Objective: The authors examine the development of the psychiatrist from an adult developmental perspective, focusing on the early development and consolidation of highly adaptive clinical and other professional habits. They place special emphasis on the professional development of the academic psychiatrist. Method: The authors review and use…

This article provides the rationale for doing research on childlessness and parenthood in late life. Childless older adults have been rendered invisible in the social scientific literature. A central goal of this issue is to make them visible and to expose unstated assumptions about normal adult life. Parenthood emerges as a key organizer of the…

Gerontological counseling as a counseling specialty spans only 20 years. This text incorporates into its framework the 16 Minimum Essential Competencies of gerontological counseling that have been developed over the past two decades. These competencies focus on the knowledge and skills required to be an effective counselor for older persons and…

Because of the economic and cultural changes that are currently taking place in society and the workplace, many adults who had their career and personal lives planned to retirement are finding those plans no longer viable and are recognizing the need to readjust their career expectations. Many adults who had always viewed life as a linear,…

This paper examines higher education faculty vitality from the perspective of the individual faculty member by taking a closer look at the individual differences among faculty which might be related to faculty vitality and by linking issues of adult development to the continuing professional development of faculty. First the paper uses data from…

Female aging, compared to male aging, is associated with a greater decline in status and attractiveness. To investigate whether sex differences in the perception of aging function at both the cognitive and affective levels, 76 college students (38 male, 38 female), with a mean age of 22.8, viewed slides of a male and female adult. Subjects were…

While most lifespan developmental theories of personality predict age-related changes in coping, little direct evidence exists for determining whether age differences in coping style are due to intrinsic developmental processes or to age differences in the kinds of stresses encountered. To evaluate age differences in coping strategies and whether…

This booklet is intended to be a discussion document for teachers who are concerned with the specialized interests of the aging. The seven chapters are: (1) Aging: What's the Fuss All About?; (2) What Do the Young Know of Aging?; (3) Can Aging be Taught?; (4) Are the Schools Too Busy?; (5) Aging: What is There to Learn and Teach?; (6) What Has…

This paper explores the psychological shadow--the disowned self--as one of the hidden, unconscious elements in adult and continuing education, often underlying those inexplicable emotional reactions that transpire in instructor/learner interactions. Drawing on the literature related to the psychological shadow, teaching/learning, and adult…

"Understanding Adult Intelligence" (Robert Sternberg) focuses on the nature of intelligence. It explains Sternberg's triarchic theory, in which he posits three main aspects of intelligence: its relation to the internal or mental world of the learner, its relation to experience, and its relation to the surrounding world. "Strategies and Learning"…

Midlife divorce for women can be a time for creative growth or divorce can lead to loneliness, bitterness, and depression. Middle-aged women appear to experience an inordinate amount of stress from divorce because of loss of roles and lack of new role models. Based upon role theory and divorce as a normal developmental process, a feminist…

Based on material received by the International Institute for Adult Literacy Methods during the first half of 1984, this issue contains selected summaries of books, articles in periodicals, and conference and seminar reports published in the field of literacy and adult education. Some of the issues addressed include (1) the role of adult education…

The study described in this paper was conducted to delineate the phenomenon of generativity in middle-aged adults in an attempt to identify its major characteristics, attributes, determinants, and situational or circumstantial variables. Three themes emerged from a literature survey of materials on middle adulthood: the theme of the entry…

Although studies using recall tasks to measure memory typically report age-related declines in performance for older subjects, little is known about how these research results relate to performance in actual situations. A study was undertaken to determine whether years of experience in a domain of knowledge could compensate for age-related…

This document contains a glossary which defines 275 basic terms frequently used by gerontologists. The glossary is designed for use by a general population, including older persons and their families, students in the field of aging, librarians, medical reporters, health care providers, and others interested in older persons. It was developed to…