Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life

Abstract

AGING WELL: SURPRISING GUIDEPOSTS TO A HAPPIER LIFE. George E. Vaillant, MD. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2002. Pp. 273- $14.99ISBN 0-316-09007-7. Pb. Reviewed by Kathryn R. Ward and Geoffrey W. Sutton (Evangel University/Springfield, MO). What are the key factors in successful aging? Dr. Vaillant, a noted psychiatrist, researcher, and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, provides a lucid summary of the findings from the longest longitudinal study of adult development. He offers readers a comprehensive look at a wide range of data in the context of developmental theories. He supports the quantitative findings with salient participant examples that enhance his conclusions and make the work highly readable. Vaillant divides the book into 12 chapters followed by 11 appendices, research notes, acknowledgements, and various tables and figures. He begins the first chapter with a brief introduction, followed by the basis for the study - not only to observe the process of development, but also to understand the factors that influence the process. Next, he defines the variables. For example, he operationally defines successful aging as a vital reaction to change, to disease, and to conflict (p. 15), which he continually demonstrates by using excerpts from participant interviews. He digresses into an examination of the three groups in the study. Formerly individual studies, they were combined to create the present meta-project. He concludes chapter one with a personal introduction, a disclosure of his biases, and an overview of the advantages and limitations of these prospective studies. In chapter two, Vaillant describes social and emotional maturation. Erikson's developmental tasks form the base for the assessment of social development. These were supplemented by two new tasks of career consolidation and keeper of the meaning. He assessed emotional development using measures based on psychoanalytic coping mechanisms. In chapter three, Vaillant discusses the study's data on the relationship between childhood factors and adult development. He summarizes the research by stating that goes right in childhood predicts the future far better than what goes wrong (p. 95). Chapters four through six provide detailed descriptions of the assessments of later adult developmental tasks (gene rati vi ty, keeper of the meaning, and integrity). All of the findings seem to have supported his earlier hypothesis: that each task (not necessarily all together - some participants did not go through keeper of the meaning) is a predictor of successful aging in its own right. …

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