Teaching aging in psychology courses: comments on why, what, and how.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to I M Hulicka.
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A sample of 139 texts written over the past 40 years was analyzed for evidence of ageism (i.e., lack of attention to the psychology of later life and stereotyping of older adults). More recent texts cover the topic more comprehensively than in the past, but this coverage is limited in depth. Although textbook authors appear to be trying to communicate a positive message about aging and older persons, their efforts are compromised by ambivalence in the form of contradictory statements about the nature of the aging process. There is an unfortunate condensation of sources in recent texts, which draw heavily from a small cluster of authorities. Implications of these findings for the larger textbook enterprise are discussed.
The literature on age differences in life satisfaction, self-concept, and locus of control reveals a variety of conflicting findings. Nehrke et al. reported a study of elderly institutionalized males that attempted to control for some of the possible sources of variability. The present study extended this effort to a noninstitutionalized life-span sample of males and females in six age groups (fourteen to ninety-four). The age main effect was significant for the locus of control measure. For self-concept, the age and sex main effects were significant. For life satisfaction, the age and sex main effects and their interaction were significant. Generally, lower levels of self-concept and life satisfaction and a more external orientation characterized adolescents and young adults while, with notable exceptions, the remaining age samples were more positive in self-concept and life satisfaction and were more internally controlled. Although the three dependent measures were significantly correlated for the total sample, the correlations involving locus of control were only moderate. The data suggest that at least the life satisfaction and self-concept measures may be viable tools to assess the psychological quality of one's life, and that reliable age differences in well-being can be demonstrated if moderating variables are controlled experimentally or statistically.
Categorical variables are commonly used in gerontological research. Although analysis of such variables presents no problem as long as the observations are independent, problems do arise when they are found in a design with repeated measurements. In this paper, two procedures from the statistics literature are combined to provide an analysis for data from a mixture of between and within categorical variables. First, a response pattern is used to form a contingency table with observations which are completely independent. Next, the Pearson chi-square statistic from the table is partitioned to provide tests analogous to simple effects in analysis of variance.
An Importance, Locus and Range of Activities Checklist, designed to assess self-perceived latitude of choice, a self concept and a life satisfaction scale were administered to 25 institutionalized and 25 noninstitutionalized elderly females. The checklist contained statements about 37 activities of daily living which subjects rated for personal importance and degree of choice available to them. The derived latitude of choice score was based jointly on importance and choice ratings for each activity. Institutionalized respondents, living in a relatively restrictive environment, earned significantly lower latitude of choice scores than did noninstitutionalized subjects. Latitude of choice, self concept and life satisfaction scores were significantly correlated. These findings attest to the appropriateness of the technique used to assess perceived latitude of choice. Modifications of the Importance, Locus and Range of Activities Checklist designed to provide a more profound measure of latitude of choice and to improve the applicability of the scale to different categories of respondents were discussed.
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While important positive effects on the psychological and physical well-being of the elderly often result from increased perceived and actual personal control, the literature also reflects many inconsistent findings. The lack of consensus on aging and the psychology of control has been variously attributed to differences in methodology, measurement devices, theoretical assumptions and the impact of moderator variables. To help bring order to this area the present study evaluated the Latitude of Choice model to determine whether Latitude of Choice scores differ across living arrangements, gender or age. Analysis of covariance tests, controlling for measures of education, perceived health and economic satisfaction, yielded significant main effects but no significant interactions. Partial correlations between Latitude of Choice and measures of psychological well-being, for the total sample and each of the main effect samples, were all significant. These findings provide substantive support for the theoretical approach that underlies Latitude of Choice as a measure of personal control of everyday activities and the potential value of personal control as a moderator of well-being in different environments.
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