Getting Help: The Process

Several social role transitions and life events are likely to occur during late adulthood. Late adulthood comes with different aspects, including physical and cognitive changes, chronic health problems, retirement, ageism and stereotypes, and many more (Hutchison, 2019). It does not dawn on an older person all of a sudden. As individuals move forward in their age, they become conscious of becoming old quite ahead of time. This is right since people can understand the repercussions. In the same manner, the entire life span. During late adulthood, many will feel remorseful about why they had done so much in life if the problems of aging have to be the outcome. Retirement is a big deal during late adulthood. For the most part it can be the best time of people’s life providing an individual has enough money and enough health.

During late adulthood individuals become more considerate and aware of other peoples’ requirements. Relationships change and they become more patient. Most elderly people try to keep surpluses of things, just in case someone they care about would need them including food, money, umbrellas, manners, and tissues. During late adulthood, friends get old and live far away. An individual may see his friends occasionally when they are in town for business or may exchange Christmas emails. Then they start having health problems. Eventually, they start having serious health problems and even dying and it becomes scary. Situations like these asks individuals to deal with their mortality in a way that was not quite real before (Hutchison, 2019). Over time, people disappear to the point where they are essentially on their own. Late adulthood should be a combination of enjoying personal activities and largely of enjoying the lives of adult kids and their partners, their kids, and step-kids, realizing that according to probabilities, they will be the ones to succeed them.

Ego integrity is a significant predictor of successful adjustment during late adulthood. The psychologist Erik Erikson said that an important crisis or conflict in a person’s old age, is the conflict of “Integrity vs. Despair” (Maree, 2020). During late adulthood individuals start thinking about this when they seriously confront their mortality for the first time. This may be in response to retiring, or the death of close friends or their spouse. It may be in response to experiencing a health scare, having their physical ability to take care of themselves decrease, or having less ability to do other things that they used to do. At this time, people reminisce about the past, and they think about their life and what they have done. They think of what they are grateful for, and what they regret. According to Erikson, there are two possible results. One is viewing life with contentment and satisfaction. This is “ego integrity.” Individual may find themselves to have lived a meaningful life they are be content with, and they also can face the fact that they will die without too much angst. The other result, says Erikson, is “despair,” in which individuals view their life as filled with regret for not having done with it the things they wanted to (Hutchison, 2019). People who despair a life not well-lived, are more likely to face death with a feeling of fear. When individuals feel they that they have accomplished many things in life and want to relax peacefully while waiting for their time to come, it means that they have ego integrity and have successfully adjusted into late adulthood.

References

Hutchison, E. D. (2019). Dimensions of human behavior: The changing life course (6thed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Maree, J. G. (2020). The psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson: critical overview. Early Child Development and Care, 1-15.