Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Psychology
In the 1950's in Kansas City married couples ages 40 through 90 were put through a series of psychological tests to gain insight into the optimal idea of aging (USC, 2010). The Kansas City study lent to the idea of the disengagement theory which states that optimally aging adults gradually withdraw from society and social obligations as they age. Cumming and Henry, whom devised the disengagement theory, argued that the theory sufficiently explained why the elderly reduce their workload, social interactions, amount of new activities, and seem to have increased wisdom (USC, 2010). One suggested reasoning for adults' disengagement in life is because of the departure from society that takes place with death. In order to reduce emotional pain, many adults attempt to sever ties with friends and loved ones beforehand (USC, 2010). The other possibility is that lessening social obligations and commitments essentially frees elderly people as they age (USC, 2010). The contrasting theory to the disengagement theory is the activity theory.
The activity theory states that healthy aging requires adults to remain involved in social activities and participation as well as psychological engagement. This theory views frequent interaction with others as highly important to health (USC, 2010). Loneliness and despair are major enemies to health particularly in older people and seclusion only feeds a negative atmosphere (USC, 2010). Psychological engagement is of high value too in the activity theory in order to maintain a functioning...
Essentially, if the brain's capacity and abilities are not being utilized, they will be wasted and eventually decrease in performance (USC, 2010). That is why it is recommended for older adults to continually be participants in several different types of psychological exercises and activities. The reason the two theories have been so tightly contested for so long is because it is impossible to fully prove one or the other. Humans' vastly differing personalities and characteristics have too much effect on aging according to scientists to provide one way in which adults "should" age.
Scientists Costa and McCrae have shown that people's personality traits stay surprisingly similar throughout their whole lives. As part of this study, they categorized humans' different personality traits into five broad traits (Fruyt, 2004). These five traits are Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. According to Costa and McCrae, if aging theories were accurate, adults extraversion and openness would decline with the disengagement theory (Fruyt, 2004). But perhaps their conscientiousness and agreeableness would increase with the activity theory. However, the volunteers who participated in Costa and McCrae's study showed little fluctuation in these traits from ages 35 to 85 (Fruyt, 2004).
Costa and McCrae's personality traits have done wonders for the field of psychology. Most psychologists have agree with the five traits believing that all human traits…
Reference List
The Psychology of Aging. (2009) University of Southern California. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/gero/AgeWorks/core_courses/gero500_core/psychology_lect/index_a.htm>.
F. De Fruyt, R.R. McCrae, Z. Szirmak, & J. Nagy (2004). The Five-factor Personality
Inventory as a measure of the Five-factor Model: Belgian, American, and Hungarian comparisons with the NEO-PI-R. NCBI Vol. 11 (3), 207-15.
Belsky, J. (1999). The Psychology of Aging: Theory, Research, and Interventions. Grove,
32) The overall diagnostic and symptomatic patterns described by these points indicate that BPD is a serious disorder and is "...classified as a major personality disorder involving dramatic, emotional, or erratic behavior; intense, unstable moods and relationships; chronic anger; and substance abuse." (Boucher, 1999, p. 33) There are a number of criteria which, in line with DSM-IV, are used to identify and characterize this disorder. The first of these criteria refers
person is born, the family, neighbor and the culture is the prime aspect through which they interact before they can enter into the outside world. The development of the personality of an individual is the synthesis of traditions, values, thoughts, feelings, and various other factors that is based on the cultural aspects. In this regard, the dissertation is about the ways in which personality and culture have a relationship
Pedagogic Model for Teaching of Technology to Special Education Students Almost thirty years ago, the American federal government passed an act mandating the availability of a free and appropriate public education for all handicapped children. In 1990, this act was updated and reformed as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which itself was reformed in 1997. At each step, the goal was to make education more equitable and more accessible to
According to the authors, this can be done if employees are given a sense of importance in the organizations. Knowledge workers are already short in supplies and most competing rivals also compete to get the best human resource in terms of knowledge workers. It is therefore essential for any organization to retain this highly skilled part of their workforce and in order to do that organizations must eliminate the
" (Al-Ghaith, Sanzogni, and Sandhu, 2010) With a focus on Saudi Arabia it is reported that there is "no reliable local production in the fields of software or the hardware. The increased demand for ICTs is met by acquiring overseas technologies. The trend towards increased reliance on ICTs by the Saudi people, in particular computers and internet services, is one of the highest when compared with other developing countries; however it is
According to Bales, 1999, the concept behind SYMLOG is that "every act of behavior takes place in a larger context, that it is a part of an interactive field of influences." Further, "the approach assumes that one needs to understand the larger context -- person, interpersonal, group, and external situation -- in order to understand the patterns of behavior and to influence them successfully." With SYMLOG, measurement procedures are