Patricia Airhart Biography

At the biological age of eighty-two, Patricia Airhart provided partial insight to her autobiographical memory, presenting her self-concept. Inquiring Mrs. Airhart through a personal interview, I analyzed internal and external factors that potentially impacted her life’s trajectory. From normative age-graded and history-graded influences with her non-normative-changes, I evaluated my perception of the shared components of her life (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011, Jennings, 2010).
Born in 1935, Mrs. Airhart traversed various spans of technological advances, precarious economic conditions, and political upheaval. As a child, Mrs. Airhart resided in a rural area of Johnstown, Pennsylvania with her immediate family. Being the youngest child

However, Mrs. Airhart did not discern any consequential age-related impairments. During the interview, Mrs. Airhart's concentration did not waver, as she multitasked between our conversation while simultaneously venturing to identify any conceivable variations she observed within herself, portraying an exemplar of divided attention. Nevertheless, Mrs. Airhart did confirm a moderate decrease of her speed of processing, acknowledging that she is not as, "sharp and quick-witted," as she once was in her youth (Airhart, 2018, Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011). With an intact ability to recall relevant information that is appropriate to the context, Mrs. Airhart did not report any deterioration in her implicit or explicit memory, and neither in her working nor her long-term memory. As one with a firm inclination to inhibit unnecessary information from protruding her conscious mind, Mrs. Airhart is competent at processing cognitive resources (Jennings,

Airhart is managing her diabetes, macular degeneration, cataracts, and osteoarthritis in her knees with a daily regime of medications and regular visits to her physician. Procuring type two diabetes from a steroid shot, Mrs. Airhart has also embraced her age-associated illness within her eyes and joints. As one who never smoked cigarettes nor drank alcohol, Mrs. Airhart was a conscious individual, activity monitoring her well-being to maximize her longevity. Rejecting the stereotypical notions of declining into a frail older adult, Mrs. Airhart remains independent through complex activities of daily living, such as being punctual with her weekly playing card game with her friends. By selecting the pertinent strengths of her daily activities, optimizing existing proficiencies by practicing, and compensating for her loss of sight, Mrs. Airhart has an average to optimal functioning health status (Airhart, 2018, Jennings, 2010, Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,