USING FOCUS GROUPS AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHODOLOGY: DECONSTRUCTING STEREOTYPES AND SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING AGING AND OLDER ADULTS

During the coming years the number of older adults will increase dramatically, which will require a corresponding increase in the number of social workers who have accurate knowledge of this population. This article reports the impact focus groups with older adults and with service providers who work with older adults and their families have on baccalaureate social work (BSW) students. We find that BSW students exposed to focus groups have their negative attitudes about older adults and service providers deconstructed and replaced with more positive and accurate information about older adults. When students' misconceptions about older adults are confronted, they become more interested in choosing geriatric social work as a career option.     

TEACHING THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF AGING

This paper discusses the opportunities for student directed research within a service-learning framework. Using a community development framework, students at the high school, college, and graduate levels gained a deeper understanding of the daily experiences of older persons in the community. These projects were embedded in a multi-year community development process fostered by the Evergreen Institute on Elder Environments, in Bloomington, Indiana. Through the collaborations of the Institute, the learning outcomes for students have contributed to the broader community effort to make Bloomington a good place to grow old.     

A ROMANIAN STUDENT ABROAD CONSIDERS FOUR MYTHS OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION

One consequence of western aid to Romanian academic life has been the opportunity for young Romanian scholars, schoocco1led in their early university years under the aegis of the communist system, to study with western European and North American visiting scholars in Romania, and/or to attend higher education institutions in both western Europe and North America, and generally to participate in worldwide academic life. Such vital inter‐cultural, inter‐social, and inter‐political life experiences provide the expressed raison d'être of western academic aid.     

THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEMORY AGING QUESTIONNAIRE

A new questionnaire, the Knowledge of Memory Aging Questionnaire, assesses general knowledge of normal and pathological memory aging for use with students, older adults, and service providers who work with the elderly. The questionnaire consists of 28 true/false items covering a broad range of memory behaviors     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LEARNING FOR AGING

This paper examines the effects of learning on the aging process. The thesis is advanced that learning slows down specific aspects of aging and its side-effects. Starting from a clarification of the concepts of "aging" and "learning," this thesis is confirmed on the basis of empirical studies for basic processes of aging and its side effects.     

INTERGENERATIONAL CONTACT,ATTITUDES, AND STEREOTYPES OF ADOLESCENTS AND OLDER PEOPLE

Contradictory findings characterize the literature on the efficacy of intergenerational programs that bring children and older persons together for joint activities to promote more positive attitudes and stereotypes. Nor is it clear whether cross-generational attitudes are negative to begin with. The research reported in this paper operationalized the constructs of attitudes and stereotypes by employing ideographic measures based on the attitude model of Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. 1975. Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.  [Google Scholar] and adopted the principles of the contact hypothesis in organizing a cross-age program. Sixty-three middle school adolescents (age 11–13) were randomly assigned to cross-age contact, didactic instruction, or control conditions for a 6-week program. Overall, adolescents and older persons held generally positive attitudes and stereotypes of each other. Relative to the control group, the contact group adolescents’ attitudes toward older people became more positive. There was no change in the didactic group. Following contact, the older people showed more positive attitudes toward younger people and scored higher on a measure of life satisfaction.     

古埃及、中国神话中蛇形象的比较研究

本文主要探讨古埃及神话和中国神话中蛇的形象的问题。首先将两个神话系统中的蛇形象分成四类，然后在类别的基础上作了比较，发现它们的异同，并从宗教、传统思维等方面追溯其品类一一对应的原委，从神话的产生时代来解释两种神话中蛇神形象的不同的原因。     

IMAGES OF AGING IN THE LYRICS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC

This study examined the lyrics of American country music as potential sources for better understanding popular perceptions about aging and old age. Data for this study were collected from a sample of 52 country songs published between 1950 and 1995. A majority of the songs have been recorded and have received considerable public exposure. Using a content analysis approach, seven subjective themes were identified: (a) physical attributes, (b) mobility and reaction time, (c) mental health, (d) reminiscence, (e) loneliness and isolation, (f) quality of relationship, and (g) mortality. Song lyrics in each category were evaluated in terms of positive or negative image portrayal and gender differences when apparent. Conclusions drawn from this study indicate that a substantial majority of the songs evaluated present negative images of aging and old age.     

PERSPECTIVES ON THE INSTRUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL AGING COURSES

Courses in biological aging are becoming increasingly common and necessary in college curricula for several reasons. At the same time, there is a lack of guidance for instructors regarding necessary content in such a course, which is in part perpetuated by uncertainty about the background of students who need this instruction and a lack of consistency in the content and style of human aging textbooks. In this article, the authors, as instructors who have taught undergraduate level human biological aging courses for many years, describe the areas of study and needs of students likely to enroll in such a course and also detail strategies and organizational methods found to be advantagous in teaching this material in a coherent and understandable manner to a largely nonscience major student cohort. Strategies discussed include alteration of course content, decompartmentalization of topics, relation of biological topics to social science reference points, and contrasting “universal” and pathological age‐related changes. Also included is an outline of the content and order of subjects that the authors have found through experience to be successful in the instruction of a biological aging course.     

预期记忆及其老化研究的未来方向

预期记忆及其老化是记忆心理学的一个复兴的主题。预期记忆领域的未来方向将会涉及：研究其毕生发展特点，拓展其研究手段，分析它与其他心理变量之间的关系，考查其生活现象，探索其生理机制。预期记忆老化领域的未来方向可能集中于：加强其临床研究，注重其日常问题，探索其大脑机制，考查它与其他心理变量之间的关系，发展其改善程序。     

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTS ON AGING QUIZ

The two forms of the Facts on Aging Quiz have generally been found to be reliable, factual, and useful for calling attention to the many myths about aging. The advantage of a similar quiz which deals exclusively with psychological and sociological facts about aging is its greater relevancy for courses in these popular behavioral sciences. This study presented the Psychological Facts on Aging (PFA) quiz, based primarily on original and revised items from the Facts on Aging Quiz. Norms were presented for the PFA based on community college students, and information about the derivation and difficulty of its items was presented. The PFA scores of the 15 oldest subjects did not differ significantly from the scores of the 15 youngest, and females did not score significantly higher than males. The PFA was recommended for use in community college classes in the behavioral sciences.     

MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION: MYTHS AND PROBLEMS

The budgetary decentralization of higher education in the United Kingdom calls for individual institutions and units within them to take increasing responsibility for raising their own funds. The author, who argues that higher education institutions must derive an increasing proportion of their budgets from the marketing of their products goes on to explain how this can be done. To begin with, the nature of marketing and of market research must be well understood, and the legitimacy of the marketing process itself must be accepted by all the members of the university community. It is then necessary to do a marketing audit so as to establish what a given institution has to sell and what its outside environment wishes to buy. Flexibility on the part of the seller with regard to type, level, duration, and scheduling of courses is very important. It is also necessary to be able to persuade the potential buyer that he wants to have what the seller has to offer. At this point, however, the author cautions the reader as to the dangers of some seven market myths as applied to higher education and the dangers of oversell. He concludes that with prudence higher education can be marketed to the satisfaction of all concerned with results which avoid the “unhappy paradox” that the marketing of higher education is both essential and disastrous.     

关于厂长(经理)离任经济责任审计的探讨

本文就如何处理离任审计的矛盾、把握审计的内容、注意审计的方法及其他一些相联因素等方面进行探讨。从可操作性、可借鉴性出发，给出了在离任审计中的一些具体处理方法与技巧，供大家探讨。     

大鼠肾上腺髓质细胞超微结构及其年龄变化

为观察年龄对大鼠肾上腺髓质细胞的影响,对成、老年组29例大鼠肾上腺髓质进行了常规透射电镜观察。结果表明: 老年大鼠A及NA细胞中分泌颗粒、滑面内质网和高尔基复合体的体积密度明显减小,而且A及NA细胞的核质比小于成年组;胞质分泌颗粒由GERL区生成,并通过胞吐方式外进分泌,     

SEARCHING THE LITERATURE OF AGING: GERONTOLOGY REFERENCE SOURCES

Gerontology is a multidisciplinary field with a need for specialized sources of information. Standard reference tools can be used in a search for gerontological literature; however, many questions are more easily searched with specialized works. The publication of acquisitions lists from gerontology centers, the development of the National Clearinghouse on Aging, and the trend toward new reference books in gerontology are encouraging the development of bibliographic control of resource materials. This article discusses various reference tools in gerontology and points out areas for further growth.     

THE AGING WORKFORCE: REALITIES,MYTHS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONS By Jerry W. Hedge,Walter C. Borman,and Steven E. Lammlein

Numerous papers have purported the need for life span education, yet few have examined the attitudes of older citizens toward lifelong learning. To determine why they were not attending a free audit program at the university and to ascertain their attitudes toward education for the elderly, 99 subjects aged 62 and older (M. = 74.6) were interviewed. The systematic sample chosen from membership lists of senior citizen groups yielded 34 men and 65 women. Interviews utilized a survey questionnaire. The analysis compared those who were and were not interested in the program.

Results indicated that 68% (N = 65) of the subjects were not interested in attending university classes. The 32% (N = 31) who answered “yes” or “maybe” were significantly younger than those who were not interested; the two groups did not differ significantly on the other variables measured (sex, previous education, occupation, daily activities, attitude toward education for self and other older persons, etc.). Furthermore, only one subject actually enrolled in the university in the subsequent semester.

The findings fail to support the thesis that “education begets education.” However, it should be noted that subjects indicated that “living is learning,” and while formal education is acceptable for the elderly, it is not necessary for learning.