Developmental psychology.pdf

Human Development
least responsibility of all. By middle age, problems of choosing a career and "getting
ahead" typically have been surmounted or discounted, leaving the individual free from
the constraints of vocational advancement. Even sexual satisfaction may be more readily
achieved or at least less worrisome. The modest decline in basic sexual drives may leave
the male freer from concerns about adequacy and success, yet with more than enough
capacity for a gratifying sex life (Levinson, 1978). The individual can become more
responsive as a friend of both sexes, more facilitating as a parent, and a more caring
offspring to his or her own aging parents.
Being Elderly
If the criterion for entering old age is the generally accepted retirement age of 65 to
70, every day about four thousand people enter this life stage in the United States. By
this age, people's goals and abilities have become more limited, and the quality and
style of life for the aged become increasing concerns.
Integrity vs. Despair According to Erikson, the final crisis is integrity vs. despair,
in which a person finds meaning in memories or instead looks back on life with
dissatisfaction. The term integrity implies emotional integration; it is accepting one's
life as one's own responsibility. It is based not so much on what has happened as on
how one feels about it. If a person has found meaning in certain goals, or even in
suffering, then the crisis has been satisfactorily resolved. If not, the person experiences
dissatisfaction, and the prospect of death brings despair.*
In the elderly, we observe the completion of the life cycle. Their infirmities
remind us of the young, and as they become more and more limited, the earlier issues
of industry, initiative, autonomy, and even trust arise again.
Dying The subject of death has long been a tabooed or ignored topic in Western
society, including psychology, but recent investigations with terminally ill patients
suggest that perhaps this process also can be viewed in terms of stages. Five in number,
they include: denial, in which the dying individual, responding to the shock, feels that
the facts must be wrong, a mistake hes been made; anger, when the patient, accepting
the evidence, feels unfairly treated; bargaining, a relatively short period during which
the individual promises better behavior in exchange for a longer life; then depression,
involving a feeling of hopelessness and grief at the separation from loved ones; and
finally acceptance, if the patient has sufficient time, wherein he or she is neither
depressed nor angry but resigned to the final outcome of the life cycle (Kubler-Ross,
1969).
The response to this conception has been mixed and sometimes strongly disputed.
While it concerns an important and neglected issue in American psychology,
there is clearly a need for further empirical support, precise definitions, and an overall
theoretical structure (Brent, 1981). And it does not apply when sudden death is involved.
On the contrary, the prospect of death has not been ignored by poets, who
have long stressed the desire for dying with dignity. Tennyson asks that there be "no
moaning of the bar" when he puts "out to sea." And this request is repeated: "Twilight
and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell,
Whbi I embark."
Whether one accepts these stages of death or Erikson's stages in life, there is
no doubt that human beings are always in the process of developing. Changes occur
throughout the life cycle. In one way or another, the life of every human being is shaped
and reshaped every day.
*My grandfather is still quite
active at 91 and keeps busy with
odd jobs. Me is very involved in the
Polish National Alliance, a group of
proud people sharing a heritage. In
this way he has found useful work
which affirms those memories and
beliefs.