Late Adulthood:

Social and Emotional

Development

Prof Dabie Nabuzoka, PhD

University of Zambia
dsnabuzoka@gmail.com
 Psychosocial Adjustment

A look at psychological development

and adjustment during late adulthood
Features of Late Adulthood
 Dreaded Period
 Time of Transition
 Time of Stress
 Awkward Age
 Time of Achievement
 Time of Evaluation
 Age of Double Standards
 Time of Empty Nest
 Time of Boredom
 Change in Appearance
 Change in Sensory Ability
 Change in Physiological Functioning
 Community Affairs
 Status Symbolism
Perceptions of Old People
 Power and prestige for elderly have eroded in
industrialized societies
 Rapidly changing technology causes older
adults to be seen as lacking important skills
 Older adults are seen as non-productive
members of society and in some cases
simply irrelevant
 What is the situation of the elderly in the
Zambian context?
Financial Vulnerability in Older
Adulthood
Zambian context
 Reliance on children or relatives
 Reliance on a fixed income for support
 No Social Security benefits
 Pensions, and savings, rarely keeps up with
inflation
Consider arguments for different ways of


paying pensions in Zambian context

 Cost of health care – the cost of staying well!
Work and Retirement

 Retirement is major decision

 Lack of Social Security as major factor
 Part-time employment
 Mandatory retirement
 Consider arguments for and against
early retirement in Zambian context
from a psychological perspective
Perspectives of some employers..
 Encourage older workers to leave their
jobs in order to replace them with
younger employees whose salaries will
be considerably lower
 Believe older workers are not up to
demands of the job or are less willing to
adapt to a changing workplace
Retirement
Retirement decision based on
variety of factors
 Burnout
 Health concerns
 Employer incentives
 Desire to do other things, or spend more time
with family
Death of Spouse
 Few events are more painful than death of
spouse
 No longer part of a couple
 Must deal with profound grief
 No one to share life with and social life often
changes
 Economic changes often occur
Importance of Friendships
Why do friends matter?
Friendships in late adulthood:
 Allow older adults more control about whom
to include in a friendship
 May be more flexible
 Relate to increasing likelihood, over time, that
one will be without marital partner
Social Support

 Social support is assistance and comfort

supplied by another person or a network of
caring, interested people
 Important for successful aging
 Sympathy and empathy
 Can help furnish material support such as solve
problems
 Relatives can be especially good at providing
social support in African context
 Erikson’s Final Stage
Ego-integrity versus despair:
 Characterized by looking back over one’s life,
evaluating it, and coming to terms with it
 Success at this stage:
 Integrity – fulfilled the possibilities that have come
their way
 Few or no regrets
 Sense of satisfaction and accomplishment
 Difficulty at this stage (lack of success):
 Looking back on one’s life with disappointment
 Regret over missed opportunities
 Have not accomplished what they wished
 Unhappy, depressed, angry (despair) over the way
their life turned out
Coping with aging
 Bernice Neugarten studied the different ways people cope with
aging:
 Disintegrated and disorganized personalities are unable to
accept aging, experience despair as they get older, often
end up in nursing homes or hospitalized
 Passive-dependent personalities lead lives filled with fear of
falling ill, fear of the future, fear of their own inability to cope
 Defended personalities seek to ward off aging and attempt
to act young, exercising vigorously, and engaging in youthful
activities that could lead to unrealistic expectations and
disappointment
 Integrated personalities cope comfortably with aging and
accept becoming older with a sense of dignity
Psychological and Mental Disorders

 15-25% of individuals over the age of 65 show symptoms of

psychological disorder
 Major depression – feelings of intense sadness, pessimism and
hopelessness
 Partly due to cumulative loss (death of partner and friends)
 Declining health and physical capabilities
 Loss of independence and control
 Drug-induced psychological disorders
 Drug intoxication
 Anxiety
 Dementia
 Broad category of serious memory loss and decline in
mental functioning
 Lessened intellectual functioning
 The most common mental disorder in late adulthood
 Chances of experiencing dementia increases with age
Death and Dying
 Death Across the Life Span
 Death does not always occur during old
age
 How do our reactions with death evolve
as we age?

FOCUS OF NEXT LECTURES!!

Further Reading
Relevant chapters in the following:
Berk, L. (2004). Development through the life span.
Allyn and Bacon
Hurlock, E.B. (2006). Developmental Psychology:
A Lifespan Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill
Kail, R. & Cavanaugh, R. (2010). Human
Development: A Lifespan View (5th Edn)