Human Development: Older Adulthood Essay

In considering the life experience of an old(a) person, it is essential to know rough the developmental stages of human beings. Eriksons theories of development give a good general overview of the various developmental challenges and breakthroughs which state have throughout their lives, from conception until inwrought death. Older adulthood is a time when people be confronted with having a sense of generativity or feeling a sense of despair.The older adult who is polite and is able to look back on life knowing that one devoted oneself to good causes has generally a good feeling of generativity, while the older person who has a sense of failure in regard to ones life endeavors, shame in regard to not having contributed enough, is often leave despairing. At this point in life, in the later years of a persons development, it is just as common to find people who are satisfied with their lifelong contribution as it is to find people who are dissatisfied with what they have for oth ers.In speaking with Margie, it is clear that she is not sure if she has do the best for her children, because she is alone in an assisted living community without many enforceing relatives. Margie is an 82 year old woman who lives in an urban assisted living apartment building. Although she has met some friends in the community and enjoys the indoor garden and parakeets as well as the weekly Catholic Mass celebrated by a local priest, she is saddened by the lack of visitors she receives.A small woman with dark grey and black hair and hunched shoulders, Margie moves around the building slowly and with a seemingly idle or nondirected stride. She pauses often to look around the room, as if searching for something. She says that out of her five children, only two of them come to visit regularly, and that is around once a month. I ask her if she feels deserted or ignored, and she says yes. In considering her relationships with her children, she often wonders if she was too inattentiv e with them, if she didnt care about them the correct way.I understand that she thinks that if she had formed better relationships with her children, and then they would be closer to her now. I can sense this painful feeling sharply in her presence, and I cannot do or say anything to counter her feeling. Perhaps shes right. I allow Margie to talk about her family members, her husband, siblings, and especially her children. She takes photographs from her room and points to her grandchildren, lovely people, I say. In asking Margie how she feels being an older person, she says that its ok. She doesnt feel as good as she used to feel.Shes tired. I get the sense that on that point is an overarching umbrella of depression which covers her and follows her everywhere. I ask Margie if theres anything society should change about how it deal with older people, and she says that society shouldnt forget about them. She has the sense that her children have forgotten her, and she wonders if the mothering care she provided for them as children wasnt enough to keep them devoted to her unavoidably as she ages. At one point, tears accumulate down Margies face. What can I do, an old lady, to make my children love me more?I just dont know. In speaking with Margie, I have to wonder if its truly her fault. Could it be the fault of her children? Did they change, get swept up in capitalism, forget their duty to care for their older parents? Shes too upset to ask her these questions. I ask her if shes like to take a stroll through the garden together, and we do. Older aged people need as much or even more care as any other individuals. It makes sense for the younger generation to remember the needs of their parents and older relatives, to help them and to provide them with care.However, it is also important for people in general to recognize that if they want their children to be around for them in their later years, then parents and need to form strong relationships with their c hildren, honorable and respectful relationships which can carry them throughout the span of time. Generativity in later years is marked by certificate in personal relationships. The successful and happy older individuals are the one who are now reaping the benefits of what they have planted. As Margie says, The birds all stick together in that one tree, and theyre happy.