Older Adults Emotional And Social Development Flashcards
Factors for positive affect
Factors for positive affect – Social relationships – Reading and following news – Extroverted personality – Definite beliefs and disbeliefs – Living with other persons
Factors for negative affect:
Factors for negative affect: – Neuroticism – Own major illness – Money problems – Living alone
Eriksons stage for older adults
Erikson’s Integrity versus Despair
–Recognize that they are reaching the end of life.
–Satisfaction in a successful life integrity.
–Feel good they have lived an active, full, complete life
●If so, can have contentment to compensate for decreased physical potency and performance
Peck
Peck’s Psychosocial Tasks of Later Adulthood
–Ego Differentiation Versus Work-Role Preoccupation
●Re-define self-worth
–Body Transcendence Versus Body Preoccupation
●Not succumbing to aches, pains, disabilities
–Ego Transcendence Versus Ego Preoccupation
●Come to terms with mortality
Theories of psychological/
sociological aging
Theories of psychological/
sociological aging
– Disengagement Theory of Aging – Activity Theory of Aging – Role Exit Theory of Aging – Social Exchange Theory of Aging – Modernization Theory
Disengagement Theory of Aging
Disengagement Theory of Aging
●Aging involves a progressive process of physical, psychological, and social WITHDRAWAL from the wider world.
●Allows person to face death peacefully; has already said their goodbyes
Activity Theory of Aging
Activity Theory of Aging
●Activity theorists find that the majority of healthy older persons maintain fairly stable levels of activity as long as possible
●Find substitutes for activities they are forced to give up
Role Exit Theory of Aging
Role Exit Theory of Aging
●Opportunities open to the elderly for remaining socially useful are severely undermined
●Retirement and widowhood terminate their participation in the principal institutional structures of society - the job and the family.
–These losses can be devastating b/c these are core roles
Social Exchange Theory of Aging
Social Exchange Theory of Aging
●People enter into relationships because they derive rewards (also have costs) from doing so.
●As applied to old age, the theory suggests that the elderly find themselves in a situation of increasing vulnerability because of the deterioration in their bargaining position.
Modernization Theory
Modernization Theory
●The status of the aged tends to be high in traditional societies and lower in urbanized, industrialized societies.
–Elder respect
●Why?
The Impact of Personal Control and Choice
The Impact of Personal Control and Choice
●Once in a nursing home, the elderly typically become physically, emotionally, and economically dependent.
–Told when to bathe, what to wear, etc.
●Staff practices too often foster and promote patient dependency.
●Studies show, however, that the elderly should not be deprived of the opportunity to make decisions and choices for themselves.
Faith and Adjustment
to Aging
Faith and Adjustment
to Aging
●Researchers are documenting through empirical studies that there is a healing association between religion and health.
●Religious involvement helps people prevent illness, recover from illness, and live longer.
●Religious institutions provide support and resources.
●Sense of higher power- does it allow people to give up some control and find peace with their own destiny?
Love and Marriage
Love and Marriage
–Greater happiness and satisfaction with their marriage during their later years than at any other time except for the newlywed phase.
–U-shaped curve
–Many say that companionship, respect, and the sharing of common interests improves during later adulthood.
●Children launched vs. strain of retirement?
Singles
Singles
●Tend to have more emotional and physical pathology than the married elderly.
●Death rates are consistently higher among single and socially isolated people.
●Males are particularly vulnerable for being socially isolated, whereas older women typically establish a social support network.
Grandparents and
Grandchildren
Grandparents and
Grandchildren
●Both children and grandparents are better off when they spend a good deal of time in each other’s company.
●Grandparents today are healthier, more active and more educated
●The most common kind of relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is companionate (good pals).
–vs surrogate parenting requires discipline
Siblings
Siblings
●Siblings normally play a significant role in the lives of the elderly.
●Siblings provide continuity on family history.
●The sister-sister relationship tends to be the most potent sibling relationship, followed by the sister-brother and brother-brother relationship.
Friendships
Friendships
–Friends are more important and satisfying to older people in terms of companionship than are relationships with their offspring and extended family.
–“Solitude need not be experienced as loneliness, whereas loneliness can be felt in the presence of other people” (p. 632)
–Quality of the relationship more important than frequency of contact.
Living Arrangements
Living Arrangements ●Living at home ●Living with Children/Adult Day Care ●Retirement Communities ●Independent Living ●Adult Group Homes ●Assisted Living ●Nursing Homes
Living Alone at Home and Assisted-Living Services
Living Alone at Home and Assisted-Living Services
●More than half of those aged 65 and older live alone.
●Encourage independent living until health and cognitive problems make it impossible to remain at home safely
●Shortage of home health aides
●Real fear of being forced to leave home
Living with Children and Adult Day Care
Living with Children and Adult Day Care
- Senior day care centers give family members a break from care giving. - Long-term care support to adults who live in the community, providing health and social services in a safe setting during any part of the day
Nursing homes – “Total Institution
Nursing homes – “Total Institution”
- Inadequate staffing and care are major problems for the elderly in institutional settings
- 1.7 million elderly people in 15,900 nursing homes
●Characteristics of institutionalized aged:
–Depression
–Feelings of helplessness
–Accelerated decline
Institutional Care
Institutional Care ●Assisted Living – care “as needed” ●Retirement Communities – 55+, \$\$ ●Adult Group Homes –Sheltered Housing –Assisted Living Facilities –Continuing-care retirement communities (CCRCs)
Elder Abuse
Elder Abuse
●Elder abuse and neglect
- most often spouse
- risk factors: poverty, minority, functional and
cognitive impairment, living with someone
●Elder Abuse in the Long-Term Care Community
–Patients and families can now file criminal charges against caregivers and facilities
Caregiver Burnout
Caregiver Burnout ●Many worry they will harm patient ●Strategies: –Join support group –Continue activities you enjoy –Seek professional help –Get more information about burnout –Investigate adult day care options in community
Reminiscence: Conducting a Life Review
Reminiscence: Conducting a Life Review
–A life review: Reminiscence and sharing
of family history from one generation to another.
–Conducting a life review is a significant
experience.
- Music can play important role
Life Review Methods
Life Review Methods Many ways to preserve a life review: - preparing a scrapbook - decoupaging old letters, memorabilia - an audiocassette or videotape - a newspaper article - a letter - a book for family members or the local historical society as a commemoration of the individual.
