Question

• According to Carstensen, what are some of the benefits of aging for the elderly individual?
• What are some of the benefits of an aging society for all of us? Do you agree/disagree? Why?

Answer 1

Laura L. Carstensen is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson is a famous Stanford psychologist who developed the Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), which is a life-span theory of motivation. Socioemotional means relating to an individual's emotion and relationship to society. The core assumption behind socioemotional selectivity theory is that older citizens consistently and methodically sharpen their social networks in the way they consider that the available partners at that period satisfy their emotional needs. This theory states that with age a person's social goals shift from being knowledge- related to emotion-related. As a person grows older rather than in his/her earlier adult age he/she becomes selective with regards to the investment of their time, effort, and other resources. Such a shift of goal will also bring a shift in motivation and cognitive processing to an individual.

This theory makes an effort to explain the typical decrease in the quantity of social interaction we usually find in the older generation. The earlier theories of aging were the Activity theory of aging and the Disengagement theory of aging. The activity of the theory of aging states that the social interaction was reduced at old age due to the feature of the social norms of agism which expects and demands implicitly that type of behavior from the old population. According to the engagement theory, the older people keep a distance from other peoples in the society to keep away or delay the reality of death which are approaching them. The socioemotional selectivity theory differs from these theories, the reduction in social interaction can be viewed as a positive factor and can be considered as the motivational and cognitive factors associated with the progression of the age.At an older age, individuals prefer the quality of relationships over quantity.

This theory also focuses on the shift of goals that individuals are interested to achieve as they grow older. Social goals are considered to be of two types. as knowledge-oriented and emotional regulation. In their earlier adulthood, they will be more knowledge-oriented. In adolescence and early adulthood, time is perceived by individuals as unlimited.and their social goal is oriented towards knowledge-seeking, acquiring and utilizing and their knowledge for job obtaining, etc. So in this quest the individuals gain new experiences and meet new people, and make a lot of social interaction in their life, associating with similar-minded friends, which help for their career success. As the individual grows older this spectrum of social interaction shrinks, and they consider time as an exhausting and limited entity. So new relationship forming may decline. So they try to be selective and strengthen their existing relationships with family members and friends. They give more importance to the quality of the relationship than the number of relationships. The prefer positive rewarding relationships at that time and discard all other relationships based on the psychological and physical aspects of aging. The feel less necessity for social assurance and prefer only long-standing and high-quality relationships.

The perception of time differs according to the biological age of individuals. At older age they may be suffering from different ailments, and also the transitional experiences in their life may lead them to the perception of time as a limiting factor. There are a few advantages when time is considered limited and it will be beneficial to society also. They will try more to understand others and forgive them. They will refrain from making conflicts with others. Their forgiving attitude will help to resolve the past and existing conflicts. So we can consider the socioemotional selectivity theory as an alternative model of aging. We can understand how old people regulate their emotions effectively. This theory gives a positive outlook to aging, and also a satisfactory explanation in the reduction of social interactions seen in the old population.

These are true facts seen in our society. So we can agree with this theory. Overall this theory gives a positive outlook of aging and a deep understanding of the typical behaviors seen in the old population so that we can be more considerate towards them.