Environmental Gerontology and the Psychology of Aging

1. Environmental Gerontology and the Psychology of Aging Hans-Werner Wahl Institute of Psychology, Department of Psychology Aging Research, University of Heidelberg Presentation on Workshop at CASE in Lund April 10-11, 2008

2. Pre-Warning I have purposefully planned this lecture as a workshop contribution That is: • I am going a bit global here and there • I am raising issues without the aspiration to provide final conceptual or empirical answers • I am taking the freedom to provide my view and this is hopefully seen as a stimulation and not as an unbalanced and egotistic perspective

3. Outline Why a consideration of environmental gerontology and the psychology of aging? Ambition, goals and plan of attack of presentation Perspective I: Making better use of psychology of aging principles in environmental gerontology Perspective II: Making better use of environmental gerontology principles in the psychology of aging Attempt towards conceptual integration Suggestions for future research Possible practical implications

4. Why a Consideration of Environmental Gerontology and the Psychology of Aging? Environmental Gerontology: “The overarching aim of environmental gerontology is to describe, explain, and modify / optimize the relationship between the aging person and his/her socio-physical environment, a task accomplished within an interdisciplinary framework.” (Wahl & Gitlin, 2007, p. 494)  P X E • Behavior, Cognition and Emotion Psychology of Aging: “Behavioral processes of aging”; “…how behavior is organized and how it changes over the course of life.” (Birren & Schaie, 2006, p. XVII); “…ecological view of aging, in which aging is seen as a result of diverse forces interacting.” (Birren, 2006, p. XV-XVI)

5. Why a Consideration of Environmental Gerontology and the Psychology of Aging? • Society: Living the “new long live” as a major challenge for both environmental gerontology and psychology • Academia: Psychology had (has?) a major input on the emergence and unfolding of environmental gerontology • However: Environmental gerontology is still not well recognized by the psychology of aging, though “contextual issues” are en vogue in many spheres of the current psychology of aging • Examples: Cognitive aging; self-regulation and goal adjustment; selective optimization with compensation

6. Environmental Gerontology (Focus on P X E) Psychology of Aging (Focus on Behavior, Cognition, Emotion, and Development) ! Ambitions, Goals and Plan of Attack of Presentation • To unfold predominantly a conceptual argument that the current environmental gerontology should take more profit from the psychology and aging – and vice versa • To consider the dynamics of aging both as a process of person-environment interrelations (see again: “ecological view of aging”; Birren, 2006, p. XV) as well as a developmental phenomenon deserving a life-span view

7. Ambitions, Goals and Plan of Attack of Presentation • To underline that psychology brings in a life-span development view, able to link person-environmental interrelations with aging as a highly individualized process • To underline that what environmental gerontology offers to the understanding of person-environmental interrelations is able to enrich life-span developmental concepts

8. Plan of Attack of Presentation • Begin with a selection of fundamental principles and concepts of the psychology of aging and developmental science and apply these to person-environment relations • Identify in exemplary manner concepts of environmental gerontology with the potential to infuse the psychology of aging and developmental science at large • Come up with a conceptual integration in order to delineate some of the synergies between both perspectives • Spell out some research and practice suggestions • Much is drawn from my collaboration with Frank Oswald!

9. Perspective I: Making Better Use of Psychology of Aging Principles • Concept of human development – development as loss and gain  implications for the consideration of person-environment interrelations as people age [Baltes, 1987; Baltes, Lindenberger & Staudinger, 1998; Greve & Staudinger, 2006; Wahl et al., 2008] • Plasticity, reserve capacity, compensation and optimization  Think plasticity and related concepts of human development in person-environment terms • Great between-person differences as a result of life-long antecedents  Think heterogeneity of aging in person-environment terms; again: aging as a highly individualized process

10. Perspective I: Making Better Use of Psychology of Aging Principles • Psychological resilience as among the major resources of development under constraints (such as advanced old age)  Role of person-environment interrelations • Multidimensionality and multidirectionality of aging  Should include some of the complexity of person-environment relations inherent in human aging  Antecedences, processes, and outcomes of aging  Empirical illustration with data from ENABLE-AGE Study

11. A Closer Look at Multidirectionality in Very Old Age • Data from the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study [Iwarsson, Wahl, Nygren, Oswald et al al., 2007] • Aggregation of Swedish and German Data • Cross-sectional (across age-groups 80-81 years; 82-83 years; 84-85 years; 86-87 years; 88-89 years) AND • Longitudinal (across the available one-year observation period from data collection 1 / 2002-2003) • N’s per age group between 94 and 163 • Well-being related measures • Health and function related measures • Person-environment related measures

12. Health and Function Related Measures Across Age Groups and Time Functional Limitations (Housing Enabler) ADL (ADL-Staircase) IADL (ADL-Staircase) Subjective Health (1-Item Rat. 1-5)

13. Well-being Related Measures Across Age Groups and Time Positive Affect (PANAS) Negative Affect (PANAS) General Life Satisfaction (1 Item Rat. 0-10) Depression (GDS)

14. Person-environment Related Measures Across Age Groups and Time Accessibility (Housing Enabler) Usability In My Home (Phys. Env. Aspects) Usability In My Home (Activity Aspects)

15. Interpretation and Conclusion • There is pronounced loss in objective functional resources as well as in the objective behavioral person-environment fit (accessibility) even in a rather short advanced aging window both cross-sectionally and longitudinally • Subjective evaluations in terms of perceived health, well-being and the perceived usability of one’s environment seem to reflect such loss only marginally • Challenges:  Theoretically: The classic paradox of a pronounced discrepancy between objective and perceived age-related change should include the p-e sphere  Practically: P-e related intervention has to cover both dimensions; challenge to avoid early / late intervention

16. Perspective I: Making Better Use of Psychology of Aging Principles Better understanding how well aging people are able to (reactively and proactively) regulate the aging self in context: • Goals and preferences in person-environment terms over the life course [Brandtstädter, 2006] • The complexities of a psychologicalcontrol as people age in a life-span view (reactivity, proactivity) [Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Lawton, 1989] • Improvement / optimization of person-environment fit as a multi-level phenomenon (social, physical, cultural /// objective and perceived) [Wahl & Lang, 2006] • Dealing with lack of person-environment fit as a natural and unavoidable occurrence of human aging [Baltes, 2006]

17. Perspective II: Making Better Use of Environmental Gerontology Principles To start with a classic: The Competence-Press Model (CPM) as originally suggested by Lawton and Nahemow (1973) (reproduced after Lawton, 2000, p. 191)

18. A Partial Operationalization of the CPM • Data from the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study [Iwarsson, Wahl, Nygren, Oswald et al al., 2007] • Data from Germany, Sweden and Latvia • Only cross-sectional data (T1) • Competence operationalized as number of functional limitations ( Housing Enabler) • Environmental press operationalized as number of environmental barriers in the home ( Housing Enabler) • Median split in both measures • Positive affect ( PANAS) • Negative affect ( PANAS)

19. Competence, Environmental Press and Positive Affect Germany Sweden Latvia  Tendency that low competent elders show more loss in positive affect under high environmental press; high competent elders feel better under high environmental press?

20. Competence, Environmental Press and Negative Affect Germany Sweden Latvia  Tendency that less competent elders do not necessarily feel worse under high environmental press

21. Interpretation and Conclusion • There is some support that environmental press, competence and positive affect are indeed related • Data are so far inconsistent regarding negative affect • Challenges:  Theoretically: Environment reveals more impact on positive affect as people age?  Practically: Home as a significant condition for the experience of positive affect, not so much as a trigger of negative affect?

22. Perspective II: Making Better Use of Environmental Gerontology Principles Better understanding how well aging people are able to regulate their environment in order to support the self: • Regulating environmental control and agency in person-environment terms over the life course [Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Wahl & Lang, 2006] • Environment as a major resource of aging well based on life-long internalization and familiarization [Rowles, 1983; Wahl & Oswald, in press] • Environment as a stimulating context for aging well [Wacker & Wahl, 2007] • Environment as a context for staying productive and exerting generativity [Staudinger, 2002]

23. Attempts Toward Conceptual Integration • Attempt 1 toward better understanding and concept integration of person-environment interrelations (with a strong life span developmental focus)  Model of Wahl & Oswald (most recently spelled out in Dannefer/Phillipson, Eds., in press, International Handbook of the Social Gerontology) • Attempt 2 toward better understanding of fundamental human motivations across the adult lifespan (with a strong person-environment focus)  Model of Wahl & Lang (most recently spelled out in Conn, Ed., 2006, Handbook of Models of Human Aging)

24. Attempts Toward Conceptual Integration • Attempt 3 toward better integration of environmental gerontology (through the lens of occupational therapy) and the psychology of aging  Work of Wahl & Iwarsson (in Fernandez-Ballesteros, Ed., 2007, Geropsychology. European perspectives for an ageing world)

25. Wahl & Oswald (in press)

26. Wahl & Lang (2006)

27. Wahl & Iwarsson (2007) Why is collaboration between gero-psychology (GP) and occupational therapy (OT) a promising though still underused pathway for the treatment of p-e relations? • Emphasis is put on the physical environment as a still much neglected sphere in human aging research • ...but key concepts somewhat differ (e.g., OT: functional limitations, accessibility, activity; GP: psychological adaptation – goals, preferences, cognitions, emotions) • Need for a complementary understanding of person-environment transactions • Both GP and OT have added much to recent European contributions to environmental gerontology [Scheidt & Windley, 2006]

28. Some Research Suggestions • Go for the long-term perspective, i.e., take a life-span view as strongly as possible, when it comes to the understanding of person-environmental interrelations  clearly see the limitations of a cross-sectional and static view approach regarding the p-e system • Always consider the multi-level character of the omnibus constructs of person and environment and person-environment interrelations Don’t interpret too much into a circumscribed and partial view on the p-e-system

29. Some Research Suggestions • Acknowledge the paradox of aging as loss and gain also to be seen in the p-e system • Strive to understand how aging people are using the p-e- system in a variety of ways in order to stabilize their self • Don’t try to separate the objective from the perceived in understanding the p-e system

30. Possible Practical Implications • Never do a p-e intervention without knowledge on life-span developmental issues related to the target person • Never do a p-e intervention without the consideration of multi-level impact in the short and longer run • Always keep in mind that aging persons are dealing in a variety of ways with their environments • Always keep in mind that environments have multiple meanings for aging persons • Never exaggerate the significance of the p-e system, but also never ignore the possibly fundamental role of the p-e system for human development, particularly in very old age

31. Thank you very much for your attention!