Psychology

Chapter 12: Work, Leisure, and Retirement I. What is the meaning of work? a. Work as a source of identity, prestige, social recognition, and a sense of worth. b. The excitement of creativity and the opportunity to give something of themselves make work meaningful. c. Main source of work is to earn a living. d. “Graying of the workforce” i. The “older worker” in the labor market is considered to be aged 50 or 55 and above. ii. In organizations the threshold is at 40 or 45, where “old” refers to obsolete knowledge, skills, and attitudes. iii. Persons 55 and over are expected to comprise 60% of the projected increase in the labor force in general. I. Occupational Choices and Expectations e. Serves as major source of identity, provides us with an official position, and influences lifestyle and social interactions. f. Regardless of age, personality and interests are important factors in deciding an occupation. g. How do we choose a career? iv. Holland’s Theory: people choose occupations to optimize the fit between their individual traits such as personality, intelligence, skills, and abilities and their occupational interests. v. 6 fundamental types of occupations- can be assessed to help pick the right job for one’s personality. Most don’t match any one personality type exactly. Instead, their work related personalities are a blend of the six. 1. Realistic – Individuals enjoy physical labor and working with their hands, and like to solve concrete problems. Example: Mechanic, Truck driver, Construction. 2. Investigative – Task oriented and enjoy thinking about abstract relations. Example: Scientist, Technical Writer. 3. Social – Skilled verbally and interpersonally, enjoy solving problems using these skills. Example: Teacher, Counselor, Social Worker. 4. Conventional – Verbal and quantitative skills that they apply to structured, well defined tasks assigned to them by others. Example: Bank teller, Payroll clerk, Traffic manager. 5. Enterprising – Enjoy using verbal skills in positions of power, status, and leadership. Example: Business executive, Television producer, Real Estate agent. 6. Artistic – Enjoy expressing themselves through unstructured tasks. Example: Poet, Musician, Actor. a) How much does our career define us? vi. Vocational identity: degree to which one views occupation as a key element to identity. vii. Varies with both ethnicity and gender. African American and European American men have higher vocational identity when they graduate college. 7. Greater occupational gender segregation has a greater negative impact on African American womens’ earnings than European American women. viii. Lower Vocational Identity. People define themselves primarily in terms of things in life other than work. ix. “Sticky Floor”: Ethnically diverse employees’ access to managerial and authority is influenced. h. What if our career expectations aren’t met? x. Reality Shock: realization that the world doesn’t work like it says “in the book”, sets in, and, things never seem to happen the way we expect. 8. Reality shock: befalls everyone, from the young worker to the accountant who learns that the financial forecast that took days to prepare may simply end up in a file cabinet or worse yet in the wastebasket.
For example: The woman who thought that she would receive the same rewards as her male counterparts for comparable work is likely to become increasingly angry and disillusioned when her successes result in smaller raises and fewer promotions. II. Job Satisfaction and Not Job Satisfaction i. Job Satisfacton: Is the positive feeling that results from appraisal of one’s work. j. Job satisfaction tends to increase with age – linked to several factors xi. Self selection suggests that people who truly like their jobs may tend to stay in them, whereas people who do not may tend to leave. xii. Relationship between worker age and job satisfaction is complex. Older workers are more satisfied with intristic personal aspects of their jobs than they are with extrinsic aspects, such as pay. White collar workers show and increase in job satisfaction, whereas blue collar positions do not. xiii. Increase in job satisfaction may not be due to age alone but, rather to the degree to which there is a good fit between the worker and the job. Older workers have had more time to find a job that they like or may have resigned themselves to the fact that things are unlikely to improve, resulting in a better congruence between worker desires and job attributes. Older workers may have revised their expectations. xiv. As workers get older they make work less of a focus in their lives partly because they have achieved occupational success. It takes less to keep them satisfied. xv. The type of job and the degree of family responsibilities at different career stages may influence the relationship between age and job satisfaction. Accumulation of experience, changing context, and the stage of one’s career development may contribute to the increase in job satisfaction. xvi. Job satisfaction may be cyclical. It may show periodic fluctuations that are not related to age per se but, to changes that people intentionally make in their occupations. Job satisfaction increases overtime because people change jobs on a regular basis, keeping their occupation interesting and challenging. k. The opposite of job satisfaction… xvii. Alienation: when workers feel that what they are doing is meaningless and that their efforts are devalued, or when they do not see the connection between what they do and the final product. 9. Employees feel alienated when they perform routine, repetitive actions such as an assembly line. 10. Can be avoided when employees are included in the decision making process, flexible work schedules, employee development and enhancement programs. xviii. Burnout: when the pace and pressure of a job is too much, loss of energy/motivation, loss of occupational idealism, feelings of exploitation. 11. Unique type of stress syndrome, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment. 12. Most common for people in the helping professions, such as teaching, social work, and, healthcare. 13. Working long shifts in stressful jobs also causes work burnout. 14. Burnout tends to increase with age and years on the job. III. Gender, Bias, and Discrimination l. Gender issues xix. Meaning of work for men vs. women?
Men have been groomed from childbirth for future employment. They learn from an early age that men are known by the work they do, and they are strongly encouraged to think about what occupation they want to have.
Women have not been trained in this manner. The skills they learn have been: how to be accommodating, deferential, quiet, and supportaive. xx. Women in traditional vs. non-traditional occupations 15. Less than 25% obtain non-traditional jobs. 16. Differences in traditional vs. non-traditional jobs are narrowing. 17. Women in non-traditional jobs appears to be related to personal feelings and experiences as well as expectations about the occupation; women are work centered. 18. Women who have attended single sex high schools and have both brothers and sisters end up in the least non-traditional job because they have been exposed to more options. 19. Women in traditional female occupations changed jobs less often. xxi. Juggling work and family (role strain theory vs. work and family identity theory) m. Bias and Discrimination xxii. Sex discrimination: denying a job to someone on the basis of whether one is male/female. 20. Restricts womens career opportunities, by blocking accesss to internal labor markets and benefits. xxiii. Glass ceiling: level to which a group may rise in a company, but beyond which they cannot go. 21. 90% of women believe that there is a glass ceiling in the workplace. 22. Clear evidence has been found that is most likely in private corporations, government agencies, and non profit organizations. xxiv. Glass elevator: men in traditionally female occupations such as nursing seem to rise at a quicker rate than their female counterparts xxv. Unequal pay: women make about 80% of what men make in the same jobs 23. Earning differential is highest after age 45, situation is much worse for women of color. 24. The gender gap remains substantial even when educational backgrounds are equivalent. xxvi. Sexual Harassment: Authoritarianism is a strong predictor of men’s likelihood of engaging in sexual harassment. 25. 70% of women report that they have experienced some form of sexual harassment. Men report a similar level of such behavior. 5% of victims ever report their experiences to anyone in authority. 40% of women report having been sexually harassed in the workplace at least once. 26. Reasonable person standard. Instituted in the case Ellison vs. Brady. It’s the appropriate legal criterion for determining whether sexual harassment has occurred. xxvii. Age discrimination: denying a job or promotion to someone solely on the basis of age 27. US age discrimination is Employment Act of 1986 a. Stipulates that people must be hired based on ability, not age. b. Employers are banned from refusing to hire and discharging workers solely based on age. c. Employers cannot segregate or classify workers or denote their status on age. d. 40 and older protected under this act. i. Age discrimination occurs in several ways. a. For example: employers can make certain types of physical or mental performance a job requirement and argue that older workers cannot meet the standard. b. They can attempt to get rid of older workers by using retirement. Sometimes age is used as a factor in performance evaluations for raises or promotions or additional training. IV. To Hire or not to hire older workers n. Experience o. Less turnover vs. p. Cost? q. Absent more often? r. Health costs are greater? s. Harder to train? t. They are coasting, waiting for retirement u. Intergenerational clashes are inevitable I. Occupational Transitions a. Need for life-long learning b. Dual Earner couples i. Decision to return to work? 1. Over half of two parent households, both parents work. a. The main reason is: families need the dual income in order to pay the bills and maintain a moderate standard of living. ii. Dependent care dilemma iii. Implications for children? iv. Juggling multiple roles- division of labor in the home?
Although women have reduced the amount of time they spend on household tasks over the past two decades, they still most of the work. Men are less likely than blacks or Hispanics to help with traditionally female household tasks. 2. Flexible schedules and number of children are important factors in role conflict.
Recent evidence shows that work stress has a much bigger impact on family life than family stress has on work performance. v. Work-family conflict: Being pulled in multiple directions by incompatible demands from one’s job and one’s family.
Dual earner couples often have a difficult time for each other. The amount of time together is not necessarily the most important issue; as long as the time spent is shared activities such as eating, playing, conversing, and sharing emotions, couples tend to be happy. II. Leisure Activities c. Developmental changes in Leisure vi. Younger adults participate in more leisure activities than middle aged adults; prefer more intense activities vii. Middle age adults focus more on home or family oriented activities viii. Older adults lower the range and intensity of activities even more ix. Stability over time in terms on individual leisure activities III. Retirement d. Definitions of age and retirement very. One way to look at it is to equate it with complete withdraw from the workforce. e. Many continue to work to supplement income, maintain activity f. Why do people retire? x. Mostly by choice when financially secure, considering projected income from SSI, pension plans, and personal savings. xi. Loss of job: Corporate downsizing, offered buyout packages, involving supplemental payments if they retire. xii. Health/spouse’s health xiii. Retired spouse IV. Adjustment to retirement g. Depends on physical health, financial status, whether or not retirement was voluntary, relationship status h. Role theory: work is most important role; loss of work = loss of integration with society xiv. Adjust negativly i. Continuity theory: changes in work do not change our view of self; retirement is part of the cycle of work xv. Adjust positivly j. Stereotypes xvi. Retirement will kill you xvii. Retirement eliminates friendships xviii. Less activity xix. Damages marriage V. Grandparenthood k. Styles of grandparenting xx. Formal xxi. Fun-seeking xxii. Distant l. 5 meanings of grandparenthood (Kivnick) xxiii. Centrality xxiv. Value as an elder xxv. Immortality through clan xxvi. Re-involvement with one’s personal past xxvii. Indulgence
Chapter 13: Dying and Bereavement I. Definitions a. The death rate: proportion of individuals in a population who die in a particular year. b. Age-adjusted death rate: accounts for the higher death rate of older adults c. Predictors of mortality i. Marital status ii. Education iii. SES d. Legal and Medical Definitions iv. Whole Brain Death: Most widely accepted criteria for death involving eight criteria: 1. No spontaneous movement in response to any stimuli 2. No spontaneous respiration for at least 1 hour 3. Total lacke of responsiveness; even to pain 4. No eye movement, blinking, or pupil response 5. No postural activity, swallowing, yawning, or vocalizing 6. No motor reflexes 7. A flat electroencephalogram (EEG) for at least 10 minutes 8. No change in any of these criteria when tested again within 24 hours.
For a person to be declared dead all 8 must be met. Other conditions that might mimic death: deep coma, hypothermia, or drug overdose. Finally, according to most hospitals, the lack of brain activity must occur both in the brainstem and the cortex. v. Persistent vegetative state: loss of cortical functioning, but continued brain stem functioning. Lack of brain activity in the brainstem, which involves vegetative functions such as heartbeat and respirations, and in the cortex, which involves thinking. 9. Person will not recover. Persistent vegetative state allows for spontaneous heartbeat and respiration, but not consciousness. 10. The whole brain standard does not permit a declaration of death for someone in a vegetative state. vi. Higher brain standard: lack of consciousness = death. This standard is often met prior to whole brain death. Thus, a patient in a permanent coma or persistent vegetative state meets the higher brain, but not the whole brain, standard of death. e. Sociocultural definitions of death vii. Death Ethos: prevailing philosophy of death (funeral rites, treatment of dying, belief in afterlife, language used to describe…) viii. In the US? 11. Changing views over time 12. Media 13. Religion I. Ethical Issues f. Euthanasia: (Most Important) practice of ending life for reasons of mercy II. The moral dilemma becomes apparent when we try to decide the circumstances under which a person’s life should be ended, which forces us to put a value on the life of another. It also makes us think about the difference between “killing” and “letting die” at the end of life. This dilemma occurs most often when a person is being kept alive by machines or someone is suffering from terminal illness. ix. Active Euthanasia: deliberate ending of someone’s life, which may be based on a clear statement of the person’s wishes or be a decision made by someone else who has the legal authority to do so. 14. Examples: administering a drug overdose, disconnecting a life support system, or mercy killing. 15. Oregon Death with Dignity Act (1994) a. First state b. Makes it legal for people to request a lethal dose of medication if they have a terminal disease and make the request voluntarily. c. Provides for people the use of prescriptions for self-administered lethal doses of medications d. Requires that a physician inform the person that they are terminally ill and describe alternative options and the person must be mentally competent and make two oral requests and a written one, with at least 15 days between each oral request. e. 341 patients died under this law. x. Passive Euthanasia: allowing a person to die by withholding available treatment. Example: Chemotherapy may be withheld from a patient, a surgical procedure not performed, or food may be withdrawn. 16. Can be viewed in two ways: Few argue with a decision not to treat a newly discovered cancer in a person in the late stage of Alzheimer’s if treatment would do nothing but prolong and make even more agonizing an already certain death. On the other hand, many people argue against withholding nourishment from a terminally ill person; such cases often end up in court. Examples include the Nancy Cruzan case that ended up in the Supreme Court and the Terri Schiavo case. I. One more ethical issue…. a. The cost of keeping people alive on life support i. Debate of keeping terminally ill older adults alive on life support makes little sense vs. physicians going to extraordinary lengths to keep a very premature infant alive, despite risk of brain damage or physical disability. ii. Healthcare costs usually soar during the last year of a person’s life. For example, 30% of Medicare’s annual budget is spent treating people in the last year of their life. Costs vary depending on where a person lives. I. A life course approach to dying b. Young adults: tend to have more intense feelings about death, they are just pursuing family, career, and personal goals they have set. The may feel cheated out of their future. c. In mid-life: change in sense of time to a focus on time left rather than time lived. This may lead to occupational change or other redirection such as improving relationships that have deteriorated over the years. Mid-life people confront the death of their parents. They tend to not think much of their own death; the fact that their parents are still alive buffers them from reality. d. Older adults: less anxious about death and more accepting of it than any other age group. Greater acceptance of death is the result of ego integrity. iii. Due to the discrepancy between desired and expected number of years left to live is greater for young-old than for mid-old adults, anxiety is higher for young-old adults. iv. For many older adults, the joy of living is diminishing. They have experienced loss of family and friends and have come to terms with their own mortality. v. They may feel that their most important life tasks have been completed.
Understanding how adults deal with death and their feelings of grief is best approached from the perspective of attachment theory. In this view, a person’s reactions are a natural consequence of forming attachments and then losing them. II. Dealing with one’s own death e. Kubler Ross’s Theory: 5 reactions/ways of dealing with death vi. Denial: First reaction is shock and disbelief 1. Some want to shop around for a more favorable diagnosis, and most feel that a mistake has been made. Others try to find reassurance in religion. Eventually reality sets in. vii. Anger: Hostility, resentment, and envy towards healthcare workers, family, and friends 2. People ask, “Why me?” and express a great deal of frustration. The fact that they are going to die when so many others will live seems unfair. With time and work, most people confront their anger and resolve it. viii. Bargaining: People look for a way out. 3. They try to deal with someone, perhaps GOD, that would allow survival. For example: A mother promises to be a better mom, or a person may set a timetable. Eventually, the person becomes aware that these deals will not work. ix. Depression: When denial can no longer be options 4. Reports of deep loss, sorrow, guilt, and shame over their illness and its consequences. Kubler-Ross believes allowing people to discuss their feelings with others helps move them on to the acceptance of death. x. Acceptance: Accepts the inevitability of death and often seems detached from the world and at peace. “It is as if the pain is gone, the struggle is over, and there comes a time for the final rest before the journey. 5. Depends on being able to talk openly about dying and express emotions
Not everyone experiences all of the five stages at the same rate or in the same order. People have individual differences and emotional responses vary in intensity throughout the dying process. III. Awareness of contexts of dying in hospitals (Glazer and Stauss, 1966) f. Closed awareness xi. Patient doesn’t know they are dying g. Suspicion awareness xii. You think you know but the staff won’t confirm yes or no h. Ritual drama of mutual pretense xiii. Both the staff and patient know however they act like they don’t know i. Open awareness j. Disconnection xiv. The nurse/doctor withdraw connection with patient but still treat them. k. The hospice option: Approach to assist dying people that emphasizes pain management, or palliative care, and death with dignity. xv. The emphasis in a hospice is on the dying person’s quality of life. This approach grows out of an important distinction between the prolongation of life and the prolongation of death. xvi. The concern is to make the person as peaceful and comfortable as possible, not to delay an inevitable death. xvii. Medical care is aimed primarily at controlling pain and restoring normal functions. xviii. Hospice service is only requested only after the person or physician believe no treatment or cure is possible. xix. Focus is to maintain client dignity and more attention to appearance and personal grooming than medical testing. 6. Two types: Inpatient and Outpatient.
Inpatient: Provide all care for clients. Outpatient: Provide services to clients who remain in their own homes. IV. Death Anxiety: Ethereal nature of death, rather than something about it in particular, that usually makes us uncomfortable. (Ones concerns about dying). l. Components: pain, body malfunction, humiliation, rejection, nonbeing, punishment, interruption of goals, being destroyed, negative impact on survivors. xx. Any of these components can be assessed at any of the three levels: Public, Private, non-conscious. V. Terror management Theory: A framework to study death anxiety. Addresses the issues of why people engage in certain behaviors to achieve particular psychological states based on their deeply rooted concerns about mortality. m. Older adults have lower death anxiety than younger adults n. Higher death anxiety related to lower ego integrity, physical/psychological problems o. Women report more fears of dying process p. Men report more fears of the unknown q. Few differences in death anxiety levels across ethnic groups. VI. End of Life issues r. Institutionalization of death s. Final Scenario: making choices about how they do and do not want their lives to end constitutes a final scenario. xxi. Most Difficult: Process of separation from family and friends. xxii. The final days, weeks, and months of life provide opportunities to affirm love, resolve conflict, and provide peace to dying people. * Any given final scenario reflects the person’s personal past, which is the unique combination of the developmental forces the person experienced. * One final scenario helps family and friends interpret one’s death, especially when constructed jointly, and communication is open and honest. t. End of Life Issues: management of the final phase of life, after-death disposition of their body and memorial services, and distribution of assets. VII. Making End of Life Intentions Known u. Living will/advanced directive: states wishes about life support and other treatments v. Durable power of attorney: appoints someone to act in one’s favor regarding healthcare 7. Advantage: It names the individual who has the legal authority to speak for the person if necessary xxiii. Specifies “code status” 8. Full code 9. DNR: Applies only to cardiopulmonary resuscitation should one’s heart and breathing stop. 10. Comfort Care VIII. Survivors: the Grieving Process w. Bereavement: State or condition caused by loss through death. x. Grief: sorrow, hurt, anger, confusion, guilt, and other feelings that arise suffering a loss y. Mourning: ways in which grief is expressed IX. The Grief Process z. Acknowledge the reality of the loss {. Work through the emotional turmoil |. Adjust to environment where deceased is absent }. Loosen ties to deceased ~. Process varies- so does length of grief process X. Factors affecting Grief Process . Mode of death . Strength of attachment to deceased . Social support . Gender differences . Relationship to deceased XI. Normal Grief Reactions . Grief Work: psychological side of coming to terms with bereavement . Anniversary reaction: changes in behavior related to feelings of sadness on the date of the death . Grief tends to peak within the first 6 months XII. Coping with Grief . Grief work as rumination: expressing feelings of grief may not be helpful . Four component model * Context of the loss: referring to the risk factors such as whether the death was expected. * Continuation of subjective meaning: ranging from evaluations of everyday concerns to major questions about the meaning of life. * Changing representations of the lost relationship over time. * Role of coping and emotion regulation process: covers all coping strategies used to deal with grief. . Dual process model: (DPM) bereaved deal with 2 cyclical stressors (loss oriented stressors and restoration oriented stressors). People cycle back and forth between dealing mostly with grief and trying to move on with life. Sometimes they are overwhelmed with grief, while at others they handle life well. xxiv. Loss oriented stress: those having to do with the loss itself, such as the grief work that needs to be done. xxv. Restoration oriented stress: relating to adapting to the supervisor’s new life situation, such as building new relationships and new activities. . Prolonged Grief Reactions: an inability to move on; includes separation distress and traumatic distress symptoms. The feelings of hurt, loneliness, and guilt are so overwhelming that they become the focus that there is never closure and interferes with ability to function. xxvi. Separation distress: preoccupation with the deceased to the point that it interferes with everyday functions, memories of the deceased, longing and searching, and isolation. xxvii. Traumatic distress: feeling disbelief about the death, mistrust, anger, feeling shocked, and the experience of physical presence of the deceased.
Two common manifestations of prolonged grief are excessive guilt and self-blame.
Chapter 14: Successful aging I. Demographic Trends and Social Policy a. Demographic Trends By 2030: i. Proportion of older adults will have doubled ii. Much more politically sophisticated and organized. They will be better educated and will be familiar with life in a highly complex society in which one must learn to deal with bureaucracies. Will be proficient users to the internet and technology in general. iii. Expectations regarding retirement and benefits. Older adults will expect to keep their more affluent lifestyle, Social Security benefits, health care benefits, and other benefits accrued throughout their adult life. A comfortable retirement will be viewed as a right, not privilege. iv. Ratio or workers to retirees will shift from 3:1 to 2:1. Working members of society will have to pay higher taxes than workers do now. Due to SSI is a pay as you go system in which the money collected from workers today is used to pay current retirees. Social Security is not a savings plan. Changes to maintain benefits that citizens came to view as entitlements remains to be seen. v. Implications of higher divorce rate. Results in lowered sense of obligation on the part of middle age adults toward parents who were not involved in their upbringing or who the adult child feels disrespectful than the other parent. Should this lower obligation result, it is likely that fewer adults will have family members available to care for them, placing greater burden on society for care. vi. Rapid increase in the number of ethnic minority older adults compared to white older adults will force reconsideration of issues such as discrimination and access to health care, goods, and services, as well as provide a much richer and broader understanding of the aging process. I. Implications for Social Programs b. Social Security: (1935) primary source of financial support after retirement for most US citizens; protects against the loss of a job and against poverty ridden old age; todays workers fund today’s retirees vii. Funded by payroll taxes, the amount a worker pays depends to a large extent on the ratio of the number of people paying Social Security taxes to the number of people collecting benefits. viii. By 2030, this ratio will drop nearly half; that is, by the time the baby boomers have retired, there will be nearly twice as many people collecting per worker paying into the system. c. Medicare: Roughly 40 million citizens depend on Medicare. To be eligible you must be over 65, be disabled, or have permanent kidney failure. ix. Consists of three parts: 1. Part A: which covers inpatient hospital services, and hospice care. 2. Part B: which covers the cost of physician services, outpatient hospital services, medical equipment and supplies. 3. Part D: some coverage for prescription medicine.
Expenses to long term needs are funded by Medicaid, another major healthcare program funded by the Government and aimed at people who are poor. Medicaid: Funded by payroll tax. Medicare costs have increased dramatically due to more general rapid cost increases in healthcare. II. Health Issues and Quality of Life d. Health promotion and Disease Prevention x. Promotion of healthy lifestyle choices across the lifespan xi. Prevention 4. Primary: interventions that prevent a disease from occurring. Examples: Immunizations against disease, healthy diet. 5. Secondary: begins soon after a disease begins (but not diagnosed) and before major impairments have occurred. Examples: Cancer screening, other medical tests. 6. Tertiary: efforts to avoid the development of complications or secondary chronic conditions, manage pain associated with condition, and sustain life. Examples: Moving a bedridden person to avoid sores, getting medical intervention, getting a patient out of bed to improve mobility after surgery. 7. Quarternary: to improve the functioning of those with chronic conditions. Examples: Cognitive interventions for people with Alzheimer’s disease, rehab programs after surgery. III. Successful Aging e. Rowe and Kahn (1998): The absence of disease and disability makes it easier to maintain mental and physical function. Maintenance of mental and physical function in turn enables (but does not guarantee) active engagement in life. It is a combination of all three: 8. Avoidance of disease and disability 9. Maintenance of cognitive and physical function 10. Sustained engagement with life * This represents the concept of successful aging. f. Selection, Optimization, and Compensation: (SOC MODEL) Developing and choosing goals, application and refinement of means to achieve goals, flexibility in thinking. xii. Selection: Developing and choosing goals. xiii. Optimization: Application and refinement of goal-relevant means or actions. xiv. Compensation: Substitution of means when previous ones are no longer available. * The SOC Model can be applied to the proactive strategies of life management. From this perspective, it is adaptive (i.e., sign of successful aging) to set clear goals, to acquire and invest means into pursuing these goals, and to persist despite setbacks and losses * In contrast to the Coping Strategy, which is a passive approach, is that taking positive action to find substitute ways of doing things is adaptive. * Studies indicate successful aging is more likely when people have higher levels of education, household income, and personal income. * Resources to live a healthy life, access to healthcare, live in a safe environment, support for individual decision making, and overall quality of life. g. Erikson: Successful aging as ego integrity. The ability to pull one’s life together from many perspectives into a whole and to be satisfied with it.
Older adults may say they have aged successfully while others, who adopt the medical model would not say that about them.