From Variables to Lives: Inputs to a Fresh Agenda for Psychological Aging Research in Norway
Abstract
Why has aging and old age attracted so little interest in psychology? This article explores the resistance to aging perspectives, and the struggle to have gerontology recognized, in basic disciplines like psychology and sociology. Aging may, in fact, be a most appropriate “laboratory” for research on individual competence and motivation, considering the many stressors and the great diversity in later life. Findings from Norwegian and German studies on age-related changes in personality and intellectual functioning indicate a need to shift the focus from variables to individuals and study the various pathways of psychological aging. What type of trajectories are hidden behind the mean trends? This perspective may help us move beyond the often trivial and technical study of variables into the joys and tragedies of real lives, and can serve as a guideline for a fresh agenda for psychological aging research in Norway.
References
(1989). A continuity theory of normal aging.. The Gerontologist, 29, 183– 190.
(1996). The process of successful ageing.. Ageing and Society, 16, 397– 422.
(1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation.. In P.B. Baltes & M.M. Baltes (Eds.), Successful aging. Perspectives from the behavioral sciences (pp. 1-34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
Eds. (1999). The Berlin Aging Study. Aging from 70 to 100. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
(1999). Multilevel and systemic analysis of old age: Theoretical and empirical evidence for a fourth age.. In V.L. Bengtson & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (pp. 153-173). New York: Springer Publishing. .
(1964). Factor analysis of Wechsler's Adult Intelligence Scale performance of elderly Norwegians.. Journal of Gerontology, 19, 49– 53.
(2000). On the unbearable lightness of theory in gerontology. (Book review of V.L. Bengtson & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging. New York: Springer Publishing, 1999).. The Gerontologist, 40, 367– 373.
(1990). The concepts, models, and history of the psychology of aging.. In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 3-20). San Diego: Academic Press. .
(1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilative and accommodative strategies of coping.. Psychology and Aging, 5, 58– 67.
(1996). Incorporating diversity: Meaning, levels of research, and implications for theory.. The Gerontologist, 36, 147– 156.
(1991). Socioemotional selectivity theory: Social activity in life-span context.. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 11, 195– 217.
(1995). What have we “made” of aging?. Journal of Gerontology, 50B, S341– 343.
(2002). Time to pay back? Is there something for psychology and sociology in gerontology?. In L. Andersson & D. Gaunt (Eds.), Cultural gerontology (pp. 1-11). Westport: Greenwood. .
(1988). What's in a name? An account of the neglect of variability in the study of aging.. In J.E. Birren & V.L. Bengtson (Eds.), Emergent theories of aging (pp. 356-384). New York: Springer Publishing. .
(1996). The social organization of diversity, and the normative organization of age.. The Gerontologist, 36, 174– 177.
(1999). Personality and subjective well-being.. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwaraz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 213-229). New York: Russel Sage Foundation. .
(1986). The old person as a stranger.. In V.W. Marshall (Ed.), Later life: The social psychology of aging (pp. 147-189). Beverly Hills: Sage. .
(1959). Identity and the life cycle. . New York: W.W. Norton. .
(1995). The political economy of aging.. In R.H. Binstock & L.K. George (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (pp. 346-361). San Diego: Academic Press. .
(1990). Images of ageing.. In J. Bond & P. Coleman (Eds.), Ageing in society. An introduction to social gerontology (pp. 250-275). London: Sage. .
(1999). Aging and human motivation. . New York: Kluwer /Plenum. .
(1968). Disengagement and patterns of aging.. In B.L. Neugarten (Ed.), Middle age and aging: A reader in social psychology (pp. 161-172). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
(1995). Lost horizons regained: Old age and the anthropology of contemporary society.. In A.S. Ahmed & C.N. Shore (Eds.), The future of anthropology (pp. 203-227). London: Athlone. .
(1995). A life-span theory of control.. Psychological Review, 102, 284– 304.
(1930). Die Lebenswende. Gesamte Werke (Vol.8) ‘the turning point in life. Collected Works (Vol.8)’.. Olten: Walter-Verlag. .
(1986). The ageless self. . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. .
(2000). Role-specific feelings of control and morality.. Psychology and Aging, 15, 617– 626.
(1998). Coping with aging: Individuality as a key to understanding.. In I.H. Nordhus, G.R. VandenBos, S. Berg, & P. Fromholt (Eds.), Clinical geropsychology (pp. 109-127). Washington: American Psychological Association. .
(1996). Aging and heterogeneity: Genetics, social structure, and personality.. The Gerontologist, 36, 165– 173.
(1968). Personality and patterns of aging.. In B.L. Neugarten (Ed.), Middle age and aging. A reader in social gerontology (pp. 173-180). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
(1998). Reconstructing old age. New agendas in social theory and practice. . London: Sage. .
(1985). Age strata in social systems.. In R.H. Binstock & E. Shanas (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (pp. 369-411). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. .
(1997). Successful ageing.. The Gerontologist, 37, 433– 440.
(1999). Germany.. In J.J.F.Schroots, R. Fernández-Ballesteros, & G. Rudinger (Eds.), Aging in Europe. Amsterdam: IOS Press. .
(1991). Psychological well-being in adulthood and old age. Descriptive markers and explanatory processes.. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 11, 144– 171.
(2001). Age, education, and the sense of control. A test of the cumulative advantage hypothesis.. Research on Aging, 23, 153– 178.
(1989). Teenagers become adult and elderly. . Oslo: Norwegian Institute of Gerontology, report 5-1989. .
(1997). Tenåringen blir pensjonist ‘From teenager to pensioner’.. Oslo: Norwegian Institute of Gerontology, report 23-1997. .
(1999). Trends and profile of psychological functioning in very old age.. In P.B. Baltes & K.U. Mayer (Eds.), The Berlin Aging Study. Aging from 70 to 100 (pp. 197-226). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
(1999). Sources of well-being in very old age.. In P.B. Baltes & K.U. Mayer (Eds.), The Berlin Aging Study. Aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
(1999). Self, personality, and life regulation: facets of psychological resilience in old age.. In P.B. Baltes & K.U. Mayer (Eds.), The Berlin Aging Study. Aging from 70 to 100 (pp. 450-471). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
(1989). Gero-transcendence: A meta-theoretical reformulation of the disengagement theory.. Aging, 1, 55– 63.
