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This study was a test of the relationship between self-esteem and the identity processing styles of identity assimilation (i.e., maintaining consistent views of the self), accommodation (i.e., changing the self), and a balance between consistency seeking and identity change. A community sample of 242 older adults ranging in age from forty to ninety-five ( M = 63.31) completed measures of identity processing and self-esteem. Previous research has demonstrated that identity assimilation increases with age in order to maintain self-esteem in the domain of physical and cognitive functioning; this is referred to as the identity assimilation effect (IAE). Based on this research, a similar result was expected in the domain of personality. Although identity assimilation and balance predicted increases in self-esteem, and identity accommodation predicted decreases in self-esteem, as predicted, no interaction effects were observed. The results of this study suggest the IAE may be domain specific to physical and cognitive functioning.

Infantilization was investigated in a sample of thirty-five elderly adults, both community residents ( N = 18) and residents of institutions ( N = 17). Respondents were presented with materials designed to elicit ratings of adult and infantilized speech content and intonation on the dimensions of “likeability,” “equality of treatment,” and “degree of respect.” Community and institutionalized elders rated adult speech in an equivalent fashion. However, community residents were more negative in their ratings of infantilizing speech content and intonation compared to their ratings of adult speech than were institutionalized elders. The negative regard that community elders had for infantilizing speech was particularly pronounced for intonation. Furthermore, community elders appeared particularly resentful of infantilizing speech intonation on the dimension of respect. There was no evidence to support the contention that infantilizing speech is high in nurturance. Adding to the findings of Ryan and co-workers, it appeared important to differentiate between infantilizing content and intonation, as the infantilizing intonation produced a more pronounced negative reaction than did infantilizing content among community elders.

In the present article, the lifespan construct model was applied to the lives of older women by administering the life drawing to a sample of seventy-eight community-dwelling elderly women. Respondents also completed the Brad-burn Affect Balance Scale and the Nowicki-Strickland locus of control measure. Correlations were examined among measures derived from the life drawing (time perspective, affect, and content), affect, and locus of control. Quantitative findings indicated that the more positively adjusted older women were those who maintained an external locus of control, were future-oriented, and whose lifespan constructs were defined in terms of family. The qualitative data provided further support, as the women who described their lives in positive terms were those who seemed to define themselves in terms of their families. The findings were interpreted in terms of Erikson's theory and feminist approaches to understanding women's lives.

This study was an exploratory investigation of identity and life-span perceptions in a sample of thirty-seven chronic mental patients, ranging from twenty-three to sixty-four years of age, using the “life drawing,” a projective technique. Age differences were found in the adaptation of identity to the life experiences associated with mental illness. Individuals less than thirty years old were more likely to adopt a “patient identity”; in contrast, the over-forty years-olds adapted to their illness through denial. These differences held regardless of psychiatric diagnosis, suggesting a process of identity adaptation more general than is implied in mental disorder diagnostic systems.

As a measure of time perspective, a variation of the life graph was administered to forty-seven men and forty-seven women ranging from twenty-four to sixty years ( M age = 40.67). It was expected that age would be related positively to past versus present temporal dominance and lack of future extension of the life drawing. The effects of sex, work status, and geographic mobility were also assessed through log-linear analyses. Age was found to relate to past temporal dominance, particularly for men. Twelve month test-retest analyses of data from fifty-five respondents showed that both time perspective measures were reliable. Life changes in that interval appeared to precipitate movement from past to present temporal dominance. Temporal dominance also showed a relationship to behavioral observations made by interviewers at the first testing occasion. Of interest was the lack of support in the life drawings for age-stage theories of adult development in that the events depicted as markers had no relationship to age.

The relationship of informal social interaction to subjective well-being of older adults was investigated using the PGC Morale Scale, the MACC Behavioral Adjustment Scale, and a sociometric interview which provided measures of peer friendship and frequency of social interaction. Respondents were fifty-four males aged fifty-two to ninety years, who were residents of a Veterans Administration domiciliary. The predicted positive correlation was obtained between morale and frequency of social interaction with persons outside the institution, but men's friendships within the institution were not related to morale. As expected, men who reported an overall change in frequency of social interaction scored substantially lower on the PGC Morale Scale than those who perceived no change. Behavioral adjustment ratings of participants made by a staff member were positively correlated with friendship and social interaction scores. The results were thus consistent with a continuity model of aging, in which maintenance of accustomed levels of social interaction is related to subjective well-being.

It is argued that ego analytic, disengagement, and symbolic interaction theories of personality share an insufficient consideration of the dynamics of the interaction between developmental and social forces transpiring during the aging period. An alternative, transactional model is proposed, positing that the effects of the environment to which the elderly person is subject are the product of: (1) the people and settings comprising that environment and (2) the manner in which the individual acts upon and is acted upon by these people and settings. The model highlights the need for research in which present behavioral and environmental events assume as much importance as past ones.

Test anxiety in elderly and young adult college students was measured by the Anxiety Achievement Test following a free-recall memory experiment. As expected, the elderly had higher levels of debilitating test anxiety than the younger adults. A large proportion of older persons showed behavioral manifestations of test anxiety either by refusing to participate in the study, or by their reactions during the testing. Test anxiety was related to memory performance among both age groups, suggesting that an older person's performance on a cognitive task may be influenced by affective reactions to the testing situation itself.