In European countries, in 35 years, the number of people whose age will exceed 50 years may exceed 50 percent. In Russia, the situation is as follows: in 2015, the number of older people is about 33 million people, or 23.1% of total population country.

In this regard, it should be noted that in various fields of knowledge there is a growing interest in the characteristics of old age.

Old age is one of the most difficult periods life path person. This is a period when all the physiological, psychological and social functions of a person wither, but also, this is a time of maturity, summing up.

In connection with the growth of life expectancy in the Russian Federation, namely, by 2018, life expectancy in Russia for the entire population should be at least 74 years by 2020 - 75.7 years, including for men - 71.2 years, in women - 80 years old, the creation of psychological comfort for the elderly becomes a conscious necessity.

Typology of old age

The psychological characteristics of the elderly are based on many factors. First of all, it is a way of life, social adaptability and flexibility of thinking. However, one should not lose sight of the fact that modern science separately from all factors considers such a concept as the typology of old age.

A. Tolstykh distinguishes that in old age there is a change in personality, and the picture of measurements is overly saturated with a diverse set of qualities that are rarely found in one person. Therefore, there is a need to consider various typologies of old age.

In her theory of development, the French psychologist Charlotte Buhler identifies five phases of development. According to her approach, the fifth phase begins at 65-70 years. Charlotte Buhler believes that during this period, many people stop pursuing the goals that they set for themselves in their youth. The remaining forces they spend on leisure, living quietly last years. At the same time, they review their life, experiencing satisfaction or disappointment. The neurotic personality is usually frustrated. It always seems to him that he did not receive something, that he was not given enough. With age, these doubts intensify.

The eighth crisis (E. Erickson) or the fifth phase (Sch. Buhler) mark the end of the previous life path, and the resolution of this crisis depends on how this path was passed. A person sums up, and if he perceives life as an integrity, where neither subtract nor add, then he is balanced and calmly looks into the future, as he understands that death is the natural end of life. If a person comes to the sad conclusion that life was lived in vain and consisted of disappointments and mistakes, now irreparable, then he is overtaken by a feeling of powerlessness. The fear of death comes.

The American psychologist R. Pekk, developing Erickson's ideas about the eighth crisis, speaks of the sub-crises of this period.

Russian scientist V.V. Boltenko singled out a number of stages of psychological aging, which do not depend on passport age. According to this categorization, old age is a gradual separation from society and complete emotional isolation.

One of the founders of Russian psychology B.G. Ananiev explained that the paradox human life lies in the fact that for many people "dying" occurs much earlier than physical decrepitude. Such a state is observed in those people who, of their own free will, begin to isolate themselves from society, which leads to "a narrowing of the volume of personal properties, to a deformation of the personality structure." Compared to centenarians who retain their personality, "some" beginning "pensioners at the age of 60-65 seem immediately decrepit, suffering from the resulting vacuum and a sense of social inferiority. From this age, a dramatic period of personality dying begins for them. The scientist says that a sudden the blocking of all the potentials of a person's ability to work and talent with the cessation of many years of work cannot but cause deep restructuring in the structure of a person as a subject of activity, and therefore the personality.

Psychiatrist E. S. Averbukh distinguishes two extreme types of old age, which vary within the framework of a person's own attitude towards his old age. Elderly people do not feel and are not even aware of their age, therefore, in their behavior they “become younger”, sometimes losing a sense of proportion in this;

People of retirement age begin to take care of themselves too much, ahead of time and more than necessary, protect themselves from life's anxieties.

In modern psychology, a classification is very common, according to which there are three types of old age:

1. "happy"
2. "unhappy"
3. psychopathological.

"Happy" old age is characterized by tranquility, wise enlightenment of the worldview and outlook, contemplation, restraint and self-control.

"Unhappy" old age is caused by an increase in the level of personal anxiety, anxious imaginings about one's physical health. There is also a tendency to frequent doubts and fears about an insignificant reason, self-doubt, in the future, the loss of the former and the absence of a different meaning in life, reflections on the approaching death.

"Psychopathological old age" is manifested by age-organic disorders of the psyche, personality and behavior. There is a decrease in the adaptive capabilities of a psychopathic personality with the frequent development of various maladjustment reactions.

A rather original interpretation is given by A. Kachkin. He divides older people into types depending on the interests that dominate their lives:

F. Giese proposed the following typology of old age:

1. The old man is negative, denying any signs of old age.
2. An extroverted old man, recognizing the onset of old age, but coming to this recognition through external influence and by observing the surrounding reality, especially in connection with retirement.
3. Introverted type, acutely experiencing the aging process. There is a dullness in relation to new interests, the revival of memories of the past, the weakening of emotions, the desire for peace.

We will separately consider the adaptive features of the elderly.

Karol Roschak offers four strategies for adjusting to old age. These four types are singled out as a result of the projective method.

Characteristics of the types of old age according to Karol Roschak

	Strategy for adaptation to old age	Description of the strategy
	"Design type".	Characterizes a mature personality, well integrated, who enjoys life created by close and intimate relationships with other people. Such people are patient, flexible, aware of themselves, their achievements, opportunities and prospects. They accept the facts of old age, including retirement and ultimately death. Representatives of this type retain the ability to enjoy food, work, play, and may still be sexually active. It has a constructive, future-oriented installation.
	"Defensive type".	A less constructive model of adaptation to old age. Such people are exaggerated emotionally restrained, somewhat straightforward in their actions and habits. They prefer to be self-sufficient, they are reluctant to accept help from other people. They avoid expressing their own opinions, it is difficult to share their life or family problems, they refuse help, proving to themselves that they are independent. Their attitude towards old age is pessimistic. They see no advantage in old age and envy young people. These people with great reluctance and only under pressure from others leave their professional work. They sometimes take a defensive position in relation to the whole family, which is expressed in avoiding the manifestation of their claims and complaints against the family. The defense mechanism used by them against the fear of death and deprivation is the activity "through force" - the constant feeding of external actions.
	"Aggressive-active type".	People of this type are aggressive, explode, suspicious, tend to shift their own claims to others and attribute blame to them for all their failures. They are not very realistic in assessing reality. Distrust makes them withdraw and avoid contact with other people. They drive away the idea of ​​retirement, because, like people with a defensive attitude, they use the mechanisms of relieving stress through activity, with weights. These people do not perceive their old age, they think with despair about the progressive loss of strength. This is combined with a hostile attitude towards young people, sometimes with the transfer of this attitude to the whole world.
	"Type of passive aging"	This type differs from the previous one in that aggression is directed at oneself. Such people criticize and despise their own lives. They are passive, sometimes depressed, lack initiative. They are pessimistic, do not believe that they can influence their lives, feel like a victim of circumstances. People of this type are well aware of the facts of aging, but they do not envy the young. They do not rebel against their own old age, but only meekly accept everything that fate sends. Death does not bother them, they perceive it as deliverance from suffering.

Psychological factors of aging

The aging process is different for every person. Old age comes to everyone in their own way. However, in modern psychology there are a number of common aging factors that are characteristic of everyone.

The psychological factors of aging are based on the fact that with age there is a loss of psychological flexibility and ability to adapt. People are losing their adventurous spirit. Love for the new, the unknown is replaced by the desire for stability and reliability.

The author cites data that a year of unemployment can reduce the life expectancy of a person who has lost his job by five years. D. J. Kurtzman says that resignation or retirement often literally kills people. One of the important points in the aging process is the gradual decline in adaptation, that is, the ability to adapt to difficult or unforeseen life situations - both to big changes and major changes in life.

Aging is an internally contradictory process. Along with the phenomenon of extinction, important adaptive mechanisms also arise.

Many of these adaptive mechanisms are consistently fixed and naturally occur at the later stages of individual development. The severity of adaptive mechanisms largely determines the rate of aging of individual systems and the life span of the organism as a whole.

As mentioned earlier, it must be borne in mind that old age is not a static state, but a dynamic process. It is associated with specific changes in living conditions, many of which have a negative connotation. B. Pukhalskaya refers to such changes the loss of a well-known position associated with the work performed, a change in physical capabilities, worsening economic living conditions, changes in family functions, death or the threat of loss of loved ones, the need to adapt to changes. Moreover, the end professional work for many people it causes a radical change in lifestyle.

The positive aspects of changing the life situation are manifested in the presence of a large amount of free time, the opportunity to freely do what you love, devote yourself to entertainment or hobbies, etc.

So, in the period of the onset of late adulthood, a person is faced with the need to solve completely new problems for him, related to a change in his social position, with role immediacy, with his own age-related changes. There is a need to change the old way of life, restructuring the existing dynamic stereotype of behavior, accepting a new social role, changing self-perception.

In addition to external changes, there are changes in the idea that a person had regarding himself. A new vision of oneself can prompt a restructuring of the subjective picture of the world. For a person, it is significant and important that the world be familiar, safe. Feelings of helplessness and worthlessness are the source of fear and apathy.

Thus, we can talk about a large number of psychological and physical factors affecting the aging process. There is no single, universal way to adapt to old age. The influence is also exerted by the personality of the person himself, his behavior, habits, the need for social contacts and his favorite lifestyle. So for some, living together with children and grandchildren is optimal, for others - independence, independence, the opportunity to do what they love.

Literature

1. Averbukh E.S. Disorders of mental activity at a later age.- L .: Lenizdat, 1969.
2. Ananiev B.G. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes - M., 1980
3. Krasnova O.V. Social psychology - M .: Publishing center "Academy", 2002.
4. Kurtzman J. Gordon F. Let death perish! Victory over aging and extension of human life - M .: Nauka, 1987.
5. Morozova T.Yu. Psychological characteristics of the elderly // URL: http://www.ncfu.ru/uploads/doc/morozova_tju.pdf
6. Psychology of death Involutionary processes of personality aging. // URL: http://www.psylist.net/age/00027.htm
7. Pukhalskaya B. Old age as a phase of human development. //Old age. Popular guide. 1996. C.33-41
8. Tolstykh A.V. Ages of life. - M .: Young Guard, 1988
9. The number of elderly people in Russia has grown by 3 million in 10 years // URL:

The general health and physical well-being of older people varies with age.

The incidence rate increases with age. At 60 years of age and older, it exceeds the incidence rates of persons younger than 40 years by 2 times. There is a constant increase in the number of old people, seriously ill, in need of long-term drug treatment, guardianship and care.

In accordance with the WHO classification (1963), the age of 60-74 years is considered to be elderly, 75-89 - senile, and 90 years and older - a period of longevity.

In the process of aging, the adaptive capabilities of the body decrease, vulnerabilities are created in the system of its self-regulation, and mechanisms are formed that provoke and reveal age-related pathology. As life expectancy increases, morbidity and disability increase. Diseases become chronic with an atypical course, frequent exacerbations of the pathological process and a long recovery period.

It is noted that the need for the elderly in providing them with medical care is 50% higher than that of the middle-aged population, and the need for hospitalization of people over 60 years of age is almost 3 times higher than this figure for the general population. Appeal of people over the age of 60 for medical and social assistance in Moscow is up to 80%, and among persons receiving assistance at home, about half are over the age of 60 years. For one nursing visit to a patient at home under the age of 60, there are 5-6 nursing visits to patients over the age of 60.

Quality of life (QOL) is an individual feeling by a person of his position in the life of society, taking into account the system of values, goals of this individual, his plans, capabilities and degree of disorder. The fundamental properties of QOL are multi-component and subjective assessment. We can say that this is satisfaction from psychosocial and other forms of activity in the conditions of restrictions associated with the disease.

KZ depends on material comfort, health and active rest(entertainment). It is believed that the concept of QoL combines indicators of at least four different, but correlated areas: physical (physical well-being is a combination of manifestations of health and/or illness); functional (functionality - the ability of a person to carry out activities due to his needs, ambitions and social role); emotional (an emotional state of a bipolar orientation with correspondingly opposite results in the form of well-being or distress); social status (the level of social and family activity, including the attitude to social support, maintaining daily activity, working capacity, family responsibilities and relationships with family members, sexuality, communication skills with other people).

At the same time, it should be noted that the main component of the concept of QOL for people of the older age group, first of all, is the availability of medical and social assistance. QoL is also affected by the fact that elderly patients, in comparison with people of working age, have significantly less financial resources and social support.

The use of such an understanding of QoL implies the orientation of medical and social structures not only towards the implementation of various therapeutic and preventive measures (medical and surgical treatment, rehabilitation), but also towards maintaining such a state that would provide each member of society, including the elderly, with optimal health. physical, psychological and social comfort, even regardless of the results of treatment.

It is well known that to live normally is to be able to satisfy the vital, intellectual and social needs to be independent in their execution. It should be recognized that in the end there comes a period when the old person is not able to satisfy his needs - physical and mental decrepitude makes him completely dependent on others.

In this regard, the main task of organizations providing medical and social assistance to the elderly is to maintain a satisfactory quality of life for patients who have partially or completely lost the ability to self-service, and to protect the state-guaranteed rights to medical and social services.

The general physical condition of old people is an integral indicator of health and ability to work. For them, it is most important to maintain the ability to normal life, that is, to self-service, and therefore their main characteristics should be considered;

The degree of mobility;

degree of self-service.

Undoubtedly, such an objective indicator of the state of health in old age is confinement to a limited space. On this basis, the following categories of old people are distinguished: a) freely moving; b) due to limited mobility chained to a house, apartment, room; c) immobilized, helpless, bedridden.

In the 80s, for epidemiological studies of the elderly and old people, a generalized assessment was proposed according to the following scheme: 1) daily activities; 2) mental health; 3) physical health; 4) social functioning; 5) economic functioning.

Daily activities are determined by the degree of mobility and the amount of self-service.

Mental health is characterized by the preservation of cognitive abilities, the presence or absence of symptoms of any mental illness, emotional well-being in social and cultural contexts.

Physical (somatic) health is associated with self-esteem, diagnosed diseases, frequency of seeking medical help, including stay in hospitals.

Social functioning is determined by the presence of ideological and friendly ties, participation in the life of society, communication with social organizations.

Economic functioning is determined by the sufficiency of financial income (from any source) to meet the needs of the old person.

There are two completely different groups, qualitatively different from each other. On the one hand, there is a group of people aged 63-75 years, which is characterized by a greater or lesser loss of the possibility of material support and almost complete preservation of the ability to self-service.

The second group is people who are over 75 years old, with a complete loss of ability to work, who have switched to dependency with a greater or lesser, and often absolute, loss of the ability to self-service. Formally, both groups are old people, but in reality they are completely different people.

“Dislike of the unaccustomed” is very common among older people. Increasingly, they are surrounded by new, obscure, there is a need to revise their positions, oppressed by material difficulties. When providing medical and social assistance to the elderly and old people, it is important to maintain their interest in various activities and convince them of the need for mutual support.

Old age can become a worthy period of life if a person enters into it as healthy as possible, retains the hygiene skills acquired at a younger age, and, finally, if he forms his old age long before its onset. Preventive measures taken after the age of 40 contribute to a more prosperous course of old age, prevent many sufferings and senile infirmity. It is more difficult for a person who is already elderly, with developed dystrophic changes in the body, to change the nature of nutrition, to start doing gymnastics or other types of physiotherapy exercises. While the preservation of useful skills acquired over many years is easier and allows you to keep the aging body in good shape. An active lifestyle reduces the risk of coronary disease and obesity, which in turn contributes to diabetes mellitus, and coronary disease complicates the course of hypertension that develops in an elderly person.

Manifestations of coronary disease are most often found in populations with low physical activity, less often in people with moderate activity, and very rarely in people with high physical activity.

Prevention of senile dementia is the activity of intellectual life and the rejection of animal proteins and fats.

The concept of "way of life" is a broad category that includes individual forms of behavior, activity and the realization of all opportunities in work, everyday life and cultural customs inherent in a particular socio-economic structure. Lifestyle also refers to the quantity and quality of people's needs, their relationships, emotions and their subjective expression.

Senile infirmity is a condition in which a person, as a result of a long chronic disease becomes unable to perform daily functions necessary for a normal independent life. This condition is also called "senile vital failure". In this case, constant guardianship and assistance is already required; a frail old person cannot live alone, he must either be surrounded by his loved ones who are ready to care for him, despite all the difficulties, or move to a nursing home. Senile infirmity may be due to a mental or physical defect (marasmus), but more often - the combined influence of both.

Helpless old people who have retained their intellectual abilities, clear mind, cause much less difficulty in leaving.

It has been proven that the vast majority of cases of premature aging and death are the result of an unhealthy lifestyle (bad habits, unbalanced diet, alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction, environmental problems, etc.).

In conditions when a new economic mechanism is put at the basis of the activities of health care institutions and insurance medicine, medical and social assistance to the elderly and old people acquires the following feature. Currently, it is constantly emphasized that the provision of medical services, i.e. treatment of the elderly and old people is a loss-making business for medical institutions, supposedly these medical institutions suffer significant economic losses. Death is rarely the result of old age. In this case, the person dies peacefully, without physical suffering. More often, death in old people occurs suddenly from some accidental illness, which very quickly leads to senile infirmity, and a person who does not have time to realize everything that is happening dies in a dramatic situation of mental discord. However, most often old people die from chronic incurable diseases. In the first place are diseases of the heart and blood vessels, in the second - malignant tumors, in the third - COPD (a lung disease caused primarily by smoking.

The last period of life can be a great test for the oldest person and his environment. Almost all people before death feel lonely and fearful. Therefore, a dying patient should never be left alone. At this time, he needs to feel around him an atmosphere of goodwill and attention. Patience, understanding and kindness are essential components of a relationship with a dying old person. The issue of informing the patient about impending death should be decided on an absolutely individual basis. In some countries they talk about it openly, in others the principles of medical deontology do not allow this, so as not to deprive the patient of hope until the last moment.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CHECKING

What is the aging process associated with?

What is the need for older people in medical and social support?

What does the concept of "health" include?

What does the concept of "quality of life" include?

What are the health characteristics of the elderly?

What groups are old people divided into?

What characterizes mental health?

What is physical health?

What determines the social and economic functioning of people?

What are the medical problems of old people?

What is senile infirmity?

What are general principles helping frail old people?

Describe the tasks of medical care.

Sources of information:

http://kurs.ido.tpu.ru/courses/gerontology/tema_11.html

http://www.clinvest.ru/part.php?pid=213

The problem of aging and old age is the object of a special interdisciplinary branch of knowledge - gerontology. Gerontology focuses on the biological, psychological and sociological aspects of aging.

The biological approach to aging is focused primarily on discovering the bodily causes and manifestations of aging. Biologists consider aging as a natural process that occurs during the postnatal life of an organism and is accompanied by equally regular changes at the biochemical, cellular, tissue, physiological and system levels (V.V. Frolkis, 1988; E.N. Khrisanfova, 1999).

In foreign gerontology, four fundamental criteria for aging are widely used, which in the 60s of the XX century. were proposed by the famous gerontologist B. Strekhler:

• aging, unlike disease, is a universal process, all members of the population without exception are subject to it;
• aging is a progressive continuous process;
• aging is a property of any living organism;
• aging is accompanied by degenerative changes (as opposed to changes in the body during its development and maturation).

Thus, human aging is a basic universal biological process, which, however, is realized in specific socio-cultural conditions. Therefore, gerontology considers aging as a complex phenomenon, including personal, social and even economic aspects of human life. This is also evidenced by the fact that indicators such as life expectancy and periodization schemes that mark the onset of aging and the duration of its course are subject to noticeable changes.

Among the most significant global phenomena observed in the 20th century is a radical (almost twofold) increase in life expectancy. Associated with this is a change in views on the periodization of aging.

At the beginning of the century, the German physiologist M. Rubner proposed an age classification in which the beginning of old age was established at 50 years old, and respectable old age began at 70 years old. In 1905, the famous American physician W. Asler argued that 60 years should be considered the age limit, after which the elderly become a burden to themselves and society. In 1963, at the WHO International Seminar on Problems of Gerontology, a classification was adopted that distinguishes three chronological periods in the late ontogenesis of a person: middle age (45-59 years), old age (60-74 years), senile age (75 years and older) . The so-called centenarians (90 years and older) were singled out in a separate category. In accordance with the latest data, the age of 60-69 years is defined as presenile, 70-79 years - as senile, 80-89 years - as late senility, 90-99 years - as decrepitude (Craig, 2000).

However, it should be borne in mind that any scheme for distinguishing and classifying an involutionary or regressive age is rather arbitrary, since physiologists do not yet have data for an exhaustive characterization of each of the above stages of ontogenesis. It is generally accepted that regressive changes in biochemical, morphological and physiological parameters are statistically correlated with an increase in chronological age. Along with this, as in childhood, when assessing aging, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of biological and calendar / chronological ages. However, the assessment of biological age during aging is one of the debatable problems of age-related physiology.

The definition of biological age requires a starting point, starting from which, one can quantitatively and qualitatively characterize the psychosomatic status of a person. In childhood, biological age is determined using the concept of a statistical norm, where the starting point is the average group or population data characterizing the level of development of a structure or function in a given sample at the current time. Such an approach to assessing biological age during aging is very difficult, since it is often complicated by a variety of diseases and there is no clear idea of ​​how natural aging should proceed, not complicated by diseases.

Nevertheless, as the famous physiologist I.A. Arshavsky, according to biochemical and physiological parameters, it is possible to determine the average value of the maximum degree of non-equilibrium (potential lability of various body systems), characteristic of physiologically healthy people in a stationary (adult) state, and in this way acquire a reference point (I.A. Arshavsky, 1975). Based on it, one can try to estimate the true biological age after the end of the stationary period. It is possible that reliable methods for assessing biological age in aging will be established in the future. For example, when evaluating electrophysiological indicators - the temporal and amplitude parameters of the responses of the cerebral cortex - aging curves are obtained that allow one to estimate age by indicators of the functioning of the cerebral cortex.

The problem, however, is that in aging, as in childhood, the principle of heterochrony operates. It manifests itself in the fact that not all human organs and systems age at the same time and at the same rate. For most of them, the aging process begins long before the onset of old age. Many effects of aging do not manifest themselves until late adulthood, not only because the aging processes develop gradually, but also because along with the aging processes in the body, compensatory processes of vitauction occur in parallel.

In addition, one should not lose sight of the fact that although aging is a natural and normative process, it has a wide range of individual differences. At this stage of ontogeny, the differences between calendar and biological ages can be more pronounced than in childhood. Individual characteristics human aging determine the existence of various variants of aging. Clinical and physiological indicators make it possible to distinguish several syndromes of old age: hemodynamic (changes in the cardiovascular system), neurogenic (changes in the nervous system), respiratory (changes in the respiratory system).

According to the rate of aging, accelerated, premature (accelerated) aging and slow, retarded aging are distinguished. An extreme expression of accelerated aging is described - progeria, when signs of aging appear even in children. Delayed aging is characteristic of centenarians (VV Frolakis, 1988).

The aging of the organism as a whole is associated primarily with violations of the mechanisms of self-regulation and the processes of processing information on different levels vital activity. Of particular importance in the mechanisms of aging at the cellular level is the violation of the transmission of information in the system of the genetic apparatus of cells, at the level of the whole organism - in the system of neurohumoral regulation. As a result, aging is a total process that covers the entire human body, and its manifestations can be found in all organs, systems and functions.

External bodily changes during aging are well known (gray hair, wrinkles, etc.). In addition, changes in the structure of the skeleton lead to a decrease in height, which can decrease by 3-5 cm due to compression of the intervertebral discs. Osteoporosis occurs (demineralization of bones, expressed in the loss of calcium), as a result, the bones become brittle. Muscle mass decreases, as a result of which strength and endurance decrease. Blood vessels lose their elasticity, some of them clog, because of this, the blood supply to the body worsens, with all the ensuing consequences. The efficiency of the cardiovascular system as a whole decreases, the ability of the lungs to carry out gas exchange weakens. In the immune system, the production of antibodies decreases, and the body's defenses weaken. At the same time, regular physical exercises that help strengthen muscles improve the somatic status of the body in old age.

A systematic study of the age evolution and involution of sensory-perceptual functions of a person was carried out in the 60s at the school of B. G. Ananiev. In these studies, it was found that ontogenetic changes in sensory (for vision, hearing) and propreceptive sensitivity are of a common nature. Sensitivity increases by the period of early adolescence, then stabilizes and, starting from the age of 50-60, decreases. Against the background of this general trend, however, some age-related declines and rises are observed. In other words, both at the stage of positive development and in the course of involution, the change in sensitivity is carried out in accordance with the principle of heterochrony.

Indicative in this regard is the age dynamics of color sensitivity. With the exception of the general optimum, which is observed at about 30 years, that is, much later than the general photosensitivity and visual acuity, all particular types of sensitivity to different wavelengths change in different ways. Starting from the age of 30, there is a significant and steady decrease in sensitivity to the extreme long-wave and short-wave colors - red and blue. At the same time, sensitivity to yellow does not decrease even after 50 years. With regard to hearing sensitivity, it has been established that its increasing decline extends to the high-frequency part of the sound range and begins at the age of 30. If we use the hearing thresholds of twenty-year-olds as a standard, then it turns out that the loss of sensitivity increases in the following order: at 30 years old - by 10 dB, at 40 years old - by 20 dB, at 50 years old - by 30 dB. Similar trends are observed in other types of sensory modalities.

However, as Ananiev emphasized, in cases where the profession makes increased demands on the senses (for example, the requirements for visual functions in pilots), their functioning remains at a high level even in adulthood. Any sensory function shows its real potential only if it is systematically in a state of optimal tension that is useful for it.

Age-related changes inevitably affect the human brain. The processes taking place in the brain of an aging person would be erroneous to consider as simply extinction. In fact, with aging, the brain undergoes a complex restructuring leading to a qualitative change in its reactions. Age-related changes have various morphofunctional manifestations. Distinguish between general and particular changes. The general ones include changes that indicate a decrease in the functions of energy-providing structures and the apparatus responsible for protein synthesis. It is expedient to analyze private changes at the levels: an individual neuron, nervous tissue, individual structural formations that make up the brain, and the whole brain as a system.

First of all, age-related changes in the human brain are characterized by a decrease in its mass and volume. The brain mass of a person aged 60 to 75 years will decrease by 6%, and unevenly in various departments. Bark hemispheres decreases by 4%, the greatest changes (by 12-15%) occur in the frontal lobe. Sex differences in the degree of brain atrophy during aging were noted. The mass of the brain of women is approximately 110-115 g less than that of men. Between the ages of 40 and 90, brain mass decreases in men by 2.85 g per year, and in women by 2.92 g (VV Frolkis, 1988).

Most researchers of the human brain point to the predominant loss of neurons in the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum. In most subcortical formations, the cellular composition remains unchanged until old age. In other words, phylogenetically "newer" brain structures associated with cognitive function are more prone to age-related loss of neurons than phylogenetically "older" ones (brain stem).

Synaptic contacts are known to play a crucial role in ensuring interneuronal interaction in nerve networks; due to their plasticity, they are closely related to memory and learning. With aging, the density of the number of synapses decreases. However, the loss of synapses does not occur in all parts of the CNS to the same extent. Thus, in the human frontal lobe, a decrease in the number of synapses with age has been reliably proven, while age-related changes are not observed in the temporal lobe.

Changes in the state of synapses are observed not only in the cortex, but also in subcortical structures. For example, age-related disorders of spatial memory are explained by a decrease in the specificity, efficiency, and plasticity of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus. With aging, the ability to form new synapses decreases. The reduction of synaptic plasticity in old age can contribute to memory loss, deterioration in motor activity, and the development of other functional disorders of the brain. At the same time, interneuronal contacts in various areas of the central nervous system worsen, neurons seem to undergo “deafferentation”, and therefore their response to environmental signals, nervous and hormonal stimuli is disturbed, i.e. synaptic mechanisms of brain activity are damaged.

With aging, the state of the mediator systems of the body changes significantly. One of the most characteristic phenomena of aging is the degeneration of the dopaminergic system of the brain, the latter being directly related to the development of diseases such as parkinsonism in old age. Disturbances in the activity of another mediator system of the brain - cholinergic - play one of the main roles in disorders of memory, perception and other cognitive processes that occur in Alzheimer's disease.

Of particular interest is the problem of interhemispheric interaction during aging. The main feature of the cerebral asymmetry of the aging brain is that the stable joint activity of the hemispheres is disturbed. There are some disagreements in estimates of the rates of aging of the left and right hemispheres. According to one of the points of view, the right hemisphere ages earlier than the left, according to another, the aging process of both hemispheres is characterized by high synchrony.

N.K. Korsakova, discussing the neuropsychological aspects of brain aging, turned to Luria's concept of the functional blocks of the brain. According to her, normal physiological aging is characterized at all stages of late age primarily by changes in the functioning of the tonus and wakefulness regulation unit: a shift occurs in it towards the predominance of inhibitory processes. In this regard, there are such characteristic phenomena as a general slowness in the execution of various activities, narrowing the volume of mental activity with the simultaneous implementation of various programs. Along with this, the preservation of previously fixed forms of activity associated with the functioning of the information processing unit creates favorable prerequisites for the successful implementation of the existing stereotypes of activity.

We now turn to a discussion of the theory of aging. The main question, which, one way or another, is posed in all existing theories of aging, boils down to the following: is this process genetically programmed and naturally determined by the evolution of a person as a species, or is it an analogue of the mechanical wear of a technical device, which consists in the gradual accumulation of minor violations, which ultimately lead to the "breakdown" of the body. Accordingly, the existing theories of aging are divided into two groups - theories of programmed aging and theories of wear and tear of the body (the so-called stochastic theories).

Theories of programmed aging proceed from the fact that evolution has programmed the functioning of a living organism for the period of its active life, including the period of reproduction. In other words, biological activity is genetically incorporated into a living organism, extending only to the period of its so-called “biological usefulness”. The rapid degradation and death of an aging organism is predetermined by nature.

As applied to a person, this approach is associated with the widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. ideas that a certain endocrine gland dominates in each period of the body's life: in youth - the thymus, during puberty - the pineal gland, in maturity - the gonads, in old age - the adrenal cortex. Aging is considered as the result of a change in the activity of various glands and a certain ratio of them. The theory does not explain the reasons for the change in dominance.

Close in meaning to this is the theory of "built-in clocks". This theory suggests that there is a single pacemaker ("pacemaker"), located possibly in the hypothalamus and in the pituitary gland of the brain. It turns on as a result of the fact that shortly after the onset of puberty, the pituitary gland begins to secrete a hormone that causes the onset of the aging process, which will continue to proceed at a certain speed. The presence of a "built-in clock" is confirmed, in particular, by the existence for each organism of a strictly genetically determined program of cell division in ontogeny. It is possible that the biological clock also controls the human immune system, which gains strength until the age of 20, and then gradually weakens.

Along with this, there is a theory according to which aging is determined by the programmed actions of specific genes. In other words, aging is a genetically programmed process, the result of a regular, consistent deployment of a program embedded in the genetic apparatus. It is assumed, in particular, that the average life expectancy is determined by specific genes that are contained in every cell of the body. The expression of these genes occurs at a predetermined point in time when the death of the organism should occur.

According to stochastic theories, aging is simply a decrease in the ability of cells to repair themselves. The human body is compared to a mechanism that wears out from constant use. Moreover, the accumulation of cellular dysfunctions and damages is added to this wear and tear. The latter leads to the fact that aged cells get rid of metabolic products worse, and this prevents the normal course of intracellular processes, disrupting and/or slowing them down.

It is also assumed that aging is caused by the existence in the body of residues of oxygen metabolism, which is necessary for the vital activity of every cell. These are the so-called "free radicals" - highly active chemical agents that are ready to enter into a chemical reaction with other intracellular chemical compounds and disrupt the normal functioning of the cell. Cells normally have repair mechanisms in place to reduce the damage caused by free radicals. However, after serious damage to the body, for example, as a result of exposure to radiation or serious illness, the damage caused by free radicals is quite serious.

It is also well known that aging reduces the efficiency of the immune system, resulting in poorer resistance to disease. Moreover, in a number of diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or certain kidney diseases, immune cells attack healthy cells in your own body.

Stochastic theories, however, cannot explain a number of propositions. For example, they do not answer the question of why the body's internal "repair shop", which for some time did a great job of troubleshooting in it, suddenly stops working.

Vitaukt is the mechanism that determines the stability and duration of the existence of a living system. Developing the problem of aging, the famous domestic scientist V.V. Frolkis put forward a number of provisions:

1. the study of the mechanisms of aging is possible only from the standpoint of a systematic approach;
2. aging is an obligatory link in age-related development, which largely determines its course; that is why understanding the essence of aging is possible within the framework of a theoretical hypothesis that explains the mechanisms of age-related development;
3. during aging, along with the extinction of the activity of life support and metabolism functions, important adaptive mechanisms are mobilized - the mechanisms of vitauction;
4. Aging is the result of a violation of the mechanisms of self-regulation at different levels of the body's vital activity.

The development of these provisions led to the promotion of the adaptive-regulatory theory of age-related development. Theory of V.V. Frolkis can be seen as an intermediate between genetic and stochastic theories of aging. Based on the concept of self-regulation, this theory explains the mechanisms of age-related changes as a process of adaptive, adaptive capabilities of the body. This process is aimed at stabilizing the viability of the organism, increasing the reliability of its functioning, and increasing the longevity of its existence.

In accordance with the adaptive-regulatory theory, aging is not genetically programmed, but genetically determined, predetermined by the characteristics of the biological organization of life, the properties of the organism. In other words, many properties of the organism are genetically programmed, and the rate of aging and life expectancy depend on them.

Vitaukt, emphasizes Frolkis, is not just the restoration of damage that has arisen in the aging process, not just anti-aging. Rather, in many ways, aging is an antivitauction, destroying, loosening the mechanisms of the original viability of the organism. Not only in historical, but also in individual development, not only in phylogenesis, but also in ontogenesis, at the earliest stages of the formation of the organism, starting from the zygote, a destructive process occurs - aging. This is inevitable DNA damage, protein breakdown, membrane damage, death of some cells, the action of free radicals, toxic substances, oxygen starvation, etc. And if at this stage, due to the mechanisms of self-regulation, the process of vitauction is reliable, the whole system develops, improves, and its adaptive capabilities grow.

Until some time, destructive processes in a number of cellular structures, due to the mechanisms of vitauction, do not yet lead to aging of the organism as a whole. Ultimately, at a certain age (cessation of growth, completion of ontogenesis), the aging process of the organism as a whole begins to progress, with all the ensuing consequences. Thus, the duration of life is determined by the unity and opposition of two processes - aging and vitauction. As Frolkis emphasizes, the gerontology of the future will pay more and more attention to the study of the mechanisms of witaukt.

The phenomenon of witaukt creates favorable conditions for the full functioning of the psyche of the elderly. As some researchers note, the so-called age of involution is not at all characterized by a linear increase in abnormal processes in the psyche. According to N.K. Korsakova, in the age range from 50 to 85 years, the most pronounced neurodynamic disorders are characteristic of the initial and older stages of aging, after 80 years. At the age of 65 to 75, not only stabilization of higher mental functions is observed, but, in a number of parameters, in particular memory function, people of this age demonstrate achievements at the level of a not yet old person.

N.K. Korsakova generally emphasizes the importance of positive tendencies in the mental functioning of an elderly person. Given the variety of ways to overcome disturbances in the work of higher mental functions during normal aging, we can say that it is a stage of individual development that requires a change in strategies and the use of relatively new forms of mediation of mental activity. If we consider ontogenesis as a manifestation of new formations in the psyche and behavior that were absent at the previous stages of development, then old age can be spoken of as one of the stages of ontogenesis. Empirical data show that in old age the intellect is more directed towards self-regulation of mental activity than towards cognition of the world.

It corresponds modern look on aging not only in a negative aspect - as extinction, but also in a positive sense - as an opportunity for a person to form ways to preserve himself as an individual and personality in the general continuum of his own living space.

Old age is one of the most paradoxical and controversial periods of life, associated with the fact that the “last questions of being” (M.M. Bakhtin) stand before a person in full growth, demanding permission for the insoluble - to combine the capabilities of an old person in understanding the world and his life experience with physical weakness and the inability to actively implement everything understood.

But in contrast to the pessimism of ordinary ideas about old age, psychologists talk about such peculiar neoplasms of old age as:

1. a sense of belonging to a group or groups;
2. feeling that “you are at home here” – personal comfort in interaction with people;
3. a sense of community with other people, an experience of similarity to them;
4. faith in others - the feeling that there is something good in every person;
5. courage to be imperfect - the feeling that it is natural to make mistakes, that it is not at all necessary to be always and in everything “first” and “correct”, “best” and “infallible”;
6. feeling like a human - feeling that you are part of humanity;
7. optimism is the feeling that the world can be made a better place to live.

At the same time, aging really creates many psychological difficulties: after all, these are years of “forced idleness”, often spent in isolation from work with a sense of the contrast between “this” and “this” life, which is perceived by many as humiliating. Forced idleness often becomes a pathogenic factor in somatic and mental terms, so many people try to stay fit, work and do what they can (although the opinion that all pensioners want to continue working is also wrong: statistics show that this is only one third of all people of retirement age ).

Isolation of the period of aging and old age (gerontogenesis) is associated with a whole range of socio-economic, biological and psychological reasons, therefore, the period of late ontogenesis is studied by various disciplines - biology, neurophysiology, demography, psychology, etc. The general aging of the population is a modern demographic phenomenon: the proportion of people over 60-65 years of age is over 20% of the total population in many countries of the world (a sixth or eighth of the entire world population!).

The average life expectancy of a modern person is much higher than that of his ancestors, which means that old and senile age is turning into an independent and fairly long period of life with its own social and psychological features. These demographic trends also lead to an increase in the role of the elderly and old people in the social, political, cultural life of society and require an analysis of the essential characteristics of human development in this period of life. Gerontologist I. Davydovsky said that experience and wisdom have always been a function of time. They remain the privilege of adults and the elderly. For gerontology as a science, it is not so important to "add years to life"; it is more important to "add life to years".

The aging process is not uniform. Traditionally, there are three gradations of the period of gerontogenesis: old age (for men - 60-74 years, for women - 55-4 years), old age (75-90 years) and centenarians (90 years and older). But modern studies show that in recent decades the aging process has slowed down (a person of 55-60 years old may not feel old at all and, in terms of social functions, can be in a cohort of adults - mature - people), and aging itself within these phases is not homogeneous ( someone gets tired of life by the age of 50, and someone at 70 can be full of strength and life plans). As B. Spinoza said, no one knows "what the body is capable of."

From a physiological and psychological point of view, old age is less strongly associated with chronological age than any more early period life (for example, early, preschool or adolescence) up to 60-65 years. According to the observations of J. Botvinik and L. Thompson, if chronological age is a factor on the basis of which one is judged who is old, then, nevertheless, older people are much more diverse in their biological and behavioral characteristics than younger people.

The complexity of the aging process is expressed in the strengthening and specialization of the action of the law of heterochrony, resulting in long-term preservation and even improvement in the functioning of some systems and accelerated, occurring at different rates, involution of others. Those structures (and functions) that are closely related to the implementation of the main life process at its most common manifestations. The intensification of inconsistency is manifested mainly in the multidirectionality of changes occurring in individual functional systems of an individual organization. Although evolutionary-involutionary processes are inherent in the entire ontogeny as a whole, it is during the period of aging that the multidirectionality determines the specifics of both mental and non-mental processes. mental development.

What happens when a person gets old?

At the molecular level, there are changes in the biochemical structure of the body, a decrease in the intensity of carbon, fat and protein metabolism, a decrease in the ability of cells to carry out redox processes, which generally leads to the accumulation of incomplete decay products in the body (submetabolites - acetic, lactic acid, ammonia, amino acids ). As one of the causes of aging, biochemists consider errors in the synthesis of nucleic acids. J.A. Medvedev established that RNA and DNA are templates for building living proteins and carry hereditary information about their chemical structure. With age, this mechanism ages, allowing errors in the reproduction of the specificity of living matter (every year the chains become shorter by 1 molecule).

Changes are also noted at the level of functional systems. So, in the cell-tissue system, there is an increase, proliferation of connective tissue in the vessels, skeletal muscles, kidneys and other organs. The composition of the connective tissue includes proteins, collagen, elastin, which, changing in old age, become chemically inert. This causes oxygen starvation, poor nutrition and death of specific cells of various organs, which leads to the growth of connective tissue.

Negative shifts also occur in the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, nervous and other systems in the process of involution of the body. Of particular importance are the processes occurring during the period of aging in the nervous system. A decrease in the energy potential due to a weakening of the intensity of energy generation (tissue respiration and glycolysis) occurs in different parts of the brain at different rates. So, changes in the brain stem are more significant and more significant than in the cerebellum and both hemispheres. Deviations from the general morphological law of development at different times occur in favor of the higher parts of the brain. The high relative stability of metabolic processes in these departments is necessary for greater preservation of neurons that process, transmit, and store accumulated information. The more complex the nervous structure, the more opportunities it has for its preservation. The reflex structure as a whole, as a more complex formation, thanks to multicellular contacts, retains its efficiency and size for a long time due to more stable elements. Extremely pronounced redundancy and complexity of the CNS contribute to its morphological and functional preservation.

During the period of gerontogenesis, the processes of excitation and inhibition are weakened, however, in this case, the frontal deterioration of functioning nervous system generally not observed. In young and old people (from 20 to 104 years old), conditioned motor reflexes change in different ways, depending on the reinforcement. The most preserved is the defensive conditioned reflex; on defensive reinforcement, differentiations are easily worked out. The food reflex in elderly and old people is developed more slowly, and differentiation on food reinforcement is developed with difficulty already after 55 years, and at 80 years and older it does not occur at all. These data confirm the pronounced heterochrony of the conditioned reflex activity of the brain right up to old age.

Heterochrony is also found in the fact that with age, primarily the process of inhibition and mobility of nervous processes age, the latent periods of nervous reactions lengthen (in the senior group some reactions had a latent period of up to 25 s). Individualization is expressed at the level of not only the first, but also the second signaling system. Nevertheless, there are people who, until old age, differ not only in safety, but also in high rates of time for speech and other reactions. The speech factor generally contributes to the safety of a person during the period of gerontogenesis. B.G. Ananiev wrote that “speech-thinking, second-signal functions resist the general process of aging and themselves undergo involutional shifts much later than all other mental functions. These most important acquisitions of the historical nature of man become the decisive factor in the ontogenetic evolution of man.

In general, in the analysis of gerontogenesis, it should be noted that there is an increase in inconsistency, multidirectionality and, at the same time, individualization of age-related changes in various parts of the central nervous system: the upcoming changes do not fit into the picture of a uniform, harmonic extinction of the brain.

Adaptation of the body to aging is achieved through the mobilization of reserve forces. So, for example, glycolysis can be activated, the activity of many enzymes increases, the activity of factors associated with DNA “repair” increases, adaptive functional mechanisms develop in the central nervous system (protective inhibition increases during prolonged work, the sensitivity of nerve structures to a number of chemical substances- hormones, mediators), smaller doses of insulin, adrenaline, thyroxine, etc. are produced. Biological adaptive mechanisms also include an increase in the number of nuclei in many cells of the liver, kidneys, heart, skeletal muscles, nervous system, which improves metabolic processes between the structures of the nucleus and cytoplasm. Electron microscopic studies also show the appearance of giant mitochondria in old age, accumulating energy reserves.

In general, the weakening and destruction of some elements and systems leads to the intensification and "tension" of others, which contributes to the preservation of the body. This phenomenon is called the polarization effect. Another effect of gerontogenesis (reserve effect) consists in the replacement of some mechanisms by others, reserve, more ancient and therefore more resistant to the aging factor. This leads to a change in the functional and morphological structures of the living system. During the aging period, there is also a compensation effect, when existing systems take on functions that were not characteristic of them before, thus compensating for the work of weakened or destroyed systems. All this leads to the emergence of new mechanisms of vital activity of an aging organism, contributing to its preservation and survival. This way of increasing biological activity is called the design effect.

The development of a person continues in old age, but if until now he looked at the world through the prism of himself and his achievements in the world around him, then in old age he sees himself through the eyes of the world and again turns inward, to his life experience, realized goals and opportunities. in terms of their analysis and evaluation. For many people approaching the age of 60, it becomes obvious the need to reflect on the life path in terms of assessing its implementation and assessing the prospects for the future. Typical reflections of this time are: “how time flies”, “how quickly life passed”, “it is not clear what so much time was spent on”, “if there was a lot of time ahead, I would…”, “how little has been passed dear, how many mistakes have been made, etc.

Researchers of this period of life especially note the age of about 56 years, when people who are on the verge of aging experience the feeling that it is possible and necessary to overcome difficult times once again, to try, if necessary, to change something in their own lives. Most aging people experience this crisis as the last opportunity to realize in life what they considered the meaning or purpose of their life, although some, starting from this age, begin to simply “serve out” the time of life until death, “wait in the wings”, believing that age does not give a chance to seriously change something in fate. The choice of this or that strategy depends on personal qualities and the assessments that a person gives to his own life.

E. Erickson considered old age to be a stage of personality development, at which it is possible either to acquire such a quality as integrativity - the integrity of the personality (ego-integrity), or to experience despair from the fact that life is almost over, but it was not lived the way it was wanted and planned.

E. Erickson identifies several characteristics of experiencing a sense of integrativity:

1. it is an ever-increasing personal confidence in its propensity for order and meaningfulness;
2. it is post-narcissistic love of a human person (and not an individual) as an experience that expresses some kind of world order and spiritual meaning, no matter what price they get;
3. it is the acceptance of one's only life path as the only proper one and not in need of replacement;
4. it is a new, different from the former, love for one's parents;
5. it is a comradely, participatory, connected attitude to the principles of remote times and various activities in the form in which they were expressed in the words and results of these activities.

The bearer of such personal integrity, although he understands the relativity of all possible life paths that give meaning to human efforts, is nevertheless ready to defend the dignity of his own path from all physical and economic threats. The type of integrity developed by his culture or civilization becomes the "spiritual heritage of the fathers", the seal of origin. In the face of this ultimate consolidation, his death loses its power. At this stage of development, wisdom comes to a person, which E. Erickson defines as a detached interest in life in the face of death.

Wisdom E. Erickson proposes to understand as a form of such an independent and at the same time active relationship of a person with his life limited by death, which is characterized by the maturity of the mind, careful deliberation of judgments, and deep comprehensive understanding. For most people, the essence of it is cultural tradition.

Loss or absence of ego-integration leads to nervous system disorder, feelings of hopelessness, despair, fear of death. Here, the life path actually passed by a person is not accepted by him as the limit of life. Despair expresses the feeling that there is too little time left to try to start life over, arrange it differently and try to achieve personal integrity in a different way. Despair is masked by disgust, misanthropy, or chronic contemptuous dissatisfaction with certain social institutions and individuals. Be that as it may, all this testifies to a person’s contempt for himself, but quite often “a million torments” do not add up to one big repentance.

The end of the life cycle also gives rise to "final questions" that no great philosophical or religious system passes by. Therefore, any civilization, according to E. Erickson, can be assessed by the importance it attaches to the full life cycle of an individual, since this value (or its absence) affects the beginnings life cycles the next generation and influences the formation of a child's basic trust (distrust) in the world.

No matter what abyss these “last questions” lead individuals to, a person, as a psychosocial creature, by the end of his life, inevitably finds himself in the face of a new version of the identity crisis, which can be fixed by the formula “I am that which will outlive me.” Then all the criteria of vital individual strength (faith, will power, purposefulness, competence, fidelity, love, care, wisdom) pass from the stages of life into the life of social institutions. Without them, the institutions of socialization fade away; but even without the spirit of these institutions, permeating the patterns of care and love, instruction and training, no power can emerge from a mere succession of generations.

In a certain respect, most of the processes of individual life acquire a stable character by the age of 63-70, which gives rise to the experience of “life completeness”. A person is ready for the fact that a decline in mental strength and physical capabilities begins further, that the time is coming for greater dependence on others, that he will participate less in solving social and professional problems, that his social ties and personal desires will weaken, etc.

Most of the destructive processes that occur in old age are above the threshold of consciousness, being reflected in it only in the form of a number of painful symptoms (physical inactivity, stress, somatic and psychosomatic problems). That is why enhanced conscious control and regulation of biological processes are included in the way of life of old people and mean the strengthening of the role of a person as a person and subject of activity in the preservation and transformation of one's own individual qualities. The participation of the individual in the creation of his own healthy lifestyle life contributes to the preservation of its individual organization and regulation of further mental development. Conscious regulation of the age dynamics of functional systems is carried out through the emotional and psychomotor spheres, as well as speech.

The increase in inconsistency and unevenness is also noticeable in the functioning mental processes. So, starting from the age of 40, loudness auditory sensitivity in the high-frequency range (4000-16000 Hz) gradually, but unevenly, decreases. In the middle range, where phonetic, speech sounds are located, there are no special changes. At the same time, low-frequency sounds (32–200 Hz) retain their signal value even in the very late ontogeny. This means that the deterioration of the auditory analyzer is selective, due to both the historical nature of man and the protective functions of the body.

From 25 to 80 years of age are declining at an uneven rate different types color sensitivity. For example, by the age of 50, sensitivity to yellow remains practically unchanged, and to green it decreases at a slower pace. For red and blue colors (i.e., for the extreme - short and long-wavelength parts of the spectrum), the sensitivity drops much faster.

Complex age-related dynamics is revealed in the study of visual-spatial functions. So, for example, the visual function and sensory field of vision are characterized by a fairly high safety up to 69 years. In relatively more early dates(after 50 years) there is a general deterioration in visual acuity and volume of the perceptual field. There is no direct relationship between the period of maturation and the period of involution: functions that reach maturity in the early (eye) or late periods (for example, the field of vision is formed in school years), may be equally preserved up to 70 years, which indicates their important role throughout life.

With age, the asymmetry of various psychological functions may increase: for example, one side of the body may be more sensitive to vibrational or thermal stimulation than the other, one eye or ear may be more functionally intact than the other.

Memory studies have shown that in the period after 70 years of age, rote memorization mainly suffers, and logical memory is best preserved. Figurative memory weakens more than semantic memory, but is preserved better than mechanical imprinting. The basis of memory strength at an older age is internal semantic connections. For example, in an associative experiment, an 87-year-old subject answers the stimulus word “train” with “car”, etc. Fixing their behavior in people over 70 years of age is weaker compared to long-term memory. The deformations are especially strong in figurative memory, where perception and memorization are not accompanied by the organizing function of speech. Semantic, logical memory becomes the leading type of memory in old age, although emotional memory continues to function.

In the process of gerontogenesis, verbal and non-verbal intelligence undergoes changes. According to the English gerontologist D.B. Bromley, the decrease in non-verbal functions becomes pronounced by the age of 40, and verbal functions from that moment progress intensively, reaching their maximum in the period of 40-45 years. This indicates that speech-cogitative secondary signal functions resist the general process of aging.

The work of mental functions in old age is affected by labor activity carried out or continued by a person, since it leads to sensitization of the functions included in it and thereby contributes to their preservation.

Although aging is an inevitable biological fact, nevertheless, the socio-cultural environment in which it occurs has an impact on it. The mental health of a modern person at any phase of life is largely determined by his involvement in communication.

The older a person becomes, the more, due to objective reasons, his social ties narrow and social activity decreases. This is due, firstly, to the termination of the mandatory professional activity, naturally entailing the establishment and renewal of a system of social ties and obligations; very few old people continue to actively participate in business life (as a rule, these are those who avoid addiction and value self-confidence and independence).

Secondly, his age cohort is gradually “washed out”, and many people close to him and friends die or there are difficulties in maintaining relationships (due to moving friends to children or other relatives) - “there are no others, and those are far away.” In a number of works on the problems of aging, it is noted that, in principle, any person grows old alone, since, due to advanced age, he gradually moves away from other people. Elderly people are very dependent on side lines of kinship and indirect relationships, trying to maintain them in the absence of other close relatives. It is curious that many older people do not want to be reminded of old age, and because of this they do not like to communicate with their peers (especially with those who complain of old age and illness), preferring the company of younger people, usually representatives of the next generation. generations (at the same time, they often reveal a social attitude that the young despise the old and that the old have no place either in other age cohorts or in society as a whole).

Lack of contact with society can cause emotional changes in the elderly: discouragement, pessimism, anxiety and fear of the future. Elderly people are almost always accompanied, explicitly or implicitly, by the thought of death, especially in cases of the loss of relatives and friends, which, unfortunately, are quite frequent in old age. When every tenth person drops out of the ranks of peers at this age, it can be difficult to find someone else in their place from the younger generation. In this sense, not European, but Asian cultures, such as China or Japan, are in a more advantageous position, which do not force generations to walk in dense, uniform age lines, but allow them to merge with each other, exchanging experience. In these cultures, the elderly are given the role of patriarchs, elders, which allows them to stay involved in social ties longer.

Thirdly, an old person quickly gets tired of intense social contacts, many of which do not seem to him to be of actual importance, and he himself limits them. An elderly person often wants to be alone, "to take a break from people." The circle of communication of an elderly person is most often limited to the closest relatives and their acquaintances and a few close friends.

Involvement in communication inevitably decreases with age, which exacerbates the problem of loneliness. But the problem of declining social activity and loneliness is experienced more acutely by old people living in cities than in rural areas, due to the specificity of the very lifestyles of the city and village. Older people with a healthy psyche and somatically healthy are more willing and longer to maintain and maintain existing social ties, often giving them the character of a ritual (for example, phone calls every night, a weekly shopping trip, monthly meetings of friends, an annual joint celebration of anniversaries, etc. ). Women, on average, retain more social contacts due to the fact that they have more social roles; more often they have more friends than men. However, it is older women who complain of loneliness and lack of social contacts more often than men.

After 60 years, the realization of the social exclusion of the elderly from subsequent generations gradually comes, which is experienced painfully, especially in societies where there is no necessary social support for old age. Many old people often live with a feeling of uselessness, abandonment, lack of demand, depreciation. This means that in old age there is not only a narrowing of interpersonal contacts, but also a violation of the very quality of human relationships. Emotionally unbalanced older people, keenly sensing this, often prefer demoralizing voluntary seclusion to the humiliation they see in the risk of becoming a burden and experiencing the mocking arrogance of the young. These experiences can also become the basis of senile suicides, along with material insecurity, loneliness, and the fear of dying alone.

Social networks are influenced by a wide range of factors. Thus, it is known that people over 60 often complain about their health and age, although they do not look either very sick or very old. L.M. Terman noted that such phenomena are often observed after the loss loved one(widowhood) or in a situation of aging alone, i.e. lonely older people are more likely to feel sick. In this case, the factors contributing to the fact that a person begins to “feel his age”, experience despair and depression following processes: experience of grief and observance of mourning; the need to look for new people who will accept a person into their circle and fill the “vacuum” that has formed; the need to learn how to solve many problems on your own, etc. On the contrary, a person experiences loneliness less acutely if he feels comfort and stability of existence, is happy at home, satisfied with his material conditions and place of residence, if he has the potential to make contacts with other people at his own request, if he is involved in any then daily, albeit optional, activities, if he is focused on elementary, but necessarily long-term projects (waiting for a great-grandchild, buying a car or defending his son’s dissertation, harvesting from an apple tree planted once, etc.).

Until now, we have considered, as it were, the "vertical" of old age, its position in the structure of a person's integral life. Now let's turn to its "horizontal", i.e. actually to the meaningful extension of age, to the mental make-up of old people, to psychological portraits of old age. Here, for example, is how an old person is characterized in the work of E. Averbukh: “Old people have reduced well-being, self-awareness, self-esteem, an increased feeling of low value, self-doubt, and dissatisfaction with themselves. The mood, as a rule, is lowered, various disturbing fears prevail: loneliness, helplessness, impoverishment, death. Old people become gloomy, irritable, misanthropes, pessimists. The ability to rejoice is reduced, they no longer expect anything good from life. Interest in the outside world, in the new, is declining. They don’t like everything, hence the grumbling, grouchiness. They become selfish and self-centered, more introverted... the circle of interests narrows, there is an increased interest in the experiences of the past, in the reassessment of this past. Along with this, interest in one's body increases, in various unpleasant sensations, often observed in old age, hypochondrization occurs. Uncertainty in oneself and in the future makes old people more petty, stingy, overcautious, pedantic, conservative, lacking initiative, etc. The control over their reactions is weakened in the elderly, they do not control themselves well enough. All these changes, in interaction with a decrease in the sharpness of perception, memory, and intellectual activity, create a peculiar appearance of an old man and make all old people to some extent similar to each other.

In elderly people, the motivational sphere is gradually changing, and an important factor here is the absence of the need to work daily, to fulfill the obligations assumed. According to A. Maslow, the leading needs in the elderly and senile age are bodily needs, the need for security and reliability.

Many old people begin to live "one day", filling each such day with simple concerns about health and life support and minimal comfort. Even simple household chores and simple problems become significant for maintaining a sense of employment, the need to do something, to be needed by yourself and others.

As a rule, old people do not make long-term plans - this is due to a general change in the temporal life perspective. Psychological time changes in old age, and now life in the present and memories of the past are more important than the future, although certain "threads" in the near, foreseeable future are still stretched.

Most of the most important events and accomplishments of their lives, old people, as a rule, refer to the past. Due to causal and target relationships, past and future events of human life form a complex system of ideas about it, which in everyday language is called "fate", and in psychology - "a subjective picture of the life path". This picture is like a network, the nodes of which are events, and the threads are the connections between them. Some connections connect events that have already occurred to each other; they belong entirely to the past, they have become the content of the development and life experience of man. Old people, to a greater extent than people of other ages, tend to be educated on their own generalized experience, on the example of personal life. This desire to “leave a mark” in life is realized in the upbringing of children and grandchildren or in the desire to have students and followers (old people are often drawn to young people) who are able to take into account the mistakes and achievements of a life already lived. An old person extracts from his own life experience one of the realized connections between events (“I became a good specialist because I studied diligently at school and university”) and shows its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. The old people have many such realized connections, and it is clear that they have something to educate the younger generation on. As a rule, upbringing also involves stretching connections into the future: adults try to connect in the minds of the child (and the elderly - in the minds of adults) as a cause and effect two events that are possible in the future ("If you study well, it's easier to go to university"). Such a connection, where both events belong to the chronological future, is called potential. The third type of connections are actual connections connecting the events of the chronological past and the future: they stretch from past events to expected ones, crossing the moment of the chronological present.

If the realized connections belong to the world of memory, memories, and the potential ones belong to imagination, dreams and daydreams, then the actual connections are the current life in its intense incompleteness, where the past is fraught with the future, and the future grows from the past. In psychology, the so-called Zeigarnik effect is known: actions that were started but not completed are remembered better. Between the beginning of the action and the expected result, there is an actual connection, and we clearly remember the unfinished, not completed. It is always alive in us, always in the present. By the way, this explains the facts of painful experiences of the unrealized past by the elderly.

The past not only psychologically approaches in old age, but also seems clearer and more understandable. Nevertheless, in old age, the orientation towards a certain temporal orientation, described by A. Bergson and K. Jung, is preserved: there are old people who live only in the past (emotional, depressive); there are those who live in the present (impulsive, feeling), but there are also those who place their perspectives in the future (initiative). Orientation to the future is also associated with greater self-confidence, a feeling of being "the master of one's own destiny". It is no coincidence that one of the achievements of psychotherapy in old age is a change of orientation - from the past to the future.

Is it true that old people want to be young again? It turns out not. As a rule, it is unrealized and immature personalities who want to remain “forever young”, people with unstable self-esteem, deprived and frustrated by life. And for most old people, the feeling of “fulfillment” of age, of one’s own life (if it exists, of course) is more valuable: many old people say that if life were given a second time, they would live it almost the same way. In the experiments of A. A. Chronicle, the subjects, having accepted the entire content of their life as 100%, had to evaluate its realization. The average figure was 41%, but the range was from 10 to 90%. Knowing how a person evaluates what has been done and lived, one can establish his psychological age. To do this, it is enough to multiply the personal “fulfillment indicator” by the number of years that the person himself expects to live. The psychological age is higher, the more a person expects to live and the more he managed to do.

Changes in the course of development in gerontogenesis largely depend on the degree of maturity of a person as a person and a subject of activity. A huge role here is played by education received at previous age stages, as it contributes to the preservation of verbal, mental and mnemonic functions until old age, and occupation. Persons of retirement age are characterized by a high preservation of those functions that acted as the leading factor in their professional activity. So, for people engaged in intellectual work, the vocabulary and general erudition do not change; older engineers retain many non-verbal functions; older accountants perform just as well on tests of speed and accuracy as younger ones. It is interesting that drivers, sailors, pilots retain sharpness and field of vision, intensity of color perception, night vision, deep eye until old age, and those whose professional activity was based on the perception of near, not far space (mechanics, draftsmen, seamstresses), progressively lost their sight in old age. This is explained by the result of the accumulation of previous experience of hand-eye coordination. Those functions that are the main components of working capacity are sensitized in the course of labor activity.

Of particular importance is the implementation of creative activities by older people. The results of the study of biographies creative people show that their productivity and working capacity do not decrease in late ontogenesis in different areas science and art.

One of the curious phenomena of old age is sudden bursts of creativity. So, in the 50s. 20th century newspapers all over the world bypassed the sensation: 80-year-old Grandma Moses began to write original art canvases, and her exhibitions were a huge success with the public. Many old people followed her example, not always with the same success, but always with great personal gain. For any society, a special task is to organize the lifetime of aging generations. All over the world, this is done not only by social assistance services (hospices and shelters for the elderly), but also by specially created social institutions for adult education, new forms of leisure and a new culture of family relations, systems for organizing free time for aging but healthy people (travelling, clubs for interests, etc.).

In old age, not only the changes that occur to a person are important, but also the attitude of a person to these changes. In the typology of F. Giese, 3 types of old people and old age are distinguished:

1. an old negativityist who denies any signs of old age and decrepitude;
2. an extroverted old man (in the typology of C.G. Jung), recognizing the onset of old age, but coming to this recognition through external influences and by observing the surrounding reality, especially in connection with retirement (observations of grown-up youth, divergence of views and interests, death of relatives and friends, innovations in the field of technology and social life, changes in the situation in the family);
3. introverted type, acutely experiencing the aging process; dullness appears in relation to new interests, a revival of memories of the past - reminiscences, an interest in questions of metaphysics, inactivity, a weakening of emotions, a weakening of sexual moments, a desire for peace.

Of course, these estimates are approximate, no matter how much we want to bring old people under one type or another.

No less interesting is the classification of the socio-psychological types of old age by I. S. Kohn, built on the basis of the dependence of the type on the nature of the activity with which old age is filled:

1. active, creative old age, when a person goes on a well-deserved rest and, having parted with professional work, continues to participate in public life, the education of youth, etc.;
2. old age with good social and psychological adaptability, when the energy of an aging person is directed to arranging his own life - material well-being, recreation, entertainment and self-education - for all that there was no time for before;
3. "female" type of aging - in this case, the application of the old man's strength is in the family: in housework, family chores, raising grandchildren, in the country; since homework is inexhaustible, such old people have no time to mope or be bored, but their life satisfaction is usually lower than that of the two previous groups;
4. old age in health care (“male” type of aging) - in this case, moral satisfaction and fulfillment of life is provided by health care, which stimulates various types of activity; but in this case, a person can attach excessive importance to his real and imaginary ailments and illnesses, and his consciousness is characterized by increased anxiety.

These 4 types of I.S. Cohn considers them to be psychologically well, but there are also negative types of development in old age. For example, old grumblers who are dissatisfied with the state of the world around them, criticize everyone but themselves, teach everyone and terrorize those around them with endless claims, can be classified as such. Another variant of the negative manifestation of old age is lonely and sad losers who are disappointed in themselves and their own lives. They blame themselves for their real and imaginary missed opportunities, are not able to drive away the gloomy memories of life's mistakes, which makes them deeply unhappy.

Aging is a natural, natural process of changing the body at the physiological, psychological, social level. All aspects inherent in this period of human life are dealt with by the science of gerontology.

It considers the aging process in a complex, including not only personal, but also social, economic aspects of the life of older people. Scientists note that life expectancy, the period of the onset of aging, the duration of this period have noticeably shifted in time over the past centuries. However, the onset of old age is always accompanied by unchanged physiological signs and psychological problems.

What changes are characterized by old age and senile age, features, problems of these periods, what? How to delay aging? Let's talk on www.site today about it:

Factors that slow down the aging process

How young we look, feel good, having stepped over the next age threshold, largely depends on the genetic predisposition, but not only. Studies conducted by Swedish scientists (University of Gothenburg) have shown that the life expectancy of each person, the period of painful old age, largely depends on his lifestyle.

In particular, it has been proven that physical, intellectual activity, an undying interest in life, the rejection of alcohol and tobacco contribute to an increase in life expectancy, not burdened by many diseases, by about 14 years.

Features of the elderly and senile age

Features of old age

Nevertheless, after the age of 65, the anatomical and physiological system of each person undergoes a number of serious changes at the genetic, immune, and hormonal levels. All tissues, organs, body systems change. The state of health is deteriorating, the social position of a person is changing.

During this period, an elderly person needs additional vitality. He receives them from physical, intellectual activity, communication, warm relations in the family, a positive life position.

Maintaining health helps a varied, fortified diet, affordable medical care. For some, religion becomes a source of vitality, inspiration and health.

It is known that after retirement, many people discover new abilities in themselves, are engaged in the realization of their desires and opportunities: they spend time fishing, attend theaters, concert halls. They are happy to tinker in the country, meet with interesting people and can finally take up their favorite hobby, for which there was never enough time before.

Therefore, in order to delay the onset of old age, it is very important for older people to learn how to enjoy life, take care of their health, appearance, to live an active lifestyle.

Features of old age

Old age is followed by inevitable old age - the final period of individual personal development. At present, due to the increase medium duration life, the onset of old age is defined as age 75 years or older (WHO Regional Office for Europe classification). People over 90 are defined as centenarians.

With the onset of old age, age-related changes become more pronounced: the state of the nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and other systems worsens. Many thousands of cells die daily, blood vessels, muscles, tendons, connective tissue lose firmness and elasticity. The body begins to function worse and worse:

The work of the heart slows down, the activity of blood circulation decreases, the process of degeneration of the kidneys, liver, and digestive system begins. Reactions become weaker, muscles lose strength, bones and joints change.

Internal changes are reflected in the external appearance: it becomes flabby, wrinkled skin, pigmentation occurs. Grey, thin hair, teeth fall out.

Old age is an age of calm and contemplation. Of course, the period of physical activity is noticeably reduced, but old age should not be an obstacle to being active, walking in the fresh air, communicating with friends and family.

Even after 70 years, many people remain active, in demand, take care of themselves, have their own position in life. Their well-being is strongly influenced by the relationship of relatives to them, the atmosphere in the family, good care and nutrition.

In continuation of our topic, let's talk about the main problems experienced by people of early and late retirement age:

Problems of the elderly and senile age

Elderly and senile age - the time when they overcome psychological problems. Here's what leads to them:

Slowdown of important mental functions, weakening of memory, attention, decreased ability to think, analyze. Weakened ability to adapt.

Stress, feelings associated with the loss of friends, loved ones, disability.

Decreased self-esteem due to a sense of one's age.

Lack of communication, loneliness, lack of interest in modern life. Many people live in the past, their memories.

Depression, suicidal thoughts associated with a lack of life prospects, illness, uselessness of the family, former employees, fear of imminent death.

It should be noted that many of the described psychological problems begin to appear in people much earlier, from about 40-50 years old.

Physiological features of the elderly and senile age

Decreased body functions, disruption of internal organs and tissues. Muscles weaken, bones become thinner, joints hurt, eyesight, hearing, etc. deteriorate.

The presence of chronic diseases. According to doctors, the elderly, old people have at least five ailments with a chronic course, which accompany and reinforce each other. There is a frequent exacerbation of chronic diseases, due to the weakening of the endocrine, immune systems, metabolic disorders.

The development of diseases characteristic of this age: sclerosis, senile, etc.

Finally:

Aging, which we continue to talk about on this page www.site, is always a separate, personal story of each person and everyone perceives this process individually. Someone withdraws into himself, suffers from loneliness and lack of demand. And someone is looking for strength and new opportunities to continue an active life.

We must be aware of what changes in the elderly and senile age will lie in wait for us and understand the features and problems of the elderly and old people. We must remember that old people are someone's grandparents, moms and dads. And many of them are experienced workers, professionals, mentors.

To make their lives easier, to help them adapt to new realities, protect them from loneliness, pay more attention, use their knowledge and life experience. A busy life, good care, affordable medical care will save the elderly from most of the problems that are intractable.

UNESCO's slogan - "Education through life" - is relevant today more than ever. The flow of information is so great and replenishes so quickly that in order to navigate it, you need to constantly learn. Educational activity has ceased to be only the prerogative of the young. Moreover, education in modern society is considered as the most important condition for a full life of people of any age, including the period of aging.
As for other categories of adults, for older people education is the most important condition for a full life in modern society. At the same time, education, on the one hand, helps older people in solving life problems, on the other hand, helps to satisfy the need for new information.

For an elderly person, education can act not only as a way of integrating into the communicative and cultural space, but also as a means of ensuring personal development and, accordingly, psychological stability. Thus, “the education of the elderly is an integral part of education, the main task of which is to promote the comprehensive development of a person during that period of his life when he reaches the pre- and retirement age”

Forms of education in old age. Education at retirement and pre-retirement age can be carried out in different ways: from studying at an official educational institution (when a person becomes a student and, on an equal basis with the young, fulfills all the requirements for him) to self-education. Recently, more and more popular, both abroad and in our country, are becoming forms of education aimed specifically at older people. The difference between these educational programs is that they are aimed at meeting the various needs and interests of people of this particular age category.
Thus, in the most general form, 3 different forms of inclusion of older people in the educational process can be distinguished. Firstly, old man maybe officially become a student of an educational institution. Often people in old age (especially if they have recently become pensioners) choose such forms of education that are associated with obtaining a new profession that requires a secondary or higher education in a new area for them. In Europe and the USA, this is a fairly common phenomenon in currently. In this case, they are included in the learning process not as "auditors", but as students who accept all the conditions of this form of education (program, system of credits, exams, etc.). Since there are no age limits today, such situations are increasingly common not only in foreign, but also in domestic practice.
Second, perhaps the most common form is self-education. As shown, for example, by a study conducted in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region(Sukhobskaya G.S., Bozhko N.M., 1998), the orientation towards cognition and spiritual culture is the most pronounced, dominating among older people aged 55-70.
What are sources of information , in which cognitive interest old people? The main sources of its implementation are books, mass media (radio, television, newspapers), communication. As sociological surveys show, films (serials) under the headings "Culture", "History", "Animal World" are of particular interest among television production. Politics occupies a special place. For men, it is also sports programs.
However, the level of self-realization in the intellectual and spiritual life of older people is not the same. A relatively small group of people, usually those who have received higher education, are quite self-sufficient. After retirement, they continue to be interested in books (not infrequently having entire libraries at home), and theatrical performances, and exhibitions, and television and radio programs, with a very careful selection of their own programs to watch and listen to.

motivesencouraging the elderly to get involved in the educational process.

What motivates older people to be interested in education? First of all, this is a spontaneous inner need for new knowledge, which practically does not leave a person until the end of days. Naturally, the nature and content of this need change over the years, but the need itself remains unsatisfied throughout life. Even the Roman philosopher Mark Thulius Cicero, in his treatise Cato the Elder, or On Old Age, noted that each age is characterized by its own interests and aspirations, and only death can exhaust and destroy them.

(As already noted, education has an integral impact on the personality of an elderly person. This is due to the fact that it helps to satisfy not only the need for new information, but also a number of other needs: the need for communication, psychological comfort, personal growth, etc.

Thus, education in modern society is considered as the most important condition for a full life of older people. At the same time, the solution of educational problems is closely connected with the solution of psychological and socio-psychological problems.

An analysis of the existing literature made it possible to identify the following possible reasons for the inclusion of older people in the educational process:

• advanced training, higher education, if a person is going to continue working (there are many cases abroad when people received their first bachelor's degree at retirement age (Taranchuk A., 2005);
• getting a new profession (retraining), which is more typical for young pensioners;
• the realization of unused opportunities, or those that found their realization only in the form of a hobby, which is often associated with creative self-realization; (It should be specially noted that self-realization in the sphere of established interests (hobbies) is one of the most significant forms of active involvement in the society of an elderly person. Most often it is a direct continuation of a person’s previous creative life. If an elderly person has not interrupted a real connection with his creative activity and people who inspire him to create is his lucky chance in life. However, this chance falls to relatively few gifted people, but only to those who have realized their gift in the profession. Much more people who are very gifted by nature, but have not found The need to realize unused opportunities (or those that have found their realization only in the form of a hobby) prompts them to search for such forms of educational activities that contribute to the flowering of their talent in old age.).
• the need to acquire functional literacy: orientation in the achievements of modern civilization and the ability to use its fruits (Sukhobskaya G.S., Bozhko N.M., 1998), for example, the development of computer literacy;
• desire to cope with the situation of retirement (Mitina A.M., 2004);
• the need for a pleasant way of spending leisure time (for example, studying foreign language for "travelling" pensioners);
• an opportunity to find an interesting circle of contacts.

Education in all these cases not only allows maintaining the intellectual level, but the very achievement of the set goals brings satisfaction, creating a positive emotional background, maintains self-esteem, self-confidence.

The goals of education in old age are different from those in childhood and even adulthood. “The main goal (regardless of whether it is formulated by the listeners, implied or not realized at the beginning) can be formulated as understanding, comprehending oneself, other people and interacting with them, finally, the world around, oneself in society”

Orientation of the elderly target group, on self-knowledge and knowledge of other people is of particular importance in the process of education. Understanding oneself is inextricably linked with the formation of responsibility for oneself, with taking care of oneself. A significant part of the life of the older generation passed under the sign of overcoming "temporary difficulties", in a society where for the sake of a "bright future" it was almost a shameful thing to think about oneself. It is no coincidence that public polls show that representatives of the older generation do not know how to talk aloud about their personal lives. The education of older people is designed to instill in them the realization that they have the right to think about their needs and advocate for them. The acquisition of knowledge can help older people to take responsibility for themselves and their lives.
Understanding other people and interacting with them is also a very important aspect of older people's education. The solution of this problem is largely associated with the destruction of negative stereotypes of old age, which are still quite persistent. Let us dwell in more detail on the issue of importance In the process of education, older people also master new social roles. It is generally accepted that the development of a mature personality is determined by two social factors: work and family. These are the main areas where an adult satisfies his needs, realizes his abilities and social roles.

Involving in the educational process, each person pursues specific goals. Achieving them brings satisfaction, maintains self-confidence, allows you to maintain an intellectual level, maintains emotional stability.

At the same time, the meaning of teaching in old age is not only in obtaining knowledge and objective information. For the education of the elderly, it is essential to master the key competencies important for life in old age. Therefore, older people need objective scientific data for self-determination in life, i.e. knowledge acts as a means of comprehending life and oneself.

In addition, study in itself at this age is of value if it is necessary for the implementation of any activity.
“The level of competencies at retirement age is characterized by the following indicators:

• Assessment of the past life path in terms of changes taking place in society, new values;
• The ability to find compromises between what was expected (in the past) and achieved (in the present);
• Willingness to accept losses, known "limitations" in life;
• The ability to bypass life situations in which a person turns out to be insecure” (Key concepts of the project, 2001, pp. 21-22).

Thus, an elderly person who is involved in the educational process does not just receive additional information, he “strings” the acquired knowledge on the life, professional, spiritual experience that he has developed up to this point. As a result, an elderly person shows his activity not only in the implementation of educational activities, but also in building his own life as a whole. In other words, becoming the subject of education, a person correlates and mediates by his activity the contradictory circumstances of life and the tendencies of his own development, that is, he manifests himself as a subject of life activity.
Resources for older people in education . P. Wetzel notes that the vast majority of older people have significant educational resources. And here we are talking not only about the level of awareness. This can also include:

• significant life experience;
• solid professional experience;
• experience of learning at various stages of life (school, vocational training, various forms of leisure);
• experience of overcoming negative life situations (problems, crises, illnesses);
• social competence in communicating with other people (in the family, at work, with neighbors, friends);
• fantasy, energy in the development of cultural wealth, creativity.

Thus, the resources of older people involved in the educational process are primarily related to their experience: life, professional, communicative.

Using experience as a resource turns the older person into subject education.

Taking into account the characteristics of older people in the process of education. When organizing educational events for the elderly as a special age group, it must be remembered that mature personalities come to learn.
It is quite obvious that not only older people who are studying should adapt to the conditions of education, but the education system itself should in a certain way adapt to them. It is necessary that the methods, forms and content of training reflect the characteristics of the perception of the material and the formation of new skills and abilities in older people.

So, for example, the observations of M.E. Elyutina and E.E. Chekanova (Elyutina M.E., Chekanova E.E., 2003) showed that in old age, oral-auditory perception increases, in contrast to visually-oriented perception at a young age. When explaining this phenomenon, the authors rely on the ideas of B.G. Ananiev, the essence of which is that speech-thinking, secondary signal functions, having reached their peak after 40-45 years, resist the general process of aging and themselves undergo involutional shifts much later than all other psychophysical functions. “In other words, conversation, interpersonal speaking and listening become the most important way of forming meaning, the main way for people to understand each other” (Elyutina M.E., Chekanova E.E., 2003, p.48).
It is also important to take into account that the educational process includes older people with different social, life and cognitive experiences. The education of the elderly should be based on an individual approach and the desire to reveal each individual. At the same time, a personality can only reveal itself in a favorable atmosphere, so it is necessary to pay sufficient attention to creating and maintaining such a positive mood in the group. O. Agapova (Agapova O., 2000, p. 58) believes that in this sense it is useful to maintain solidarity between group members, which can be facilitated by the creation of a "History" or annals of the group.
In addition to individual and age features when developing educational programs for older people, it is necessary to take into account and generational traits. So, for example, D. Findeisen notes: “The generations that survived the war formed in themselves certain features of the collective community. become part of their collective memory. And this is different from those who have not experienced a similar experience.

Another important aspect is gender specifics. The retirement of spouses often leads to a change in male and female roles in the family. Men can take on some typical responsibilities, such as taking an interest in caring for relatives, cooking, and women taking up social activities.

Gender preferences in the content of educational programs are revealed. Men are ready to take part only in those educational programs that address accurate thinking. They give preference to empirical sciences such as economics, technology, natural sciences, law, etc. Accordingly, courses in art history, programs that appeal to the sphere of feelings, remain for the most part outside the sphere of male interests. However, as D. Findeisen suggests, “the coming generations will experience many changes, as the male and female roles in families change – and as a result, the opportunities and needs of men will change” (Findeizen D., 2002, p. 10).
The undoubted interest of the audience of older people is caused by lectures-conversations, lectures consultations, lectures-demonstrations, lectures-trainings. For all adults, and especially for the elderly, it is important appeal to personal values. A person in old age, if he constantly replenishes knowledge in the field of his interests, is no less flexible in his positions and assessments (and sometimes more) than a person at a young age, that is, he is able to change, clarify, etc. Another question is that he does not give them up too easily and simply, which is why he often creates the opinion that older people are stereotyped in their positions (not inclined to change them). Therefore, the arguments given in support of a particular thesis must be convincing and convincing enough to be accepted by an elderly person.

The learning process is carried out more efficiently when the following conditions are met. Firstly when the old and familiar are not crossed out, but when it is considered in a new context. Secondly when criticism of what is familiar to an elderly person is perceived by him less painfully , this is possible if it comes from a teacher whom the student trusts and who is ready to show the benefits of new knowledge, technique, method. Thirdly, studying proccess should bring pleasure, and this factor largely determines the choice of one or another method of working with listeners of the third age. In other words, maintaining a positive emotional background is an important condition for the effectiveness of education. Active learning methods can play a significant role in this.
An elderly person who is involved in educational activities, needs approval and encouragement, since the experience of systematic training is a thing of the past, and the fear of failure can lead to the fact that at a certain stage he will stop classes without bringing him to the desired finish.

The increased anxiety of many older people often leads to the fact that they cannot organically engage in the learning process and spend energy on their “protection”. At the same time, some extinguish their interest, being afraid, for example, to ask an extra question. They are ready to agree with everything that happens. Others who believe that " best protection- attack", direct energy mainly to prove their competence. Both of these ways create additional difficulties for both the elderly themselves and teachers, reducing the effectiveness of the educational process itself.
O. Agapova identified other difficulties and Problems, with which the teacher may encounter and which may slow down the learning process: skepticism of the elderly to the proposed information, norms taken from a past life, manifestation of helplessness or, conversely, authoritarianism, lack of a culture of dialogue, inability to hear another, verbosity.
Another problem that may arise in the process of educating older people is conflicts in the group. They arise when different points of view, positions collide. In order to "remove" emerging conflict situations in the group form of work, the teacher should use principle of mutual subordination, in which each member of the group at some point becomes an expert, leader, and each - on the contrary - "subordinate". This allows you to regulate relations between people, for some - by correcting leadership claims, for others - by developing the skills of an organizer.

Elderly people come to study voluntarily. However, some people leave. The reasons can be very different. The most common are the following:

• bad location: too far from home;
• time: inconvenient for other affairs, family;
• organization (or concept): not satisfied with the methods of work;
• contact: too many people participate in classes, discomfort appears, it is hard to hear, there are not enough comfortable places, etc.;
• incompatibility with other participants or the leader;
• values: the participant discovers that the values ​​that are important for this group are not close to him (Pedagogical conditions for the effectiveness of group work with the elderly, 2001, p. 35).

The organizers of the educational process for the elderly need to take into account these points. It is important to understand that when older people leave an educational project, this can be due to both objective and subjective reasons. Therefore, it is very important to monitor interests, values ​​and other factors both in the organization of the educational process and in its implementation, so that the necessary adjustments can be made.

Thus, taking into account the characteristics of the target group in the education of older people involves: firstly, the choice of such methods, forms and content of education that reflect the specifics of life experience, gender and generational characteristics, especially the perception of material and the formation of new skills in older people. Secondly, the application of the principle of "biography" allows you to rethink not only your life, but also the history of your country in a new way. Thirdly, the basis should be an individual approach and the desire to reveal each personality. Fourth, it is necessary to use the "feedback" principle, which allows you to quickly identify the advantages and disadvantages of the work. Fifth, it is necessary to pay sufficient attention to creating and maintaining a favorable psychological atmosphere. Sixth, to prevent conflict situations in a group, it is necessary to use the principle of mutual subordination, in which the listeners change roles (leader / subordinate).
Significantly change teacher functions: the informational one fades into the background, and the organizational and coordinating, advisory one comes to the fore. If necessary, the teacher can advise and look for experts on a particular issue. In addition, an important point in the activities of the teacher is the function of psychological support (psychotherapeutic function).

What kind results what can be expected from the inclusion of older people in the educational process? Based on a broad understanding of education, which acts as a way of socialization, the effects of social and educational work with older people also follow: they are associated, first of all, with the reintegration of the latter into active life society, which should ultimately lead to a harmonization of relations between older people and society and an improvement in the quality of life of older people.

How can such a result be achieved? O. Agapova (Agapova O., 2000) identifies the following factors:

• the inclusion of older people in new areas of activity for them;
• the emergence as a result of social and educational activities of a subjective sense of self-importance;
• the emergence and expansion of contacts and communication with other people - whether they are peers and colleagues in the course, or wards - patients, children, etc .;
• development of new information fields;
• search and acquisition of a new meaning (meanings) of life, including through the analysis of one's own life, one's biography;
• better understanding of oneself, other people and society;
• development in practice of democratic values. They underlie active learning methods and involve the development of the ability to listen and hear, take the position of another person, teach dialogue as a way of civilizational search for solutions.

Today, the main task of state and public organizations in relation to the elderly is, first of all, their social protection. Even those organizations that are largely focused on meeting the cultural and educational needs of the elderly do not relieve themselves of these functions. It is impossible to separate educational tasks from socio-psychological tasks. Education for a person of advanced age can act as a means social protection and psychological stability, as well as a way of integration into the communicative and cultural space. However, it would be a limitation even in modern conditions to reduce the functions of education only to purely protective and adaptive ones.