This study of 106 elderly Central Missourians examines religious behavior as an indication of "disengagement." It is argued that religiosity must be measured in both organizational forms such as attending religious services and the more subjective nonorganizational forms including prayer and listening to religious services. (Author)

Age changes in categorization and conceptual styles were studied using an object-sorting task in 276 subjects representing seven age groups. Significant age effects were found in the analysis of variance for four of six measures; there were no significant sex or interaction effects. (Author)

Behavioral observations were conducted on aged mentally impaired females in an institutional environment on a weekly basis for a two-year period. Half the subjects remained stable in the level of their behavioral functioning. Stable subjects evidenced less serious medical conditions, had better comprehension of their situations and were more…

The development of functional dependency in functionally independent aged in a community was observed by Public Health Nurses over a period of five years. Among the 138 survivors observed for five years the emergence of functional dependency was slow. The five-year risk of becoming functionally dependent was highest in Self-Care. (Author)

Young (N=18) and older (N=18) adults participated in a vocabulary task involving varying degrees of risk with a payoff structure that varied either directly or inversely with risk. In contrast to prior research using constant payoff structures, results did not indicate that older adults are more cautious than young adults. (Author)

This paper describes a two-stage sampling design for obtaining probability samples of the elderly and other specialized populations. Results indicate elderly individuals will respond, use of the design does not appear to increase sample bias, and the method is extremely inexpensive. (Author)

This longitudinal analysis examines changes in voluntary association participation levels over a four-year period using data from the Duke Adaptation Study (N=374) and over a two and one-half year period using data from Oberlin, Ohio (N=104). The findings showed the extent of participation was high in both samples. (Author)

This study was designed to assess listeners' ability to judge a taped speaker's age and to measure the extent to which personality ratings are affected by perceived age. In two experiments, undergraduate subjects demonstrated that speaker age can be reliably estimated over a wide age range for both female and male voices. (Author)

Sleep patterns of elderly subjects (N=12) differed from young adult levels. When sleep variables were compared with individual changes in intellectual function measured across the seventh through 10th decades of life, a positive correlation was found between time in REM sleep and several longitudinal measures of mental functioning. (Author)

Older persons are more likely to get physical checkups and overutilize the health care system for minor complaints, but are little different from the younger in underutilization for conditions which should receive a doctor's attention. There is a need to help the elderly sort out symptoms requiring attention. (Author)

Younger (N=48) and older (N=48) males participated in a vocabulary task involving varying degrees of risk under neutral, supportive, and challenging instructions. Results indicated older adults were more cautious, selected tasks with higher probabilities of success, and were less likely to raise their level of aspiration following success. (Author)

A life cycle explanation of residential mobility is presented. It posits that age-related events in a normative context influence moving probabilities for homogeneous populations who have relatively uniform socialization. (Author)

This study compared the MMPI profiles of law offenders (N=362) at different ages to examine personality changes associated with aging and to assess certain clinically derived impressions about patterns of personality disturbance in older vs. younger offenders. The greater the age difference between groups, the larger were the personality…

Studied interactions between 40 elderly nursing home residents and their social partners. Results showed discrepant social contingencies for different resident behaviors, i.e., dependent self-care behaviors received continuous supportive responses, where independent self-care behaviors, obstructively engaged and nonengaged behaviors received no…

Investigated the relationship between aging and church attendance, religiosity, and prayer in a longitudinal study of 338 older Mexican Americans and Anglos. Results showed church attendance and prayer remained stable over time; religiosity increased somewhat. Only church attendance showed a significant effect on life satisfaction, particularly…