Peoples Perception and Personal Experiences - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Narrative Essay Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Ageing Introduction Ageing can be defined as the accretion of changes in an object or an organism. In humans, ageing is defined as a multidimensional procedure of social, psychological, or physical change. Several elements of aging expand and grow over time whereas others decline. For instance, reaction time may slow as one gets old while wisdom and understanding of world events may expand. Ageing is a significant part of every human society and reflects biological modifications that take place and also on the societal and cultural conventions. People’s perception and personal experiences People have perceptions on the basis of their own personal experiences. Individuals view the world differently since two individuals will never possess same experiences and experience makes people who they are. Our own experiences colour our views about people who are different from us (Ponty, 2002). The only means to generate one opinion of reality is through systemically forcing every individual to have same experiences but this can diminish the quality and richness of life. I think old people find it hard to be dependent on other people and several social support programs so as to manage their daily lives. Old people develop a knowledge of their reducing physical capabilities when start encountering health and social problems. Many people believe that life starts at forty, although it looks as if other people especially young people, in fact associate getting old with one being miserable , implying that they do not observe any gain for preserving their life for older age. Young populace like taking pleasure but this usually means behaving in manners that may damage their future wellbeing. In real sense old age doesn’t imply a decline or reduction in happiness and older people are equally happy as young people. While several young people relate older age with gloom and doom, this is not true. I have established a strong connection between the perception that happiness reduces as one grows old and degrees of irresponsible behaviours such as drinking by young people. It looks as if young people do not care much about their bodies because they have a view that there is a minute point in conserving their bodies and health for a miserable life of old age. Growing old, Expectations versus reality Growing old is not virtually as awful as many people feel it will be but it is not also good. On features of daily life varying from physical dexterity to mental acuity to financial security, I think there is a substantial gap amid young and elderly on old age and actual experiences. The differences come into focus when dealing with a on a series of depressing benchmark usually linked with aging like memory loss, illness, and effort to deal with depression and loneliness, and problems in paying bills. I think old people experience a few of gains of ageing that young people anticipate benefiting from when they become old like spending time with families, volunteer jobs and travelling in order to make more adventures. My interview attempts to survey how old people perceive growing old as a life process, attitudes and life experiences. My study also investigates opinion of people on their own desired and perceived ages, and the margins between old and middle age. My aim of the study is to gather insights into implication of growing old and gather information on how age and to which extent age and socio economic situation impact ageing experiences along with the generation of perceptions on ageing. Perceptions and experiences of growing old are of considerable significance for elderly people in relation to behavioural outcomes, health, well being, and self identity. Perceptions of growing among old and middle aged people refer to ways in which they envision the process of ageing and their personal experience in transition to older age. Desired and self perceived ages as discrete from real chronological age are defined as how aged a person feels and how elderly he or she would desire to be. Both are elements of an individual’s perceptions and age identity and are also deemed socially constructed. Self perceived age is related to an individual’s personal maturing model and future expectations. Desired age is defined as age preference by a person and entails to the level of his reception of the issue that he is growing older and his reconciliation to this fact. An individual perception on when old age begins refers to his perception on age and how he defines old age. This perception is built on cultural and personal beliefs and norms and reflects personal judgments by people about the life stages and main turning points of life. The generation of individual experiences and perceptions of growing old is a forceful procedure that relates to social norms, self, their interplay and reflects the manner in which a person internalizes the social norms. I asked the respondents on what they thought were the most negative and positive things regarding growing older. My expectations were that many people would say that as they grow older they expect to be more lonely and tolerant and they expect to have the ability to do things they having been doing when younger. I also expected that old people are always miserable and grumpy, do not receive respect from other people, growing older does not bother them and they worry that their health will worsen as they get older. Majority of my respondents saw ageing as an optimistic experience while a few saw it as a negative experience. This is a main finding that reveals that growing old is not a horrible experience and it contradict my belief that growing old is an unpleasant process since it contributes to old age along with its consequent mental, physical, economic and social deterioration. Another significance finding of my analysis is the association between self recognized health and ageing experiences. Participants whose ageing experience is negative usually report bad self perceived fitness than participants with positive experience of ageing. I also established that nine out of ten respondents consent that there is a lot of information that can be offered by old people and three quarters of these people do not view themselves as elderly. Two thirds of these people believe that elderly people do not receive respect from the society and are troubled that their fitness will get worse as they become older. However, only one person out of five consents that elderly persons are miserable and grumpy, one out of three persons consents that old people are lonely and almost four out of ten persons agree that as they grow older, they expect to be more lonely. To be real, there are loads that accompany old age. One out of four old persons said that they experiences of memory loss and about one out of five persons have serious illnesses, are sexually inactive, and usually feel depressed or sad. About one person out of six old people revealed that they have problems paying their bills and are lonely. Aging stereotypes Pessimistic stereotypes of elderly people depends on how the society views reliance on others, attachment with extended family and conventional ideals such as being wise and old is a thing to aspire. When we are aware of prejudice, we are typically apprehensive with the way it influences the targeted people. However, pessimistic stereotypes about elderly people carry a horrible cost for people for have these stereotypes. Unlike indicators of disability, or race, old age is a group that every individual will belong to someday. Therefore, young persons who possess negative perspectives of elderly people will ultimately form a negative perception about themselves. Negative perspectives about the elderly do not just disappear once a person becomes a portion of this demographic and deeply held postulations are persistent. Elderly individuals who have negative beliefs on aging like a belief that physical and mental health inexorably get worse as one gets old or those illnesses like arthritis, heart diseases, and difficulties in sleeping are usual features of aging result in worse performance on hearing acuity and short term memory tests. More chillingly, research has revealed that old people with these beliefs are likely to have strokes and heart attacks, they take a longer time to recover from these diseases, and they have a considerably reduced life expectancy. The outcomes are not as a result of poor health or personality disparities but they are directly envisaged by negative versus positive beliefs on aging. Negative personal stereotypes are harmful since they generate stress. For example, exposing old persons to pessimistic age stereotypes can elicit physiological stress responses like rise in blood pressure and heart rate, which interferes with the overall health. In spite of their impact on elderly people, embracing of these stereotypes does not harm the performance of younger persons since they do not view them as affecting them. The dislike of old age is driven by fear at the view of appearing vulnerable, loss of our independence and changes in appearance. However, rejecting old age ends up as a destructive means of dealing with our fears on aging. Elderly people in modern society Elderly people possess much experience and many skills to give to us, if we are ready to listen and pay attention to what they say. However, people do not completely value our elderly people. Several old people have survived through one or two world wars and they believe that whether a person dies or lives hangs in a balance as it was the case for people who lived in the times of war and one realizes what is significant in life. While today individuals live in an extremely materialistic community, the things several elderly people value are not present. Majority of people would consent that materialism is temporary and do not last for a long time. However, few individuals conduct their lives in this manner. The attainment of material things is not awful but the meaning we attach is not healthy or good. Elderly people are an active portion of our families and usually the whole family live jointly (Tinker, 2009). Our personal culture has dictated togetherness and this is not a norm anymore but an exception. Elderly people have the ability to give us times of experience and knowledge in every manner of issues. We may save much of our time by paying attention and listening to advice given by old people. Things change and the society moves on but several issues are universal and children are an example as they need love as every one of us does. Children always learn through the examples we lay down and the elderly may offer support in several ways in regard to upbringing of children. Several people do not like taking care of their old relatives since it may be extremely hard to look after a person who cannot do anything on his or her own. Most elderly people are very appreciative for every support we give to them. I think old people play an important role in our modern society. They usually show us what is supposed to be done and how it should be done. Old people have been in existence and have done almost everything on this world. Old people are not different from us and they are just a little older than us and most are not more flexible and at times they take more time to think on things. However some old people are amazing as they work for a long period of time and retire when they are seventy years of age. Most old people are much more knowledgeable on life and several different features of things. They are usually interesting, witty and are enjoyable to be with. They love to have fun, party and being around those individuals they care and think about and this sound as if old people are not different from us. In some societies, the old people are always shown much respect and consulted when a problem arises. However, in other societies are at times seen as a bother. Majority of them are not valued for the fantastic individuals they are and the medical community is usually very cruel on the old people and apply the justification that these people have lived enough. Conditions that are not usually ignored on younger people are ignored on the elderly. Old people are at times seen as useless or are merely ignored. We tend to forget that the elderly are people with emotions the only difference is that they are older than us. They like enjoying the same joy and respect that young people enjoy. They are grand fathers and grand mothers to our children. These persons are our fathers and mothers and they are worthy to be given our respect and love. They are aware of how to have things done and we owe much of our life successes to the elderly. Elderly people in our modern society do not perceive themselves elderly. In preceding generations, older people were seen as people with considerable knowledge than the younger people and as result they earned respect in the society. Nowadays, elderly people have a realization that their mental and physical abilities are more tarnished than they used to be in the past. The lives of elderly people in our society depend on every individual. How they lead their lives through the old age determines whether they are weak or strong. Aging and anxiety Most people are denying growing old since we live within a community that is in favor of younger people or the youth. Several sections of our community have negative attitudes about older adults and these attitudes towards ageing process along with elderly adults themselves negatively influence the support and care offered to the older people (Miller, 2004). A few of the commonly terms used to reinforce the pessimistic beliefs and attitudes that affect behaviours and feelings concerning elderly people include aging anxiety and gerontophobia. Gerontophobia can be defined as the irrational fear and unreasonable hatred towards older people while aging anxiety can be defined as a blend of people’s fears or concerns of growing and getting older. Aging anxiety is always linked to pessimistic stereotypes of elderly adults, opinions of young people that these difficulties are probable to occur in their future life. Markers of aging anxiety are worry about reducing cognitive ability, diminishing financial resources, changing physical appearance such as grey hair and wrinkles and declining physical function, health, connectedness and social loss. Perception is a great influence on behaviour and attitudes. If we embrace negative perspectives on aging, they will affect our relationships with elderly people. Education is the only way to changing influencing perceptions and attitudes about older people and aging. The initial phase is to recognize negative feelings and attitudes we have. We are required to be conscious of our personal attitudes which can be on basis of misconceptions or myths other than actualities of aging. Conclusion People have different perceptions on aging and elderly people and this affects the way we relate with older people. Aging is a human life process which every individual must pass through and therefore we must have positive perceptions in order enjoy life at old age. Bibliography Miller, A., 2004, Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults: Theory and Practice, Lippincott William & Wilkins publisher, New York. Tinker, A, 2009, Elderly people in modern society, Cornell University press, Cornell. Ponty, M., 2002, Phenomenology of perception, 2nd Edition, Routledge press, London Read More