They are entering their “peak”

There is a deep-rooted stereotype among older people: the image of a grumpy old personrigid or disconnected from reality. But psychology has been accumulating evidence for decades that points in just the opposite direction. Aging is not only a biological process of wear and tear, but it is also a psychological refinement process.

We are wrong. science itself points it out in different studies scientific studies done in recent years. Its conclusion is forceful in this sense: the age range from 60 to 70 years represents a “peak” of emotional well-being and social competence that younger generations, paradoxically, are losing.

Maturation effect. Personality is not an immovable stone. According to the theory of the Big Fivewhich has the five great personality traits, the passage of time sculpts us for the better. Longitudinal studies where they followed the same group of people for a long time were able to see that from the age of 60 is where it occurs. a positive evolution in three different areas:

• Awareness: they become more responsible, organized and focused.
• Greater emotional stability: neuroticism It drops drastically from this moment on, and the emotional storms of youth give way to a calm that is not apathy, but regulation.
• Kindness increases as a tendency towards cooperation and altruism is also increased. Although logically there are always totally different cases.

Because. Just like when the ripe fruit It starts to taste richer, the same thing seems to happen in people due to ‘natural ripening’. It’s not just that today’s adults are different, it’s that the human brain seems programmed to prioritize stability and social cohesion as we age.

Boomer advantage. It’s not just that aging improves us ‘as standard’, it’s that current cohorts are aging ‘better’ than their predecessors. In this case we are talking about the comparison of people who They were born between 1946 and 1964 and those of the silent generation. There is a big difference depending on where you were born.

Recent research suggests that those born between 1940 and 1950 are entering old age with an intrinsic capacity greater than that of previous generations. This includes not only physical vitality, but greater cognitive and psychological capacity.

An exhaustive study on cohort differences in the Big Five has detected that, although maturation makes us calmer, boomers They maintain higher levels of extraversion and openness to experience than their parents had at the same age. That is to say: they are older, more sociable, more curious and with greater personal agency.

Young people are losing. Maybe the most counterintuitive fact of recent years comes from Sapien Labs. In its reports on the mental state of the world, the Mental State of the Worldhave identified an alarming generation gap, but this time in favor of the elderly.

While the mental health of young people aged 18 to 24 has deteriorated noticeably, those over 65 remain rock-solid in this regard. An important point in this case is the relational resiliencesince before the pandemic and even more so after, those over 70 years old showed ‘Social Self’ rates much higher than those of generation z. This way, they have a stronger self-image and rely less on external validation.

Less dependency. Studies focused on people over 70 years of age They report feeling less external control over their lives than they did 20 years ago. They have internalized norms of autonomy and active aging that protect them psychologically.

Recent cohorts over 70 report feeling less external control over their lives than those 20 years ago. They have internalized norms of autonomy and active aging that protect them psychologically.

The peak of wisdom. Finally, there is the question of wisdom. Not in the mystical sense, but as a cognitive measure of performance. The ability to integrate facts with emotional values, what psychologists call “personal wisdom,” peaks in late old age.

Studies with German samples have validated that this competence is an evolutionary advantage of age: the older brain is more efficient at managing complex social and emotional conflicts, something that no youthful “fluid intelligence” can easily replicate. This is an explanation of why our elders are great advisors on many issues.

Images | micheile henderson

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