AGING SUCCESSFULLY: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GROWING OLD

With Margret Baltes, Ph.D., Paul Baltes, Ph.D. and narrated by Monisha Pashupati, Ph.D.

1997 (31 min) $250.   ISBN: 1-891340-66-2       [Available with Spanish Subtitles]

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With “baby boomers” now reaching the traditional age of retirement, there is much attention to issues of aging. Paul and Margret Baltes did major work on the psychological aspects of aging, much of which is reflected in this engaging, upbeat film. Five active elders; a professional dancer, the activist Betty Friedan, Joan (Mrs. Erik) Erikson, a retired cook and a cab driver serve as exemplars for the Baltes’ “SOC” (Selection, Optimization and Compensation.) conception of successful lifespan development.  The effects of personality characteristics and intellectual changes in the later years are also discussed and illustrated with film of psychometric assessments and in the lives of appealing elders.

Film content:

            The inverted U shaped model of aging considered and modified

            The Baltes SOC (Selection, Optimization, Compensation) analysis of lifespan adaptation as applied to aging.

            Intellectual abilities:  “fluid mechanics” vs  “crystallized mechanics”

                                    Computerized assessment of “fluid mechanics”

                                    Examples of “crystallized mechanics” in real life situations

            Wisdom

                                    Definition

                                    Assessment using the Berlin Aging Study structured interview

            Selection/Optimization/Compensation model of adaptation

            Learned dependency

Visuals:

            Scenes from the current lives of five elders

                        Bud Mercer: Professional tap dancer seen performing at the Palm Springs Follies

                        Annie Mickles: Retired cook, now active hospital volunteer and grandparent

                        Joan Erikson: Author and widow of Erik Erikson in her physically active Cape Cod life

                        Joe Murray: Ex-drug rehabilitation counselor, now a cabdriver in Washington DC

                        Betty Friedan: Activist, author, still actively lecturing and working

            Retrospective visuals from the lives of Bud Mercer and Annie Mickles

            Scenes from a four-level of service retirement complex in California

            Psychological testing, both with computer and through structured interviews

Consultants: 

Paul Baltes, Ph.D. taught both in the United States (University of West Virginia, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University and University of Virginia) and in Germany.  He was director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.  He was co-editor-in-chief of the 26-volume International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences published in 2001.  He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Saarland, Germany.

Margret Baltes, Ph.D. also taught on both sides of the Atlantic.  She taught at the University of West Virginia where she earned her Ph.D. and at Stanford and Pennsylvania State.  In Germany she taught at the Free University of Berlin.

Sadly, neither of the Drs. Baltes lived to experience their own old age, having died before their 70^th birthdays in the last few years.                           

Narrator: Due to the Drs. Baltes’ German accents, we chose to use one of their former graduate students, Monisha Pasupathi, Ph.D., as a narrator.  Dr. Pasupahti earned  her Ph.D. at Stanford University and now teaches at the University of Utah. 

Related film:

            Part of the GERONTOLOGY SERIES

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