12: Positive Ageing

Question 1

How do people generally cope at different stages of being ‘old’?

Answer 1

65-75 (young old) = vigorous, well integrated in community
76-85 (old old) = more likely to suffer physical, mental and social losses
>85 (oldest old) = more likely to be frail and dependent

Question 2

What are the impacts of the ageing population on adults transitions?

Answer 2

• Young adults postpone life transitions

- people will have more time in retirement

Question 3

How is caregiving stressful in older ages?

Answer 3

depends on context

• caregiving for grandchildren not a burden generally
• caregiving for adults more stressful

Question 4

What are some losses associated with ageing?

Answer 4

• sensory deterioration
• more ill health
• some social losses (eg. deaths of friends) -> loneliness -> mental health

Question 5

Cartenson’s Socio Emotional Selectivity Theory

Answer 5

• overall social contacts decrease in older age as social contacts become more motivated by emotion regulation than knowledge

Question 6

What did they find in the study tracking people after their hearing checks?

Answer 6

out of the people told to get hearing aids

- those that did not get them had worse cognitive deterioration 5-10 years later

Question 7

Contrast the mental health of those in residential aged care facilities with those not.

Answer 7

Those in RACS
around 1/2 have depression/anxiety/dementia
86% with at least one diagnosed mental health or behavioural disorders

Question 8

How does societal ageism contribute to poorer mental health?

Answer 8

• lower uptake of psych services

- false idea that there is no benefit in helping older people

Question 9

Paradox of wellbeing

Answer 9

the maintenance of wellbeing in older age despite increased losses

Question 10

Ryff’s model of successful ageing

Answer 10

About wellness rather than illness.
has multiple dimensions:
- self acceptance
- positive relations with others
- autonomy
- environmental mastery
- purpose in life
- personal growth

Question 11

In addition to Ryff’s dimensions, what can predict positive ageing?

Answer 11

• a good sense of humour
• enjoying life
• accepting change (older adults)

Question 12

In the Australian study by Knight & Ricciardelli, what were the most/least important associations with successful ageing?

Answer 12

Most: health, activity
Least: longevity

Question 13

How do older adults measure on affect and life satisfaction?

Answer 13

• PA remains stable
• NA decreases with age (levels at 70)
• better regulation of emotions
• lower rates of mental illness (exc. dementia)

Question 14

Disengagement theory

Answer 14

Proposes that higher levels of satisfaction in older age is due to decreased roles in society - disproved.

Question 15

Activity theory

Answer 15

Proposes that it is important to stay active and replace roles lost with ageing - leads to life satisfaction - somewhat disproved

Question 16

How did the study by Adams et al. (2011) provide insight into the accuracy of the activity theory?

Answer 16

• showed that remaining active predicted positive outcomes
• showed social activities were most important
• also showed that CONTEXTUAL VARIABLES such as CHOICE, MEANING or PERCEIVED QUALITY play intervening roles

Question 17

Limitations of activity & disengagement theories

Answer 17

• prescriptive
• don’t account for individual differences
• assume people change with age and illness
• not empirically supported

Question 18

Continuity theory (Atchley, 1989)

Answer 18

Proposes that people will try to maintain the same activities, relationships etc that they did before. Degree of continuity determines wellbeing (internal & external continuity)

Question 19

is there any evidence for internal continuity?

Answer 19

• there is rank order stability in the big five traits, but there are increases in conscientiousness and agreeableness in middle & older adulthood
• there is evidence of stability in terminal and instrumental values

Question 20

is there any evidence for external continuity?

Answer 20

• evidence that networks in older ages decrease in size but social support satisfaction is maintained (Carstenson, 1994)

Question 21

Selective Optimisation with Compensation (Baltes)

Answer 21

Proposes that successful ageings requires you to adapt to body changes and losses by:
selection (focus in on areas)
optimisation (effort, and maintain resources)
compensation (find other ways to achieve goals)

Question 22

Types of items on the Freund & Baltes (1998) SOC Questionnaire

Answer 22

• Elective selection
• Loss-based selection
• Optimisation
• Compensation

Question 23

Is there any empirical support for SOC?

Answer 23

• found that on high stress days, those that use SOC had fewer memory problems (Robinson et al., 2016)
• found that those with lower health use more SOC and are more happy (Teshale & Lachman, 2016)

Question 24

In an Australian study by Knight & Ricciardelli (2003), what could be said about respondent’s belief about their adjustment to age related losses?

Answer 24

Approximately 1/3 reported having to compensate for their loss

Question 25

Model of Developmental Regulation Across the Lifespan

Answer 25

Argues that there are 3 processes:
- goal engagement
- goal disengagement
- metaregulation - the controller 
shown that older age predicts higher goal engagement/disengagement/metaregulation

Question 26

What are goal engagement and goal disengagement associated with?

Answer 26

GE: autonomy, environmental mastery
GD: self acceptance, life satisfaction