M1- Compare two theories of ageing:
In this assignment I will compare disengagement theory and the activist
theory. Both of these theories are very diferent.
Firstly, how are the theories diferentt he disengagement theory states that
as the individual gets older they will start to push themselves away from
social life and isolate themselves from other people. It is seen to be a normal
behaviour in older people as they are said to be ‘over the top’ with their life
by their age and most of them already had enough and they are not exactly
happy with their life. he reason for this could be that they might be
depressed by the fact they are not young anymore so they just see no point
in continuing.
hey might be going through a grief stage; this means that they might be
feeling miserable and they might not necessary would like to socialise with
other people and talk about their problems. Some people might prefer to just
get on with their issues by themselves and avoid people at all.
Comparing this to the activist theory, it is completely opposite; because
some older people who live by this theory tend to stay active and do things
and not caring about their age. hey tend to think that they are still capable
of doing things at their age. Older people who follow that theory tend to live
their fullest and continue to enjoy their life.
his means that they still keep in contact with their friends and family but
also they are willing to do things like cooking dinner for their family or they
would want to go exploring and travelling to diferent countries. here they
could do things like swimming or they would want to do more extreme things
like sky jumping.
Another diference is that disengagement theory takes place as the
individual gets older, however, the activist theory tend to state that the older
person has to follow the activist theory in order to stay healthy as they age.
When comparing the two theories in their similarities, they both are
psychological theories and the scientists studied both theories on the older
people. Both of these theories tend to be unrealistic as the scientists
carrying out the researches think that all of the people in the world are going
to fall into these categories of either activist or disengagement theory.
here could be a situation where someone could fall into both categories e.g.
they might be at times closed of whilst they are experiencing grief but that
doesn’t mean that they are not going to do extreme things or go travelling. It
could go other way around too. For example, the individual could be really
close to their family and social but they might not necessary go rock
climbing or live to their fullest.