Psy 201 Week 6

Adulthood and Aging

PSY201

Adulthood and Aging

The subject of this article focuses on the types of social relationships made throughout adulthood and the affect that those relationships have on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. According to this article, people begin early adulthood having many friends and affiliations in their social network. In early adulthood the number of acquaintances has more of an impact on happiness than the quality the acquaintances. As a person grows older, they will likely decrease the number of individuals in their social network and form closer, long lasting bonds with the individuals that remain in their network. The article also indicates that these trends differ slightly for men and women. Men tend to have a larger social network with fewer close relationships within, while women tend to have fewer people within their social network but tend to have much closer bonds to the people in their network. As we continue to age our network numbers continue to decrease, both from choice as well as loss due to death. The article suggests that the meaningful relationships are related to decreased reactivity to stressors, better functioning of the immune system, faster recoveries from injury or illness, decreased risk of diseases such as hypertension and even a lowered risk of mortality. The article goes on to say that the measure of absence or loss of meaningful relationships are as important to predicting mortality as are cholesterol levels and smoking history. The research of this article also indicates that although positive relationships have a high impact on a person physical and mental wellbeing, a negative relationship can have an even greater impact toward the negative side of a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. As we age we move away from the quantity and relationships and begin to focus more on the quality and meaningfulness of relationships.

I chose this article simply because I found it interesting that the...