Mohammed T. Abou-Saleh

GENERAL THEORIES OF AGING 21seems to be strongly influenced by physical health. However,patterns of stability and change across the life cycle varyaccording to the ability that is being measured 26 . Perlmutter 27crystallizes the issue of psychological change and stability bypositing a ‘‘multiprocess phenomenon conception’’, as opposed toBaltes’ ‘‘dual process phenomenon conception’’ of developmentfollowed by decline 28 . Perlmutter sees decline as neither inevitablenor universal and says that some cognitive skills may improve ormay be acquired as one ages. However, as one reaches the point of‘‘terminal drop’’ 29 , which is a curvilinear decline related to thedistance of death rather than old age itself, there will be a declinein intellectual functioning.Schaie’s 30 stage theory of adult cognitive developmentattempts to formulate four cognitive stages in sequence. Thefirst stage in childhood and adolescence is ‘‘acquisitive’’, which isfollowed by the ‘‘achievement’’ stage in young adulthood, then bythe ‘‘responsible and executive’’ stage in the middle-agedindividual, and finally the ‘‘reintegrative’’ stage in old age. Theshift is translated essentially from ‘‘What should I know?’’ to‘‘How should I use what I know?’’ to ‘‘Why should I know?’’Ribot 31 advanced the ‘‘cognitive regression hypothesis’’ whichhypothesized that the structures first formed are the last ones todegenerate in old age. This has not been proved to be a constantfeature, depending on what components of cognition are beingstudied. Essentially, no adult age differences have been found inconservation, egocentrism and concept attainment 32 . However,when it comes to constructing classification, young children andthe elderly tend to have a holistic perception, while older childrenand younger adults are more analytic 33–35 . The fact that olderadults have an easier time learning dated items and retrievingdated items follows Ribot’s law. In regard to free recall, olderadults as well as younger children use motoric encoding and reallifeobjects and do not score as well as young adults, who performbetter on standard memory tasks 36 .Personality TheoriesThomae and Lehr 37 have proposed an antistage theory of aging,where personality, development and adjustment are affected bythe historical events throughout the life cycle. This theory is inpartial conflict with the eight-stage theory of Erikson 38 , which is astage theory of ego development through the life cycle, culminatingwith the stage of maturity, as the elderly person may findeither ego integrity through satisfaction with his past life, ordespair and disgust over past failures. Bortwinick 39 has notedincreasing cautiousness with advancing age, with the degree ofcautiousness being influenced by the type of problem and itstiming. Okun et al. 40 point out that cautiousness is not strictly anage effect, but that differences can be attributed to cohortinfluence.According to Neugarten and Gutman 41 , people maintain theirpersonality characteristics in late life. When personality changesoccur, they appear to be related to losses, particularly thoseinvolving health and social support systems. Some sex differencesare noted; men are more affiliative and more nurturant, womenare more individualistic and more aggressive as they become older.Costa and McCrae 42 , in their literature review on personalitystability throughout the life cycle, also report that series oflongitudinal studies show stability of personality traits inadulthood. The variables studied have included anxiety, introversion,conservatism, irritability or apathy. Costa and McCraethemselves have proposed five broad factors in personality traits:neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeablenessand conscientiousness. While there is stability of personalitythroughout the lifespan of an adult, there are generationaldifferences, secondary to cohorts. Personality changes may bevery tightly woven with mastery and the ability to cope.SOCIAL THEORIES OF AGINGBroadly, the sociological theories of aging can be broken downinto those that examine the relationship of the older person tosociety and those that study the role and status of the elder. Intheir disengagement theory, Cumming and Henry 43 claimed thatthe withdrawal of the elderly from their previous societal roleswith reduction in all types of interaction, essentially a shift ofattention from the outer world to the inner world, was desirableand helped the elderly to maintain life satisfaction. With theirexchange theory of aging, Homans 44 and Blau 45 also suggestedthat elderly people withdrew from social interaction. Ongoingsocial exchanges had become more costly in old age and thereforeless rewarding.In contrast to the disengagement theory, the activity theory 46,47proposed that activity contributes to health and life satisfaction.Undoubtedly, the selection of activities to be pursued by theelderly is limited by the decline that accompanies aging. However,remaining active is felt to be good for the elderly.Neugarten and Gutman 41 sought a compromise in the continuitytheory, by noting that older adults tend to behave in apattern established in their earlier life as they cope and makeadaptive choices. At times the person may disengage and at othertimes remain active. Atchley 48 felt that the continuity theory wasan illusive concept because aging produces changes that cannot becompletely offset, so that there is no going back to a prior state.Age and sex stratification provide different perspectives aboutaging by looking at different age and sex groups with differentroles and expectations. As each group moves through time, itresponds to changes in the environment 49 . Riley 50 describes acohort effect or ‘‘cohort flow’’, where a group of people born atthe same time in history are together and have certain commonexperiences and characteristics. The status of the aged is high instatic societies and tends to decline with rapid social change 51 .This ties in with Cowgill and Holmes’ 52 modernization theory,which suggests that the status of the aged in any society isinversely related to the level of industrialization within thatsociety. With industrialization, the powers and prestige of theelderly are reduced. In a primitive society aging can be a liability,but older people who continue to perform useful and valued roleshave a higher standing and are well treated 52 . These sociologicaltheories have varying degrees of validity. In sociology, as well asin biology and psychology, there are no overarching theories thatincorporate the theories described above.REFERENCES1. 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