Herbert Simon's work on bounded rationality has had little impact on researchers studying older adults' decision making. This omission is surprising, as human constraints on computation and memory are exacerbated in older adults. The study of older adults' decision-making processes could benefit from employing a bounded rationality perspective,…

Tested Erikson's theory of an ego integrity versus despair crisis in old age using interviews with 40 older adults. Four integrity statuses were defined: integrity achieving, dissonant, foreclosed, despairing. Results supported the validity of the integrity status construct and the interview designed to measure it. (JAC)

There is a common perception that stresses tend to increase and accumulate with age, but there have been no definitive studies of differences in perceived life stress among different age groups. To study these differences, a quasi-random sample of 215 adults completed a 41 item life-stressor questionnaire, modified from the Paykel (1971) and…

These proceedings from the second conference on the Epidemiology of Aging sponsored by the National Institutes of Health indicate the direction of recent research and concern in this area. Attempts are made to formulate a definition of aging other than that of chronological age. A number of biomedical correlates of aging are addressed, including…

The purpose of this study was to examine how different ways of measuring interaction may affect its relationship with personal adjustment. The number of persons with whom the subject interacted, and the frequency of this interaction, are of little importance for the adjustment of older people. Quality, rather than quantity, of social interaction…

Research has begun to define the older adult population, not as a homogeneous sample, but as at least two groups with different concerns. To determine the factors contributing to retirement satisfaction, two groups of retirees, i.e., young-olds, aged 75 and under (N=49) and old-olds, over age 75 (N=49), completed the Individual Status Assessment…

Discusses the nature and importance of social skills for the elderly, including social skills deficits and psychological disorders related to aging, in five papers presented as part of a Symposium on Social Skills at the XII International Congress of Gerontology, Hamburg, July 1981. (JAC)