Late Adulthood: Developmental Opportunities & Challenges

Question 1

Challenges

Answer 1

• Decreasing physical strength & health/cognitive decline
• Retirement, reduced income
• Loss of professional identity, meaning, & colleagues
• Constriction of social networks: loss of spouse, siblings, and friends
• Social invisibility
• Limiting of future horizon: more likey to live in the past
• Feeling that the world has passed them by

Question 2

Opportunities

Answer 2

• Ability to be in the present moment
• Deepening sense of gratitude
• More balanced, insightful life perspective
• greater civic involvement: more focused on others/future generations/community than the self
• Deepening in spirituality
• More at peace with life’s complexities and ambiguity