An analysis of the 102 entries, dated from 1975 to 1986, in the section on Religion of "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?: An Annotated GSA Bibliography of Aging and the Humanities" reveals three principal characteristics. First, with the exception of some literature on spiritual well-being, the material cannot be…

Asserts that the idea that retirement increases risk of illness and death persists because of the availability of vivid anecdotes, a tendency to interpret big events as major causes of illness, cultural celebration of work, theoretical perspectives in gerontology fostering expectations that retirement is disruptive, and misinterpretation of…

Discusses how the dynamics of stress and coping change with the processes of aging. Suggests that since aging is a highly individualized process, cross-sectional studies of the phenomenon may be inadequate unless supplemented by a longitudinal perspective. (Author/AOS)

The long-held belief that a person became an adult at about 20 years of age and, henceforth, remained psychologically and physically on a plateau until old age, has recently been found unacceptable in the light of research contributed by developmental psychology. Adult development may be viewed as the function of the interaction of the…