Aging & Adulthood Interview

Erin Bosman

University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire

Older Adulthood

Aging is different for every individual, such that it is shaped through various characteristics of their

life with some of those being health, personality, and their adjustment to changes in routine throughout

their lifetime. Aging is also something that is more successful and positive for some individuals, and

negative for others. Gerontology, the study of aging from maturity through old age, is the main focus of

this course. In order to apply what I have learned in this course, I interviewed a family friend, that for

anonymity I will refer to as Catherine, who is seventy years old. Based off of my connections with her and

the perspective of her that I've observed, Catherine has always been a positive, and healthy individual

leading me to choose her as I felt that she has a good mental health level, and would provide an

interesting comparison to many of the class concepts. I asked Catherine a total of sixteen questions, that I

felt would connect class concepts from the four units and effectively evaluate Catherine’s aging process.

The first topic from unit one that I wanted to connect to is the life-span perspective, in addition to

being a main topic in unit one it also is an essential concept for gerontology as a whole. The life-span

perspective discusses human development in two phases and emphasizes that it takes a lifetime to

complete. The first question I asked Catherine was "Have you felt different as you have aged and in what

ways?" which she answered by saying that "That is a very broad question, we all feel different at each

age. Different goals, choices, and responsibilities greet us at many mileposts." I wanted to ask this, to get

a general idea of how Catherine felt about aging and development. Her response connects to the life-

span perspective and how development happens in the two phases of the early phase and the later

phase throughout the whole lifetime through stating that we have different goals and responsibilities at

each age. Furthermore, the life-span perspective states that during the later phase the individual

continues to adapt and develop, but at a slower rate than in the earlier phase. Catherine’s response

highlights these changes through saying that we feel different at each age, seeming to emphasize the

continuity of development throughout the lifetime.

To gain further insight into Catherine’s view on aging and to connect to our class discussion on

ageism, discrimination against older adults, that occurred both briefly in unit one and then furthermore in

unit three, I asked my second question of "How do you feel about ageism and stereotypes associated

with older adults (such as hard of hearing, slower driving, etc.)? How do you relate to these?" to which

she responded that "People are living longer and healthier. We do have hearing loss, slower reflexes

when driving, weaker muscle tone...it just happens. I hope I know when I cannot do things safely any

longer. It is life!” This response shows that Catherine has a very positive outlook on aging, and does not

let ageism and related stereotypes negatively affect her.

For my third question I wanted to expand on how she felt about her age and aging as a whole, I

asked “Do you feel that age is relative or that it is just a number? How young do you feel?” These

questions connect to class and our textbooks discussion on the meaning of age. Everyone ages in

different ways and defines their age differently. Primary aging is defined as normal, disease-free

development throughout adulthood and secondary aging is defined as developmental changes connected

to illness, lifestyle and environmentally induced changes. Catherine’s response that “I believe that you

feel as good as your health. You can be thirty and have health problems and feel older than someone

that’s sixty. There is a point that your body is stiff and not as strong as you once were, things do slow

down. I feel really great but I do know seventy is not a young age.” reinforces the concepts of both

primary and secondary aging. She emphasizes that while she currently feels great, she knows that she is

aging. This acknowledges that aging is inevitable and therefore emphasizes primary aging. She also

emphasizes secondary aging and how some changes are related to lifestyle and environment through

stating that someone younger could feel significantly older than someone of an older age due to their

health.

I wanted to get a general idea of Catherine’s health and so I for my fourth question I asked “How

would you report your level of health?” in which she answered “Excellent. I had a run of heart

trouble ending with open heart surgery but that was ten years ago and I am on medication and feel great

and have high energy.” In chapter three, we discussed physical changes and more specific to Catherine

changes in vital functions. As we age, changes occur in the heart such that fat deposits form in the lining

with the potential to form a continuous sheet, healthy muscle tissue is replaced by connective tissue

leading to the heart muscle and valves becoming stiffer, and the amount of blood that the heart pumps

may decline. Changes in the heart, such as stiffening of the heart, are normal as we age. While these

changes may have been accelerated for Catherine based off of her response, she is feeling good now

and has not had any problems since her surgery. Chapter four focused on health and functioning,

Functional health status is how well one is functioning on a day to day basis, that is assessed based on

the activities that the person can do and the things that they think they can do. Based on my

observations, Catherine is functioning very well and still able to complete many tasks and activities, she

lives at home with her husband, and is a highly active and engaged older adult.

In unit one, we also briefly discussed sleeping and aging. Older adults tend to experience

changes in their sleep cycles and a poor sleep schedule overall with frequently waking up and difficulties

falling asleep. To connect to this, question five was, “Do you feel like you have a consistent sleep

schedule and a good sleep quality, why?” She stated that “Sleep is not a problem with me, of course, I

like wine. I do have a schedule and go to bed most nights and get up each morning around six or seven. I

work two days a week and volunteer one day, so I am tired at night.” Catherine seems very well-adjusted

in her aging and maintaining a good level of health, and her consistent sleep schedule is a very good

representation of her health in comparison to previous studies results and trends of other older adults.

To further connect to health and aging, I asked her my sixth question, “Have you done anything to

slow or reverse the effects of aging?” which she answered with “Probably the most important thing is

staying busy and exercising, eating right and controlling my weight. If you are asking about procedures,

none except facials! I do yoga two to three times each week and it helps keep me flexible, strong and

balanced.” In part of chapter four, we discussed health as being physical, mental, and social well-being. I

believe that Catherine's response to this question shows that she seems to be very stable with her health

in each of these three categories as she is staying active, paying attention to her nutrition, and staying

busy which may help her social well-being.

Question six also connects to unit two and the preventive and corrective proactivity(PCP) model.

The PCP model rationalizes how life stressors and a lack of good congruence in person-environment

interactions are a function of poor life outcomes, and further how proactive adaptions help to increase the

quality of life. Preventative adaptions, actions that avoid stressors and increase of build social resources,

are a type of proactive adaptions. Catherine realizes the importance of exercising and eating right to

maintain her physical health. She attends yoga, to help maintain her balance and flexibility. She receives

facials, to maintain her appearance and out of personal enjoyment. These are all preventive actions that

Catherine seems to be very proactive with engaging in. However, these could also be corrective

adaptions based on her earlier response of having previously had open heart surgery.

In unit two, we also discussed attention and memory. The seventh question that I asked

Catherine was “Have you seen any changes in your memory?” which was responded with “I don’t think

so, but maybe you should ask the people!”. With Catherine being a longtime family friend, I can very

clearly say that I have not myself noticed any changes in her memory, showing that her memory seems to

have remained highly intact with her aging. I asked her “How often do you exercise? Do you feel like your

level of exercise and nutrition, has significantly benefited your memory and overall cognition?” for my

eight question. Which she said “Yes! I feel like I have commented on this previously”, which she had

briefly mentioned in her previous response when asked if she’s done anything to slow the effects of aging.

Aerobic exercise, such as yoga as Catherine engages in, has been found to have enhancing effects on

cognition. Based on this, Participation in yoga could have helped with Catherine’s memory functioning

and be partially why she has not seen any declines in her memory.

Further, I asked her about home modifications to see if she has had to adjust her environment

with her aging in any way as this was a main topic discussed in unit two, and how in order to increase

competency as you age, individuals may have to make adjustments and learn new skills. The ninth

question that I asked Catherine was, “Have you had to make any modifications to your home, or have you

moved to adjust to a different lifestyle as you've aged?” She replied, “I have no aging problems that need

modifications in the way I live. I have just moved to a townhouse where all living can be done on one

level.  However, we have a beautiful downstairs with a guest room and family room.” Catherine moved to

adjust her and her husband's home to be able to be on one level if needed, however currently they both

are still able to access both levels of the home. While they still have a home with two levels, they are able

to functionally live on one level if necessary at a future point, showing that she is acting in a proactive and

preventative manner.

Another big idea from unit two was intelligence and wisdom and so for my tenth question, I asked

Catherine "Do you feel like you are highly wise? Has your wisdom helped to optimize your life?" She said,

"Of course, I feel extremely wise, but I think I have always been wise, just more as I got older." In our

course, we discussed Baltes' three factors of becoming wise which include general personal conditions,

specific expertise conditions, and facilitative life. I believe that Catherine is correct in that she is extremely

wise, and that I can see that Baltes’ three factors emphasize that she has become wiser as she’s gotten

older through her lifetime experiences. For example, one form of facilitative life contexts is considered to

be education experience; Catherine previously worked as a teacher showing that she clearly has had the

education experience of both the process of becoming a teacher and of teaching others. I also think that

this fits into specific expertise conditions, of her mentoring and teaching children in her classroom, and

those around her outside of her classroom which I have personally experienced. General personal

conditions are described as mental ability, which I would definitely say applies to Catherine and can be

seen in her responses to my interview questions.

Throughout unit three we discussed social cognition, mental health, and personality. In order to

get a general idea of her personality, I asked Catherine my eleventh and twelfth questions. The first

being, “Do you feel as if your personality has changed in a negative or positive way over time?” which she

responded to with the response of “No, I have always had a very positive outlook on life. I consider myself

very happy!” and the second being, "What are your hobbies? Have they changed or developed

significantly as you have aged?" which she replied, "Yes, my hobbies and interests have changed at each

stage of life. My life was teaching and being in a family with kids and lots of activities. Then when I

retired I learned to sew and love to read. I have always loved to dance and taken lessons most of my life;

That maybe is the interest that has stayed with me from six to sixty-six!” I think that these two questions

helped to emphasize Catherine's positive outlook, and how while her personality and interests have

changed, her overall feelings about her lifetime have stayed positive over time. These responses also

helped me to get a general idea of her life narrative, the overarching term for sense of self, discussed in

chapter nine. As a further explanation, a life narrative is the aspects of an individual’s personality

integrated together to form that individual’s identity and sense of self. It’s necessary to consider an

individual’s life narrative as it allows us to further understand them both in general and also in terms of

how they structure their life.

Within chapter nine, we discussed the big five personality model, which contains five independent

divisions of personality, that I found to be a very intriguing topic and wanted to explore further. The big

five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to

experience. Extraversion is characterized by a preference for social interaction, warmth, assertiveness,

positive emotions, and energetic activity. Next, agreeableness is characterized by selflessness, modesty,

trust, compliance, and generosity. Third, conscientiousness is characterized by organization,

ambitiousness, self-discipline, competence, and a want for achievement. Neuroticism is characterized by

overreacting, instability, anxiety, hostility, and self-consciousness. Further, Neuroticism can be considered

to be the opposite of emotional stability. Finally, openness to experience is characterized by risk taking

and receptiveness to new ideas, approaches, and experiences.

To further my understanding of Catherine’s personality I asked question thirteen, "The following

are the big five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism/emotional

stability, and openness to experience). How do you feel like you fit into each of these categories?" She

stated, "I believe that I am well-adjusted in all five categories." In this unit, we had discussed how studies

show an absence of neuroticism and a decrease in openness to new experiences in older adults.

However, Catherine is contradictory to this research of older adults. For example, Catherine created this

proposal that she calls ‘in or out' where you contact her with a date and time, and any associated costs

for the day and she replies with 'in' or 'out' without knowing the proposed activity or event, and further

details of that. This shows that she is contradictory to the research of openness to new experiences and

older adults such that she is very open to new experiences. I also think that this example can apply to

extraversion as she is seeking excitement and interaction with others.

We also discussed self-concept in unit three, which includes both an individual’s self-esteem and

self-image. In class, we had discussed the differences in self-concept as we age. Typically starting in

middle-aged adults and beyond, self-concept becomes more differentiated and individuals become

unique and independent compared with the self-concept of younger adults who identify more with social

norms. Research has shown that self-concept seems to influence the interpretation of life events, which

could connect to Catherine’s level of positivity. Kegan’s theory of self-concept proposes that development

of self happens in six phases of incorporative, impulsive, imperial, interpersonal. Institutional, and

interindividual. The final phase, interindividual, states that the individual has an understanding that self-

concept is a complex system that can by influenced by other people. Further, Kegan emphasizes that a

person and their self-concept is a complex whole while Labouvie-Vief's perception on self-concept

emphasizes the necessity of a balance of optimization of happiness and tolerance of negativity to have a

healthy self- concept. Overall, researchers have focused on self-concept being related to many factors

including health and overall well-being. Throughout all of Catherine’s responses, and my personal

experiences with Catherine, it is very clear that she has both a high self-esteem and self-image through

her consistent positivity and high energy, leading to a healthy self-concept.

To expand on Catherine’s aging experience and how her life is changed I wanted to ask her

about her relationships and how they have adapted throughout her lifetime, based on our discussion in

unit four. Relationships are an important part of the life process, and help to fulfill social needs and

maintain mental health. Friendship provides various benefits such as being a resource for self-disclosure

and support. They are important in older adulthood for helping to promote independence and to be

someone that older adults can talk to without burdening their families. For women, like Catherine,

Friendships are based on intimate emotional sharing rather than the basis of shared activities that are

seen in men. In order to have a strong love relationship, the relationship should have the three

components of passion, intimacy, and commitment. Marital satisfaction, a global assessment of one’s

marriage, is necessary for an effective and successful marriage along with a good level of marital quality

and marital adjustment.

Friendships, love, and family have benefited Catherine throughout her lifetime. In order to assess

this, I asked her my fourteenth question of “How do you feel your relationships have changed?” Her

response of “They haven’t” to this question was initially surprising to me, as relationships tend to develop

and change over time, they end, and new one’s form. I had been expecting a response that further

reinforced that. She further explained with, “I have always had many friends and loved family time. I have

a husband of fifty years, I guess I like lasting relationships!” showing that she was more of referring to the

stability of her relationships and that she has remained social and that has potentially furthered support

and maintenance of mental health through staying connected and upholding an engaged and active life.

Unit four also talked about retirement and leisure time. Most people retire out of choice, although

some are encouraged, and feel forced, to retire. Generally, adjustment to retirement is positively oriented

if they have a supportive network of friends and family, good health, and financial security. In order to

adjust to retirement, new routines and patterns of involvement must be developed to adjust to the

changing roles of being retired. Working part time, volunteering, and other activities may help to maintain

an individual’s sense of self when retired. Some common types of leisure activities that may affect one’s

adjustment to retirement are social-private activities (i.e. going out to dinner), social-public (participating in

an organization), traveling, and watching television. Leisure activities, such as those listed above, are

related to better mental health and an overall well-being, as well as being potentially beneficial to

adjustment to retirement and other big lifestyle changes.

In order to get a general idea of how Catherine felt about retirement, I asked her question fifteen

which was “Are you retired and how do you feel about retirement?” She responded with “I retired ten

years ago. I love having the gift of getting to choose what I want to do with each day.” I then asked her to

expand with question sixteen of “Do you enjoy having more leisure time? Have you focused more on

leisure time or on work, over time?” She replied by stating “If I wanted to work full time at a job, I could. If

I wanted to stay home every day and watch TV, I could.  It is the greatest time of life. A great reason to

take care of your body, mind, and relationships, so you can enjoy every minute of it. We leave Minnesota

for two months in the winter and go to Florida. We can pack up and travel anytime we decide to. I love it!"

As you can perceive from her response, Catherine is very well adjusted to retirement. She has maintained

her relationships and has a supportive network of friends and family as a result. She has maintained good

health, through exercise and eating well and having an overall understanding that she is aging and she

may need to make adjustments as a result. She has maintained an overall high sense of motivation and

highly positive self- concept. All of this has helped her to adjust to aging over her lifetime and to have

adjusted to being retired without it negatively impacting her health, which is a common perception of

retirement.

One way to look at if an individual has gone through successful aging is to look at their quality of

life (the combination of well-being and life satisfaction) such that an individual's health influences their

quality of life. Environmental, physical, social, and psychological factors that are used in an individual's

self-assessment of themselves combine together to form an individual's quality of life. Catherine appears

to have a high quality of life that can be seen through her health, open and positive personality, self-

concept, solid relationships, and leisure activities. Furthermore, Vaillant’s model of successful aging

includes no physical disability at age seventy-five as rated by a physician, good subjective physical

health, length of undisabled life, good mental health, objective social support, and self-rated life

satisfaction. Catherine is not yet seventy-five but currently at age seventy she has no physical disability,

and as long as one does not develop and her current quality of life based on the previously listed factors

does not change in a negative direction, then she will have successfully aged. Ultimately, Catherine

appears to have had a very positive and successful aging experience.

As I stated earlier, we all develop with different influences and circumstances. Everyone ages

differently, which can mean that their own experiences do not align with the inclinations seen in the

majority of individuals and aging in relation to the concepts discussed in this course. Essentially,

Individual differences do exist and that can be observed in Catherine through her individual life

experiences and aging perspective. However, the overarching concepts that are discussed in this course

can be seen in Catherine’s life, and many of the discussed perspectives and concepts apply to her life as

well as the ones that she seems to contradict based off of the responses that I received from her. Based

off of my connections with her and the perspective of her that I’ve observed and then the new insight

about her life and aging process that I have gained through this paper, Catherine seems to have overall

successfully aged, at least up until this point.

Topical Index

Unit Chapter Topic Page

1 1 Life-span Perspective 1

1 1 Ageism 1,2

1 1 Meaning of Aging 2

1 3,4 Health 2,3

1 3 Sleep 3

2 5 PCP model 3

2 6 Memory 4

2 5 Home Modification 4

2 7 Wisdom 4,5

3 9 Personality 5

3 9 Life Narrative 5

3 9 Big Five Personality Traits 5,6

3 9 Self- Concept 6,7

4 11 Relationships 7

4 12 Retirement 7,8

4 12 Leisure Time 7,8

4 14 Successful Aging 8,9