Psyc 322: Final Exam (Chapters 10-14):

Shifts in death ethos from ancient time to the present:

-Ancient rituals preserved body for afterlife -Western attitudes from Middle Ages through 20th century led to invisible death -Rise of death with dignity movement in 20th century

Here are some useful suggestions about how to cope with the challenges in your life and become more resilient:

1. Don't let despair overwhelm you and don't give in to the temptation to give up and stop moving forward. A little bit of denial, at first, may enable you to get through each day until you can start to absorb the loss. 2. Tell yourself you can do it. Once you perceive that you can cope, you actually can cope better. Positive "self-statements" can shore up your sense of self-efficacy. Measuring your coping success in small steps allows your confidence to build, increasing your coping strengths even further. 3. View the loss as a test of faith, a sign that you can handle adversity, or at least a testament to your ability to see a silver lining in the ugliest circumstance. Our trials are as much a part of our identities as our successes are. People who survive into their later years, having managed to cope with the many curveballs that life has thrown their way, can inspire us to learn how to survive our own challenges.

Calling:

A calling is an individual's consuming passion for a particular career domain that serves people in some capacity and contributes to a sense of personal meaning and purpose. If you have a calling, you might say that you are "passionate" about your work, you enjoy your work more than anything else, you are willing to sacrifice everything to do this job, you have this job on your mind at all times, and you find the experience of performing your work to be deeply gratifying. In addition, the notion of calling implies that the individual feels the need to pursue the occupation in order to contribute to the larger social good. The individual who is following a calling feels that the job fulfills his or her purpose in life.

Anorexia-cachexia syndrome and mental disorders:

A common syndrome observed at the end of life is the anorexia-cachexia syndrome, in which the individual loses appetite (anorexia) and muscle mass (cachexia). The majority of cancer patients experience cachexia, a condition also found commonly in patients who have AIDS and dementia. Patients who are dying are also likely to experience nausea, difficulty swallowing, bowel problems, dry mouth, and edema, or an accumulation of liquid in the abdomen and extremities that leads to bloating. Anxiety, depression, confusion, and dementia are also common psychological symptoms that people experience in their final days and hours.

CCRC:

A continuing care retirement community (CCRC) is a housing community that provides different levels of care based on the needs of the residents. Within the same CCRC, there may be individual homes or apartments in which residents can live independently, an assisted living facility, and a nursing home. Residents move from one setting to another based on their needs, but they continue to remain part of the CCRC community. CCRCs are typically on the expensive side. Many require a large down payment prior to admission and also charge monthly fees. If an older adult can afford this type of housing, there are definite advantages to living in a CCRC. In addition to the relative ease of moving from one level of care to another (if space is available), CCRCs may provide social activities, access to community facilities, transportation services, companionship, access to health care, housekeeping, maintenance, and volunteer opportunities within the community.

Competing effects of age and cohort:

A far clearer understanding of the competing effects of age and cohort comes from findings reported by Baird, Lucas, and Donnellan, who used a cohort sequential design and multi-level modelling to analyze the data from two large European national surveys. The German Socio-Economic Panel Study was begun in 1984 with a full sample of over 40,000 participants. The original participants were asked to rate their happiness on an 11-point scale. They were followed over time, but at each testing occasion, new samples were added, making it possible for the researchers to follow distinct cohorts over the course of time. The final sample available for analysis consisted of nearly 21,000 adults who had participated an average of eight times.

Study: workplace bullying:

A large study carried out in Denmark on over 1,000 workers from 55 workplaces investigated the impact of workplace bullying, a form of stress in which individuals are exposed over a lengthy period to negative interpersonal acts on the job that they cannot cope with or control. Workers rated the extent to which they experienced workplace bullying in the form of social isolation, direct harassment, intimidating behaviour, work-related criticism, and physical violence. They rated stress in terms of intrusive thoughts, avoidance, and hyper-arousal and also provided saliva samples that were used to measure cortisol (the stress hormone). All forms of workplace bullying were stressful, particularly direct harassment and intimidating behaviour. Thus, individuals exposed to work-related bullying become traumatized in ways that can lead to both psychological and physiological consequences.

Terms of performance on neuropyschological test battery and successful cognitive aging, longitudinal study:

A longitudinal investigation carried out on 560 Mayo Clinic patients aged 65 and older from 1986 to 2004 defined successful cognitive aging in terms of performance on a neuropsychological test battery. The tests used in this battery measured memory, executive function, language, and visuospatial skills. The outcome variables used to define successful cognitive aging were mortality status (remaining alive) and lack of a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. Three models of successful aging were compared using differing cutoff points on the neuropsychological tests. The model with the best predictive value identified 56 participants as successful agers, with the remaining 504 as "typical agers." In addition to being more highly educated, the cognitively successful agers had scored within the top 10 percent across all of the tests. This model yielded better prediction than a model based on comparing test scores to the norms of young adults. Thus, cognitive aging may be best understood as maintaining relative superiority to a person's age peers, not to standards based on the performance of young adults.

Interindividual differences in cognitive functioning:

A number of investigators are exploring the notion that successful aging in the cognitive sense remains an important topic in its own right. There are large interindividual differences in cognitive functioning, so we know that some people maintain higher levels of performance than do others. Moreover, an individual's cognitive functioning plays an important role in the ability to adapt to the demands of everyday life. Many older adults, as we have also seen, regard cognitive functioning as central to their identity, which is one reason why they so greatly fear developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of neurocognitive disorder.

Protean career (variations in vocational development):

A related concept is the protean career, in which individuals are both self-directed and driven internally by their own values. In the protean career, the individual seeks personal growth through self-reflection and self-learning. Instead of focusing on external criteria for success, the individual with the protean career attitude has internal standards for success that will enhance his or her identity. People seeking a calling may have this attitude, but it is also possible for individuals to have a protean career without seeing their occupation as a true calling. A protean career attitude can help individuals gain insight into what is driving their career and ultimately achieve career success.

Lehman: eminence used in studies:

A second key factor in analyses of successful aging is the definition of eminence used in studies of aging and creativity. Women are far less likely than would be expected on the basis of chance to appear in lists of the creative and productive at any age. However, it is only within the area of children's literature that Lehman listed women as constituting anywhere near 50 percent of the notable contributors. A total of only 20 women were listed in the Lehman book as "worthy of mention".

Secondary suite:

A secondary suite, also known as an accessory apartment, in-law suite, or granny flat, is a second living space in a family home that allows the older adult to have independent living quarters, cooking space, and a bathroom. People living in these units may also take advantage of day treatment services to receive support when the rest of the family is at work or school.

When is someone really retired?

Ultimately, the criteria for retirement are met when an individual in later life with a cohesive past work pattern has not worked for a sustained period of time and is no longer psychologically invested in work.

Five stages of dying:

Amid the growing institutionalization of death and the attempts by the medical establishment to prolong life, a small book published in 1969 was to permanently alter Western attitudes toward, and treatment of, the dying. This book, called On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, described five stages of dying considered as occurring universally among terminally ill patients: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Motivation crowding out:

At its most extreme, work that you perform for extrinsic reasons can have the paradoxical effect of lowering your productivity by lowering your intrinsic interest in the work. The situation known as motivation crowding out describes the situation in which people's intrinsic motivation decreases when they receive extrinsic rewards to do work they enjoy, leading them to be less productive than they would otherwise be.

Aging in place:

The concept of aging in place refers to the principle that with appropriate services, older adults can remain in their own home, or at least in their own community. Older adults can benefit from multidisciplinary interventions that allow them to maintain their autonomy and previous patterns of living.

labour force:

Includes all civilians in the over-16 population who live outside of institutions (e.g., prisons, nursing homes, residential treatment centres) and have sought or are actively seeking employment, not just the people who are employed.

Holland's vocational development theory/ RIASEC model:

According to Holland's vocational development theory (Holland, 1997), people express their personality in their vocational aspirations and interests. Holland proposed that there are six fundamental types (also called codes) that represent the universe of all possible vocational interests, competencies, and behaviours. Each of the six types is identified by its initial letter: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C). The theory is also known as the RIASEC model, referring to the six basic types that characterize an individual's vocational interests.

Self-efficacy on the job:

According to Maurer, self-efficacy on the job reflects the effects of direct or vicarious rewards, learning, persuasion, and changes in physiological functioning and health. Self-efficacy, in turn, influences attitudes toward training and development activities. Intervention aimed at raising self-efficacy may give older workers the confidence they need to engage in these important development activities so they can retain their job skills.

Super's self-concept model:

According to Super, the expression of self-concept through work occurs in a series of four stages that span the years from adolescence to retirement. In the exploration stage (teens to mid-20s), people explore career alternatives and select a vocation that they will find to be expressive of their self-concept. By the time they reach the establishment stage (mid-20s to mid-40s), people are focused on achieving stability and attempt to remain within the same occupation. At the same time, people seek to move up the career ladder to managerial positions and higher. In the maintenance stage (mid-40s to mid-50s), people attempt to hold on to their positions rather than seeking further advancement. Finally, in the disengagement stage (mid-50s to mid-60s), workers begin to prepare for retirement, perhaps spending more time in their leisure pursuits.

Resource model of retirement:

According to the resource model of retirement, the individual's adjustment to retirement reflects his or her physical, cognitive, motivational, financial, social, and emotional resources: the more resources, the more favourable will be the individual's adjustment at any one point through the retirement transition. -Adjustment to retirement reflects physical, cognitive, motivational, financial, social, and emotional resources -The more resources, the more favourable will be the individual's adjustment

The death ethos:

According to the sociocultural perspective, people learn the social meaning of death from the language, arts, and death-related rituals of their culture. A culture's death ethos, or prevailing philosophy of death, can be inferred from funeral rituals, treatment of those who are dying, belief in the presence of ghosts, belief in an afterlife, the extent to which death topics are taboo, the language people use to describe death (e.g., through euphemisms such as "passed away"), and the representation of death in the arts. Death may be viewed as sacred or profane, as an unwanted extinction of life or a welcome release from worldly existence.

Work-family enrichment model:

According to the work-family enrichment model, experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other. This model is based on the theory of conservation of resources, which proposes that organizations can protect their workers against stress by providing them with support to maintain both their work and family roles.

Accreditation of nursing homes:

Accreditation Canada accredits more than 1,100 health care and social service agencies. Site visitors go to nursing homes and use nationally recognized and rigorous standards to evaluate facilities, noting both strengths and areas that need improvement. The recommendations made by the accreditation team are implemented prior to the next survey so that there is continuous quality improvement. Accreditation status provides an additional metric for determining the quality of a facility.

Actual physical health is less important in predicting successful aging:

Actual physical health, then, appears to be less important in predicting successful aging, even in an area of functioning as important to overall well-being as sexuality. Specifically addressing disability's role in the successful aging model, Australian researchers conducting a large-scale study of over 2,200 adults aged 61 to 85 developed a structural equation model in which they predicted successful aging from a variety of physical, psychological, and social measures. In their final model, health behaviours, particularly physical exercise, predicted successful aging to an even greater extent than did social support or social contact.

Staff training for long-term care:

Adequate staff training is also essential for those working in long-term care. Sadly, many staff members do not have specialized training in working with older adults. Moreover, those who have the most direct contact with residents have the least education. The curriculum for personal support workers is not uniform across Canada, and there are areas where they clearly receive little training. i.e. most do not receive training in mental health, in spite of the fact that a significant number of residents have mental health problems. Other topics deemed critically important for staff working in long-term care are residents' rights, cultural competency, resident-centred care, and behaviour management.

Adjustment to bereavement and coping dimensions:

Adjustment to bereavement, according to the dual-process model, is promoted by alternating between the two dimensions of coping. At times it is best to confront the emotional loss of the individual; at other times, it is most advantageous to avoid confronting these emotions and instead attempt to manage the practical consequences. People seem to vary in their response to loss, according to this model, on the basis of their attachment style. As you may remember from Chapter 8, attachment styles are mental representations of what to expect in a relationship and are ideally secure rather than insecure (i.e., anxious or avoidant). Securely and insecurely attached individuals show different patterns of mourning and require different types of help to be able to adapt to the loss.

A do not resuscitate order:

Advance directives may also specify the code status, or the conditions under which dying patients wish to be treated. "Full code" means that there should be no limit on life-sustaining treatment; in other words, the patient wishes to be intubated or ventilated and resuscitated with CPR after fatal cardiac or pulmonary arrest. A Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order directs health care workers not to use resuscitation if the patient experiences cardiac or pulmonary arrest.

Study: controlling for effects to look at life satisfaction across adulthood:

After controlling for the effects of cohort, time of measurement, and number of test occasions, Baird, Lucas, and Donnellan concluded that the course of life satisfaction across adulthood was nearly stable until the very oldest ages, dropping slightly after the age of 70 and then more steadily in the 80s. Their confidence in this picture was enhanced by the fact that they were able to control for so many competing interpretations. However, when they conducted similar analyses on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), they found a different pattern. Life satisfaction among the people in this sample decreased early in adulthood, increased from mid-to late adulthood, and then declined at the very end of life. In both cases, however, the results seemed to contradict predictions from socioemotional selectivity theory of a general upturn in satisfaction among the oldest-old. Furthermore, they make the paradox of well-being a little less paradoxical. It appears that at the very end of life, individuals may be influenced by objective life circumstances and, on average, show a gradual decline in their overall well-being.

Age-related changes and vocational satisfaction:

Age-related changes in physical and cognitive functioning must also be taken into account. If these changes interfere with the ability to perform the job satisfactorily, then the older worker will be unable to perform his or her duties or may only be able to do so with difficulty. If the aging process alters the degree of person-environment fit between the individual and the job, the worker will feel increasingly dissatisfied and unfulfilled. The role of the supervisor may be particularly important in this regard. i.e.a manager who is sensitive to, for example, an older worker's mobility problems may be able to lessen the demands for physical movement placed on the employee.

Aging and critiquing personal work:

Along these lines, older creative adults may become better at critiquing their own work. An intensive study of Ludwig van Beethoven's letters and notes from conversations with others showed that as he aged, he was able to make more "accurate" assessments of the quality of his work, as judged by the frequency with which his works were subsequently performed and recorded.

Work-family conflict model:

Alternatively, the work-family conflict model proposes that people have a fixed amount of time and energy to spend on their life roles. The work-family conflict model is based on a scarcity perspective (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). The more time and energy people invest in one, the less they have for the other set of demands and activities. i.e. The workaholic, according to this view, has little energy or time for family relationships. Conversely, high involvement with family should preclude total commitment to the job.

Other results of relocation:

Although it may be possible to eventually move older adults to their first-choice nursing home if it becomes available, relocation requires a significant adjustment, and every relocation adds to the cumulative stress that they experience. However, it should also be noted that the negative effects of relocation can be mitigated if the older adult feels like he or she has some control over the event and is adequately prepared. Moreover, some older adults have positive outcomes when they relocate, particularly if they have had inadequate support in their home and community, and are poorly nourished and/or on multiple medications that either may not be appropriate for them or are being taken incorrectly.

How is the workforce shifting?

Although the boundaryless and protean careers have some overlap, they are empirically distinct and may provide an alternative to the traditional notion, prevalent for so many years in the vocational literature, of the "one life-one career" mentality. As changes continue to occur in the workplace and society, leading to greater deviation from the standard organizational framework of the mid-20th century, vocational counsellors will increasingly offer workers ideas about ways to manage their own career around internal rather than external goals and employer-developed criteria.

Medical aspects of death:

Although the death experience varies from person to person, there are some commonalities in the physical changes shown by a person whose functions are deteriorating to the point that death will occur within a few hours or days. In a dying person, the signs that death is imminent include being asleep most of the time, being disoriented, breathing irregularly, having visual and auditory hallucinations, being less able to see, producing less urine, and having mottled skin, cool hands and feet, an overly warm trunk, and excessive secretions of bodily fluids. An older adult who is close to death is likely to be unable to walk or eat or to recognize family members, and may suffer constant pain and have difficulty breathing.

Assisted living facility:

An alternative to a nursing home is a supportive (or assisted) living facility, which provides supportive care services and supervision to individuals who do not require skilled nursing care. The types of services provided varies, depending on the province or territory, and can include social activities, meals, housekeeping, and assistance with personal care, such as bathing and grooming. In some cases, facilities are financed by health care authorities in partnership with private supportive living operators. Agreements specifically outline what types of services must be provided by the operator. It is important to remember that supportive living facilities are not the same as retirement homes and residences, which are private accommodations that provide services such as meals and laundry for functionally independent older adults. In some residences, minimal nursing care is also available. These facilities tend to attract wealthier older adults and are often quite lavish.

Internet as leisure activity:

An emerging trend is the use of the Internet by older adults in Canada, with rates of usage in 2007 that were four times higher than those in 2000. Among this age group, email was the most common reason for using the Internet, largely to keep in contact with dispersed extended families. However, data also indicate that over one-half of older adults who use the Internet do so for leisure purposes, and playing online games is particularly popular. In addition, more than half of older users accessed information on travel, health, news and sports, or the weather and driving conditions.

Institutional Facility:

An institutional facility is a group residential setting that provides individuals with medical and/or psychiatric care.

Flexibility/plasticity:

Analyzing the lives of a set of six highly creative older adults, Antonini and colleagues identified a passionate commitment to pursuit of their discipline as the common thread. These individuals also shared the trait of flexibility or plasticity and, rather than dwelling on their accomplishments of the past, looked forward to new goals and new creative enterprises. They maintained their curiosity and, similar to the quality of openness to experience, were able to keep up with their times and adapt to changing circumstances. Part of a "successful" life narrative may involve coming to grips with the recognition of how cultural constraints have affected your ability to realize the hopes and dreams of youth. Yet people must also strive to transcend these constrictions and arrive at a personal sense of meaning in life that rises above the boundaries of culture and time. As you continue to develop and navigate through your adult years, we hope that you will find your personal sense of meaning to accompany a long and successful life.

Age discrimination and vocational satisfaction:

Another factor that may affect the older worker's commitment and involvement in the job is exposure to age discrimination in the workplace. Although older workers are protected by federal law prohibiting discrimination, negative stereotypes about the abilities and suitabilities of older persons in the workplace persist. Older workers may begin to disengage mentally when they feel that they are subject to these age stereotypes, pressures to retire from downsizing, and the message that their skills are becoming obsolete. These pressures can lead older workers to be less likely to engage in the career development activities that would enhance their ability to remain on the job or find a new one when their job is eliminated as a result of downsizing.

Nursing homes as an improvement over private residence:

Another factor to consider in understanding the psychological adaptation of the older adult to the institutional environment is the possibility that a nursing or residential care home may represent an improvement over a private residence. Researchers in Finland found that nursing home residents had a greater sense of well- being than those living at home, many of whom were no longer able to care for themselves. Because many residential facilities for older adults have long waiting periods, particularly the better ones, older adults may be relieved to be admitted where they know they will be relieved of the burden of living on their own.

Process of relocation:

Any discussion of long-term care would not be complete without considering the process of relocation. We use the term process because it truly is an event that evolves over time and is often the end point of heroic efforts on the part of family members to keep their loved ones in their own homes in the community. Relocation is most often the result of cumulative frailty (physical and/or cognitive) and many relocations are precipitated by a catastrophic health event, such as a fall or a stroke. However, there are also systemic reasons for older adults being admitted to facility-based long-term care, including lack of home care resources and funding (either public or personal) and the unavailability of residential options that provide lower levels of care. Unfortunately, as is the case in many aspects of life, those who have money fare better and can afford high-end options, such as private retirement living with extended health care services.

Other dying patterns of people near the end of life:

Apart from the three dying trajectories, there are other patterns shown by people near the end of life. Some individuals are statistically at increased risk of dying, though technically they do not have a terminal disease. One set consists of individuals in their 80s or older who are in good health but have limited physical reserves. They may die from complications associated with an acute condition such as influenza or a broken hip due to a fall. In other cases, people whose organ systems are gradually deteriorating may slowly lose the ability to care for themselves, while at the same time developing an illness such as renal failure or pneumonia that eventually causes them to die. This pattern may characterize individuals in the later stages of Alzheimer's disease. The immediate cause of death may be the illness, but it has occurred against a backdrop of general loss of function.

Consumer choice in nursing home:

As a consumer, you may be interested in how to choose a nursing home that provides quality care. This may seem like a topic that lacks relevance for you, but there is a high probability that you and/or someone you know may be relocating to long-term care some-time in the future. Fortunately, there are resources to help you. i.e. the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care provides a residential care/provider checklist to assist in selecting a long-term care home.

Mid-life and lasting legacy:

As a preface to the old-age style, creativity may be expressed in mid-life as "paring down life to the essentials." Mid-life may bring with it not a crisis involving confrontation with mortality, but a heightened sense of urgency to create a lasting legacy. i.e. Strenger analyzed the productive works of a 20th-century educator in the business field, Charles Handy. At the age of 49, Handy left behind a prestigious position in industry because he felt he had lost touch with his sense of inner purpose. He started a new life as an author and, writing 17 books between the ages of 50 and 75, sought and eventually found new meaning in life.

How to plan for an aging population?

As a student, you probably have a limited income, so you are likely wondering what this means for you, and what you will have access to when you are old. You are not alone in asking these questions, as governments around the world, including Canada's, are debating how best to plan economically for an aging population. As you saw, raising the age of OAS eligibility is one solution. Other potential solutions include a modest expansion of the CPP to allow larger contributions, increasing the age limit for Registered Retirement Plans and Registered Retirement Savings Plans to reflect increased life expectancy, and/or increasing the contribution limits on Tax-Free Savings Accounts. These changes could be implemented slowly to assess the effects on government revenue and the receptivity of Canadians to increasing their savings for retirement. Similarly, European Union (EU) countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Greece are grappling with an aging population that will need to be supported by a smaller workforce. In addition, however, EU countries face the challenge presented by the fact that member nations themselves have wildly varying economies even as their workforces shrink and their retired populations grow. To keep the weaker countries from defaulting on their debts, the richer nations need to provide support, but even the economically stronger nations are forced to reckon with their own aging populations. A number of these European countries already have high levels of funding going to social services, meaning that their economies will be even further strained. As a result, EU nations are beginning to examine stronger incentives to reduce early retirement and keep more older workers in the labour force.

Increased fear and medical advances associated with death:

As death has been removed from the everyday world, it has acquired more fear and mystery. Instead of developing our own personal meanings, we are at the mercy of the many images of death that we see in the media. News sources expose us to stories of death from the massive scale of natural disasters to school shootings and terrorist attacks. The death of one famous person may preoccupy the American or European media for weeks, as was the case in the deaths of such celebrities as Princess Diana (1997), John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1999), Michael Jackson (2009), and Whitney Houston (2012). Some of the most popular movies and television shows focus exclusively on homicide, often taking us step by step through the grisliest of tales involving serial killers. At the same time, medical advances make it possible to keep people alive under far less tenable circumstances than they could in the past, and they can restore life to a person who has temporarily ceased to breathe or sustain a heartbeat. Issues of organ and tissue transplants further cloud the boundary between life and death. Related trends in attitudes toward death emphasize the quality of the death experience and the fear of enduring a prolonged period of terminal decline.

Psychosocial needs of residents in long-term care:

As important as the physical environment is to adaptation, the psychosocial needs of the residents also play a crucial role. These needs may have more to do with the amount of control people feel they have over their environment than with the physical characteristics of the institution. Feeling that you can control the temperature in your room if you want to may be even more important to your satisfaction than the actual temperature. This possibility was tested in a study of nursing home residents in Victoria, British Columbia. Residents were presented with scenarios and asked to make decisions, such as what time to go to bed, what medicines to take, whether to move to a different room, and what type of end-of-life care to receive. Older adults with more years of education and a greater number of chronic illnesses were likely to state that they wished to be able to make these choices rather than have the decisions made for them by nursing home staff. However, not everyone wished to have control over these decisions. Thus, resident preferences are important to factor into the equation when evaluating the impact of the environment on adaptation to the institution.

The physical environment is an important determinant in the ability to age successfully:

As indicated in the WHO model, the physical environment is an important determinant in the ability to age successfully, and environments vary dramatically in terms of their ability to support successful aging. Neighbourhood walkability is an index that uses geographic information systems to combine factors such as residential density, land-use mix, and street connectivity to determine whether environments support walking to destinations. King et al. compared two urban settings with high and low neighbourhood walkability to assess physical activity and obesity in 719 adults aged 66 and older. Participants were assessed at two points in time and completed measures of physical activity, wore accelerometers to record activity, and had their body mass index assessed. Residents of high walkability neighbourhoods reported 400 percent more transport activity (i.e., walking to destinations) than those in low walkability neighbourhoods. Moreover, those older adults who were the least mobile benefited most from a walkable neighbourhood. Given the demonstrated relationship between physical exercise and successful aging, designing walkable neighbourhoods should be a priority for supporting well-being in late life.

Super's life-span life-stage theory:

As individuals traverse the various stages of their vocational development, their sense of self also undergoes changes. Super's life-span life-stage theory focuses on the role of the self and proposes that people attempt to realize their inner potential through their career choices. i.e. If you see yourself as an artist, then you will desire work in which you can express the view of yourself as an artist.

Importance of leisure interests in retired adults:

As people move through adulthood and into retirement, it becomes more crucial for them to develop leisure interests so that they will have activities to engage in during the day to provide focus and meaning in their lives. In addition, leisure pursuits can serve important functions in helping older adults maintain their health through physical activity and their cognitive functioning through intellectual stimulation. The social functions of leisure are also of potential significance, particularly for people who have become widowed or have had to relocate because of finances, a desire for more comfortable climates, or poor health. i.e. researchers who study leisure activities of later adulthood find strong evidence linking leisure participation to improvement in feelings of well-being, particularly among older adults who are trying to overcome deficits in physical functioning or social networks. Furthermore, cognitively challenging leisure activities can be at least as beneficial as, if not more beneficial than, physical exercise in helping individuals maintain their intellectual functioning, including lowering the risk of vascular dementia.

vocational satisfaction:

As we have just discussed, the most fulfilling work may be that in which people feel they can express their identity. The concept of vocational satisfaction refers to the extent to which people find their work to be enjoyable. For our purposes, we will consider vocational satisfaction to be equivalent to job satisfaction, as both terms are used in the literature. We can assume that workers who are satisfied are more committed to the organizations for which they work. Therefore, both employees and employers benefit when workers are high in vocational satisfaction.

Positive psychology and successful aging:

As we have just seen, people may age successfully even if they have a number of chronic health conditions. Older adults are also less likely to experience serious mental illness. Interest in successful aging fits more generally within the larger field of positive psychology, which seeks to provide a greater understanding of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

lower socio-economic status and depression:

As we have noted many times throughout the book, there are advantages to having higher educational levels and income in terms of health status—hence, although money and status cannot guarantee happiness, they can help to resolve many of the challenges that people at the lower end of the income spectrum experience. Even after adjusting for medical conditions, lower socio-economic status is related to depression and poorer health-related status.

Cultural perspectives on death and dying:

As we pointed out earlier, death and dying are best viewed from a biopsychosocial perspective. From the biological and medical perspectives, death is an event that can be defined by a set of physical changes within the body's cells. From a sociocultural perspective, death derives its meaning from the way that a society or culture interprets the processes through which life ends. Awareness of the end of life may be a uniquely human characteristic (although not all would agree), as is the ability to imbue this event with meaning on the basis of the prevailing philosophy, economics, and family structure of our culture.

Simonton's model of creative productivity:

As we showed in the analysis of Simonton's model of creative productivity, people who begin their careers with a high degree of creative potential are likely to maintain higher creative output well into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. Where does this creative potential come from? In part, the level of talent needed to sustain such a long and productive career may have a neurological basis. Personality may also play a role. There is evidence from an unusual 45-year longitudinal study of men originally tested as graduate students that the personality qualities of openness and flexibility predict creativity and success in later adulthood. Those men with the highest numbers of awards and notable publications at age 72 were higher on scales of tolerance and psychological-mindedness at age 27.

How to identify intrinsic satisfaction vs. a calling?

At this point in your life, you may or may not yet have had a job in which you felt that the job was intrinsically satisfying. However, you can probably think of people you know who do feel connected to their work at an intrinsic level. Perhaps you have encountered a customer service representative who seemed genuinely interested in helping you solve a problem and was willing to work with you until you found the satisfactory solution. This may have been an employee who found the job to be intrinsically rewarding, feelings that she expressed in the apparent pride that she took in helping you with your situation. Intrinsic factors are not identical to those which lead to a job being considered a calling. The customer service representative who provided you with such kind and gracious help may not see her job as one that represents her life's work, but she may nevertheless enjoy the part of her job that allows her to get people what they need.

Options and decisions for end-of-life care:

Because there is no single scenario that best describes the type of ending that they envision, individuals must be given the opportunity to make the choice that best fits their values and desires. Often, these values and desires stem from their religious beliefs. A U.S. study of nearly 350 patients with advanced cancer showed that those who used religion as a way to cope with their illness were more likely than their non-religious counterparts to choose mechanical ventilation to prolong their life. In an interview study of older Chinese adults living in Canada, differences between the values of Eastern religions and those of Western medicine led patients to be less accepting of advance directives. It is therefore necessary to understand the patient's cultural background when providing end-of-life care. If possible, options should be discussed with family members.

bereavement:

Bereavement is the process during which people cope with the death of another person. A process that can affect anyone, regardless of age, bereavement is more likely to take place in later adulthood, when people have an increased risk of losing their spouse, siblings, extended family, friends, colleagues, and neighbours.

Biopsychosocial model of retirement:

Biological: -physical changes -health problems Psychological: -cognitive functioning -personality -expectations about retirement Sociocultural: -social class -income -opportunities for engagement

Racialized groups and the work force:

Block and Galabuzi (2011) compared employment rates between minority and non-minority groups in Canada. The six largest racialized groups in Canada are, in order of size: South Asian Chinese Black or African-Canadian Arab and West Asian Filipino and Latin American. In their report, Block and Galabuzi (2011) use Statistics Canada census data from 2000 to 2005 to show that racialized Canadians have slightly higher participation rates in Canada's labour market (67.3 percent) than do non-racialized Canadians (66.7 percent). However, racialized Canadians earn only 81.4 cents for every dollar paid to non-racialized Canadians, because the work they do is more likely to be less secure, temporary, and low paying. Even when age and education are controlled for, first-generation racialized Canadian men earn only 68.7 percent of what non-racialized Canadian men earn. The situation is even worse for racialized women. Overall, poverty rates are three times higher among racialized families than among their non-racialized counterparts.

Competence-press model as a biopsychosocial model:

By considering the interaction between the individual and the environment of the institution, the competence-press model makes it possible to provide specific recommendations to institutions about how best to serve the residents. The model is essentially a biopsychosocial one, allowing room for multiple dimensions of competence and press to be considered when evaluating older adults. Competence may be defined in terms of biological and psychological characteristics, such as mobility and cognitive resources. The social factors in this model are incorporated into the level of press in the environment, which includes the expectations of staff and the amount of stimulation provided by other residents.

When will older workers be less able to perform well?

By contrast, if the job is highly dependent on strength, speed, or working memory, older workers will be less able to perform well and at the same time will be less motivated to put in effort that they believe may not pay off. i.e. One area in which older adults may perform more poorly involves shift work, in which the individual's work hours regularly change from the daytime hours to evenings or nights. Although these schedules present a challenge for workers of all ages, they are particularly difficult for older workers.

Canadian statistics for expectations vs. reality of aging:

Canadian data support these findings. In the 2009 Canadian Community Health Survey, among adults 65 years of age and older, 88.5 percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their life. Moreover, in 2013, the number of adults rating their mental health as fair or poor was 6.3 percent for the general population, and those aged 65 and older had the second lowest percentage of individuals in that category, at 5.5 percent. The lowest was for those aged 12 to 19, at 5.1 percent, and the highest was for those aged 45 to 64, at 7.2 percent.

Continued employment:

Changing demographics are clearly putting pressure on the global economy to ensure the financial security of retired individuals. It is likely that a combination of later retirement, longer involvement in the workforce, and difficult decisions by policy-makers will be needed sooner rather than later. In countries whose pension systems support early retirement or retirement at age 65, changing the norms may require increased efforts to make continued employment seem more attractive, by, for example, making work more challenging, appreciating the contributions of older workers, reducing physical demands and, of course, providing financial incentives.

Environmental influence:

Clearly, the environment has an important effect on the individual's health, both inside and outside an institutional environment. Within the institutional setting, the implications of the competence-press model are that the needs of individuals should be met to the greatest extent possible. Innovations in nursing home care are being developed with the goal of maximizing the fit between the person and environment. i.e. bathing, a situation that can be distressing when conducted in a way that embarrasses or exposes the resident, can be treated in a more individualized manner, making it a less aversive experience. Even a change as simple as switching from individually plated to "family-style" meals can have a beneficial effect on resident adjustment, as measured by perceived quality of life, physical performance, and increases in body weight.

How things have changed for contemporary older adults creatively:

Contemporary older adults have an even better chance of remaining productive throughout their later years than those living in previous centuries. As Simonton points out, as life expectancy continues to increase with improvements in health care and other living conditions, older adults are likely to have a longer empty nest period after their children leave the home. Modern technology makes more resources available on the Internet, so that the artist need not be the "lone genius" of years past. With more leisure time, the older artist also has the chance to pursue multiple interests, making it possible to continue to develop the personality openness that fosters creativity. Improved communication also means that artists, scientists, writers, and creative individuals from many fields can collaborate to cross-foster new ideas and projects. Older and younger collaborators can further enhance each other's productivity, leading both to improve the quality and quantity of their output.

Conventional wisdom regarding bereavement:

Conventional and professional wisdom regarding bereavement was based on the assumption that the survivor must "work through" the death of the deceased. According to this view, the individual must experience a period of mourning, but after that, it is time to move on and seek new relationships and attachments. In part, this view was based on the assumption in psychodynamic theory that to resolve grief normally, emotional bonds with the loved one must be broken. -Death should be "worked through". -Grief that goes on for >1 year is abnormal.

When is creativity highest?

Creativity is likely to be highest when the prefrontal cortex has matured to the extent that people are able to be flexible but at the same time have had enough training in their area of expertise that they can put that flexibility to good use. Presumably, this happy coincidence occurs about 20 years into the career, when most people are in mid-life. If not, people can also enhance their creativity by exercising these areas of the brain through mental activity. Involvement in these activities can not only stimulate cognitive functioning and well-being, but also illustrates the ability of older adults to engage creatively with life. McFadden and Basting point out that when it comes to creativity, "what's good for the person is usually good for the brain".

Forced retirement:

Currently, mandatory retirement is the exception rather than the rule in Canada, because times have changed, partly as a result of changing demographics. The Canadian economy is facing workforce shortages. Older adults who are retiring are not being replaced by sufficient numbers of younger adults. Moreover, younger adults are spending more time pursuing formal education and are entering the workforce later in life. Although some occupations still recognize a "normal age of retirement" and have it written into collective agreements, these are increasingly being challenged. i.e. the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in Vilven and Kelly v. Air Canada found in favour of two pilots who were forced to retire when they turned 60, indicating that this provision in the collective agreement constituted age discrimination.

Dennis: scholarly productivity:

Dennis (1966) examined the total output, regardless of the quality of work, by contributors to seven domains within the arts and sciences. As you can see, although there is a rather steep decline after the peak age in the arts, and a somewhat less steep decline in the sciences, scholarly productivity is steady throughout later adulthood, with even a slight peak in the 60s. Dennis attempted to compensate for the differential ages that creators lived to be (which would obviously cut down on productivity in the later years) by limiting his sample to people who lived to be at least 80 years old.

Ageism still exists and affects self-efficacy:

Despite the reach of federal and provincial laws into many areas of the Canadian workplace, ageism still exists and can take many forms, ranging from biases against the abilities of older workers to stereotypical beliefs about their personalities and work attitudes. As their self-image and abilities change, older workers can begin to doubt their self-efficacy; in terms of the identity model, they over-accommodate to the view that aging causes a loss of essential job skills. A self-fulfilling prophecy can develop, resulting in a decreased ability to, for example, keep up with new technologies.

gender gap:

Despite their increasing involvement in the labour force, however, women still earn less than men, a fact referred to as the gender gap, expressed as a proportion of women's to men's salaries. According to the Conference Board of Canada, the gender gap is influenced by age and occupation. In 2010, women aged 25 to 34 earned 78.3 cents for each dollar earned by men. The figure for women aged 45 to 54 was 75.7 percent. Moreover, the gender gap is highest in health occupations, where a woman earns 47 cents for every dollar a man earns. The gender gap is also greatest among those with lower levels of education.

Vocational satisfaction and age:

For some workers, the thought of not having to work anymore may be greatly appealing. Retirement will provide them with a release from the daily grind. On the other hand, older workers might feel more satisfied than younger workers because they have been able to advance through seniority and promotions. The question of whether job satisfaction increases, decreases, or stays the same over adulthood is a surprisingly difficult one to answer. This is because, as you learned earlier, more and more working adults recycle through their jobs. As a result, it is job tenure, the length of time a person has spent in the job, rather than age that may relate to job satisfaction. Gender, level of employment, and salary also interact with age differences in job satisfaction.

Funding long-term care:

Each province and territory has its own system for funding long-term care. The complexity of this probably does not interest you. However, what you may not know is that residents are required to pay out-of-pocket for long- term care, and the amount they have to pay varies significantly depending on where they live. These costs go by different names—facility charges, user fees, accommodation fees, or co-payments. Generally, the costs are lower in the northern and western regions of Canada. According to the Canadian Healthcare Association (2009b), residents in the territories pay anywhere from approximately $500 to $700 per month (with no cost in Nunavut), the maximum fee in Alberta is $1,335 per month, and the Atlantic provinces have maximum monthly costs of about $2,000 to $3,000. These fees are adjusted on the basis of a means test. And there are additional costs, such as for prescription drugs (some provinces pay only part of these costs), and for specialized care needs and services—for example, incontinence products. It is important to note that these fees reflect the amounts cited in the Canadian Healthcare Association report (2009b), may not reflect current fees, and are presented solely as examples.

emotional labour:

Emotional labour is the requirement in service-oriented jobs for workers to smile and maintain a friendly attitude regardless of their own personal feelings or emotions. Performing emotional labour can be stressful for service employees who feel that they must constantly put on an act in order to carry out their job successfully. i.e. In a study of hotel service employees in the United States, Chu, Baker, and Murrman (2012) found that, as would be expected, workers who are higher in negative affect working in service settings where they are expected to show positive emotions were more emotionally drained. They can alleviate this stress by learning how to engage in "deep acting" in which they generate thoughts, images, and memories that can put them in the right mood.

Competence-press model:

Empirical interest in the institutionalization process has dwindled somewhat from the 1970s, when several teams of researchers were actively investigating environmental models and aging. However, one of these models offers some useful concepts for predicting how well people will adapt to an institutional setting. The competence-press model predicts an optimal level of adjustment that institutionalized persons will experience on the basis of their levels of competence (physical and psychological) compared with the "press" of the environment, or the demands it places upon individuals.

Why is work important?

it comes to define identity in terms of job title, prestige, security, and status; these aspects will carry into other areas of your life

Where is euthanasia legal?

Euthanasia is also illegal in Canada, but it is legal in the Netherlands and Belgium. The most publicized Canadian case was that of Robert Latimer, who killed his 12-year-old daughter Tracy in 1993 by placing her in the family truck and then piping exhaust fumes into it. Tracy had a severe form of cerebral palsy and was unable to walk, talk, or feed herself. Moreover, she suffered from severe and persistent pain. Mr. Latimer's motivation was to put his daughter out of her pain. He was charged with first-degree murder, convicted of second-degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years, and then lost an appeal to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. Because of jury tampering on the part of the Crown prosecutor, Mr. Latimer was awarded a new trial in 1997 and was again found guilty of second-degree murder. His lawyer argued that 10 years was cruel and unusual punishment, and the sentencing judge agreed and sentenced Mr. Latimer to two years less a day, half of which was to be served in a provincial jail and the other half on his farm. The Saskatchewan court appealed, and his 10-year sentence was reinstated. Mr. Latimer then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2001 the court upheld the sentence and conviction. In 2008, he was released from prison with conditions. Mr. Latimer's 15-year ordeal gripped the hearts and minds of many Canadians, who understood the legalities but empathized with Mr. Latimer, who many believed acted out of compassion for his suffering child.

Why do people return to work?

Even more interesting are the factors that lead people to return to work. Among those who return to work, the most common reasons are liking working/ being active, financial considerations, having an interesting work opportunity, not liking retirement, and wanting a challenge.

Facts about retirement:

Even though they may arrive there in phases, by the age of 65, the large majority of Canadians are no longer in the labour force. In 2011, 24 percent of persons aged 65 to 70 were still working, up from 11 percent in 2000. However, many remain employed on a part- time basis. Among those over age 65 who are employed, 42 percent work part-time. Most work part-time on a voluntary basis, but many do not. For those in the 65 to 69 and 70+ age categories, 15.7 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively, reported that they worked part-time on an involuntary basis. The reality of part time work is that the jobs pay less and provide lower annual earnings.

Who is eligible for OAS?

Everyone in Canada who meets the basic requirements is eligible for OAS. In contrast, CPP and QPP cover only those in the paid workforce. Perhaps the largest group of people who are excluded are full-time homemakers, although they are entitled to share their spouse's benefits and may collect as much as 60 percent in a survivor's benefit once their spouse dies. (This also applies to common-law partners.) The CPP also provides disability benefits in the event of a severe and prolonged disability. The amount of your pension depends on how much and how long you have contributed to the CPP. In March 2013, the average monthly amount taken at age 65 was $596.66. The amount of the CPP is adjusted to take into account the increase in cost of living. It also takes into account periods of time when you had little or no income.

Limits to generalizability of current models:

Examples of eminent minority productive agers are Jackie Robinson, who was the first African-American to play major league baseball; Booker T. Washington, first to receive an honorary degree from Harvard; and William Grant Still, first to conduct a major symphony orchestra and to have his own composition performed by a major American orchestra. These "famous firsts" seem particularly important within African-American reference works of eminence because they attest to the ability of highly talented and persistent individuals to overcome the effects of discrimination. That their work has until recently been overlooked in studies of aging and creativity limits the generalizability of current models of successful aging.

Extrinsic factors in vocational satisfaction:

Extrinsic factors in vocational satisfaction are the features that accompany the job but are not central to its performance. You can receive extrinsic satisfaction from many different jobs, regardless of the work tasks they require. The easiest extrinsic factor to understand is salary. Although some jobs earn more than others, you can earn the same amount of money by performing very different work tasks. i.e. A professional athlete and an oil magnate may earn the same six- or seven-figure salary for performing a very different set of job activities. Therefore, salary is not intrinsic to work. There are a number of additional extrinsic factors associated with the conditions of work, such as the comfort of the environment, demands for travel, convenience of work hours, friendliness of co-workers, amount of status associated with the job, and adequacy of the company's supervision and employment policies. These aspects of work do not directly engage your sense of personal identity and competence. Although a high salary may certainly reinforce your sense of worth (particularly in Western society), you can earn that high salary in many ways that are not necessarily tied to your true vocational passions. i.e. The racial climate is another important condition of the workplace that can affect worker satisfaction but is not intrinsic to the job itself.

Family bereavement and end-of-life care planning:

Families who are involved in the process of end-of-life care planning also benefit, in that they experience less emotional strain before and after their relative's death. A controlled study in Australia showed that bereaved relatives given this opportunity experienced significantly greater satisfaction and less stress, anxiety, and depression. Involving families in the process of planning palliative care can also reduce their emotional burden. Families who experienced the death of their relative as a time of "peaceful awareness" rated the overall quality of the experience as significantly higher and were better able to recover during the bereavement period.

Study: cost of care among married older Canadians:

Fernandes and Spencer (2010) reported on the cost of care among married older Canadians who are both in care, with average incomes. The data were presented as the percentage of after-tax income needed to pay for care. Costs were highest in the Maritimes (88 to 95 percent, depending on the province) and lowest in Quebec and Alberta, at roughly 45 to 50 percent.

Self-determination theory:

Focuses on the amount of control that workers have over their jobs as influences on vocational satisfaction. Workers are most satisfied when they are able to fulfill their intrinsic needs for self-expression and autonomy in the job. If they are working solely for the extrinsic rewards of salary and other benefits, their job satisfaction suffers. However, extrinsic motivation in self-determination theory has several levels, involving differing amounts of control over the conditions of work. In the most extreme form of extrinsic motivation, workers have practically no control over their work conditions or choices of how to spend their time. Less extreme forms of extrinsic motivation engage more and more of the worker's ability to make decisions and feel in control of the conditions of work. The more workers see themselves as in control of what they do on the job, the more the work engages their sense of identity.

Flexible adaptation:

Focusing specifically on personality factors as predictors of reactions to bereavement, Mancini and Bonanno (2009) propose that people who are best able to cope with loss are able to use flexible adaptation—the capacity to shape and adapt behaviour to the demands of the stressful event. At other times, though, it is more beneficial to use "repressive coping," in which the painful event is expunged from conscious awareness. Other personal qualities that can help people cope with significant losses such as widowhood include optimism, the capacity for positive emotions, and the ability to maintain a sense of continuity over time.

Nursing homes:

For individuals whose illness or disability requires daily nursing care as well as other support services, nursing homes provide comprehensive care in a single setting. A nursing home is a type of medical institution that provides a room, meals, skilled nursing and rehabilitative care, medical services, and protective supervision. The care provided in nursing homes includes assistance for problems that residents have in many basic areas of life, including cognition, physical functioning, mood and behaviour, and nutrition. To manage these problems, residents typically need to take medications on a regular basis. Residents of nursing homes may also receive assistance with feeding and mobility, rehabilitative activities, and social services.

tamed death:

For many centuries, until the early Middle Ages, the prevailing view was of tamed death, in which death was viewed as familiar and simple, a transition to eternal life. Death and dying were events that involved the entire community, supported by specific prayers and practices that "tamed" the unknown.

death:

From a medical and legal perspective, the technical definition of death is the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or when all structures of the brain have ceased to function.

Psychological standpoint to death and dying:

From a psychological standpoint, death and dying carry many layers of meaning. Toward the end of their lives, individuals may begin to shift their identity to incorporate the reality that faces them. As with changes they experience throughout life, people can use identity assimilation to minimize, if not deny, as much as possible this coming reality. At some point, however, they must adjust to the fact that their life will be ending, at which point the process of identity balance may start to allow them to face this fact with equanimity.

Saving for retirement:

Given the many "unknowns," it would be far too bold for us to make any definitive statements here about your economic future in retirement. In part, it will depend on how you view yourself in retirement. While this may be difficult to envision, do you see yourself sailing the Caribbean on your private yacht, or will you be happy with a more modest lifestyle? The major takeaway message is that it is never too early to think about saving for retirement, even though it may seem like a long time from now.

Who are these new career paths most important to?

Having the boundaryless mindset and the protean career attitude appear to be particularly important for women seeking greater flexibility and self-direction in their career development. Looking at career paths in a more fluid and flexible manner is also becoming more important for those employed in knowledge-based fields, such as information technology, because their career paths tend to be more fragmented than are those of people in other professions.

The right kind of staff:

However, it is not just a matter of having enough staff but also of having the right mix of staff. The trend has been toward hiring more personal support workers and fewer registered nurses as a way of cutting costs. In addition, many allied health care professionals—physiotherapists, occupational therapists, recreational therapists, social workers, and psychologists—are either in short supply or non-existent in many long-term care settings in Canada. As a result, many residents do not get the physical and psychosocial support that they need in order to maintain a good quality of life.

Objective indicators and subjective well-being:

However, there are connections between objective social indicators and subjective well-being. Studies of older adults show positive associations between feelings of well-being and personal resources, including physical functioning and adequacy of financial support. It is not just physical functioning, but also participation in physical activity that contributes to the subjective well-being of older adults. Education level, in turn, predicts high levels of physical and cognitive functioning, which also predict high levels of subjective well-being.

Describe and distinguish between different theories/models of vocational development:

Holland's vocational development theory/ RIASEC model: people express their personality in their vocational aspirations and interests.Holland proposed that there are six fundamental types (also called codes) that represent the universe of all possible vocational interests, competencies, and behaviours.Each of the six types is identified by its initial letter: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C).Super's life-span life-stage theory: As individuals traverse the various stages of their vocational development, their sense of self also undergoes changes.Super's life-span life-stage theory focuses on the role of the self and proposes that people attempt to realize their inner potential through their career choices.

Home care and community-based services:

Home care and community-based services are the broad array of medical and social services that are available to people who are still living in their own homes and that are provided by health care professionals, paid caregivers, and volunteers. It includes services such as assessment and case management, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, nursing care, equipment and supplies, adult day support, congregate living residences, group homes, home maintenance and repair services, homemaker services, meal programs, palliative care, quick response teams, respite services, and transportation services.

Why is home care a vital part of the health care system?

Home care is a vital part of the health care system for a variety of reasons. First, as shown by survey after survey, people prefer to receive care at home. Second, home care is cost-effective. Governments are keenly aware of rising health care costs, and home care is viewed as one way to reduce health care budgets. In order to be cost-effective, home care must be integrated with other components of the health care system, with effective linkages and coordination by case managers who can guide patients through the health care system. i.e., the Home at Last program in Ontario helps older adults and adults with special needs make the transition from hospital to home by facilitating the discharge process, providing supportive services, assisting in future care planning, and minimizing the risk of readmission.

The first well-known hospice:

Hospice care falls in the continuum of an individual's illness timeline. At the beginning of the illness, the patient is treated entirely with active care in a hospital. As the illness progresses, the ratio of palliative to active care increases steadily until, by the end, the patient receives palliative care only. The first well-known hospice was St. Christopher's in London, England, which opened in 1967. The hospice movement spread to Canada in the early 1970s. Dr. Balfour Mount was so impressed by a visit to St. Christopher's that he began one of the first hospice care programs at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. His vision was to integrate hospice units within hospitals. Today, the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association is a leader in advocating for access to hospice palliative care in Canada. Unfortunately, only 16 to 30 percent of Canadians who die currently have access to or receive palliative care services, and the shortage is particularly acute in rural and remote areas.

Short-term vs. long-term institutional facilities:

Hospitals are short-term institutional facilities to which people are admitted with the understanding that they will be discharged when they no longer need round-the-clock treatment. At the other end of the spectrum are long-term institutional facilities into which an individual moves permanently after losing the ability to live independently.

Creative potential:

However, an individual's productivity also reflects creative potential, which is the total number of works that a person could hypothetically produce in a life span with no upper limits. A person with high creative potential might produce thousands of works of art during his or her career, but a person with low creative potential may produce 10, 20, or perhaps just 1 (a "one-hit wonder").

coordinated palliative services:

However, for those older adults who do prepare an advance directive, their end-of-life experience is more likely to conform to their preferences. Coordinated palliative services can improve patients' perceived quality of life, even when they experience significant pain. As with the provision of good nursing home care, an interdisciplinary approach can help to overcome the problems of lack of coordination and communication among health care workers.

Core self-evaluation and vocational satisfaction:

Identity processes may come into play as adults evaluate their vocational satisfaction. Researchers investigating job satisfaction in adulthood have begun to discuss the construct of core self-evaluation, a person's appraisal of people, events, and things in relation to him-or her-self. The core self-evaluation is composed of self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, high emotional stability, and the belief that you control your fate. Core self-evaluations can influence vocational satisfaction to the extent that these self-perceptions influence the opportunities people seek in the workplace. i.e. women may perceive themselves according to traditional stereotypes that lead them to be seen as less assertive and competitive than their male counterparts.

A long, healthy life span:

If you are in good health, you may not give your own death much thought. However, those who live until the years of later adulthood may find themselves considering the end of their life on a more frequent basis. Even if they do not give attention to the existential questions of their own mortality, they must make practical arrangements, such as planning their funeral or finalizing their will. Perhaps what most people wish for is a long, healthy life span, meaning that they live as long as possible in as healthy a state as possible. In keeping with Erikson's concepts of generativity and ego integrity, many people also wish to leave something behind to be remembered by and to have made an impact on other people's lives.

Changes in end-of-life care:

Improvements in medical technology, along with changes in attitudes toward death and dying, are leading clinicians to become far more sensitive to the emotional and physical needs of dying patients. At the same time, legislation and social movements that advocate for the rights of dying patients are making progress in allowing them to preserve their dignity and autonomy.

Canada Pension Plan:

In 1966, the federal government implemented the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), a compulsory social insurance plan requiring employers and employees to contribute to a retirement benefit that includes long-term disability and survivors' benefits.

Volunteer statistics in retired adults:

In 2010, almost half of Canadians volunteered their time, amounting to almost 2.1 billion hours—the equivalent of 1.1 million full-time jobs. Those who volunteered the most hours were 65 years of age or older, widowed, not in the labour force (e.g., retirees), without children at home, and more likely to attend religious services or meetings. These data attest to the significant contributions that older Canadians make to the volunteer sector. Numerous studies have documented the benefits of volunteering in later life, including higher quality of life and better mental health.

women & employment:

In 2012, 57.9 percent of women were in the labour force. This percentage has increased steadily over the past three decades, except during economic downturns. In 2009, Alberta had the highest percentage of employed women among the provinces, and Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest. Women under 55 without children were most likely to be employed (80.4 percent); however, rates of employment among women with children increased from 39.1 percent in 1976 to 72.9 percent in 2009. Those whose youngest child was aged 6 to 15 were more likely to be employed (78.5 percent) than those with younger children (66.5 percent). Employment rates are higher for mothers in two-parent families (73.8 percent) than for lone-parent mothers (68.9 percent), a pattern that has emerged since the late 1970s, when lone-parent mothers were more likely than mothers in two-parent families to be employed.

Canada recent employment statistics:

In 2012, 61.8 percent of Canadian adults were employed Over the last four decades, employment was lowest in 1983 (56.9 percent) and 1993 (57.9 percent) but has increased steadily since that time. In 2011, Canada had the second highest employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 among G7 countries, behind only Germany. Italy had the lowest employment rate.

Amount spent on adult care in Canada statistics:

In 2012, the Conference Board of Canada published a report indicating that the total amount spent on home and community care was between $8.9 billion and $10.5 billion in 2010, or between 4.6 and 5.5 percent of total health care spending in Canada. These funds supported 1.33 million home care recipients in Canada and provided support for between 76,000 and 99,000 full-time equivalent jobs for paid providers. However, the home and community care sector relies heavily on unpaid caregivers—family members, friends, and volunteers. 25 percent of Canadians aged 65 and over receive home care, and the majority is provided by informal sources, primarily family members.

facility-based long-term care:

In Canada, facility-based long-term care is not covered by the Canada Health Act and, although many Canadians are unaware of this, it is not a fully insured health service in any province or territory. Each jurisdiction is responsible for providing long-term care, and there is considerable variability across provinces in the terms that are used to describe different levels of care. Even the phrase "long-term care" is known as "continuing care" in some provinces, such as Alberta. The exception to provincial responsibility for long-term care is Veterans Affairs Canada, which provides care for qualifying veterans and their spouses through agreements with the provinces and territories.

When is discrimination a contravention of the law?

In July 2012, the Alberta Human Rights Commission published an interpretive bulletin addressing the question of when discrimination is not a contravention of the law. This is a complicated issue that goes beyond the scope of this chapter, but the bulletin makes it clear that an employer may discriminate on the basis of age if the reason is a bona fide occupational requirement (BFOR). The bulletin cites the 1982 Etobicoke decision, which involved the dismissal of firefighters at the age of 60. The court examined whether the mandatory retirement requirement was based on a BFOR and decided that it was impressionistic rather than based on scientific evidence. This was clearly a case of discrimination against those over the age of 60. It is worth noting that the BFOR is difficult to establish and is narrowly interpreted by the courts.

Shifts of cultural views on death and the dead:

In Western society, cultural views of death and the dead have undergone many shifts between ancient times and the present.

Unexpected costs of older adults/long-term care:

In a first-person account entitled "No Place to Age: The Costs and Indignities of Long-term Care in Alberta," Smith (2010) provides insight into the significant and often unexpected costs that older adults and their family members can expect to assume in long-term care. In addition to the out-of-pocket costs assessed, family members may pay private caregivers so that residents have better care than what can be offered in the facility (e.g., physiotherapy, assistance with personal care). This situation is by no means unique to Alberta, but represents a growing concern across the provinces and territories.

Study: age and job attitude:

In a meta-analysis of 802 empirical articles, which included many studies from a variety of countries, Ng and Feldman (2010) examined the relationships between age and 35 different measures of job attitude. Across these studies, age was related only weakly (with correlations averaging around .20) to overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with pay, job involvement, and intrinsic work motivation. However, the relationships were stronger for older workers with more tenure in the organization, minorities, and workers without a college education. Interestingly, the authors concluded that there were no differences in levels of work commitment between baby boomers and the so-called Gen-Xers, who many social commentators believe are less diligent than their parents.

Meta-analysis: Work-family enrichment model:

In a meta-analysis testing the work-family enrichment model, McNall, Nicklin, and Masuda (2010) tested the two directions of work-family enrichment, from work to family (WFE) and family to work (FWE) on the criterion variables of job satisfaction, affective commitment (emotional attachment to the organization), turnover intentions, family satisfaction, life satisfaction, and physical and mental health across a total of 46 studies (encompassing 111 correlations). Both WFE and FWE were positively associated with the work-related outcomes of job satisfaction and affective commitment. WFE had a positive influence on the non-work related outcomes of family and life satisfaction. FWE had a positive relationship with family satisfaction. Both forms of enrichment were related to physical and mental health. The findings also showed stronger effects for women than for men, reflecting the fact that women are more likely to integrate the two sets of roles.

The sheer size of a brain region may not be as important as the way in which that brain region is organized or functions:

In a review of 80 studies comparing brain function and cognitive performance, Eyler and colleagues looked for relationships between MRI and PET scan activity in the cortical lobes and subcortical areas involved in movement and sensory processing, and the insula, located deep within the cortex. The findings were far from clear-cut in showing that successful brain aging was related to successful cognitive aging: 61 percent of the studies showed a mixed relationship, a negative relationship, or no relationship at all. More of the positive associations between brain activity and cognitive performance showed up for the frontal cortex (35 percent). In the medial temporal lobe, which includes the hippocampus, there were far fewer significant relationships (20 percent). Consistent with the HAROLD and PASA compensation models, it is possible that successful brain agers are most likely to show brain plasticity.

How does an individual identify & pursue a calling?

In order to identify a calling, however, individuals must go through intense reflection about their values and priorities in life. They can promote this process through meditation, introspection, and reflection. Ultimately, people's ability to pursue a calling requires self-understanding, adaptability to changing economic and social circumstances, and the belief that they can be successful at their chosen career path.

Licensing requirements for nursing home operators:

In addition, each province and territory has licensing requirements that nursing home operators must meet in order to keep their operating licences. These regulations are often quite detailed and include requirements for, for example, the physical environment, diet and nutrition, accommodating residents' personal choices (including their social and leisure preferences), and providing a forum for resident feedback. Although these licensing requirements are good, they tend to focus more on environmental factors and indices of poor health care, while psychosocial aspects of care and overall quality of life receive less attention. Additionally, there is ongoing concern about whether there is sufficient monitoring. For this reason, some provinces have passed specific legislation to protect persons in care, and a number of citizen advocacy groups across Canada are actively involved in enhancing the quality of life of residents.

Physicians performing euthanasia:

In contrast, physicians performing euthanasia take the actions that cause the patient to die, with the intention of preventing the suffering associated with a prolonged ending of life. -Physician takes action that causes death.

bridge employment:

In general, bridge employment is strongly related to financial need. Workers who have a long, continuous history of employment in private-sector jobs tend not to seek bridge employment because they typically have sufficient financial resources.

High subjective well-being predicts job satisfaction:

In general, it appears that high subjective well-being predicts job satisfaction. In a meta-analysis testing the relationship over time between overall well-being and job satisfaction, researchers found more support for the direction from subjective well-being to job satisfaction than vice versa. Consistent with other research on overall mood, it appears that people high in subjective well-being tend to experience more positive emotions that carry over into their work lives.

Successful aging in different cultural groups/Indigenous people:

In general, we know very little about how successful aging is defined by different cultural groups and indigenous people. Collings (2001) conducted interviews with 38 Inuit, ranging in age from 23 to 86 years, in the community of Holman, population 430, located on the western shore of Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. A major theme in narratives about successful aging was the importance of remaining active and the belief that slowing down speeds up the aging process. For older Inuit men, this meant continuing to hunt and fish as they had as younger men. Also important for successful aging was the cultural transmission of wisdom and knowledge among elders and in particular to their grandsons, with whom they share an important relation- ship in Inuit culture.

Biopsychosocial model on death and dying:

In keeping with the biopsychosocial perspective, death and dying are best understood in a multidimensional manner. Death is a biological event, of course, as it is the point in time when the body's functions cease to operate. However, this biological fact of life is overlaid with a great deal of psychological meaning, both to the individual and to those in the individual's social network. Socioculturally, death is interpreted in multiple ways, varying according to time, place, and culture.

Successful Cognitive Aging:

In keeping with this focus, then, successful cognitive aging can be defined as cognitive performance that is above the average for an individual's age group as objectively measured. A sample of "SuperAgers," defined as individuals 80 and older with superior episodic memory (i.e., comparable to that of middle-aged adults), were found by Harrison and colleagues on MRIs to have a thicker cerebral cortex. Their memory performance, in turn, was correlated positively with cortical thickness. They also showed greater volume of the cingulate cortex, an area that may be involved in preventing episodic memory loss.

Longitudinal study on leisure:

In one of the few longitudinal studies on leisure, 380 Canadians ranging in age from 60 to 85 were interviewed over an eight-year period (1985 to 1993) to determine which leisure activities were maintained or discontinued. In addition, researchers were interested in predictors of change in leisure activities. Over half of the sample had stopped going to theatre/movies/spectator sports, while more sedentary activities, such as watching television and reading, were continued by over 90 percent of the sample. Strain et al. then examined predictors of change in the number of activities and found that those who were younger, were better educated, perceived their health as good or excellent, and reported no functional limitations in health at the start of the eight-year study were more likely to continue their activities. Losing a spouse and reduced health over the eight-year interval were related to the discontinuation of leisure activities. These data reinforce the important influence of life events, such as the loss of a spouse, on leisure pursuits. Older adults who are widowed may find it more difficult to engage in activities that they previously enjoyed with their partners (e.g., travel, dining out). Although those who were better educated were more likely to continue their activities, education may act as a proxy for income. Those with more resources are more likely to engage in activities that cost more, such as dining out or going to the theatre.

What is role enrichment? (work family balance):

In role enrichment, your "experiences in one role improves the quality of life in the other role" (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, p. 73). You may have limited time and energy, but the skills, feelings, and values you develop in one sphere help you perform better in the other. Role enrichment occurs because we can transfer our skills from one sphere to the other. The upshot is that you don't have to give up your work life for your family life, or your family life for your work. When you can draw on the resources in both areas of your life, shore up your coping strategies, and—most importantly—be lucky enough to have understanding colleagues and supervisors, you can enjoy a fulfilling and enriching life in both spheres.

CSPCP vocalization of opposition to Bill 52:

In the Netherlands and Belgium, countries that permit both assisted suicide and euthanasia, euthanasia is the preferred method, indicating that patients much prefer to have their physicians do the procedure. Palliative care physicians are most likely to end patients' lives and the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) has been extremely vocal in its opposition to Bill 52. A major concern was that separate bills were not drafted for palliative care and euthanasia. The organization describes euthanasia as "a practice abhorrent to the majority of the CSPCP" and emphasizes that euthanasia is not part of palliative care and is not the same as continuous palliative sedation therapy, the practice of administering sedative medication, most often in the final days of life, to lower the level of a patient's conscious awareness and to alleviate emotional, spiritual, or physical distress. Moreover, the CSPCP calls for a national palliative care strategy that includes improved access to affordable and equitable care, the education and training of health care professionals in palliative care, and access to advanced care planning resources.

Monet's cataracts and old age:

In the case of the artist Monet, cataracts caused changes not only in the clarity of his vision but in his ability to see colours. When he developed cataracts, he was literally unable to see the colours on the canvas that he knew appeared in nature. Even special glasses (coloured yellow) could not correct this defect, and it was not until he was successfully treated with cataract surgery at the age of 85 that his colour vision was restored. His final work, an enormous series of water lilies, was installed in a Paris museum after his death. The colours in these final paintings were as vibrant as they had been in his earlier work. In 1908, he wrote, "These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession, it is beyond the strength of an old man, and yet I want to succeed in portraying what I feel. I have destroyed some, I have started all over again, and I hope that something will emerge from so much effort".

Hospice care:

Increasingly, the provision of end-of-life care is the domain of a hospice, a site or program that provides medical and supportive services for dying patients. Within the hospice environment, dying patients are attended to with regard for their need for physical comfort and psychological and social support and are given the opportunity to express their spiritual needs and have them met. The care is palliative, focusing on controlling pain and other symptoms, and it is likely to take place within the home, beginning when the patient no longer wishes to receive active disease treatment. Physicians supervise the care of patients, working closely with spiritual and bereavement counsellors. Hospice services fit closely with patients' expressed needs for obtaining adequate pain control and symptom management, avoiding an extended period of dying, achieving a sense of personal control, relieving the burden they place on others, and strengthening ties with those who are close to them.

Document to state wishes in the event of illness or incapacitation:

Individuals can and should document their wishes in the event that they become ill or incapacitated and are unable to communicate their wishes. The laws and the terminology with respect to advance directives vary across Canada. Depending on where you live, this document may be referred to as a living will, an instructional directive, a power of attorney for personal care (or health care), or an advance health care directive or proxy. Not only are advance directives useful in ensuring that patients play an active role in deciding on their treatment, but they also facilitate communication among patients, health care staff, and families; protect an individual's resources; alleviate anxiety; and reduce the chances of the patient being maltreated. The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association's Speak Up campaign is an outstanding resource, with step-by-step instructions on how to complete an advance care plan, including how to initiate the conversation with family members. In addition, the website provides excellent information about advance care planning resources in different provinces and territories.

rising cost of health care:

Individuals in later life who are hospitalized for physical and sometimes co-existing psychological problems are increasingly confronted with the rising cost of health care as a barrier to effective resolution of their difficulties. In addition to the problems that result from failure to receive proper treatment, this situation creates considerable stress and anguish for older individuals and the family members who care for them.

injuries and older workers:

Injuries are a second area of investigation in understanding the relationship between age and job performance. Overall, workers over the age of 55 are nearly half as likely to suffer a non-fatal injury as those who are 35 years and younger, and about half as likely to die from a work-related injury. However, when older workers must miss work due to injury or illness, their injuries may be more severe and they may take longer to get better. Older workers are more likely than younger workers to have back injuries or repetitive motion injuries.

What are results of the intrinsic aspects of work?

Intrinsic factors involve or engage your sense of identity, in that the work directly pertains to your feelings of competence, autonomy, and stimulation of personal growth. Your ability to express autonomy and self-direction in the daily performance of your job is also part of the intrinsic aspects of work, because these factors are directly tied to your sense of self. Having work that is a calling fulfills your intrinsic motivation, but you can have intrinsic motivation for your work without feeling that it is a calling.

Personality and well-being:

It appears that personality traits may change in tandem with changes in well-being throughout adulthood. Using MIDUS data, Hill, Turiano, Mroczek, and Roberts (2012) found that people higher on the positive poles of the five-factor model traits had higher levels of well- being. Over time, positive changes in these traits correlated with further increases in well-being. The study's findings suggest that personality acts as more than a set "point," in that its relationship to changes in well-being continues to evolve.

Expectations of memory loss vs. experience of memory loss:

It does appear that younger adults have more negative expectations about aging than older adults feel themselves. A Pew Research Center survey of almost 3,000 Americans showed that older adults were less likely to report experiencing the problems of growing older that younger adults expected would happen to them. The largest gap concerned memory loss. Over half of adults aged 65 and under expected that they would lose their memory, but only one-quarter of older adults reported memory loss as a problem.

What else has eased the stress of retiring?

It has also become easier for workers to continue in the jobs they have held throughout their lives or to find new employment even while they earn retirement benefits from their previous occupations. These changes have also eased the potential stress of the transition, so that retired individuals no longer necessarily experience the poor health, low income, and loss of status that was associated with leaving the labour force earlier in the 1900s.

Why is it difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the amount of facilities/long-term care in Canada?

It is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of facilities and long-term care beds in Canada, partly because of the way long-term care is organized. In 2007, the Canadian Healthcare Association (2009b) estimated that there were 2,577 facilities and 217,969 beds. There is general recognition that there is a shortage of beds. This is particularly acute in First Nations communities: the Canadian Healthcare Association (2009b) reported that there were 633 First Nations communities across Canada and only 30 of them had a nursing home. As a consequence, First Nations elderly needing care have to be transported to communities far from their families and the cultural practices and traditions that are so important to them.

Who uses home-care services?

It is important to keep in mind that these services are used by people of all ages, not just older adults. If you were recently discharged from the hospital and required some help, you might turn to home care services. Moreover, children with special needs, people with mental and physical disabilities, those with chronic illnesses, and those who are dying are just some of the people for whom home care services might be needed. i.e. approximately 15 percent of home care clients are children and youth.

The Set Point perspective:

It is still possible that those people who remain happier longer are the ones who view the world in an optimistic manner, which in turn allows them to remain high in life satisfaction when their age peers are not. The set point perspective proposes that people's personalities influence their level of well-being throughout life. i.e. university students higher in neuroticism were found in a study of 2,000 German emerging adults to have more negative life events occur to them. These negative events, in turn, could further influence their levels of well-being. Conversely, children high in self-esteem in childhood seem to have higher self-esteem throughout their life, which could further influence their levels of well-being.

Project to overcome the limitations of Rowe and Khan's model of successful aging:

It was with these criticisms in mind that University of California at San Diego researchers embarked on a project to overcome the limitations that they identified in the Rowe and Kahn model. They administered several standardized measures to nearly 1,950 women participating in the San Diego site of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study in an attempt to predict self-rated successful aging. These participants had been part of a longitudinal study that followed them for seven years between 1994 and 2005. The successful aging sample included women ranging from 60 to 89, all of whom were post-menopausal, free of substance use disorders, and relatively healthy (i.e., with no known terminal illnesses) at the start of the study.

Other factors related to job satisfaction:

Job satisfaction and positive emotions are also related to such job characteristics as autonomy, participation in the organization, supervisory support, and concern of supervisors for employee welfare. Conversely, the stress of feeling overloaded can trigger negative emotions in employees.

affective events theory:

Job satisfaction can be affected not only by the motivation to work, but also by people's feelings about their jobs. You can have feelings on the job (such as being excited about the upcoming weekend) and feelings about the job (such as liking your job activities). According to affective events theory, events at work lead individuals to experience affective reactions, and these in turn influence attitudes toward work and performance.

Expectations of aging vs. the reality:

Judged solely by the standards of being able to avoid the despair brought about by lower status on important social indicators, however, there would in fact be many successful agers. A national survey of almost 3,000 Americans showed that most older adults manage to enjoy relatively high subjective well-being on a variety of indices. Among respondents aged 75 and older, 81 percent said they were "very" or "pretty" happy and only 19 percent rated themselves as "not too happy." Interestingly, most older adults rated their own experience of aging more favourably than younger adults would expect.

Lehman: fields of experience and judgement:

Lehman claimed that older adults have the edge in fields that rely on experience and judgement, such as politics and diplomacy. Authors write their "best books" in between these extremes, for an author's success involves imagination, discipline, and the philosophical perspectives gained from experience. He also noted that some artists who lived until a very old age produced their best works very late in life, as did other notable individuals in virtually every field of accomplishment.

Level of occupation:

Level of occupation is yet another factor, as a person in a managerial position who is earning a high salary has the resources to invest time and energy in non-work options. Of course, with a higher level of employment may go higher daily job demands, leading to less time for leisure pursuits. Individual differences in the extent to which an adult believes in the "work ethic" may also interact with the age-job satisfaction relationship. The work commitment of individuals with strong work ethic values may never taper off, even if their commitment does not translate into higher financial rewards.

The process of bereavement through biopsychosocial model:

Like the processes of death and dying, we can best understand bereavement as a biopsychosocial process. Physiologically, bereavement places stress on the body, leading to physical symptoms such as tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, loss of energy and strength, sleep problems, digestive symptoms, and decreased immune system resistance. These symptoms can be severe enough to increase risk of dying in widowed spouses. Emotionally, bereaved individuals experience a range of feelings, including anger, depression, anxiety, emptiness, and preoccupation with thoughts of the deceased. Cognitive changes can also occur in some bereaved individuals, including impaired attention and memory, a desire to withdraw from social activities, and increased risk of accidents. Socioculturally, the loss of a spouse alters the individual's position in the family and community and status within society and may also place the individual at risk of additional financial burden. Loss of other family members, friends, and neighbours can dramatically change the individual's support network.

Productivity bias against minority cultures:

Little, if any, mention in analysis of productivity is made of African-Americans. Simonton explored the question of whether assessments of creative output among historical figures would show evidence of bias against members of minority cultures. Specifically, he examined whether African-Americans who had achieved recognition within reference works specific to African- American scholarship would also be mentioned in reference works of the American majority culture. Although there was considerable convergence between the minority and majority reference works, one-fifth of African- Americans who had achieved eminence in the minority reference works were not mentioned in any of the majority indices of eminence. Furthermore, certain areas of accomplishment within African-American culture were not recognized within the majority reference works, including law, education, religion, classical music, and the sciences. Majority reference works gave higher ratings to African-Americans in the fields of athletics and jazz and blues music, while African-American sources gave greater recognition to those who achieved eminence in the civil rights movement.

Different options to finance long-term care:

Long-term care is an underfunded and resource-poor system that will only become more so as the population ages if action is not taken. Grignon and Bernier (2012) review the various options for financing long-term care in the future, including private savings, private insurance, and universal public insurance. They conclude that saving for long-term care is unrealistic. According to their estimates, on average, individuals would need to save $7,500 per year over a 40-year period, for a total of $300,000. They note that no country in the world has relied exclusively on private savings to fund long- term care, and they view this as an inefficient system for Canada. Private long-term care insurance has not gained popularity in Canada, with less than 1 percent of Canadians holding this type of insurance. This may be because many Canadians mistakenly believe that long-term care is fully paid for by public programs, because they deny a risk that could affect them in 20 to 30 years, or because they cannot afford long-term care insurance. Grignon and Bernier (2012) suggest that the best solution is a universal public insurance plan with a single payer that provides full coverage based on a standardized evaluation of care needs. This would alleviate the uncertainty around accessing care in old age and would be a more equitable and efficient way of structuring long-term care in Canada.

Long-term care:

Long-term care refers to the entire continuum of care that ranges from receiving in-home help with daily tasks to institutionalized care. It includes both medical and non-medical support. Long-term care is often thought of as being something that only older adults need, but people of all ages may need long-term care if, for example, they have an unexpected debilitating illness or a traumatic injury. i.e. it was estimated that people aged 19 to 64 accounted for about 17 percent of those who received continuing care in Ontario between 2005 and 2006. The problems of younger adults range from traumatic injuries (e.g., spinal cord injury) to progressive disorders (e.g., multiple sclerosis). Unfortunately, we know very little about their specific needs, and long-term care policies and practices often assume that all care recipients are old.

Effects on individuals who experience constant loss:

Losses that fall outside the category of family and friends can also create bereavement reactions. Individuals whose job places them in situations where they work with dying persons may experience severe anxiety symptoms that interfere with their daily life and ability to perform their job. i.e. not only survivors but also some recovery workers in a disaster experience lingering effects of trauma. Those with a history of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder are particularly vulnerable to these effects.

Survival and successful aging:

Many assume that at the end of life people experience a precipitous drop in their well-being and adjustment. However, as you have learned by now, survival into the later years of adulthood requires individuals to be able to negotiate the many threats to living a long life. As we stated at the outset, to get old you have to not die, but to age successfully requires additional adaptive qualities. Because older adults have managed to avoid so many threats that could have ended their life at a younger age, there may be some special quality about older individuals that can account, in part, for their having reached this point in their life.

Retirement expectations vs. reality:

Many people think of retirement as an event that is marked by a ceremony, such as the presentation of the proverbial "gold watch" to a retiree as thanks for years of loyal service. However, this traditional image of retirement was never really true. Even when careers had more predictable trajectories, people often continued to maintain some type of employment after they retired from their primary job. The definition of retirement is becoming even murkier with current changes in labour force participation by individuals in their middle and later years. As you will learn, the economy's health affects not only the financial security of the employed, but also the financial security of the retired. Interest rates, tax policies, inflation, and the overall growth of the economy are some of the factors that determine the amount of money that retired individuals receive from their various sources of income. Policies being decided upon now by governments around the world will affect billions of older individuals in the decades to come. You might feel as though you are years away from retirement and therefore are not affected by these debates, but they are affecting your paycheque now and your financial stability throughout the rest of your life.

Challenges to adaptation models:

Maximizing an older individual's adaptation to the environment is also tied to the challenges that large institutions (such as university residences) face in attempting to find ways to satisfy the needs of the so-called "average" resident. The average resident, like the "average" university student, is a hypothetical construct. When trying to satisfy the needs of everyone, administrators of institutions will inevitably satisfy very few. In predicting adaptation to the institution, the actual qualities of the environment are only part of the equation. Researchers are interested in learning how residents perceive the institution's physical qualities and relating these perceptions to their adaptation.

Mood & anxiety disorders in nursing home residents:

Mood and anxiety disorders are also very prevalent in nursing home residents. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (2010) reported that, among a sample of approximately 50,000 older adults in residential care in four provinces and Yukon, 44 percent had a diagnosis and/or symptoms of depression. Among those who were diagnosed with depression, only 8.4 percent had received an assessment by a licensed mental health practitioner in the previous 90 days and only 2.6 percent had received psychological therapy in the previous seven days. Results were even lower for those with symptoms of depression. However, 80 percent of those diagnosed with depression took antidepressant medication. Unfortunately, we do not have good epidemiological data for anxiety disorders in nursing homes.

The idea of death with dignity:

Most importantly, the idea of death with dignity proposed that the period of dying should not subject the individual to extreme physical dependency or loss of control of bodily functions. This idea now lies behind efforts in the medical community for dying patients and their families to bring death back into the home. Similarly, patients are being offered the opportunity for a good death, in which they can have autonomy in making decisions about the type, site, and duration of care they receive at the end of life. Thus, while medicine is making great strides in keeping people alive using artificial means, patients and their loved ones are increasingly looking for ways to make death once again a more natural way to bring those lives to a humane end.

mummification:

Mummification was practised in many cultures, including South America, where the Incas were known to have preserved their dead until as recently as 500 years ago. People can still request that their bodies be mummified today, with services provided by a firm in Salt Lake City for a cost of $35,000 to $60,000.

Caregiving statistics in Canada:

Nearly half of Canadians, aged 15 and older, have provided care to a family member or friend with a long-term disability or aging needs. In 2012, slightly over half (54 percent) of caregivers were female and 44 percent of caregivers were between the ages of 45 and 64. Young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 formed the second largest group of caregivers, at 15 percent. They were most likely to provide care to grandparents (48 percent) and parents (25 percent). Those aged 65 and older were the least likely to be caregivers; however, they spent the most time caregiving because they were more likely to be caring for a spouse: 23 percent spent 20 or more hours per week caregiving, in contrast to 10 percent of those aged 15 to 24, 13 percent of those aged 45 to 54, and 17 percent of those aged 55 to 64. Family caregivers are the linchpin of the health care system. Without family caregivers, the medical costs of patients would rise even higher than they are now. Hollander, Liu, and Chappell reported that in 2009 the economic contribution of unpaid caregivers in Canada amounted to between $25 billion and $26 billion, and this is a conservative estimate!

Anti-monotony nursing home models:

New models for nursing home design attempt to break up monotony to create more of a feeling of a community or neighbourhood. Nursing stations are removed from view, allowing residents and staff to share lounges. Hallways have alcoves that can store medicine carts and nursing stations. Small group-living clusters, improved interior design, and access to gardens can help maintain independence in residents whose autonomy would otherwise be threatened.

Why is congruence important?

Not only does congruence make you feel happier, but it also influences your ability to be effective on the job. According to vocational development theory, if you are happy, you will also be most productive. Unfortunately, people cannot always find jobs congruent with their interests, particularly in a tough economy. In these situations, the RIASEC model predicts that people will experience low job satisfaction and a high degree of instability until they can find fulfilling work environments. When they are unable to do so, their work productivity may suffer. In addition, for many people, factors outside their control, such as race and ethnicity, limit these choices. For individuals whose vocational situations are affected by such constraints, the role of identity and the potential for realizing one's true vocational interests are far less significant than the reality of these sociocultural factors.

Emotional and spiritual growth during dying:

Obviously the symptoms experienced by dying individuals involve pain and suffering, not only for the patients themselves but also indirectly for their family members. However, those who work with the dying observe that against this backdrop, the final period of life can also involve emotional and spiritual growth. As we will see later, the notion of "acceptance" as the final stage of dying implies an ability to transcend these painful physical symptoms.

Key to understanding the self-determination theory:

Obviously, everyone works for the extrinsic reward of money, and a theory that ignores this fact is bound to fall short of the mark. The key to understanding self-determination theory is to recognize its central proposal that to be maximally motivating, the work that you do must be an expression, at least in part, of your identity. If you can feel that your paid work gives you the opportunity to develop your innermost goals and desires, you will perform at higher levels of persistence and discipline.

parent bereavement:

Of all forms of bereavement, the loss of a child is perhaps the most devastating. The grief a parent experiences over a child's death is highly intense and is associated with increased risk of depression, guilt, and health complaints that may last for many years. Moreover, bereaved parents are themselves at higher risk of mortality. A longitudinal study carried out in Sweden showed that the death of a child was associated with higher mortality in parents, and that the magnitude of this effect was dependent on the child's age and was stronger for mothers than for fathers. The risk of dying was highest among bereaved mothers of children who had died between the ages of 10 and 17 years (age 10 was the youngest age included in this study). These mothers had a 31 percent increase in the subsequent risk of mortality. For mothers of children 18 years and older, the risk of maternal mortality declined as the age of the child at the time of death increased. An Israeli study on a sample of adults aged 75 to 94 years showed that the effects of parental bereavement can continue for as long as 20 years, even after controlling for age, gender, education, and widowhood status. The effect was more pronounced for mothers than for fathers, replicating the findings of the Swedish study. Bereaved parents may eventually find a sense of meaning and purpose in life, however difficult this may be. Furthermore, parents may be able to compensate through providing specific forms of coping support for each other during the grieving process.

Physical activities:

Older adults are less likely than younger people to engage in physical activities as leisure-time pursuits. They may also not be aware of the potential benefits that mental and physical activity can provide. A study of the protective effects of exercise on immune functioning in nearly 750 adults showed that the older adults at most risk were unaware of how much they could reduce their chances of developing cardiovascular and cognitive disorders by engaging in mental and physical activity. The authors concluded that not only can engaging in active leisure pursuits help to preserve cognitive function and maintain cardiovascular health, but engaging in enjoyable leisure pursuits also can have stress-reducing effects.

Alternate level of care patients:

Older adults may spend a considerable amount of time in a hospital, waiting for placement in a long-term care facility, in spite of the fact that they no longer need hospital care. These individuals are referred to as alternate level of care patients. Often they are medically stable but have symptoms of dementia and are waiting for nursing homes that can provide the right level of behavioural support. Many do not have a strong support system in place to address their complex needs. This is an expensive and resource-intensive option for the health care system and a poor living environment for older adults, who may experience further decline in overall health and well-being as a result of their extended stay in a hospital setting.

Emphasizing achievements and experiences:

Older adults seem to benefit from a life story that emphasizes achievements and experiences that reflect favourably on their identity, altering the way they interpret events that might otherwise detract from their self-esteem. Emerging adults seem to benefit from exploring alternatives as they arrive at identity commitments, as long as this exploration does not involve a high degree of rumination or self-criticism. For older adults, identity processes may provide a means of maintaining high levels of well-being in the face of less than satisfactory circumstances. Identity assimilation allows them to place a positive interpretation on what might otherwise cause them to feel that they are not accomplishing their desired objectives.

Adult day programs:

Older adults who do not need to be in an institution on a 24-hour basis can receive support services during the day from community services specifically aimed at addressing their needs. In adult day programs, older adults who need assistance or supervision during the day receive a range of services in a setting that is either attached to another facility, such as a nursing home, or is a stand-alone agency. Depending on the site, the services provided can include medication management, physical therapy, meals, medical care, counselling, education, and opportunities for socializing. These services may fall into the category of respite care, which provides family caregivers with a break while allowing the older adult to receive needed support services.

An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care:

On June 5, 2014, the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 52, An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care: The purpose of this Act is to ensure that end-of-life patients are provided care that is respectful of their dignity and their autonomy. The Act establishes the rights of such patients as well as the organization of and a framework for end-of-life care so that everyone may have access, throughout the continuum of care, to quality care that is appropriate to their needs, including prevention and relief of suffering. In addition, the Act recognizes the primacy of freely and clearly expressed wishes with respect to care, in particular by establishing an advance medical directives regime. At the federal level, on March 27, 2014, member of Parliament Steven Fletcher tabled a bill amending the Criminal Code to allow physicians to help individuals end their lives when the individual meets certain criteria and the physician follows procedural safeguards. He also tabled a second bill that proposes the establishment of a commission to be known as the Canadian Commission on Physician-Assisted Death. The purpose of the commission would be to "produce public information on physician-assisted death and to support law and policy reform with respect to physician-assisted death". These recent developments will be watched closely.

Positives of older workers:

On the positive side, older workers show fewer counter-productive work behaviours, such as voluntary absenteeism. They are also more likely to engage in good "citizenship," meaning that they participate in more voluntary activities. They also take fewer risks on the job, so tend to be safer. Of course, some of these factors relate to survival effects, as the unhealthy, uncooperative and risky workers tend to be the ones who do not last on the job as long.

Restorative coping in UP:

One memorable example of restorative coping comes from the main character in the movie Up. Carl Fredericksen has lost his beloved wife of many years, Ellie. For much of their married life, they had planned, saved for, and eagerly anticipated a trip to South America. After her death, Carl is embittered and miserable, though determined to go through with his plans to visit South America. However, he becomes transformed through his relationship with Russell, a Boy Scout who literally wanders into his life and helps Carl to learn once more how to experience positive emotions.

Relationships between work and family roles:

One of the great challenges of adult life is dividing your time, energy, and role involvement across your many commitments. The two areas that many people find most difficult to integrate in terms of competing demands are occupation and family life. Both carry with them major obligations and responsibility, and both contribute heavily to the individual's sense of identity. However, they do not necessarily need to be in conflict, as research is increasingly demonstrating.

The Paradox of Well-being:

One of the great puzzles for researchers who study successful aging is why so many adults are able to remain positive in their approach to life despite their accumulating chronic health conditions, normal age-related changes, and alterations in their social roles and financial security. The paradox of well-being refers to the well-established finding that older adults maintain high subjective well-being despite facing challenges from their objective circumstances.

Trends in nursing homes:

One of the major trends in nursing homes is greater acuteness and complexity in residents' health and cognitive status. As a result of policies that promote staying at home as long as possible, when older adults are admitted to nursing homes they are more likely to have multiple health conditions and cognitive impairment, and the level of care they require is higher than ever before.

The social indicator model:

One reason why the successful ager is thought of as the miraculous exception rather than the rule is that many theorists, researchers, and lay people believe in the social indicator model. According to this model, demographic and social structural variables, such as age, gender, marital status, and income, account for individual differences in levels of well-being. Because by demographic standards older individuals are in a disadvantaged position on these indices, they should be less happy than the young. An older adult who is able to avoid becoming depressed by the potentially disturbing circumstances of poor health, widowhood, and low income seems deserving of some kind of special recognition.

How to improve participation in leisure pursuits?

One way to improve participation in active leisure pursuits is to help individuals find activities that they find truly enjoyable. Researchers have found that the Holland RIASEC model, for example, can be applied to leisure activities in older adults. Just as people can be counselled to seek a person-environment fit for vocations, they might also be advised to find the leisure activity that will keep them motivated and hence active in a pursuit that will ultimately have value in maximizing their functional abilities. Another approach to understanding the satisfaction older adults can obtain from leisure activities comes from "Innovation Theory." According to this view, older adults who become involved in a new leisure activity may experience a range of psychological benefits, including enhanced sense of meaning in life and well-being, and even a feeling of self-reinvention.

Other factors involved in work-family balance:

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance to their workers of a "family-friendly" environment that provides such things as support and schedule control. There are tangible benefits to a family-friendly environment. When managers support employees by providing such measures as accommodative work schedules, employees actually become more productive and are less likely to leave the organization. In addition, when workers feel a strong sense of engagement with their job in a family-friendly organization, their work-family enrichment increases. Conversely, a strong family identity can promote feelings of satisfaction with and commitment to the job. Social support from an individual's workgroup also plays a role, because many potentially positive or negative interactions at work, as we pointed out earlier, involve co-workers. Moreover, supervisors who themselves experience work-to-family enrichment promote similar outcomes in their subordinates.

Alternatives in community care:

Other alternatives in community care involve the provision of housing in addition to specialized services that can maintain the person in an independent living situation. Government-assisted housing is provided for individuals with low to moderate incomes who need affordable housing or rental assistance. People using government-assisted housing typically live in apartment complexes and have access to help with routine tasks such as housekeeping, shopping, and laundry.

Group of residents staff model:

Other models stress new ways of allocating staff to meet the care needs of residents. In one such model, rather than basing staff assignments on the completion of specific tasks for all residents (bathing, changing dressings, administering medications), staff are assigned to meet all the needs of a particular group of residents. Although such a system increases staffing requirements, overall the institutions reduce their expenses in the areas of restraint and antipsychotic medication. Hospitalization rates, staff turnover, and success in rehabilitation also improve, as does residents' satisfaction with their care. Another improvement involves the use of a team approach to providing mental health services. When staff work as a multidisciplinary team, residents receive better services; at the same time, staff are more informed and perform more effectively in their jobs.

invisible death:

Over the ensuing centuries, this view of death as a natural process began to be replaced in a cultural shift to a view of death as the end of the self, something to be feared and kept at a distance. For a period in the 1800s, death and dying were glorified, and it was considered noble to die for a cause (the "beautiful death"). Gradually, Western attitudes shifted once again into what we now experience, what Aries called invisible death, or a desire for death to retreat from the family and to be confined to hospitals.

How has Canada's labour force changed in the past 40+ years?What factors influence employment rates and salaries?

Over the last four decades, employment was lowest in 1983 (56.9 percent) and 1993 (57.9 percent) but has increased steadily since that time.In 2011, Canada had the second highest employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 among G7 countries, behind only Germany. Italy had the lowest employment rate. Race, gender, and age influence salaries.

Life Story:

Over the years of adulthood, people create a life story or narrative view of the past in which they express their identity over the course of time. Although individuals may differ in their narrative styles, the process of constructing the life story continues throughout life and can serve a variety of adaptive functions.

Why does the gender gap occur?

Part of the reason for the gender gap is that women are less likely than men to be employed in high-paying sectors of the market. In 2009, the majority of women were working in health-related occupations, clerical or other administrative positions, social sciences/religion, and teaching. Women have increased their employment in professional fields, such as managerial positions, and now make up more than half of doctors, dentists, and other health occupations (55.2 percent). Their representation in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics remains low, at 22.3 percent.

Sue Rodriguez case:

Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in Canada: Everyone who "aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years." A landmark Canadian case in 1992 involved Sue Rodriguez, a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who maintained that the law violated her right to "life, liberty, and security of the person." Her desire was to control the method, timing, and circumstances of her death. She lost her case, appealed, and lost again. She went on to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada but her appeal was denied in a five-to-four decision. With the help of an unnamed physician, she took her own life on February 12, 1994, in her home in Victoria, British Columbia. The only other person present was her friend Svend Robinson, a New Democratic Party member of Parliament and long-time euthanasia activist.

In physician-assisted suicide:

Patients can write an advance directive in order to specify the level of care they want to receive at any point in time, including well before they become terminally ill. In physician-assisted suicide, terminally ill individuals make the conscious decision, while they are still able to do so, that they want their life to end before dying becomes a protracted process. Patients themselves receive from their physicians the medical tools necessary to end their life. -Physician hands a lethal dose of medication to the patient for self-administration.

Patient request for palliative care:

Patients may also request palliative care, which will provide them with relief from symptoms such as nausea, pain, and shortness of breath, as well as services such as physical and occupational therapy. According to the World Health Organization, palliative care should neither hasten nor postpone the end of life. Overtreatment occurs when patients request palliative care but instead receive active life support that includes resuscitation.

Intrinsic factors in vocational satisfaction:

People can be satisfied with their jobs because they love the work that they perform, they value the salary and other perks it provides, or both. Intrinsic factors in vocational satisfaction refer to the tasks required to perform the work itself. The central defining feature of an intrinsic factor is that it cannot be found in precisely the same fashion in a different type of job. For example, the sculptor engages in the physical activities of moulding clay, and the accountant must perform the mental activity of manipulating numbers. Although each job involves other activities, these are the ones that serve to define the work required to perform each.

Summary: creativity in later life:

People in later life appear not only to manage to feel satisfied with their life but also to be able to achieve new forms of creative expression. Many scientists, artists, writers, and political leaders have produced notable contributions in their later adult years. The accomplishments of these unusual individuals add to the literature on subjective well-being as well as the "vital involvement" framework proposed by Erikson and colleagues, adding support to the concept of successful aging.

career plateauing:

People may also experience career plateauing, in which they remain static in their vocational development. They may experience structural plateauing, in which they do not advance to higher-level positions, or content plateauing, in which they feel that they have mastered their work and no longer see it as challenging.

what happens when an individual experiences career plateauing?

People may reach their plateau at a young age if they enter a so called dead-end job, or if their moves within or between companies involve lateral changes rather than vertical advancement. At that point, the individual may decide that it is time to seek another job. However, some employees are content to remain in the status quo, particularly if they have achieved success and are satisfied with their current position.

Education and employment & aboriginal Canadians:

People with less education are far more likely to be unemployed than people with more education. This difference is even more striking for Aboriginal Canadians. For example, 2006 census data indicated that among those who dropped out of high school, rates of unemployment were 11.1 percent for non-Aboriginal Canadians, but 22.5 percent for Aboriginal Canadians (Berger & Parkin, 2009). In addition, Berger and Parkin (2009) examined the benefits of education in terms of earnings and concluded from the 2006 census data that someone with a bachelor's degree earned $18,000 more per year than someone with a high school diploma. With a post-bachelor's degree, this figure rose to $29,000. Over a lifetime of work, this amounts to a very large difference. However, there are significant disparities in median income between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians with similar levels of education. For example, among those with a certificate or diploma below the bachelor level, the median income for non-Aboriginal Canadians was $23,161 and $16,025 for Aboriginal Canadians. This difference is smaller for those with bachelor's degrees (approximately $2,000), but larger again for those with education beyond the bachelor level (approximately $7,000).

Lastingness:

Perhaps because of their simplicity and emotional power, the works of older artists also demonstrate lastingness in that they persist over time—"that which does not end". Creative older adults experience a deep sense of gratification and experience the process as rewarding, regardless of the result. Works that endure nevertheless resonate and touch the lives of others.

Occupational reinforcement patterns:

Person-environment correspondence theory stresses the role of values in promoting job satisfaction. Occupational reinforcement patterns (ORPs) are the work values and needs likely to be reinforced or satisfied by a particular occupation. The six ORPs are: (1) achievement—using one's abilities and feeling a sense of accomplishment (2) altruism—being of service to others (3) autonomy—having a sense of control (4) comfort—not feeling stressed (5) safety—stability, order, and predictability and (6) status—being recognized and serving in a dominant position. Reflecting the importance of ORPs, O*NET incorporates ORPs into its job-search system. Each occupation can be identified by a particular pattern of ORPs that it satisfies, making it possible for job-seekers to match their personal values with those likely to be met by the job. The addition of values to the usual assessment of interests and skills can provide a useful perspective for both employees and career counsellors.

Personal Support Workers:

Personal support workers, who increasingly are managing many of the daily living activities of residents, can be taught to use behavioural methods to help residents maintain self-care and hence independence. Such interventions can also benefit staff-resident relationships. Since satisfaction with treatment by staff is such a significant component of satisfaction with the institution, any intervention that maximizes positive interactions between staff and residents is bound to have a favourable impact on the sense of well-being experienced by residents. Such training, even with patients who have severe dementia, can help reduce dependence on psychotropic medications.

Personality traits and job satisfaction:

Personality traits may also interact with changes in job satisfaction over time. Looking at the intrinsic-extrinsic dimension of vocational satisfaction, researchers have found that people with high neuroticism scores are less likely to feel that their jobs are intrinsically rewarding. Perhaps for this reason, neuroticism is negatively related to job satisfaction; by contrast, people high in the traits of conscientiousness and extroversion are more satisfied in their jobs. i.e. Similarly, in one longitudinal study of adults in Australia, although personality changes were found to predict changes in work satisfaction, changes in personality were also found to result from higher job satisfaction. Over time, workers who were more satisfied with their jobs became more extroverted.

Study: Health and social position within the workplace

Physiological data obtained in the form of cortisol levels from Whitehall II also illustrate the impact on health of social position within the workplace. Samples of cortisol, the hormone involved in the response to stress and anxiety, were taken from an older Whitehall cohort six times throughout the day. Men in lower employment grades showed higher cortisol levels early in the morning, levels that remained higher throughout the day than in men in higher employment grades. These higher levels could be explained not only by higher levels of stress during the day but also by poorer quality of sleep at night. Thus, in addition to helping maintain worker productivity, maximizing workplace satisfaction can make a key difference in promoting the health and long-term well-being of individual workers.

Competence-Press Model of Adaptation (simplified):

Press: -Stimulation -Expectations -Activity level Competence: -Ability to handle stimulation -Cognitive abilities -Physical abilities Adaptation

Long-term care home quality inspection program:

Provincial initiatives also aim to improve the quality of care. For example, Ontario's Long-Term Care Home Quality Inspection Program involves unannounced inspections and enforces legislation and regulations. Inspections by trained and certified professionals can be comprehensive or can be related to complaints, critical incidents, and follow-up. Most importantly, there is transparency, because inspection reports are made available through the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Awareness of finitude:

Psychologically, the dying process can begin well before the individual is in any real physical jeopardy. People first start to think about their own mortality when they reach the point called awareness of finitude, which is when they pass the age when other people close to them died. i.e. if a man's father died at the age of 66, a kind of counting-down process begins when the son reaches that age. He anticipates the end of life and understands that life really will end.

Health benefits of leisure time:

Regular leisure-time physical activity can have important health benefits. A longitudinal study in Sweden followed men over five time points. Participants were asked about their level of physical activity, with questions such as, "Do you often go walking or cycling for pleasure?" People who engaged in physical activity in their leisure time died at later ages than those who did not engage in physical activity over the 35-year period of the study (Figure 10.12). Another follow-up in Sweden of over 1,800 men and women aged 75 and older showed that the protective effect of physical activity on mortality continued into the 90s, an effect enhanced by engaging in other healthy lifestyle behaviours, particularly not smoking.

Quebec Pension Plan:

Quebec is the only province to have its own contribution-based pension scheme, the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), which was also established in 1966.

Boundaryless career (variations in vocational development):

Recent approaches within the vocational development literature increasingly concentrate on the boundaryless career, or a career that crosses the boundaries of an employer or organization. Many workers who in the past were restricted by the opportunities presented to them by their organization are now progressing through their careers at their own pace. People who have the boundaryless career mindset seek opportunities for development in their jobs, and when they do not find them may feel less psychologically invested in the organization that employs them. However, the reality is that employees may not feel that they have the luxury to contemplate switching employers in a tight job market.

Guarenteed Income Supplement:

Recognizing that these plans failed to fully address the significant problem of poverty among the elderly, the government supplemented them with the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) in 1967. Since that time, a number of significant changes have been made to Canada's pension system, including, in 2000, the extension of benefits to same-sex and common-law couples.

Retirement:

Retirement is defined simply as the withdrawal of an individual from the labour force in later life. However, for most workers, retirement occurs in a series of phases through which they progress at least once, if not several times, throughout their lives.

The swan song:

Related to old-age style is the swan song, a creative work produced at the very end of an artist's life. In music, a swan song has shorter main themes and simpler melodies than the previous works of the composer. As a result, the swan song is evocative and easy to remember. Simonton considers the best example of the swan song to be "Lacrimosa," from Mozart's last work, the Requiem Mass in D minor. Although Mozart was not old when he died, he knew that his death was imminent and fittingly wrote a piece of music intended to honour the dead. Centuries later, this melody was to be the music played in the funeral scene of the movie Amadeus, creating the emotionally compelling backdrop to the burial of Mozart's body in a pauper's grave. As in Mozart's case, artists may produce swan songs because they are aware that they are at the end of their life. The swan song is the ultimate expression of old-age style, as the artist seeks to produce a work for the ages. These works often become among the most successful that the composers produce, and thus in many ways may grant the composer a certain immortality.

The swan song:

Related to old-age style is the swan song, a creative work produced at the very end of an artist's life. In music, a swan song has shorter main themes and simpler melodies than the previous works of the composer. As a result, the swan song is evocative and easy to remember. Simonton considers the best example of the swan song to be "Lacrimosa," from Mozart's last work, the Requiem Mass in D minor. Although Mozart was not old when he died, he knew that his death was imminent and fittingly wrote a piece of music intended to honour the dead. Centuries later, this melody was to be the music played in the funeral scene of the movie Amadeus, creating the emotionally compelling backdrop to the burial of Mozart's body in a pauper's grave. As in Mozart's case, artists may produce swan songs because they are aware that they are at the end of their life. The swan song is the ultimate expression of old-age style, as the artist seeks to produce a work for the ages. These works often become among the most successful that the composers produce, and thus in many ways may grant the composer a certain immortality.

Unique needs of residents:

Relatedly, there is an increased emphasis on providing nursing homes that meet the unique needs of older adults from different ethnocultural groups. i.e. in Calgary, the Chinese Christian Wing Kei Nursing Home Association provides care for Chinese elderly. As you can imagine, having access to staff and residents who speak your own language, eating familiar food, and being in an environment where your customs and values are recognized add immeasurably to your overall quality of life.

Religious involvement in last year of life:

Religious involvement in the last year of life supports the notion that increased religious involvement may also be related to higher quality of life, including better reports of self-rated health and fewer depressive symptoms. Reasons for such findings could be in part a reflection of the social support often involved within a religious community.

Religion & bereavement:

Religious teachings can provide comfort for the dying and bereaved through their emphasis on the existence of an afterlife and the belief that human events occur because of some higher purpose. The loss of a loved one, particularly when it occurs "prematurely" (i.e., before old age), may be seen as a test of one's faith. i.e. grieving Christian families and friends comfort themselves with the knowledge that they will be reunited in heaven with the deceased, where they will spend eternity together. Another belief in which people may find comfort is that death is a blessed relief from a world of trouble and pain. Bereaved individuals may also seek solace in the belief or perception that they can sense the presence of departed loved ones. As the terminally ill or bereaved attempt to come to grips with the ending of a life, they rely on these beliefs to make sense out of the death or to achieve some kind of understanding of its meaning.

Relocating a family member to long-term care:

Relocating a family member to long-term care can be a very difficult experience for families and is often associated with feelings of regret, grief, depression, and even relief. Recognizing this, the Alzheimer Society of Canada addresses the process of relocation, including making the decision, assessing different facilities, the actual move, and adjusting once a family member is placed in care, on its website. Family members are often unfamiliar with the policies and practices that are involved in the transition to long-term care and may feel overwhelmed by the process. In Canada, admission to long-term care is through a coordinated placement process, or single point of entry model, referred to variously as screening, referring, and case-managing. In the single point of entry model, long-term care is accessed through one agency, with the goals of facilitating access, providing the most appropriate placement for the individual, and reducing wait-lists. However, older adults may not have much choice in terms of where they live. Although policies vary across Canada, they may require that older adults take the "first available living option" rather than their first-choice option, perhaps because the preferred residence is full or there is limited capacity within the long-term care system. Family members often need to make relocation decisions in response to a health crisis and may feel pressured to make a decision, often in the absence of adequate information about waiting times for specific nursing homes or without their input about preferred sites.

Positive spill over:

Researchers also use the term positive spillover to describe this transfer of skills from one domain to the other. Role experiences can also prove enriching through their effect on mood. If you have a good day at work, you bring your good mood home with you. In addition, according to social exchange theory, employees who feel that their work supports their ability to carry out their family roles feel more obligated to reciprocate with favourable attitudes toward their job and their company.

The attachment view of bereavement:

Researchers and theorists now recognize that the bereaved can benefit from the continuing bond they feel with those they have lost—what we call the attachment view. In contrast to the traditional view that the bereaved should eliminate all of the departed person's possessions from the home, the attachment view of bereavement maintains that the survivor can hold on to at least some of their spouse's possessions because of their symbolic value, without ever having to dispose of them. Similarly, the bereaved individual can benefit from holding on to thoughts and memories of the deceased. The deceased person in some ways becomes a part of the survivor's identity. -Maintain continuing bond with deceased. -Keeping possessions is not abnormal.

interventions for disruptive behaviors:

Researchers in Quebec have been influential in designing and evaluating interventions for disruptive behaviours, such as agitation. In one study, researchers addressed the problem of verbal agitation (VA) in people with dementia, including screaming, repetitive verbalizations, demands for constant attention, and threats. VA occurs when residents have a need that is unsatisfied because language impairments and other symptoms associated with dementia make them unable to communicate their needs in a more appropriate manner. Bédard and colleagues (2011) were able to show that an intervention combining comfort, attention, and stimulation (e.g., music, looking at a magazine) reduced VA for about half of the participants, and reduced their symptoms by about 50 percent.

Old Age Pensions Act, Old Age Security, Old Age Security Act:

Retirement is in many ways a 20th-century phenomenon. In the 1700s and into the mid-1800s, very few people retired, a trend that continued into the 1900s; in 1900, about 70 percent of all men over 65 years were still in the labour force. The jobs held by older workers often held high status and prestige. The wisdom and experience of older workers were valued, and it was considered a benefit to society to have them continuing to contribute to the workplace. However, by the early 1900s, mechanization in industry, fuelled by the war effort, and urbanization made many older workers redundant and jobs for older workers were difficult to find. This, in combination with increased longevity, led to increased poverty among the elderly, which was the impetus for Canada's first Old Age Pensions Act, passed in 1927 and jointly administered by the federal and provincial governments. It provided a monthly Old Age Security (OAS) benefit of $20 for British subjects 70 years of age and older who had lived in Canada for 20 years and whose annual income was less than $365. In 1952, this was replaced by the Old Age Security Act, a universal pension plan that was available to all Canadians aged 70 or older, entitling them to a taxable benefit of $40 per month.

Social comparison:

Satisfaction with health was one of the domains to show an accelerated decline in the oldest groups studied by McAdams et al. As we noted earlier, however, individuals may be in poor health objectively but still feel that they are aging successfully. As a result, self-rated physical health may differ from a more objective measure of physical functioning. Researchers believe that older adults derive their self-rated health ratings through social comparison, the process that occurs when people rate themselves relative to their primary reference group. If people in an older adult's reference group are in poorer health, then the individual's self-rated health will be higher than if the comparison group is in better health.

Sexuality and successful aging:

Sexuality is another component of successful aging that is known to play a role in overall health and well-being in the mid-life and later years. The women participating in the San Diego WHI also provided information about their current levels of sexuality, allowing the researchers to evaluate the contributions of involvement in sexual relations in the context of the larger study. They were asked to report on whether sex had still been a "part of [their] life" in the last six months, with or without a partner, to rate their levels of sexual desire, arousal, and satisfaction, to indicate their frequency of reaching orgasm and their level of sexual dysfunction (pain, need for lubrication, tightness). Although sexual activity and functioning were negatively correlated with age, there was no relationship between age and sexual satisfaction. The overall scores of these women on the successful aging measures were related to sexual satisfaction but, again, not related to actual sexual activity.

Statistics for long-term care in Canada:

Shows the percentage of the Canadian population living in nursing homes, chronic care or long-term care hospitals, and residences for older adults, by age group. As would be expected, this percentage increases dramatically with age, with almost 30 percent of those aged 85 and older living in these facilities. Consistent with the difference in life expectancies between men and women, the vast majority of residents are women.

Matisse & WIlliam Carlos William and old age:

Similarly, unable to paint due to the discomfort of his illness, Matisse changed his medium to paper cutouts, which have since become some of the classics of this master's work. Showing the same phenomenon but in another creative medium was the poet William Carlos Williams. He suffered a stroke in his 60s, after which he became severely depressed. Following treatment for depression, he went on to produce some of his greatest work, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pictures from Bruegel and Other Poems, published when he was 79.

Simonton and career age:

Simonton approached the issue of age and creativity by developing a mathematical model to calculate the relationship of age to creativity while controlling for some possible confounding factors such as at what age creative individuals began their careers and how long they live. Instead of using chronological age, Simonton based his model on career age, which is the age at which an individual embarks on his or her career. On average, according to Simonton's model, productivity in later life is higher among people who begin their career at a later age.

Quality of long-term care facilities:

Since long-term care facilities provide for the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens, maintaining high standards and quality care is vitally important. Information about the quality of nursing homes and the well-being of nursing home residents comes from the Continuing Care Reporting System (CCRS). The CCRS system receives data from more than 1,100 nursing homes and 300,000 residents from Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Over 500 indicators are included in the reporting system, known as the Resident Assessment Instrument—Minimum Data Set 2.0, including indices of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health. Data are collected at the point of care, using standardized assessment forms. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) uses these data to monitor quality indicators in long-term care facilities and assesses trends in quality over time (CIHI, 2013). A recent report from the CIHI (2013) revealed the wide variability in quality indicators across 966 nursing homes for 2011/12. i.e. 3 to 40 percent of residents had worsening symptoms of depression, and 3 to 32 percent had worsening pain. The percentage of residents who fell ranged from 5 to 24 percent and the percentage of residents taking antipsychotics with no related diagnosis ranged from 18 to 50 percent.

Lehman and Dennis: career peak and decline:

So far, we can summarize the studies by Lehman and Dennis as showing an average curve showing a rapid increase in creative output that reaches a career peak in the late 30s or early 40s, after which a steady decline begins. The peak and rate of decline vary by discipline, but the decline occurs nevertheless. Based on this research, one would have to argue that creative productivity is unlikely to be a component of successful aging.

Socioeconomic influence of retirement:

Socio-economic status is another influence on retirement adjustment. People at the high end of the social class scale are less likely to retire than are people at the lower end of the social class scale, and they retire at later ages. However, when they do retire, they tend to be in better health than are people at lower socio-economic levels, and also have longer life expectancy. Their advantaged economic security also means that they are better able to take advantage of the opportunities that retirement offers them to engage in productive and enjoyable leisure activities, such as involvement in retirement learning communities and the chance to travel. Individuals with higher levels of education and previous experience in managerial or professional positions may be better able to find part-time employment after retirement if they desire it. Past experience in community organizations and activities may also make it easier for these individuals to find rewarding opportunities for unpaid volunteer work and participation in clubs, organizations, and informal networks.

Aging academicians:

Some aging academicians turn to the subject of aging, as was true for B. F. Skinner, who wrote Enjoy Old Age: A Practical Guide toward the end of his life. In fact, the first geriatrics text was written by Sir John Floyer in the early 1700s, when he was 75 years old. An aging inventor may start to address age related concerns, as was the case for Benjamin Franklin, who fabricated the first known pair of bifocals when he was 78 years old, well past the age when most people start to need them.

Variations in older worker patterns:

Some older workers focus on maintaining their current employment status and plan how to end their careers without jeopardizing this status. Others may have already experienced some disability and attempt to compensate for their losses while maintaining their position at work. Many older workers, however, do not experience a loss in work functioning, and are able to maintain high levels of performance until they retire.

Facts about advance directives:

Studies show that health care providers do not always communicate with dying patients or alleviate their pain. Nursing home staff often have not developed procedures to communicate either among themselves or with patients to determine at what point in the resident's illness palliative care should begin. Hospital patients do not consistently receive the opportunity to complete an advance directive, leading the bereaved family to feel that the patient's wishes were not respected. In the United States, there are racial disparities in the provision of advance directives, with African-Americans and Hispanics less likely to have them in their medical files. Patients who are white, have greater access to resources and better health care, and have had a better education are more likely to die in their own home than in a nursing home.

Subjective well-being:

Subjective well-being is the individual's overall sense of happiness. These two terms are clearly related, but somewhat separate research traditions have developed around their use, so it is helpful to treat them as distinct. One difference is that life satisfaction may be more of a cognitive evaluation, while subjective well-being is more affective. Together, they represent a complete picture of a person's well-being. Therefore, unless we specify otherwise, we will focus on subjective well-being as a way to understand the paths that people take toward successful aging in the adult years.

Criticism of Rowe and Khan's definition:

Subsequent investigators, examining the range of studies falling into the domain of successful aging, have criticized the Rowe and Kahn definition as being unclear, overly focused on physical and cognitive health, and lacking psychological traits such as spirituality and well- being. A review of the successful aging literature showed that the majority of studies did not use all three criteria in their definitions of successful aging.

Summary of successful aging:

Successful aging is a complex process involving many moving parts. Older adults are able to develop a sense of high subjective well-being even in the face of daunting challenges. Although researchers are beginning to view subjective well-being as subject to potential threats very late in life, the vast majority of older adults avoid becoming depressed or even dissatisfied with their life situation.

Creativity and aging:

Successful aging is more than a state of mind. Individuals who age optimally not only feel good, but they are capable of producing good work. You do not have to be a creative genius to age successfully, but the older adults who have become the creative geniuses of the past and present can inspire you to think about the aging process in ways you never thought imaginable.

what does Super's theory take into account?

Super's theory also takes into account the fact that the constraints of the marketplace mean that people are not always able to achieve full realization of their self- concept. In a society with relatively little demand for artists, the person with the artistic self-concept will need to seek self-expression in a job that allows for a certain degree of creativity but will also bring in a paycheque. i.e. This person may seek a career in computer graphic design, for example, because that is a more viable occupation than that of a visual artist.

Support from employeers:

Support from employers is a key factor in the relationship between age and job satisfaction. Older workers can also be more fully engaged in their job and hence achieve higher satisfaction if they feel that their employer values their contribution. Providing training and development programs specifically geared to older workers is a part of this process. Particularly important in keeping the older worker motivated and satisfied is providing job assignments that keep the work fresh and interesting.

Beneficial effects of thoughts of death (terror management theory):

Terror management theory also proposes that when people's thoughts of death are activated, either consciously or unconsciously, they can experience a wide range of beneficial effects. By studying how people react to greater recognition of their mortality, researchers in this area are coming to understand ways in which people can benefit from being made aware of their life's finitude. Conscious or unconscious awareness of mortality can help individuals adopt better health habits, be more focused on intrinsic rather than extrinsic goals, show more compassion, and be more motivated to have close interpersonal relationships. People may even be more creative, be less likely to hold stereotypes, and feel greater attachment to their community. The recognition that your life is finite may stimulate you, no matter what your age, to focus on what is really important and adopt a broader perspective in your beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Study: subjective well-being reflects an individual's evaluation of their life circumstances:

That subjective well-being reflects an individual's evaluation of his or her life circumstances was suggested by McAdams, Lucas, and Donnellan, who examined data from the BHPS from 1996 to 2004. They were able to determine the extent to which overall life satisfaction related to satisfaction in domains including health, income, housing, spouse or partner, job, social life, and the amount and use of leisure time. If the set point perspective determined well-being, then happier people should have rated each domain more positively. However, instead, McAdams et al. found that the life-span patterns of change on the specific sub-domains differed considerably. The data suggested that when people arrive at their sense of overall well-being, they do so by mentally combining all the specific domains. Life satisfaction in older adults will be high if the positives outweigh the negatives, but will be low if the adults experience themselves more negatively in the sub-domains that contribute to overall well-being.

Human resources and nursing home quality care:

The Canadian Healthcare Association maintains that human resources are the key to quality care in nursing homes. The most obvious requirement is for sufficient staff to meet residents' needs. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain long- term care staff. Employment in long-term care is very stressful. Banerjee and colleagues surveyed 948 staff in Canadian long-term care facilities and found that 43 percent of front-line workers reported that, more or less every day, they were subjected to physical violence, 35.5 percent were criticized or told off by a resident or relative, and 14.3 percent endured unwanted sexual attention, which often occurred when bathing a resident. Focus-group data also indicated that front-line workers were often the recipients of sexist and racist remarks. The vast majority of the violence was unreported, primarily because of the amount of paperwork involved and fears of being blamed by superiors. Banerjee and colleagues attributed the violence to excessive workloads resulting from staff shortages. Workers reported that they had barely enough time to complete the physical care, let alone socialize with residents or provide emotional support. Additional factors that workers cited as contributing to violence were low levels of job autonomy and the lack of opportunities to talk to other workers about difficulties that arise on the job. Interestingly, rates of violence in Canadian long-term care facilities were much higher than in Scandinavian countries. Banerjee and colleagues cited structural factors, such as higher workloads in Canadian facilities, as important in understanding these differences. i.e. Canadians were responsible for almost twice as many residents as their Scandinavian counterparts in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Canadian Human Rights Act:

The Canadian Human Rights Act, passed by Parliament in 1977, prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, among other factors, and the legal responsibility for enforcing the act may be either federal or provincial, depending on the employer. i.e. those employed by banks and airlines in Canada are regulated by the federal government. The act was intended, among other things, to provide protection for older workers from discrimination by employers who would otherwise seek to replace them with younger, cheaper, and presumably more productive employees.

The Green House Model:

The Green House model offers an alternative to traditional nursing homes by offering older adults individual homes within a small community of 6 to 10 residents and skilled nursing staff. The Green House residence is designed to feel like a home; medical equipment is stored out of sight, the rooms are sunny and bright, and the outdoor environment is easily accessible. Self-reports of quality of life among Green House residents are higher than those in traditional nursing homes. Additionally, research comparing the Green House model to traditional nursing programs suggests that family members are more satisfied with the care provided by the Green House model

The Institute of Medicine report three key areas of focus:

The Institute of Medicine report focuses on three key areas: enhancing competence in geriatric care, increasing recruitment and retention, and improving models of care. Supporting these ideas, a large-scale meta-analysis of more than 2,700 published articles identified 15 new models of care ranging from acute care in patient homes to nurse-physician teams for nursing home residents to models of comprehensive care in hospitals. Clearly, new ideas are needed to revamp the current health care system for the aging baby boomers, whose numbers, lifestyles, and values will almost invariably lead to challenges to the status quo of care now being offered. These aging baby boomers may want to hear Rolling Stones music playing in the corridors of their care facilities, not the quiet and soothing strains of a string orchestra.

Pew survey on life satisfaction:

The Pew survey also indicated that older adults felt pretty good about their lives in general. When asked to rate their overall happiness, 81 percent of the respondents aged 75 and older said they were "very" or "pretty" happy, which was about the same percentage as all but the very youngest groups of adults. We do not know whether the older adults became happier as they aged, or whether they were always happy, but the point is that whatever the cause, this study shows that a reasonably high proportion of older adults feel good about themselves and their life. Stones, Worobetz, and Brink reviewed the literature and found that there is good evidence for the heritability of subjective well-being, and that genetic influences account for about half of the variance. However, this leaves a lot of room for environmental influences. Simply put, even if you are genetically inclined to lower levels of subjective well-being, you can still be a happy person.

O*NET occupational information network:

The RIASEC codes have now become fully integrated into an online system used by many vocational placement agencies and state labour departments in the United States. This system is known as O*NET (Occupational Information Network), and consists of an inter- active national database of occupations (O*NET, 2010). People who are trying to find a job that will fit their interests, training, and experience can be greatly aided by this system, even if they do not live in the United States.

Strong vocational interest inventory & Self-directed search:

The RIASEC theory is empirically derived from the responses of many thousands of individuals who have been tested over the years of its development. If you wanted to have your vocational interests assessed using this model, you could take one or both of the most common assessment instruments. The Strong Vocational Interest Inventory (SVII) consists of items in which respondents indicate their preferences for occupations, topics of study, activities, and types of people. The SVII is administered by a professional counsellor and must be scored through a testing service. The second assessment method can be administered and scored on your own. The Self-Directed Search (SDS) is a self-administered questionnaire that allows you to assess where you fit on the RIASEC dimensions and also asks you to rate your strengths. Thus, the SDS allows you to determine the profile of your abilities as well as your interests.

Limitations to Rowe and Khan's model:

The Rowe and Kahn definition of successful aging is also criticized on the grounds that it does not take into account the individual's social context, in the form of cultural norms, or life-span constraints on educational and occupational opportunities. Supporting this idea was the fact that in the HRS, successful agers were more heavily represented among white Americans and among those with a college education or higher. The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which looked at 22,464 men and women averaging 63 years of age in 13 European countries, found important contributors to successful aging in early childhood conditions, including parental social class and income. Thus, successful aging is best viewed as a lifelong process reflecting the influence of multiple factors, including favourable or unfavourable childhood conditions.

Study: work-related stress and the risk of metabolic syndrome:

The Whitehall II study provided compelling data to show the links between work-related stress and the risk of metabolic syndrome. Carried out over five phases from 1985 to 1997, the study included measurements of stress, social class, intake of fruits and vegetables, alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, and obesity status at the start of the study. Holding all other factors constant and excluding participants who were initially obese, men under high levels of work stress over the course of the study had twice the risk of subsequently developing metabolic syndrome. Women with high levels of stress had over five times the risk of developing this condition. More recent research suggests that Whitehall II men who reported higher justice at work (such as perceived job fairness) had a far lower risk of metabolic syndrome than did men who experienced lower work justice. For women, stress encountered at work independently predicted Type 2 diabetes, even after controlling for socioeconomic position and stressors unrelated to work.

Career:

The basis of vocational development theories is the concept of career, which is the term that captures the unique connection between individuals and social organizations over time. Many factors shape the individual's career, including personal development, the specific organization for which the person works, and the profession or occupational category that describes the individual's occupation. Moreover, careers are not static entities and may change considerably over the course of the life span.

Continuity of an individual's work career:

The continuity of an individual's work career is a further influence on the impact of retirement. Those in orderly careers spend the majority of their employed years in a series of related occupations. The greater the extent of orderliness in people's careers, the higher their attachment to their communities, friends, and social activities. The social integration that these individuals maintain during their career eases their retirement transition and means that they are likely to be in better physical and psychological health. Individuals with more continuous work histories also have higher socioeconomic status and income than do those in disorderly careers, and these are factors generally related to greater satisfaction with retirement. However, on the negative side, workers with orderly careers may be more attached to their jobs and therefore less satisfied with retirement.

Continuity theory of retirement:

The continuity theory of retirement proposes that retired individuals maintain their self-concept and identity over the retirement transition. Even though they are no longer reporting for work on a daily basis, they are able to engage in many of the same activities they did when they were working. In addition, a retired person remains a retired "X" in his or her community, a status conferred officially in some professions, as in retired professors who are referred to as "emeritus." These two theories focus on retirement as an isolated event. -Retirees maintain previous sense of identity -Retirement is not a crisis

Creative works of older adults:

The creative works produced by older adults possess special qualities not observed earlier in adulthood. The famous statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits within the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, was created by Massachusetts sculptor Chester French when he was 70 years old. To many, its power exemplifies key components of the types of work that creative individuals can produce late in life by virtue of their experience, perspective, and desire to have a permanent impact on the world.

The dual-process model of coping with bereavement:

The dual-process model of coping with bereavement proposes that the practical adaptations to loss are as important to the bereaved person's adjustment as the emotional adaptations. The practical adaptations include the set of life changes that accompany the death, including taking on new tasks or functions; this is called the "restoration" dimension. The "loss" dimension involves coping with the direct emotional consequences of the death.

Gender differences in retirement adjustment factors:

The factors that influence retirement adjustment do appear to differ in women and men. Men operate according to the "usual" mode of retirement view, in which decisions regarding retirement do not take family involvement into account. According to the new modes of retirement view, the characteristics of the person's spouse and lifelong family responsibilities play a role in retirement decisions and adjustment. Current cohorts of older women are more likely to operate according to the new modes of retirement view, in that they are more likely than men to be influenced by the health, financial security, and work status of their spouse. However, couples raised with more egalitarian values are likely to be influenced increasingly by the work status of their spouse.

Factors predicting successful cognitive functioning in older adults:

The factors that predict successful cognitive functioning in older adults may be different from those which predict better functioning among younger adults. C-reactive protein (CRP), a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease in mid-life, seems to serve a protective function against dementia for older adults. In a longitudinal study of male veterans and age-matched community volunteers and their first-degree relatives, the individuals with the highest CRP levels were least likely to develop dementia over the six-year period of the study. There is a social element to the idea of remaining engaged with life, including social support and particularly support from family.

Problems with the Rowe and Khan definition:

The findings of Vahia, Thompson, Depp, Allison, and Jeste support the contention that the Rowe and Kahn definition of successful aging is overly narrow, and that psychological resilience and optimism are more important contributors to the older individual's own sense of aging well. Building on these strengths, older adults may employ a range of active coping methods to help them achieve their desired goals, which, as they think toward their future, can include preparing for potential stressors. Through proactive coping, successfully aging older adults can anticipate events that they believe represent a threat to their well-being and then engage in mental preparation to reduce the impact of the stress when it occurs. When the stressful event does occur, it will drain their coping resources less.

What do the findings on age and job performance suggest?

The findings on age and job performance, like those in the area of vocational satisfaction, point to the importance of applying knowledge about adult development and aging in general to specific questions relating to older workers. From a human resources perspective, managers need to attend to the varying capabilities of workers of different ages and also to take into account age dynamics as they play out in the workplace, balancing the complementary strengths of workers of younger and older ages. All workers can then achieve their maximum performance while also feeling that they have something worthwhile to contribute in the workplace.

What model does research support?

The findings on retirement's effect on the individual's mental and physical health do not clearly support one or another of these models. However, the majority of people adjust well to retirement, if not immediately after they transition out of their work role, then within a period of a few years. In general, supporting the resource model, having a diverse set of physical, psychological, and social resources seems to ease the transition to retirement, even among individuals who initially experience poor adjustment. People also adjust better to retirement if they retire in an "on-time" rather than "off-time" manner. Voluntarily retiring, instead of being forced to retire through downsizing, also promotes better adaptation. The amount of time allowed for retiring is another related factor. A minimum of two years of planning prior to early retirement is related to a relatively better retirement outcome compared with a decision made six months or less prior to retirement. As important as length of time, however, is the quality of retirement planning, which should include not only financial planning but also adequate discussion with the individual's spouse or partner.

Planck Hypothesis:

The first systematic effort to identify age trends in productive accomplishments was Lehman's Age and Achievement. Lehman analyzed the quantity and quality of creative products by age and discipline and concluded that the peak of productivity in the adult years tends to occur prior to the age of 40, often between 30 and 35. However, Lehman found that earlier peaks are reached in the sciences and in fields in which success is dependent on intellectual imagination and physical ability. Later, this observation was dubbed the Planck hypothesis, after the brilliant German scientist Max Planck, to refer to the tendency of peak scientific productivity to occur in early adulthood.

The importance of exercise and age-friendly communities:

The importance of age-friendly communities has been recognized by the World Health Organization in its Global Age-Friendly Cities Project and by the Public Health Agency of Canada. These initiatives include walkability and accessibility of neighbourhoods, but also housing that is affordable and well designed for seniors, good public transportation, safe neighbourhoods, opportunities for being socially active, information that is easy to find and understand, and opportunities for volunteer and political engagement and employment. Thus, these findings reinforce the fact that exercise is an important preventive measure in predicting overall well-being. However, even those highest in the successful aging factor reported that they had several chronic health conditions. From this we can infer that people with chronic disease need not be prevented from enjoying a high quality of life.

Identity process theory

The idea that denial may be adaptive, at least for a time, fits well with identity process theory. Let us consider the example of widowhood. Identity assimilation may be a preferable approach during the early days and weeks after the loss of the spouse. Being able to avoid focusing or ruminating on the loss, as in the healthy denial component of assimilation, may allow individuals to remain optimistic and feel a greater sense of personal control. They may also be better able to carry out the restoration dimension of adapting to the practical changes in their living situation, as proposed by the dual-process model. i.e. Widows who wear their wedding ring and refer to themselves as "Mrs. X" for a time after their husband's death are displaying this type of adaptation. Continuing to identify with their role as wife may help them retain this valued part of their sense of who they are within their families and communities. Over time, through identity accommodation, they may be able to establish greater identity balance by gradually incorporating the notion of themselves as widows into their sense of self. There are lessons to be learned from the experiences of people as they cope with death, dying, and bereavement. In particular, older adults have a remarkable ability to manage the fear of death, which causes younger people to react with anxiety and efforts at denial. It may be that long-lived individuals possess the ability to move ahead without losing the memory of departed ones, and this makes it possible for them to survive repeated losses in later adulthood. These individuals have developed ways of integrating the pain of multiple losses into their life and can take their life in positive new directions. In the future, this process may be made that much less painful by the understanding among mental health professionals of the needs of the bereaved to retain rather than abandon the emotional ties of attachment.

The importance of making death an open discussion:

The key point that Kübler-Ross attempted to make in her writing was that to reach acceptance of a fatal illness, the dying person must be allowed to talk openly with family members and health care workers. Rather than hide the diagnosis or pretend that everything will be all right, those who interact with the dying person need to give him or her a chance to express the many emotions that surface, ranging from fury to dejection. Along with the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, whose book The Denial of Death drew attention to Western culture's unwillingness to face the reality of mortality, these writings set the stage for a major shift in cultural attitudes and medical practice for the dying.

labour force participation rates of Canadians 65+:

The labour force increasingly consists of workers aged 65 and older. Since 2000, workforce participation rates for men aged 65 to 69 have almost doubled, and for women of the same age they have almost tripled. This trend can be attributed to longer life spans, the decline in workplace pension coverage, and the changing nature of work.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian:

The leading proponent of physician-assisted suicide was Dr. Jack Kevorkian. In 1989, he built what he called a "suicide machine," which he then used in 1990 on his first patient, a 54-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease. Throughout the 1990s, he conducted over 100 assisted suicides. In a highly controversial televised segment on the program 60 Minutes, aired in November 1998, Kevorkian ended the life of a 52-year-old Michigan man suffering from a terminal neurological disease. Because this procedure was illegal (and was flagrantly performed in front of millions of TV viewers), Kevorkian was arrested and subsequently convicted on second-degree murder charges. In 2007, Kevorkian was released from prison after serving 8 years of a 10- to 25-year sentence; he died in 2011, shortly after the release of an award-winning HBO documentary about his life, called You Don't Know Jack.

Life Course Perspective on retirement:

The life course perspective on retirement proposes that changes in the work role in later life are best seen as logical outgrowths of earlier life events. The factors that shaped the individual's prior vocational development will have a persisting influence throughout retirement. -Normative timing of events -Retirement stressful only when unexpected

Limitations to physical and sensory age-related changes:

The limitations caused by physical and sensory age-related changes suffered by some of these artists were not necessarily met with equanimity. Michelangelo, for example, attempted to destroy his last sculpture, actually hacking off one hand, but fortunately one of his apprentices stopped him before it was too late to save it. Similarly, Monet destroyed many of the canvases he produced during the years he suffered from cataracts. Picasso's self-portrait Facing Death is a stark image of a man, painted in broad brushstrokes, staring unflinchingly at the viewer, refusing to accept his own physical aging. Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived to the age of 98, was similarly frustrated with her inability to see in her last decade of life. Nevertheless, all of these individuals lived very long lives, and despite their personal frustrations, found ways to express their creative potential right up until the very end.

recycling in modern workplace:

The modern workplace is likely to promote recycling, the process through which workers change their main field of career activity partway into occupational life. In recycling, middle-aged workers may find themselves once again in the establishment stage they thought they had left behind in their late 20s. People can continue to recycle back through Super's stages several times throughout their work lives.

Rowe & Kahn's definition of success in aging:

The most widely researched model of optimal aging is the one proposed by Rowe and Kahn as the theoretical foundation of their work on the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America. As distinct from "usual" (i.e., primary) aging, the Rowe and Kahn definition of successful aging is the absence of disease and disability, high cognitive and physical functioning, and engagement with life.

congruence:

The notion of the hexagon is an important one because it helps define the way that your interests correspond to your environments. You will be most satisfied in your job if you are in an environment that fits your personality type. Congruence or "fit" occurs when your vocational type matches your occupational environment.

Period of self-evaluation in response to awareness of life's end (Erikson's perspective):

The notion that the awareness of life's end triggers an intense period of self-evaluation is also an important component of Erikson's concept of ego integrity. Erikson emphasized that during this period of life, individuals deal with mortality and questions related to the end of their existence by attempting to place their life into perspective. Presumably, this process may occur at any age, as the dying individual attempts to achieve a peaceful resolution with past mistakes and events that can no longer be made up for or changed. Life review therapy may be useful for older adults who might not spontaneously engage in this potentially important process.

Models of adaptation to long-term facilities:

Theoretical models attempting to provide insight into the adaptation of the individual to the institutional environment of a long-term care facility began to develop in the 1970s, with increasing attention in gerontology given to ecological approaches to the aging process. In part, this interest developed in response to practical concerns about the best ways to minimize behavioural disturbances and maximize adaptation of older adult residents to institutional settings. Many researchers studying institutionalization believed that it was important to find ways to maximize the resident's ability to maintain independence even while having to adjust to an environment that inevitably fostered dependence.

Old-age style:

The old-age style is an approach to art that eliminates the fine details and instead presents the essence of the work's intended meaning. When you see a work produced by an older artist showing the old-age style, you are likely to have a strong emotional reaction. This is because the artist has moved away from a precise and objective rendering of the image that focuses on formal perfection. The work has an impact on you because the artist intentionally sought to share his or her subjective experience with you. In a painting, the artist may eliminate almost everything except colour and shape. A sculptor may concentrate more on the form and underlying emotion of the subject of the piece than on representing each and every detail, like each hair on the head or fingernail on the hand. If you look carefully at the sculpture of Lincoln, you notice the strong eyes, cheekbones, and hands because French carved those out in bold relief. The emergence of an old-age style can be seen in the works of history's most famous artists, including Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Renoir, Matisse, Degas, O'Keeffe, and Picasso. Henri Matisse talked explicitly about this change in his own perspective as a "distillation of form." He said, "I now keep only the sign which suffices, necessary for its existence in its own form, for the composition as I conceive it". Another excellent example of the old-age style is provided by the work of Michelangelo, who sculpted a Pietà late in his life (the Pietà Rondanini) that some art historians regard as more emotionally charged and hence effective than the iconic Pietà in the Vatican, for which he is much more famous. Older artists often focus their work on topics related to aging and death. It is not necessarily that the work has become morbid or depressing, but that it presents the reality of the artist's life and impending death in a manner that may have particular clarity and a strong impact on the viewer. As writers become more reflective, introspective, and subjective, they may portray the characters in their novels more realistically but also with greater empathy, and they come to take on greater complexity and a sense of timelessness. -simpler & more powerful

What causes/inspires the old-age style?

The old-age style may be stimulated by the proximity of death, a desire to leave behind a legacy, or perhaps age-related changes or health problems. Beethoven became deaf in his later years, and his musical style also changed. i.e. in his late string quartets, he became more expressive and less bound by conventional forms. Blindness forced changes in the painting of a number of well-known older artists, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet. Henri Matisse suffered from stomach cancer and was confined to a wheelchair at the end of his life. Despite these severe limitations, these artists continued to produce great works until or nearly until their last years of life.

Exclusive criteria:

The percentage of people in the HRS sample who met all four criteria for successful aging decreased from about 12 percent to 11 percent. These low rates reflected the fact that the Rowe and Kahn criteria exclude from the definition of successful agers people with health conditions. Roughly half of the HRS sample met the criteria for successful aging across the entire six-year period in terms of active engagement, high cognitive functioning, and high physical functioning. Approximately 80 percent met the criterion of no disability, even by the end of the period. However, only 43 percent reported having no disease at the beginning of the study, and even fewer (37 percent) reported having no disease at the point of the final data collection. The criteria are even more restrictive when used with ethnic elders. Comparing self-rated and objectively rated successful aging among a sample of urban African-American older adults, Cernin, Lysack, and Lichtenberg concluded that self-ratings of successful aging were more strongly related to a wider variety of variables (such as engagement in exercise) than objectively determined ratings from the Rowe and Kahn definition.

Staffing shortages:

The prevalence of violence, combined with the fact that nursing home work is generally perceived as low status and is often undervalued, leads to burnout, high staff turnover, chronic staff shortages, and ultimately poorer quality of care for residents. Staffing shortages are directly related to inadequate operating budgets, and long-term care associations have repeatedly called upon provincial governments to increase funding for long-term care.

The process of optimal aging:

The process of optimal aging refers to age-related changes that improve the individual's functioning. Throughout this book, we have identified numerous instances in which the loss-gain ratio favours older adults. Here we will try to pinpoint the factors that coalesce in certain older adults to give them the edge and allow them to hold on to their abilities up until the very end of their life.

Psychological issues in long-term care:

The psychosocial needs of residents and strategies that can be implemented to enhance the quality of life in nursing homes have been recognized for many years. Unfortunately, change is slow to come about. In terms of the rhythm of life in the average nursing home, although deficiencies in activities exist in less than 10 percent of nursing homes, there remains a good deal of room for improvement. A study of the daily life of residents conducted in 2002 revealed that, as was the case in the 1960s, residents spent almost two-thirds of the time in their room, doing nothing at all. Thus, for many residents, there are simply not enough activities in the average nursing home. Other residents may choose not to take part in activities, because either they don't find them meaningful or interesting, or they are depressed and withdrawn.

Why are older adults generally more optimistic?

The question is whether older adults have developed a set of coping skills over their lifetime that allows them to frame events that younger adults would consider detrimental to their own well-being or even that the older adults would have found challenging when they them-selves were younger. It is also possible that cohort effects lead current generations of older adults to feel higher levels of subjective well-being because they grew up with expectations about what their life would be like that are different from those of current cohorts of young adults. Another possibility is that the paradox of well-being reflects a survival effect, and that the older adults who are still alive and are available to be tested are hardier and more optimistic than those who are either no longer in the population or unwilling to be sampled. Perhaps these individuals were always inclined to view the world in a positive way, and the fact that they are the ones left standing at the end of life reflects their particular optimistic bias.

What does the role of self in vocational development form?

The role of the self in vocational development forms the core of theories that emphasize people's desires both to achieve self-expression through their work and to contribute to the larger good.

dying:

The term dying refers to the period during which the organism loses its vitality. These terms, as you will learn, are not always clearcut, particularly with advances in life-support technology that allow people to be kept alive almost indefinitely after an organ vital to survival has failed.

Psychotropic medication in nursing homes:

The use of psychotropic medication to control disruptive behaviour and treat mood disorders is a serious problem in nursing homes. A recent study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information showed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, used for depression, were taken by 36.1 percent of residents and other antidepressants were taken by 32.6 percent. They were the second and third most commonly prescribed drugs in long-term care settings. Pharmacological treatment is used to address depressive symptoms because psychological treatments, although highly efficacious, are not available to residents. Furthermore, antipsychotic drugs were used by 26 percent of residents. Although these are typically used for mental health problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in long-term care they are often used to reduce disruptive behaviour. Unfortunately, these drugs can have serious side effects, including oversedation, orthostatic hypotension (a form of low blood pressure that causes dizziness when standing), and movement disorders. As a result, residents who are on these drugs are more susceptible to falls. Unfortunately, the vast majority of nursing home residents do not have access to psychosocial treatments for mental health problems, such as depression, which have been shown to be efficacious for older adults.

The role theory of retirement:

The view that retirement is an unwanted life change fits most closely with the role theory of retirement, which proposes that retirement has deleterious effects because loss of the work role loosens the ties between the individual and society. -Roles provide source of fulfillment -Loss of work role is harmful

Legitimization of biography:

The way in which a person dies can become a part of his or her identity, at least when the person becomes aware that death is imminent. Your life develops an end- ing that may cause you to think of yourself differently than you did prior to having that knowledge, which may also help to ease your own death anxiety. Furthermore, when you reach that point, you may wish to take steps to leave a legacy that will continue to define you after you are gone, a process called legitimization of biography. Through this process, people attempt to see what they have done as having meaning, and they prepare the "story" of their life by which they will be remembered in the minds of others. Some individuals may put their memoirs in writing, and others achieve an internal reckoning in which they evaluate their contributions as well as their shortcomings.

The planck Hypothesis:

The work of scientists and academicians may show a different set of changes as they age. According to the Planck hypothesis, the work of young scientists is more innovative than that of older scientists. Perhaps reflecting in part the nature of scientific discovery, and in part the greater experience that they gain in their field, older scientists often shift their priorities as they get older. The aging scientist may become more involved in the writing of texts and integrative review articles rather than in conducting research to produce new scientific discoveries. If they work in academic settings, older scientists may move up the administrative hierarchy to a position of authority, meaning that they have less time for their own research.

Categories of work-family enrichment:

There are five categories of resources that people can acquire through their role experiences that can improve performance in the other area: 1. Skills and perspectives: Interpersonal skills, coping skills, respect for individual differences 2. Psychological and physical resources: Self- efficacy, hardiness, optimism 3. Social capital resources: Networking, information 4. Flexibility: Flexible work arrangements 5. Material resources: Money, gifts i.e. Parents may gain networking experience with other parents that helps them on the job.

Other factors influence mood and satisfaction at work:

There are many factors that can affect your mood and, ultimately, your satisfaction at work. i.e. if you experience positive events at work, such as being complimented by a supervisor, you will have a positive emotional experience, and if you experience negative events, such as conflict with a co-worker, your emotions will be negatively affected. Your mood when you wake up in the morning can also affect the way you feel about your work as you go through the day. i.e. In a study of 29 customer service representatives employed at a call centre of an insurance company, researchers tracked mood changes throughout the day, the affective display of their customers, and the employees' affect subsequent to the calls. The organization measured the productivity of the employees. The call centre employees who started the day in a bad mood rated their customers more negatively. After talking to customers who displayed positive affect, the employees themselves felt better. In contrast, after talking to customers who displayed negative affect, the employees felt no worse themselves, but their productivity suffered because they were more likely to take a break after such a call. The findings suggest that start-of- the-day mood plays an important role in how employees feel throughout the day and, ultimately, how well they perform.

Different dying trajectories:

There are many variations in the dying process, a concept captured by the term dying trajectory, or the rate of decline in functioning prior to death. There are two major features of a dying trajectory: duration and shape. Those who die suddenly function normally and then show a precipitous descent. These would be people with no prior knowledge of illness, as in a victim of sudden cardiac failure, or people who die in accidents. The second and third trajectories include individuals who have advance warning of a terminal illness and who experience a lingering period of loss of function. A steady downward trajectory applies to people whose disease causes them to undergo a steady and predictable decline, a process that characterizes many people who die of cancer. The third trajectory characterizes people who go through a generally downward course that is marked by a series of sharp drops. Eventually their death occurs, either during a crisis related to their illness or when their functional abilities suddenly decrease as a result of some other problem

Two-factor motivational theory:

There are motivational qualities to the intrinsic and extrinsic features of jobs. According to the two-factor motivational theory, intrinsic and extrinsic factors play different roles in contributing to vocational satisfaction. When workers are motivated for intrinsic reasons ("job motivators"), they are more likely to achieve self-actualization. Extrinsic factors, also called "hygiene factors," do not play a central role in vocational satisfaction. Favourable hygiene factors can prevent the development of job dissatisfaction, but they cannot promote it. Growth, self-fulfillment, and feelings of achievement can only come from the fulfillment of job motivators, not from hygiene factors.

Strategies for combating career plateau:

There are strategies that workers who wish to combat plateauing can use. A study of more than 300 government employees showed that workers who reported experience as a mentor were less likely to encounter the negative effects of plateauing. In some cases, multiple mentors can help individuals continuously acquire knowledge that will help them achieve personal and career success.

Ownership of nursing homes:

There are three types of ownership of nursing homes: public not-for-profit government ownership and/ or operation; private not-for-profit religious, ethnic, lay/ charitable or organization ownership; and private for-profit ownership. The mix of ownership models is highly variable across Canada. Private for-profit care includes large multinational or local chains and private equity firms. The for-profit sector is growing in Canada, as large corporations increase their market share of the long-term care industry. According to one meta-analysis, not-for-profit nursing homes have, on average, higher quality ratings than their for-profit counterparts. The Canadian Healthcare Association stated that "more data is needed to determine whether there are differences in quality of services, health outcomes, cost to governments and to individuals in public and private long-term care homes in Canada".

Humanely managed euthanasia with palliative care:

There are ways that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide can be humanely managed within a larger palliative approach. A study of nearly 1,700 patient deaths in Belgium showed that patients were more likely to choose to end their lives in palliative care settings where they could also receive spiritual care.

The effect of retirement on a married couple's relationship:

There has been some debate in the literature concerning the effect of retirement on a married couple's relationship. One school of thought describes the "spouse underfoot syndrome," which traditionally applied to the husband, and meant that partners were more likely to experience conflict now that they were in each other's presence for most of the day as well as the night. However, there is a contrasting view of retirement as a second honeymoon, in which couples are now free to enjoy each other's company on a full-time basis without the con- straints presented by the need to leave home for eight or more hours a day. As with many aspects of retirement, the data provide no simple answer. The transition itself from work to retirement seems to take its toll on marital satisfaction when partners have high levels of conflict. The greatest conflict is observed when one partner is working while the other has retired. Eventually, however, these problems seem to subside, and after about two years of retirement for both partners, levels of marital satisfaction once again rise.

Optimal balance between competence & press:

There is balance between competence and press. In the optimal situation, there is a match between an individual's abilities and the environment's demands. A small degree of discrepancy is acceptable, but when the mismatch goes outside this range, the individual will experience negative affect and maladaptive behaviours. i.e. the intellectually competent older resident (high competence) will do well in a setting in which autonomous decisions are expected (high press), but a person with significant cognitive impairment will adapt maximally when the environment is very structured (low press).

The equal-odds rule:

There is some connection between quantity and quality of an individual's creative productivity. The equal-odds rule predicts that creative individuals who produce more works are more likely to produce one or more of high quality than are those who produce fewer works. If this sounds familiar, it is because it is the same as the law in sports that "if you don't shoot you can't score." The equal-odds rule implies that people are most likely to produce their best work during their peak period of productivity on the basis of probability alone. Giuseppe Verdi composed his first operatic masterpiece at the age of 29 and his last at the age of 80. He had a relatively high probability of creating a masterwork during his late career because he continued to produce such a large number of pieces of music right up until the end of his life.

Ways to cope with loss:

There is surprisingly little research on spirituality and coping, but the existing evidence suggests that our values and beliefs can guide us through these difficult losses. There are other keys to resilience in coping with loss. Columbia University psychologists Anthony Mancini and George Bonanno propose that resilience comes in several forms, depending on your personality. For some, being adaptive and flexible will help you readjust your life and come to terms with your loss. For others, mental toughness ("repressive coping") provides the route. Being able to maintain your sense of who you are, your identity, may also help you rebound from the loss of someone close to you. Finally, being able to draw upon your positive memories of the deceased can serve as a source of comfort. This last point is particularly important.

social death:

These attitudes are translated into social death, the process through which the dying begin to be treated as non-persons by family or health care workers as they are left to spend their final months or years in the hospital or nursing home.

Differential opportunities:

These differential patterns of recognition point to differential opportunities that affect an individual's ability to achieve career recognition, if not personal fulfillment. Clearly, differences in educational opportunities as well as cultural values play a role in determining the ultimate achievements of people from non-majority backgrounds. Those who do manage to break through cultural barriers are likely to receive considerable recognition within their own as well as the majority culture.

Sociocultural perspectives on creativity and aging:

These models of successful aging and creativity are useful and inspiring, but one important shortcoming seen by some critics is that they fail to take sufficient account of sociocultural context. Socio-economically and racially disadvantaged individuals have a much lower chance of ever reaching old age, much less "successful" old age, as traditionally defined within psychology or the arts. Certain sectors of the population, particularly those with low-income backgrounds, do not have the opportunity to achieve good health and full expression of their innate abilities. Everyone we have talked about up to now came from a relatively advantaged background or at least achieved material success. For many talented individuals who are not afforded the benefits of higher levels of education and income, there are more challenges to the creative process. Education and income remain lower among Aboriginal groups in Canada, and even a university education does not protect a person from career discrimination.

Much-needed changes in the care of older adults:

These reforms in institutions can bring about much- needed changes in the care of older adults. However, the broadest proposal for sweeping changes in the health care system goes beyond changes in institutional models. The Institute of Medicine issued a mandate for retooling the health care workforce to take into account the growth of older adults needing services at all levels. There is an increasing gap between the number of filled positions in geriatric psychiatry and the number of available positions.

Resident resistance to care:

This also has implications for the institutional milieu. i.e. behavioural symptoms such as physical aggression, social inappropriateness, resistance to care, and wandering can result in very difficult living and working environments. A survey by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (2008) examined data from five Nova Scotia nursing homes between 2003 and 2007 and found that nearly half (45 percent) of the 699 residents had one or more behavioural symptoms. The most common was resistance to care (30 percent of residents) and one in five exhibited wandering behaviour. You might wonder why a resident would be resistant to care. Keep in mind that many nursing home residents have dementia and, as a result, have significant memory impairment and are confused. They may not remember the staff member who is trying to provide care. What would it be like to have someone who is unfamiliar to you helping you with your most personal care needs, such as bathing? How would you react to this scenario? Wandering away from a nursing home puts residents at significant risk, which is why some nursing home units are locked. Moreover, residents with cognitive impairment who are confused and disoriented may wander into the rooms of other residents, invading their privacy and sometimes taking their personal possessions. As you can see, addressing these behavioural problems presents a significant challenge to maintaining quality of life for residents and a positive working environment for staff.

Features of creativity and successful aging:

This conceptual background shows that creativity may involve many of the same features of successful aging. Among the ranks of the eminently creative (who are creative with a "Big C") are examples of highly successful artists, musicians, writers, and performers who continued to produce highly acclaimed works well into their later decades. Outside of the arts, older adults continue to make important contributions to the world in everything from politics to science.

What is the most important point of a nursing home?

This description of a nursing home, although technically correct, neglects the most important feature. A nursing home is a "home," and for many older adults, it is the last place they will reside. While this fact may seem obvious to some, models of nursing home care have typically been custodial or institutional in nature. Residents have their basic physical needs met, often in a regimented manner, but their psychosocial needs are less of a priority. There has been a culture change in recent years, with a movement toward more holistic care, providing psychological, social, and spiritual care as well, although there is considerable variability in the extent to which different facilities provide this care. Also increasingly popular in the long-term care literature are terms such as person-centred care and family-centred care. These terms address the need for making residents and their family members the focal points for care, ensuring that their needs take priority over bureaucratic rules and regulations. While progress has been made in these areas, we still have a long way to go and there is tremendous variability across nursing homes in achieving person- and family-centred care.

Controversy surrounding legalization of euthanasia:

This is a controversial law and many Canadians are opposed to it, believing that human compassion for extreme suffering should prevail. Patients who request physician-assisted suicide cite as their main reason the desire to die with dignity. However, a relatively small number of terminally ill patients actually choose to end their life in this manner.

Opposition/support to physician-assisted suicide:

Those who oppose physician-assisted suicide regard as primary the physician's ethical code to "do no harm" and do not wish to present patients with options that they find morally unacceptable. Empirical data suggest that dying patients who are suicidal may have treatable psychological symptoms that, when addressed properly, lead them to regain the will to live. They may vary considerably on a day-to-day basis in their feelings about assisted suicide. However, as the disease progresses, they may decide to "let go" once they are able to work through their depression. Another argument against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is the one offered by opponents of health care reform in the United States in 2009. The concern was that physicians and other health care providers would decide to end a patient's life prematurely as a cost-saving measure. However, a survey of physicians conducted in the United Kingdom suggests that costs are not the primary considerations in these situations. Instead, physicians regarded pain in the patient, no expectation for improvement, and expectation of further suffering in the patient as the main reasons to consider ending a patient's life.

Main characteristics of older workers & how they intersect to influence job performance:

Three main characteristics of older workers and how they intersect to influence job performance: 1. better citizenship and safety 2. slightly lower core work performance 3. fewer counter-productive behaviors Older workers have slightly lower core work performance, although the effect of age on work performance varies with the nature of the task. i.e. jobs that require crystallized intelligence (which does not decrease until well past retirement) and depend on experience theoretically should show improved performance in later adulthood. Older workers in jobs with highly crystallized components should be strongly motivated to put in the effort they need to perform well on the job because they realize that their efforts will most likely meet with success.

Leisure pursuits:

Throughout adulthood, people also express themselves through their hobbies and interests. Occupational psychologists and academics studying the relationship between job characteristics and satisfaction often neglect the fact that, for many adults, it is the off-duty hours rather than the on-duty hours that contribute the most to identity and personal satisfaction. In contrast, marketers recognize the value of developing promotional campaigns that appeal to the aging baby boomers who potentially have resources to spend on leisure pursuits.

Cultural meanings/rituals attached to process of death:

Throughout the course of Western history, cultural meanings and rituals attached to the process of death and to the disposition of dead bodies have gone through remarkable alterations. The ancient Egyptians practised what are perhaps the most well known of all death rituals. They believed that a new, eternal life awaited the dead and that the body had to be preserved through mummification in order to make it the permanent home for the spirit of the deceased. The mummies were buried in elaborate tombs, where they were decorated and surrounded by valued possessions. Family members would visit the tombs to bring offerings of food to sustain the dead in the afterlife.

Travel as a leisure activity:

Travel is a leisure activity that often takes people out of their comfort zone and therefore can stimulate these benefits. i.e. Using the responses of Israeli participants to a mail-in survey reporting on their most recent vacations involving travel, Nimrod and Rotem defined a group of "absolute" innovators (the most extreme), who were most likely to say that they took the trip in order to participate in new activities, try new food, learn something new about their relationships, gain a new skill, and learn something new about themselves and life in general. This group, comprising about one-fifth of the sample, differed in terms of some of the activities they engaged in while on vacation, including visiting small towns and villages rather than big cities, getting to know the local people, gambling, and engaging in physical exercise. The absolute innovators felt that they experienced both more travel-related benefits and the opportunity for growth and self-expression. Clearly, retirement involving such active leisure pursuits can facilitate the individual's overall well-being even long after the vacation is over.

Why might you choose a particular occupation?

Ultimately, your choice of a vocation may reflect a feeling that you are drawn to a particular line of work, either because of the job tasks it entails or the personality needs it fulfills (as in the RIASEC model), or because it serves a socially useful purpose.

Strengthening health care:

Unfortunately, home care is not an insured service under the Canada Health Act and governments are not required to pay for it. In 2004, in A 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care, provincial, territorial, and federal government representatives agreed to fund home care services for two weeks after discharge from hospital, for two weeks after mental health care, and for end-of-life care. Beyond this, there is tremendous variability in access to home care, both across and within provinces and territories, and in the implementation of co-payments and user fees. i.e. some regions use a means test to determine access to home care services, while others have established a threshold level of care that all persons receive. However, once that threshold has been exceeded, users are required to pay for services (although some may receive some tax relief in return). In addition, regions vary in the mix of public and private providers and the relationships between the two. To further complicate matters, most provincial governments delegate the responsibility for funding and delivering home care to their regional health authorities. The advantage of this model is that regional health authorities are better able to integrate home care into the spectrum of continuing care services. The disadvantage is that home care is vulnerable to cyclical funding (often competing with institutional care) and political changes. This has led to considerable inequity both within and across provinces and territories in the provision of home care services. Home care resources have failed to keep up with the trend toward shifting patient care from the hospital to the community. In addition, home care resources are increasingly devoted to short-term, post-acute care (e.g., follow-up post-surgery) rather than long-term care that is focused on the prevention of further decline, and the provision of care is shifting from the public to the private sector. As a consequence, family members (particularly those who cannot afford private home care) are being asked to do more, with potentially serious implications for their health and well-being.

The truth about cognitive capabilities in later life:

Unfortunately, many younger people have a tendency to view the happy and productive older person as an anomaly. Cultural icons like Betty White are beloved by the young in part because they seem so atypical of their age group. Many people automatically assume that aging inevitably brings about depression and hopelessness, so when people do not show these qualities, they must be truly special. However, as we have seen elsewhere in this book, most older people do not become depressed, and personality development in middle and later adulthood appears to be in the positive direction of greater adaptiveness. Most older adults preserve their cognitive abilities to a very large degree. Studies of centenarians and "super- centenarians" (those over 110) show that those who live to these advanced ages are sturdy both cognitively and physiologically.

Distorted views of the book, "on death and dying":

Unfortunately, the original views of Kübler-Ross became distorted as the book's popularity grew. The five stages began to be interpreted as a series of steps that must be followed by each dying patient. i.e. If a patient refused to engage in "bargaining," for instance, then it must mean something was wrong with the way that person was handling the terminal illness. The Kübler-Ross formulation also ignores other emotions that dying individuals may experience, such as curiosity, hope, relief, and apathy.

Why did more Canadian workers resist the idea of retiring in the 60s compared to now?

Until the 1960s, most Canadian workers resisted the idea of retiring because they believed that retirement would place their financial security at risk. However, succeeding generations of workers are viewing retirement more positively. In part, this is because their retirement earnings are higher than they were for older Canadians in the past. In addition, older workers have greater freedom than they did in the past to continue working past the traditional retirement age of 65, and they are physically able to do so.

Study: successful aging among women:

Vahia and colleagues measured a range of personality characteristics, psychological symptoms, and cognitive abilities that they believed would relate to successful aging among women. These included self-efficacy, optimism, attitudes toward aging in general and one's own aging in particular, resilience, physical and emotional symptoms, depression (using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, or CES-D), and a test of cognitive functioning that assessed, among other things, orientation, crystallized knowledge, and spatial skills. They found that the women highest in subjectively rated successful aging had high scores in what they called psychological protective factors of resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism; were high in positive emotional function- ing (low in CES-D and self-rated emotional symptoms); and rated themselves low in physical symptoms, although physical symptoms were not as strongly related to successful aging as the resilience and emotional factors. Performance on the cognitive tests did not predict self- rated successful aging in these women. As the authors noted, these results should be interpreted with caution, as participants were post-menopausal women who had volunteered to be in a study of women's health and were better educated and had higher incomes than the general U.S. population.

Safeguards to the process of end-of-life care:

Various safeguards are in place to protect against abuse of the process, such as requirements for witnesses and the requirement that more than one physician determine that a condition is present. In addition to documenting a patient's wishes, advance directives are intended to ensure more active involvement in planning and treatment by patients and to uphold the principles of respect for their dignity and autonomy.

vocation:

Vocation is a person's choice of occupation. It reflects the individual's personal preferences and interests. However, development in the world of work is influenced in many ways by the social factors of education, race, gender, and age. Because of the realities of the workplace, individuals may not be able to find the job that best matches their vocational interests. Nevertheless, vocational development theories are based on the premise that people are able to choose the career they wish to pursue. Thinking about your own desire to enter a given field, it is likely that you have chosen your career path and hence your university major because of your vocational interests.

WHO model of active aging:

We can find a model that focuses on a broader range of influences in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of active aging: the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. The WHO model of active aging, which is in many ways like that of the Bronfenbrenner and Ceci (1994) ecological perspective, as it specifies a role for social, health care, and economic determinants, as well as pointing to the importance of the physical environment. Especially note-worthy is the fact that the WHO makes explicit the role of autonomy and independence, placing greater emphasis on the individual's ability to get around in the environment than on whether the individual needs physical accommodations because of disability.

Person-environment correspondence theory:

We have seen that Holland's vocational development theory proposes that people seek to find congruence between their personality and the characteristics of the job. According to person-environment correspondence theory, people are most satisfied when their workplace responds to their needs. In contrast to Holland's congruence model, person-environment correspondence theory focuses on needs rather than interests.

Super's model compared to modern day:

When Super first wrote about career development, the job market was much more stable than it is today. In the 1950s, the business world tended to involve people employed by one company for their entire careers. Climbing up the career ladder was also seen as a fairly typical goal, particularly for workers in white-collar occupations, but also for blue-collar workers employed in such industries as steel or car manufacturing. This model began to change substantially in the 1980s, when large corporations began to downsize, particularly after the advent of computerized technology.

Impact of work-family conflict:

When work-family conflict does occur, it takes its toll on the individual's physical and mental health, causing emotional strain, fatigue, perception of overload, and stress. There are variations in the extent and impact of work-family conflict, however, and not all workers feel the same degree of conflict. Conflict is most likely to occur among mothers of young children, dual-career couples, and those who are highly involved with their jobs. Workers who devote a great deal of time to their job at the expense of their family ultimately pay the price in terms of experiencing a lower overall quality of life. There are higher levels of work-family conflict among those employed in the private sector than those employed in the public sector, in part because employees in the public sector report higher levels of supervisory and organizational support. Age also plays into the work-family conflict equation. Younger workers (under age 46) typically experience more conflict than older workers (46 and older), although when older workers experience conflict the effects seem to be stronger. However, there are individual differences in personality that affect the work-family balance, such as dispositional affectivity, as well as variations in levels of positive and negative affect that the individual experiences on a day-to-day basis.

Why do Canadians retire?

Why do Canadians retire? Data from Statistics Canada indicate that the most important reason for retiring is that it is financially possible. However, reasons for retirement vary depending on the retirement scenario—that is, whether a person has never retired, or has partially retired, fully retired, or previously retired but returned to work. Those who are fully retired are more likely to cite health and disability as a reason for retirement.

Geographic mobility jurisdictions:

With increased geographic mobility, it is not uncommon for adult children to live far from their parents. When it is time to relocate one or both parents, children often want them to be closer so that they can visit them and oversee their care in a nursing home. But each jurisdiction in Canada has its own residency requirements for accessing long-term care and, even within provinces, these may vary depending on the level of care that is required. These regulations may come as a surprise to many adult children who simply want their parents to be closer.

Physical fitness decreases and job performance:

With regard to overall physical fitness, decreases in strength and agility can certainly have a negative influence on job performance in some areas of employment, particularly when physical exertion is involved. However, workers of any age can suffer from conditions that impair their performance, such as a cold or muscle pain. Furthermore, as pointed out by Warr (1994), every worker has restrictions in the kind of work that he or she can perform. The fact that older workers may have some limitations due to physical aging changes does not mean that they cannot achieve adequate performance on all types of jobs. People learn to cope with their limitations, and gravitate to jobs they are able to perform. If they become disabled enough, they will leave the job market altogether.

Life statisfaction:

Within this tradition, life satisfaction is the overall assessment of an individual's feelings and attitudes about his or her life at a particular point in time.

work stress:

Work stress can be a major threat to people's feelings of well-being and can eventually take a toll on physical health as well. Work stress can take many forms, as we have already seen, ranging from negative interactions with co-workers to difficulties dealing with clients, customers, and supervisors. People may also experience stress when they feel that their job is not compatible with their needs, interests, values, and personal dispositions. Therefore, work stress is a very broad category.

Creative potential and career age:

You can see how creative potential and career age combine to produce different patterns of age and achievement. Laurie London was a young one-hit wonder who never again wrote a hit song, and Margaret Mitchell was an older one-hit wonder. Mitchell would qualify for writing her "best book" at the age of 37, but had she started earlier, it is not clear whether she would have produced many more. Pablo Picasso and Anna Mary Robertson both produced notable works in old age. We can assume that Anna Mary Robertson, who started painting in her 70s (and lived to 101), had high creative potential by virtue of the fact that she produced thousands of paintings during her lifetime. However, because she started late in life, none of her accomplishments would count toward the productivity score for early adulthood. Conversely, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began his career in childhood, writing at least 600 pieces of music before his death at the age of 35. Therefore, his productivity in old age cannot be calculated.

intrinsic factors vs. extrinsic factors:

intrinsic: -Interest in task itself -Feelings of control from within self extrinsic: -External rewards -Feelings of control by outer conditions