Читать книгу Aging - Harry R. Moody - Страница 22

At the opposite pole from the disengagement theory is the activity theory of aging, which argues that the more active people are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with life. Activity theory assumes that how we think of ourselves is based on the roles or activities in which we engage: We are what we do, it might be said. The activity theory recognizes that most people in later life continue with the roles and activities established earlier because they continue to have the same needs and values.

The continuity theory of aging makes a similar point, noting that as people grow older they are inclined to maintain as much as they can the same habits, personality, and style of life they developed in earlier years (McCrae & Costa, 1990). According to both the activity theory and the continuity theory, any decreases in social interaction are explained better by poor health or disability than by some functional need of society to disengage older people from their previous roles (Havighurst, Neugarten, & Tobin, 1968).

A large body of research seems to support some aspects of activity theory. Continued exercise, social engagement, and productive roles all seem to contribute to mental health and life satisfaction. But other studies indicate that informal activity or even merely perceived social integration may be more important in promoting subjective well-being. In other words, our attitudes and expectations about activity or detachment may be more important than our formal participation patterns (Longino & Kart, 1982). In fact, what counts as activity depends partly on how we look at the meaning of things, not on external behavior alone. This point is emphasized by those who adopt a phenomenological approach to the interpretation of aging, foregrounding and appreciating individuals’ lived experiences as legitimate sources of knowledge.

If retirement or age limitations make actual participation impossible, activity theory suggests that people will find substitutes for roles or activities they have to give up (Atchley, 1985). A great many social activities encouraged by senior centers or long-term-care facilities are inspired by an assumption that if older people are active and involved, then all will be well (Katz, 2000). This “busy ethic” and its hostility to retirement and social engagement is expressed in similar terms, and the sentiment seems widely shared (Ekerdt, 1986). For instance, former Cosmopolitan magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown (1993), in a self-help book for older women (The Late Show), wrote that work is “our chloroform … our life … our freedom from pain … supplier of esteem.” Along the same lines, essayist Malcolm Cowley (1980), in his book The View From 80, expressed the ideal of the activity theory of aging when he wrote: “Perhaps in the future our active lives may be lengthened almost to the end of our days on earth; that is the most we can hope for.”

But such active involvement may be more feasible for the young-old than for the old-old, and certainly there are differences between individuals as well. Biological limitations cannot easily be overcome by individual will and effort alone. The ideal of active aging seems more like a prolongation of the values of middle age than something special or positive about the last stage of life. Finally, despite progress in recent years, society still places many obstacles to social engagement in old age. For example, remarriage is more difficult for older women than for older men because the proportion of older women is larger than the proportion of older men in the population at every age after 65, and in the labor market, age discrimination is a real barrier preventing middle-aged and older people from taking up a new career. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, anyone over age 40 is officially an “older worker.”