Communication plays a fundamental role in all aspects of everyday life. It allows us to build relationships with other individuals and acquire knowledge at the same time. Although its function in our lives is generally well known, people may not be aware of how the aging process affects this ability. One factor that is not typically discussed amongst individuals is the impact of aging stereotypes on communication. People often hold expectations about communication with older adults, many of which negatively impact the older adult in the conversation. For example, the average person may expect an older adult to have difficulty understanding in noisy situations or easily lose track of who said what in conversation (Ryan et al., 1992). They …show more content…
Over time, individuals form levels of relationships that can be illustrated by the Convoy Model (Antonucci & Kahn, 1980). In this model, relationships are divided into an inner circle, middle circle, and outer circle. The placement of individuals within these circles is reliant on many factors including the closeness, function, quality, and structure of the relationship (Morgan, 2018). Individuals in the inner circle are people that play a significant role in your life, whereas those in the outer circle are people close enough and important enough that you feel the need to include them in your social network. Those who make up the middle circle are typically people who are still fairly important, but not as close to you as those in the inner circle. When talking with the interviewee about social relationships, she said she would include her children and their spouses in her inner circle, her siblings and grandchildren in her middle circle, and distant family members as well as her neighbors in her outer circle. She also mentioned that her number of social relationships has changed drastically throughout the aging process. According to Tammy English and Laura Carstensen, as people age, they can expect a decline in the number of peripheral partners, tightening the outer circle. However, one can also expect to see stability in the number of close social partners into late life (English & Carstensen, 2014). In accordance with these findings, the interviewee stated that she has seen a decrease in the size of her outer circle over the years due to deaths of friends, neighbors, and distant family members. She also said that she has seen very little change to her inner circle and middle circle, aside from losing her spouse five years ago. This confirms the findings described in the English and Carstensen article regarding how social
However, some variation and possible novelty surfaced in this period of the lifespan. According to (Clark, Ouellette, Powell, & Milberg, 1987), in late adulthood, social interactions are more about communal orientation. Meaning that in this stage, friendships are deeply about the welfare of friends, concerns for friend’s well-being, and support, which portrayed this stage mainly about high quality relations. In his research, Field (1999) reported that late adults’ deep care for friend’s well-being is understandable for the fact that, older adults are in the stage where health issues often emerge, therefore, a sense of vulnerability arised. However, normative life events that retained social interactions in middle adulthood decrease because they are most likely release from family restraint, workforce responsibility and past personal obligations (Field,
The first influential factor to the atrophy of social life that Eitzen writes about is moving away. Americans nowadays are always on the go – if moving is the most convenient idea, they will move with no regard to formed relationships that will soon be broken. People are often forced to move in order to follow a job or because of problems within the family. Constantly moving about causes a decline in intimate relationships. This is also true in people who live alone. The lack of regular and reliable social interaction can lead to a less sociable personality and less motivation to form real relationships. Real relationships are what lead to a healthy social life.
4) and says that in contrast to Artistotle, Americans take friendships not at all seriously. We may have plenty of casual acquaintances, but very few true friends with whom we can share deep connections. Rather than gaining the benefits of a relationship with boundaries, we focus on relationships that can take us over. Taking care of our emotional health is something we choose to do independently, even though we are so dependent in many other areas of our survival. We live alone more often, we join social organizations in the lowest numbers of the last century, and up to one fourth of us have no one to confide in, and on average, a person has four close relationships, and half of these are spouses and children. In fact, when we do feel like talking, we pay for it when we hire therapists, or adopt pets. He says, referencing University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo, that Americans are lonely more because of the rushed way we tend to our social relationships which reduces meaningful connections. He goes on to say that we are “locked in what social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has called ‘the cult of conspicuous busyness’,” (par. 10) and that we strive to gain a respect from this lifestyle that then leaves us no time to devote to building intimates
However, communication difficulties aren’t the only thing stereotypes negatively produce. The Communication Predicament Model of Aging (Ryan, Giles, Bartolucci & Henwood, 1986, as cited in Giles, Oct. 21, 2014) proposed that these negative characteristics I listed in exercise one can act as triggers for age stereotypes and lead to negative speech between the two groups (younger and older adults). This restricts communicative opportunities between said groups, encouraging less social interaction with older adults. Thus, older adults can lose a vast amount of self-esteem, creating physiological and psychological problems. I for one did not know the amount of damage categorizing older adults by their stereotypes could cause to their psyche. When my grandfather was 75 years old, he was put into the hospital for heart problems and my family would visit him often. I always remember my mother and father slowing their speech down, or just talking differently towards him while he was in the hospital bed. It is as if seeing my grandfather in a hospital bed triggered age stereotypes of older adults, thus changing the way my parents commutated toward them. Applying Social Identity Theory (Giles et al. 2014) presented in COMM 119 to that interaction made me realize for the future that I must look past these stereotypes, and base my communicative behaviors around the individual, and not there group. As it can lead to higher levels of self-esteem for the older adult I am addressing. Properly accommodating to the elder adults will also allow me to get rid of stereotypes and possibly see aging as more of a positive
From a young age most people have gone through many relationships with other people who were not their family. Thus, we often acknowledge these relationships as friendships. But the word friend is too broad, so people categorize their friends to several types. In her book “Necessary Losses: The Lovers, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow”, Judith Viorst divided friendships to six types. Those are convenience friends, special Interest friends, historical friends, crossroad friends, cross-generation friends and close friends. In my life, I have been friend with many people since I was little. Although I have met all six kinds of friend of Viorst, convenience friends and close friends are two important kinds of friends in my life.
There are changes in the demographic as the population grows older, the number of older adult’s increases and thus, there is an increase of proportion of patients that are older adults for nurses to take care of (Wells, Y., Foreman, P., Gething, L., & Petralia, W., 2004). The nurses are there to assist and support the older adults in achieving wellness within their situation through empowering the clients (Touhy, et al (2012). Caring for older adults is important as there is an increase in population with deteriorating health. When caring for a client it is important to incorporate Jean Watson’s caring theories and Carative Factors to help influence and support the care. She encourages nurses to co-participate within the caring process by establishing unity and trust between the nurse and client. First, this paper will explain a situation in where I cared for an older adult and it will then introduce Jean Watson’s lower order needs, specifically the need for activity and how it relates to the older adult I cared for. Lastly, this paper will explain the nursing interventions I implemented to meet the lower order need, with a discussion of Carative Factor #4 relating to the client.
According to Melissa Dittman’s article, the negative stereotypes that are being displayed towards older people might be shortening
The Social Security Act of 1935 was established in order to help Americans receive benefits when they retire or in the event that they are not able to work anymore. All Americans who work pay taxes, which in turn are put into the Social Security system. When this act was passed, it was meant to supplement a person's income, when reaching the age of retirement. This money would add to their pensions or savings. Many retirees now depend on it as their only source of income. In the past, the majority of jobs had pensions and the employee contributed to it. In modern society, pensions are no longer the norm in jobs as they were 50 years ago. Blue collar jobs are more than likely to not have any sort of pension plan as opposed to white collar jobs. Not all people receive the same amount of money when they retire. Depending on the salary you earned when working, that will determine how much you will receive in your monthly Social Security check. A person who has worked at low paying jobs in their lifetime will barely receive enough in Social Security. Many of our elderly in the United States barely receive enough money that many elderly live below or just barely above the poverty level.
Some adults have communication difficulties and adaptations are necessary. It’s import to be sensitive with adults that have communication difficulties.
Adults entering the midlife years (middle adulthood) are experiencing an overabundance of life changes. Hall, Hernandez, Wong, and Justice (2015) stated that, during middle adulthood important changes occur across the physical, cognitive, and social domains of development. There is a mounting amount of research on the changes that middle-aged adults experience. One of the most unexplored factor that middle-aged adults experience is Ageism. Ageism can be defined as the act of being prejudice or discriminative towards a specific age group. Although, Ageism can occur at any given place and in any age group. Research shows that it is more prevalent in older adults,
“a socially constructed way of thinking about older persons based on negative attitudes and stereotypes about aging and a tendency to structure society based on an assumption that everyone is young, thereby failing to respond appropriately to the real needs of older persons” (OHRC, 2014).
The main reaction is anxiety; it is believed that elders remind others of what they will exist as, wrinkles, gray hair, and all. People do not want to face the reality of fading beauty, weaker joints, and certainly not the closeness of death. One must ask, “How do these feelings about negative stereotypes affect the elderly themselves?” Several analyses have shown that implied grooming of harmful age stereotypes can alter physical and cognitive functioning. For example, a study found stereotype related increases in blood pressure, skin conductance, and moodiness or nervousness among a sample of middle-aged and older men. A key finding from this study was that the fear of being perceived as sick could dissuade people from seeking medical help (Auman,
shows broadcasted on television. According to Tom Robinson’s article Older Adults of Offensive Senor Stereotypes in Magazine Advertisements: Results of A Q Method Analysis, he stats that, “They may cause people to think of the older population as less worthy than other groups or that they would not enjoy the company of an older person.” (they being stereotypes). What he is saying is that due to the ageism stereotypes that are shown through the media the younger population are becoming less excepting and less tolerable towards the older adult population. A quote by Palmore used in the same article by Robinsons states, “Negative stereotypes of the elderly are the underpinnings of ageism which involves prejudice and discrimination against older people” (1990.
In fact, there was a lecture where (Joshi, 2017b) provided an example of a negative stereotype of an older adult that was illustrated with toddler like features in a comic book. This example itself demonstrates how society makes fun of older adults, which relates to the cultural differences between the western society and their values compared to the teachings and values of the east. I could relate to stereotyping older adults stemming from differences in society because eastern society for example, places more emphasis on respecting elders while being more conservative because of their knowledge and experience in life, whereas some parts of the west may be more open to each other while communicating and allowing older adults to be the comedians of society for entertainment purposes which may not be the most considerate idea. Another good example that would debunk the fact that stereotypes should not be generalized across a group of people would be in the lecture where (Joshi, 2016c) explained that many older adults return to their hobbies or activities that they used to enjoy doing when they were younger which is an example of what the continuity theory would suggest. In short, I have changed my perspective on how I use my judgment when it comes to evaluating what the media or other sources put out for their audience such as
This movie is a remake of the original film The Hills Have Eyes that was made in 1977. The movie is about a family that is taking a vacation and receives bad directions that resulted in them getting stranded in the hills. Well the family did not know what or who was in the hills. The family gets targeted by a family of bloodthirsty inbreeded mutants that tries to kill all of them. Here is a scene from the movie that I would like to quote. “Papa Jupiter has just been impaled in an explosion, but he is not fully dead. Brenda comes charging out of nowhere with a pick-axe and slams it into the mutants head - killing him” (imb). I would like to use this quote to show the difference in how gruesome the scenes were between the original and the remake.