The Elderly & Disengagement & Activity Theories

The position of the aged in modern society is clearly a reflection of the process of disengagement, referred to by Morgan & Kunkel (1998) in terms of retirement. Disengagement should be a social process that moves older people into a new arrangement, but still "into full participation within the social world" (Morgan & Kunkel, 1998, 6). Disengagement theory contrasts with activity theory, and activity theory in fact emerged as a response to disengagement theory. Activity theory offers a more normative view of aging. The theory holds that there is a positive relationship between activity and life satisfaction and that the greater the loss in role, the lower the life satisfaction.

American society has, by and large, become more remote from the individual in many ways, with a number of forces reducing the value of community and isolating individuals across the life cycle. This is a truism that is often misunderstood, as if our rural heritage had been one in which the exte

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imately 31 years after marriage. Longer life expectancy has increased this time and also means that any children are likely to be themselves married and moved out by the time any member of the couple begins to deteriorate. The typical older family today consists only of the husband and wife, and approximately two-thirds of all aged persons are husband-wife couples living alone, most of whom maintain their own households (Cox, 1988). Depner and Ingersoll-Dayton (1985) note that the older the couple becomes, the more support they are likely to require. However, family structures having changed, they are also more likely to have only each other for immediate support, thus placing the burden on the one who has deteriorated the least. Too often, the elderly are seen merely as a burden on the younger portion of the family, with particular fears about long-term care for health problems or Alzheimer's. Brody (1988) notes that family members, most often the central caregivers, face the ongoing, unrelenting, time-extended daily task of maximizing the patient's functional capacities. Brody further notes the fact that an Alzheimer's patient presents extraordinary difficulties. Some derive from the symptoms themselves, which are singu
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Approximate Word count = 1412
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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