Aging And Motivation Theory

Santrock (2015) defined activity theory as the satisfaction that elderlies can get in their life when they become more active and involved. Aging successfully and happily is attainable if older adults are active, energetic and productive. Oelemans, Bakker and Veenhoven (2011) revealed that older people are happiest when they combined physical, social, cognitive and household activities with restful activities and Azagba & Sharaf (2014) suggested that higher life satisfaction and greater social interaction are attainable by physically active elderlies. Continuation of middle-adulthood roles into late-adulthood can lead to greater life satisfaction and substitution of roles to keep elderlies active and involved is needed (Santrock, 2015, p.571).

Self-determination theory suggests that individuals are instrically motivated to pursue the things that interests them when they experience the three psychological needs: need for competence or mastery of tasks, need for relatedness or sense of belonging and attachment to other people and need for autonomy or control of own goals and behaviors which implies that individuals can foster personal growth and well-being through social support or relationships and interactions with others and that intrinsic motivation can increase through the provision of unexpected positive encouragement and feedback on performance (Cherry, 2016). This can be strengthened by the discussion of Ni (2015) who stated that provision of encouragement to elderlies in the creation of few and manageable goals, giving support in affirming self-identity which can enhance self-esteem, encouraging the feeling of usefulness through the provision of small tasks and facilitating adaptive and flexible coping skills are some of the ways which can motivate elderlies. In addition, discussing the importance of staying active in the maintenance of physical and mental fitness, using assistive devices in getting things done by themselves, doing challenging tasks together and providing encouraging phrases are some of the best ways to support and motivate elderlies in staying active and trying new things (Home Care Assistance,