Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This well-established and accessible text has been completely revised in this expanded fifth edition. Each chapter has been updated, often extensively, to reflect current thinking, and an important new chapter on death, dying and bereavement has been added.

Providing a comprehensive overview of the psychological processes of ageing, the text examines what constitutes older age, and presents the latest theory and research in a variety of domains, including intellectual change in later life; ageing and memory; ageing and language; ageing, personality and lifestyle; and mental health and ageing. Consideration is given to the problems inherent in measuring the psychological status of older people, and the author looks to the future to answer the question "what will constitute 'being old'?"

This new edition is essential reading for all those working or training to work with older people, and a key text for students.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. 11)
• 1 What is Ageing? (p. 15)
• Definitions of ageing (p. 15)
• Prevalence of ageing - the greying population (p. 19)
• Prevalence of ageing - variations (p. 23)
• The cost of living longer (p. 30)
• Causes of biological ageing (p. 33)
• The ageing body (p. 38)
• Neuronal changes in later life (p. 46)
• Suggested further reading (p. 48)
• 2 Measuring Intellectual Change in Later Life (p. 49)
• Introduction (p. 49)
• Measuring age changes in intelligence (p. 50)
• Fluid and crystallised intelligence (p. 56)
• Variability in intellectual change (p. 61)
• Wisdom (p. 64)
• Health, intelligence and the terminal drop model (p. 66)
• Disuse theory (p. 69)
• Reaction times and the general slowing hypothesis (p. 74)
• Brain volume and intellectual skills (p. 83)
• The frontal lobe hypothesis (p. 85)
• Sensory changes and intelligence (p. 86)
• Intelligence with everything? (p. 88)
• Attentional deficits in ageing (p. 91)
• Conceptual organisation (p. 93)
• Creativity in later life (p. 96)
• Piagetian conservation (p. 98)
• Summary - the bumblebee flies (p. 100)
• Suggested further reading (p. 103)
• 3 Ageing and Memory (p. 105)
• Introduction (p. 105)
• Ageing and short-term memory (p. 108)
• Ageing and long-term memory (p. 113)
• Remote memory (p. 113)
• Eyewitness testimony (p. 115)
• Text recall (p. 116)
• Semantic memory (p. 116)
• Episodic memory (p. 118)
• Implicit memory (p. 120)
• Autobiographical memory and ageing (p. 121)
• Prospective memory (p. 125)
• Metamemory and ageing (p. 129)
• Summary and overview - how does ageing affect memory? (p. 132)
• Another reality check (p. 135)
• Suggested further reading (p. 135)
• 4 Ageing and Language (p. 136)
• Introduction (p. 136)
• The role of reading in older people's lifestyles (p. 137)
• Physical constraints (p. 139)
• General cognitive constraints (p. 142)
• Word recognition (p. 145)
• Spelling (p. 148)
• Tip of the tongue states (p. 149)
• Pronunciation (p. 149)
• Semantic processing (p. 150)
• Syntactic processing (p. 152)
• Story comprehension (p. 156)
• Neural compensation (p. 163)
• Summary (p. 164)
• Suggested further reading (p. 165)
• 5 Ageing, Personality and Lifestyle (p. 166)
• Introduction (p. 166)
• Trait models of personality (p. 166)
• Psychoanalytic and type models of personality (p. 173)
• Dependency (p. 179)
• Attitudes to ageing (p. 182)
• Cross-cultural differences (p. 187)
• Retirement (p. 192)
• Bereavement (p. 197)
• Well-being (p. 197)
• Psychosocial factors and health (p. 201)
• Marriage (p. 205)
• Sexuality and ageing (p. 207)
• Disengagement and activity theories (p. 209)
• The role of the family (p. 211)
• Religion and ageing (p. 214)
• Summary (p. 215)
• Suggested further reading (p. 216)
• 6 Mental Health in Later Life (p. 217)
• Introduction (p. 217)
• Mild cognitive impairment (p. 217)
• Dementia (p. 219)
• Dementia - a summary (p. 245)
• Learning disabilities (p. 246)
• Depression (p. 248)
• Anxiety (p. 249)
• Substance abuse (p. 251)
• Personality disorder (p. 256)
• Schizophrenia (p. 256)
• Overview (p. 257)
• Suggested further reading (p. 258)
• 7 Problems in Measuring the Psychological Status of Older People (p. 259)
• Introduction (p. 259)
• Confounding variables and the search for 'pure' ageing (p. 260)
• The relevance of findings to everyday life (p. 263)
• Unwitting ageism (p. 268)
• 8 Death, Dying and Bereavement (p. 270)
• Introduction (p. 270)
• Death awareness (p. 270)
• Kübler-Ross's five stages of dying model (p. 274)
• Palliative care (p. 276)
• Death (p. 281)
• Bereavement and cultural differences (p. 284)
• Widowhood (p. 288)
• Suicide (p. 290)
• Conclusions (p. 292)
• Suggested further reading (p. 293)
• 9 What is the Future of Ageing? (p. 294)
• Introduction (p. 294)
• What will constitute being 'old'? (p. 294)
• Older people and the technological society (p. 296)
• Conclusion (p. 301)
• Appendix I Basic Anatomy of the Nervous System (p. 303)
• The neuron (p. 303)
• Anatomy of the nervous system (p. 304)
• Appendix II Fluid and Crystallised Intelligence (p. 306)
• Appendix III Basic Psycholinguistic Concepts (p. 308)
• Appendix IV The Later Career of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (p. 311)
• Glossary of Technical Terms (p. 313)
• References (p. 351)
• Subject Index (p. 444)
• Author Index (p. 448)

Author notes provided by Syndetics