This study examined the relationship between perceptions of intellectual functioning and measures of cognitive abilities, personality variables and sociodemographic information. One hundred and fifty-two older community residing adults were asked to define their perception of intelligence by completing a questionnaire that asked the extent to which a variety of tasks are: functionally important, contribute to feelings of intellectual vitality and are the object of worry or concern. They also estimated their skill at performing each task. The hypothesis that cognitive abilities would best predict perceptions of cognitive functioning was moderately supported. Personality variables, specifically anxiety, were more predictive of the meaning variables than abilities.

Advances in cancer treatment coupled with a rapid aging of the population have contributed to an unprecedented growth in the number of older adult cancer survivors. While this growth reflects remarkable scientific achievements, cancer and its treatment can precipitate a range of physical and psychological health complications, which can be amplified in old age. Preserving the health-related quality of life of older cancer survivors is one of the most important concerns in cancer survivorship care. However, few studies have examined predictors of health-related quality of life in older adults with cancer, and even fewer have included racial and ethnic minority groups in their studies. The following collection of papers address these issues by using three population-based datasets to identify predictors and outcomes of health-related quality of life in older adults diagnosed with cancer. Data for the first paper is derived from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and indicates that older adult cancer survivors have significantly better health-related quality of life than their middle-aged counterparts. However, older adults who are from racial or ethnic minority groups, those who face financial barriers to health care, are unmarried, or have greater co-morbidities are at risk of having poor health- related quality of life. In the second paper, which analyzed data from the merged Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results – Medicare Health Outcomes Survey dataset, older Asian American and Pacific Islander cancer survivors are found to have significantly worse mental health-related quality of life than older Non-Hispanic White cancer survivors. Across both groups, income and physical functioning are important predictors of health-related quality of life. Older Asian American and Pacific Islander cancer survivors who are less acculturated are at greater risk of having poor health-related quality of life. The third paper, which analyzed data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, identifies social engagement as a significant predictor of subjective well-being. It also indicates that older adult cancer survivors who are not married and those experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression are more likely to report poor subjective well-being. Collectively, these three papers demonstrate the need for strategies to improve the health-related quality of life of older racial and ethnic minority cancer survivors, and highlights the important contribution of social connections to health-related quality of life.

This work offers a cross-cultural account of the “aging experience” for elderly in two regions of Bulgaria. It is an ethnographic study that explores the importance of sustained and new (or adapted) interpersonal relationships for elderly in a depopulating Northwestern Village and a small Southern Town and its surroundings in the Rhodope Mountains. Highlighting relationships with family, peers, and neighbors, the study documents how the elderly negotiate and strategize their well-being in spaces and networks increasingly occupied by members of their same age group and despite adversity such as permanently depleting populations. These elders manage to engage in creating and maintaining their networks for instrumental or salient support; participate in peer memberships and interactions for coping and belonging; and negotiate valued and new cultural and socioeconomic strategies and places for well-being. The study’s focus engages with theories of aging; psychosocial, anthropological, and sociological knowledge; and cross-disciplinary conceptions of how groups of people mediate relationships and issues affecting them. It underscores some Bulgarian elders’ engagement over disengagement, their nostalgia and coping, and pathways that lead to innovation and resiliency. The study also offers further insight into topics such as “aging in place” and the complexities of human experiences within a Bulgarian context that considers specific histories and processes such as post-socialism and out-migration. As such, the current work contributes to explorations of engaged and adaptive elders aging in place (particularly in relationship to out-migration and economic forces); to how overlapping histories and experiences create membership within age-cohorts; and on the ways that the elderly cope, adapt, and innovate when traditionally salient family networks are stretched because of economies, depopulation, or distance. Finally, this work occurs against the backdrop of an aging and depopulating landscape. Issues affecting Bulgaria and its elders include population loss and stages of demographic decline, declining or low fertility rates, and an increasingly aging population across the country but more so within villages. These and other problems have resulted in the elderly expressing isolation; feelings of loss; and economic, social, and personal woes. It has also resulted in the elderly being categorized as a particularly “vulnerable” group within the country, a term which runs the risk of placing them within a realm of complacency or marginalization. Even in extreme situations, many of the elderly I met in Bulgaria remained resourceful and resilient by sustaining or adapting relationships and practices, by creating moments and spaces for coping and companionship, and to meet their need as “still alive” in ways that challenge perceptions of vulnerability or marginality.

The present research has focused on an often-neglected segment of society—the aged. A number of phenomena which appear relevant to a study of aging have been discussed and the pertinent literature reviewed. Specifically, learned helplessness, depression, internal-external locus of control, and disengagement versus activity have been examined. The present research was divided into two studies. Study Number 1 has investigated internal-external locus of control in an elderly sample and related it to indices of activity and morale. Study Number 2 has extended Seligman's (1975) theory of learned helplessness to an elderly population and investigated the phenomenon in individuals with either an internal or an external locus of control. The locus of control construct (Rotter, 1966) and the theory of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) appear to have immediate relevance for the treatment of aging individuals. The present study suggests that exposure to controllable reinforcement may break-up or alleviate learned helplessness in elderly individuals.

Man Suk Kwan. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.2 / Acknowledgements --- p.4 / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.7 / Chapter A. --- A Unique Human Quality --- p.7 / Chapter B. --- An Empirical Interest Aroused --- p.8 / Chapter C. --- Empirical Insights into the Need of Elderly Spiritual Care --- p.9 / Chapter 1. --- Views from a Journal of an Elderly Care Home in Hong Kong --- p.9 / Chapter 2. --- An Authentic Experience of a Social Worker in the Hong Kong Elderly Service --- p.11 / Chapter D. --- Research Question and Research Method --- p.12 / Chapter II. --- Aging and Spirituality --- p.13 / Chapter A. --- What is Aging? --- p.14 / Chapter 1. --- Physical Changes in Aging --- p.15 / Chapter 2. --- Loss and Decline in Aging --- p.16 / Chapter 3. --- Despair in Aging --- p.17 / Chapter B. --- What is Spirituality? --- p.20 / Chapter III. --- Melvin A. Kimble's Spiritual Care Model in Aging --- p.23 / Chapter A. --- The Three Stages of Gerontology --- p.23 / Chapter B. --- Melvin Kimble Points to Viktor Frankl --- p.24 / Chapter 1. --- Meaning and Spirituality in Logotherapy --- p.24 / Chapter 2. --- Crisis of Meaning --- p.26 / Chapter C. --- A Spiritual Exercise Approach --- p.28 / Chapter IV. --- Elizabeth MacKinlay丨s Spiritual Care Model in Aging --- p.29 / Chapter A. --- Considering the Psychosocial and Spiritual Dimensions of Life from a Developmental View --- p.29 / Chapter B. --- Spirituality in Frail Elders --- p.31 / Chapter C. --- Spirituality in Elders with Mental Health Problems --- p.33 / Chapter 1. --- A Model of Spiritual Tasks of Aging --- p.33 / Chapter 2. --- Spirituality in Elders with Dementia --- p.34 / Chapter V. --- Issues in Positive Aging --- p.38 / Chapter A. --- Changing Attitudes towards Growing Old --- p.38 / Chapter B. --- Normal Aging --- p.41 / Chapter C. --- Successful Aging --- p.42 / Chapter D. --- Positive Aging --- p.45 / Chapter 1. --- Background for Positive Aging --- p.45 / Chapter 2. --- Characteristics of Positive Aging --- p.49 / Chapter E. --- Distinction between Positive Aging and Successful Aging --- p.55 / Chapter F. --- Erikson's Life Span Model of Aging and Positive Aging --- p.56 / Chapter VI. --- Interaction between Positive Aging and Perspectives of Kimble and MacKinlay --- p.62 / Chapter A. --- """Peace and Joy versus Despair"" Enriched by ""Wisdom versus Despair""" --- p.62 / Chapter B. --- Meaning of Life Enriched by Quality of Life --- p.64 / Chapter VII. --- Application of Positive Aging and Spiritual Care to Real Life Examples --- p.66 / Chapter A. --- Facilitating Spiritual Growth in Aging --- p.66 / Chapter B. --- Elders with Dementia --- p.66 / Chapter C. --- Living a Positive Life --- p.68 / Chapter D. --- Crucial Importance of a Lifestyle Choice --- p.69 / Chapter E. --- Searching for Meaning in Life --- p.70 / Chapter F. --- Finding Joy and Hope in Hobbies --- p.71 / Chapter VIII. --- Conclusion --- p.72 / Chapter A. --- Limitations --- p.72 / Chapter B. --- Reflections --- p.73 / References --- p.76

No description available.

No description available.

Moving into an institutional environment may cause feelings of anxiety, depression, grief or loss in the increasing number of elderly residents in long term care facilities. The lived experience of pet visitation was explored as a possible remedy. This study is significant because findings provide information about intervention strategies to assist residents in comfort and adjustment.Five themes, identified in ten interviews of residents in three midwest long term care facilities, illustrated that pet interaction: (a) contributed a sense of responsibility, environmental control, (b) afforded unconditional caring, companionship, (c) provided a connection with family and home. (d) furnished a sense of identity in the facility community, and (e) provided a sense of being protected within the facility. Evidence supports that pet visitation is a beneficial experience to the residents in long term care facilities. Study results are available for facility administrators as encouragement and justification to establish pet visitation programs. / School of Nursing

The assessment of depression among older adults is difficult because depression rating scales can contain items that are related to cognitive deficits, physical illnesses, and other normal age changes. This study attempted to identify those items on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Revised (MMPI-2) depression scale which strongly correlated with age as a basis for dividing the depression scale into two subscales: one measuring aging and the other measuring depression. These subscales were then evaluated by comparing two groups of older adults, one depressed and the other healthy, to determine if there would be no difference on the aging.subscale and a significant difference on the depression subscale.This research was conducted in two stages. The first stage entailed giving the extracted MMPI-2 depression scale (MMPI-2 D) to healthy older adults (n=114, aged 60 and above) and to healthy younger college students (n=142, aged 18 to 29) in order to assess which of the 57 MMPI-2 depression items were correlated with age.Using a cutoff score of 20% endorsement difference (Butcher & Pancheri, 1976) between the two groups (p<.001), it was determined that fifteen items of the MMPI-2 D scale differentiated the healthy older adult and the healthy younger adult groups and were therefore related to aging and not depression. Twelve of these items were in the depressive direction for older adults. Those items which strongly correlated with age were used to create an aging subscale of the MMPI-2 depression scale (MMPI-2 Da). The remaining items were assumed to measure depression and were considered a depression subscale (MMPI-2 Dd).The second stage of this research addressed the utility of the subscales. It was hypothesized that the MMPI-2 Da (aging subscale) would not discriminate between depressed and healthy older adults since both groups were the same with respect to age. It was further hypothesized that the MMPI-2 Dd (depression subscale) would discriminate between these groups because the groups were different with respect to depression.When the two subscales were used with a new healthy older adult group (n=54) and a depressed older adult group (n=36), both hypotheses were supported. There was no significant difference between the healthy and depressed older adults on the aging subscale (MMPI-2 Da) and there was a significant difference on the depression subscale (MMPI-2 Dd). Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-145). / Microfiche. / ix, 145 leaves, bound 29 cm