Psychosocial Assessment of a Middle Aged Person - Case Study Example

PSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT OF A MIDDLE AGED PERSON Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Psychosocial Assessment Introduction The way we treat people adversely affects the way we treat them. Many are the times that we have used certain inflexible impressions, imprecise opinions and inflated representations to come up with generalizations about people in certain age brackets. There are various stereotypes attached to people in their mid ages. One of those is that they are in “mid-life crisis”. Stereotypes can either motivate or dishearten a person in a specific age group depending on the nature of stereotype and their general perception about it. On a positive note, middle aged people are always perceived as the seniors guys who are in most cases well educated, uphold a high degree of health an d who in most cases live in city environment because they are still working, have younger families to look after and who are still in their prime age with still many years to go before they retire. The general perception of people in their mid ages is that they have very sharp abilities, and a sense of good judgement as well as behaviours. This paper is going to evaluate a Jack, a candidate for psychosocial assessment in his mid thirties precisely aged 35 years. Discussion Jack is my friend’s boss. I didn’t know much about him until recently when this assignment came up and so I had to approach him for an appointment through my friend Melissa. The meeting took place at his home and after explaining that I was there to do an assessment for my bachelor of Nursing Studies as well as the fact that I would have loved to do a semi-structured interview about certain aspect of his lifestyle, he said that he was comfortable with it. Jack looks 28 even though he is 35. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall, slender and quite healthy looking. This could be attributed to the fact he is a non-smoker, an athlete and a vegetarian. Jack does not take anything alcoholic and generally, he exudes an image of a healthy person both emotionally and mentally. Jack is also single but engaged to be married. Jack’s living room is filled with sports keepsakes, photos and awards that he won during his high school and college days. The interview with him sought to find out about his perception of life in general, support issues, c Perception In order to gain Jacks perception with regard to his perception, I based my study on his personality, his life experiences, what he thinks about getting older and death, how he responds to losses and emotional reactions to issues. I realized that Jack being 35 is in a transitional stage, a stage between youthfulness and aging but closer to youth, and that his thoughts are based within this context. For one, he is very well informed about happenings around the world in general and he is very open minded regarding many issues. Jack loves exercising to keep fit and generally he is very ambitious. Jack perception regarding his efficiency is that he is capable of doing many things and recently he went back to school. Aside from this, Jack is an achiever and being a manager in the company where he works attest to this. His judgment on his capabilities is such that he believes that he has the capability to systematize and perform any feat to achieve any kind of task that he is assigned be it at work or physically. Jack is the type of person who sets very high goals, which means that he believes in himself and he does not just set them, he believes and he has a plan on how he intends on achieving them. Aside from this, Jack is also very flexible and obstinate. Obstinacy is a person’s determination that enables them to be in a position to stay determined upon their goals regardless of any obstacle that they might encounter (Andrews & Withey 1976). Flexibility refers to a person’s ability to re-adjust goals depending on the latest circumstances or information. Research has shown that a person’s perception of themselves is a determining factor when it comes to the kind of behaviour that the person adapts as well as the adaptive strategies that the person chooses. At age 35, Jack exudes confidence and the ability to take control of his life and make the right decisions. Support factors Jack has a social network which acts as his support. First of all, he is a member of a church and according to him; it is from the church that he gets most of his emotional sustenance and back-up whenever he has matters that he cannot discuss with other people. Being a member of a church, to him is also a source of strength to cope with stress and adapt to change. Research alludes to the fact that social networks such as the ones drawn from religious affiliations are a good source of optimism. Jack has nurtured a relationship in his church that serves as a substitution for the social relationships that he has at work for purposes of support. Aside from this, Jack used to drink when he was still in his twenties but after joining his church when he was 32, He learned manners that have enabled him adapt a healthy lifestyle and behaviours from his peers who like him had also joined his church. Education has also been a source of support systems for Jack and this is not surprising because research has shown that education and success are directly related to a person’s success in life (Bisconti & Bergeman 1999) specifically because it improves a person’s chances to attain a better socio-economic status in life and higher levels of income, which have also been attributed to good health (Acklin 1995). Education as support system is based on the fact that it lessens a person’s affinity to negativity, it is a source of healthy characteristics and also because it leads to satisfaction in life. Research has also shown that high educational achievement can be linked to greater benefits and privileges both at the workplace and the society at large. Aside from these, a good education gives a person better opportunity when it comes to matters of career, social standing and financial solidity. Basically, education is a source of wealth both material and non-material and wealth has been linked to personal welfare. Coping Coping is all about a person’s ability to adapt to both positive and negative attitudes in life. Both negative and positive outlook on life emanate from the ability of a person to acclimatize him or herself with the social psychological and physical changes that he or she is likely to experience as a person. Research has shown that the alterations that go along with growing up or passing from child age to mid age or old age all call for a flexibility in a person to be able to come up with new skills on how to adapt to the alterations that are widespread in the modern world (Carstensen 1995). Research done on growth and development shows that; spirituality, social affiliations, supposed health, self-worth, socio-economic standing and coping mechanisms are all factors that influence the success of a person. Success in life is about being dynamically occupied in life, a person’s corporeal purposeful capability, low down possibility of illness and illness associated immobilization and high cognitive capabilities. Jack is the kind of person who has the ability to acknowledge any changes that are taking place in his life and who is always looking forward to any challenges that these changes might throw at him with hope and a desire to change. For example, from the conversation we had with Jack about the changes that have been happening in his life, I learned that Jack is looking forward to getting married soon and he is ready to face any challenges that might come with married life. In addition to this, Jacks relationship with his parents has been a strong one and through this, he was able to establish a relationship and belief system that he can rely on with regard to support and assistance in coping. It is important to note that, it is not hard t find a 35 year old that unlike Jack is not confident enough to face life and cope. This is because the ideas that we acquire when growing up are very valuable when it comes to coping in the later stages in life; not just for people in their mid life, but for older people as well. For instance, modifications in life, alteration, cognitive meaning, and individual development in a person can all be attributed to early childhood development. Stress Well being has been shown to be directly related to wealth and income. One way through which Jack has been able to ensure that he is stress free by ensuring that he has a secure source of income and aside from having a job, he also runs various businesses one of them being a gymnasium and a spa. Surplus income is what allows Jack leisure and hence less stress. Microeconomics theory states that other things held constant, greater income is capable of leading to greater wellbeing. Jack’s income surpasses that of his supposed age group (middle age), and therefore he has greater satisfaction in life. Other factors that can cause stress include; developmental stages such as the one of marriage that Jack is about to go through and major transitions such as marriage. Jack admits that they do stress him but he has started preparing himself for them besides he says that to him, getting married is a source of joy and perhaps the only thing that is likely to stress him is the variance in roles that marriage might bring with it and changes in his daily activities, routines and habits. He however has no worries about adopting. Jack also believes that elasticity, acknowledgment of each other’s personal desires and boundaries in the marriage and support from family will enable him to cope. Conclusion Middle age just like any other age is a period of transition and transition is often accompanied by exploration when it comes to a person’s interests. Changes take place in every person’s life regardless of their age bracket but what matter is how a specific person adapts and that is what determines in the end whether they will be able to cope. This paper has looked at four psychosocial factors in the age of a 35 years old Jack. However this paper cannot conclude that all people in their mid ages have the same ways of coping as Jack. Some will do better and some will do worse than him and it all depends on the individual persons, though some of the characteristics might be shared widely across the group. List of References Acklin, M, 1995, Personality assessment and managed care, Meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment, Journal of Personality Assessment Vol. 66 Issue 1 , 194-201. Andrews, F, & Withey, S, 1976, Social indicators of well-being: America`s perception of life quality, New York: Plenum. Bisconti, T, & Bergeman, C, 1999, Perceived social control as a mediator of the relationships among social support, psychological well-being, and perceived health. Gerontologist Vol. 39 , 94-103. Carstensen, L, 1995, Evidence for a life-span theory of socioemotional selectivity, Current Directions in Psychological Science Vol 4 , 151 – 155. Read More