JOURNAL OF AGING PSYCHOLOGY
Year:2017 | Volume:3 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:7

As we age, the effect of excitement on memory becomes more prominent and emotional objectives become more important. The purpose of this study is to investigate the autobiographical memory and the role of excitement in retrieving memories in the elderly and to compare it with young people. The present study is descriptive-comparative. To this end, 60 elderly people referred to the Jahandidegan Center in Shiraz and 60 young people were selected as the sample. To study the variables of the research, Autobiographical Memory Test and Psychological Wellbeing Scale, Keyes & Magyar-Moe, were used. Data were analyzed by correlation and Manova methods. The findings of the study show that recovery of memories from Autobiographical Memory in elderly is more general and with positive excitement content, and there was a significant relationship between the excitement level of memories and emotional well-being in the elderly (p<0.05). Therefore, based on the results of this study, it seems that aging causes a change in the priority of the objectives, because it continually brings people closer to the end of their life; to the effect that positive excitement objectives become more important and have a greater effect on the person’s life.

One of the important indicators for measuring mental health in the elderly is satisfaction with life. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the role of post traumatic growth and authentic personality in predicting the life satisfaction of the retired elderly employees of Oil Industry Company in Isfahan. The research method is descriptive/correlational and the statistical population includes all retired elderly employees of Isfahan Oil Industry in 1395 and 346 of them were selected through convenience sampling method. The data were collected using Post-Traumatic Growth Questionnaire (Mahmoudi et al), Authenticity Scale (Wood et al), and Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software using Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) and Hierarchical Linear Regression Analysis. The results of correlation coefficient show that satisfaction with life has a direct correlation with post-traumatic growth and authentic life and has a reverse relationship with acceptance of external influences (P< 0.05). Moreover, the results of hierarchical regression show that controlling the variables of number of children, post-traumatic growth and authentic personality (the component of acceptance of external influences) in elderly, predict their life satisfaction. Therefore, it can be concluded that post-traumatic growth and authentic personality are capable of predicting the life satisfaction of retired elderly employees of Isfahan Oil Industry.

In recent years, hostile environments and sources of stress have been increasing. On the other hand, the elderly population in the world is on the rise. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on increasing resilience in the elderly. Twenty elderly residents of Karaj nursing homes were randomly selected and placed in two experimental and control groups. Participants of both groups were evaluated by Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale before and after participating in training sessions. The experimental group participated in nine Acceptance and Commitment Therapy sessions, but the control group did not receive any training. The results of covariance analysis indicate that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is effective in increasing resilience in the elderly (p<0.05). Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that treatment based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has increased the resilience of the elderly. Consequently, counselors and therapists are advised to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to increase resilience and coping ability in the elderly.

Given the growing population of the elderly, paying attention to their quality of life is one of the key factors in social health. One of the factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly is loneliness. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe and explain seniors' experiences of loneliness. The present study was carried out using qualitative and phenomenological methods and purposive sampling was done by conducting deep interpretive interviews with 19 elderly women. The interviews were recorded and analyzed by the Streubert/Carpenter method. The findings from the experiences of elderly women of loneliness have been identified in five main themes including “the causes of loneliness in the elderly”, “physical condition”, “being abused”, “positive attitude towards the elderly”, and “ways to reduce loneliness”. Sub-themes were obtained from the core of the main themes including avoiding activities of interest, children leaving home and death of the spouse, hearing impairment, pain and walking problems, Alzheimer's disease, feeling of being a burden, rejection from the family, problems of the children's lives, being considered a blessing or not, dutifulness, attachment level of children, increasing connection with God and attending religious places, attention the physical health of the elderly and the increasing social relationships of the elderly. It is necessary for health authorities to develop support strategies by family members, health care providers and policymakers, and to adopt programs for educating families with elderly members.

Considering the vital importance of the well-being of the elderly and the rapid growth of their populations, it seems necessary to explore the role of various variables in their well-being. Therefore, the present research has been conducted with the aim of studying the relationship between psychological well-being and religiosity and self-compassion in the elderly. This is an applied research in terms of purpose and in terms of implementation method, it is descriptive correlational. The statistical population of this study includes all the 1190 elderly living in Kermanshah's part-time nursing homes, of which 700 are male and 490 are female over the age of 55. Using Morgan’s table, a sample of 300 men was selected. The research tools include Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB), Muslim Attitudes toward Religion Scale (MARS; Wilde& Joseph, 1997), and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF; Raes et al., 2012). Pearson’s correlation coefficient method and stepwise regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between religiosity (r=0.46) and self-compassion (r=0.61) with psychological well-being (P<0.001). The results of regression analysis also show that, personal assistance, mindfulness, isolation and religious rituals can predict 57% of the variance of psychological well-being in the elderly. Therefore, by increasing religiosity and self-compassion in life, psychological well-being can be increased.

The working memory and related tasks are controlled by the prefrontal cortex, the cortex and the cerebral cortex, which functions decrease in the natural process of aging. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of acute resistance exercise with mild to moderate intensity on working memory of the elderly.40 elderly people were selected using purposive sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The working memory for the experimental group was evaluated by Sternberg Task in three stages of before strength exercise, 15 minutes of strength exercise, and 180 minutes after the strength exercise program with mild (%40-RM10) and moderate (70%-RM10) intensity. The results show that the acute resistance exercise (mild and moderate intensity) have a significant effect on the response time and the accuracy of the Sternberg Task in the elderly. In addition, the results show that gender and exercise intensity has no significant effect on the effectiveness of resistance training (moderate and mild intensity) on work memory, while conducting Sternberg Task after resistance exercise has a significant effect on the test results. Therefore, moderate and mild intensity of acute resistance exercise can improve the working memory of elderly men and women. The findings of this study indicate the necessity of using acute resistance exercise to improve the working memory of elderly men and women. The use of this method is suggested as an effective intervention for these individuals.

Aging is a dynamic concept in today’s world, and the quality of life should be taken into consideration as the elderly population grows. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the simple and multiple relationship between psychological, spiritual and social capital with clinical symptoms of elderly people living in nursing homes of Chaharmahal and Bakhtaran province. To this end, 200 elderly people were selected by simple random sampling method and responded to the questionnaires. The research tools include the Luthans’ Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), Kings’ Spiritual Capital, Onyx’s Social Capital, and Clinical Symptoms. The results show that there is a reverse and significant correlation (at a level less than 0.01) between psychological, spiritual and social capital with physical impairment, obsession, hypersensitivity in interpersonal relationships, depression, anxiety, aggression, phobia, paranoia, psychosis and total score of clinical symptoms. Furthermore, the results of regression analysis show that psychological capital predicts mental health in all aspects of the clinical symptoms of the elderly, while spiritual and social capital are out of the equation. Overall, psychological capital accounts for 34% of the variance in the health of the elderly. And of its four components, hope, optimism and resilience are respectively the predictors of mental health, which together account for 33% of mental health variance. Therefore, based on the results, it can be said that planning to increase psychological capital such as hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy during the young and middle ages, can help reduce the possibility of all types of mental disorders and thus increase the mental health of people during the old age.