In: Psychology
Flexible options for productive activity and for third age opportunities by older adults are unevenly distributed across all sectors of society."
- What did the author mean by this?
- What is an example of this problem?
- Provide one potential solution for helping to ensure that productive aging, valued volunteerism, civic and political engagement, quality and beneficial leisure, etc. are opportunities equally available to all aging adults?
Before we get into what the author tries to convey, let's refresh our memory by discussing the four life cycles of human beings.
1. The age of preparation (0-20) - It's about preparing oneself for life interms of education and maturity to move on to the next level.
2. The age of achievement (20-40) - This is where one puts all their effort to earn and support a family on their own. Most of the achievements happens during this age.
3. The age of fulfillment (50-75) - This is the complete phase of maturity where no external opinions affect or influence the person. He or she will be looking for more meaningful activities, job and people.
4. The age of completion - The age of completion means, someone has fulfilled their purpose in life. It's a kind of second childhood age according to Shakespeare.
1. Third age according to the author is the age of individual and societal triumphs. It is also true according to the author that if any retired professionals wish to continue working, no one should prevent them unless they are not much productive. Many researchers and psychologists also refer this age as the age of usefulness.
2. Most of the third age people, especially the retired people often feel bored of not doing anything. Either they are not aware of the opportunities available for them or there is no such opportunity available for them. One such exams is that a retired person sitting at home reading some books, looking after the grandchildren, talking with the elders etc. Their expertise and experience is not used, once they retire. Doing no productive work speeds up their ageing.
There is one more peculiar problem with people from this age who are still in the employment. When it comes to lay off, companies try to send them home because their pay scale will be much higher than a fresher who will do the same job for a very cheap price. So redundancy affects the third age working professionals.
3. There is a simple solution available for this problem. The retired people and other people of this age group between 50-75 can be offered volunteering jobs in charitable organizations, educational institutions, government offices etc.They may not expect more payment for what they do but they might expect respect and recognition.
Governments should reconsider their policies and outdated employment structures to provide more opportunities to the third age group people to keep both the society and the third age group in good health.
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