In later life, adverse life events, disability, health problems, inadequate social support, and personality traits hypothesized to be important risk factors for depression. Sample included 35 older (65-84) physical rehabilitation patients in a large metropolitan hospital. Statistical analysis included Pearson Product Moment correlations and multiple regression results. Perceived physical health, instrumental ADLs, life satisfaction, extraversion, and conscientiousness are inversely related to depressive symptom severity; neuroticism is positively related to depressive symptom severity. Regression models predicted depressive symptom severity, PANAS negative effect and PANAS positive affect. Neuroticism, insrumental ADLs, and age are significant predictors of depressive symptom severity; neuroticism and age are signficant predictors of PANAS negative affect, while extraversion is a significant predictor of PANAS positive affect. Personality factors, level of functioning, and age are important factors relating to mood. Limitations of this study include: small sample size with special characteristics (high level of SES); incomplete personal and family history of psychiatric problems; and lack of clinical comparison sample.

No description available.

Key words: perspective taking, age differences, motivational trigger hypothesis, experimental manipulation / Moreover, in Experiment 2, with a distance manipulation, both younger and older adults showed impaired performance in emotion recognition. Findings from these two experiments supported the Motivational Trigger Hypothesis , such that the well-documented poor performance in perspective taking tasks of older adults might be due to a lack of motivation instead of a lack of ability to perform in laboratory settings. In daily contexts, especially with someone close to them, older adults might be more motivated to take others' perspective and thus perform better on the perspective-taking tasks. / There was a folk notion of increased perspective taking abilities with age, such that older adults should be better at understanding others' behavior and intention, and show greater empathy to others. However, empirical studies on older adults showed the reverse pattern. In a series of experiments, I investigated the phenomenon from a motivational perspective. In Experiment 1, I manipulated perceived closeness between participants and the experimenter in a faux pas recognition task, and in Experiment 2, I manipulated perceived closeness as well as distance between participants and the target in an emotion recognition task, to examine whether the experimental manipulations could influence participants' performance in the two perspective taking tasks. The results revealed that in the control condition without any experimental manipulation, the well-documented negative age effect was only replicated in both faux pas recognition and emotion recognition. However, in the closeness manipulation condition, older adults significantly enhanced their performance in both tasks, such that they now performed at a comparable level with younger adults; whereas younger adults did not show such enhancement effects. / Zhang, Xin. / Advisers: Helene Fung; Alan Wong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-92). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

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A descriptive study using grounded theory methodology proposed to explore the process of attachment between elders and their pet dogs. Five informants aged sixty-one to eighty-four participated in the study. Eleven interviews provided data for analysis. Data analysis revealed a process where elderly informants reported 'something missing' in their lives previous to pet ownership. Pet adoption provided 'someone' to communicate with, 'someone' to come to know and understand, and 'someone' to be with and share everyday life. Filling the Void emerged as the core concept describing these processes. Further research requires a larger sample to allow more thorough theoretical sampling and subsequent variation in the data. Implications of this research for nursing practice include the need for nurses to be alert to the possibility a pet may be functioning as an attachment figure in the life of an older adult.

No description available.

Adjustment to transitional life events and processes of advanced development have emerged as important areas of research. Relatively little attention has been given to the 65+ age group. The present study investigated processes of adjustment to transitional life events by individuals in this group. Sixty-three non-institutionalized males and females volunteered as subjects. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire, a pretested list of transitional life events, an open- and close-ended transition questionnaire, a battery of neuropsychological measures, and several measures of psychological functioning. Results indicated the present sample to be somewhat atypical of the elderly in certain respects--highly educated, quite healthy, and economically secure. A 1 x 6 multivariate analysis of variance and posteriori Hotelling T² tests indicated that while the level of performance on neuropsychological measures of adaptive abilities significantly declined with increasing age, there was also much overlap in performance by the various age groups, particularly among the three oldest cohorts (75 to 85+). Significant intercorrelations were found to exist among measures sensitive to lateralized functions. No significant differences were noted in performance on lateralized measures. Analysis of open- and close-ended descriptions of the nature of transitional life events and adjustment indicated the factors involved to be very complex. Several patterns of adjustment emerged: an immediate tendency to be concerned with practical issues or arrangements, an effort to mitigate the degree of stressful upset through emotional distancing or minimization, consideration of events as distinct from each other to limit the extent of adjustment required, and utilization of immediate and extended social support systems to foster adaptation. Measures of psychosocial functions were not correlated with the number of transitional life events experienced or with the neuropsychological measures employed. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that neuropsychological functioning, level of education, and level of income predicted a significant portion of the variance in ratings of adjustment by three clinical psychologists. Results were discussed in terms of previous research and methodological suggestions for future investigation were presented.

No description available.

The construct of repression has received a resurgence of experimental attention in the past 20 years, due in large part to the development of the typology method of classification (Weinberger, Schwartz, and Davidson, 1979). According to the typology method, individuals are classified as repressors if they self-report low anxiety and high social desirability. Since the typology method of classification does not differentiate between the two factors comprising social desirability (impression management and self-deception), it is important to determine which component is actually characterizing repressors, or whether it is a combination of the two. The present study examined two questions; (1) are repressors engaging in self-deception, impression management, or both and (2) does the construct of repression change as a function of age? Results suggest that in a college age population self-deception characterized the repressor memory; in an elderly population present negative mood state was the only variable predicting repressive memory. / Department of Psychological Science

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services