Demographic and labor force trends point to a critical need for professionals trained to work with older adults. The current study investigated factors associated with interest in aging-related topics and careers and knowledge of the opportunities that exist in the field of gerontology. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and…

Older adults are the fastest growing segment of the population. With these changing demographics, mental health professionals will be seeing more older clients. Additionally, older adults are an underserved population in that most older adults in need of mental health services do not receive treatment. Thus, it is essential that treatments for…

This article describes the development and evaluation of The Game of Late Life--a novel education activity for the psychology of ageing. The game was designed to provide transformational learning where students imagine themselves as older adults and move through late life via a game board, encountering various life events along the way. One of the…

This study investigated the efficacy of a gerontology education course in decreasing ageism and aging anxiety and increasing knowledge and interest in working with older adults among undergraduates training for social services careers. Participants completed study measures at the beginning and end of semester. Analyses supported the study…

This study examined the self-reported likelihood of working with older adults in a future career among 237 college undergraduates at a midsized Midwestern university. Although aging anxiety was not significantly related to likelihood of working with older adults, those students who had a greater level of death anxiety were less likely than other…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends 2014, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 4 to 6 of April. Psychology, in our time, offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and behavioral…

Research has shown that the majority of Americans believe in the concept of life after death in some form. To investigate the effects of afterlife anxiety on wellness in the elderly, 293 Los Angeles elderly were interviewed. An afterlife anxiety measure and measures of physical and psychologial health were administered. Pearson correlations failed…

This study correlated Templer's Death Anxiety Scale among 65 college students with their attitudes and behaviors toward the elderly. There was no evidence for the anxiety-denial hypothesis that fear of aging and death results in repression of ideas associated with aging and with rejection of the elderly. (Author)

Purpose: To identify the most common beliefs concerning the negative consequences of falling and determine whether these motivate avoidance of activity. Design and Methods: A questionnaire assessing feared consequences of falling was completed by 224 community-living people aged older than 75. Beliefs about the consequences of falling were related…

Elderly men and women shared common dimensions of anxious depression and general dissatisfaction. There might be a third dimension for women--sleep impairment. Implications for diagnosing depressive syndromes in the elderly were discussed. (Author)

Describes the development of a multidimensional attitude instrument, the aging opinion survey. Attitudes toward the aging of peers or known persons, toward personal aspects of aging, and toward the eldelry as general-other groups are factorially separable, and should be distinguished in attitude surveys. (Author)

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 instructional module on psychological aspects of aging is one in a block of 10 modules designed to provide the human services worker who works with older adults with basic information regarding the aging process. An introduction provides an overview of the module content. A listing of general objectives follows. Six sections present…