How Changes Throughout History Have Influenced The...

Introduction This paper endeavors to evaluate how a person within late adulthood has been impacted by larger systems within their environment. Furthermore, this paper will examine how changes throughout history have influenced the person’s life course trajectory. In an effort to evaluate these factors, an interview of a person in late adulthood was conducted. To gain a clearer understanding of how these factors influence a person within late adulthood, feminist theory and the empowerment prospective were applied to evaluate how these aspects have impacted the interviewee’s life experiences. Thus, gleaning from the interviewee’s own experiences, the interviewee’s developmental strengths and weaknesses were compared and contrasted to†¦show more content†¦She graduated from high school, and went on to college and attained her teaching degree. After teaching for several years, she married a pilot in the United States Marines. During the war in Vietnam, her husba nd was killed and she was windowed for the first time. At the time of her husband’s death, she was pregnant with her third child. Shortly after she delivered her third child, she met and married my grandfather, who had five children of his own. She lived with him until his recent death last year. Prior to my grandfather’s death, she and my grandfather had amassed a significant amount of wealth. She is currently financially, and physically independent and lives at home alone. Daily Life During the interview, my grandmother commented on not feeling as old as she is. While some of her friends have passed away or gone on to nursing homes, she continues to maintain an independent, high functioning lifestyle. However, she knows a time will come when she is not going to be able to continue to live the way she has been living. She described those in her age cohort as varying tremendously in function as they all proceeded into late adulthood. As the research attests, for those in late adulthood, age is not a true indicator of functioning. Research has confirmed that, the better that older people function, the younger older people they feel. Function and development are directly