Psychology of Aging
Compare and contrast current research on alternative stage theories of adulthood and personality development.
Child developmentalists traditionally categorized adult personality development into stage theories (Kagan, 2001). Sigmund Freud advocated the psychosexual stage, which held that personality is shaped early in life and generally resists change. Carl Jung proposed the opposite, in that personality develops in adulthood. Other theories surfaced in the 30s an the 40s in Europe and the U.S., such as Charlotte Buhler's, which called for empirical evaluations of theoretical predictions and Erik Erikson's similarly psychoanalytic stage theory, which asserts that a person develops through stages of human needs. Eventually, these early stage theories failed empirical tests. Critics of stage theories argued that personality does not evolve systematically in adulthood. Then came the Trait Theory in the 80s, which suggested that personality only changes slightly when a person reaches age 30 (Kagan, 2001).
The Trait Theory proposes that there is only a little change in personality from adulthood till old age (Kagan, 2001). Its critics hold that it is unable to predict behavior and adjust focus on particular strategies. Then the life-span theories developed from the social cognitive theory. They suggest that persons form their own environments and that the process of personality development moves towards adaptation. Their two stays. The first states that time and space influence adaptation. It occurs more in infancy and early childhood than in later years. The second stay involves specialized adaptation within a given environment, which sustains its self-views. Thus, as a person ages, he reduces his circles and forms social structures with which he lives throughout life. And it also maintains that adaptation is never complete in that flexibility to certain circumstances may not be as strong as flexibility to other circumstances (Kagan, 2001).
Life span development is motivational in that an individual is driven by the basic human need for competence, relatedness and autonomy in his entire lifetime (Kagan, 2001). A second view of personality relates to emotions at challenging times and how these emotions are regulated. And the third perspective states that, as a person ages and encounters more challenges, his views change (Kagan, 2001).
In merging and comparing these alternative theories, approaches and findings on adult personality development, it can be gleaned that continuity or personality change best characterizes adulthood. People have been observed to remain consistent in adulthood. Goals tend to change as a person ages, emotions become better controlled, and different qualities form as he grows old (Kagan 2001).
2. Distinguish the factors what contribute to accelerated sensory decline as individuals age.
These are tactile, vibration at 40 and 250 Hz, increase and decrease in temperature, and noxious heat (Wickremaratch & Llewelyn, 2006). Tactile thresholds in older people are substantially greater than in younger people. This may be attributed to reduced density and distribution of Pacinian and Messner corpuscles and Merkel's discs on the skin. The result is reduced spatial sharpness. Thermal and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation pain thresholds are also greater in older people than younger people. It appears that age change only in function as the perception of pain and temperature in older people is largely due to slower conducting C fibers. The sense of vibration is also sharper and higher in them than younger persons, as shown by the results of 12 performance-based tests on muscle strength, balance, gait, somatosensory discrimination, and reaction time. These last five factors declined with age. The sense of vibration reaches its peak at age 65. Tests o the acuity of touch showed that it diminishes as one ages. This acuity is lost at an average of 80% in the foot and finger in older persons or those aged 65 or older. Another study, on the other hand, suggested that skin change contributes to the change in touch sensation in older persons ( Other studies revealed that the threshold for the perception of electrical stimuli is higher in elder persons who volunteered for the experiment (Wickremaratch & Llewelyn, 2006).
3. Speculate changes in cognitive functioning and creative performance associated with aging.
These are attention and working memory (Gilsky, 2007). Deterioration of attention in ageing people imposes wide stratum and long-term impact on their effective daily functioning. The types of attention that have been investigated are selective attention, divided attention and attention switching, and sustained attention. Findings of studies are not unanimous but older people generally seem to be slower in managing targets than younger people. But distractions affect both groups similarly. The differences may be due to reduced information processing in older people more than to selective attention deficits themselves. Results of studies...
This difficulty is explained by the diminishing processing resources in normal aging. The diminution is even greater in older adults when their attention must be split between two or more objects. Performance is likewise lessened when their attention must move from one task to another. And older adults are generally able to manage vigilance chores through sustained attention, which requires concentration for long duration (Gilsky, 2007).
Meanwhile, older adults exhibit only slight or no reduction in short-term memory as they can usually keep 7-2 digits in mind as long as these digits were practiced (Gilsky, 2007). Repeating the digits backward, however, deteriorates with age, as it requires active restructuring and control of information kept in short-term memory. While it is commonly believed that working memory is defective in older adults, experts are not in agreement as to the mechanisms. This lack of consensus calls for further research (Gilsky, 2007).
4. formulate legal, ethical, and cultural related factors that occur with aging
Healthcare professionals, teachers, supervisors and researchers must always consider the effect of cultural, age and other differences in dealing with clients and their families (ASHA, 2015). Whatever a client's personal culture, age, settings or demographics, these professionals should try their best to deliver culturally and personally apt services. This approach will definitely affect all the aspects of professional practice. They include assessment procedures, diagnostic criteria, treatment plans, treatment discharge decisions and research. Providers should endeavor to understand, protect and respect the client and enter into a close relationship with him with sensitive awareness and skills of his specific status and characteristics, strengths, limitations and preferences. Providers should take all proper consideration of the care given to him in order to avoid misdiagnosis and inappropriate or wrong treatment of the client. In other words, providers should be as flexible and open as possible with everything about the client, especially the aging client (ASHA).
Nurses, in particular, are guided by five provisions set forth in their official ANA Code of Ethics on cultural barriers, education, end-of-life wishes, and lifestyle choices and responsibilities in dealing with elderly patients or clients' ethical, cultural, educational, physical condition and lifestyle matters (Ludwick & Cipriano Silva, 2015).
Cultural Barriers lead therapists and counselors to discover and adopt guides in determining the ethical issues of the elderly client (Ludwick & Cipriano Silva, 2015). His values and beliefs will help determine the precise care to be provided and the time, place, manner and rationale for it. The ANA Code strongly implies that the nurse must treat the client, such as the aging or elderly patient, with compassion, respect for inherent dignity, and uniqueness.
Education is a specific consideration for the nurse or healthcare professional in connection with her competence and professional growth in order to suit her into the responsibility of dealing with an older patient (Ludwick & Cipriano Silva, 2015). A formal education and special trainings will equip her with the competencies needed for the task.
End-of-Life Wishes are vital in the nurse's work as they include public policies relating to the end-of-life situation (Ludwick & Cipriano Silva, 2015). She must know, competently express and implement these policies to family members with conflicting wishes or the patient's wishes themselves. Provision 2 of the nurses' Code discusses these and other dilemmas. The nurse knows that her duty is to the dying person first, then to the family (Ludwick & Cipriano Silva, 2015).
Lifestyle Choices and Responsibilities relate to the behavior aspect of fulfilling aging (Ludwick & Cipriao Silva, 2015). Nurses are trained to, and cautioned against, biases and instead emphasize health promotion. The ANA Code lists eight provisions for this and disease prevention (Ludwick & Cirpirano Silva, 2015).
5. Discriminate the physical and socio-emotional needs of the elderly.
Current research on the decline in cognitive or mental and physical conditions in the aging person revealed that he preserves a high level of emotional well-being and emotional equilibrium up to his 70s and 80s (Schiebe & Carstensen, 2010). A recent study looked into the changes in the cognitive and emotional realms of aging volunteers in measuring their emotional motivation and competence. Findings yielded avenues on the changes and how to approach them. One is teaching those with less adaptive characteristics the use of appropriate and precise emotional skills attuned to their affective well-being. A second is an intervention in adjusting for costs in enhancing emotion regulation specifically for the aging person. And…
