PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING

Psychology of Aging

Psychology of Aging

Introduction

Old people come in all shapes and sizes. What we do about old age will depend in part upon our education, our religion, our ethnic or national identity, our family, our past or present occupations, our fields of interest, and many other things.

The person that I selected is a 78 years sister. I selected this sister because I feel she is dealing with aging very well. For being 75 years old, this sister has a lot of years to go. Of course, that is what she told me. All I had to do was ask her, what is aging all about, and she got on her high horse and kept talking about aging. She made it so easy for me to understand aging, that now I look forward to growing old gracefully.

Sister was a school teacher for many years. After she left the teaching field she started working at the Reagan Hall as Supervisor of House Cleaning. She then retired from Reagan Hall and that is when she was placed in the McCullough Hall.

Discussion

She mentioned that is when her knees gave. She was talking to me, not only about sisters in general, but of all the older generation. The prime time to think about old age, of course, is when you are old. Old age often comes as a surprise. It creeps up and catches people unaware, often because we have deliberately not watched for it. It is not the kind of thing we can learn about from experience, because it happens only once in a lifetime. We know only what we have learned from watching old people, either in real life, or on television, and from reading about it in stories and articles.

Like every old person we probably found that our senses are not so sharp as they once were. We move more slowly and less skillfully. Finding ourselves with physical limitations can bring frustration, sadness, and a strong sense of loss. We miss the things we are no longer able to do. Sister said that she has had six major operations on her knee and is now in a wheelchair. She finds it very frustrating because now it takes her longer to get around. She does not do much visiting with the other sisters because of her wheelchair. She said she only gets out of her room only as needed. She does very little walking for exercise. We resent health problems when they are painful, making us feel weak and tired, and restrict our movements and our lives. We get angry with our bodies because we want to do everything the way we used to and we cannot. She started laughing when she was talking about the eyeglasses, hearing aids, and a walking cane. She said this will help, of course, but too often will not help enough. She does not wear glasses, she only puts them on for reading or when she is working on her ...