that went to a job interview, finally able to do something on her free time. She was energetic, strong, kind, and understanding. Probably one of the best women ever known in her block. But then she wasn’t accepted. Why? Because a younger woman, got the position, even though grandma’s resume and personality were better. She wasn’t accepted because was old, and there’s a higher risk in having her on the job because she might be too frail, and might not be able to work as well as the younger employees. This is ageism the “discrimination on the basis of a person’s age”(ageism). Ageism affects people mentally, the elderly are not the only ones being discriminated against, and it’s so simple to prevent.
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.
When I examined what they thought was the best thing about aging I found that 3 out of the 5 people (Kayla, Tara, and Vanessa) stated an answer that defined overcoming some certain type of restriction that was either put against them or had no choice in the matter like being done with school and staying up later at night, as well as being able to retire. The other 2 cohorts (John and Douglas) had stated things that were to be gained as they grew older such as maturing and gaining wisdom and knowledge.