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Late Adulthood Development Issues

In late adulthood, according to Berger (1994), the average individual experiences a number of biological, psychological, societal, and cultural impacts which can significantly change the ways in which one lives, perceives and presents the self, interacts with others, and copes with the strains and stresses of life. It is the purpose of this report to discuss the impact of such factors on individuals in the period generally referred to as late adulthood. Late adulthood will be understood herein as described by Baron and Byrne (2000) as that time of life when one has finished rearing children if one has chosen to have children, when retirement from a career is either imminent or has already taken place, and when one begins to contemplate one's own mortality. This definition of late adulthood is deliberately broad in that it is impossible to put specific chronological ages into the category of late adulthood.

With the aging of the baby boom generation -- a phenomenon that has begun to occur in 2005 and which will continue for another decade -- some one-third of all Americans will be aged 60 or over. This will create a culture in which older individuals represent a highly influential group both financially, politically, and socially. The power of numbers will undoubtedly ensure that older individuals who choose to remain involved politically and socially will be able to shape many institutions and even influence the behavior and activity of government.

At the same time, aging individuals entering late adulthood do experience inevitable and often irreversible physical or biological effects. According to Berger (1994), at some point after the age of 60, most people experience the depletion of organ reserve and the ongoing slowdown of body functioning which eventually reaches a level where daily routines need to be adjusted. For the healthy members of this age cohort, the changes may be relatively minor and involve eating sma...

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Late Adulthood Development Issues. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:04, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1694140.html