Psychosocial Development Theory For Older Adults' Social, Emotional, And Psychological Needs

The Importance of Psychosocial Development Theory

Generally, psychology refers to the detailed study of human behaviour and the mind. For a compelling study human mind and behaviour, I involved Murphy as a human resource. Murphy is a 71 years-old man who lives in Kinsale. He has a wife and three daughters. His primary source of income is from his small barbershop located in Kinsale town. Due to his old age, he had a visual challenge, and an interview was the best methodology that provided jolly and tranquil vicinity. The use of the question-answer technique was successful and yielded important information. The primary reason was to identify the most pertinent development theory corresponding to older adults' social, emotional and psychological needs. Although psychosocial development theory has been the most pervasive theory outlined to have a considerable positive effect, I think it has more importance beyond meeting older adults' social, emotional, and psychological needs.

This theory involves changes in personality, attitude and behaviour as one age. It emanates from psychosocial principles such as human needs, individualism, and stages of character, which vitalize the well-being of older adults. Human need is an essential aspect of this theory, which has enormous benefits to the life of these groups of individuals since it comprises their basic needs such as food, shelter and cloth. Moreover, individualism engulfs the personality spectrum, consisting of collective unconsciousness and personal and ego that view life from an external or individual perspective. It depicts that older people constantly search for the meaning of life and ways to adopt social and functional losses. Psychosocial theories enable them to cope with eight stages that occur throughout an individual's lifespan (McLeod, S. 2013). In older age, individuals deal with integrity versus despair which is characterized by assessing life achievement; struggles such as accepting care, letting go, detachment, and mental and physical decline. Thus, this psychosocial theory caters for the emotional, psychological and physical needs of the person, and thereby, a pragmatic approach should be established by involved stakeholders to ensure these needs are met at all costs.

Family, civic health nurses, Church and government have a pertinent role in ensuring that older adults' needs are met. Organizations such as churches can achieve these objectives by utilizing their resources to promote health, including meeting rooms and structures with kitchens. Subsequently, religious groups may create a forum that enables individuals to meet weekly to acquire moral, emotional, physical and mental support from holy books such as the Bible and Quran. Civic health nurse has the mandate of ensuring that aged persons are given the attention, they deserve in prescribing appropriate medication and a balanced diet that yields stupendous health. Family members and relatives should hold responsible for satisfying the basic need and taking meticulous care of old members of society. In addition, the government should ensure sufficient drug and qualified personnel at health centres. The government can raise adequate funds to purchase medicines and hire doctors, nurses, and other support workers. Therefore, the serene surrounding aged individuals should be tranquil to promote positive development and acquisition of relevant interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

Key Principles of Psychosocial Development Theory

Interpersonal skills greatly rely on how a person communicates and interacts with others in a social setting. They are often referred to as people skills. Teamwork, active listening, responsibility, dependability, leadership, patience, motivation, flexibility, and empathy are essential interpersonal skills (Anderson, R., M., & Pitts, C. (2017)). Solid interpersonal skills are upbeat when dealing with aged people because they enable one to understand them better and adjust strategies that enhance collaboration and communication. Patience, in particular, allows one to deal with slow mental processes that are primarily depicted in slow responses to the question. In addition, active listening is also significant. Gestures, facial expressions and body language enable an individual to be acquainted with the feeling and emotions of an older person. Hence, interpersonal skill promotes euphoric coordination and interaction and vitalizes achieving individual and firm objectives. However, when these skills are not effectively and efficiently utilized may reciprocate negative and apprehensive deeds, especially if professionals do not meet the client's needs with satisfaction.

Unmet care wants can announce a threat to success and safety mitigation of chronic or acute health quagmire and result in undesirable health-related issues. According to Kalánková, D et al. (2021), Nurses who represent large categories of healthcare professionals depict unmet or poorly offer nursing services to patients who need close examination and monitoring. However, unsatisfied nursing care necessities for an older individual differ from those demarcated from systems or professionals' viewpoints. All people have the right to receive quality nursing services as a patient in a health institution. Pervasive research outlines that unmet care for individual suffering from advanced cancer, mental illness or dementia result in death. Thus, society should be educated on the negative impact of the inhuman act on the marginalized member of the community and encourage them to practice integrity by adhering to the code of ethics in various professions to ensure those individuals acquire all the needs they require for survival.

According to Karimi S., & Sotoodeh, B. (2019), three primary psychological needs include relatedness, autonomy, and competence, essential for individuals' autonomous motivation and psychological well-being. Autonomy deals with making rational decisions based on one's beliefs and values. Subsequently, it enables one to take responsibility for the repercussions of their action and decision. Competence entails having the most acceptable level of tackling any challenge that matches to person's aptitude. It enhances strong self-efficacy, thereby making individuals not see the challenge as a threat but as a skill to be mustered and feeling goals are attainable. Relatedness needs, once attained, provide satisfaction when one is connected to friends, family, exercise instructors and colleagues. It creates a jolly placid social support network and makes one feels that people around them care about them. Accordingly, psychological needs are of great benefit once met since they are concerned with mental comfort and stability. Once an individual is mentally upright, it guarantees social, economic, and technological advancement; thus, the model that caters to acquiring these should be upheld. 

The psychodynamic model by Sigmund Freud is the most suitable model for my client. It depicts that many of our daily life's expressions result from Sigmund's concepts of psychoanalysis – denial, subconscious, anal personality and regression, to title only a few. Sigmund believes that accession in our childhood substantially impacts how we behave like an adult (to Reuter-Lorenz et al. (2014). He also supposed that individuals have little will to make long-term and short-term choices in life. As a substitute, childhood experience and the unconscious mind determine our behaviour largely; hence, psychoanalysis serves as both a therapy and theory that can be extensively utilized when dealing with aged persons. He employed three principal methodologies of retrieving the unconscious mind: dream analysis, tongue slips, and free association, which are still applicable when dealing with older adults. However, not all psychological models are suitable for the aged group of individuals. A psychological model such as evolutionary psychology doesn't cater to a person's specific development needs. It only explains a general claim of advancement of man kind's brain over decades. Thus, there is a need to employ a pragmatic model that meets the needs of both individuals and society.

An assessment exercise is imperative in identifying a person's skill, knowledge or competency in one or more fields and likens with the required competency standard anticipated for other positions or their position in the organization. (Hemans-Henry, C. et al. 2019, November). The variance between the required and current competencies can assist in determining personnel who can handle a client's need maximumly. Also, specialization in different disciplines of psychology can increase client satisfaction since client needs will be taken by a fully trained person who has the necessary pedagogical skills to handle the client. Thus, job specialization among individuals ensures smooth running, and client needs are practical and efficient met. 

Conclusion

The psychosocial developmental theory has provided substantial evidence supporting its capabilities to meet older people, such as Murphy's social, emotional and psychological needs, including competency, relatedness and autonomy. This need plays a vital role in invigorating the well-being of an individual in a social ambience. However, failure to satisfy these needs and other crucial needs, such as medical care can result in malicious and injustice to these groups of individuals. Thus, Church, civic health nurses, family, government agencies and the community are responsible for ensuring both basic medical and psychological needs are met without hesitation to mitigate the death of an older adult. 

Reference

Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., & Park, D. C. (2014). How does it STAC up? Revisiting the scaffolding theory of aging and cognition. Neuropsychology review, 24(3), 355-370.

Anderson, R., Thier, M., & Pitts, C. (2017). Interpersonal and intrapersonal skill assessment alternatives: Self-reports, situational-judgment tests, and discrete-choice experiments. Learning and Individual Differences, 53, 47-60.

Kalánková, D., Stolt, M., Scott, P. A., Papastavrou, E., Suhonen, R., & RANCARE COST Action CA15208. (2021). Unmet care needs of older people: A scoping review. Nursing ethics, 28(2), 149-178.

Hemans-Henry, C., Cinnick, S., Bryan, K., Blake, J., Aidala, A., & Murrman, M. (2019, November). Balancing Academic and Practice Objectives: Characteristics of an Academic-Practice Partnership to Conduct a Training Needs Assessment among a Large City Health Department. In APHA's 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo (Nov. 2-Nov. 6). APHA.

McLeod, S. (2013). Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.

Karimi, S., & Sotoodeh, B. (2019). The mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and academic engagement in agriculture students. Teaching in Higher Education.