Authentic Humor as an Expression of Spiritual Maturity

SUMMARY

Erikson's understanding of ego integrity and Fowler's depiction of conjunctive faith provide theoretical insights into the holistic nature of spiritual maturity. In order to ground the theory in the actual experience of aging persons, this paper demonstrates, how authentic humor represents an expression of spiritual maturity. Authentic humor can articulate the trust, hope and the faith of elders who maintain a sense of meaning and wholeness despite the changes, losses and suffering which often accompany the aging process. Persons who possess the resource of authentic humor experience the paradoxicalities of aging without yielding to despair.     

Crones, Dirty Old Men, Sexy Seniors: Representations of the Sexuality of Older Persons

The representations of the sexuality of older persons in American society are neither flattering nor accurate. Often what is presented is filled with confusion, uncertainty, and contradictions. Sexuality of old people, like sexuality of adolescents, frightens most adults in between. Evidence suggests hope that in popular culture, conventional representations of sexless older people are finally undergoing a change. The popular literature aimed at elderly or midlife audiences increasingly portrays older persons as healthy, vigorous, and not unattractive. Since in the popular mind attractiveness and sexuality are believed to be closely linked, this change signals an increased willingness to credit old people who are aging well (i.e., who look and act young) with being sexually interested and probably active.     

An own-age bias in age estimation of faces

IntroductionAge estimation performances may be influenced by group biases.ObjectiveThis study investigated whether we are more accurate at estimating the age of people from one's own-age than the age of younger or older people.MethodChildren, young and older adults’ performances at estimating both in-group and out-group faces were compared.ResultsA significant “Age of participants” × “Age of face stimuli” interaction was revealed. Moreover, the age of children's faces was more accurately estimated than the age of young and older adults’ faces by the three groups of participants.ConclusionThe present results revealed the occurrence of an own-age bias for children, young and older adults in age estimation. Several explanations to this own-age effect are discussed.     

Effects of aging on action-intentional programming

Background: Action-intentional programs control “when” we initiate, inhibit, continue, and stop motor actions. The purpose of this study was to learn if there are changes in the action-intentional system with healthy aging, and if these changes are asymmetrical (right versus left upper limb) or related to impaired interhemispheric communication. Methods: We administered tests of action-intention to 41 middle-aged and older adults (61.9 ± 12.3 years). Results: Regression analyses revealed that older age predicted a decrement in performance for tests of crossed motor response inhibition as well as slower motor initiation with the left hand. Conclusion: Changes in action-intention with aging appear to be related to alterations of interhemispheric communication and/or age-related right hemisphere dysfunction; however, further research is needed to identify the mechanisms for age-related changes in the brain networks that mediate action-intention.     

Health,Finances, Religious Involvement,and Life Satisfaction of Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This study examines the patterns and relationships between twelve independent variables and the expressed subjective well-being of older adults within that classic community setting of the Lynds' “Middletown.” The twelve variables include measures of church attendance, religious activity, religious conservatism/liberalism, subjective health status, social participation, importance of leisure, participation in physical activity, age, sex, marital status, and level of education.     

Actions,Feelings, and Values: Foundations of Meaning and Personhood in Dementia

SUMMARY

Viktor Frankl's writings on the sources of meaning in human life are compared to emergent views on personhood in older individuals with dementing illnesses. An ethnomethodological study of a CBRF (community based residential facility) with two sections, each housing about 10 persons, revealed meaning in residents' actions, feelings, and expressions of values. These individuals showed it is possible to retain what Frankl called “tragic optimism” despite cognitive deterioration. Through active engagement with their environments and with one another, a wide range of expressed emotions including happiness and humor, and caring sensitivity toward others, these elders showed that given a supportive environment, dementia does not destroy meaning. These observations form the basis of suggestions for pastoral care and ministry with people with dementia.     

“Just do it… before you talk yourself out of it”: the self-talk of adults thinking about physical activity

ObjectivesLittle is known about what adults are thinking about and doing for health-promoting physical activity (PA). We examined the PA levels of middle-aged (40–55 years) and older men and women (56+) as well as their intentions for future activity.MethodsRandom telephone surveys stratified for age, gender and geographic location assessed the weekly PA and plans for exercise among 40 adults.ResultsNumerical data showed that activity patterns were age-determined and gender-patterned with adults aged 40–55 expending far more energy at both work and leisure-time PA than adults aged 56+. Self-talk strategies occurred among 88% of the respondents but a key strategy used by active people was to ignore activity self-talk and ‘just do it’ lest they talk themselves out of exercising.ConclusionsInactive people already know that keeping active is important to their health and still do not participate. The group to target with positive triggering messages, assistance in getting started and reminders are those who already want to be more active but have not got a regular pattern established. Future research is needed to explore the impact of various kinds of social cueing. Messages such as, “Just do it” or “Don’t think about it” may be all that is needed to trigger adults who are already seriously contemplating how to increase their PA.     

The Spiritual Dimension of Caring: Applying a Model for Spiritual Tasks of Ageing

SUMMARY

This chapter describes a spiritual dimension of ageing using themes and a model for spiritual tasks of ageing, developed as a part of doctoral studies that examined spirituality amongst a group of independent-living older adults in Canberra and NSW. This model has been tested further and the model was confirmed through in-depth interviews of residents of nursing homes in the ACT. The first study identified six major spiritual themes from participant interviews. These were: ultimate meaning in life for each person, the way they responded to meaning, self-sufficiency versus despair, moving from provisional to final life meanings, relationship versus isolation in ageing and hope versus despair.     

Neuropsychological sequelae following pediatric stroke: A nonlinear model of age at lesion effects

Aim: The distribution and quality of brain recovery following pediatric arterial ischemic stroke remains controversial. The literature suggests that age at stroke may be an important modulator of neuropsychological outcome, with reports inferring either greater vulnerability or plasticity in the nascent brain. Our aim was to investigate neuropsychological outcomes following pediatric stroke in a clinical sample with reference to age at lesion, lesion laterality, elapsed time from stroke to assessment, and persistent neurological sequelae.

Methods: Using comprehensive neuropsychological assessment batteries, we investigated retrospectively a large (n?=?44) and evenly distributed group of children who had ischemic stroke during “infancy” (1 month to 1 year), “early childhood” (1 to 6 years), and “late childhood” (6 to 16 years).

Results: Children who suffered a stroke performed significantly worse on a range of neuropsychological measures when compared to a normative sample. However, children who suffered a stroke between 1 and 6 years old demonstrated better preserved neuropsychological profiles than either the earlier (before age 1) or later (after age 6) age groups. In addition, those children suffering a left hemisphere lesion performed more poorly on a range of neuropsychological measures than did children with right hemisphere lesions.

Interpretation: Age at stroke is an important determinant of recovery following insult and may modulate neuropsychological and cognitive outcome.     

An assessment of age differences in theory of mind using the virtual assessment of mentalizing ability

ABSTRACT

Prior research has shown that older adults perform more poorly than young on tasks that assess theory of mind (ToM). However, these studies have used tasks that are performed “offline” (i.e., requiring a second-person perspective) as opposed to “online” (i.e., requiring a first-person perspective). Therefore, the present study was designed to establish whether age-related ToM difficulties are also evident when an “online” measure of ToM is used. Forty younger and 40 older adults completed the Virtual Assessment of Mentalizing Ability (VAMA) along with two conventional ToM tasks. No age differences were evident on the conventional measures, but older adults had lower accuracy on the VAMA relative to their younger counterparts. The overall pattern of errors did not differ between the groups. These data provide no evidence that age effects are reduced when stimuli are used that are more likely to engage the mentalizing processes elicited in real life social interactions.     

Shattered dreams,resiliency, and hope: “restorying” after loss

Abstract

Experiences of shattered dreams can cause some to lose hope and the capacity to dream new dreams and create new stories. Unless family professionals pay attention to and aid persons in grieving lost dreams, children, adults, and families may have difficulty turning the corner to hope and healing after loss. The connections among attention to losses, especially shattered dreams, the promotion of resiliency, story telling, and hope are addressed in this article.     

Pastoral Support for Late-Life Sexuality

SUMMARY

As more persons live longer and enjoy relatively good physical health, new ethical questions arise. One set of questions regards the continuation of sexual life among older persons, especially among older unmarried persons. Women live many years longer than their spouses and often were of a younger age than the spouses. The Judeo-Christian tradition affirms the vitality of sex as a basic part of God's gift of physical creation. A large majority of older people view sexual expression as important and many see it as crucial to a good relationship with a partner. These issues are raised for the awareness of pastoral counselors to understand and be responsive to the varied sexual alternatives m the later years m order to offer practical help to older persons.     

How Do “Religion” and “Spirituality” Differ? Lay Definitions Among Older Adults

Research and public interest in religion and spirituality is on the rise. Consequently, there is an increasing need for rigorously obtained information on what individuals mean when they use these terms. This study examined how 64 older adults living in three retirement communities (including one Christian‐based community), a relatively understudied population, conceptualize religion and spirituality. Participants defined “religion” and “spirituality,” and their narrative definitions were coded and compared using a framework derived from Hill et al.'s (2000) conceptualization of religion and spirituality. Despite considerable overlap, participants' definitions differed on several dimensions. Participants were more likely to associate religion than spirituality with personal beliefs, community affiliation, and organized practices. Moreover, spirituality appeared to be a more abstract concept than religion, and included nontheistic notions of a higher power.     

Effects of repetition on age differences in associative recognition

The study reported here examined the effect of repetition on age differences in associative recognition using a paradigm designed to encourage recollection at test. Young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs presented one, two, four, or eight times. Test lists contained old (intact) pairs, pairs consisting of old words that had been studied with other partners (rearranged lures), and pairs consisting of two unstudied words (new lures). Participants gave old/new responses and then indicated whether their responses were based on details that they could recollect or on familiarity. Older adults exhibited an ironic effect of repetition—an increase in false alarms on rearranged lures with more study opportunities—whereas young adults did not. Older adults also claimed to recall details of the study episode for rearranged lures whose constituent words were presented more frequently, but this was not true for young adults. Although both young and older adults said that they based correct rejections of rearranged lures on memory for details of the study episode, this effect was stronger for young adults. The observed age differences are consistent with older adults having reduced use of recollection in associative recognition tasks.     

The Effects of Age,Sex and Alzheimer's Disease on Strategy Use During Verbal Fluency Tasks

ABSTRACT

Clustering and switching strategies during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks were investigated in healthy adults (n = 193, 86 males, 20–90 years) in young, middle-aged, young–old, and old–old age groups (Study 1). Older groups produced fewer total words and lower switching scores; males relied more on clustering and females on switching to produce equivalent output. In Study 2, early Alzheimer's disease participants, compared to healthy older adults, (n = 26 per group) produced fewer total words and smaller average clusters. Sex, age, and clinical differences on switching and clustering strategies support a dual processing model of verbal fluency.     

Older Adults’ Psychosocial Responses to a Fear of Falling: A Scoping Review to Inform Occupational Therapy Practice

Abstract

Falls in older adults are a major health concern, yet the “fear of falling”, a common psychosocial response that can occur post-fall, has seldom been investigated. A scoping review was conducted to identify and map interventions that occupational therapists can use to manage the fear of falling psychosocial response (FoFPR) among older adults. Thirteen electronic databases were searched and 22 studies were retrieved. Cognitive behavioral therapy, guided imagery, and Tai Chi were interventions found to help older adults deal with their FoFPRs. Occupational therapists assisting older adults in this area can play a significant role.     

Warrior Chicks: Youthful Aging in a Postfeminist Prosperity Discourse

In a youth‐oriented evangelical congregation where being perceived as “old” might marginalize member involvement and participation, a Hollywood, California congregation's women's ministry, God Chicks, presents aging women as possessing “godly wisdom,” endowing older women with spiritually charged energy, authority, and responsibility for training younger women to live “godly” lives. Ethnographic research and in depth media analysis of the God Chicks ministry reveals a particularly energizing evangelical postfeminist orientation that applies prosperity theology to contemporary challenges of changing women's roles. Specifically, the God Chicks ministry provides “women over forty” with consumer and caretaking strategies for maintaining youthful selves and motivating younger women. A “God Chick” emerges as a compelling, youthful gendered religious identity that expects congregationally committed women to be strong, healthy, and active warriors who fight multiple relational and global humanitarian battles. Overall, this study demonstrates the construction of an innovative postfeminist evangelical identity through the tactical, opportunistic use of theological doctrine by ministry leaders within a particularistic geographic location.     

“I am NN”: A Reconstruction of Anscombe's “The First Person”

This paper develops a way of understanding G. E. M. Anscombe's essay “The First Person” at the heart of which are the following two ideas: first, that the point of her essay is to show that it is not possible for anyone to understand what they express with “I” as an Art des Gegebenseins—a way of thinking of an object that constitutes identifying knowledge of which object is being thought of; and second, that the argument through which her essay seeks to show this is itself first personal in character. Understanding Anscombe's essay in this light has the merit of showing much of what it says to be correct. But it sets us the task of saying what it is that we understand ourselves to express with “I” if not an Art des Gegebenseins, and in particular what it is that we understand ourselves to express with sentences with “I” as subject that might seem to express identity judgments, such as “I am NN”, and “I am this body”.     

A Conceptual Framework for Assessing the Spiritual Functioning and Fulfillment of Older Adults in Long-Term Care Settings

ABSTRACT

The 1971 White House Conference on Aging asserted that all persons are spiritual, and that the spiritual well-being of older adults is a significant area of concern for both researchers and practitioners. Many attempts have been made to define and describe spirituality, using instruments designed to measure religious functioning and behavior. While these have been helpful to researchers, they have been of little practical use.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for the operationalization of the variable, “spirituality.” Using this framework, the authors chose three qualitative research questions related to spiritual values which were asked of both older adults and service providers. The results were factor analyzed and an instrument was developed which enables the practitioner to assess the type of spiritual functioning and fulfillment desired by older adults in long-term care settings.     

Conversations with My Father

ABSTRACT

This article provides a brief review of the literature describing successful aging life tasks, such as reminiscence, meaning-making, and forming substantive connections. Using Relational-Cultural Theory as a base, the article addresses the need for connection and ways that connections can be developed and sustained in later life. Through a personal account, the authors also illustrate how grown children can use music to connect with their parents. Finally, the authors adapt A Musical Chronology and the Emerging Life Song, an intervention that uses music and memories, for use with older adults.