Presents ethnographic observations on the aged and aging from six months' residence in Siberian industrial city. Describes interactions with medical personnel and reviews scanty literature in Soviet Union. Notes integration of aged in families and respect given to older persons. Discusses problems of elderly caused by hard living conditions,…

Contends that developmental, determinist, and contextualist psychologists, although all studying reminiscence in older adults, have not fully acknowledged the role the environment plays in establishing reminiscent behavior in elderly people. Suggests including sociological life course theory in the analyses and interpretation of this behavior.…

Discusses medieval perception of old age based on classical theory of the four humors. Claims introduction of Aristotle combined with translation of Arabic medical works encouraged scientific discussion of the aging process. Notes Christian tradition stressed opportunities for spiritual perfection which aging brings, resulting in a broader…

Interviewed two expert caregivers about their experiences of caring for severely demented patients. Ethical reasoning, exemplified by tender descriptions of relatedness to patients, indicated that expert caregivers used sound knowledge combined with imagination, empathy, and intuition to grasp situation, where patient is regarded as person with…

Asserts that many people who change their jobs in middle age move to less skilled and lower paying work. Discusses two methods of preventing this phenomenon: retraining by methods designed to take account of learning difficulties in those past normal apprenticeship age and applying principles of ergonomics, fitting the job to the worker.…

Develops explanation based on personal construct theory for why mourning and reminiscence are effective therapeutic processes in work with the elderly. Therapeutic case studies illustrate characteristics of these two processes and the relationship between them. (Author/TE)

Considers traditional approaches to identity across life span, then presents discursive perspective showing how, during interaction, individuals actively construct age-salient identities for themselves and others through talk. Conversational processes of age-identity management are explored in corpus of geriatric medical outpatient consultations.…

Examines successful aging among Hong Kong Chinese old people (N=1,106) in three different cohorts (young-old, old-old, oldest-old). Modest associations were found between four dimensions of successful aging (physical, emotional, cognitive, productive involvement). Characteristics associated with successful aging include age, gender, education,…