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Change is one of the few things in life that is inevitable. As children, weexperience change as we reach the various milestones during our childhood,adolescence, and adulthood. However, change is a continuation and in some

species change is an evolution. Therefore, change happening in late adulthoodshould not be surprising, however change is not only physical, but alsocognitively and social-emotionally as well.

In terms of social-emotional change, according to Erikson, this stage would bethe stage of integrity vs. despair. Ultimately in this last stage of psychosocialdevelopment the individual is looking back and reflecting on their own life,thinking how successful they were in life, or if they were unsuccessful in life theywill be full of regret and have a bitter outlook (Berk, 2009). A good example of apositive outcome would be looking at how successful one’s children havebecome and telling stories to their grandchild. The individual is able to reflex in apositive light about things that have occurred during their life. In hindsight, an

example of approaching things in a negative light would be always thinking, “Iwish I would have did ……” in this example the individual is full of regret becausethey did not do things that they truly wanted to do for various different reasons.

The individual that takes the positive approach is going to have a high qualityof life (Berk, 2009). This individual is really celebrating their life accomplishmentsand are proud of what they was able to accomplish during their own lifespan.These individuals also have attained a sense of wisdom and not fearful of death.They have a general feeling of satisfaction overall when it comes to the bigpicture. However, looking at things with the other approach, the individual wouldnot have a good quality of late adulthood because they are filled with regret andbitterness. These individuals will have feels of despair and fill that their lives were

wasted, and will not be as “welcoming” with death as those that haveexperienced a successful life.Another aspect that comes with late adulthood is changes in cognitive

function. Cognition is complex in human beings, however in the elderly cognitionbecomes even more complex. One the biggest changes that is seen with theelderly in regards to cognition is the onset of dementia. This is a generallydefined as a serious loss of cognitive ability by a person that is otherwiseunimpaired. However, in terms of memory itself, late adulthood has both positiveand negatives as well. In terms of a positive outlook with late adulthoodcognition is that we call crystalized memory, which is memory that we haveaccumulated over the years of our life span that we use to solve problemsbecomes more acute (Kellogg, 2007). The ability to use this type of memoryincreases, as compared to the other type of memory that we use called fluidintelligence. The negative side of memory is that what we refer to as fluidintelligence does increase. This type of memory is what we use to see patternsand use those patterns and type of relationships to solve problems.

The positive approach is that is that an individual’s crystallized memory allowsthem to remember things that occurred to them over their entire life. They canthen use these memories to share stories with their grandchildren and possible

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even great grandchildren depending on the circumstances. Story telling issomething that most grandparents love doing, especially telling their grandchildren embarrassing stories about their parents as children (Kellogg,2007). The negative side is that many of the elderly in late adulthood start gettingdementia at this same stage in late adulthood. One of the leading causes of 

dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. This often leads to a spiraling downward trendin health and other problems for the individual and ultimately also gives them aquality of life that is not as good, because while they can still interact with their family, often times these individuals are often placed in nursing homes, wherethe level of care if not as good (Kellogg, 2007).

The final change that we see in late adulthood is the physical changes.Physical changes can occur either on the outside of the body, life getting “liver spots” on the skin or they can be internal, occurring within the variousphysiological system of the human body. One of the big chances is bonedensity, especially in females. After the age of approximately thirty, the bodiesability to absorb calcium starts to decline, so by the time a female is in her late

adulthood years, the bodies ability to absorb calcium has decreased byapproximately thirty-five percent by age sixty-five (Kalat, 2008). The negativeside to this is that women are much more susceptible to developing osteoporosisand having bones that are more fragile and could break more easily than their male counterparts. However, the good thing is that because of this knowledgemore research has been done to find ways to decrease the number of womenwho get osteoporosis. Women should be able to be as full of life as their malecounterparts and with research being done about osteoporosis, and as wecontinue to reduce the number of women that have this issue they are able tohave more of a carefree life without the worry of breaking bones (Kalat, 2008).Men, however often find themselves with more cardiovascular issues, as they get

older. The circulatory of an elderly man will not function like a cardiovascular system in a thirty-year-old male. Often males will find themselves having moreheart attacks as they age, because they tend to not take as good of care of themselves as their female counterparts (Kalat, 2008). As a result they tend tostill have a full life, but they tend to see the hospitals more because the over dothings. Often times they do not feel that their age should stand in their way.

References

Berk, L. E. (2009). Development through the Lifespan (5th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.

Kalat, J. W. (2008). Biological Psychology (10th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.

Kellogg, R. T. (2007). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology . Sage Publishing.