Theories of Aging Essay

Aging is a state of mind, its what you make of it that determines how you feel about aging. During our younger years we never address the fact that we are all aging. For most people the idea of aging is frightening. Everyone ages at different rates and times depending on the person and experiences in their lives. Tons of research has been done on the idea of different types of aging: chronological age vs. functional age. Chronological age is the number of years a person has lived while…

Theory 4 - Social Support A person’s social support becomes an important factor that helps define who they become. Social support encompasses not only interaction or relationships, but also includes anticipation, perceptions, quality of supportive interactions, behaviors, or social system (Hupcey, 1998, p. 1231). Research has shown that social support positively and causally related to mental health, physical health, and longevity. Having positive social support buffers the harmful physical…

Middle Adulthood is the time from ages forty to sixty-four, when individuals know that aging is unavoidable and new challenges are awaiting them (Belsky, 2013, 363). Many older adults are facing life milestones such as marriage, parenting, advancing in their careers, grand-parenting, and eventually retiring (Belsky, 2013, 366). As they age they are also experiencing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that they have never had to deal with before. In order to understand what these…

success than those who may not belong to the middle or upper class, and those who are not white (Aging Theory, 2017). This is a conflict that the older adult population in the US must fight with every day to receive the proper services (Aging Theory, 2017). Conflict theory implies that only those who are wealthy can access community services and only this population will be successful in old age (Aging Theory,…

live in the country by age characteristics. Specifically, this area seems to have a great number of young adults aging from 15-21 years and middle aged adults 47-55 years. After 55 years old, people seem to either move away or pass away. It seems that many people live in this county their whole lives due to the fact that there are no tragic change in the male and female ratio. This theory is valid until people are around 60 years old. At this point, it is known that people/couples are not…

In as we are now, an old woman, Caro Spencer, seven-six years old retired school teacher and never married. Her brother, John and his young wife decide put Caro into a rural nursing facility, Twin Elms which is located in New Hampshire. Because Caro is unable to live on her own, and her brother can no longer be able to take care of Caro after her operation of heart disease, since she is just too frail. Twin Elms is described as “a concentration camp for the old, a place where people dump their…

His assertion, according to economic theory, is correct. In a world where the economy is always growing, there is certainly more work to be done. However, in a real world application that looks at individuals rather than the collective (which is not typical of economists), it’s easy to see that job shortages are indeed an issue. You don’t have to be operating under the fallacy to see that. Our population is aging, and despite Kesselman’s assertions, the question remains as…

(2002) “Retired professors retired mainly because of age or felt it was time to retire” (p 1). If a person has reached the retirement age but still has the energy to work they should do so, only they know what is right for them. Older people when aging will want to be able to do the same activities they have been for years. In the article I chose they will continue to educate and do research. In Dorfman’s…

of memory. Along with losses, there are, of course, gains and benefits in late adulthood, majority of gains being intellectual and mental, such as thinking and attitude (Berger, 503). In addition, Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory can be applied and it is “the human development theory that focuses in how people change over time and that thoughts shape attitude, beliefs, and behaviors,” (Berger, 28). As adults age, they have already experienced…

average life expectancy in the 20th century than all years added across all prior millennia of human evolution combined” (Carstemsen). This is simply amazing. Laura had a very optimistic perspective regarding the aging process. She of course described the downfalls of growing old, which include aging, disease, poverty, and loss of social status. However, she also mentioned that older people undergo some outstanding improvements, such as growing smarter, increased expertise and knowledge, and…