Theories of Socioemotional DevelopmentErikson’s Theory

• Integrity Versus Despair

  • reflecting on the past and either piecing together a positive review or concluding that one’s life has not been well spent

  • integrity: older adult will be satisfied

  • despair: negative

• Life Review: looking back at one’s life experiences, evaluating them, interpreting them, and often reinterpreting them

  • can include sociocultural, interpersonal, and personal dimensions

  • may result in increased meaning in life and mastery

  • might revive bitterness and negative thoughts

  • identifying and reflecting on both positive and negative aspects of one’s experiences as a means of developing wisdom and self-understanding

  • reminiscence therapy: discussing past activities and experiences with another individual or group

    • promotes a positive outlook and enhances quality of life for older adults, including those with dementia

Activity Theory

• the more active and involved older adults are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives

• when older adults are active, energetic, and productive, they age more successfully and are happier than if they disengage from society

• many individuals will achieve greater life satisfaction if they continue their middle-adulthood roles into late adulthood

  • if these roles are stripped from them (like early retirement), it is important for them to find substitute roles that keep them active and involves

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

• motivation changes in response to narrowing time horizons

• shift to priorities that favor emotional meaning and satisfaction

• older adults spend more time with familiar individuals with whom they've had rewarding relationships

• selective narrowing of social interaction. maximizes positive emotional experiences and minimizes emotional risks

• older adults have far smaller social networks than younger adults do and sometimes these social networks can get too small

• knowledge-related goals decrease in older adulthood and emotionally meaningful goals increase

  • when older adults focus on emotionally meaningful goals, they are more satisfied with their lives, feel better, and experience fewer negative emotions

  • as older adults perceive that they have less time left, they are motivated to spend more time pursuing emotional satisfaction

  • older adults focus less of negative events in their past than younger adults do

  • older adults’ emotional lives have less highs and lows

Selective Optimization with Compensation Theory

• successful aging depends on three main factors

  • selection: older adults have a reduced capacity and loss of functioning which require a reduction in performance in most life domains

  • optimization: possible to maintain performance in some areas through continued practice and the use of new technologies

  • compensation: life tasks require a level of capacity beyond the current level of the older adult’s performance potential

• theoretically, the processes of selective optimization with compensation contribute to successful outcomes

• the selection of domains and life priorities is an important aspect of development

Personality, the Self, and SocietyPersonality

• several of the big five factors of personality continue to change in late adulthood

• some personality traits are associated with the mortality of older adults

• older adults with negative effect don’t live as long as those who display positive effect

• optimistic older adults who have a positive outlook on life live longer

The Self and Society

• Self-Esteem

  • throughout most of the adult years, the self-esteem of males was higher than that for females

  • self-esteem declines in older adults

    • deteriorating physical health

    • negative societal attitudes toward older adults

  • average self-esteem declined in very old age and when individuals were close to death, but the amount of the decline was small

    • health problems and disabilities

    • higher levels of loneliness

    • lower levels of control beliefs

    • being widowed

    • institutionalized

    • physically impaired

    • having a low religious commitment

    • experiencing a decline in health

  • older adults with varied interests had a higher level of self-esteem

• Self-Control

  • high levels of self-control are linked to lower levels of depression and obesity

  • having a higher sense of self control over outcomes in life is linked to better cognitive performance, especially in older adults

  • self control was linked to better outcomes for well-being and depression

  • self-control was a key factor in older adults’ physical activity levels

Older Adults in Society

• Stereotyping Older Adults

  • ageism: prejudice against others because of their age

  • older adults are often perceived as incapable of

    • thinking clearly

    • learning new things

    • enjoying sex

    • contributing to the community

    • holding responsible jobs

  • older adults may be pushed out of their jobs, shunned socially, and edged out of their family life

  • men are more likely to negatively stereotype older adults

  • most frequent form of ageism:

    • disrespect for older adults

    • assumptions about ailments or frailty caused by age

  • increasing number of adults living to older ages has led to active efforts to improve society’s image of older adults

• Policy Issues in an Aging Society

  • Health Care

    • escalating health-care costs

    • partially caused by the increasing proportion of older adults in the population

      • older adults have more illnesses, especially chronic ones

  • Generational Inequity

    • view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving an inequitably large allocation of resources

    • should the young be required to pay for the old?

      • affordable care act: healthy younger adults who use the health-care system far less are still required to sign up for the program or pay a penalty

  • Income

    • economic security

    • poverty in late adulthood is linked to

      • increased physical and mental health problems

      • lower levels of physical and cognitive fitness in older adults

      • increased risk of earlier death in older adults

  • Technology

    • internet use by older adults reduced their likelihood of being depressed by a third

    • having an iPad strengthened their family ties and brought a greater sense of overall connection to society

    • increasing numbers of older adults use email and smartphones to communicate especially with friends and relatives

    • older adults also are using social media more than in the past

Families and Social Relationships

Lifestyle Diversity

• Married Older Adults

  • individuals who are in a marriage or a partnership in late adulthood usually are happier, less distressed, and live longer than those who are single

  • retirement alters a couple’s lifestyle

    • demands the greatest adaptation when one partner has been a homemaker and the other has been working

    • both partners may need to move toward more egalitarian roles

  • martial happiness of older adults is affected by each partner’s ability to deal with personal challenges

  • in late adulthood, married individuals are more likely to find themselves having to care for a sick partner with a limiting health condition

    • stress of caring for a spouse who has a chronic disease can place demands on intimacy

  • LGBT individuals

    • those who were legally married reported having a better quality of life and more economic and social resources than their unmarried and partnered counterparts

    • those who who were singles reported having poorer health and fewer resources

• Divorced and Remarried Older Adults

  • many divorced older adults were divorced or separated before entering late adulthood

  • the majority of divorced older adults are women

    • women have greater longevity

    • men are more likely than women to remarry

  • divorce is far less common among older adults

  • adults who have been married for many years, had better martial quality, owned a home, and were wealthy were less likely than other older couples to get divorced

  • divorce can weaken kinship ties when it occurs in later life

  • divorced older women are less likely to have adequate financial resources

  • older adults who are divorced have more health problems than those who are married

  • those who were divorced were more likely to die earlier and have lower life satisfaction

  • rising divorce rates, increased longevity, and better health have led to increased rates of remarriage among older adults

  • majority of adult children support the decision of their older adult parents to remarry

  • remarried parents and stepparents provide less support to adult step children than parents in first marriages provide to their adult children

• Cohabiting Older Adults

  • an increasing number of older adults cohabit

  • older adult couples cohabit more for companionship than for love

  • older adults who cohabited had a more positive, stable relationship than younger adults who cohabited, although older adults were less likely to have plans to marry their partner

  • psychological well-being of men who cohabited was similar to that of married men

  • few differences in psychological well-being of women who were married, cohabiting, or single

Attachment

• attachment anxiety was highest among adults in their mid-twenties and lowest among middle-aged and older adults

• attachment security was linked to competence in daily life, which in turn was related to psychological adjustment

Older Adult Parents and Their Adult Children

• older adults with children have more contacts with relatives than those without children

• adult daughters are more likely than adult sons to be involved in the lives of their aging parents

• middle-aged adults are more likely to provide support if their parents have a disability

• relationships between aging parents and their children are usually characterized by ambivalence

Great-Grandparenting

• because of increased longevity, more grandparents today than in the past are also great-grandparents

• one contribution of great-grandparents is to transmit family history

• young adults perceived their grandparents as having a more defined role and being more influential in their lives than their great-grandparents were

Friendship

• in late adulthood, new friendships are less likely to be forged and close friendships are maintained

• compared with younger adults, older adults reported fewer problems with friends

• adults who had close ties with friends were less likely to die

  • findings stronger for women

• people choose close friends over new friends as they grow older

Social Support and Social Integration

• Social Support

  • for older adults, social support is related to their physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction

  • older adults who experienced a higher level of social support showed later cognitive decline

  • older adults who are married are less likely to need formal social supports (home nursing care, etc)

  • social support for older adults may vary across cultures

• Social Integration

  • the extent to which individuals are involved in social exchanges with others

  • older adults with higher levels of social integration were less depressed

Altruism and Volunteering

• older adults are more likely to behave in altruistic ways and to value contributions to the public good than younger adults were

• when aging adults volunteer, they have better health, better cognitive functioning, and are less lonely

• older adults who volunteered regularly had a lower risk of cognitive impairment

Ethnicity, Gender, and Culture

Ethnicity

• double jeopardy for elderly ethnic minority individuals: face problems related to both ageism and racism

  • more likely to become ill but less likely to receive treatment

  • more likely to have a history of less education, higher levels of unemployment, worse housing conditions, and shorter life expectancies

• many of these older adults have developed coping mechanisms

  • extended family networks

  • churches

  • residential concentrations of ethnic minority groups

Gender

• femininity decreases in women and masculinity decreases in men when they reach late adulthood

  • men in their seventies are more likely to endorse androgynous traits

  • women in their eighties and older are less likely to endorse masculine and androgynous traits

• among older adult men, those who were married were more likely to endorse stereotypically masculine traits but also to have higher androgyny scores than unmarried older men

• double jeopardy for women: ageism and sexism

Culture

• culture plays an important role in aging

Successful Aging

• normal aging: psychological functioning often peaks in early midlife and modestly declines through the early eighties

• pathological aging: individuals show greater than average decline in late adulthood

• successful aging: individuals maintain their physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development far longer and decline later than most others

• being active and socially engaged are especially important for successful aging

• successful aging also involves perceived control over the environment

  • self-efficacy

  • many older adults maintain a sense of control and have a positive view of themselves