PERSONALITY > is extraordinarily stable throughout adulthood. Generally, it does not change radically, even in the face of major events in life such as retirement, job loss, or death of loved ones. However, there are exceptions. Certain individuals facing these and other life altering circumstances can and do show signs of personality change during the final years of life. An easy-going individual who loses a job after many years, for instance, may become disillusioned and develop a sullen disposition. But these out-of-character reversals of personality are relatively rare.

“The four Psychosocial Theories explain behavioral changes associated with older people::

• Disengagement theory

• Activity theory

• Life-course theories

• Continuity theory

Disengagement Theory

• Refers to an inevitable process in which many of the relationships between a person and other members of society are severed & those remaining are altered in quality.

• Withdrawal may be initiated by the aging person or by society, and may be partial or total.

• It was observed that older people are less involved with life than they were as younger adults.

• As people age they experience greater distance from society & they develop new types of relationships with society.

• In America there is evidence that society forces withdrawal on older people whether or not they want it.

• Some suggest that this theory does not consider the large number of older people who do not withdraw from society.

• This theory is recognized as the 1^st formal theory that attempted to explain the process of growing older.

Activity Theory

• Is another theory that describes the psychosocial aging process.

• Activity theory emphasizes the importance of ongoing social activity.

• This theory suggests that a person’s self-concept is related to the roles held by that person i.e. retiring may not be so harmful if the person actively maintains other roles, such as familial roles, recreational roles, volunteer & community roles.

• To maintain a positive sense of self the person must substitute new roles for those that are lost because of age. And studies show that the type of activity does matter, just as it does with younger people.

The Activity Theory makes the following certain assumptions:

• There is an abrupt beginning of old age.

• The process of aging leaves people alone & cut-off.

• People should be encouraged to remain active & develop own-age friends.

• Standards & expectations of middle age should be projected to older age.

• Aging persons should be encouraged to expand & be involved.

Life-Course Theories

• One theory we are all very familiar with is Erikson’s developmental stages, which here approaches maturity as a process. Within each stage the person faces a crisis or dilemma that the person must resolve to move forward to the next stage, or not resolve which results in incomplete development.

Continuity Theory
• States that older adults try to preserve & maintain internal & external structures by using strategies that maintain continuity. Meaning that older people may seek to use familiar strategies in familiar areas of life.
• In later life, adults tend to use continuity as an adaptive strategy to deal with changes that occur during normal aging. Continuity theory has excellent potential for explaining how people adapt to their own aging.
• Changes come about as a result of the aging person’s reflecting upon past experience & setting goals for the future.”

Coping and well-being

“Psychologists have examined coping skills in the elderly. Various factors, such as social support, religion and spirituality, active engagement with life and having an internal locus of control have been proposed as being beneficial in helping people to cope with stressful life events in later life. Social support and personal control are possibly the two most important factors that predict well-being, morbidity and mortality in adults. Other factors that may link to well-being and quality of life in the elderly include social relationships (possibly relationships with pets as well as humans), and health.

Individuals in different wings in the same retirement home have demonstrated a lower risk of mortality and higher alertness and self-rated health in the wing where residents had greater control over their environment, though personal control may have less impact on specific measures of health. Social control, perceptions of how much influence one has over one’s social relationships, shows support as a moderator variable for the relationship between social support and perceived health in the elderly, and may positively influence coping in the elderly.

Emotional Changes

Given the physical and cognitive declines seen in ageing, a surprising finding is that emotional experience improves with age.Older adults are better at regulating their emotions and experience negative affect less frequently than younger adults and show a positivity effect in their attention and memory needed The emotional improvements show up in longitudinal studies as well as in cross-sectional studies and so cannot be entirely due to only the happier individuals surviving.