Life Strengths Of Older Adults example essay topic

Adult Development Essay The trait model that has influenced the study of personality across the adult span is that of Paul T Costa and Robert R McCrae. They came up with the five factor model that has five dimensions, or domains. They include 1) neuroticism 2) extraversion 3) openness to experience 4) conscientiousness and 5) agreeableness. Neuroticism is a cluster of six negative traits: anxiety, hostility, depression, self- consciousness, impulsiveness, and vulnerability.

Highly neurotic people are nervous, fearful, irritable, easily angered and sensitive to criticism. They may feel sad, hopeless, lonely, guilty, and worthless. Extraversion has six facets also. which include warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement-seeking and positive emotions. Extroverts are sociable, take charge types who have close, compassionate relationships and who like attention... They are constantly looking for excitement. People who are open to experience are willing to try new things and embrace new ideas.

They have a vivid imagination and strong feelings. They appreciate art and question traditional values. Conscientious people are achievers, they are competent, orderly, dutiful, deliberate, and disciplined The agreeable people are trusting, straightforward, altruistic, compliant, modest and easily swayed. I believe on the personality inventory I fell into the category of agreeable people. I don't like stress and strife. I like my life simple and stress free.

I tend to trust the wrong people and I am very modest. Are our personalities set like glue or are we giving birth over and over to ourselves? Different investigators representing conflicting meta theoretical perspectives and often using different definitions, assumptions, and measuring tools have come up with different answers. I tend to agree with the timing of events model because for myself, I used to be really shy and withdrawn. I didn't stand up for myself, I had a low self esteem. My personality was very withdrawn.

Throughout the years, I find myself standing up for myself. I tend to talk more than I used to. I go to work in a good mood and try to get others to get in better moods by joking with them. When I tell them I am shy they tell me 'yeah right". I believe that the circumstances of my life and how I perceive my life makes all the difference to me. Essay # 2 on the Holmes and Rahe's Stress Test The environmental model of stress was one of the first approaches to the study of coping.

Human beings are considered reactors instead of actors, size and frequency of environmental demands are determines how well a person can cope. Too many stressors or a single major stressor (death of spouse) can overwhelm a person's ability to cope just like putting too much stress on a machine can cause overload and can damage the operating parts. The environmental model has several drawbacks. It doesn't consider how an individual interprets an event. The timing of an event may make a difference. Stress also may result from lack of change-boredom.

Physical and mental health are more likely to be affected by ongoing irritations and strains of everyday life than by major, isolated events, and it also ignores individual differences. The cognitive appraisal model is different in that coping is an evolving process, it only occurs in situations that a person sees as taxing or exceeding his own resources and demanding unusual effort. People choose coping strategies on the assessment of the situation. Because the situation is always changing, coping is dynamic not static. Choosing the most appropriate strategy requires constant reappraisal of the relationship between person and the enviroment.

My example that I am going to write about is I am stressed out over moving to a new town (Temple) I don't know the town or anyone here besides my husbands family. I cant change the stress because of the new town and environment I am in. Essay # 3 on Older Adults If someone told me that most older adults are either mentally incompetent or just plain tired with life, I would have to let my friend know that they are sadly mistaken. Research states that older adults scored higher on the positive attitude, they have warm trusting relationships with others. They have a sense of mastery and competence in managing the environment, have a sense of direction and is open to new experiences. According to Atchley's continuity theory, aging adults seek a balance between and change.

Research on ordinary adults concepts of successful aging points to the importance of relationships, of growth for middle-aged people and of acceptance for older people. With the exception of nursing home residents, mental illness is less common in later life than younger adults. Most older Americans seem to be fairly satisfied with life, although satisfaction is lower among some ethnic groups. Assessing the life strengths of older adults can help them and society to make the most of the inner resources they have developed.

There are many older adults who are very active mentally and physically in not only their homes but in their communities. Older adults should be admired and respected not only for their wisdom but their input on how thing should be done. Our world was a much better place in the older days.