StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Changes in Late Adulthood - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "The Changes in Late Adulthood" highlights that age sixty-five marks the commencement of late adulthood. Even though it would be widely argued of old age as being a state of mind, several physical, and cognitive socioemotional changes signify late adulthood, even though gradual…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.3% of users find it useful
The Changes in Late Adulthood
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Changes in Late Adulthood"

The body experiences changes such as loss of teeth resulting in poor eating habits that cause malnutrition. Muscle atrophy and loss of muscle tissue elasticity reduce elasticity and enhance stiffness. This developmental stage would commonly be accompanied by health issues that propagate challenges associated with the respiratory, digestive, and genitourinary systems.
The cognitive changes would be explained by the selection, optimization, and compensation, SOC theory cited by Kail and Cavanaugh (2013) which postulates that people in late adulthood would exhibit greater motivation and persistence in compensation tasks. Wisdom would be critical in their construction of integrity while they maintain their attention capabilities and cognitive processing of visual information but would have their ability to pay attention to a particular task decline. Due to a shrinking brain, their memory also decreases as they become more forgetful, indecisive, and intellectually slow. Late adulthood has also been associated with off-target verbosity where the involved persons tend to drift to irrelevant issues during conversations (Gerstorf et al., 2010).

The socioemotional changes in late adulthood include a decline in intensity levels for positive and negative emotions. It comes with disengagement, maintaining low activity levels, and high levels of personal satisfaction. Due to the loss of families and friends, they adopt a dismissive attachment style to help them cope with this. There would be a decline in the activities involved in their leisure time with the majority being associated with religiosity and spirituality (Gerstorf et al., 2010). They would spend considerable time reconciling the realities of life and evaluating their lives. But the socioemotional selectivity theory cited by Kail and Cavanaugh (2013) postulates on older adults optimize their social networks with rewarding relationships.
2. Analyze late adulthood and death of an individual as a culmination of the life span development process.
Late adulthood signifies a definitive culmination of the cycle of human development, being a period of renewal according to Nelson (2004). Even though unfair and ignorant stereotypes and ageism hasten death in some elderly persons, a majority of them would maintain healthy lives up to their transition to death, which defines the final event in late adulthood (Berger, 2008). But people have varied cultures, beliefs, and fears about death. As such, their adaptation to news of their impending death would occur in five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2013). At this stage, people would be engaged more in life review. Of importance though would be to treat adults with the respect they deserve and allow individuals to fearlessly accomplish the transition, helping the loved ones left behind to cope with the loss.
3. Discuss ageism and stereotypes associated with late adulthood.
Ageism refers to a form of prejudice where the elderly get judged and categorized based on their chronological age (Gerstorf et al., 2010). This comes during the late adulthood stage with negative attitudes taking several forms according to Nelson (2004). The first would be depression and loneliness, a stereotype portraying a lack of friends and family among older adults and higher mood disorder rates. This stage has also been widely associated with a lack of unproductive life, perceived to be a burden to young and middle adulthood. Promoting the young as beautiful and old adults as useless contributes to the ageism stereotype. Ageism could make the involved persons less intelligent and has proven to be detrimental to their cognitive abilities. Aging adults with fears rooted in stereotypes would possibly fear the undermining of their normal thinking. Lack of confidence would impair their memory with negative expectations affecting their cognition. For the sake of their health, such stereotypes and attitudes which reflect biases toward their abilities should be avoided (Berger, 2008).
4. Evaluate ways to promote continued wellness and mitigate declining health associated with aging.
According to Berger (2008), healthy habits significantly inform on the physical wellness of human beings. Apart from positively changing daily habits and routines, early detection and subsequent maintenance of chronic diseases and conditions and appropriate use of preventive medicine would help mitigate the negative aspects that come with aging. When employed simultaneously with the maintenance of a healthy diet, moderate consumption of alcohol, healthy choices, and routine exercises, this positively impacts the health and well-being of elderly adults. Preventive medicine together with high-quality medical care would be critical in maintaining health and lessening the harsh effects that come with aging. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Late Adulthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1470545-late-adulthood-paper
(Late Adulthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1470545-late-adulthood-paper.
“Late Adulthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1470545-late-adulthood-paper.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Changes in Late Adulthood

A guide to middle and late adulthood

After the age of 65 years, we are considered to be in late adulthood.... We will examine each of these aspects of aging, the challenges that often accompany transitions into middle and late adulthood, as well as some activities that can be undertaken to lessen the impact of these challenges.... The most important periods in our discussion are middle adulthood and late adulthood.... Socioemotional growth is often positive during middle and late adulthood, while support and social networks tend to be stronger....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

Late Adulthood Life

late adulthood Life Introduction late adulthood life is marked with reflection about one's past, that is, the things one was able to accomplish and others, which he was not able.... The paper will discuss the life of an individual who is in his late adulthood.... late adulthood Life Introduction late adulthood life is marked with reflection about one's past, that is, the things one was able to accomplish and others, which he was not able....
3 Pages (750 words) Term Paper

Personality Development in Late Adulthood

The paper "Personality Development in late adulthood" discusses that psychologists have conducted many research projects searching for the facts behind personality development in late adulthood.... ithin the study "Cross-Sectional Age Differences and Longitudinal Age Changes of Personality in Middle Adulthood and Old Age," several research works have been highlighted with researchers working under the hypothesis that late adulthood personality changes are influenced by a combination of the individual's ability and a tendency for self-insight and social learning such as the ability to watch and learn from others....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Emerging adulthoods

changes in the economy have also not been helpful for the emerging adulthood growth as the young now have to work very hard; just to have a middle class lifestyle and most give up trying.... Because of the time effect of desistance, the changes that occur are self made and not imposed on the individuals.... When there are no social bonds and turning points these difficulties are carried into emerging adulthood.... The solution is to create opportunities for this emerging adulthood; to build social bonds and have turning points as these have been proved to work by previous research....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

LATE ADULTHOOD. 60yrs and onward (HUMAN DEVELOPMENT)

This picture is painted keeping in view many individuals in late adulthood who are capable of continuing vigorous exercise and normal daily activities and leading a healthy active life.... During late adulthood the body is going through various age-related changes that affect the normal functioning, social habits, psychological development and the.... “late adulthood is seen as a stage in which people continue to change- to grow in some areas and, yes, to late adulthood: 60yrs and onward (Human Development) late adulthood is the time period during which an individual experiences various physical and mental health declines....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Developmental Psychology-Early Adulthood to Midde Adoulthood

Among the factors that promote individuation are the need for changes in and quality relationships change, professional choices, formal education acquisition and completion, parenting responsibilities.... Although it is a process that goes on throughout one's lifespan, it is more prominent at adolescence and early adulthood.... Challenges and changes that propel individuation include the fact that at early adulthood and adolescence, one needs to start shaping his or her career and Developmental Psychology-Early adulthood to Middle adulthood of Individuation and Relationships in adulthood Individuation refers to the process by which a person separates from his or her parents to become independent and unique....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Adulthood Stages by Erik Erikson

Present views on adult development in late life, center on the concept of successful aging.... This report "Adulthood Stages by Erik Erikson" focuses on adult development that holds within the changes that take place in biological, psychological, and interpersonal categories of human life.... adulthood Stages by Erik Erikson deal with human development that encompasses the whole life span are seen as aspects that are likely to change albeit in the later stages of life....
6 Pages (1500 words) Report

Continuity and Change in Personality as Adults Age

The paper "Continuity and Change in Personality as Adult's Age" states that the various studies and researches provide evidence for continuity and change of personality in adulthood.... In addition, various studies indicate that when personality change occurs in adulthood is rarely happens with drama.... The personalities, which are genetic, tend to be stable in all individuals hence may not exhibit any changes even in old age.... The notable changes imply that some perspectives of personality transform, as adults, grow older....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us