EUROPEAN PAPERS ON THE NEW WELFARE

4. Research on the Elderly: Questions of Method?

Compared to other areas of psychology, psycho-gerontology is relatively young. Although some important works on ageing date back to the middle of the last century, it was around 1980 that there was an explosion of interest in this subject, and still more recently that there have been attempts to give a structure and organicity to the many observations gathered over time. Moreover, it is only recently that the broad longitudinal studies begun 40 years ago have started to give results (Schaie, 1994; Baltes and Mayer, 1999). It can be said that in psychology the study of the elderly is a discipline ‘under construction’, with areas that have solid research and control, and large areas that are still scarcely defined.
The science of psychology can make a relevant contribution to the understanding of the new phenomena that accompany ageing and to the very redefinition of the concept of old age. Not only: theoretical formulations in psycho-gerontology are closely linked to their applications, loudly requested as a contribution to the management of — if not to the solution to — the problems often connected to ageing. For many of the topics dealing with the psychology of the elderly theory and application, research and action are almost inseparable pairs. We are thinking of the study of the effects of non pharmaceutical treatments for dementia and depression, or of theories which concern the coping strategies of caregivers.
There is a more subtle way which the elderly have devised to force us to consider them persons ‘holistically’ within the dimensional complexity which characterizes human beings but which at times vanishes in experimental psychology. Unlike with young adults we do not manage to bring the elderly into the laboratory, to transform them into ‘experimental subjects’ dear to us. Not only an ever greater number of scientific articles, but also the direct experience of those who have tried at least once to work on research and rehabilitation with the elderly tell us that even the purest cognitive activity is influenced by emotional, motivational, relational factors (see for example Levy’s work (1996) already quoted for the impact of self-attributed stereotypes on memory task performances, but also the work of Bargh et al. (1996) on automatic stereotype activation.).
The old person has himself studied in his own environment, linked to his world, in the hic et nunc of his experience and at the same time indissolubly with his history. Experimentation ethics and efficacy are involved together in constantly sending the researcher back — but for the psychologist and the psycho-therapist the discussion is analogous — to a multiple and complex vision of the elderly person, to a careful evaluation of the multi factor nature of the phenomena studied.
If on one hand the impossibility of taking the old person from his environment complicates research or action, on the other hand, it has a very positive aspect in that it forces organisations, associations, and institutions which in various capacities are concerned with the elderly, and to whom the elderly refer, to collaborate. The building and maintenance and development of a dialogue between University and country, of research structures and places of care: this is one of the good outcomes towards which the elderly impel us.

References
Amoretti, G. e Ratti, M.T. (2000): Psicologia e terza età, Carocci, Roma.

Baltes, P.B. and Mayer, K.U. (1999): The Berlin Aging Study: Aging from 70 to 100, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Baltes, P.B.(1997): “On the Incomplete Architecture of Human Ontogeny”, American Psychologist, 52, pp. 366-380.

Baltes, P.B., and Smith, J. (2003): “New Frontiers in the Future of Aging: From Successful Aging of the Young Old to the Dilemmas of the Fourth Age”, Gerontology, 49, pp. 123-135.

Bargh, J.A., Chen, M. and Burrows, L. (1996): “Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, pp. 230-244.

Bultena, G. and Powers, E. (1979): “Denial of Aging: Age Identification and Reference Group Orientation”, Journal of Gerontology, 33, pp. 748-754.

Cesa-Bianchi, M. (2001): Psicologia dell’invecchiamento, Carocci, Roma.

Erickson, E.H. (1959): Identity and Life Circle: Psychological Issues, International University Press, New York.

Greenberg, J., Schimel, J. and Mertens, A. (2002): “Ageism: Denying the Face of the Future”, in Nelson, T.D. (eds.) Ageism. Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Levy, B.R. (1996): Improving Memory in Old Age Through Implicit Self-Stereotyping”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, pp. 1092-1107.

Morton, I. (1999): Person-centred Approaches To Dementia Care, Speechmark, Bicester, Oxon.

Schaie, K.W. (1994): “The Course of Adult Intellectual Development”, American Psychologist, 49, pp. 304-313.

Schmidt, D.F. and Boland, S.M. (1986): Structure of Perceptions of older Adults: Evidence for Multiple Stereotypes”, Psychology and Aging, 1, pp. 255-260.

Thomae, H. (1970): Theory of Aging and Cognitive Theory of Personality”, Human Development, 13, pp. 1-16.

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