Understanding Ourselves
Teaching the Truth About Aging
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Five familiar stereotypes about aging do not survive the evidence. Presenting Beth Morling’s ‘Teaching the Truth About Aging’ from the APS Observer, Doug notes that older adults are, on average, less lonely, less troubled by negative emotions, and not inevitably impaired. Laura Carstensen and Hal Hershfield use socioemotional selectivity theory to explain how perceived time left shifts people’s priorities toward emotionally meaningful experiences.
A Note on the Original Text
Doug’s writings are presented as originally written. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical irregularities have been retained to preserve his words and the integrity of the original record.
ORIGINAL WRITING
The title of this post is identical to the title of a piece by Beth Morling in the January/February issue the 2022 Observer.
The article debunks common stereotypes of older people:
Lonely. On the average, older people are less lonely than younger people (Nguyen et al., 2020)
Subject to more negative emotions. Older people experience fewer negative emotions than do younger people (Carstensen et al., 2011), even during the pandemic (Carstensen et al., 2020).
Financially poor. Older people have accumulated more wealth than younger generations (though one-third of U.S. senior are financially insecure, (Cubanski et al., 2018).
Severely cognitively impaired, with disabling memory deficits. Older Americans are increasingly well educated; some cognitive functions improve with age; and the incidence of dementia is going down (Langa, 2017).
Oriented toward limited goals in the line with age-related declines. Older people’s goals are adapted to how long they perceive have left—their future time horizon (Carstnensen, 2006).
Laura Carastensen and Hal Hershfield have developed a theory of aging grounded in socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). “SSt begins with the observation that humans are uniquely aware of their own mortality, and they estimate how much time they have left to be alive. A typical young adult perceives that they’ll live for decades. They’re motivated to try, explore, and learn new things. As people age, however, their remaining time shrinks and they adjust their goals. They’re less likely to expand their horizons and more likely to prioritize emotionally positive and meaningful experiences.
Multiple studies support the ‘time left’ theory of aging. People (of any age) who perceive that they have less time left to live report more positive emotions. Rather than being confused and melancholy, they feel more appreciative, happy, and joyful (Carstensen et al., 2020). As the suggested activity illustrates, whereas younger people prefer to pursue novelty (e.g., talking to a new acquaintance), older people prefer emotionally gratifying and personally meaningful activities (e.g., spending time with friends and family). Older people want to savor life.”
HM finds this article disappointing in that it does not address issues of spirituality. HM would wager that if these researchers addressed the topic they would find that aging increases interests in spirituality. It is not surprising, that HM believes that meditation would not only address issues of spirituality, but it would also hope provide people with higher emotional health as it does for all of us.