Huemer O.

Uy RN, MSN o Despair- is developed if a person has not

GN 6005- Gerontology I achieved his life goals, or has been
dissatisfied with his life.
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORIES IN AGING
-Focuses on social and psychological aspects
leading to successful ageing.  The Additional 9th stage completed by Joan
Erikson, after Erik Erikson’s death.
1. ERIK ERIKSON’S STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL o Experienced by older adults in their 80’s
DEVELOPMENT and 90’s.
 HOPE: Trust vs Mistrust (Infancy) o At this stage, all of the previous 8 stages
 WILL: Autonomy vs Shame/Doubt (early happens at the same time, where the
childhood) negative pole now takes the dominant role
 PURPOSE: Initiative vs Guilt (Preschool) over the positive.
 Competence: Industry vs Inferiority (School age)  MISTRUST VS TRUST
 Because of the decrease
 FIDELITY: Identity vs Role Confusion (Adolescence)
in physical abilities, elders
 LOVE: Intimacy vs Isolation (Early Adulthood)
often begin to mistrust
 CARE: Generativity vs Stagnation (Mid Adulthood)
themselves and the
 WISDOM: Ego Integrity and Despair (Late
environment.
Adulthood)
 SHAME/DOUBT VS AUTONOMY
 Older adults develop
Let’s focus on the Seventh and Eighth stages!
shame for loosing control
 Middle Adulthood (40 to 64 Years old) of their own body.
Existential Question:  They doubt the autonomy
o “Can I Make My Life Count?” of their own body
Focus:  GUILT VS INITIATIVE
o Making a mark in the society  Some may develop a
o Guiding the Next Generation sense of guilt for being a
o Creating a comfortable home burden to a family
o Being proud of the accomplishments member or the society.
o Taking care of aging parent  INFERIORITY VS INDUSTRY
o Use leisure time creatively  They start feeling inferior
Conflict: for not having enough
o Generativity- is developed when one feels energy and driving force
he is able to contribute to the society and that they used to have.
his family.  ROLE CONFUSION VS IDENTITY
o Stagnation- is developed when  They lose their sense of
one unable or unwilling to help society place and develop
move forward. confusion on their own
role to the family
 Late Adulthood (65 years old to death)  ISOLATION VS INTIMACY
Existential Question:  They start feeling Isolated
o “Is it Okay to Have Been Me?” and alone as they lose
Focus: their sense of place.
o Contemplating on one’s achievements  Loss of intimacy is
o Evaluation of how one lived his/her life heightened after the
Conflict: death of a spouse.
o Ego Integrity- is achieved if a person  STAGNATION VS GENERATIVITY
perceives himself to have lived a happy  Having less energy and
and productive life. being unable to become
 productive makes older  CONNECTION TO EARLIER
people feel stagnant. GENERATIONS. As One ages,
 DESPAIR VS INTEGRITY one understands his role as a
 Instead of back at their link between generations.
achievements, they start  Example: A person no
looking forward to what longer focuses on his self
body part will stop as part of a generation,
working next, or what but focuses on creating a
special friend may be new generation.
gone tomorrow. This will  LIFE AND DEATH. Most people
lead to despair and become less afraid of death as
hopelessness. they get closer to it.
 Example: One informant
2. THE THEORY OF GEROTRANSCENDENCE talked about how much
 Developed by Lars Tornstam, a Swedish she loves life and how
Sociology professor. much pleasure life gives,
 Assumptions: and at the same time
o The individual becomes less self- explained that if she
occupied and at the same time were to die tomorrow it
more selective in the choice of would not matter.
social and other activities.
o There is an increased feeling of o THE SELF DIMENSION
affinity with past generations and  SELF CONFRONTATION. An
a decreased interest in individual looks back on
superfluous social interaction. himself at earlier phases in
o The individual might also life and discovers hidden
experience a decrease in interest aspects of the self - both
in material things and a greater good and bad.
need for solitary "meditation."  Example: At age 80
Solitude becomes more attractive discovered she had the
o There is also often a feeling of gift to write such good
cosmic communion with the spirit poetry that she
of the universe, and a redefinition published her first book
of time, space, life and death. of poems at that age.
 Major Dimensions:  DECREASE IN SELF-
o THE COSMIC DIMENSION CENTEREDNESS. The
 TIME. As one ages, one individual experiences a new
becomes able to awareness of the fact that he
transcend through time. or she is not the center of the
 Example: The case universe.
for the old woman  Example: People
who had been letting go of elevated
mistreated by her self-esteem, and
mother as a child, started taking
and who now themselves less
understood her seriously than earlier.
troubled mother in  BODY TRANSCENDENCE. A new
a new way and was awareness develops of how to
able to reconcile take good care of the body
with her, 20 years without being obsessed with it.
after her death.
  Example: Elderly material possession that are
people’s earlier beyond one’s needs are better
obsession with their  given away to family and
body and beauty has friends.
been replaced with  Example: Some
pleasing acceptance, individuals start giving
which has resulted in away things to
greater satisfaction. children, grandchildren
 SELF-TRANSCENDENCE. The and others.
focus on one's own needs has
gradually been transcended and APPLYING GEROTRANSCENDENCE IN PATIENT CARE
replaced with a focus on the A less invasive way of using the theory
needs of others - in particular of Gerotranscendence is to make staff members
the needs of children and aware of this developmental possibility and of how
grandchildren. to behave so as not to misinterpret or block care
o SOCIAL AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. recipients who exhibit signs of gerotranscendent
 INTERPERSONAL development. Wadensten (2003) has translated the
TRANSCENDENCE. The interest theory into guidelines for staffmembers. The
in participating in superficial Preamble of these guidelines is to accept signs
kinds of socializing fades away. of gerotranscendence as possibly normal signs of the
 Example: A person’s aging process.
earlier interest in
mingling at cocktail Examples of other guidelines are:
parties has given way
to being with a  Understand and respect that older people can
particular friend or have a different perception of time, such that
staying at home the boundaries between past, present and
contemplating. future are transcended.
 EMANCIPATED INNOCENCE. The  Do encourage the older person to recall and
individual develops a new skill to talk about childhood and old times, and how
transcend needless they have developed during life.
conventions, norms and rules,  Do let older people decide for themselves
which earlier in life had curtailed whether they want to be alone or participate
freedom to express the self. in ''activities.''
 Example: the woman  Do not always start a conversation with a
who nowadays enjoys routine health question like ''how do you feel
bicycling around with today.'' In the morning you can instead ask
torn stockings and what dreams the old person has had, and start
giggling, breaking the a discussion about what message might be
futile rule of not inherent in the dream.
wearing torn stockings
- a rule she was a 3. DISENGAGEMENT THEORY
captive of in younger  Formulated by Cumming and Henry in
days. 1961 in the book Growing Old, and it was
 MODERN ASCETISM. Adopting the first theory of aging that social
the concepts that last part of the scientists developed.
journey through life is easier and  Cumming and Henry provided 9
more joyful if one is carrying postulates:
light luggage. Material things o Postulate 1: Everyone expects
started to mean less, and death, and one's abilities will likely
deteriorate over time. As a result,
 every person will lose ties to o Postulate 6: Man's central role is
others in his or her society. work, and woman's is marriage
o Postulate 2: Because individual and family. If individuals abandon
interactions between people their central roles, they drastically
strengthen norms, an individual lose social life space, and so suffer
who has fewer varieties of crisis and demoralisation unless
interactions has greater freedom they assume the different roles
from the norms imposed by required by the disengaged state.
interaction. Consequently, this o Postulate 7: This postulate
form of disengagement becomes a contains two main concepts.
circular or self-perpetuating  (a) Readiness for
process. disengagement occurs if:
o Postulate 3: Because men have a  An individual is
centrally instrumental role in aware of the
America, and women a shortness of life
socioemotional one, and scarcity of
disengagement differs between time.
men and women.  Individuals
o Postulate 4: The individual's life is perceive their life
punctuated by ego changes. For space decreasing.
example, aging, a form of ego  A person loses
change, causes knowledge and ego energy.
skill to deteriorate. However,  (b) Each level of society
success in an industrialized society grants individuals
demands certain knowledge and permission to disengage
skill. To satisfy these demands, because of the following:
age-grading ensures that the  Requirements of
young possess sufficient the rational-legal
knowledge and skill to assume occupational
authority and the old retire before system in an
they lose their skills. This kind of affluent society
disengagement is effected by the
 The nature of the
individual, prompted by either ego
nuclear family
changes or the organisation—
 The differential
which is bound to organisational
death rate
imperatives—or both.
o Postulate 8: Fewer interactions
o Postulate 5: When both the
and disengagement from central
individual and society are ready
roles lead to the relationships in
for disengagement, complete
the remaining roles changing. In
disengagement results. When
turn, relational rewards become
neither is ready, continuing
more diverse, and vertical
engagement results. When the
solidarities are transformed to
individual is ready and society is
horizontal one.
not, a disjunction between the
expectations of the individual and o Postulate 9: Disengagement
of the members of this social theory is independent of culture,
systems results, but engagement but the form it takes is bound by
usually continues. When society is culture.
ready and the individual is not, the
result of the disjunction is usually 4. ACTIVITY THEORY
disengagement.
  Also known as the “implicit theory of
aging”, “normal theory of aging”, and “lay
theory of aging”.
 Was developed by Robert J. Havighurst in
1961.
 Proposes that successful ageing occurs
when older adults stay active and maintain
social interactions.
 Asserted that satisfaction in old age
depended on active maintenance of
personal relationships and endeavors.
 It takes the view that the aging process is
delayed and the quality of life is enhanced
when old people remain socially active.
 Activity theory reflects the functionalist
perspective that the equilibrium that an
individual develops in middle age should
be maintained in later years.

5. CONTINUITY THEORY
 The continuity theory was formerly
proposed in 1971 by Robert Atchley in his
article "Retirement and Leisure
Participation: Continuity or Crisis?" in the
journal The Gerontologist.
 States that older adults will usually
maintain the same
activities, behaviors, relationships as
they did in their earlier years of life.
 Older adults try to maintain this continuity
of lifestyle by adapting strategies that are
connected to their past experiences
 The internal structure of an individual
such as personality, ideas,
and beliefs remain constant throughout
the life course.
 The external structure of an individual
such as relationships and social
roles provides a support for maintaining
a stable self-concept and lifestyle.