The International Journal of Aging and Human Development

Older parents and their adult sons (fifteen father-mother-son triads) participated in this study which investigated whether imitative behavior is prominent in these families and whether interpersonal perceptions are related to the degree of imitation. Both perceptual and moral imitation tasks were used and personality descriptions were obtained on dimensions of activity, potency, and evaluation. Adult sons were found to imitate their parents on both tasks and particularly their fathers on moral issues. Older parents also were found to imitate their sons in a possible “reversal” of the direction of identification. Differential patterns of interpersonal perceptions were related to imitation for the three groups. Potential theoretical explanations are discussed.

The intrainstitutional room transfer of 48 elderly residents was studied by direct behavior-mapping techniques. Data were obtained on the physical location, body position, and behavior of both residents and staff on a large number of tours of residential floors preceding and following the move. About half of the hypotheses suggesting that greater passivity and restriction in social space would occur following the move were supported. These responses were seen as adaptive in allowing the individual to comprehend the new environment prior to moving out more actively.

This article examines the impact of housing relocation on the patterns of interaction and life satisfaction of a sample of older, married adults living in an urban area of central Arkansas. Interviews were conducted with 115 individuals residing in congregate housing and with a matched sample of 105 persons living in independent residential units. Respondents in the two settings fail to demonstrate significant differences in frequencies of social interaction. Patterns of interaction in five specific areas also reveal no appreciable variation. In addition, the time-related effects of congregate dwelling are suggestive but not confirming of negative changes in both interaction and satisfaction. On the other hand, regardless of residential duration, health, sex, or age, independent residents exhibit higher life satisfaction. The data suggest the congregate setting to possess insufficient resources to offset the objective and subjective decrements of old age.

This study had the purpose of identifying the health needs of the elderly population of a small urban Italian community for the purpose of planning sociomedical services. The data were collected by interviewing a stratified random sample of 1291 individuals over sixty years of age. About one third sample reported poor health. However, health complaints, both physical and mental, were particularly common among the persons living in disadvantaged social and economic conditions. The great majority of the respondents were found to be self-sufficient, and ambulatory. The results indicate that the present health needs of the elderly living in the community require new health services, such as home care, which will permit the elderly to avoid future hospitalization.

A sample of 472 normal males ranging in age from twenty-five to eighty-two was divided into anxious and adjusted groups on the basis of a cluster analysis of the Cattell 16PF test, and compared for scores on a self-report measure of health. While the anxious men reported more symptoms than the adjusted in the young and middle age groups, there was no difference in the old group. Although anxiety was found to be unrelated to health as evaluated by physicians' examinations, the anxious men indeed reported more health problems in eight major areas of health concern than was warranted by their actual physical health status. This relation also did not hold in the old group. Anxious men seemed to be more vigilant about their health in young and middle age groups, but not in the old group. This was interpreted as a defensive denial of symptoms in the old anxious group; for a person with trait anxiety, anxiety about approaching death and increasing health problems is just too much to bear, and he resorts to denying symptoms in an effort to diminish his anxiety.

This paper acknowledges and responds to Jack Block's statistical critique of the author's previously reported study of change and sameness in personality development. The critique was apt, and calls attention to the difficulty of working appropriately with numerous, multiply-assessed variables. A re-analysis of the data is presented here. The general pattern of findings remains consistent with the original interpretations, but the re-analysis produced some differences as well.

The widow's ability to resist isolation in old age-to either maintain the involvement of earlier years or develop new social networks-may be conditioned by a number of different factors. Drawing upon a survey of 409 widows, age sixty-five and older, from the Piedmont region of South Carolina, this study concludes that good health and the availability of economic resources are the primary factors which facilitate involvement with family, neighbors and friends, and participation in a number and variety of daily activities. In addition, those widows who were more educated participated in more activities; those living in small towns and rural areas were more involved with family and friends; and white widows saw more of their children, while black respondents were more active and knew more of their neighbors. Finally, the availability and degree of contact with children was unrelated to other activities, while friendship and neighboring was positively associated with taking walks, shopping, and attendance at religious services and other organizational meetings.