Step 4 of “Live in Respect” is tough. Based on 2 Samuel 19:37-39, David seemed to readily accept Barzillai’s decision to return to his own city. However, it’s not so easy for us to accept decision making (especially in some key areas) of elderly people in our lives. Why is that?
What does research say about decision making of the elderly compared to younger people? Here is a quote from the conclusion (p.11) of the paper Aging and Decision Making:
“We conducted four sets of experiments using 50 high functioning
neurologically healthy older subjects (average age 82) and 51 healthy students (average age 20). …The general conclusion is that the [decision making] performance of the two groups of subjects is remarkably similar. …The distribution of responses shows that older individuals more frequently respond that they are completely certain (100%) or completely unsure (50%) than do the younger subjects. These results support the view that older individuals have more accurate beliefs about their knowledge and its limitations.”
Okay, so they are no worse in decision making than young people, but how should we respond when they make unwise decisions, such as participate in gambling, or driving well beyond their reaction time abilities? Here is video highlighting the problem of gambling among the elderly.
What does research say about decision making of the elderly compared to younger people? Here is a quote from the conclusion (p.11) of the paper Aging and Decision Making:
“We conducted four sets of experiments using 50 high functioning
neurologically healthy older subjects (average age 82) and 51 healthy students (average age 20). …The general conclusion is that the [decision making] performance of the two groups of subjects is remarkably similar. …The distribution of responses shows that older individuals more frequently respond that they are completely certain (100%) or completely unsure (50%) than do the younger subjects. These results support the view that older individuals have more accurate beliefs about their knowledge and its limitations.”Okay, so they are no worse in decision making than young people, but how should we respond when they make unwise decisions, such as participate in gambling, or driving well beyond their reaction time abilities? Here is video highlighting the problem of gambling among the elderly.
The LifeWay Adult Extra has an interesting quote by General Douglas
MacArthur, which I won’t repeat here. Also, the LifeWay quarterly (p. 79) asks an interesting question regarding end-of-life decisions. I find it difficult to discuss these issues with my Mother, for example. Do you also have a problem talking to your parents about some of their decisions? Maybe I could write her and put my concerns in a letter? What do you recommend?
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