Great Expectations: Miss Havisham and Disengagement Growing old is a process that every human must endure. People handle this phenomenon in their own unique way. There are three classical psychosocial theories of aging that examine the behavior of people approaching late life: disengagement, activity, and continuity. People who experience the feelings of being disengaged from society are dealing with the negative aspects of these three behaviors. The disengagement theory of Cumming and Henry (1961) states that “aging is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement, res