Relationships in Old Age: Coping with the Challenge of Transition

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.

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.