Social Psychological Correlates Of Occupational Conditio

这个项目调查社会环境条件如何影响老年人的心理功能。它测试的假设是，随着年龄的增长，社会结构决定的环境条件（如复杂性）如何影响认知功能、自主自我导向、一个人对自己和环境的感受，以及心理和身体健康。这些数据来自于对707名受访者的后续调查，这些受访者最初是在1964年被选中的，作为全国代表性样本的一部分，被选中用于调查职业状况如何影响心理功能。最近，社会科学体系扩大了其关注范围，包括社会环境条件与身体健康和相关行为的因果关系。我们现在已经完成了处理这一重要问题的两份文件。在Caplan和Schooler（正在审查中）中，我们研究了1974年评估的三个变量（智力资源和感知控制/掌握的两个方面；宿命论和自信）对1994年疾病和残疾的后续发展的影响。我们的研究结果总体上支持了宿命论预测疾病发生的假设，以及三个特征（即智力资源、宿命论和自信）中的每一个都预测了老年人在没有疾病的情况下出现限制性残疾的长期可能性和严重程度。这些影响在量级上很小；然而，令人印象深刻的是，它们在20年期间发生，并提供了有关疾病和残疾发展过程的心理方面的新见解。在Mulatu和Schooler（2002）中，我们探讨了社会经济地位（SES）与健康状况之间的相互关系。在此过程中，我们估计了与健康相关的生活方式和行为以及心理社会困扰是调解这些关系的机制的程度。正如预测的那样，社会地位对健康有积极影响，健康也对社会地位有积极影响。虽然从社会地位到健康的因果路径比从健康到社会地位的因果路径更强，但我们的研究结果证实了这一假设，即两种互惠路径都会导致健康方面的社会不平等。超过三分之一的SES-健康关系是由与健康有关的生活方式和行为以及社会心理困扰造成的，而SES对健康的影响的显著部分是由于心理困扰的差异

This project investigates how socio-environmental conditions affect the psychological functioning of the elderly. It tests hypotheses about how, as one grows older, social-structurally determined environmental conditions such as complexity affect cognitive functioning, autonomous self-directed orientations and one's feelings about oneself and one's circumstances, as well as mental and physical health. The data come from a follow-up survey of 707 respondents originally selected in 1964 as part of a nationally representative sample picked for an investigation of how occupational conditions affect psychological functioning. Recently, the SSES has expanded its concerns to include the causal relationship of socioenvironmental conditions to physical health and related behaviors. We have now completed two papers dealing with this important concern. In Caplan and Schooler (under review) we examined the effects of three variables assessed in 1974 (intellectual resources and two aspects of perceived control/mastery;fatalism and self-confidence) on the subsequent development of illness and disability in 1994. Our findings generally support the hypotheses that fatalism predicts the occurrence of illness and that each of the three characteristics (i.e., intellectual resources, fatalism and self-confidence) predict the long-term likelihood and severity of life-limiting disability in older adults, net of illness. The effects are small in magnitude; nevertheless, they are impressive in occurring over a twenty-year period and provide new insights about the psychological aspects of the processes involved in the development of disease and disablement.In Mulatu and Schooler (2002), we explored the reciprocal relationships between socio-economic status (SES) and health status. In doing this, we estimated the degree to which health-related lifestyles and behaviors and psychosocial distress are mechanisms that mediate these relationships. As predicted, SES positively affects health, and health positively affects SES. Although the causal path from SES to health is stronger than the path from health to social status, our findings confirmed the hypothesis that both reciprocal paths contribute to social inequalities in health. More than a third of the overall SES-health relationship was accounted for by health-related lifestyles and behaviors and psychosocial distress while a notable part of the effect of SES on health is due to differences in psychological distress