Gerontology or the study of the different aspects of aging is not a new field of study. There are also stereotypes regarding the elderly which hope to shed light on, either to confirm or negate them. Studying elderly also plays a significant role for one’s culture. The changes in the role expectation and self perception of the elderly will serve as a reflection to the changes one’s culture is going through. Old age is culturally bound.
The society plays a big role ion defining and describing what old age is. Aside from describing the biological and psychological aspects of aging, society also determines how the elderly are perceived by assigning roles to them (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1993). Role is defined as “the behavior of one who occupies a particular status or position in the society” (Landis, 1986”410). Examples of statuses and positions are student, parent, classmate, teacher, friend and the like.
Roles and statuses and how the society sees a certain person direct that person’s behavior, way of thinking and even his or her own self-concept (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1993). On the theory that explains aging and roles/activities are differential engagement, proposed by Streib and Schneider (1971 cited in Ashley, 1997:167). According to this theory, “people may withdraw from some activities but increase or maintain their involvement in others.
As people reach old age, they tend to refrain from doing certain activities because of physical inability or they are hindered by the society, like in the case of the retirees. Atchley (1997:167) expounded it by saying that “.. people seldom are completely engaged nor are they are completely disengaged. Rather, they strike a balance between the two states that reflects their own preferences, often mediated by social encouragement or discouragement from others. ” Another theory that tries to explain the old age is the continuity theory.
According to continuity theory, the aging person substitutes similar types of roles for los ones and continues to maintain typical ways of adapting to the environment in order to inner psychological continuity as well as the outward continuity of social behavior and circumstances (Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin, 1968). Its basic tenets are that people, whether young or old have different personalities and lifestyles and that personality plays a major in adjusting to aging (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1993:71).
This theory basically says that personality is among the factors that determines people’s adaptation to age. What they have developed early in life will most likely continue, like if they “have always been active, assertive and socially involved” (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1993:71), they will still probably be like this when they grow old and still participate in activities that agree with their personalities. “Basically, their perspective states that, with age, we become more of what we already were when younger (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1993:71).
This theory emerged because of the shortcomings of the other theories, such as disengagement. The difference of this from the modified version of disengagement mentioned above is that thois is social-psychological theory. It does not only consider the activities and roles of the elderly but also their psychological aspect- personality. The first one speaks of disengaging or withdrawing from certain activities while the latter is on continuing activities that they have been participating in at the earlier stage of their lives.
Differential engagement and continuity theory are two different explanations about adapting to old age. Likewise, aging can be analyzed by looking at its effect on the roles that the elderly play. This can be done by studying how changes in roles and activities, as a result of aging, effect on individual’s life, that is the kind of problems he/she is facing, how these problems are addressed and his/her contribution to the society- in terms of helping family members, gainful and volunteer work and involvement in formal organizations.
Concerns and/or problems deal with the matters that take the person’s attention or which cause worry or difficulty for the person. Addressing the problems on the other hand, are the means or ways by the individual to cope with the problem he/she is experiencing; or the individual’s perception on how the problem should be tackled.