According to Activity Theory, Both the Elderly and Society Can Benefit:

Disengagement Theory

The disengagement theory of aging claims that it is natural and adequate for older adults to withdraw from society and personal relationships as they historic period.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the 9 postulates of growing one-time and the impact at each stage for the elderly in society

Cardinal Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• Detachment theory claims that it is natural and adequate for older adults to withdraw from society and personal relationships as they age.
• Disengagement theory was the first theory of aging developed by social scientists.
• The theory was developed past Elaine Cumming and Warren Earl Henry in their 1961 book "Growing Old." Subsequently, the theory has been largely debunked.

Key Terms

• disengagement theory: The disengagement theory of crumbling claims that it is natural and acceptable for older adults to withdraw from society and personal relationships as they age.
• activity theory: Action theory claims that staying mentally and physically agile preserves older adults happier.
• Robert J. Havighurst: Robert James Havighurst (June 5, 1900 in De Pere, Wisconsin – January 31, 1991 in Richmond, Indiana) was a professor, physicist, educator, and aging practiced.

The detachment theory of aging claims that information technology is natural and acceptable for older adults to withdraw from society and personal relationships as they age. The theory further suggests that club responds to the elder'southward disengagement with a sort of mutual recognition that the elderberry will soon pass and guild must prepare to function in their absence. As such, the theory argues that it is natural and adequate for older adults to withdraw from society.

The Postulates of Growing Old

Elderly Adult female: Disengagement theory suggests that adults become increasingly withdrawn as they get older.

Disengagement theory was the outset theory of aging developed by social scientists. Information technology was originally formulated past Elaine Cumming and Warren Earl Henry in their 1961 book Growing One-time. In Growing Old, Cumming and Henry develop a logical argument for why older adults would naturally disengage from gild. They codify their argument forth nine postulates to explain why it is rational for individuals who know that death is approaching and who have seen friends of their historic period pass to begin to conceptualize their ain deaths and disengage.

The postulates are as follows:

1. Postulate ane: Everyone expects death, and i's abilities volition likely deteriorate over time. As a upshot, every person will lose ties to others in his or her order.
2. Postulate two: Considering individual interactions between people strengthen norms, an individual who has fewer varieties of interactions has greater freedom from the norms imposed by interaction. Consequently, this grade of disengagement becomes a circular or self-perpetuating process.
3. Postulate three: Considering men have a centrally instrumental role in America, and women a socioemotional one, detachment differs between men and women.
4. Postulate iv: The individual'south life is punctuated past ego changes. For example, aging, a class of ego modify, causes knowledge and skill to deteriorate. However, success in an industrialized society demands certain knowledge and skill. To satisfy these demands, age-grading ensures that the young possess sufficient knowledge and skill to presume authority and that the former retire before they lose their skills. This kind of disengagement is affected past the individual, prompted past either ego changes or the organization, which is bound to organizational imperatives, or both.

5. 

   Sunday Morning Stroll in Piazza del Popolo: The process of crumbling is greatly facilitated when older people pursue hobbies and relationships, and generally lead a more than active lifestyle.

   Postulate five: When both the individual and social club are ready for detachment, complete disengagement results. When neither is fix, continuing engagement results. When the individual is set up and gild is not, a disjunction between the expectations of the individual and of the members of this social systems results, but engagement commonly continues. When gild is gear up and the private is not, the outcome of the disjunction is usually disengagement.

6. Postulate six: Homo's cardinal role is work, and woman'southward is spousal relationship and family. If individuals abandon their fundamental roles, they drastically lose social life space, and so endure crisis and demoralization unless they assume the different roles required by the disengaged state.
7. Postulate 7: Readiness for disengagement occurs if the individual is aware of the shortness of life and scarcity of time, the individual perceives his or her life space decreasing, and the individual loses ego energy. Each level of gild grants individuals permission to disengage because of the post-obit: requirements of the rational-legal occupational system in an affluent club; the nature of the nuclear family; and the differential decease rate.
8. Postulate 8: Fewer interactions and disengagement from central roles lead to the relationships in the remaining roles changing. In turn, relational rewards become more diverse, and vertical solidarities are transformed to horizontal ones.
9. Postulate 9: Disengagement theory is independent of civilization, but the class it takes is jump past civilisation.

Disengagement theory, suffering from a lack of empirical support, has largely been dismissed past social scientists and gerontologists.

Activity Theory

Action theory proposes that successful aging occurs when older adults stay agile and maintain social interactions.

Learning Objectives

Compare the activeness model and detachment model of aging, in terms of activity level and level of life satisfaction

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The activity theory of aging proposes that older adults are happiest when they stay agile and maintain social interactions.
• The theory was developed by Robert J. Havighurst as a response to the disengagement theory of aging.
• The detachment model suggests that it is natural for the elderly to disengage from society as they realize that they are ever nearer to death.

Key Terms

• activity theory: Activity theory proposes that successful crumbling occurs when older adults stay active and maintain social interactions.
• Robert J. Havighurst: Robert James Havighurst (June 5, 1900 in De Pere, Wisconsin – Jan 31, 1991 in Richmond, Indiana) was a professor, physicist, educator, and aging expert.
• disengagement theory: The disengagement theory of aging states that "crumbling is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement, resulting in decreased interaction between the aging person and others in the social organization he belongs to."

The activeness theory of aging proposes that older adults are happiest when they stay active and maintain social interactions. These activities, peculiarly when meaningful, help the elderly to supercede lost life roles afterwards retirement and, therefore, resist the social pressures that limit an older person's earth. The theory assumes a positive relationship betwixt activity and life satisfaction. Activity theory reflects the functionalist perspective that the equilibrium, that an individual develops in centre age, should exist maintained in later years. The theory predicts that older adults that face role loss volition substitute former roles with other alternatives.

The theory was adult past gerontologist, or, scholar of crumbling, Robert J. Havighurst in 1961, and was originally conceived as a response to the recently published disengagement theory of aging. The disengagement model suggests that it is natural for the elderly to disengage from society equally they realize that they are ever nearer to death. However, withdrawing from their central societal roles—working, marriage, raising a family —means they drastically lose social life space and so suffer crisis and demoralization.

Havighurst's activity theory is at deliberate odds with what some perceive equally the pessimism of disengagement theory. However, critics of activity theory country that it overlooks inequalities in wellness and economics that hinders the ability for older people to engage in such activities. Besides, some older adults practise not desire to engage in new challenges.

Five decades of gerontological research, nevertheless, suggest that the action model is more than accurate than the disengagement model. Not merely is activity beneficial for the community, merely it engages older adults (both physically and mentally) and allows them to socialize with others. This increases feelings of self-worth and pleasure, which are important for happiness and longevity.

Oh Mary, Don't You Weep: Participating in activities from which they used to derive pleasure in the past, such every bit singing, helps older people stay active and engaged.

Continuity Theory

The continuity theory proposes that older adults maintain the same activities, behaviors, personalities, and relationships of the past.

Learning Objectives

Examine the pros and cons of the continuity theory of aging, specifically in terms of how information technology neglects to consider social institutions or chronically sick adults

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• Internal structures of continuity remain abiding over a lifetime and include elements, such every bit personality traits, ideas, and beliefs. It helps people make future decisions by providing them with a stable foundation in the past.
• External structures of continuity help maintain a stable cocky-concept and lifestyle and include relationships and social roles.
• George Fifty. Maddox and Robert Atchley are most closely associated with the continuity theory.
• The theory is criticized for including a distinction between normal and pathological crumbling that does not accept into account older adults with chronic diseases. The theory is also criticized for non considering the influence of social institutions on the aging of individuals.

Key Terms

• Internal Structures: (of an individual) remain relatively constant throughout a person'south lifetime and includes elements such as personality traits, ideas, and beliefs.
• External Structures: (of an individual) consist of relationships and social roles, and back up the maintenance of a stable self-concept and lifestyle.
• Continuity Theory: The continuity theory of normal aging states that older adults volition usually maintain the aforementioned activities, behaviors, personality traits, and relationships as they did in their earlier years of life.

The continuity theory of normal aging states that older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors, personality traits, and relationships as they did in their before years of life. The theory considers the internal structures and external structures of continuity to describe how people adapt to their circumstances and set their goals.

The Internal and External Structures of Continuity: Older adults agree on to many of the beliefs, practices, and relationships they had in the by every bit they go on to historic period.

The internal construction of an private – for instance, an individual'due south personality traits – remains relatively constant throughout a person's lifetime. Other internal aspects such as beliefs tin can remain relatively constant too, though are also subject to change. This internal structure facilitates future decision-making past providing the private with a strong internal foundation of the past. The external structure of an individual consists of relationships and social roles, and it supports the maintenance of a stable self-concept and lifestyle.

George L. Maddox and Robert Atchley are most closely associated with the continuity theory. Maddox provided an empirical description of the continuity theory in 1968 in a affiliate of the book Centre Historic period and Crumbling: A Reader in Social Psychology called "Persistence of Lifestyle among the Elderly: A Longitudinal Study of Patterns of Social Action in Relation to Life Satisfaction. " In 1971, Atchley formally proposed the theory in his article "Retirement and Leisure Participation: Continuity or Crunch? " He continued to expound upon the theory over the years, explaining the development of internal and external structures in 1989 and publishing a book in 1999 called Continuity and Adaptation in Aging: Creating Positive Experiences.

The theory is criticized primarily for its definition of normal aging. The theory distinguishes between normal aging and pathological aging, so it neglects older adults who endure from chronic affliction. The theory also fails to explain how social institutions affect individuals and the way they age.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/the-functionalist-perspective-on-aging/