Personal and Environmental Factors That Influence Life Satisfaction During Late Adulthood

Personal and Environmental Factors that Influence Life Satisfaction during Late Adulthood

Contents

1. Introduction 7

2. What is Life Satisfaction? 7

3. Personal Factors 7

3.1 Locus of Control 7

3.2 Social Affirmation 8

3.3. Personality 8

3.4 Dependency 9

3.5 Finances 9

3.6 Health 9

4. Environmental Factors 10

4.1 Activities 10

4.2 Community Infrastructure 10

4.3 Social Structures 10

4.4. Community Structure 11

4.5 Socioeconomic Influences 11

5. Conclusion 12

6. References 13

7. Appendix A 14

8. Appendix B 22

1. Introduction

As people come to the latter part of their life there is often a decrease in the subjective psychological well-being and life satisfaction of the individual. There has been much research and study into the factors that influence this decrease; this essay aims to summarize the main findings and concepts that influence life satisfaction in old age.

The two categories that influences will be grouped in are personal and environmental factors.

2. What is Life Satisfaction?

Life satisfaction is defined by Diener (1984) as follows “Life satisfaction is an overall assessment of feelings and attitudes about one’s life at a particular point in time ranging from negative to positive. It is one of three major indicators of well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect”

From the above definition of life satisfaction we can see that it plays an important part in well-being and that it is a subjective phenomenon that relies on an individual’s own assessment of his or her life. In the remainder of this essay the factors that influence the way in which a person perceives their life and happiness at old age will be discussed briefly.

3. Personal Factors

3.1 Locus of Control

In old age, as in all phases of our lives, a high level of internal locus of control correlates with high confidence, belief in ability and responsibility. A high level of internal locus of control...