This document presents the prepared statements and witness testimony from the Congressional hearing on Alzheimer's Disease. Following an opening statement by Senator John Heinz, statements by Senators Larry Pressler and Alfonse M. D'Amato are given. Topics which are discussed include incidence of the disease, family and victim ramifications,…

This review of the literature on prosocial behavior in the elderly provides empirical data on the prevalence of helping behaviors among the elderly and the range of motives underlying their helping. Implications of these data for theories of social behavior in later life are considered, and questions are raised about the validity of the models…

To explore families as networks and communities from an evolutionary perspective, two studies were conducted with rural elders in West Virginia. In the first study, examining the social factors that influenced the use of public transportation, 28 elderly individuals, divided into three groups by transportation styles (users of public…

Age differences in intellect as reflected by performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Revised) (WAIS-R) were evaluated for persons aged 20 to 74 years. Educational attainment levels were held constant. The WAIS-R sample included 1,480 men and women in the following seven age groups--20-24 years (n=250), 25-34 years (n=250), 35-44…

A study compared the way in which subjects belonging to four different age groups produced written recall and summary responses after being presented with a narrative story. A seventh-grade-level, 500-word story that contained 78 idea units was presented to two groups of adolescents (mean ages, 14.14 years and 17.55 years) and two groups of adults…

The theoretical fields of adult developmental psychology and andragogy provide some principles or rules for action that may lead to useful improvements in course organization and teaching methodology. An analysis of the principles and the likely effects of their implementation has led to the following speculation: principles that are not likely to…

Few studies concerning siblings have taken a lifespan approach, i.e., studying sibling relationships from childhood to old age. To outline the developmental changes that occur in the quality of the sibling relationship during various periods of the life cycle and to test the feasibility of devising a coding system to identify such changes, 47…

A conceptual framework for adult development is proposed, based on a synthesis of the literature on role theory and various age-related adult developmental theories. It is proposed that adult development may not be as linear, uniform, and age-related as has been suggested. An individual adult could be in varying developmental stages across the…

This study hypothisized that when a person perceives his social network as constricted, and this constriction has been a "conscious" decision by that individual, then he or she should express little death anxiety. Subjects were 38 individuals who were at least age 60. Of these, 18 were members of the Gray Panthers (with expanding numbers of social…

This paper presents the Aging Sexuality Knowledge and Attitudes Scale (ASKAS), an instrument designed to assess the particular aspects of sexual knowledge and attitudes as they relate to the aged. Development of ASKAS items from a survey of existant physiological research on sexuality in older adults and a review of social-psychological writing on…

Professional development for teachers should include learning experiences that lead to greater personal and vocational self-understanding. Teachers need greater self-understanding to keep pace with social changes and to expand their skills. However, if teachers are to develop professionally--especially midcareer teachers--then administrators and…

A collection of six papers on faculty development concerns is presented. In "The Scholar-Practitioner Dilemma," Robert J. Menges notes the dual roles of scholarship and teaching that faculty members confront and introduces the topics that are addressed by the other authors. Attention is directed to the processes involved in intellectual work. In…

A mathematical competencies test was given to adult college students. Mean test scores on the mathematical competencies test were compared for the categories of age, sex, occupation, mathematical background and number of years since a mathematics course was taken. Findings indicated that age, sex and mathematical course background of the adult…

Research in aging has placed considerable faith in data collected from the recollections and reminiscences of older people. Retrospective reports were verified against previously collected data to determine the accuracy of topical information provided by anamnestic reports as well as the types of persons most likely to be accurate reporters.…

Through funding from the Michigan Department of Education, a small private college in a suburban area outside Detroit developed a three-year competency-based paraprofessional training program in gerontology. During the first year of the program, courses and competencies were developed and 50 paraprofessionals were recruited; in the second year new…