Late Adult and Death

Late Adult and Death
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Growing into old is a natural marvel, but the attitudes, beliefs, biases, and stereotypes associated with having it have their own definition of it. Aging has been simultaneously linked with positive and negative characteristics. These links reflect the care of the old and determining how people view their future or how they perceive others. As we all live, we keep growing old each day, and therefore, this a compulsory process in our lives. Individuals keep changing from childhood, adolescents, and adults, and finally, the final stage well-referred to as late adulthood. At this point, a lot of changes take place physically, mentally, and even socially, thus bringing about stereotyping. This paper focuses on various stereotypes associated with this late phase of life, issues that promote the wellness and health of this age group, the importance of social interactions, and also the cultural and personal attitudes about death and dignity concerning this late phase of life.
Aging is a highly personalized and complicated process, yet it continues to be stereotyped, particularly in Western culture. Stereotypes concerning specific individuals play a significant part in shaping how people think and interact will people, as well as how people in a specific stereotyped group see themselves. In societies, aging has been looked at in different perspectives, and more people associate it with a lot of negative things. These include; poor health or time of illness, Poor memory, loneliness, high reliance, slows reaction time, and poor physical and mental function. Although, a small population looks it from a positive perspective and associate old age with issues like wealth and wisdom.
Age stereotypes can be both positive and negative, though most study shows that when stereotypes are used in older adults, there are more negative stereotypes than positive. This stereotyping eventually affects our thoughts about people of this age bracket, and also it has a detrimental impact on how they also view themselves. It affects their physical and cognitive health (Hess et al., 19). This brings expectations that become self-fulfilling; whatever we believe becomes part of us and impacts us differently. Negative attitudes towards older adults, comprising of stereotypes, biases, and discrimination based on age, have been characterized as Ageism.
The old adult is perceived to be forgetful. Among the stereotypes concerning cognitive abilities, forgetfulness is the most malicious. This type of stereotype is largely held by youths and is readily used to describe the forgetful behavior of old adults. (Okech, 2013). Even indistinguishable behavior by old and younger persons is ascribed to mental decline for the older target but not the youths. In general, the study proposes that older adults are believed to be forgetful due to biological variations linked with aging and thus should not be held accountable for forgetful behavior.
Other individuals also attribute old age to mental incompetence and death. This, therefore, brings about fear and hopelessness to...