Aging Human Body - Assignment Example

1. Discuss the effects of three (3) health habits on the aging body.

Health habits have a huge impact on an aging human body; three health habits that have a major impact on the human body include nutrition, drug usage, and exercise (Berger, 2008, p.624). Due to aging, individuals’ digestive system becomes weak and they need to decrease their intake of calories. They need to consider consuming an increased amount of fibrous food such as fruits and vegetables and they need to decrease the amount of intake of carbohydrates. An aging individual’s mental health starts becoming weak due to a decrease in vitamin D. Due to an adult’s increase in intake of drugs such as aspirin, vitamin C deficiency takes place and vitamin K, iron and calcium even deplete due to consumption of antibiotics. Exercise is even a very important aspect of an aging body. As human beings grow older, they lose their ability to indulge in sporting activities, and walking even becomes very difficult for them. They even experience pain while conducting the easy exercise and wrong twists lead to severe joint pain. An adult’s perception plays a major role in helping or discouraging the adult from opting for exercise. The negative perception of walling down and breaking bones pulls back the adult from conducting any exercises. If an aging body continues consuming drugs such as cigarettes, the probability of that aging body experiencing more health problems increases. Alcohol consumption can be beneficial for an aging body but consumption should be very restricted. A restricted amount of consumption of beer and wine is beneficial for an individual’s heart.

2. Describe the three types of theories of psychosocial development in later adulthood: self theories, identity theory, and stratification theory.

Self theories state that an individual at any time period and in adulthood tries to be the way they think they are. This means that individuals have a certain perception of themselves and they act and think in accordance with their perception. Their choices, problem-solving methods, and activities are all aligned with the perception they have about themselves. Self theories state that individuals have to deal with illnesses and challenges on their own as they grow older and they have no one to help other than themselves to solve their problems and difficulties. Identity theory suggests that individuals’ experiences change throughout their lives, they face challenges in their everyday life and these experiences and challenges make them reassess their identities (Cavanaugh, 2009, p.353). In adulthood, people experience problems in creating a self-concept or their self-concept is not what they think of themselves. This happens due to the physical and cognitive changes experienced by adults throughout their life. In older age, people tend to stick to and save items and they give great importance to these items as these items correlate with their self-concept. In older age, people either stick to their prior self-concept or completely accept a new self-identity. Stratification theory suggests that individuals do not create a self-concept themselves and it is the social forces that direct the creation of an individual’s self-concept. People are stratified into groups according to their age, ethnicity, and gender. According to one of the age stratification theories recognized as disengagement theory, older individuals start deviating away from their family, their work, and their friends as they lose the importance of their conventional roles.