There are many theories about the social and emotional aspects of aging. Some aspects of healthy aging include activities, social connectedness, and the role of a person’s culture. Many theorists believe we need to have and continue to find meaning throughout our lives.

In addition, positive relationships with significant others in our adult years have been found to contribute to a state of well-being (Ryff & Singer, 2009). Most adults in the United States identify themselves through their relationships with family—particularly with spouses, children, and parents (Markus et al., 2004). While raising children can be stressful, especially when they are young, research suggests that parents reap the rewards down the road, as adult children tend to have a positive effect on parental well-being (Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010). Having a stable marriage has also been found to contribute to well-being throughout adulthood (Vaillant, 2002).

Another aspect of positive aging is believed to be social connectedness and social support. As we get older, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that our social support and friendships dwindle in number, but remain as close, if not more close than in our earlier years (Carstensen, 1992)

8.4.1 Erikson: Integrity vs. Despair

How do people cope with old age? Erik Erikson, a prominent developmental psychologist, developed a series of stages that he felt represented the psychosocial growth of people as they age. According to Erikson, the last psychosocial stage is integrity vs. despair. This stage includes, “a retrospective accounting of one’s life to date; how much one embraces life as having been well lived, as opposed to regretting missed opportunities,” (Erikson, 1982, p. 112). Those in late adulthood need to achieve both the acceptance of their life and the inevitability of their death (Barker, 2016).

This stage includes finding meaning in one’s life and accepting one’s accomplishments, but also acknowledging what in life has not gone as hoped. It is also feeling a sense of contentment and accepting others’ deficiencies, including those of their parents. This acceptance will lead to integrity, but if elders are unable to achieve this acceptance, they may experience despair. Bitterness and resentments in relationships and life events can lead one to despair at the end of life.

According to Erikson (1982), successful completion of this stage leads to wisdom in late life. Erikson’s theory was the first to propose a lifespan approach to development, and it has encouraged the belief that older adults still have developmental needs. Prior to Erikson’s theory, older adulthood was seen as a time of social and leisure restrictions and a focus primarily on physical needs (Barker, 2016). Erikson’s theory states that aging well by keeping healthy and active helps to promote integrity. Erikson’s wife Joan Erikson, who had assisted in much of his work, added a ninth stage after Erikson’s death, In this ninth stage, older adults revisit each of the previous stages, and reconsiders the challenges of the earlier stages as they relate to their current perspectives. For example, the loss of physical abilities may result in a crisis of initiative versus guilt (the third stage)—Who am I if I can’t clean my own gutters any longer? A loss in memory can initiate thinking again about the fourth stage: industry versus inferiority—I can’t remember where I left my car keys—I was a professor! I must be losing it. The ninth stage sees older adults challenging the earlier resolution of the challenge based on their current experiences.

Many older adults want to remain active and work toward replacing opportunities lost with new ones. Those who prefer to keep themselves busy demonstrate the activity theory, which states that greater satisfaction with one’s life occurs with those who remain active (Lemon et al., 1972). Not surprisingly, more positive views on aging and greater health are noted with those who keep active than those who isolate themselves and disengage with others. Community, faith-based, and volunteer organizations can all provide those in late adulthood with opportunities to remain active and maintain social networks.

Erikson’s concept of generativity applies to many older adults, just as it did in midlife. Generativity in Late Adulthood Research suggests that generativity is not just a concern for midlife adults, but for many elders, concerns about future generations continue into late adulthood. As previously discussed, some older adults are continuing to work beyond age 65. Additionally, they are volunteering in their community, and raising their grandchildren in greater numbers.

8.4.2 Gail Sheehy’s New Stages

Author, journalist, and social observer Gail Sheehy wrote Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life in 1974, a book that updated the concept of stages in development to reflect both changes in society as well as changes to human life expectancy. She continued updating her work on life transitions for the next 50 years to reflect changing social norms as well as challenging some of them. She advocated for a much longer development of adulthood, including the “tryout 20s” as an extension of adolescence. Much of her work focused on later life, where she felt Erickson’s integrity vs. despair stage had limited application. She opined that mid-life was really the beginning of a second adulthood, marked by new opportunities and changing responsibilities.

There are many theories that focus on the last third of life specifically. Many of the early theories of aging proposed that there was just one correct way of adapting to age.For example, while evidence can be found that correlates remaining active with positive attitudes toward aging (as activity theory suggests), this does not allow for differences in preferences between individuals.

Many early theories (and some more recent ones) have also been criticized for coming from an ethnocentric, white, and Western perspective–one that ignores the diversity experienced by the majority of older adults. Only recently has research begun to include diverse populations in their study groups, and more educational institutions have intentionally shifted their focus from traditional peer-reviewed materials and instead are using original sources from non-dominant voices. This includes examples such as using the First Nations’ hierarchy of needs alongside Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and including multicultural ideas of family and aging that expand beyond the individualism representative of Western culture. This has enriched the field of gerontology by more accurately reflecting the fact that older adulthood, same as other stages, is impacted by a person’s own culture, socioeconomic status, and experiences, and does not reflect a homogenous group of “seniors” (figure 8.6).

Figure 8.6.Today, a much greater emphasis is being put on the diversity of older adults, including culture, experience, and values.

Most of the current theories of aging include concepts of the ecological model that help reflect the diversity of older adults. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, reviewed in chapters 1 and 5, states that to understand a person’s adaptation to aging, you must understand both their own personal characteristics, as well as the characteristics of their environment and their experiences in that environment. While this may seem a complicated approach, it also opens the door to multiple approaches to helping people adapt.

8.4.4 References

Bengtson, V., Martin, P. (2001). Families and intergenerational relationships in aging societies: comparing the United States with German-speaking countries. Z Gerontol Geriat, 34, 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003910170065

Carstensen, L. L. (1992). Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional selectivity. Psychology and Aging, 7(3), 331–338.

Markus, H. R., Ryff, C. D., Curan, K., & Palmersheim, K. A. (2004). In their own words: Well-being at midlife among high school-educated and college-educated adults. In O. G. Brim, C. D. Ryff, & R. C. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we? A national study of well-being at midlife (pp. 273–319). University of Chicago Press.

Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (2009). Understanding healthy aging: Key components and their integration. In V. L. Bengtson, D. Gans., N. M. Putney, & M. Silverstein. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed., pp. 117–144). Springer.

Thomeer, M., Mudrazija, S. and Angel, J. (2018). How and why does nursing home use differ by race and ethnicity? The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 73 (4), e11–e12, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbv056

Umberson, D., Pudrovska, T., & Reczek, C. (2010). Parenthood, childlessness, and well-being: A life course perspective. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 72(3), 612–629.

Vaillant, G. E. (2002). Aging well. Little Brown & Co.