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Assignment reviews movie “On Golden Pond” to express various faces of interpersonal communication within human habitat

Home, - Norman

Norman's human environment.

The movie “On Golden Pond” is excellent medium to express that various faces of interpersonal communication within the human environment. The prime character of the movie is Norman shows a multifaceted research in terms of relationships along with himself and also with others. The major characters in the movie depicts a very real relationship on screen and in some cases it also shows change in human growth as well. In the given movie, there are basically six major characters. First, Norman Thayer is an eighty year old man who has retired as a college professor (Thompson, 1979)). He is a humorous person who has also the tendency to develop bad temperament because of his old age. However, he also loves his wife very much and is spending the summer along with her in a lake house. Second, Ether Thayer is Norman’s wife who is sixty nine years old and is very loving, energetic, and sociable. Third, Charlie is shown as the local friend of both Norman and his wife for a long time who is still single.  Fourth, Chelsea is the only child of Norman and is forty two age. She is divorced and has limited closeness to her father. Fifth, Billy Ray is the only child character in the movie who is the son of Chelsea’s fiancé. Sixth, Bill Ray is shown as the fiancé of Chelsea and he is dentist from California. He is not outdoors in nature but is trying hard to create a good impression on Chelsea’s parents. 

Here, Norman holds a very interpersonal relationship with his wife Ethel and also listens to her opinions in very aspects. He view life as a kind of threatening, while his wife dances, smiles, and sings throughout the day. However, throughout the movie it is shown that Norman expands his emotion and communication skill while caring for Billy (Nist, 1984). 

Activity, Disengagement, Continuity, or Disengagement, and description of Norman and his human environment interact. 

All of the people in world will one day experience the ageing and the age related deterioration has the direct impact on their emotional system. This process of aging is unavoidable; however people can better understand the way of positively influencing the aspects which has direct impact on the health as well as wellness. The late life processes such as debilitating and chronic health disorders, inability to participate in favourite activities, and loss of loved ones and friends has a huge impact on their thinking process and emotional system. Timonen et al (Timonen, 2016) discussed few types of ageing theory which describes the evolution of ageing and their environmental dependency (Fernández-Mayoralas, Rojo-Pérez, Martínez-Martín, 2015). 

• Activity theory- it is one of the ageing theory which describes the psychological ageing process and gives more focus on the continuing social activity. It suggests that the self-concept of a person is directly dependent by the role maintained by the person. For instance, after retirement if a person is actively involved in family roles, community roles and other recreational activities then retirement life will not be boring at all. 

• Continuity theory- this theory describes the role of person which remains constant throughout the life. The past managing process repeats as the older person adjusts to the physical, social and financial decline and then expects death.  

• Disengagement theory- the theory describes the inevitable process in person's relationships. This theory suggests that the older people are less involved with their life as compared to when they were young. With ageing process, most of the people create distance from society and accept loneliness (Annear, Keeling, Wilkinson, Cushman, 2014). 

In the present context of “On Golden Pond”, the activity theory best describes the Norman's interaction and communication of the human environment. According to the theory, some people tend to remain involved and occupied throughout their life for a satisfying late life. According to Cooper et al (Cooper, &Beehr, 2015), the society wants and expects the retirees and old people to remain active and engaging in their communities. The activities encouraged to practice in this theory are directly linked to their psychological health and emotional system. It improves and maintains the visceral design, behavioural design and reflective design of their emotional system. It is evident that most of the people during their older age tend to take things in a negative way and remain unsatisfied. In the given case study, Normal should also be involved in activities and positivity like his wife Ethel for a happy retirement life.

Theory you used to analyze Norman''s environment.

The activity theory creates a direct relationship between being active and the satisfaction in life in the later stage of life. The older people view more the quality of life rather than the quantity of the life. In the later stage of life, people go through the loss of spouse, friends, and other near one which eventually reduces their roles played in life. Their loneliness in life makes them to divert towards negative path in life, since they conceptualize life as meaningless (Fernández-Mayoralas, Rojo-Pérez, Martínez-Martín, 2015). While dealing with the role loss in life, the elderly people more likely tends towards emotion focused handling strategies instead of any active or problem focused strategies. However, for maintaining an optimistic sense of the self that person must be engaged in new roles for those who are lost due to ageing. This activity is equally helpful for younger people (like Chelsea) as it does to the older ones (like Norman). Activity theory needs to understand the human intersection with the real environment for the purpose of development. It is one of those psychological theories which take in to account the emotional development as one of its major topic in research. The basic value of the activity theory is considered as a form of integrated system as it is linked with different aspects of the entire activity (DeLiema, &Bengtson, 2017). Analysing the mechanism which lie behind the social constitution of human mind should be taken into consideration such as internalisation of the emotional knowledge, tool appropriation, and changing the activity structure which results from development and learning.  

The theory you have used is useful and credible.  

I personally feel Activity theory is one of that theory which holds the capability to operate in an individual's own environment, even in the ageing process. There are various environmental factors which affect the activity theory such as, ego strength, cognitive capacity, biological heath, motors skills, and sensory perceptual capacity. Based on their suitable environmental condition, they can suggest the appropriate activities to perform in their routine life. The activity theory helps in identifying and understanding every form of human actions in different situation (Cooper, &Beehr, 2015). Nowadays activity theory is more focused on the dialectic analysis of collaboration between the people and the mediated elements. With the increasing use of computer based technologies and information system activity theory helps in simultaneous working of culture act and mind. Even the activity theory acts as a learning tool in most of the higher education institution, students are considered as subject and purpose of task are the objects (Guffroy, Nadine, Kolski, Vella, &Teutsch, 2017). The theory helps in determining the emergence of human activity pattern in terms of goal achievement. For instance, in given movie “On Golden Pond” it can provide an optimistic approach towards Norman’s life during the leisure period after his retirement by providing new and exciting opportunities towards community services which are economical, physical, and resource limitation. However,for an individual to lead a successful ageing life, it is necessary to focus on type of activity rather than only considering the frequency of engagement.   

 

 

 

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