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Theories of Aging related to Nursing From the reading this week I learned that even though some cognitive functions in old age decline people regardless of age can continue to learn. The cognitive skills that remain stable are attention span, language skills, communication skills, comprehension and discourse and visual perception. Some of the skills that decline with age are verbal fluency logical analysis, selective attention object naming and complex vision spatial skills. Toughy and Jett 2010) According to Toughy and Jett older adults who have higher cognitive function are the ones that have the highest social interaction. Older people continue to learn from their experiences and understand new situations (Toughy and Jett 2010). I also learned that there are four types of aging chronological age, biological age, psychological age, and social age these ages may not be the same on a person. Chronological age is the number of years a person has lived.
Biological age is the predicted by the person’s physical condition and how well vital organ systems are functioning. Psychological age is expressed trough a person’s ability and control of memory, learning capacity, skills, emotions, and judgment, Social Age is measured by age graded behaviors that conform to an expected status and role within a particular culture or society. So as a nurse I now know that just because a person is one age on paper they may act and feel another age even if they have illness or disease.
In conclusion I learned that just because someone is old it doesn’t mean that they cannot learn new things or that they lack intelligence. As people age some cognitive decline is normal, but everyone’s age is not the same. There are four different factors that contribute to age not just the number of years a person is. Regardless of how old a person is they continue to learn and acquire new knowledge and adapt to new situations until death.