Essay on aging in middle and late adulthood

Middle Adulthood

In the article Skin-Care Recommendations for Middle-Aged Women, Blair (2014) provides tips on how middle aged women can take care of their skin and keep them looking youthful. In particular, she advises that these women use gentle cleansers to cleanse the skin; moisturizers with antioxidants to keep the skin from becoming dry; sunscreens to protect the skin from ultraviolet rays; and retinol products to soften fine lines and wrinkles. The article provides detailed descriptions of the types of skin-care products that middle-aged women should use and why they would be good for the skin.
This article is relevant to developmental psychology in that its explanation of the beauty products’ benefits is a good way of convincing women to use these products. It also has the implication that not using them means that the woman is not taking care of herself. It is part of middle-aged adults’ physical development that their skin wrinkles and dries and loses its youthful look. However, articles such as the one by Blair (2014) imply that young-looking skin among middle-aged women is desirable and that the naturally aging skin is unacceptable. In this regard, this article is related to psychological development in that it makes women think that the natural way of aging is not preferred and that they are expected to maintain their youthful look for as long as possible.
The article provides sufficient information that enables the audience to understand its message. Although it is not from a scholarly publication or site, the article was published in livestrong. com, a well-known and reputable site on wellness. In addition, the information provided by the article is sort of common knowledge and has been written about many times, which makes it credible.

Late Adulthood

In the article Older Athletes Punching Above Their Age, Strauss (2014) describes five old adults who are actively engaged in extreme sports. As examples, the article describes how John Branigan, 62, of Philadelphia still plays baseball while Ben Paradee, 62, of Colorado is a ski instructor. Likewise, Jerry Quill of Minnesota still plays ice hockey at 62 while Chuck Melin of Alberta, Canada, still engages in steer-wrestling at the age of 62.
This article is relevant to psychological development in that it shows how old adults are resisting aging by engaging in extreme sports, which is uncommon for people their age. The physical development of old adults includes a weakening of the body, but the old adults described in the article aim to show that their age don’t necessarily have to equate to physical weakness. With this article being published in a major newspaper, it will have the effect of inspiring other old adults to not allow their age to keep them from engaging in physically strenuous activities, which may either be good or bad for them. In this regard, the article is relevant to psychological development in that it influences how old adults think about their physical capabilities, which in turn influences what they can or can’t actually do.
The article provides sufficient information to enable the audience to understand its message. It’s also a credible source because although the article does not report the findings of a study, it does report about the lives of real living people who attested to the information described in the article. It was also published in The New York Times, which is a credible newspaper.

References

Blair, J. (2014, February 12). Skin-care recommendations for middle-aged women. Retrieved
aged-women/.
Strauss, R. (2014, March 12). Older athletes punching above their age. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com/2014/03/13/business/retirementspecial/older-
athletes-punching-above-their-age. html.