The elderly have generally been portrayed as needy recipients of services; only recently has attention been paid to their contributory role. To explore the nature and characteristics of helping behavior among urban elderly, 117 residents of senior citizens' housing sites in Detroit completed the Altruism Scale for the Elderly and a second measure…

Although activity theory proposes a strong relationship between social activity and life satisfaction among older individuals, little research has considered the salience of the activity to the individual. In order to consider the salience of the activity, using volunteer activity as a measure, survey results from the Myths and Realities of Aging…

A problem with gerontology theory is that it focuses on a social view of the aged, ignoring individual and cultural variables. A person is judged to have aged successfully if he has adjusted to society's definition of an "elderly person." Similarly, most studies of programs and options for the aged reflect the view of the service…

Research with older persons suffering from physical illness presents numerous challenges to gerontologists. Issues of conceptualization pertaining to the definition of illness, its location in the research paradigm, and the context in which illness occurs must be addressed prior to dealing with methodological problems. Access to physically ill…

While the geriatric population covers an age range of 30 to 40 years people over age 60 are often treated as a homogenous group. To study the possibility of age changes and differences within the older population, data were collected from the charts of 60 patients (randomly selected within each of three age groups: 60-69, 70-79, 80-89) of an…

In the last two decades, problems associated with aging have caused increased public concern. As a result of recent research in the Federal Republic of Germany, the science of gerontology has revealed new information about the living conditions and living standards of the elderly. The image of older people is still a negative one and passing…

Two divergent views of linguistic ability in adulthood currently exist. One view maintains that verbal ability is preserved in old age, while the other view maintains that verbal ability declines, especially comprehension. To analyze the effects of semantic priming during sentence processing by 30 younger adults (mean age, 25 years) and 30 older…

This paper looks at older adults' use of books and the public library, synthesizes and analyzes work completed in this area, and offers recommendations for future studies. A review was performed of the U.S., Canadian, and British literature over the past 20 years on the use of library materials by older adults. The literature review is divided…

Single, elderly, childless women are a specialized population needing social support. To examine the association between life satisfaction and social support among this population, 65 women (30 widowed, 35 never-married) were interviewed and completed the Life Satisfaction Scale. An analysis of the results showed that the never-married sample had…

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…

Community-based educational programs for older adults are difficult to evaluate due to randomization and control factors. In order to investigate, under a quasi-experimental research design, the contribution of an educational program on retirement issues to participants' quality of life, and to study the program enrollment patterns, 21 people…

Many people hold negative attitudes toward older adults, and these attitudes often are associated with negative behavior toward the old. To explore the behavioral correlates of attitudes toward the elderly, 105 male and female college students, with a mean age of 24.5 years, participated in a two-phase experiment. During phase one, all subjects…

Research has shown that too little stress or stimulation can increase health risks. To determine the effectiveness of mild stimulation on the depression levels and feelings of self-worth of the elderly, 24 withdrawn nursing home residents participated in a non-judgemental 6-month art expression group. Half the group were assigned to a control…

Health communication, gerontology/geriatrics, and the interdisciplinary team approach to health care are considered together in this paper as a critical field for communication research. The first section of the paper offers a definition of interdisciplinary health care teams, then reviews their goals, composition, history and training. The second…

These abstracts of conference presentations are intended to serve as a record and reference of current clinical practice, program planning, and research ideas and results in the field of occupational therapy. Abstracts are grouped in the following categories: (1) preconference institutes; (2) general interest; (3) administration/management; (4)…