UNIT 1 NOTES

Developmental periods: Infancy, babyhood, childhood, puberty,

adolescence - Growth, hazards, lifestyle effects - Aging -
Characteristics, hobbies, adjustment, physical and mental health,
death, dying and bereavement.

The different key periods of growth and human development: infancy (birth to 2 years old),
babyhood (2 to 3 years old) early childhood (3 to 8 years old), middle childhood (9 to 11
years old), puberty (10 to 14 years old) and adolescence (12 to 19 years old).

INFANCY
The word infant means extreme helplessness. The period of infancy covers approximately
the first two weeks of life. The time needed for the newborn child to adjust to the new
environment outside the mother’s body.
MAJOR ADJUSTMENTS OF INFANCY
Temperature changes
There is a constant temperature of 1000 F in the uterine sac, while temperature in the hospital
or home may vary from 60 to 700F.
Breathing
When the umbilical cord is cut, infant must begin to breathe on its own.
Sucking and Swallowing
The infant must now get nourished by sucking and swallowing, instead of receiving it
through the umbilical cord.
Elimination
The infant’s organs of elimination begin to work soon after birth; formerly, waste products
were eliminated through the umbilical cord.
Loss of weight
Because of difficulty in adjusting to sucking and swallowing, the newborn infant usually
loses weight during the first week of postnatal life.
Infant Mortality
The rate of infant mortality during the first two days of postnatal life is high.
Disorganized Behavior
For the first day or two of postnatal life, all infants show relatively disorganized behavior,
such as irregularities in breathing rate, frequent urinations and defecations, wheezing and
regurgitation. This is due partly to pressure on the brain during birth, which results in a
stunned state, and partly to the undeveloped state of the autonomic nervous system.
COMMON EMOTIONAL PATTERNS OF BABAYHOOD

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Anger
Common stimuli that give rise to anger in babies are interference with attempted movements,
discouraging some wish, not letting them make themselves understood. Typically, the angry
response takes the form of screaming, kicking the legs, waving the arms, and hitting or
kicking anything within reach. During the second year, babies may also jump up and down,
throw themselves on the floor and hold their breath.
Fear
The stimuli most likely to arouse fear in babies are loud noises; strange persons, objects and
situations; dark rooms; high places; and animals. Any stimulus which occurs suddenly or
unexpectedly or which is different from what the baby is accustomed to gives rise to fear.
Curiosity
Anything new or unusual acts as a stimulus to curiosity, unless the newness is so pronounced
that it gives rise to fear. As fear wanes, it is replaced by curiosity. Young babies express
curiosity mainly through their facial expression – tensing the facial tongue. Later, babies
grasp the objects that aroused their curiosity and handle, shake, bang, or stick them.
Joy
Joy is stimulated by physical well being. By the second or third month of life, babies react to
being played with, being tickled and watching or listening to others. They express their
pleasure or joy by smiling, laughing and moving their arms and legs. When joy is intense,
babies coo, gurgle or even shout with glee, and all bodily movements are intensified.
Affection
Anyone who plays with babies, takes care of their bodily needs or shows them affection will
be a stimulus for their affection. Later, toys and the family pet may also become love objects
for them. Typically, babies express their affection by hugging, patting and kissing the loved
object or person.
DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD
o Learning to take solid foods

o Learning to walk

o Learning to talk

o Learning to control the elimination of body wastes

o Learning sex differences and sexual modesty

o Getting ready to read

o Learning to distinguish right and wrong and beginning to develop a conscience

HAZARDS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

Physical hazards

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Physical hazards are serious for all babies but especially for those who are born prematurely;
those who suffer from brain damage or other birth defects; and those whose physical
development and general physical condition at birth is poor. Example: Mortality, Crib
(sudden) death
Eating Habits
Babies who suck for long periods show signs of anxiety. They engage in more non nutritive
sucking (such as thumb sucking, sucking play toys, etc.) have more sleep difficulties and are
more restless than those whose sucking periods are shorter.
Sleeping habits
Crying, strenuous play with an adult or noise can make babies tense and keep them from
falling asleep. Sleep schedules that do not meet the requirements of babies, make them tense
and resistant to sleep.
Habits of Elimination
Habits of elimination cannot be established until the nerves and muscles have developed
adequately. Training them too early or not giving training at an appropriate time also brings
problems in the development of children.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HAZARDS
The most serious psychological hazards of babyhood involve the baby’s failure to master the
developmental task for that age. Mastery of these tasks is important for two reasons. First,
sooner they can become independent of help from others. Second, mastery of these tasks
provides the foundations on which mastery of later developmental tasks will be built.
MOTOR AND SPEECH HAZARDS
Hazards in motor development bring babies a great disadvantage when they begin to play
with age mates.
Speech hazards is serious in babyhood because at this age, the foundations are being laid for
the development of the tools of communication that will be needed later.
EMOTIONAL HAZARDS
Emotional deprivation
Babies who are not given opportunity to experience the normal emotions of babyhood –
especially affection, curiosity, and joy do not thrive physically, it inhibits the secretion of the
pituitary hormones, including the growth hormone, and his may lead to what has been called
deprivation dwarfism.
Stress
Stress – a prolonged unpleasant emotional state, such as fear or anger can cause endocrine
changes which upset body homeostasis. This then is reflected in eating and sleeping
difficulties, in nervous mannerisms such as excessive thumb sucking, and in excessive
crying.
Too much affection
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Parents who are over demonstrative encourage their babies to focus their attention on
themselves and to become self bound and selfish. Babies thus expect others to show
affection for them but they do not reciprocate.
Dominant emotions
Conditions in the baby’s environment encourage the development of certain emotions to the
exclusion of others, and these eventually become dominant unless conditions change and the
development of other emotions is encouraged.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Emotions of Early Childhood
Emotions are especially intense during early childhood. This is a time of disequilibrium when
children are “out of focus” in the sense that they are easily aroused to emotional outbursts and
as a result are difficult to live with and guide. While this is true of the major part of early
childhood, it is especially true of children aged 2 ½ to 3 ½ and 51/2 to 6 ½ .
Common Emotional Patterns of Early Childhood
Anger
The most common causes of anger in young children are conflicts over play things, the
thwarting of wishes, and vigorous attacks from another child. Children express anger through
temper tantrums, characterized by crying, screaming and crushing, kicking, jumping up and
down or striking.
Fear
Conditioning, imitation and memories of unpleasant experiences play important roles in
arousing fears, as do stories, pictures, radio and television programs, and movies with
frightening elements. At first, a child’s response to fear is panic. Later, responses become
more specific and include running away and hiding, crying and avoiding frightening
situations.
Jealousy
Young children become jealous when they think parental interest and attention are shifting
toward someone else in the family, usually a new sibling. Young children may openly
express their jealousy or they may show it by reverting to infantile behaviour, such as bed
wetting, pretending to be ill, or being generally naughty. All such behaviour is a bid for
attention.
Curiosity
Children are curious about anything new that they see and also about their own bodies and
the bodies of others their first responses to curiosity take the form of sensory motor
exploration; later as a result of social pressures and punishment, they respond by asking
questions.
Envy

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Young children often become envious of the abilities or material possessions of another child.
They express their envy in different ways, the most common of which is complaining about
what they themselves have, by verbalizing wishes to have what the other has.
Joy
Young children derive joy from such things as a sense of physical well being, incongruous
situations, sudden or unexpected noises, slight calamities, playing pranks on others and
accomplishing what seem to them to be difficult tasks. They express their joy by smiling and
laughing, clapping their hands, jumping up and down or hugging the object or person that has
made them happy.
Grief
Young children are saddened by the loss of anything they love or that is important to them,
whether it be a person, a pet or an inanimate object, such as a toy. Typically, they express
their grief by crying and by losing interest in their normal activities including eating.
Affection
Young children learn to love the things – people, pets or objects – that give them pleasure.
They express their affection verbally as they grow older but, while they are still young, they
express it physically by hugging, patting and kissing the object of their affection.
SOCIALIZATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
One of the important developmental tasks of early childhood is acquiring the
preliminary training and experience needed to become a member of a “gang” in late
childhood. Thus, early childhood is often called the pre-gang age. The foundations for
socialization are laid as the number of contacts young children have with their peers increases
with each passing year. Not only do they play more with other children, but they also talk
more with them.
PATTERN OF EARLY SOCIALIZATION
Between the ages of two and three years, children show a decided interest in watching
other children and they attempt to make social contacts with them. This is known as parallel
play; Parallel play is the earliest form of social activity young children have with their peers.
EARLY FORMS OF BEHAVIOR IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS
The most important forms of social behavior necessary for successful social adjustment
appear and begin to develop at this time. In the early years of childhood, these forms are not
developed well enough to enable the child to get along successfully with others at all times.
However this is a crucial stage in development because it is at this time that the basic social
attitudes and the patterns of social behavior are established.
COMPANIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
At all ages, companions may be of three different kinds. What they are, how they get to know
each other and what role they play in the socialization of young children.
Associates

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Associates are people who satisfy an individual’s companionship needs by being in the same
environment where they can be watched and listened to. There is no direct interaction
between the individual and the associates. At any age associates can be of either sex and of
any age. Adults, for example, enjoy watching and listening to children just as children enjoy
watching and listening to adults.
Playmates
Playmates are people with whom individuals engage in pleasurable activities. There age and
sex are on the whole less important than the interests and skills they have in common with
the individual for whom they serve in this role. Children prefer playmates of their own sex.
Friends
Friends are not only congenial (pleasing, similar in their temperaments) playmates, but they
are also people with whom the individual can communicate by exchanging ideas and
confidences and by asking or giving advice. Throughout childhood and adolescence, the
most congenial and most satisfactory friends are those of the individual’s own sex and level
of development who have similar interests and values.
Substitute companion
When companionship needs are not met, either because of geographic isolation or because
the only other children available are of different ages or levels of development or have
different interests and values, young children often try to fulfill their needs by substituting
imaginary playmates or by treating a pet as if it were a real person. Most young children, at
some time or other, have pets – dogs, cats, white rats, goldfish, birds etc…
Leaders in early childhood
In early childhood, leaders are characteristically larger, more intelligent and slightly older
than the other members of the play group. The fact that they are older and more intelligent
makes it possible for them to offer suggestions for play, which the other children, because of
their habitual reliance upon adult suggestions are willing to follow.
Late childhood
Older children soon discover that expression of emotions, especially of the unpleasant
emotions is socially unacceptable to their age mates. They learn that their age mates regard
temper outbursts as babyish, withdrawal reactions to fear as cowardly and hurting others in
jealousy as poor sportsmanship. As a result, older children acquire a strong incentive to learn
to control the outward expressions of their emotions.
At home, however, there is not the same strong incentive to control the emotions. As a
result, children frequently express their emotions as forcibly as they did when they were
younger. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that parents criticize or punish them
for “not acting their age”.
LATE CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS
o Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games,

o Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself as a growing organism,

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 o Learning to get along with age mates,

o Beginning to develop appropriate masculine or feminine social roles,

o Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating,

o Developing concepts necessary for everyday living,

o Developing a conscience, a sense of morality and a scale of values,

o Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions and

o Achieving personal independence.

COMMON EMOTIONAL PATTERNS OF LATE CHILDHOOD

The common emotional patterns of late childhood differ from those of early childhood
in two respects.
First, they differ in the kind of situation that gives rise to them.
Second, they differ in the form of motional expressions.
These changes are the result of broadened experience and learning, rather than of
maturation. From experience, children discover how others feel about various forms of
emotional expression in their desire to win social approval; they then try to curb the forms of
expression they have found are socially unacceptable. As they grow older, children begin to
express their anger in moodiness, bad humors and general orneriness (irritability). Temper
tantrums become less frequent because older children have discovered that they are
considered babyish.
PERIODS OF HEIGHTENED EMOTIONALITY
There are times during late childhood when children experience frequent and intense
emotions. Because these emotions tend to be more unpleasant and periods of heightened
emotionally become periods of disequilibrium – times when children are out of focus and
difficult to live with.
Heightened emotionality in late childhood may come from physical or environmental
causes or from both. When children are ill or tired, they are likely to be irritable, nervous and
generally difficult. Just before childhood ends, when the sex organs begin to functions,
heightened emotionality is normally at its peak.
Environmental causes of heightened emotionality are also common and serious in late
childhood. Because adjustments to new situations are always upsetting for children,
heightened emotionality is almost universal at the time when children enter school. Any
marked change in the pattern of the older child’s life, as when the home is broken by death or
by divorce, inevitably leads to heightened emotionality.
BEGINNINGS OF EMOTIONAL CATHARSIS
Because of the pent up emotional state, they discover, more often by trial and error
than by guidance, that they can clear their systems of this pent up state by strenuous play, by
a hearty laugh, or even by crying.
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 Some children who have close, intimate friends discover before childhood comes to
an end that it helps greatly to discuss with their friends the situations that give rise to
unpleasant emotions – their frustrations, fears, jealousies, and grief. By so doing, they get a
new perspective on their emotional problems, with the result that the situations that gave rise
to their emotions are eliminated or minimized.
SOCIAL GROUPINGS AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN LATE CHILDHOOD
Late childhood is often referred to as the “gang age” because it is characterized by
interest in peer activities, an increasingly strong desire to be an accepted member of a gang,
and discontent when children are not with their friends. Older children are no longer satisfied
to play at home alone or with siblings or to do things with family members. They want to be
with their peers and they are lonely and dissatisfied when they are not with them.
Even one or two friends are not enough for older children. They want to be with the
gang, because only then will there be a sufficient number of individuals to play the games
and sports they now enjoy and to give excitement to their play. From the time children enter
school until puberty, the desire to be with and to be accepted by the gang becomes
increasingly strong. This is just as true of girls as it is of boys.
COMPANIONS IN LATE CHILDHOOD
Companions in late childhood, as is true of early childhood, may be associates,
playmates, or friends. Older children, unlike younger, are rarely satisfied with associates. To
fulfill their social needs, companions must play the role of playmate or friend.
Boys tend to have more extensive peer relationships than girls. They prefer to play
with groups rather than with one or two other boys. By contrast, girls’ social relationships are
more intensive in the sense that they play more with one or two girls than with a group.
Many factors influence older children’s choice of friends. As a rule, they choose those
they perceive as similar to themselves and those who meet their needs. Because physical
attractiveness affects first impressions, children tend to select as playmates and friends, those
who are attractive looking.
Proximity in the school or neighborhood is important because older children are
limited to a relatively small area from which to select their companions. There is a strong
tendency for older children to choose their companions from their own grades in school and,
at all times, companions of their own sex are selected rather than companions of the opposite
sex.
LEADERS IN LATE CHILDHOOD
Children who are chosen by their peers for leadership roles in late childhood closely
approximate the group’s ideal. They are not only liked by the majority of the members of
their gangs but they have many of the qualities most admired by group members.
Children whose skills in the sports and games are superior to those of the other gang
members have a very good chance of being chosen as the leaders. However, skills alone are
not enough; Children who play leadership roles must also have personality traits admired by
the gang, such as good sportsmanship, cooperativeness, generosity and honesty.
Unlike leaders during the preschool years, leaders in late childhood who use
authoritarian and despotic techniques soon lose their leadership roles. Older children deeply
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resent being “bossed” by their playmates, just as they resent being “bossed” by their parents
and teachers.
Persistence in the role of leadership enables children to learn the techniques of
leadership and to gain confidence in their abilities to carry out this role satisfactorily.
Furthermore, if they gain the reputation among their gang-mates of being “good” leaders,
they are likely to be chosen for other leadership roles. Children who play leadership roles in
games and sports to the satisfaction of group members have a very good chance of being
selected a class presidents or o for other leadership roles unrelated to games and sports.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN’S GANGS
o Children’s gangs are play groups.

o To belong to a gang, a child must be invited.

o Members of a gang are of the same sex.

o At first gangs consist of three or four members, but this number increases as children
grow older and become interested in sports.
o Boys’ gangs more often engage in socially unacceptable behavior than girls’ gangs.

o Popular gang activities include games and sports, going to the movies, and getting
together to talk or eat.
o The gang has a central meeting place, usually away from the watchful eyes of adults.

o Almost gangs have insignia of belonging; the members may wear similar clothes, for
example.
o The gang leader represents the gang’s ideal and is superior in most respects to the
other members.

PUBERTY – CRITERIA AND BODILY CHANGES

Puberty is the period in the developmental span when the child changes from an
asexual to a sexual being. As Root has explained, “Puberty is that stage in development
during which maturation of the sexual apparatus occurs and reproductive capacity is
attained”. It is accompanied by changes in somatic growth and psychological perspective.
The criteria most often used to determine the onset of puberty and to pinpoint a
particular stage of puberty that the child has reached are the menarche, nocturnal emissions,
evidence derived from chemical analysis of the urine and x-rays of bone development.
The menarche or the first menstruation is commonly used as a criterion of sexual
maturity among girls, but it is neither the first nor the last of the physical changes that occur
during puberty.
Among boys a popularly used criterion of puberty is nocturnal emissions. During
sleep, the penis sometimes become erect, and semen or the fluid containing sperm cells, is
released. This is the normal way for the male reproductive organ to rid itself of excessive
amounts of semen.
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CAUSES OF PUBERTY
Until the turn of the present century, the cause or causes of the physical changes that
occur at puberty remained a mystery. With the growth of research, endocrinologists have
been unable to explain the variations in the age of puberty and in the time needed to complete
the changes of puberty.
At the present, it is known that about five years before children become sexually
matured, there is a small excretion of the sex hormones in both boys and girls. The amount of
hormones excreted increases as time passes and this eventually leads to the maturing of the
structure and function of the sex organs.
It has been established that there is a close relationship between the pituitary gland,
located at the base of the brain, and the gonads or sex glands. The male gonads are the testes,
and the female gonads are the ovaries.
AGE OF PUBERTY
Between the ages of 12 and 14, differences between the sexes are especially marked
with many more girls having become mature than boys. This difference is reflected in the
larger and more mature bodies of the girls and in their more mature, more aggressive and
more sex conscious behavior.
The total time needed to become sexually mature is approximately three years for
girls and two to four years for boys. Boys show less uniformity in this process than girls.
Approximately one to two years are required for the preliminary changes from an
asexual to sexual state.
Children who are slow in starting to mature, i.e., the late matures is usually mature
more rapidly. Once they get started, then they show pubertal changes earlier than the
averages.
Fast matures have rapid growth. Their periods of accelerated and halted growth come
abruptly and they attain adult proportions very quickly. There is an early development of the
sex organs and the secondary sex characteristics and the total development comes early than
the average.
Body changes at puberty
During the puberty growth spurt, four important physical changes occur which transform the
child’s body into that of an adult. Change in body size, changes in body proportions, the
development of the primary sex characteristics and the development of the secondary sex
characteristics.
1. Changes in Body Size
The first major physical change at puberty is change in body size in terms of height and
weight. Among girls, the average annual increase in the year preceding the menarche is 3
inches, though a 5 to 6 inch increase is not unusual. Two years preceding the menarche, the
average increase is 2.5 inches, making a total increase of 5.5 inches in the two years
preceding the menarche. After the menarche, the rate of growth slows down to about 1 inch a
year, coming to a standstill at around eighteen years.

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For boys, the onset of the period of rapid growth in height comes, on the average, at 12.8
years and ends on the average, at 15.3 years, with a peak occurring at fourteen years. The
greatest increase in height comes in the year following the onset of puberty. After that
growth decelerates and continues at a slow rte until the age of twenty or twenty one. Because
of the longer growth period, boys achieve greater height by the time they are mature than
girls too.
Weight gained during puberty comes not only from an increase in fat, but also from an
increase in bone and muscles and tissues. Thus even though pubescent boys and girls gain
weight rapidly. They often look thin and scrawny. Girls experience the greatest weight gain
just before and just after the menarche. Only slight increase in weight occurs after that. For
boys the maximum gain in weight comes a year or two later than for girls and reaches its
peak at sixteen years. After which the gain is small.
It is not uncommon for both boys and girls to go through a fat period during puberty.
Between the ages of 10 and 12 at or near the onset of the growth spurt. Children tend to
accumulate fat on the abdomen. Around the nipples, in the hips and thighs, and in the
cheeks, neck and jaw. This fat usually disappears after puberty maturing and rapid growth in
height are well started, though it may remain for two more years during the early part of
puberty.
2. Changes in body proportions
The second major physical change at puberty is change in body proportions. Certain areas of
the body which in the early years of life were proportionately much too small now become
proportionally too big because they reach their mature size sooner than other areas. This is
particularly apparent in the nose, feet, and hands. It is not until the latter part of adolescence
that the body attains adult proportions in all areas, although the most pronounced changes
take place before puberty is over.
The thin, long trunk of the older child begins to broaden at the hips and shoulders and a
waistline develops. This appears high at first because the legs grow proportionately more
than the trunk. As the trunk lengthens, the waistline drops, thus giving the body adult
proportions. The broadness of the hips and shoulders is influenced by the age of maturing.
Boys who mature early usually have broader hips than boys who mature late and girls who
mature late have slightly broader hips than early maturing girls.
Just before puberty, the legs are disproportionately long in relation to the trunk and continue
to be so until the child is approximately fifteen.
3. Primary sex characteristics:
The third major physical change at puberty is the growth and development of the primary sex
characteristics , the sex organs. In the case of the male, the gonads or testes, which are
located in the scrotum or sac, outside the body are only approximately 10 percent of their
mature size at the age of fourteen years. Then there is a rapid growth for a year or two, after
which growth slows down. The testes are fully developed by the age of twenty or twenty
one.
All parts of the female reproductive apparatus grow during puberty, though at different
rates. The uterus of the average eleven or twelve year old girl for example, weighs 5.3

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grams; by the age of sixteen, the average weight is 43 grams. The fallopian tubes, ovaries
and vagina also grow rapidly at this time.
The first real indication that a girls reproductive mechanism is becoming mature is the
menarche or first menstrual flow. This is the beginning of a series of periodic discharges of
blood, mucus, and broken down cell tissue from the uterus that will occur approximately
every twenty eight days until the girl reaches the menopause, in the late forties or early fifties.
4. Secondary sex characteristics
The fourth major physical change at puberty is the development of the secondary sex
characteristics. These are the physical features which distinguish males from females and
which make members of one sex appealing to members of the other sex. They are unrelated
to reproduction though indirectly they are related by making males appealing to females and
vice versa. That is why they are calls “secondary” as compared with the sex organs proper
which are called “primary” sex characteristics because they are directly related to
reproduction. As long as the body remains childlike in appearance, there is no “sex appeal”.
This however, changes when the secondary sex characteristics appear.
At puberty progresses, boys and girls become increasingly dissimilar in appearance. This
change is caused by the gradual development of the secondary sex characteristics which like
other developments at puberty, follows a predictable pattern.
IMPORTANT SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS
Boys:
Hair
Pubic hair appears about one year after the testes and penis have started to increase in size.
Auxiliary and facial hair appear when the pubic hair has almost completed it growth, as does
body hair. At first all hair is scanty, lightly pigmented and fine in texture. Later it becomes
darker, coarser more luxuriant and slightly kinky.
Skin
The skin becomes coarser, less transparent and sallow in color and the pores enlarge.
Glands
The sebaceous or oil producing, glands in the skin enlarge and become more active which
may cause acne. The apocrine glands in the armpits start to function and perspiration
increases as puberty progresses.
Muscles
The muscles increase markedly in size and strength thus giving shape to the arms, legs and
shoulders.
Voice
Voice changes begin after some pubic hair has appeared. The voice first becomes husky and
later drops in pitch, increases in volume and acquires a pleasanter tone. Voice breaks are
common when maturing is rapid.

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Breast knots
Slight knobs around the male mammary glands appear between the ages of twelve and
fourteen. These last for several weeks and then decrease in number and size.
GIRLS
Hips
The hips become wider and rounder as a result if the enlargement of the pelvic bone and the
development of subcutaneous fat.
Breasts
Shortly after the hips start to enlarge, the breasts begin to develop. The nipples enlarge and
protrude and as the mammary glands develop the breasts become larger and rounder.
Hair
Pubic hair appears after hip and breast development is well under way. Auxiliary hair begins
to appear after the menarche, as does facial hair. Body hair appears on the limbs late in
puberty. All hair except facial hair is straight and lightly pigmented at first and then
become more luxuriant, coarser, darker and slightly kinky.
Skin
The skin becomes coarser, thicker, and slightly sallow and the pores enlarge.
Glands
The sebaceous and apocrine glands become more active as puberty progresses. Clogging of
the sebaceous glands can cause acne, while the apocrine glands in the armpits produce just
before and during the menstrual period.
Muscles
The muscles increase in size and strength, especially in the middle of puberty and toward
the end thus giving shape to the shoulders, arms and legs.
Voice
The voice becomes fuller and more melodious. Huskiness and breaks in the voice are rare
among girls.
EFFECTS OF PUBERTY CHANGES:
The physical changes of puberty affect every area of the body, both externally and internally,
and thus it is not surprising that they also affect the pubescent’s physical and psychological
well-being. Even though these effects are normally only temporary, they are sequence of
events of puberty for girls and boys and predictable patterns of development of the secondary
sex characteristics.
Severe enough while they last to bring about a change in habitual patterns of behavior,
attitudes, and personality.
EFFECTS ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING;
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Rapid growth and body changes are likely to be accompanied by fatigue, listlessness, and
other unfavorable symptoms. These discomforts are frequently made worse by an increase in
duties and responsibilities, just at the time when the individual is least able to cope with them
successfully.
Digestive disturbances are frequent, and appetite is finicky. The prepubescent child is upset
by glandular changes and changes in the size and position of the internal organs. These
changes interfere with the normal functions of digestion. Anemia is common at this period,
not because of marked changes in blood chemistry, but because of erratic eating habits, which
in turn increase the already present tendency to be tired and listless.
During the early menstrual periods, girls frequently experience headaches, backaches,
cramps, and abdominal pain, accompanied by fainting, vomiting, skin irritations, and even
selling of the legs and ankles. As a result, they feel tired, depressed, and irritable at the time
of their periods. As menstruation becomes more regular the physical and psychological
disturbances which accompany its early appearances tend to diminish.
Headaches, backaches, and a general feeling of acheness occur at other times between
menstruations. Both boys and girls suffer intermittently from these discomforts, their
frequency and severity depending to a large extent upon how rapidly the pubescent changes
are occurring and upon how healthy the individuals were when puberty began.
While puberty may be regarded as a ‘sickly age.” When the individual is not up to par,
relatively few diseases are characteristic of this period. If pubescent children were actually ill,
they would be treated with more sympathy and understanding than they usually are; less
would be expected of them, and much of their unsocial behavior would be understood and
tolerated, which it rarely is.
EFFECTS ON ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR:
It is understandable that the widespread effects of puberty on children’s physical well-being
would also affect their attitudes and behavior. However, there is evidence that the changes in
attitudes and behavior that occur at this time are more the result of social than of glandular
changes, though the glandular changes unquestionably play some role through their influence
on body homeostasis. The less sympathy and understanding the pubescent child receives
from parents, siblings, teachers, and peers and the greater the social expectations at this time,
the greater the psychological effects of the physical changes.
The most common, serious, and persistent of puberty changes on attitudes and
behavior:
Desire for isolation
When puberty changes begin, children usually withdraw from peer and family activities and
often quarrel with peers and family members. They spend much time in day dreaming about
how misunderstood and mistreated they are in experimenting with sex through masturbation.
Part of this withdrawal syndrome includes refusal to communicate with others.
Boredom
Pubescent children are bored with the play they formerly enjoyed, with schoolwork, with
social activities, and with life in general. As a result they do as little work as they can, thus
developing the habit of underachieving. This habit is accentuated by not feeling up to par
physically.
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Incoordination
Rapid and uneven growth affects habitual patterns of coordination and the pubescent child is
clumsy and awkward for a time. As growth slows down, coordination gradually improves.
Social Antagonism
The pubescent child is often uncooperative, disagreeable and antagonistic. Open hostility
between the sexes, expressed in constant criticism and derogatory comments is common at
this age.
As puberty progresses, the child becomes friendlier, more cooperative and more tolerant of
others.
Heightened Emotionality
Moodiness, sulkiness, temper outbursts and a tendency to cry at the slightest provocation are
characteristics of the early part of puberty. T is a time of worry, anxiety and irritability.
Depression , irritability and negative moods are especially common during the premenstrual
and early menstrual periods of girls.
Loss of self confidence
The pubescent child, formerly so self assured becomes lacking in self confidence and fearful
of failure. This is due partly to lowered physical resistance and partly to the constant
criticism of adults and peers. Many boys and girls emerge from puberty with the
foundations of an inferiority complex.
Excessive Modesty
The bodily changes that take place during puberty cause the child to become excessively
modest for fear that others will notice these changes and comment on them unfavourably.
Although all children exhibit some of these attitudes and behavior patterns, they are more
marked before sexual maturity is attained, or during what Buhler has called the “negative
phase”.
Girls, as a general rule, are more seriously affected by puberty than boys, partly because they
usually mature more rapidly than boys and partly because more social restrictions begin to be
placed on their behavior, just at a time when they are trying to free themselves from such
restrictions. More has discussed the reason why boys are not as greatly affected by puberty
changes as girls:
Puberty appears to have been a more gradual affair. It did not burst on them with the rapidity
of development that the girls experienced. The impulses aroused may have been just as strong
or stronger for the male but he had more chance to adjust to them as they grew.
Because they reach puberty earlier, girls show signs of disruptive behavior sooner than boys
do. However, girls’ behavior stabilizes earlier than that of boys, and they begin to act more as
they did before the onset of puberty, just as boys will do later.
How seriously puberty changes will affect behavior will be greatly influenced by the ability
and willingness of pubescent children to communicate their concerns and anxieties to others
and, in that way, get a new and better perspective on them. As Dunbar has explained, “The
affective reaction to change is largely determined by the capacity to communicate….
15
Communication is a means of coping with anxiety which inevitably accompanies stress”..
Pubescent children who find it difficult or impossible to communicate with others exhibit
more negative behavior than those who can and will communicate.
The psychological effects of puberty are also complicated by the social expectations of
parents, teachers, and other adults. Boys and girls are expected to act according to certain
standards appropriate for their ages. They find this relatively easy if their behavior patterns
are at the appropriate developmental levels. However, children who are maturationally
unready to fulfill the social expectations for their ages are likely to have problems.
EFFECTS OF DEVIANT MATURING:
Children who are most affected by the physical changes that normally occur at puberty are
the deviant matures. A deviant mature is one whose sexual maturation deviates by a year or
more from the norm for the individual’s sex group in the time needed to complete the
maturation process. Children who mature sexually earlier than their sex group are called
“early matures” while those who mature sexually later than their sex group are called “late
matures.” When children require less than the normal time for their sex group to complete the
maturational process they are known as “rapid matures” while those who need more than the
normal time are called “slow matures.
EARLY VERSUS LATE MATURERS:
For boys, early maturing is advantageous, especially in the area of sports, from which they
derive much of their prestige and status in the peer group. It is from the ranks of the early
matures that most of the leaders in boys” groups com, and this gives them added prestige in
the eyes of girls also.
By contrast, boys who are late matures tend to be restless, tense, rebellious, and attention-
seeking. Because of these unsocial patterns of behavior, they are less popular with both peers
and adults and are far less often selected for leadership roles by their peers than early matures
are. In commenting on the disadvantages of late maturing for boys, Weatherly has pointed out
the following problems.
The later mature must cope with the developmental demands of the junior high and high
school period with the liability of a relatively small, immature appearing physical stature. His
appearance is likely to call out in others at least mild reactions of derogation and the
expectation that he is capable of only ineffectual, immature behavior. Such reactions
constitute a kind of social environment which is conductive to feelings of inadequacy,
insecurity and defensive “small-boy” behavior. Such behavior once initiated may well be
self-sustaining, since it is likely to only intensify the negative environmental reactions which
give rise to it in the first place.
Early maturing is less advantageous to girls than it is to boys. Early-maturing girls are more
grown-up and sophisticated in their behavior, but their appearance and actions may lead to a
reputation of being “sexually promiscuous.” In addition, early-maturing girls are more out of
step with their peers than early maturing boys, and this adds to their social problems. In
commenting on the social problems the early maturing girl is confronted with, Jones and
Mussen have pointed out.
The early-maturing girl quite naturally has interests in boys and in social usages and activities
more mature than those of her chronological age group. But the males of her own age are
unreceptive, for while she is physiologically a year or two out of step with the girls in her
16
class, she is three or four years out of step with the boys-a vast and terrifying degree of
developmental distance.
Girls who are late matures are less damaged psychologically than late-maturing boys. They
are less likely to engage in status-seeking behavior than boys, though they are concerned
about their normalcy, which they reflect in shy, retiring, diffident behavior. Because this is
considered sex appropriate behavior for girls, it is not as damaging to their reputations as
similar behavior in boys would be.
A study of social attitudes among members of the peer group toward early – and late-
maturing boys and girls revealed that early-maturing boys were mentioned much more often
in the school newspaper than late maturers, while the reverse was true for girls.
RAPID VERSUS SLOW MATURERS:
Rapid maturers face certain problems that slow maturers are spared. For example, in
coordination as shown in clumsiness and awkwardness of behavior is exaggerated in rapid
maturers because their bodies change in size so rapidly that they do not have time to learn to
control them. By contrast, changes in body size in slow maturers come so slowly that
children have time to learn to control their bodies and, as a result, they do not show the
pronounced awkwardness and clumsiness so characteristic of rapid maturers.
Similarly, because rapid maturing tends to sap energy, rapid-maturing children become
lethargic and perform below their potentials in whatever they do. As a result, they tend to
become underachievers, a tendency which can and often does become underachievers, a
tendency which can and often does become habitual during the puberty years. Unless steps
are taken to correct it, after the worst impact of puberty changes has passed, it is likely to
become persistent and the child becomes a lifelong underachiever.
The speed of sexual maturing affects attitudes unfavorably mainly when children are slow
maturers. While rapid maturers may be temporarily emotionally disturbed by their
awkwardness and clumsiness and while periods of heightened emotionality may occur more
frequently and more intensely in rapid than in slow maturers, rapid maturers have no cause
for concern about whether they will ever turn into adults. They can almost see themselves
doing so from one day to another.
By contrast, slow maturers are plagued by the fear that they will never turn into adults and by
the constant reminders of how much more like adults their peers seem to be. They experience
the same problems that late maturers experience because they lag behind their age-mates and,
as a result, are treated by both adults and age-mates as if they were younger than they actually
are.
SOURCES OF CONCERN:
One of the developmental tasks of growing up is that of accepting the newly developed body
and recognizing that nature has endowed the individual with certain physical characteristics
that the individual can do, little to change. Many children enter puberty with childhood ideals
of what they will look like when they are grown up. Because these ideals rarely take into
consideration the realities of the child’s physical endowment, they must be markedly revised.
Furthermore, most children enter puberty with little foreknowledge of the time needed to
mature or the pattern that maturing takes. As a result, they may become deeply concerned as
they watch their bodies change, often so slowly that they wonder whether they will ever grow
17
up. The pubescent child’s concern about the developing body is heightened by growing
realization of the important role appearance plays in social acceptance.
Different children worry about different parts of their bodies. Usually they consider one
physical characteristic to be particularly homely, out of proportion, or sexually inappropriate
and magnify its seriousness out of all reasonable proportion. Girls as a rule are more
concerned about their physical appearance than boys.
While the concerns of pubescent children are myriad, in general they can be divided into two
major categories; first, concerns about whether certain physical characteristics are normal
and, second, concerns about whether they are sexually appropriate.
Definition of Adolescence:

The term Adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescere,”to grow” or to grow to
maturity.” Primitive peoples as well as true also in earlier civilizations do not consider
puberty and adolescence to be distinct periods in the life span; the child is regarded as an
adult, when capable of reproduction.

Developmental tasks of Adolescence:

Developmental tasks of adolescence is nothing but it is overcoming from the childish

attitudes and behavior patterns and getting prepared into adulthood. This is known as
adolescence developmental task.

The developmental tasks of adolescence require a major change in the child’s day to day
attitudes and patterns of behavior. In this age some boys and girls getting late matures, that
can be hoped is that the young adolescent will lay foundations on which to build adult
attitudes and behavior patterns

It may be often is difficult for adolescents to accept their physiques if, from earliest
childhood concept, what they wanted to look like when they are grown up. It takes time to
revise this concept and to learn ways to improve their appearance so that it will conform more
of their earlier ideas.

Economic independence cannot be achieved unless adolescence choose an occupation and go

for it. If they select an occupation that requires a long period of training and new ideas, there
can be no assurance of economic independence even when they reach legal adulthood. They
may have to remain economically dependent for several years.

Colleges aim at developing the intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic
competence. However, few adolescents are interested in improving their skills and
extracurricular affairs of their schools and colleges get such practice, but those who are not in
this way because they must take after school jobs or because they are not accepted by their
peers are deprived of this opportunity.

Changes of Adolescence:

Growth is not far from complete when puberty ends, nor is it entirely complete at the end of
early adolescence. However, there is a slacking of the peace of growth and there is more
18
marked internal than external development. That cannot be so readily observed or identified
as growth in height and weight or the development of the secondary sex characteristics.(Refer
box 8.1)(Body changes).

Variations in physical changes

Sex differences
Late growth but Speedy development and stamina, late mature, early mature
Effects of physical changes

As physical changes slow down, the awkwardness of puberty and early adolescence generally
disappear. This is because older adolescence has had time to gain control of their enlarged
bodies. They are also motivated to use their newly acquired strength and this further helps
them to overcome any awkwardness that appeared earlier.

Concerns about Physical changes

 Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction of bodies

 Dion’s definition

“A person’s physical appearance along with his sexual identity, is the personal
characteristics most obvious and accessible to others in social interactions”

 Beauty aids, Cloths (dislikes of adolescence)

 Menstruation concern, Lacking of weight, headache etc………….

Emotionality During Adolescence

Traditionally adolescence has been thought of as a period of “Storm and Stress” while
adolescent emotions are often intense, uncontrolled and seemingly irrational there is
generally an improvement in emotional behavior with each passing year. Fourteen year olds
Giselle et al have reported are often irritable are easily excited and explode emotionally
instead of trying to control their feelings sixteen year olds by contrast they don’t believe in
worrying. Thus the storm and stress of this period lessens as early adolescence draws to a
close.

Emotional maturity

Boys and girls are said to have achieved emotional maturity if by the end of adolescence
they do not blow up emotionally when others are present but wait for a convenient time and
place to let off emotional steam in socially acceptable manner. An other important indication
of emotional maturity is that the individual assesses a situation critically before responding to
it emotionally instead of reacting to it unthinkingly as would a child or an immature person.
This results in adolescence ignoring many stimulation that would have caused emotional
outburst when they were younger. Finally emotionally mature adolescents are stable in their
emotional responses and they do not swing from one emotion or mood to others, as they did
earlier.

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Social changes

One of the most difficult developmental tasks of adolescence relates to social adjustments
must be made to members of the opposite sex in a relationship that never existed before and
to adults outside the family and school environments.

To achieve the goal of adult patterns of socialization the adolescent must make many new
adjustments the most important and in many respects the most difficult of which are those to
the increased influence of the peer group changes in social behavior new social groupings
new values in friendship selection new values in social acceptance and rejection and new
values in the selection of leaders.

Adolescent social groupings

 Close friends

 Cliques

 Crowds

 Organized groups

 Gangs

Some adolescent interests

There is no such thing as a universal adolescent interest in the culture of today. The reason is
the interests of adolescents depend upon their sex,their intelligence, the environment in which
they live the opportunities they have had for developing interests what their peers are in their
status in the social group their innate abilities the interest of their families, and many other
factors since girls are expected to behave in a feminine way and boys in a masculine way it is
not surprising that girls interests during adolescence are usually very different from boys’
interests.

Recreational interests of adolescents:

Games and sports

Organized games and sports lose their appeal as adolescence progresses; they begin to prefer
spectator sports. It requiring intellectual skills, such as card games etc

 Relaxing

Adolescence enjoy relaxing and talking with their friends, making jokes etc…..but older
adolescents may smoke, drink or take drugs.

 Traveling

Adolescent enjoy traveling during their vacations out of their home and spend time with
friends

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 Hobbies

Boys make use of their time in repairing computer, radios, and car etc….but girls making
their clothes as useful one

 Dancing

Though boys have interest in dancing, they like girls dance

 Reading

Adolescents have little time for recreational reading; they tend to prefer magazines to books.
Newspaper gives knowledge related to general and popularity.

 Movies

Going to movie is favorite clique activity and later a popular dating activity.

 Radio and Records

Adolescents enjoy music when they [Link] of popular music are the favorites.
They also enjoy listening to records.

 Television

Adolescents’ progress is lost by the television, watching television make the students not to
read and study continuously.

 Daydreaming.

Only the time of loneliness they are daydreaming, as heroes, and whatever comes from the
mind.

Sex interests and sex behavior during adolescents

Now days adolescent are very curious about SEX, because of growing interest in sex,
adolescents boys and girls seek more information about it. Few adolescents feel that they can
learn all from their parents and they are more interested in learning sex related information
from the school or college level. Apart from this they discuss with their friends or books on
sex etc……..by the end of adolescents the most boys and girls have enough information
about sex to satisfy their curiosity

Studies of what adolescents are primarily interested in knowing about sex have revealed that
girls are especially curious about birth control the pill abortion, and pregnancy. Boys on the
other hand want to know about venereal diseases, enjoyment of sex, sexual intercourse, and
birth control. The major is in sexual intercourse, its context and its consequences.

Approved sex roles during adolescents

The second developmental task relating to sexuality adolescents must master is learning to
play approved sex roles. This is even more difficult for many adolescents, especially for girls,
21
than mastering the first developmental task relating to sexuality learning to get along with age
mates of the opposite sex.

Girls by contrast, often reach adolescence with blurred concepts of the female role, though
their concepts of the male role are clearer and better defined. This is because as children they
were permitted to look act and feel much as boys without constant proddings to be feminine
even when they learn what society expects of them, their motivation to mold their behavior in
accordance with the traditional female role is weak because they realize that this role is far
less prestigious than the role they played as children

Sex duration course in junior and senior high school and college are important in fostering
concepts of the traditional roles of male and females. They focuses that the feminine role is
family oriented and that woman derive satisfaction from being wives, mothers and
homemakers rather than from success in the business and professional worlds. Many
adolescents as a result of such training and pressures from peers, especially peers of the
opposite sex are a deutsch and Gilbert have explained pulled towards opposing goals, a
situation ripe for conflict

If adolescent girls rebel against the traditional female role, they may be rejected not only by
the members of the opposite sex but also by the other girls, Before early adolescence is over,
most girls accept. This is a price they are billing to pay temporarily at least, for social
acceptance. Because the women’s liberation movement has concentrated on achieving
equality for women in the business and professional fields and in marriage, it has had little
impact, to date, on y younger adolescents attitudes towards sex rule. However the influence
of this movement beginning to be felt among older adolescents who go to college or begin
training for business or a career or who marry or go to work at the completion of high school.
Older adolescent’s girls no longer meekly accept or pretend to accept the traditional female
sex role. Instead they expect demand and achieve a more egalitarian role, whether in school
at work or in their own homes

Hazards of Adolescence

Physical hazards are now less numerous and less important than psychological hazards,
although they do exist. However they are significant primilarly because of their psychological
repercussions. Overweight per sex, For Ex. would have relatively little effect on the
adolescents behavior and thus on social adjustments, but it is a hazard because it can result in
unfavorable peer attitudes.

Physical Hazards

Morality as a result of illness is far less common during adolescence than in earlier years,
although deaths due to automobile accidents increase. Adolescents are generally in good
health, but they are often discover they can avoid unpleasant situations by “not feeling well”
syndrome. Girls often use their menstrual periods as an excuse for not going to school.

Suicide or attempts at suicide are becoming increasingly common among today’s adolescents.
It has been reported that suicide is the number two cause of death among adolescents in
22
America today. More males commit suicide than females in the age of sixteen. Many boys
and girls who commit or attempt to commit suicide have been socially isolated for a period of
time before and, many have experienced family problems and schooloblems.

Physical hazards may be poor eyesight, or hearing losses…………However these may

become psychological hazards in the case of adolescent who must wear glasses or a hearing
aid, [Link] defects which prevent the adolescent from doing what peers do such as
chronic asthma and obesity, are physical as well as psychological hazards.

A sex inappropriate body build is far more disturbing to an adolescent than to a child. There
are two reasons for this. First, adolescents are judged more by their sex appropriate
appearance than children such as excessive tallness in girls or excessive thinness in boys,
leads to unfavorable social judgements-judgements which affects social acceptance
unfavorably. Second adolescents are well aware of the fact that, once their growth is nearly
complete.

Just because physical attractiveness is an asset there is evidence that adolescents who are too
attractive have a physical hazard because their peers, especially those of their own sex,
become jealous and envious. Girls who are very attractive are often thought of in terms of the
stereotype of beautiful but dumb while every attractive boy are often accused of being
conceited, selfish, and phone to let others do their work for them.

Psychological Hazards:

The major psychological hazards of adolescence center around the failure to make the
psychological transitions to maturity that constitute the important developmental tasks of
adolescence. Some of the most common and most serious obstacles adolescents encounter in
their attempts to make the psychological transitions to maturity is listed

If adolescents are to make good personal and social adjustments, it is important for them to
show signs of increasing maturity with each passing year some of the areas of immaturity
which proclaim their formance in these areas determines whether personal and social
adjustments will be judged as mature or immature.

OLD AGE:
Old age is the closing period in the life span. It is a period when people move away from
previous more desirable periods or times of usefulness. As people move away from the
earlier periods of their lives they often look back on them usually regretfully and tend to live
in the present ignoring the future as much as possible.
Age sixty is usually considered the dividing line between middle and old age. However it
is recognized that chronological age is a poor criterion to use in marking off the beginning of
old age because there are such as marked differences among individuals in the age at which
aging actually begins.
CHARASTERSTICS OF OLD AGE
Like every other period in the life span old age is characterized by certain physical and
psychological changes. The effects of these changes determine to a large extent whether
23
elderly men and women will make good or poor personal and social adjustments. The
characteristics of old age however are far more likely to lead to poor adjustments than to
good and to unhappiness rather than to happiness. That is why old age is given more dreaded.
Old Age is a Period of Decline
As has been stressed repeatedly people are never static. Instead they constantly change.
During the early part of life the changes are evolutional in that they lead to maturity of
structure and functioning. In the latter part of life by contrast they are mainly involution
involving a regression to earlier stages. These changes are the natural accompaniment of what
is commonly known as aging. They affect physical as well as mental structures and
functionings.
The period during old age when physical and mental decline is slow and gradual and when
compensations can be made for these declines is known as senescence a time of growing old
or aging People may become senescent in their fifties or not until their early or late sixties
depending upon the rate of physical and mental decline.
Decline comes partly from physical and partly from psychological factors. The physical
cause of decline is a change in the body cells due not to a specific disease but to the again
process. Decline may also have psychological causes.
There are Individual Differences in the Effects of Aging:
Individual differences in the effects of aging have been recognized for many centuries. Cicero
for example, stressed in his references to the popular belief that aging makes people difficult
to live with.
Today even more in the past it is recognized that aging affects different people differently.
Thus it is impossible to classify anyone as a typically old person or any trait as typical of old
age. People age differently because they have different hereditary endowments different
socioeconomic and educational backgrounds and different patterns of living. These
differences are apparent among members of the same sex but they are even more apparent
when men and women are compared because aging takes place at different rates for the two
sexes.
Old Age is judged by Different Criteria
Because the meaning of age is vague and undefined to young children they tend to judge age
in terms of physical appearance and activities. To them children are smaller than adults and
must be cared for while adults are big and can take care of them. Old people have white hair
and no longer go to work every day
By the time children reach adolescence they judge old age in much the same way as adults do
namely in terms of the persons appearance and what the person can and cannot do. Knowing
that these are the two most common criteria used to judge their ages many elderly people do
all they can to camouflage the telltale physical sings of aging by wearing clothes like those
worn by younger people and trying to keep up a pace that often overtakes their strength and
energy. This is their attempt to create the illusion that they are not yet elderly or old.
Developmental tasks old Age:
For the most part developmental tasks of old age relate more to the individuals’ personal life
than others. Old people are expected to adjust to decreasing strength and gradually failing
24
health. This is often means marked revisions in the roles they have played in the home and
outside. They are also expected to find activities to replace the work that consumed major
part of their time when they were younger.
Meeting social and civic obligations is difficult for many older people as their health fails and
as their income is reduced by retirement. As a result they are often forced to become socially
inactive. Failing health and reduced income likewise require the establishment of new living
arrangements which are often radically different from those of earlier years.
Sooner or later most old people must adjust to the death of a spouse. This is far more likely to
be a problem for women than for men. Because the death o f a spouse often means reduced
income and hazards associated with living alone, it may necessitate changes in living
arrangements.
As grown children become increasingly involved in their own vocational and family affairs,
the elderly can count less and less on their own age group if they are to their contacts with the
larger social group are cut off because of retirement and because they are gradually reduce
their contacts with community organisations.
Although most older people learned during childhood and adolescence to get along with their
age mates successfully during most of their adult lives they have had to be affiliated with
individual of all age groups. Regressing to this earlier pattern of social life is often difficult
because it means that the individual must now become affiliated with a group that is largely
rejected by society. Having known since childhood and adolescence that affiliation with a
rejected group brings little prestige old people have little motivation to become involved with
such a group.
SOME COMMON PROBLEMS UNIQUE TO OLD AGE:
 Physical helplessness, which necessitates dependency on others
 Economic insecurity severe enough to necessitate a complete change in pattern of
living
 Establishing living conditions in accordance with changes in economic or physical
conditions
 Making new friends to replace those who have died or moved away or who are
invalided
 Developing new activities to occupy increased leisure time.
 Learning to treat grown children as adults
 Becoming involved in community activities planned for the elderly.
 being victimized or taken advantage of by salespersons hoodlums and criminals
because they are unable to defend themselves

Definition of Mental Abilities:

Balets and Schaie have commented “the psychological of intellectual aging has been beset by
a stereotype of decline”

Psychologists from the results of their studies have confirmed the popular belief that with the
trend toward decline in other areas there would automatically be decline in mental abilities as
well.
25
MENTAL CHANGES IN OLD AGE:
Learning:
Older people are more cautions about learning need more time to integrate their responses
are less capable of dealing with new material that cannot readily be integrated with earlier
experiences and are less accurate than younger people
Reasoning:
There is a general reduction in the speed with which the individual reaches a conclusion in
both inductive and deductive reasoning. This is partly the result of the tendency to become
increasingly cautions with age.
Creativity:
Older people tend to lack the capacity for or interest in creative thinking. Thus significant
creative achievements are less common among older people than among younger ones.
Recall:
Recall is affected more by age than recognition many older people use cues especially visual
auditory and kinesthetic ones to aid their ability to recall.
Sense of Humor:
A common stereotype of the elderly is that of humorless people. While it is true that their
comprehension of the comic tends to decrease with advancing age their appreciation for the
comic that they can comprehend increase.
Memory:
Old people tend to have lack the capacity for or interest in creative thinking. Thus significant
creative achievements are less common among older people than among younger ones.
SOME COMMON EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS CHANGES DURING OLD AGE:
Religious Tolerance:
With advancing age, the individual adheres less strictly to religious dogmas and adopts a
more lenient attitude toward the church the clergy and people of different faiths.
Religious Beliefs:
Changes in religious beliefs during old age are generally in the direction of acceptance of the
traditional beliefs associated with the individual’s faith.
Religious Observances:
Decline in church attendance and participation in church activities in old age is due to less
lack of interest than to factors such as failing health lack of transportation embarrassment
about not having proper clothing or being able to contribute money and feeling unwanted by
the younger members of the church organizations. Women continue to participate in church
activities more than men do because of the opportunities they offer for social contacts.
SEX DIFFERENCES IN INTEREST IN DEATH:
26
Because psychological research relating to interest in and attitudes toward death is of such
recent origin few studies have investigated sex socioeconomic religious or other differences.
The few references there are to sex differences suggest that elderly men have different
interests in death than elderly women.
For the most part men focus their attention on their own deaths what will cause them when
they will occur. While they may be interested in the deaths of their wives children close
friends and relatives their interest is primarily egocentric.
In the case of women interest in death is like wise egocentric in the sense that their concern is
how death will affect them an the pattern of their lives. Their interest however is concentrated
on their husbands death rather than on their own. Many engage in what has been called a
rehearsal for widowhood. In this rehearsal their concern is focused on how they will manage
financially when their husbands die where they will live what they will do with their time.
While some women unquestionably are interested in their own deaths more it has been
reported are interested in the deaths of their husbands.
COMMON PHYSICAL HAZARDS CHARACTERSTICS OF OLD AGE:
Diseases and Physical Handicaps:
Elderly people are most commonly afflicted by circulatory disturbances metabolic disorders,
involutional mental disorders of the joints tumors heart disease rheumatism arthritis visual
and hearing impairments hypertension gait disorders and mental and nervous conditions.
Malnutrition:
Malnutrition in old age is due to more psychological than to economic causes. The most
common psychological causes are lack of appetite resulting from anxiety and depression not
wanting to eat alone and food aversions stemming from earlier prejudices. Even when their
food intake is not deficient qualitatively or quantitatively many older people do not get the
full value from their food because of malabsorption resulting from digestive or intestinal
disturbances or failure of the endocrine system to function as it formerly did.
Dental Disorders:
Sooner or later most elderly people lose some or all of their teeth. Those who must wear
dentures often have difficulty in chewing foods that are rich in proteins such as meat and may
concentrate on those high in carbohydrates. Chewing difficulties also encourage the
swallowing of larger and coarser food masses, which may lead to digestive disorders. Ill
fitting dentures or the absence of teeth often causes lisping and slurring which interferes with
the older person’s speech and causes embarrassment.
Sexual Deprivation:
Sexual deprivation or unfavorable attitudes toward sex in old age affect the old person in
much the same way that emotional deprivation affects the young child. Happily married
elderly people are healthier and live longer than those who never married who have lost a
spouse or who become sexually inactive.
Accidents:
Older people are generally more accident prone than younger ones. Even when the accidents
are not fatal they frequently leave the individual disabled for life. Falls which May be due to
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environmental obstacles or to dizziness giddiness weakness or defective vision are the most
common accidents among older women while older men are most commonly involved in
motor vehicle accidents either as drivers or as pedestrians. Accidents caused by fire are also
common in old age.
ADJUSTMNET TO LOSS OF A SPOUSE IN OLD AGE:
Lose of a spouse may be due to death or divorce though it is customary for women to marry
men their own age or older and because men on the average die sooner than women
widowhood in old age is far more common for women than for men.
People in their sixties and seventies do get divorced but far less frequently than younger
people. No matter how unsatisfactory marriage may be due to be elderly people most of them
do not contemplate ending it in a divorce in old age it is generally not a new decision but
rather something they have contemplated since the early days of marriage but have put off
their children’s sake or for economic reasons.
It has been said that 50 percent of sixty year old women are widows while 85% of women
age eighty five are widows. There are no statistics available concerning the number of men of
comparable ages who are widows but there is reason to believe that because widows at every
age remarry more than widows do the percentages would be far less. Thus the widowhood is
a greater problem for women than for men during the old age.
Adjustment to the death of a spouse or to divorce is difficult for men and women in old age
because at this time all adjustments are increasingly difficult to make. Some of the problems
that divorce gives rise to widowhood.
However all of these are likely to be more difficult to adjust to in old age than when they
occur earlier.
Because the adjustment problems to loss of a spouse are different for men than for women at
all ages not in old age alone.
HAZARDS OF OLD AGE:
Because of the importance of work and family to older people anything that prevents good
adjustments in these areas, may be regarded as a potential hazard to good personal and social
adjustments. Of even greater significance is the fact that vocational and family life hazards
increase as the social horizons of the elderly narrow and as their interests are increasingly
concentrated on their work and their families.
While hazards are associated with every age in the life span as has been pointed out
repeatedly the differences between the hazards of old age and those of the younger ages is
that elderly people have little or no control over the conditions that are primarily responsible
for these hazards. Younger people for Ex. Who feel that marriage is not complete without
children in the home can control the situation by having children of their own or by adopting
them. Elderly people by contrast cannot control what their children do where they will live or
how they will treat their elderly parents. Nor are social pressures or feelings of filial
obligation always strong enough to make a grown child voluntarily offer elderly parents a
place in their home should poor health or economic necessity make it impossible for them to
continue living in their own homes.
VOCATIONAL HAZARDS:

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How important a role vocational hazards play in the personal and social adjustments of
elderly people is greatly influenced by their attitudes toward work. As was pointed out earlier
the majority of old people in America today grew up during a time when work was more
highly valued as a source of personal satisfaction and social esteem than it is now. As a result
many elderly people today place an extremely high value on work.
There are two important vocational hazards in old age prevention from working and
retirement. These are hazardous to self esteem and may even lead to feelings of uselessness
and martyrdom. As such they are therefore hazardous to good personal and social
adjustments.
Prevention from working:
The first serious vocational hazard in old age is prevention from working when one wants to
work. There are three reasons why older people may prevented from working. First a lack of
vocational opportunities for the older worker. Few industrial and business organizations will
employ older workers and even if they are hired they are most likely to be laid off when
business conditions are poor and are least likely to be called back when conditions improve.
This is especially true of women and blacks.
Second unemployment becomes more serious as workers grow older. Not only is it harder for
them to get new jobs but the effects of unemployment on personality are far more serious and
far reaching. The reason for this is that younger workers know that their chances of obtaining
future employment are good even if they must take a temporary setback in wages. Older
worker contrasts have a far less hopeful outlook. They know that most business and industrial
organizations have strict policies against hiring older workers and that if they are lucky
enough to get a job it is likely to be far below their capacities the pay will be less than before
and the job itself may be only temporary or on a part time basis.
Because unemployment lasts longer for older worker than younger workers it causes them
more psychological damage. Studies of the mental effects of unemployment on older workers
have revealed how serious they are. Measures of the mental efficiency and attitudes of
employed and unemployed older people have shown that those who engage in regular gainful
occupations are on the whole mentally superior to those who are unemployed. Lack of
practice lack of motivation and unfavorable attitudes are important contributing factors to the
deterioration that comes with unemployment. Being unable to get work contributes to
feelings of uselessness. Should they be able to work it is likely on lower level than the work
they previously did and this is humiliating.
Retirement:
The second serious vocational hazard in old age is retirement. Even when they are prepared
for retirement older people face what Erikson has called an identity crisis not unlike the one
they faced in adolescence when they were treated sometimes as a child and sometimes as an
adult. The identity crisis that comes with retirement results from the necessity of making
radical role changes from that of a worker to that of a person of leisure.
An unfavorable attitude toward retirement affects the individual’s health often causing
physical decline and premature death. Retirement shock is the new sickness of the aged. The
effects of retirement s hock are most serious immediately after retirement when the individual
must adjust to changes in routine and to the breaking off of social relationships. It is
especially serious for men who lose their wives about this time.

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Another vocational hazard of old age usually overlooked and ignored in studies of the effects
of retirement is the effect of retirement on family members of the retiree especially the
spouses. When husbands retire the whole pattern of their spouses lives must of necessity also
change. The reason is that instead of going to work daily the husbands are around the house
all the time making extra work in the form of extra meals or otherwise waiting on them and
they more often than not are both uncooperative and critical because they are bored or feel
martyred because they have no work.
FAMILY LIFE HAZARDS:
When the working life of men and women comes to an end they tend to focus their interests
and attention on their homes and family life. Because of this concentration of interest and
attention conditions which previously may have been only minor hazards tend to become
major hazards threatening their physical as well as their psychological well being.
Because the pattern of family life differs greatly for different people throughout the life span
the changes in this pattern that old age will bring also differ greatly. However there are
certain family life hazards that are common four of which are especially common and
serious.
Sexual Deprivation:
The first family life hazard in old age is sexual deprivation. The change in the pattern of
family life in old age may and often does result in sexual deprivation at a time when the sex
drive is far from dormant.
Elderly people who are sexually deprived may engage in substitute forms of sexual
expression some of which met their needs earlier. Most of these are frowned on by others and
may lead to unfavorable social and self judgments.
Loneliness:
Even when grow children live nearby the elderly persons contacts with them may be only
occasional and their companionship far less than was the case when the three generation
household was more usual than it is today.
One of the most common causes of loneliness in old age is loss of a spouse. While a many
elderly people acknowledge the possibility of the death of a spouse and make plans for it.
Relatively few realize the problems involved and are prepared to meet them or to adjust to the
loneliness that it brings. Women as a group are generally better prepared psychologically for
the death of a spouse than men. The elderly widow seems psychologically prepared to accept
the death of the spouse through death rehearsal and lessening of social pressures and she
adjusts by maintaining a high rate of social activities. Religious convictions appear to be
particularly important sources of strength.
Living Arrangements:
The third major family life hazard in old age involves living arrangements. These may be
physically or psychologically hazardous or both. Physically it may be hazardous for elderly
people to remain in the homes they have occupied since the early years of marriage because
these homes are likely to be too large for them to take care of without overtaxing their
strength or staining their limited financial resources to provide domestic help.

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Remaining in their old homes may be psychologically hazardous to good adjustment by being
a constant reminder of happier times or by requiring such a large portion of income to
maintain that cutting down must be done in other areas, such as clothes travel or participation
in community activities.
Role Changes:
The fourth major family life hazards in old age and unquestionably one of the most serious is
the necessity for making role changes are always difficult and emotion provoking. They
become increasingly more difficult with each passing year. The more radical the change and
the less prestige there is associated with the new role the more the more the change will be
resisted and the more disturbed the individual will be if forced by circumstances to make
change.
The man or women who have been accustomed to playing the role of head of the household
or of family breadwinner will find it difficult to live as a dependent in the home of a grown
child. Similarly the man who has achieved a position of prestige and responsibility in the
vocational world will find it very difficult to become his wife’s helper when he retires a role
that implies lack of authority and masculinity.
CONDITIONS AFFECTING ADJUSTMENT TO RETIREMENT:
→ Workers who retire voluntarily adjust better than those who are forced to retire especially
if they want to continue to work
→ Poor health at the time of retirement facilitates adjustment while good health is likely to
militate against it.
→ Most workers find that tapering off is better than abruptly ending patterns of work and
living established many years earlier.
→ Preretirement counseling and planning aid adjustment
→ Workers who develop interests in substitute activities that are meaningful to them and
which provide many of the satisfactions they formerly derived from work will not find
adjustment as emotionally disturbing as those who fail to develop substitute interests.
→ Social contacts like those provided in many homes for the aged aid in adjusting to
retirement. Remaining in their own homes or in the homes of relatives usually cuts retired
people off from social contacts.
→ The less change in the pattern of living retirement necessitates the better the adjustment
will be.
→A good economic status which makes it possible to live comfortably and enjoy meaningful
recreations is essential to good adjustment to retirement.
→ A happy marital status aids adjustments to retirement while a frictional one militates
against it.
→ The more the workers like their work the poorer their adjustment to retirement. There is an
inverse relationship between work satisfaction and retirement satisfaction.
→ The attitudes of family members toward retirement have a profound effect on workers
attitudes. This is especially true of the attitudes of spouses.
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