Essay on Case Study Late Adulthood Development
Each person lives through different life stages such as infancy, childhood, young adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. Late adulthood is known as a term which describes the period in life of a person starting from ages sixty five – seventy and ending in his death. This period of life is considered to be one of continuing changes as well as adjustments in both physical and psychological states. As late adulthood is the last period in individual cycle of life, it should be studied and discussed. (Weiten, Lloyd, Dunn, Hammer)
The main goal of this paper is to represent a case study of a person in late adulthood. This case study is based on the interview with an old woman which helps to understand the main theories of late adulthood development.
The major idea of this case study is to examine an experiences of a person during adulthood in order to understand better the changes in people’s lives and find out the factors that can influence the choices and experiences of people. To achieve this goal, the interview method was used for gathering the appropriate information about a person studied.
It is known that late adulthood has its own developmental transitions which include “adjusting to retirement, adapting to changes in one’s support network, coping with health problems, and confronting death” (Weiten, Lloyd, Dunn, Hammer 351) The following data was used for the case study:
Name of a person under study: Teresa
Gender: Female
Age: 80 years old
Physical Development
Height: 5,6 feet
Weight: 210 pounds
Developmental Milestone
Health Issues: She is a rather healthy woman. She used to smoke but now she does not smoke. Teresa has arthritis and some problems with weight.
Menopause: She has no any problems with her menopause.
Cognitive Development: She perceives, thinks and gains understanding of her world through such factors as language development, memory, learning
Education: Teresa spent two years at nursing school. She also got a Bachelor Science Psychiatric Nurse Degree in New York University.
Memory: She has a sharp memory.
Language: English
Cognitive Functioning: She has an ability to process thoughts, to learn new information, speech, reading comprehension. She does not have a memory loss and trouble thinking of the right words when she speaks and writes.
Job: She served as an Army Lieutenant Officer in Korea Occupational for about 3 years and as an Army Captain – a Reserve Army Officer, in Japan for about 2 years.
Career: She has made a military and health care career
Social-emotional Development: She enjoys her friends and her family, holidays and huge meals. She prefer to go the the theater movie and to discuss politics with her friends. She is fond of gardening and cooking.
Intimate relationship: She has never been married,she lived as a gay. Now she is asexual.
Family Support: Teresa has good relations with her family. She takes care of her brother’s child. Her niece, husband and three children live with her. She helps to bring up the kids.
Social Group: medical worker
Cultural Development: She is polite and well-bred person who is not indifferent to the suffering of others and always ready to lend a helping hand. Now she is busy with the children of her brother. She helps them with their home work and keeps involved with their activities. She appreciates the Oriental Culture.
Social-economic Status: Middle high Class
Ethnic Background: Italian
Culture/Race: Caucasian
Religion: Teresa is not a strict Catholic, nevertheless she believes in God.
CONLUSION
Teresa’s past life impacts her in a very positive way. She has a positive attitude towards herself and other people. Every day she thanks God for her friends and her family health. She is happy to be of service to them. She is happy that her family loves her and respect her. They did not leave her alone. They pay too much attention to her. The only thing Teresa regrets is the fact that she refused to accept her father’s help and to go to Medical school. She is very satisfied with her past and present day life.
According to Erik Erickson late adulthood is a period when the individuals get the meaning of their life and satisfaction of their life instead of being bitter and frustrated. (Weiten, Lloyd, Dunn, Hammer)
Erickson stated that during the young adult years an individual is exposed to” intimacy versus isolation crises”, during the middle adulthood he faces the “generatively versus stagnation stage”, during the late adulthood the crisis refer to “ego integrity versus despair”. (Santrock)
Teresa is an old person who understands that she has got a long life but at the age of 80 she is satisfied with her life and is not in despair. Although we know some facts from her biography which cannot relate her to a satisfied person. (she was gay, she does not have children)
