An detailed essay explaining the physical and psychological changes which may be associated with ageing to satisfy P5 as part of unit 4 life stages assignment, achieved grade.
P5: Explain the physical and psychological changes which may be associated with ageing
These physical factors are categorised into sensory changes, nerve and brain changes, muscle and
bone changes, digestive changes, skin changes, respiratory changes and heart and circulatory
changes.
Sensory changes:
As we age our senses begin to decline meaning the senses become less efficient. The influence of the
environment and disease can have an impact on this. These factors can affect an individual’s lifestyle
as communication could become a struggle. This means they are less likely to hold relationships
with others as they will not be able to involve themselves in activities due to their sensory condition.
This could lead this individual to adapting to the disengagement theory and isolating themselves.
The sensory changes which may be impacted could include our sense of touch, our vision, taste
buds, hearing abilities and sense of smell.
As a result of ageing our vision may be affected as the eyes become weaker in the sense that they
are not able to pick up sharpness, colour difference and lose the ability to focus easily at different
distances. Our sight may become distorted and blurry making it harder to see detail. Because of
these influences on sight, an individual may need to adapt to wearing glasses or contact lenses if
their vision deteriorates.
For an individual with this sensory impairment it could alter their physiological state significantly as
they may not be able to pursue their hobbies which may include reading and knitting due to not
having the sharpness and focus of their sight. It may result in injuries in terms of the hobby knitting.
The individual carrying out this hobby may lose focus of where the pin is and may stab themselves
with it instead. This may make this individual feel down about themselves as they may have had
good eye sight when they were younger. This may result in this individual giving up their hobby due
to the loss of confidence and self-esteem, therefore leading to disengagement as they joined a
knitting group before this problem occurred, therefore friendships may be lost, and this could lead
this individual to feel isolated and lonely.
To reduce these impacts happening this individual could adapt to wearing glasses or perhaps eye
contact lenses. Myasthenia Gravis is a disease that causes eye problems as it can cause droopy eye
lids and double vision. It can either be in one eye or both, but most commonly both eyes are
, affected. The symptoms tend to be worse when tired. If an individual has this disease, it will affect
their self-confidence and self-esteem as it will be lowered by their condition as they may be at risk of
falls, especially if going outside or somewhere new and this may affect their confidence to face
people, resulting in isolation.
Our sense of touch can be altered as we age as it can become less responsive due to loss of
sensitivity. This may result in an elderly having slow reactions to being touched as they begin to find
it harder to feel objects and others. While cooking late reactions may result in burning and greater
injuries. They may have difficulty opening jars and tins of food and may drop items. This could affect
an individual’s physiological state as they may feel fragile as they must be more aware of where they
place themselves and what they touch. This may make them feel as if they can’t look after
themselves leading to low self-esteem. If they once enjoyed cooking for friends and family, they may
not be able to do this anymore. One condition that causes loss of touch is called mononeuropathy,
this occurs when a single or group of nerves are damaged this will cause loss of movement and
sensation in the body. This will then make an individual feel down about themselves and not want to
go out due to not responding quickly which could result in injuries.
Our taste buds as we age may become less efficient in picking up flavours and recognising tastes.
This could impact an individual negatively as it may reduce their safety as they may not be able to
tell if food has gone off. This could lead to food poisoning and bacterial infections. Teeth loss could
impact our taste sensations and our saliva production as it reduces these. The loss of taste would
influence an individual life massively as they may have enjoyed the different sensations they
received from their taste buds. It could have even been their job as a food critic. This could affect
their physiological state as they may have to give up something they love doing. This may be quite a
hard concept for them to accept, therefore developing low self-esteem because they cannot to do
the things they took for granted and could do efficiently when they were younger.
They may also have conditions that cause the loss of taste such as oral and pharyngeal disease. This
occurs because of changes in the receptors and cell membrane. This may make it difficult for an
individual to accept this sensory impairment and may struggle to see themselves in a good light.
Hearing loss is very common with old age. Tt becomes increasingly difficult to hear conversations as
voices become less sharp in pitch and tone. Not hearing accurately could lead to misunderstandings
and mis-interpretations of what people have said. Many might withdraw themselves from situations
where conversation is taking place as they will find it hard to interact as their listening skills and
understanding of conversation will reduce. They may feel like a burden by complaining about not
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