Abstract
The present study aims to evaluate the effect of memory decline, emotional state deterioration, and low self-regard on the quality of life among older adults. The hypothesis is, “The decline in memory, emotional state, and self-regard among the elderly has a detrimental effect on their well-being.” The research will utilize a cross-sectional design with a convenience sampling procedure. The expected sample size is 150 individuals aged 65 and above. The study’s findings will be valuable to society as they will shed light on the cognitive transformations that are associated with the aging process and the extent to which they influence the life quality of older adults. This knowledge can be used to promote the development of interventions and strategies for improving the quality of life of older adults.
Introduction
Psychological changes related to old age pose serious threats to this age group’s everyday living, as well as life satisfaction. According to the data provided by the American Psychological Association (APA, 2021), the majority of older adults experience only mild cognitive changes, which do not lead to considerable interference with daily functions. However, declines in long-term memory, substance abuse problems, high suicide rates among men over 85, and dementia (in about 5% of older adults) are issues requiring serious concern (APA, 2021). Statistics brought by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2023) indicate that about 14% of people aged 60 and older have a mental disorder.
Social isolation and depression are singled out as some of the core causes of poor emotional and mental state in older adults (WHO, 2023). With the aim of filling in the gap concerning the development of effective solutions to older adults’ life quality, this study will investigate the major factors impacting the well-being of this population. While many studies focus on the physiological aspects of aging, the current project aims to investigate the aspects affecting older adults’ psychological well-being.
Purpose of the Study
Research in elderly people’s cognitive and emotional decline is typically associated with physical outcomes and aimed at contributing to the reduction of hospital readmissions and other related issues. Meanwhile, it is evident that the overall quality of life of each individual is what affects their happiness and health in the first place, both physical and mental. Older adults represent the age group that experiences delays in cognitive functioning, as well as in emotional perception and tendency to care about their self. As such, the purpose of the present study is to provide an in-depth analysis of the issues that influence the likelihood of elderly people to live happy and contented lives.
While research on physical deterioration in older adults is abundant, the present study aims to fill in the gap in the emotional and cognitive aspects of older people’s well-being. By addressing the set goal, the project will enable coming up with interventions for enhancing the quality of life of the target population. Since cognitive deterioration can result in social isolation and reduced physical activity, the findings obtained in this study will promote pursuing the goal of reaching solutions to older people’s lack of life contentment.
Significance of the Study
The study will contribute to the profession as it will enable coming up with effective solutions to older adults’ emotional well-being. Since this population group is vulnerable due to a variety of reasons, older adults will also benefit from findings by learning about the core triggers of poor life quality and being able to improve these aspects. Advantages for society are evident as happier elderly people will be an asset to any community. Meanwhile, their caregivers will be able to dedicate more time to their work, social projects, and other aspects of their communities’ lives. The results of the study can be used for the development of policies and interventions aimed at enhancing older adults’ well-being.
Hypothesis/Questions
The research question of the study is, “What are cognitive transformations connected to the aging process impact the general welfare of senior citizens in the most notable way?” The hypothesis of the research is, “The decline in memory, emotional state, and self-regard among the elderly has a detrimental effect on their well-being.” The independent variables are memory impairment, emotional state deterioration, and reduced self-regard. Life quality is the dependent variable, which will be measured to see if it changes under the effect of independent variables.
Definition of Terms
Memory impairment is a state in which one experiences difficulty in storing, retaining, or recalling facts. Memory impairment can be noticed in different domains, including short-term and long-term memory. It can be permanent or temporary, which depends on the age, injuries, or neurological disorders.
Deterioration in the emotional state is a decline in one’s mental or emotional capacity. During such a deterioration, one’s emotional health undergoes negative changes, and a person experiences a drop in positive emotions and a rise in negative ones. Emotional state deterioration can manifest itself in mood swings, increased anxiety, or a general decline in emotional flexibility.
Self-regard is the ability of an individual to value and respect themselves. Self-regard is the core component of self-esteem and emotional intelligence. People with an adequate sense of self-regard have a realistic view of themselves, whereas those with a reduced self-regard cannot acknowledge their strengths properly.
Quality of life is the general state of satisfaction with one’s experience in various aspects of their life. Although it is a subjective concept, it includes such crucial factors as physical and mental health, social and economic status, relationships, and goal achievement. Life quality is typically viewed as a holistic measure that is based on one’s own perceptions about their life.
Theoretical Framework
The framework that will be relevant for this project is Erikson’s psychosocial developmental theory. This approach is related to the psychosocial development of an individual throughout the entire life span. The specific stage that is related to the topic is the old age period: integrity versus despair (Orenstein & Lewis, 2022). The main virtue of this age, according to Eriksen, is wisdom, whereas the major maldevelopment is disdain (Orenstein & Lewis, 2022). In terms of the current research, Eriksen’s theory will be applicable in analyzing the factors influencing a positive resolution of the identified crisis.
Literature Review
The Role of Memory
A considerable number of reviewed articles focus on researching memory as a determinant of older adults’ life quality. Scholars have analyzed cognitive reserve and changes in memory mechanisms (Wilson et al., 2019; Lamichhane et al., 2018), paid attention to the role of sleep memory processing (Jones et al., 2018), developed tools for assessing memory changes (Shaikh et al., 2018), and analyzed successful memory aging (Nyberg & Pudas, 2019). These studies are important to review in light of the present proposal, as all of them investigate different facets of memory in old age.
Hypotheses
The authors of each study pursued a hypothesis or research question related to memory and elderly people. Wilson et al. (2019) hypothesized that higher education positively impacts cognitive trajectory, is associated with cognitive changes nonrelated to neuropathologic burden, is not associated with common neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular conditions, and decreases the link between higher neuropathologic burden and faster cognitive decline.
The hypotheses explored by Lamichhane et al. (2018) include that continuous activation of the anterior prefrontal cortex will demonstrate considerable age-related alterations, the ventral parietal memory network will exhibit short-term engagement to prospective memory targets, and that the combination of the frontoparietal and ventral parietal memory networks can lead to age-related deterioration in memory performance.
Jones et al.’s (2018) hypothesis referred to the conviction that the impact of sleep compared to wake on negative memories will be eliminated or missing in middle-aged adults compared to young adults. Shaikh et al.’s (2018) and Nyberg and Pudas’ (2019) studies do not contain a hypothesis, as the former aimed at developing a questionnaire for evaluating older adults’ memory changes, whereas the latter conducted a review of articles on successful memory aging.
Research Design
The research design used in the reviewed articles is experimental (Jones et al., 2018; Lamichhane et al., 2018), a questionnaire (Shaikh et al., 2018), longitudinal clinical-pathologic cohort studies (Wilson et al., 2019), and literature review (Nyberg & Pudas, 2019). The procedure for selecting participants in Jones et al.’s (2018), Lamichhane et al.’s (2018), Shaikh et al.’s (2018), and Wilson et al.’s (2019) studies was convenience sampling.
The sample size varied from 81 (40 young and 41 middle-aged adults) in Jones et al.’s (2018) and 88 (41 and 47 younger adults) in Lamichhane et al.’s (2018) to 205 in Shaikh et al. (2018) study. The sample size in Wilson et al.’s (2019) research was considerably larger: 2,899, 1,044 of whom died with at least four years of follow-up.
Findings and Limitations
The results of the studies under review have considerable value to the present project proposal. Jones et al. (2018) have found that the influence of sleep on memory declines with aging. Lamichhane et al. (2018) report a reduction of prospective memory-associated sustained activity within the anterior prefrontal cortex in older adults. Wilson et al. (2019) have found that education does not have a considerable impact on cognitive reserve in old age.
Shaikh et al. (2018) note that lifestyle restrictions, positive coping, and negative emotions are the most valid components for analysis when investigating age-related memory changes. Finally, Nyberg and Pudas (2019) have singled out the characteristics of successful memory aging. These findings can be of great use both for the current project and for other scholarly endeavors that can use them as the basis for selecting research variables and characteristics. The main limitation of the articles under review is the use of convenience sampling, which undermines the possibility of generalizing the results.
Emotional State
Another common theme in the literature on the topic is the emotional state of older adults in relation to their well-being. Scholars analyze the alterations in the emotional qualities of older adults (Böger & Huxhold, 2018) and the effect of mental health interventions on older adults’ emotional states (Gould et al., 2021).
Hypotheses
Böger and Huxhold (2018) hypothesize that the level of loneliness is characterized by stability from middle adulthood to old age, while the number of distressing relationships decreases over this time, and the number of pleasant relationships increases.
Research questions in Gould et al.’s (2021) study were concerned with whether a mental health intervention could improve quality of life and loneliness indicators in middle-aged and older adults.
Research Design
The research design chosen by Böger and Huxhold (2018) is a longitudinal study encompassing data from 10,900 participants of the German Aging Survey over nine years. Meanwhile, Gould et al. (2021) conducted a non-randomized pre-post examination of the Meru Health Program, enrolling 50 participants and lasting 12 weeks.
Findings
Böger and Huxhold (2018) found that older adults have fewer distressing connections and report higher satisfaction with family relationships than middle-aged individuals. Another finding revealed that older adults express lower satisfaction with acquaintances and friends. The emotional qualities included in the research (number of pleasant/distressing relationships and satisfaction with relationships) proved to be relevant for predicting the level of loneliness in older adults. The results of Gould et al.’s (2021) study indicate that digital mental health interventions have a positive impact on the quality of life and mental health of older adults, as well as decrease the level of loneliness.
Limitations
The limitations of Böger and Huxhold’s (2018) research include a high attrition rate, which eliminates generalizability, and the limitation on participants’ age (84), which leads to insufficient representation of other individuals from the old age category. Gould et al.’s (2021) research was limited by the lack of control conditions and the exclusion of the measurement of objective social isolation. Despite these limitations, the studies’ findings are highly relevant to the current research topic.
Self-Regard
The topic of self-regard is analyzed in scholarly literature in terms of emotion regulation (Montana et al., 2020), self-esteem (Stronge et al., 2019), positive emotion promotion (Sturm et al., 2022), and the effect of age-related changes on older adults’ life quality (Meng et al., 2019).
Hypotheses
The main hypothesis of Stronge et al.’s (2019) research is that profiles with self-views are analogous to grandiose narcissism, optimal self-esteem, and low self-regard. Also, the scholars hypothesize the presence of vulnerable narcissism as a separate profile. Sturm et al. (2022) hypothesized that awe walks have the potential to increase older adults’ self-esteem and other positive emotions. The second hypothesis was that the participants of awe walks would feel a decrease in negative emotions compared to the control group.
Meng et al. (2019) pursued a research question of whether there are lifespan alterations in the global visual perception of people in different age groups, including older adults. Finally, the purpose of Montana et al.’s (2020) research was to offer a better understanding of the effectiveness of well-being emotion regulation interventions for older adults.
Research Design
The study design used by Meng et al. (2019) and Sturm et al. (2022) was experimental, while Stronge et al. (2019) utilized latent transition analysis, and Montana et al. (2020) conducted a systematic review of the literature. The sample size depended on the design and encompassed 36 and 136 individuals in Meng et al.’s (2019) two experiments, 60 in Sturm et al.’s (2022) study, and 12,550 in Stronge et al.’s (2019) analysis. In the experimental studies, participants were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups (Sturm et al., 2022) or divided into groups based on their age (Meng et al., 2019), whereas the other two articles did not involve sampling.
Findings
The results of Meng et al.’s (2019) research indicate a large perceptual decline in vision across increasing age groups, which has a high potential to influence older adults’ self-regard and well-being. Sturm et al.’s (2022) study resulted in finding that awe walks increase older adults’ self-regard. Stronge et al.’s (2019) results indicate that high self-regard is characterized by heterogeneity. Montana et al. (2020) have found that virtual reality technologies are apt to enhance older adults’ well-being and self-regard.
Limitations
The limitations of the articles are concerned with the lack of generalizability opportunities (Stronge et al., 2019; Sturm et al., 2022), the lack of a randomized approach to sampling (Meng et al., 2019), and the impossibility of providing an all-encompassing measurement of well-being due to a variety of approaches (Montana et al., 2020).
Methodology
The study will utilize a cross-sectional design, which implies observing the variables without influencing them. The population of interest will be composed of individuals aged 65 and above. Since the study does not imply any experiment, convenience sampling will be utilized, with the researcher including the volunteers in the study as long as they have met the age requirement and signed an informed consent form. The expected sample size is 150 individuals as it will be sufficient for gathering data on the research question and hypothesis and not too complicated for the statistical analysis process. Internal consistency will be used to measure the dependent variable, and a manipulation check will be used to measure the independent variables. The selected design will be assessed through content validity, and its reliability will be evaluated through consistency and stability.
Data Collection
Participants will be recruited through social media and word-of-mouth, with the inclusion of healthcare facilities as a potential source of information. The data will be collected with the use of questionnaires as instruments. The Geriatric Depression Scale will be employed for the assessment of emotional state deterioration, the Wechsler Memory Scale will be used to evaluate memory impairment, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale will be utilized to measure self-regard. The dependent variable, life quality, will be assessed with the help of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Brief Version. The data collected through these evaluations will be scrutinized with relevant statistical examinations, such as correlation analysis or regression analysis, to explore the connection between advanced age and the variables being examined.
Protection of Human Subjects
Working with human subjects always contains threats to confidentiality, and these challenges are especially pronounced in research on underaged and elderly participants. Older adults may find it difficult to understand the purpose of research or realize what personal data about them is being collected. In order to eliminate any potential harm to anonymity, informed consent forms will be given to all participants with a request to sign them before entering the study. Some respondents may need to receive support from their caregivers when filling out the informed consent form, but it is of utmost importance that they fully understand what is entailed by the participation. The researcher will explain the purpose of the project along with the data that will be used in the analysis phase.
Demographic data (age, gender, and other information) will be only collected for the statistical analysis and will be coded. No personal information about the participants will be published or shared otherwise. To eliminate any contact between the researcher and participants, survey forms will be distributed via caregivers or nursing home managers. Examinations and evaluations will be carried out by other specialists, who will pass the coded results to the researcher.
Limitations
The most likely limitations to internal validity are the experimenter bias (unintentional cues that can affect the participants’ responses) and selection bias (the initial process of choosing respondents). External validity can be threatened by sampling bias: as well as in some of the reviewed studies, the current one will not be possible to use for generalizability. The reason for these limitations is a small sample size and the convenience sampling option.
Implications
The findings obtained in the study will be useful for gerontologists, healthcare professionals, and family members of older adults. People whose professional duties are associated with older adults will benefit from evidence-based findings on the main causes of the deterioration in the quality of life in the target population group. Meanwhile, family members and caregivers will be able to discern the initial signs of memory loss, lowered emotional state, and poor self-regard in their loved ones. As a result, the life quality of elderly people will be able to improve if the signs of decline in older adults’ cognition and perception are known and thoroughly analyzed. Above all, the relation between the variable and the causative-consecutive connection between them will be easily traced as a result of the project. In the long run, society will achieve considerable positive outcomes as it will be able to predict and prevent the aspects that can deteriorate older adults’ life quality.
References
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Gould, C. E., Carlson, C., Alfaro, A. J., Chick, C. F., Bruce, M. L., & Forman-Hoffman, V. L. (2021). Changes in quality of life and loneliness among middle-aged and older adults participating in therapist-guided digital mental health intervention. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. Web.
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Montana, J. I., Matamala-Gomez, M., Maisto, M., Mavrodiev, P. A., Cavalera, C. M., Diana, B., Mantovani, F., & Realdon, O. (2020). The benefits of emotion regulation interventions in virtual reality for the improvement of wellbeing in adults and older adults: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(2), E500. Web.
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