Psychological Theories of Aging

Psychological Theories of Aging

Introduction

As the time passes changes occur in the human behavior, his way of perceiving life is transformed and attitude varies at different level of age. Development is not restricted to aging only, it occurs throughout the span of life. One should be able to differentiate between chronological aging and biological aging, it is not necessary that as people get older they become unproductive. If conditions of development are reasonably favorable, as human gets older this era could be of fulfillment and social contribution (Provenzano, 2011).

Older people in a society are generally considered as economically and socially deprived group and a problem for society rather than as a solution to the problems that society suffers from. However age factor does not have a significant influence on how and individual tends to view himself. Older people that are sixty-five years of age may consider themselves as socially responsible, more friendly and warm, and have wiser experience than those who are less than sixty-five years of age, they believe they are capable of getting things done as good as the youth does. It is possible that the younger generation might underestimate the effectiveness of older people, yet they are equally confident as the youth is. However it has often been witnessed that as we get older we become more rigid and it gets difficult to adapt to change, but being flexible to shape oneself with change depends on lifelong personality traits of an individual than anything inherent in old age (Provenzano, 2011).

Discussion

Theories of Aging

While an individual is involved in aging process, he experiences a number of inherent changes that can have a separate or cumulative impact over the individual's identity. There are certain myths that are commonly imposed on the elderly by our societies; it is believed ...