The functional context of elderly behavior

Clients Nearing Death: Behavioral Treatment Perspectives

The literature on the relationship between psychosocial events and dying and death is reviewed from a behavioral perspective. Individual control for predictability of endogenous and exogenous events is identified as an intervening construct in the relationship between the timing of death and a variety of psychosocial factors. It is then argued that behavioral self-management is a potentially useful therapeutic tool for working with clients who are nearing death.

Procedural and methodological parameters in behavioral-gerontological research: a review

This article analyzes the behavioral-gerontological research published before 1984. The 151 studies located were classified into three main categories: observation, assessment, and intervention. Each study and each category were examined for variations in the behavioral procedures employed, and in the scientific research methods used to collect and analyze data. The survey indicated several serious problems in the research. Much of the behavioral-gerontological research focuses on institutionalized elderly, and tends to perpetuate a passive, helpless role on the part of the elderly in the treatment process. Less than 20 percent of the studies focused on observation or assessment, and most of these were found to be flawed. The intervention studies were also problematic; the majority of them were of short duration and had only one treatment phase which did not vary substantially during the study period. Most also failed to provide for interobserver agreement, generalization, maintenance, and follow-up assessments. Finally, the implications of these findings for future psychological research with the elderly are discussed.

Evaluation and change in a psychogeriatric ward through direct observation and feedback

Direct observations were made of patients' behaviour during occupational therapy sessions in a psychogeriatric ward, and were used to suggest changes in the conduct of these sessions, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the changes. The intervention was successful in bringing about situation-specific increases in clients' appropriate behaviour.