2 Theories of Ageing Essays

2 Theories of Ageing Essays 2 Theories of Ageing Essay 2 Theories of Ageing Essay Explain two theories of ageing. Ageing is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline. The ageing process is inevitable and expected to every person as we grow old. There are different theories of ageing and fall into two types that was developed in order to further understand and described how we age.The first type, social and psychological aspect states that aging is natural and programmed into the body, while the second type is the biological aspect of aging theories say that aging is a result of damage which is accumulated over time. Disengagement theory, this is the withdrawal of involvement into social activities. According to Henry and Cumming (1961), this is natural for an older person to experience this mostly because elderly people have restricted opportunities to interact with others due to different reasons like their health.Every person may decline in their physical and mental health as they grow old and loss of social opportunities can be the reason why they disengage into the society, old person can get too tired easily. Retirement is another reason as they lose contact with their colleagues but there are many reasons why people disengage into the society. Everyone expects death, and ones abilities will likely deteriorate over time. As a result, every person will lose ties to others in his or her society.Genetically programmed theory, it says that our genes determine our life span. People often think that if they have a family member that lived over 100 years is more likely that they may inherit that genes. In this theory, human lifespan is due to inherited differences in our DNA. Our lifestyle, diet, activity, stress, aging and numerous other factors can impact our DNA and the way it functions. Aging, therefore, must be inherit in the organism and not simply a result of environmental factors or disease.So aging and death, according to this theory, are not a result of wear and tear or exposure, but are a programmed, natural and necessary part of genetics. In short, we are programmed to age and die. Wear and tear theory is where cells and tissues have vital parts that wear out resulting in aging. Like components of an aging car, parts of the body eventually wear out from repeated use, killing them and then the body.