Successful Aging and Psychopathology in the Elderly (Essay Sample)

Successful aging/psychopathology in the elderly Student’s name Institutional Affiliation Successful aging/psychopathology in the elderly Successful Aging Lifespan model of successful aging is a model whose main components are selection, goal attainment and compensation. These aspects are affected by various factors throughout life hence determining the kind of success one has and self-satisfaction. These components determine the psychological, social and physical development of a human being. Selection occurs due to the unique abilities of someone which are associated with genetic inheritance of certain traits. These abilities change throughout life. Physical, cognitive and emotional development increases to middle adult age and start declining at old age. When one interacts with the environment, they can engage their abilities in order to achieve. The primary purpose of this model is the identification of the factors that determine successful aging. It is easy to minimize risks and disabilities while trying to maximize physical, psychological, spiritual and mental abilities as well as engaging in active life, having known the associated factors (Schaie & Willis, 2015). The primary control strategies of aging involve the external environmental factors that influence one’s success such as self-directed investment of time, skills and efforts whereas secondary control strategies are the ones that address behavior, mental processes, emotions, and motivations. These control strategies vary with age, in most cases declining as one gets old. Before adolescence, they are equally low but peak during and after teenage while one works to achieve their set goals. However, decline differs from one person to another depending on the failure and achievement of meeting competencies physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. The secondary control strategies develop steadily from childhood through middle life to old age while primary control strategies decline and become weaker at old age as compared to secondary strategies. Therefore at old age, the primary control strategies are weaker than the secondary control strategies (Schaie & Willis, 2015).2. Psychopathology in the elderly Alcoholism prevalence among the elderly is low as compared to the rest of the other age populations. It is approximated to be 3% for the elderly, and the most affected of these are males, representing 9% of alcoholics and females representing 2% of all alcoholics. It is also estimated that half of the elderly with alcoholism, it developed after the age of 60 years. Alcoholism is common in the elderly because of the physiological and psychological changes that occur with aging. In most instances, relatives and health care providers overlook concerns about alcoholism in the elderly which is a direct cause of alcoholism. Additionally, alcoholism is common in the elderly because alcohol causes more effects in the elderly regardless of the amount consumed due to old age health conditions, reduced clearance and altered cognitive abilities (Beechem,(2012). Phobia among the elderly has a low prevalence, and it is commonly associated with other mental conditions such as anxiety, depression, socio-economic status, co-morbidity, and neuroses, aspects that are predominant in the elderly. Nevertheless, most of them are not diagnosed and provided psychiatric care because the signs and symptoms are assumed to be of other old age diseases (Fundukian & Wilson, 2013). On the other hand, depression in the geriatric population is mainly due to other illnesses and disabilities wh...