Journal of Gerontology · 1987 · 258 citations · 0 references
EducationHuman DevelopmentPsychologyAdult DevelopmentDevelopmental PsychologyGerontologyLate AdulthoodLater AdulthoodLife Course AgingLife Course DevelopmentLongitudinal ResearchPsychosocial DevelopmentMiddle Adulthood
Longitudinal studies of adult development rarely extend beyond middle age, partly due to logistical challenges and the fact that many researchers themselves have not yet reached old age, limiting their understanding of late‑life issues. The study aims to address this gap by leveraging Erik Erikson’s unique position as a 95‑year‑old researcher to investigate old‑age development. Erikson, together with his wife and a younger colleague, followed a cohort of parents first studied in the 1930s, conducting longitudinal interviews with them into their 70s–90s. The interviews with 29 participants aged 75–95 revealed insights into vital involvement in old age.
Most longitudinal studies of adult development end in middle or late middle age. The logistical difficulties of following up people for prolonged periods may only partially explain this gap in our knowledge. Another explanation is that most developmental researchers have not yet themselves reached old age. Their personal inexperience with this stage of life is a significant handicap in their ability to understand the questions it raises. Erik Erikson, the 95-year-old grandfather of the empirical study of normal development, is in a unique position to fill this gap in psychological research. Along with his wife and a younger colleague, he had followed up a group first encountered as parents of children studied developmentally since the 1930s. In<i>Vital Involvement in Old Age</i>, the three investigators present the results of their interviews with these 29 men and women, aged 75 to 95 years. Unlike the subjects of cross-sectional studies of the