Someone’s confidence and self-esteem are not fixed and can vary as their life experience rises or falls. However, as we increase in older age, our self-esteem and confidence may also increase. This may be due to them feeling content and settled because of all the lifetime goals they have achieved in regards to their self-concept. For example, they may have been given the highest promotion within their job, bought a big house, raised a family of their own and are now living a stress-free retirement. Yet some elderly people experience a loss in self-confidence due to the increase in age and the effects of the aging process. These changes within later adulthood can cause major stress in doing activities they could once do without fault. They may feel worthless in society, for example they might not have a high-status job that once gave them authority within society. Their income may also create stress as it may be from the state pension, this could cause financial stress. 

If an individual were to experience death of their partner, many changes and effects would take place. This event would bring grief to their lifestyle as they begin to mourn their loss. They will lose a sense of safety and security due to the sudden loss of their loved one.  They will also have lost that sense of intimacy that their partner once provided before their death which will cause a strong feeling of hurt and despair. The loss of a long term relationship will affect their self-concept as they would have lost a sense of who they are. Being alone would have also impacted them negatively in regards to their self-image and self-esteem making them not wanting to live alone. 

Loosing there partner could also result in developing depression or anxiety which could result in not wanting to socialise with family or friends and not wanting to leave the house, making the individual feel worthless and sad. Being alone at home all day will result in affecting her self-image and self-esteem. 

High levels of stress hormones over a long time can affect the body’s systems and cause health problems such as;

People who are stressed usually causes them to have a lack of sleep and causes them to feel fatigue. This makes them be indecisive, have impaired judgement, muddles thinking and make errors. It may also make them more prone to have an accident. Stress can also affect an individual’s emotions and this will affect their self- esteem and self-image as they will feel very vulnerable as they are fragile and depressed. 

 

They could go out with friends or family. They could do gardening or look after the house. They could make food and prepare meals. They could go out on daytrips on their own or with others, e.g. get the train to the closest city. They could join group for elderly people, were they would go on trips and do activities. They might have lots of hobbies. They could knit, or go swimming. They could look after their grandchildren, or go on a walk. Some elderly people tend to spend a lot of time watching TV or running errands. They could get a pet, and spend a lot of their time looking after it. 

If an individual experiences the death of a friend it can take a long time for them to adjust to a major change. It could make them become stressed and irritable but could also lead to depression and many cardiovascular problems.

High levels of stress hormones will build up over a long period of time and will affect many of the body’s systems to cause a lot of psychological problems. Some of these will include:

As well as having many of these problems, people who are suffering from the loss of a friend may become indecisive or have impaired judgement as well as muddled thinking and making errors. These effects can sometimes be because of an inability to sleep and a fatigue feeling. This can lead to the person becoming more accident prone.

As a result of the problems stress can rise up. This will affect the individual’s emotions as well as their self-esteem and self-image (self-concept).

However the majority of people remain socially active and involved with family and friends. Many older people look forward to retirement as they find this is the best way to engage in new/old hobbies and interests, by taking part in various activities they have the chance meet new people increasing their social life. This is good because they’ll remain both fit and active, physically and socially. Having all these opportunities will increase wellbeing and overall happiness because they aren’t isolated from people and importantly reducing illness and emotional issues such as depression. 

However some older people will detach themselves from society especially if a loved one has passed. This means that they may feel lonely and vulnerable resulting in a loss of independence as they start to depend on others more. 

 

Going through later adulthood has its pros and cons. The older generation are wiser and most have for filled their purpose and had a family. Unfortunately there are many cons of getting old. One being that their children have grown up and possibly may have started a family off their own. Due to this the elderly can feel isolated. This is why having a partner in later adulthood can have a huge positive effect on the people in the relationship.  If an individual then loses a partner it will have an overwhelming negative impact on the individual.  The individual may feel lost and stuck almost like their life is at a standstill. Furthermore this negativity could result in the individual turning to alcohol, smoking or possibly illegal substances. It also increases the chance of health risks as the induvial is under a huge amount of stress. The induvial may also feel disconnected from society as they will feel grief and bereavement. 

Losing a friend can be a source or grief and stress. If the case is losing social support networks it could lead to a sense of isolation. It can also make a person have a sense of their own mortality and possibly lead to depression. Another issue for their psychological health would be the anxiety of losing someone else close to them. Because of stress they could also have cardiovascular problems. Once someone is experiencing these issues it makes it harder for them to recover, especially if they have no social support. People who are stressed van be indecisive, have bad judgement, muddled thinking causing them to make a lot of errors.

Having high stress levels can also affect the body’s symptoms for example their immune system would be weaker, it can cause high blood pressure and the digestive system which could cause a loss of appetite. 

Losing a loved one results in a loss of intimacy which can really affect you whilst grieving as you no longer have a shoulder to cry on or someone to be intimate with. Along with this, you could have an overwhelming sense of despair and feel extremely alone due to you just losing your other half. 

Your self-esteem would also have dropped massively because you have been in a long term relationship for so long, and you’ve therefore lost sense of your identity as you aren’t used to being completely independent. This is because when together for a long time, you have a self-concept as a couple and you aren’t who you are without them.

A very high but common risk of suddenly being alone is that you may not feel as if you’re strong enough to get through it, meaning you don’t feel as if you can live life alone. This could lead to serious depression or even worse; suicide.      

They also get wrinkles and develop mobility issues (usually 65+ which is later adulthood). 

A woman between the ages of 40-45 can also begin to experience menopause and come to the end of their menstrual cycle.

All of these things could knock a person’s confidence and self-esteem. For example, a woman starting menopause can knock their confidence as it is a sign of ageing and that they are getting older. It can also have an effect on someone’s self-esteem as this prevents a woman from having any more children. For some women, this could affect them emotionally as they may have had an interest in having another child. This could lead to the build-up of stress and anxiety.

Stress is also a main cause to mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. 

People who are ageing may look at youth and remember that that was once them in earlier years. This could lower an individual’s self-esteem as they may fear getting older and they might miss being young with little responsibilities and a fitter, healthier body. It may also knock their confidence as the youth have yet to experience what they have already experienced (i.e. creating a family, getting a fulltime job, getting married etc…) and they are aware they can’t go back and re-live some of those moments and memories.

In the life stage of later adulthood which is 65 and over, this is where ageing can really affect someone’s self-concept. When you are in this life stage, your body becomes a lot weaker and you are less able to do things independently than you could earlier before. This could lower a person’s self-esteem because they may now become reliant on people and have to start trusting people that they may not want to rely on but feel they have no choice, when really they used to be completely independent and didn’t often need anyone’s help. 

The individual may also spend their time learning a new hobby, this could be something as simple as knitting or learning to bake. This would take up their time instead of sitting around doing nothing practical all day every day. An additional way they could use their spare time is volunteering to help out with different local organisations such as support groups for the elderly or other. This may also take up their free time in a positive way and as they have retired, they may feel better if they know they are helping others and working in some kind of way. 

Moreover some individuals may see going into retirement as a positive effect for them as they see that they have no more responsibilities to do with their job on their hands which some can see this to be a big weight lifted off them which can then go on to improving the individuals health as they will be less stressed about the jobs they will have to do. Except there is also the negative effect that each individual will have a lower salary and have to make their retirement money last them longer than they may be used to.

In addition studies found that most elderly tend to participate in some form of learning to fill their free time such as taking up new college courses or completing a university degree.

Furthermore, depending on their ages and whether they are capable enough they could travel or immigrate to another country to live out the rest of their retirement years.

Physically – one common physical change is that people become exhausted and weak after the loss of a partner and through grief feel like they can’t physically do things. There are a lot of physical symptoms to going through grief and dealing with a loved one’s death and here are some of those symptoms pain, sleep difficulties, poor appetite or overeating, shakiness or trembling, listlessness, disorientation, migraines or headaches, dizziness, dry mouth, crying, numbness, shortness of breath and exhaustion. 

Intellectually – becoming distracted and unable to focus because of over thinking and worrying, during these times it is best they take time to themselves to make sure they’re okay. 

Emotionally – grief which is the emotional response to someone close to you dying, this can cause extreme sadness and even depression. Also you can start to feel anxious or isolated as the person you probably spent most of your time is has now gone. Loosing someone can make people feel unsafe as they are alone and they lost the safety of having someone else. People will build a relationship with someone and when they die it can be like they lost a part of themselves. 

Socially – being alone can have a negative impact on a person’s self-image and self-esteem which may make them feel like they don’t want to live alone. People might isolate themselves because of the loss and grief causing them to not talk about it and can make them feel worse. For some people this may cause them to go out more and spend more time with their family and friends. Losing a partner can mean that the person has lost the only person they see regularly and socialise with meaning they are left alone and have no one to express themselves to which can cause people to close in and repress emotions. 

o   They will feel lonely as they may have been with their partner for a number of years so they will miss having them around the home and will be grieving their loved one.

o   Feel depressed as they don’t have anyone close to talk to anymore, they also depended on that person for just daily tasks like them waking the up in the morning and will feel really upset when they’re not there to comfort them.

o   They will have more responsibility as many elderly couples usually have set roles within their marriage e.g. they may now have to wash their own clothes, prepare meals and do the dishes.

o   They will feel isolated e.g. Often, older couples are always together and therefore don’t feel the need to develop a wider social network. The loss of their life-long companion is felt in every aspect of their day as well as having to sleep alone, often for the first time in decades. 

o   They may feel unsafe and scared to live alone now that their partner is gone, this may cause them to move out or possibly go to a retirement home so they’re not alone and around more people.

o   It may affect them physically in the sense that they will not eat properly therefore they will lose weight and not be as healthy as they were before.

o   They may not go out the house as much as they do not feel the need to or have the motivation to do so as their partner is not there to prompt them to maybe go to the shops to buy food.

o   If he/she did socialise with friends their age they may not want to go out and socialise with anyone without their partner by their side, will not want to go out as much knowing they will not be any happier.

As a women starts to age and enter menopause this could drop her self-esteem massively, this is as her menstrual cycles will stop, therefore, she could feel less of a women as she can no longer carry a child if she wished to, this would affect women who haven’t conceived a child self-esteem more. This is similar to when a male ages and stops being able to conceive a child, this could make them feel bad and effect their self-confidence as they could feel less powerful not being able to conceive a child, again, this would affect men who have not had children yet over those who have. This could cause a lot of stress for an older person to be able to cope with, especially if they have no family and friends around, this is bad as stress is the number one cause for anxiety and depression, which is also common in older people.