Chapter 6: Successful Ageing and Mental Health
Successful Ageing:
Older person’s act:
- Maintain and promote the status and well being, safety and security
- Maintain and protect rights
- Emphasise community based care
- Regulate registration, management and establishment of services
- Combat abuse of older persons
Consists of three components:
1. Freedom from disease and disease-related disability
2. High mental and physical functioning
3. Active engagement in social and productive activities
Ageism:
Ageism: form of prejudice and refers to discrimination based on chronological
age.
- Indicates prejudice against people in middle by especially late adulthood.
- Ageism is the only category where the members of the discriminating group
will eventually join the group they are discriminating against.
Based on stereotypes and generalisations:
- Older people are alike
- Old people have little to offer society
- Old people behave like children
- Old people suffer from at least one serious illness
- Old people feel alone and lonely, and are just waiting to die
- Old people are senile
Prejudice may have an effect on the self-concept and therefore on the ideas,
feelings and attitudes that a person has about his or her own identity, worth,
capabilities and limitations.
Older adults who have had positive experiences concerning stereotypes show
better memory functioning, more positive and balances view of life and more
positive self-concepts that those with negative experiences.
Ageism is not a universal trend.
- Older people seem to enjoy high prestige in cultures that are autocratic, static
and collectivistic.
- Older people tend not to be bothered by these stereotypes as they are
resilient and use a variety of strategies to respond to and cope with stress to
protect their self-esteem and well-being.
, Personality Characteristics:
Following personality traits in particular seem to play an important role in successful
ageing:
1. Strong sense of meaning: a positive interpretation of one’s existence and the
world.
2. Emotional stability: consistency and predictability in emotional reactions to
setbacks and failures.
3. Flexibility: adjustability to change. The ability to be adaptable or variable and a
willingness to compromise.
4. Extraversion: outgoing, unreserved, expressive and a seemingly confident
approach to life.
5. Low hostility level: not being aggressive or antagonistic.
6. Resilience: successful adjustment to and ability to thrive on difficult and
traumatic life experiences.
Locus of control:
Refers to the individuals’ perception of their ability to influence the course and
outcome of their life experiences.
Internal locus of control: individuals believe that they themselves determine
their behaviour.
External locus of control: external factors determine their behaviour.
It is believed that people become more external than internal in their locus of
control as they move towards late adulthood.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: people tend to start behaving in the way they are
expected to.
Poverty:
Consequences of poverty:
1. Sense of hopelessness is experienced: because poor people feel caught up in
a miserable situation, with little or no indication of being able to escape.
- Learned helplessness: refers to a feeling of powerlessness and lack of
motivation that individuals experience after having been exposed to a series
of unpleasant events.
- Feel they cannot control their environment.
2. Poverty induces uncertainty about the future: refer more to the present
situation people find themselves in and uncertainty refers to the future and the
expectations of the way the situation may develop.
Successful Ageing:
Older person’s act:
- Maintain and promote the status and well being, safety and security
- Maintain and protect rights
- Emphasise community based care
- Regulate registration, management and establishment of services
- Combat abuse of older persons
Consists of three components:
1. Freedom from disease and disease-related disability
2. High mental and physical functioning
3. Active engagement in social and productive activities
Ageism:
Ageism: form of prejudice and refers to discrimination based on chronological
age.
- Indicates prejudice against people in middle by especially late adulthood.
- Ageism is the only category where the members of the discriminating group
will eventually join the group they are discriminating against.
Based on stereotypes and generalisations:
- Older people are alike
- Old people have little to offer society
- Old people behave like children
- Old people suffer from at least one serious illness
- Old people feel alone and lonely, and are just waiting to die
- Old people are senile
Prejudice may have an effect on the self-concept and therefore on the ideas,
feelings and attitudes that a person has about his or her own identity, worth,
capabilities and limitations.
Older adults who have had positive experiences concerning stereotypes show
better memory functioning, more positive and balances view of life and more
positive self-concepts that those with negative experiences.
Ageism is not a universal trend.
- Older people seem to enjoy high prestige in cultures that are autocratic, static
and collectivistic.
- Older people tend not to be bothered by these stereotypes as they are
resilient and use a variety of strategies to respond to and cope with stress to
protect their self-esteem and well-being.
, Personality Characteristics:
Following personality traits in particular seem to play an important role in successful
ageing:
1. Strong sense of meaning: a positive interpretation of one’s existence and the
world.
2. Emotional stability: consistency and predictability in emotional reactions to
setbacks and failures.
3. Flexibility: adjustability to change. The ability to be adaptable or variable and a
willingness to compromise.
4. Extraversion: outgoing, unreserved, expressive and a seemingly confident
approach to life.
5. Low hostility level: not being aggressive or antagonistic.
6. Resilience: successful adjustment to and ability to thrive on difficult and
traumatic life experiences.
Locus of control:
Refers to the individuals’ perception of their ability to influence the course and
outcome of their life experiences.
Internal locus of control: individuals believe that they themselves determine
their behaviour.
External locus of control: external factors determine their behaviour.
It is believed that people become more external than internal in their locus of
control as they move towards late adulthood.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: people tend to start behaving in the way they are
expected to.
Poverty:
Consequences of poverty:
1. Sense of hopelessness is experienced: because poor people feel caught up in
a miserable situation, with little or no indication of being able to escape.
- Learned helplessness: refers to a feeling of powerlessness and lack of
motivation that individuals experience after having been exposed to a series
of unpleasant events.
- Feel they cannot control their environment.
2. Poverty induces uncertainty about the future: refer more to the present
situation people find themselves in and uncertainty refers to the future and the
expectations of the way the situation may develop.
