No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
An exploratory survey investigated adults' views on control over physical ageing. A sample of 174 New Zealand adults responded to specially constructed scales, which measured: perceived primary control over, and acceptance of, age-related physical changes; actual and potential use of strategies to help control physical ageing; potential use of sources of information about physical ageing. Participants rated age-related physical changes as modestly controllable on the whole, but rated some changes as much more controllable than others, and some changes as more appropriately accepted than resisted. Perceived control over, and acceptance of, physical ageing were negatively correlated with each other. Participants' responses indicated some discrepancies between actual and potential use of specific strategies, and a preference for observing other people to learn about physical ageing. ********** Recent gerontological research indicates that many physical changes associated with ageing are largely secondary, i.e. caused by disuse, abuse or disease, rather than intrinsic to ageing itself (Leventhal, Rabin, Leventhal, & Burns, 2001). Research also increasingly suggests that the individual can minimize his or her own secondary ageing by adopting appropriate lifestyle strategies (Hazzard, 2001). It is clear, however, that many people do not consistently follow such strategies (Hazzard). The gulf between usual and optimal physical ageing probably has complex causes. One cause may lie in individuals' perceptions of the extent to which they can influence the physical ageing process. This proposition has support from a substantial body of research in relevant fields such as health psychology. An important psychological determinant of behaviour and health is the individual's sense of control. Perceived control, especially since Rodin and Langer's (1977) seminal study of mortality and control over the physical environment, has been shown to be an important predictor of health behaviour and health outcomes in many contexts (Krause & Shaw, 2000; Shapiro & Astin, 1998; Walker, 2001; Wallhagen, 1998). For example, a New Zealand study (Campbell, Busby, Robertson, & Horwarth, 1995) using a single-item measure of control, found that perceived control over future health in old age was positively correlated with health practices in old age. Such findings from the wealth of research in the field of health psychology and from the general field of perceived control (Schulz & Heckhausen, 1999; Skinner, 1995), suggest that an individual's perception of the possibility of control over physical ageing will influence the extent to which he or she follows strategies that can minimize secondary ageing. There are reasons to speculate that people tend to underestimate the controllability of physical ageing. For instance, extensive research (Palmore, 1998) suggests that people do not know very much about ageing in general, and typically hold negative stereotypes about it. In the past, inadequacies of research methods--such as reliance on clinical samples and cross-sectional designs--have probably led gerontologists to reinforce such negative stereotypes by mistaking secondary for primary ageing (Rowe & Kahn, 1998). The preceding arguments suggest that there is substantial justification for investigating people's perceptions of their control over physical ageing. It is perhaps surprising, then, that there appears to be very little directly relevant research. As discussed above, there is a lot of published research on perceived control over health. There are also several studies on perceived control over psychological aspects of ageing. For example, Heckhausen and Baltes (1991) asked respondents to rate how much influence people have over age-related increases in various psychological attributes. The overall mean perceived control score was slightly above the scale midpoint, indicating that participants believed the changes as a whole to be moderately controllable. …
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.