Chpt 15 [Late Adulthood]

Question 1

Seven Theories of Late Adulthood

Answer 1

1. Self Theories
2. Integrity vs Despair
3. Positivity Effect
4. Stratification Theories
5. Disengagement Theory
6. Activity Theory
7. Age in Place

Question 2

Theories of Late Adulthood- Self Theories

Answer 2

1. Self Theories
   Theories of late adulthood that emphasize the core self, or the search of one’s integrity and identity.
2. Integrity vs Despair- a type of self theory; Erikson’s 8th and final stage of the developmental sequence, in which older adults seek to integrate their unique experiences with their vision of community.
3. Positivity Effect- A type of self-theory; The tendency for older people to perceive, prefer, and remember positive images and experiences more than negative ones.

(Compulsive Hoarding- The urge to accumulate and hold on to familiar objects and possessions, sometimes to the point of their becoming health/safety hazards; this impulse increases with age.)

Question 3

Theories of Late Adulthood- Stratification Theories

Answer 3

4. Stratification Theories: Theories emphasizing those related to a person’s social stratum or social category, limit individual choices and affect a person’s ability to function in late adulthood because past stratification continues to limit life.
5. Disengagement Theory- a type of age stratification; a view that aging makes a person’s social sphere increasingly narrow, resulting in role relinquishment, withdrawal, and passivity.
6. Activity Theory- a type of age stratification; a view that older people want and need to remain active in a variety of social spheres, and become withdrawn only unwillingly, as a result of ageism.

Question 4

Theories of Late Adulthood- Age in Place

Answer 4

• Age in place- to remain in the same home and community in later life, adjusting but not leaving when health fades.
• Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC)- A neighborhood or apartment complex whose population is mostly retired people who moved to the location as younger adults and never left.

Question 5

Filial Responsibility

Answer 5

The obligation of adult children to care for their aging parents.

Question 6

Frail Elders (Oldest-old) & Activities of Daily Life

Answer 6

ADL (immobility); IADL (Disorientation)

• Frail- The term for people over 65 years old and often over 85 who are physically infirm, very ill, or cognitively disabled.
• Activities of Daily Life (ADLs): Typically identified as five tasks of self-care that are important to independent living: eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, and transferring from bed to chair. The inability to perform any of these tasks is a sign of frailty.
• Instrumental Activities of Daily Life (IADLs): Actions (such as paying bills/car Maintenace) that are important to independent living and that require some intellectual competence and forethought. The ability to perform these tasks may even be more critical to self-sufficiency than ADL ability. (managing medical care, food prep, transportation, communication, maintaining household, and managing finances)

• Integrated Care- care of frail elders that combine the caregiving strengths of everyone (family, medical professionals, social workers, and elders themself)

Question 7

Phases of Retirement

Answer 7

• retirement happens over the span of years/time*

1. Remote (much earlier such as day-dreaming about retirement/where to retire)
2. Near-retirement (get much more specific & serious; saving up, figuring out costs, etc)
3. Honeymoon (the sweet time after retirement; almost like a wedding honeymoon)
4. Disenchantment (anxious, bored, depressed)
5. Reorientation (readjust to find stability/often going back and forth between 5 and 6 multiple times.)
6. Stability