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Geropsychology: The Field and

its Scope

-G. Satya

Geropsychology is the subfeld in developmental psychology

which deals with the physical, cognitive and psychosocial

development in late adulthood or old age and seeks to remedy

mental disorders, aniety, depression and other age related

illnesses that may have some psychological basis.

Geropsychology: how it emerged as a feld?

Geropsychology is a relatively new feld among the others in

developmental psychology. The research publications started

pouring in the post world war !! era "because o# increased

longevity o# adults and the rising need to help them with age-

related problems$. !t was a very a slow emerging feld in the %&th

century, trailing behind child development by about '& years.

Francis Galton, though he did not produce much #urther in(uence,

in his )**+ health ehibit #ound that slowness o# reaction time

with age was associated with S rather than peripheral sensory

changes. nother contributing #actor were the various schools o#

thought such as behaviorism and psychoanalysis providing

eplanations #or personality o# the aged as /product o# early

rewards and punishments0 and /early emotional eperiences

structuring the predisposition0 respectively.

negative in(uence was the little eploration o# 1ean 2iaget, theSwiss psychologist who proposed the stages o# cognitive

development which abruptly ended at adolescence. !t was

concluded by him that #urther cognitive changes would not be

there. The 3ork o# 4ohlberg had a positive in(uence as it studied

progressive stages o# moral development with age. 5rik 5rikson6s

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eight psychosocial stages o# development provided another

positive in(uence.

G. S. 7all provided little encouragement in the studies o# old age.

7e conducted interviews with older adults and #ound that there isa shi#t in attitudes towards

death as age progresses which are still relevant such as assisted

death and euthanasia.

The frst organi8ed attempt to study this age group was at

Stan#ord 9niversity in )%;-ecent developments in Geropsychology have seen a dramatic

increase in research. >iegel");$ did a ?uantitative analysis o#

publications under the topic psychological gerontology. Thus in )

year, )@, almost as many articles and book s were published as

in the entire pre-3orld 3ar !! period. Airren was the frst to study

systematically the age-related slowing o# behavior as a

#undamental characteristic o# aging. The works o# Aaltes and his

colleagues in )*& resulted in a psychological model called/Selective optimi8ation with compensation0. Bther recent

developments include studies o# organi8ation o# behavior over the

course o# li#e #rom a gerontological perspective such as

gerodynamics.

The methods used in studies o# aging are longitudinal studies and

twin studies. Schaie")*@$ proposed analysis o# data into three

components i.e. 2-ge, 2eriod and ohort.

The scope o Geropsychology:

Geropsychology, in itsel#, is a large feld with various

speciali8ations.

CSubstance abuse among older adults

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Cognitive disorders, such as l8heimer6s diseaseDdementia

C5lderly individuals dealing with li#e transitions, such as loss o#

independence, relocation, not being able to work, isolation "due to

many peers having passed away$.CBlder adults dealing with chronic physical illnessDdisease, such

as arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

CEepression, aniety, suicidal thoughts, 2TSE, psychosis and

other mental illnesses.

CSupport #or individuals and their loved

onesDcaregivers.approaching death

CSleep Eisorders

CSocio-economic and multicultural demographics

C7ow aging dierenciates #rom one cohort to the net.

C!mpact on caregivers

CSpirituality and religion

The process o# aging is #ar more comple and re?uires in#ormation#rom various disciplines not merely #rom psychology "eg:

genetics, epidemiology, physiology etc$ and being a relatively

new feld re?uires a lot o# #urther eploration.

>e#erences

Geropsycholgist-Goropsychology http://psychology-

careers.com/geropsychologist/