Disengagement Theory

Disengagement theory was one of the earliest theories written on aging and it was formulated by Cumming and Henry in 1961. This theory states that the society should find avenues for older people to actively disengage from authority to give way for younger people to take over. Through this way, the society creates a smooth transition for the younger generation to take over the active roles while the elders are expected to lead a sedentary life. Though this augured well for the society as a whole, it began to create negative impressions about older people. The primary negativity is that disengagement can happen at different times for different individuals and it was difficult to define a range (Morgan & Kunkel, 2011). Also, the media began to show older people as inactive with no responsibilities and this eventually led to their biased portrayal.

Activity Theory

The activity theory was...
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