What Matters for Individuals in Later Life?

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-57
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Jecker
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Medical Progress ◽  
Relational Values ◽  
As Species ◽  
Species Integrity ◽  
Sub Saharan

Chapter 2 introduces the idea of dignity as species integrity. For human beings, respecting dignity requires making reasonable efforts to support human capabilities at a basic floor level. Human capabilities include the central kinds of things we can do and be as human beings, including capacities for a life narrative; health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination, and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; relating to nature; play; and participating in the environment. Contrary to what “healthy aging” advocates claim, medical progress will not eliminate threats to these human capabilities. Chapter 2 compares dignity as species integrity with sub-Saharan African conceptions of Ubuntu, the Nguni word for “humanness.” Ubuntu prizes relational values and human capacities for harmonious relationship. The chapter concludes that to have global traction, capability lists must be balanced, life stage informed, and provisional.

The Preferred Account of Human Capabilities

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-98
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Jecker
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Express Emotion ◽  
As Species ◽  
Species Integrity ◽  
Human Capability ◽  
Nonhuman Species

Chapter 3 translates the idea of dignity as species integrity into the more grounded idea of respecting central human capabilities. Fleshing out human capabilities yields a preferred capability list, which is balanced, life stage sensitive, and provisional. This conception of human dignity carries the advantage of avoiding speciesism, the view that members of one’s own species are morally superior. It leaves open the possibility that members of nonhuman species possess their own kind of dignity, based on central capabilities for their species. Dignity as species integrity carries the advantage of avoiding ableism. In contrast to Kantian conceptions, which regard highly developed cognitive functioning as necessary for dignity, Chapter 3 equates dignity with possessing at least one central human capability. Infants and people with disabilities who can affiliate, express emotion, or exercise senses and imagination possess a human dignity that demands respect, even if they lack specific cognitive capabilities.

Ending Midlife Bias

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Jecker
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Mandatory Retirement ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Pediatric Bioethics

We live at a time when human lifespans have increased like never before. As average lifespans stretch to new lengths, how does this impact the values we hold most dear? Do these values change over the course of our ever-increasing lifespans? Ending Midlife Bias argues that at different life stages, different values emerge as central. During early life, caring and trust matter more, given human vulnerability and dependency. By early adulthood, growing independence provides a reason to value autonomy more. Later in life, heightened risk for chronic disease and disability warrants focusing on maintaining capabilities and keeping dignity intact. Part I (Chapters 1–5) sets forth a conceptual framework that captures these shifting life stage values. Chapter 1 argues against the privileging of midlife values (midlife bias) and explains why population aging lends urgency to identifying values for later life. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce dignity as a central concern for older adults and argue that respecting dignity requires supporting central human capabilities. Chapter 4 explores the metaphor of life as a story, which serves as a corrective for midlife bias by keeping attention on the whole of life. Chapter 5 sets forth principles for age group justice. Part II (Chapters 6–12) turns to practical concerns, including geriatric and pediatric bioethics (Chapter 6); caregiving by family members, migrant workers, and robots (Chapters 7 and 8); ageism in clinical trials, healthcare allocation, and mandatory retirement (Chapter 9); and ethics at the end-of-life (Chapter 10). The closing chapters explore the future of population aging (Chapter 11) and make a pitch for life stage sensitive moral theory (Chapter 12).

Kant, Marginal Cases, and Moral Standing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard
Keyword(s):  
Life Stage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Identity Problem ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Moral Difference

According to the marginal cases argument, there is no property that might justify making a moral difference between human beings and the other animals that is both uniquely and universally human. It is therefore “speciesist” to treat human beings differently just because we are human beings. While not challenging the conclusion, this chapter argues that the marginal cases argument is metaphysically misguided. It ignores the differences between a life stage and a kind, and between lacking a property and having it in a defective form. The chapter then argues for a view of moral standing that attributes it to the subject of a life conceived as an atemporal being, and shows how this view can resolve some familiar puzzles such as how death can be a loss to the person who has died, how we can wrong the dead, the “procreation asymmetry,” and the “non-identity problem.”

scholarly journals VITAL INVOLVEMENT: A SOURCE OF REALISTIC OPTIMISM FOR OLDER ADULTHOOD

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S407-S408
Author(s):  
Helen Q Kivnick
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Development ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Environmental Engagement ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychosocial Model

Abstract Vital Involvement (VI) was initially proposed (Erikson et al., 1986) as one of three principles around which lifelong healthy psychosocial development takes place. As more recently elaborated, VI has come to describe a person’s meaningful, reciprocal engagement with the world outside the integrating “self.” It is through VI that the person engages in healthy psychosocial development throughout life, including balancing Older Adulthood’s focal tension between Integrity and Despair. This life stage is widely associated with the physical, cognitive, and social losses, and societal constraints that give rise to later-life despair. However, VI functions as a lifelong psychosocial model for the meaningful environmental engagement that supports later life’s wisdom and integrity. Notably few films present an integrated view of older adulthood’s losses along with opportunities. But those few can be a source of optimism to elders for whom VI may not be intuitive, but who can learn its practice.

Psychosocial Links Between Internet Use and Mental Health in Later Life: A Systematic Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 1471-1518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K. Forsman ◽  
Johanna Nordmyr
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Information And Communication

Research on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) use for active aging is limited. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the link between Internet use and mental health among older adults. The review was conducted based on searches in 9 electronic databases (2002-2014). A meta-synthesis approach was applied, examining quantitative (18) and qualitative (14) studies. The findings from the synthesis of quantitative statistical data indicate an overall positive association between Internet use and mental health and its psychosocial covariates in later life. The psychosocial links between Internet use and mental health identified from the qualitative data were (a) enhanced interpersonal interaction at individual level, (b) increased access to resources within the community, and (c) empowered social inclusion at society level. The results highlight the multi-level psychosocial links between Internet use and mental health, which may be applied in initiatives targeting healthy aging in various settings.

Childhood Disadvantage and Adult Functional Status: Do Early-Life Exposures Jeopardize Healthy Aging?

2022 ◽  
pp. 089826432110647
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Morton
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Functional Status ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Functional Disability ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Additive Effects ◽  
Childhood Disadvantage ◽  
Early Life Exposures ◽  
Over Time

Objectives To examine whether childhood disadvantage is associated with later-life functional status and identify mediating factors. Methods Unique and additive effects of five childhood domains on functional status were assessed at baseline (2006) and over time (2006–2016) in a sample of 13,894 adults from the Health and Retirement Study (>50 years). Adult health behaviors and socioeconomic status (SES) were tested as mediators. Results Respondents exposed to multiple childhood disadvantages (OR = .694) as well as low childhood SES (OR = .615), chronic diseases (OR = .694), impairments (OR = .599), and risky adolescent behaviors (OR = .608) were less likely to be free of functional disability by baseline. Over time, these unique and additive effects of childhood disadvantage increased the hazard odds of eventually developing functional disability (e.g., additive effect: hOR = 1.261). Adult health behaviors and SES mediated some of these effects. Discussion Given the enduring effects of childhood disadvantage, policies to promote healthy aging should reduce exposure to childhood disadvantage.

Receptivity and Creativity in Hermeneutics

2016 ◽  
pp. 225-239
Author(s):  
Chung-ying Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Positive Projection ◽  
The One ◽  
Coming To Know

There are two aspects of the hermeneutic: the receptive and the creative. The receptive of the hermeneutic consists in coming to know and acknowledge what has happened, observing what there is as historically effected, foretelling what will happen as a matter of projection of future possibilities, and disclosing / discovering transcendental conditions, fore-structures or horizons of human understanding and interpretation; the creative of the hermeneutic, on the other hand, consists in realizing and demonstrating human sensibilities and human capabilities and needs, conceptualizing what is factual and real based on human cognitive and volitional faculties and experiences, developing values and pursuing regulative ideals of actions, and searching for best possible ways or methods to reach for individual and communal end-goals which will enhance human beings as autonomous entities and moral agents in the world. The receptive is represented by the phenomenological approach to Being and reality whereas the creative is conveyed by an ontology of reflection of human being for self-definition and self-cultivation of human faculties. This amounts to bringing out an existing distinction between ming (what is imparted) and li (the presupposed ground) on the one hand and xing ( human potentiality for being in oneself) and xin (human understanding and interpretation toward action) on the other in the tradition of Confucian metaphysics.Next, I shall focus on Heidegger and Gadamer as taking ontological receptivity (as a matter of fore-structures of Being or Language of human understanding) as the source of meaning of existence and meaningfulness of texts. Th ere are of course creative elements to be identifi ed with forming investigative projects of the Dasein for disclosing truth of the Being, but the main tone is to realize the Being or Language as base structures of our hermeneutic consciousness or hermeneutic space of understanding. Because of spacelimitation, however, I shall leave to another occasion the discussion of the creative formation and positive projection of a transformative cosmological philosophy in the Yijing tradition as represented in my onto-hermeneutics which takes experiences of ≫comprehensive observation≪ (guan) and ≫feeling- refl ection≪ (gan) as two avenues toward human understanding and hermeneutic enterprise of interpretation.

Emotional Functioning and Sense of Hope as Contributors to Healthy Aging

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-260
Author(s):  
Amiya Waldman-Levi ◽  
Asnat Bar-Haim Erez ◽  
Noomi Katz ◽  
Jeanine M. Stancanelli
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Emotional Functioning ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Emotional Status ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Individual

Cognitive and physical factors affect participation in later life. It is imperative to explore the contribution of emotional factors on older adults’ participation and wellbeing. Seventy-eight older adults were recruited for this cross-sectional study and grouped based on their level of independence. Emotional functioning, hope, cognition, participation, and wellbeing were measured. Analyses of variance, correlational analysis, and prediction models were employed. Significant differences were found between independent and dependent older adults’ participation and wellbeing, F(2, 72) = 12.71, p < .00, η2 = .26. Independent older adults’ participation was predicted by cognition, β = 0.40, and hope, β = 0.58. Wellbeing was predicted by cognition, β = 0.39, emotional status, β = −0.46, and hope, β = 0.36. Dependent older adults’ wellbeing was predicted by emotional status, β = −0.68, and hope, β = 0.32. Occupational therapists play a key role in promoting healthy aging by incorporating psychosocial factors at the individual, community, and societal levels.

scholarly journals LONELINESS AND SUICIDE IDEATION IN OLDER ADULTS: A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S594-S594
Author(s):  
Marnin J Heisel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Suicide Ideation ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Canadian City ◽  
Psychological Risk

Abstract Older adults have the highest rates of suicide globally, necessitating theory and research investigating suicide and its prevention in later-life. The experience of loneliness is significantly associated with depression, hopelessness, negative health outcomes, and mortality among older adults. Yet, relatively little research has focused on the role of loneliness in conferring suicide risk in later life. The purpose of the present study was thus to investigate the potential associations between loneliness and suicide ideation and behavior in a sample of community-residing older adults recruited into a larger two-year longitudinal study of psychological risk and resiliency to later-life suicide ideation. We specifically recruited 173 adults, 65 years or older, from community locations in a medium-sized Canadian city, for a study on “healthy aging.” Participants completed measures of positive and negative psychological variables, including depression, loneliness, and suicide ideation at a baseline assessment, and again at 2-4 week, 6-12 month, and 1-2 year follow-up points. Findings indicated that loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) was significantly positively associated with concurrent depression and suicide ideation, negatively associated with psychological well-being and perceived social support, and differentiated between participants who endorsed or denied having ever engaged in suicide behavior. Baseline loneliness also explained significant variability in the onset of suicide ideation over a 1-2 year period of follow-up, controlling for age, sex, and baseline depression and suicide ideation. These findings will be discussed in the context of the need for increased focus on psychosocial factors when assessing and intervening to reduce suicide risk in older adults.

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