SOCIAL INTERACTION IN OLD AGE

越来越多的老年学研究将老年人的社会互动联系起来 从年龄到心理健康和身体健康的多个指标。 总体而言，这项研究为这一论点提供了令人信服的证据 社会关系是老年人福祉的基础 人口。然而，最近对老年人的研究发现促使 对社会互动是统一的观念的再思考 阳性。在这个应用中，我提出了一个社会情绪老化模型 这假设老年的社会互动不同于社会 在生命早期的互动；此外，年龄差异是 这是由老年人的心理差异和 人际关系的变化可以限制情感收益的产生 来自社会互动。在本申请中，一个为期四年的计划 描述了旨在确定成本和 社交的好处--包括社会和情感--对 老年人和他或她的社会伙伴。本研究建议进行四项研究 他们共同采用了多种研究方法，包括访谈 与年长和年轻的受试者讨论他们的偏好和选择 社交伙伴的；用视频记录情绪诱导过程 考试年龄--表达的持续时间和强度的差异 直接的情感和他人所感知的情感表达的等级；直接 老年人同龄和混龄并元相互作用的观察 实验室；以及自然主义活动和影响的时间采样 设置。尽管对于降低的含义仍然存在分歧 老年人常见的社会互动率，一个基本的发现 个体发育减少相互作用的速度仍然是毋庸置疑的。因为我们 面对迅速老龄化的人口，比以往任何时候都更有必要 理解这些削减的意义和机制。

A growing body of research in gerontology links social interaction in old age to multiple indicators of psychological well-being and physical health. As a whole this research provides compelling evidence for the contention that social relationships are fundamental to the well-being of an aging population. Findings from recent studies of older adults, however, prompt reconsideration of the notion that social interaction is uniformly positive. In this application, I propose a model of socioemotional aging that assumes that social interaction in old age differs from social interaction earlier in life; and, further, that age differences are accounted for by both psychological differences in older adults and interpersonal changes that can function to limit affective gain derived from social interaction. In this application, a four year program of research is described aimed at the identification of the costs and the benefits -- both social and emotional -- of social interaction for the older person and his or her social partners. Four studies are proposed that collectively employ multiple research methods, including interviews with older and younger subjects about their preferences for and selection of social partners; videotaped emotion induction procedures with an examination age-differences in the duration and intensity of expressed emotion and ratings of emotion expression as perceived by others; direct observation of same-aged and mixed-aged dyadic interaction in the laboratory; and time-sampling of activities and affect in naturalistic settings. Despite continued disagreement about the meaning of lowered rates of social interaction common in old age, the basic finding of an ontogenetic reduction in rates of interaction remains undisputed. As we face a rapidly aging population, it is more essential than ever to understand the meaning and the mechanisms responsible for these reductions.