Social Gerontology: Psychology of Aging

PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING

There is a certain maturity of judgment about men, things, causes and life generally,
that nothing in the world but years can bring, a real wisdom that only age can teach.
--G. Stanley Hall, Senescence: The Last Half of Life (1922: p.366)

While it is difficult to generalize about the psychological experiences of any age group, consider the parallels between the young and old. Both are times of mental and physical change, leading to increasing introspection, need for meaning, questionings of identity, loneliness, and sense of privacy. But whereas the young have short pasts and long futures, old age is a life-stage characterized by long pasts and short futures. It is a time of loss: the loss of spouse, friends, jobs, standard of living, and health. Old age is that life-cycle stage when individuals often must face life's most stressful experiences.

Sample topics:

Do adult personalities undergo distinct, significant changes or are they largely set in concrete by early adulthood?
Depression in old age: According to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, "estimates on the prevalence of depression among the elderly vary from 10 percent up to 65 percent."
What is the relationship between personality and longevity? Examining the Terman sample of 1,178 gifted California individuals (who have been followed since childhood in the early 1920's), Howard S. Friedman (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1993) found those who were conscientious as children were 30 percent less likely to die in any given year of adulthood than their freewheeling peers. Such traits as sociability and self-esteem had no relationship to how long people lived, while childhood optimism had a negative impact on longevity.
How different are the emotional experiences of older persons from those of other age groups? Click here for one analysis.
Assuming different generations feature differing predominant personality types, how do the coping strategies in old age vary (using Riesman's historic typology) between other- directed and inner-directed selves?
Findings of the Seattle Kame Project (1991-2002), a study of dementia among elderly Japanese Americans, wherein found that those with strong ties to their heritage were less likely to suffer cognitive decline.
The relationship between cohort size and psychological well-being. Richard Easterlin in Birth and Fortune, for instance, found a negative relationship between cohort size and well-being.
Will the grief of widowhood in old age change for those cohorts having the (possible) anticipatory socializations of divorce?

RESOURCES

Geropsychology Central
American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
In Andrew Scharlach and Barry Robinson's "Curricular Module on the Aging Process" (Berkeley), see their sections on the cognitive and the personality changes associated with aging
APA Online: Mental Health of the Elderly
Manual of Geriatric Mental Health Resources
Lars Tornstam's theory of gerotranscendence

Return to Social Gerontology Index