Late Adulthood Research Paper

Late Adulthood is the stage of the human life cycle where an individual nears the end of their life. The life expectancy in the United States has slowly increased over the years therefore allowed many to further analyze the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development during late adulthood. The stage of late adulthood has been emphasized by ageism and the stereotypical "old" person but, will be further educated by the normative development of the life cycle of late adulthood. For the “old” experience dramatic changes in their development as they face loss, death, and illness.
The physical development of late adulthood is defined by a dramatic loss and decline of physical strength, determination, and abilities as they near the end of their

Living arrangements are very important in this development. Retirement, a main change that occurs during this period, is a step that involves living arrangement, change in life style, and possible change in social interaction. Teas and Benignton discuss this retirement stage when living arrangement change and many elders should cope with such change. The idea of retirement has been a recently new accepted life style during late adulthood due to the life expectancy increase and the rise of urban America (1982, pg. 21). Living arrangements do not necessary depict one’s well-being. An elderly could live in a retirement center, nursing facility, or alone with relatives and be in good health or in bad health (Papalia, Feldman, & Martorell, 2012, pg. 541-542). Chronic illness and psychical change will be occurring during late adulthood yet, another focus will be psychological development, which is heavily influenced by the social environment in which one elderly lives and thus brings out the importance of finding good living arrangements. This is a huge factor in many other life stages as well. For instance, “the state of the job market may determine when offspring choose to leave home… [or] when we retire may depend on the provisions of our pension plan. The social environment is no more immune to the passage of time than is the human body” (Teas and Benignton, 1982, pg. 12). Teas and Benignton discuss the industrial and political world developed the idea that the old are less valuable employees then the youth (1982, pg.17). The late adulthood stage needs to express the importance of self-sufficiency, individualism, and even privacy in the psychosocial development. During this time in one’s life they are possibly experiencing great loss of individualism. Kaufman discusses the observation of family members of the elderly who feel they must be the decision