Relationships in Old Age: Coping with the Challenge of Transition - Hardcover

Hansson, Robert O.; Carpenter, Bruce N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898621984 ISBN 13: 9780898621983

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 1994

Synopsis

This book emphasizes a set of factors often ignored in the literature--personality characteristics and ways of relating that can enable the older adult to become an active agent in shaping his or her own life. Reviewing recent research and theory, the authors focus on relationships important to life enhancement in later years--from friendship, family, and co-residents in shared housing to care givers, health-care providers, and social agency personnel-and illustrate how an older individual's relational competence can make a critical difference in initiating and maintaining these relationships.

About this title

About the Author

Robert O. Hansson, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Programs in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Tulsa. His research interests focus on aging, families, and on older adults coping with loss and with stressful life transitions. He is currently conducting studies of the impact of bereavement on the family, and on successful aging in the workplace.

Bruce N. Carpenter, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training for clinical psychology programs at the University of Tulsa. He studies the role of relationships in stress and psychopathology, with a special emphasis on how relationships and social skills help us cope. His current research has resulted in the development of several new measures of psychopathology and social functioning.

Review

"As a researcher interested in personal relationships among the aged, I found this book to provide a unique integration and analysis of research in this area. Topics traditionally associated with research on the aged...are thoroughly reviewed with an emphasis on recent research findings...I believe the authors have identified a serious deficiency in research on interpersonal relationships among the elderly....This book would be an excellent addition to courses on the psychology of aging, as well as to courses on interpersonal relationships. I also believe this book is a 'must read' for individuals actively involved in research concerning interpersonal relationships among the elderly. The review of research in these areas is thorough and current. Furthermore, I believe the discussion and analysis of how personality characteristics of the elderly individual may influence his or her relationships with others provides an important new paradigm for research in gerontology." --Daniel W. Russell, Ph.D., Iowa State University

"...An outstanding new addition to our understanding of the importance of human relationships during life transitions. The authors provide an excellent mix of theory and practical application as they examine relationships and specific coping strategies and challenging situations.
The book would be appropriate as a required text or supplementary reading for courses on relationships, coping and life transitions because it includes core material which describes the basic features of relationships and builds upon this foundation by applying it to specific transitions such as caregiving, bereavement, and problems associated with aging. The book also is a valuable reference work because the authors were comprehensive and systematic in their review of existing theory and research. The authors provide a well-organized, insightful, engaging, and interesting examination of the most relevant information about relationships. This book will convince the reader that human relationships are worth examining, and that relationships can both create and alleviate problems in daily life." --Dale A. Lund, Ph.D., University of Utah

"...A clear and comprehensive accounting of research and theory concerning the importance of social relationships in later life and characteristics of older adults who can skillfully access and maintain such relationships. This book emphasizes wide variations existing among individual older adults in psychosocial, health, economic, and environmental resources, and how these resources are associated with differing needs. One of the remarkable strengths of this volume is its emphasis on the older adult as an active agent in shaping the course of his or her own life. Hansson and Carpenter clearly articulate their construct of relational competence in the context of well-established theory and the psychometric development of their instrument. They also provide convincing empirical evidence to support their perspective. As such, this book makes a significant contribution to both gerontology and the study of close personal relationships. Because the book emphasizes both basic and applied issues concerning social relationships in later life, it will be a valuable addition to the collections of scholars and practitioners alike." --Mary Ann Parris Stephens, Ph.D., Kent State University

"Useful for advanced courses in gerontology and social psychology... graduate students will find it particularly helpful for generating research propostitions." --Ralph Cherry in Journal of Family Psychotherapy

"This book is probably one of the most important ones I have read this year." --Stephen Davies in Newsletter of the Psychologists Special Interest Group for the Elderly

About this edition

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0898621984
• ISBN 13: 9780898621983
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180