Social Breakdown and Competence

The social-breakdown syndrome suggests that an individual’s sense of self, his ability to mediate between self and society, and his orientation to personal mastery are functions of the kinds of social labeling experienced in life. We argue that the elderly in Western society are susceptible to, and dependent on, social labeling because of unique social reorganizations in late life, e.g., role loss, vague or inappropriate normative information, and lack of reference groups. Consequences to the dependence on external labeling generally negative for the elderly are the loss of coping abilities and the development of an internalized sense of incompetence.