Growth and Development Late Adulthood

Introduction

The human being lives through multiple stages in his life. From the infancy till death, we are assimilating different roles and going through different stages of life. Some of us are fortunate enough to experience all the stages, while some are only able to see a few before they die. According to history's most famous playwright of all times Shakespeare also had a work dedicated to these stage

“All the world's a stage,…….

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,…..

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes…

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

Erik Erickson the famous psychologist and psychoanalyst, differs slights from Shakespeare by identifying 8 stages of life instead of 7. All humans go through these stages, and it's the earliest stages that have the most impact on the development and personalities of the people. I have picked the ages 65 and old for my research paper. This is the last age of the human cycle and up till now has not been researched very well.

Discussion

The age 65 and above usually has people who are well past their primes. It's an incline plane which the person is walking on leading toward death. People at this stage usually exhibit similar characteristics. Most of them are retired and are unemployed, living at home full-time and no responsibilities around the house or outside any more.

Common physical characteristics of these individuals include, gray or white hair, wrinkles on their skin as it loses its elasticity, prominent and visible blood vessels on their bodies and general fat deposits. These people usually also have impaired eyesight and hearing, their bones become more brittle and hence susceptible to breakage. Their muscles become weaker; joints become stiffer and painful and look shrunken because their spines become rounded. The skin becomes more prone towards burning or discoloring on the slightest amount of stimulant. They have difficulty breathing and are usually diagnosed with blood pressure, sugar, cardiac issues or some other form of illness. Their physical activities and motor functions are limited very much as they get tired very easily. Shortness of breath, asthma attacks, strokes or even cardiac arrests are common if they perform any strenuous activity.

Their intellect also changes as time progresses. The ability to recognize and identify patterns between things decreases. There are two types of classified memories the long memory and the short term memory. The short term memory or working memory is identical to a computer's RAM. It has to do with processing data, like talking, environmental signals, storing information and using the reasoning skills to analyze it and draw a meaningful conclusion from it. As the age increases, the working memory loses its efficiency thus hampering the person's cognitive skills. They take longer to perform simple tasks. However, on the other hand they are able to better focus and perform things they were good at during ...