Table of contents hide 1 Deterministic theories of aging (programmed aging) 2 Theory of Stochastic Aging 3 Psychiatric dimension of aging 4 Spirituality as a foothold in the elderly

Do you know what is Stochastic Aging ? We want to share with you all the information concerning this extraordinary subject, you are welcome!

The psychology of transpersonal development also deals with the phenomenon of aging, and the different processes linked to it, as well as the forms of intervention.

This field of research has been developed during the twentieth and twenty-first century, after the progressive increase in the average life ; with the consequent need to develop ways of prevention for older adults .

Biomedical, psychosocial and psychiatric research participate for this purpose.

Aging is framed within two main theories: stochastic aging and deterministic theories of aging.

Deterministic theories of aging (programmed aging)

This includes biomedical research, which investigates whether aging constitutes a secondary phenomenon of the living conditions in which individuals are found or if, instead, it is genetically programmed, as the hypothesis of L. Orgel states, for example, according to whom aging will depend on a series of transcription errors of the genetic information present in the DNA .

Naturally, the hypothesis of an interaction between genetic influences and vital conditions is not excluded, which covers both the de facto conditions in which a life has passed, and the psychological dispositions with the ones faced.

The theory of programmed aging points out that a series of aging processes are innately programmed within the genome of each organism.

In short, - unlike stochastic aging - it is a process in which changes are occurring in the organism of molecular, cellular and organic character that entails a series of limitations f Physical and sometimes mental.

They are both morphological and functional modifications, the result of the degenerative processes of natural selection responsible for the deterioration of cell homeostasis .

Stochastic Aging Theory

The stochastic process refers according to galimberti (2002) to the sequence of events regulated by laws of probability that allow prediction.

The events can be stochastically dependent or independent depending on the greater or lesser constancy of their sequential link. (p.451).

In developmental psychology, the theory of the stochastic process is used to construct models that allow an approach to the behavior of research objects. Therefore, psychosocial investigations are found as random variables that intervene in aging .

Psychosocial investigations of stochastic aging are oriented in three directions:

1. psychophysical senility, with the whole set of changes in appearance and the consequent psychological repercussions;
2. social senility, decided by the community with the cessation of work activity, and finally
3. psychic senility, determined by the profile of the character and the condition of loneliness that accentuates depressive traits.

The results of these three sources of information, as pointed out by A. Maderna, D. Ianni and P. Membrino, reveal that at the turn of a few years, the adult faces a very rapid transformation phase for which he is often not prepared.

Likewise, among the most significant factors of stochastic aging, the condition of retiree is mentioned, which evades the network of social relations in which the subject had developed the central part of his life, the decrease in income, the dissolution of the socio-social group. affective where he had built the most intimate ties, with the estrangement of the children, the loss of relatives and friends, the opening of a free time without a network of references that had previously filled the occupied time . In this context, writes Maderna (1987):

The space of loneliness is opened, a solitude that actually always existed but was masked by a wide range of modalities centered in relation to 'doing', with the impairment of others in relation to 'feeling'.

And the subject who 'graduated' as an elder suddenly lacks in a quick sequence the places and forms of 'doing'; the lack of habit to 'feel', that is, to perform a range of operations focused on the coexistence of one's interiority, implies a disruption to which many fail to adapt (p. 536) .

On the other hand, the feeling of loneliness can intervene in the senile depression of stochastic aging .

The depression of the old man differs from the depression of the adult because he suddenly lacks the projectivity that the adult still has bases of reality, and because the figure of death no longer has the distant characters of possibility, but only the unavoidable of closeness and the inevitable.

Now, to this is added that, in Western culture, the values ​​of exteriority, health and life, accompanied by the feeling of death, educate for a constant escape from the dimensions of existence, such as reflection, emotion, silence and waiting, which open after decades to subjects accustomed to consider them secondary values. The senile reaction to this state may be resignation .

The first space is becoming less practicable due to the progressive tearing of the family in small and no longer superimposed nuclei; the second leads to the waiting of death or the search for a refuge in fantasies, sometimes delusional, that allow living in a metaphorical representation.

Unlike what happened in ancient and elementary civilizations, where the figure of the elderly person was a fundamental symbolic manifestation of wisdom for the group, today, his figure is - at least for part of Latin American culture - relegated to a kind of abandonment, or a state of fragility of useless dyes.

Psychiatric dimension of aging

Psychiatric investigations, deal with the psychic disorders of the elderly whose pathological forms, differing from those of adults, allow these investigations to be constituted autonomously under the name of geriatric psychiatry or psychogeriatrics.

In fact, among the elderly, the organic causes of psychic disorders are more frequent, especially in forms of dementia, secondly, senility confers a particular character to the psychiatric syndromes observable in adults, so it is said, for example, of senile depression ; In addition, reactive syndromes to senile experience, which require social interventions, are frequently observed.

The most common characteristics of old age recognized in psychological and psychiatric research are according to Galimberti (2002):

a) the reduction of short-term memory through which it is possible to store information very quickly and evoke it in a few seconds.

b) the slow reaction time, which is the time the brain uses to recognize the presence of a stimulus, select the appropriate response and coordinate the muscles for proper movement.

c) the tendency to stiffness, with the consequent difficulty to translate a series of verbal instructions into actions, to understand new information, to unlearn old customs.

d) the decline of intelligence, on the other hand, does not seem as imputable to old age as to the lack of exercise. (p.887)

However, recent studies and observations have directly shown that, despite the decline in short-term memory and the increase in reaction time, the intelligence quotient does not suffer a concomitant decrease; Moreover, some aspects of intelligent behavior, in certain cases, improve with old age, as well as the sharpness for reflection and making wise or appropriate decisions.

It should be noted that the aging process is diverse and many variables are involved such as genes, their programming under natural selection and the second law of thermodynamics (the entropy) that inevitably entails to molecular deterioration.

On the other hand, the factors of the environment, the social-emotional context, the scope of work and routine activities, as well as the attitude towards the problem of loneliness and death, are situations and events that influence life The psychological nature of the env, therefore, the theory of stochastic and programmed aging is a physical fact, however it does not take into account the spiritual variable as the fundamental support of the healthy deployment of the psyche of the elderly .

Spirituality as a point of support in the elderly

Stochastic and programmed aging is undoubtedly a necessary dimension of the vital field of human development, and to be transpersonal it must be understood with metaphysical and spiritual dyes, since this gives meaning to all experiences throughout life., providing wisdom and integrity .

In addition, the experiences of every older adult are configured to experience a universal A-mor, somewhat more separate from the Ego, as an example contribution to their offspring and humanity.

In this sense, the function of stochastic and programmed aging also belongs to the aptitudes of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto that allows the integration of aspects that have been dissociated throughout the existence of the individual.

In this way, the archetype of the Mask ( and its social demands ) can be linked healthily with the innate desires of the subject and will guarantee individuation . so the older adult will feel full life because of their creativity and originality processes.

These attitudes allow to develop intuition, freedom (illuminating the shadows of personality) and a sense of transcendence in the face of the inevitable "fatality ": the death of the physical body.

This attitude of openness would combat the feeling of abandonment and loneliness - which affects the development of depression and with it, the loss of meaning of the " inner god " - and Self-realization of all the dimensions that make up the human being would be achieved, namely:

1. cognition (operational and realistic thoughts about the world, about himself and God),
2. sentimentality (integrative feelings, which guarantee altruistic and planetary love)
3. Sexuality (or libido, like the energy that drives artistic creations and integrates all opposites)
4. Materiality (represented by the body and health, understanding diseases as symptoms of balance, which have a relationship in the inner state)
5. Spirituality (or metaphysical system exercised by the subject, and with which; achieves his sense of individuation and transcendence with respect to others, the world and death, understanding that this life is the journey of spiritualization of matter and materialization of the spirit ad infinitum ).

With everything observed we see that the stochastic and scheduled aging ; it is a life cycle, which allows one to examine life from multiple dimensions, and which seeks to connect with the infinite, as well as from religiosity and even the alchemy (or transformation of the human spirit) reflected by the universal A-mor, represented by the stated " Solvet et Coagula ", that is, dissolve everything that you are not or have been (mask and egos) within you, throughout your life, and then coagulate (re- invent yourself) with the force of spirit emerged from the dissolve operation.

Author: Kevin Samir Parra Rueda, Editor in the Great Family of hermandadblanca.org.

Bibliographic references:

• Feldman, R., Camp, C., Papalia, D., and Sterns, H. (2009). Adult and old age development . (3rd ed.). Mexico City: McGrawhill Education.
• Galimberti, U. (2002). Dictionary of psychology . Mexico City: 21st century editors.
• Maderna, A., anni, D., Y Membrino, P. (1987), "The Elders, (Gli Anziani) ", Marsicano magazine (coord.), Communication and social disagreement: Milan, Italy.
• Theories of aging [YouTube program]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOONkC3PFjY