Download Chapter 18 - Lifespan Developmental Psychology

Chapter 18
Social and Personality Development in
Late Adulthood
I. Personality Development and
Successful Aging
Continuity and Change in Personality
Agreeableness, satisfaction, intellect,
extroversion, and energy (the "Big Five"
personality traits) remain relatively stable
throughout adulthood.
 Due to changes in social environments that
tend to occur during late adulthood, individual
personality traits can and do change over
time.

Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Erikson explains that late adulthood is marked by
a crisis between ego integrity and despair as older
adults are looking back over their lives, evaluating it
and coming to terms with it.
 Those who successfully resolve the crisis,
experience a sense of satisfaction and
accomplishment; those who do not resolve the crisis
successfully, look back on their lives with
dissatisfaction and may be unhappy, depressed,
angry, or despondent.

Erikson’s Theory
Ego Integrity
vs. Despair
Feel whole, complete,
satisfied with
achievements.
 Serenity and
contentment.
 Associated with
psychosocial maturity.




Feel many decisions
were wrong, but now
time is too short.
Bitter and
unaccepting of
coming death.
Expressed as anger
and contempt for
others.
Peck’s Developmental Tasks
Peck suggests that there are three major
developmental challenges that occur in late adulthood:
 The first task is redefinition of self versus
preoccupation with work; individuals must redefine
themselves in ways that are unrelated to their careers
(i.e., by adjusting their value systems to achieve a selfconcept and sense of self-esteem in which work is not
involved).
Peck’s Developmental Tasks
The second
challenge is body
transcendence versus
body preoccupation;
people must learn to
cope with and move
beyond physical
changes so as not to
come preoccupied with
physical deterioration.

Peck’s Developmental Tasks
The third challenge is
ego transcendence versus
ego preoccupation; people
must come to grips with
their coming death so as to
experience ego
transcendence and to
avoid feeling that their lives
had no value to society.

Levinson’s Final Season
Levinson suggests that as
people enter late adulthood, they
come to view themselves as being
old and struggle with the thought
they are entering an age range
about which there is a negative
stereotype.
 People experiencing this
transition can run into difficulties
when they realize that their age has
caused a loss of power, respect,
and authority.
 This transition can be more
positive for those who think of
themselves as people who can
offer advice: “venerate elders”.

Coping with Age
Neugarten explains that there are
four different personality types
associated with old age:
 Disintegrated and disorganized
personalities: are unable to accept
aging and experience despair as they
age; often end up in nursing homes or
are hospitalized.
 Passive-dependent personalities:
lead lives filled with fear of getting
sick and their inability to cope; seek
out help even when they don’t need it.
Coping with Age
Defended personalities:
seek to ward off aging; attempt
to act young, exercise
vigorously and engage in
youthful activities; may feel
disappointed when
expectations are not met.
 Integrated personalities:
cope successfully with aging;
accept becoming older and
maintain their sense of self
dignity.

Life Review
Most personality theorists include in their explanations of late
adulthood the characteristic of life review.
 Life review is thought to be triggered by the prospect of one’s
death.
 By reviewing one’s life, people often come to a better
understanding of their past.
 Life review can lead to a sense of connection to others and
can be a source of social interaction
 Life review can serve to improve one’s memory.
 Some may become obsessed with reliving the past and end
up feeling guilty, depressed and angry.

Successful Aging: Disengagement
Theory
Disengagement theory explains that people in late adulthood begin to
gradually withdraw from the world on physical, psychological, and social
levels.
 The withdrawal is mutual as society also begins to disengage from older
people.
 Withdrawal has largely positive consequences—disengagement allows
people to become more reflective about their lives, become more discerning
about their social relationships, invest less in social relationships leaving them
better able to cope with serious illness and death.

While the findings of
some studies support or
partially support
disengagement theory,
others do not.

Successful Aging: Activity Theory
Activity theory suggests that those who are most likely to
be happy in late adulthood are those who are active and
involved in the world.
 The theory suggests that in late adulthood, people should
continue to participate in their social worlds.

Critics of this
theory address
issues which the
theory tends to
ignore which are
that some activities
are better than
others in
perpetuating
happiness.

Successful Aging: Continuity Theory
Continuity theory is a compromise between disengagement
theory and activity theory.
 The theory claims that people need to maintain their desired
level of activity and involvement in society to maximize well-being.

Behavior prior to late
adulthood is associated with
whether one is active or
disengaged and if one is
happy with one’s status (e.g.,
people who were active when
younger, will be highly
satisfied with being active in
late adulthood).

Social Theories of Aging
Disengagement
Theory
Mutual withdrawal of elders and
society.
Activity Theory
Social barriers cause declining
interaction
Continuity Theory
Social networks become more
selective with age
Emphasize certain functions
of social contact
A Model of Successful Aging
According to Baltes and
Baltes, people can overcome
the changes and losses in the
underlying capabilities that are
common in late adulthood
through selective optimization,
a process by which people
concentrate on skill areas to
make up for losses in others.

Elderly people also engage in compensation for losses
they have experienced due to aging.

II. The Daily Life of Late
Adulthood
Living Arrangements

Elderly people live in a variety of settings:
 some live alone,
 most live with family members
 in most cases they live with their spouse
living with a spouse brings continuity
 moving in with their children can cause disruption to roles
and disagreements about lifestyles
 for some groups, extended family living is more common
 some elderly people live in specialized environments such as
continuing care facilities, adult day-care facilities, or skillednursing facilities
 some elderly feel a loss of control when placed in specialized
settings which can have a profound effect on their sense of wellbeing; learned helplessness can even lead to death.

Financial Issues
If you were well off financially as a younger person, you will
likely be well-off as an older person and if you were financially
challenged as a younger person, so will you be as an older person.
 The social inequities that exist however are more pronounced in
late adulthood.
 11 percent of people in their late adulthood live in poverty.
 More elderly women than men live in poverty often as a result of
becoming a widow and paying for her husband’s illness,
death/funeral arrangements, and due to a limited pension fund.
 Elderly African Americans are more likely to live in poverty than
Hispanics who are more likely than whites.
 Due to inflation and rising health care costs, fixed incomes are
rarely suitable to meet the economic needs of elderly people.

Work in Late Adulthood
Many people work fullor part-time in their late
adulthood.
 Although illegal, many of
these elderly workers face
age discrimination despite
the fact that there is little
evidence that the ability to
perform one’s job declines
with old age.
 Some, in fact, make their
greatest contributions to
their job during late
adulthood.

Retirement in Late Adulthood
Although people choose to retire
for a variety of reasons, there are
commonalties in the experiences
people have in retirement:
 The first stage is the honeymoon
stage during which people engage in
activities that were not able to do
while they worked.
 The second stage is the
disenchantment stage, during which
people feel that retirement is not all
they expected it to be.
Retirement in Late Adulthood
The third stage is the reorientation
stage, during which people reconsider
their options and become engaged in new
activities.
 If successful, they enter the fourth
stage which is the retirement routine
stage, during which people come to grips
with realities and feel fulfilled by this new
phase of life.
 The fifth stage is the termination stage,
during which people end retirement by
going back to work or because they have
become incapable of caring for
themselves due to physical deterioration.

III. Relationships:
Old and New
Marriage in the Last Years
Since women tend to outlive their
husbands and do not tend to get remarried.
 The number of men who are married in
late adulthood outnumbers the number of
women.
 The marriage gradient is still in effect in
late adulthood keeping more women than
men single.
 Most couples who are married in later
life are satisfied with their marriage.
 Elderly married people indicate that
their spouse brings them companionship
and emotional support.

Marriage in the Last Years
There are stresses on the marriage in late adulthood such as
when one or both mates decide to retire causing a shift in the
nature of the relationship (i.e., evident in the role reversals that are
common when married mates are both at home).
 Divorce is not uncommon during this period, usually caused by
the husband finding a younger women with whom he wants to
share his life.

Often one spouse has to care for
an ill or dying spouse; while this can
be stressful, may spouses report
feeling positive about being able to
show their love and devotion with
their ailing spouse.
 Many spouses find themselves
becoming widows during late
adulthood.

Becoming Widowed
Death of a spouse can lead to profound
sadness and drastic changes in one’s
lifestyle.
 Widows have to get used to their new role,
no longer being viewed by society as a
spouse.
 Surviving spouses must learn to deal with
independent living, often taking on chores and
responsibilities that are new to them.
 Widows face drastic changes in their
social lives as married couples tend to
socialize with other married couples.
 Changes in financial situations can lead to
big decisions such as selling a house and/or
moving in with one’s children.

Adjusting to Widowhood
Heinemann and Evans suggest that there are three
stages to adjusting to widowhood:

During the preparation stage, spouses prepare for the
eventual day when their spouse dies and they will be alone;
during this first phase, people learn adaptive behaviors,
develop skills and abilities, and anticipate behavior they will
need in the event of their spouses death.

During the grief and mourning phase, widows deal with
the death of their spouse with feelings of shock, intense pain,
grief, and testing with reality—the length of time spent in this
phase depends on the degree of support received from others.

During the adaptation phase, the widow starts a new life
by accepting one’s loss and continues with the reorganization
of roles and creation of new friendships; this phase also
includes the development of a new identity as a single person;
there are vast individual differences at the rate in which a
widow progresses through these phases.
The Social Networks of Late
Adulthood
Friendships are important in late
adulthood because, in maintaining and
making friends, elderly people feel that
they have some sense of control over
their lives.

Friendships made in late
adulthood are often more flexible than
ties with family members as they can
be less emotion-laden.

Friendships offer support when a spouse dies; friends provide
social support, a basic social need that is critical in successful aging;
social support is beneficial to the person who receives it and the
person who offers it.

Friendships based on reciprocal caring are most effective and
appropriate although, as the elderly person begins to show signs of
deterioration, the friendships often become more asymmetrical.

Family Relationships
Siblings provide support during late adulthood as they often share the
longest relationship with the elderly person and thereby offer great
assistance as one ages.

Children tend to remain fairly close to their parents in late adulthood
and it is most often adult children who care for their aging parents when
assistance is required.

As elderly parents often have a greater developmental stake than their
adult children, they often seek a closer relationship with their children than
their children do with them.

Elderly parents tend to minimize conflicts with children while children, in
an attempt to maintain autonomy, tend to maximize conflicts.

Grandchildren are also important to the healthy development of elderly
people; the closeness and involvement of grandparents with their
grandchildren tends to vary.

Elder Abuse
Elder abuse tends to occur in
situations where the elderly person is
socially isolated and ailing and the
caregiver feels burdened economically,
psychologically and socially by the
elderly person.