PSYC 2235 Chapter 18 - Social and Personality Development in Later Adulthood

Ego Integrity vs. Despair Stage

The last of Erikson’s psychosocial stages in which older adults must achieve a sense of satisfaction with their lives

• Adults become more reflective and philosophical in late adulthood

• Those who use this to achieve a degree of self-satisfaction are less fearful of death

• Older adults are more likely than young and middle to respond to thwarted personal goals with feelings of sadness

Ego Integrity

The feeling that one’s life has been worthwhile

Reminiscence

Reflecting on past experience

• Engaged in by adults of all ages, but older adults use it more often to communicate their experiences to younger individuals 

• Provides a foundation for the process of life review, an evaluation process in which elders make judgments about past behaviours

Activity Theory

The idea that it is normal and healthy for older adults to try to remain as active as possible for as long as possible 

• Small but consistent tendency for those with more social involvement to have greater satisfaction, health and morale 

Disengagement Theory

The theory that it is normal and healthy for older adults to scale down their social lives and to separate themselves from others to a certain degree

• Shrinkage of life space, interacting with fewer people and filling fewer roles

• Increased individuality, less governed by strict rules or expectations

• Acceptance of these changes, actively choosing to turn inward and away from interactions with others

Continuity Theory

The idea that older adults adapt life-long interests and activities to the limitations imposed on them by physical aging

• Achieving some degree of consistency seems important for maintaining positivity while aging

Successful Aging

The term gerontologists use to describe maintaining one’s physical health, mental abilities, social competence, and overall satisfaction with one’s life as one ages 

• Good physical health 

• Retention of cognitive abilities 

• Continuing engagement in social and productive activities 

• Subjective sense of life satisfaction 

Staying Healthy and Able

Easier for people who have exercised, eaten healthy foods and avoided smoking throughout young and middle adulthood

• Some health issues are new such as the increased risk of broken bones (Much individual variation in willingness to comply with physicians and therapists during recovery from injuries such as broken hips)

Retaining Cognitive Abilities

Correlations exist among cognitive functioning, health and social involvement

• Education and complexity of cognitive challenges one still takes on both seem to influence cognitive functioning (Self-stereotyping may inhibit cognitive adventurousness and refusing to try to learn new things may contribute to cognitive decline

Social Engagement

Contact with friends and family is linked with greater satisfaction with life and less loneliness 

• Social engagement may be the most rewarding for seniors when it provides them with the opportunity to help others 

Productivity

Many older adults remain productive through volunteerism, these people are happier and healthier in their later years.

• Some older adults stay productive by learning new things like taking college classes, studying art or music

Life Satisfaction

This refers to a sense of personal well-being

• Determined more by a person’s perception of their situation than by any objective measure of it (Perceived adequacy of social support and income, self-rated health)

• Social comparisons - most seem to think that most other older adults are worse off than they are which seems to serve a self-protective function

Criticisms of Successful Aging Paradigm

• Potential for casting blame on older adults who do suffer significant declines or disease 

• Shift of gerontology’s focus from disease and decline to quality of life may hamper cures for diseases of old age 

• Few would suggest the paradigm is a bad thing, but rather that it needs to be held in balance with other views 

Religious Coping

Tendency to turn to religious beliefs and institutions for support in times of difficulty 

• May be particularly important for older adults due to the high number of life stressors encountered 

• Women rely on religious coping more than men do 

• Both genders seem to show the same benefits of religious coping when they do use it 

• Older adults who place much emphasis on religious faith worry less than those who don’t 

• Correlations between religious faith and physical and mental health in a variety of religions and cultures 

Religious Faith

Seems to:

• Help people believe their lives serve an important purpose

• Provide older adults with a theme that integrates the various periods of their lives

• Be viewed as a resource people with little social power in the material world can rely on

Attendance at Religious Services

Canadians who regularly attend services are:

• More optimistic

• Physically healthier

• Longer living

• Very satisfied with their lives

• Less stressed

Alternative Explanations for Why People Turn to Religion have Positive Aging Experiences 

Possibly personality traits that make people more religious and give them more positive experiences

• Extraversion is correlated with successful aging 

• Might it also make people more comfortable with large gathering and thus more comfortable in religious social environments?