1. Successful ageing and development: the contribution of generativity in older age
- Author
-
Feliciano Villar and Universitat de Barcelona
- Subjects
Gerontology ,Aging ,Health (social science) ,Social Psychology ,Generativity ,Psicologia de la vellesa ,business.industry ,Perspective (graphical) ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Older people psychology ,Personal development ,Developmental psychology ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Envelliment ,Successful ageing ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,business ,Set (psychology) ,Older people ,Psychology - Abstract
This paper examines the contributions that generativity in older age may make to the concept of successful ageing. To this end, two perspectives on successful ageing are described: successful ageing as a set of clinical criteria, and successful ageing as the application of adaptive processes aimed at achieving efficient functioning. After showing the limitations of the first perspective, particularly from a developmental point of view, the paper argues that the adaptive version of successful ageing helps to put ageing into a developmental frame, but needs to be complemented by identifying specific content and goals that guide these adaptive processes and establish new feasible gains for older people. Generativity in older age could play that role and provides a conceptual framework that enriches the concept of successful ageing, both by emphasising the social context in which people age and by highlighting a personal growth component.
- Published
- 2012