Jacob Lomranz

The Relationship of Activity Restriction and Replacement With Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults.

Activity restriction is known to mediate the disease-depression relationship. Data from 423 older Israeli adults showed that having to give up activities because of failing health was related to more depressive symptoms (DS), whereas satisfactorily replacing these activities was related to DS levels comparable to those of healthier older adults. Giving up and replacing activities mediated, in part, the effect of functional limitations on DS, after controlling for health status, demographics, and resources. Such questions about activities given up and replaced could contribute to the means of assessing the extent and impact of functional limitations on older adults.

Endurance and Living: Long-Term Effects of the Holocaust

50 years after, perhaps the most devastating man-inflicted trauma in human history, the Holocaust; obscurity, perplexity, and equivocality still characterize the scientific state of its investigations. The present chapter addresses itself to the disagreements, research problems and approach to the long-term effects of severe trauma, specifically the Holocaust. How can we explain our limited knowledge? Are our theories and methodologies perhaps inappropriate? How can we explain that extreme torment does not necessarily result in disorder, study trauma-experienced persons who seemingly are well adjusted and comprehend the human strength that copes constructively even with the severest trauma? Does trumatic stress interfere with normal adjustment, personality structure, aging, and life-span development? If so how? What impact does culture have on coping with trauma? What is the impact of mass trauma on the general culture?

Cultural Variations in Personal Space

Summary This investigation was designed to study the effects of cultural background on personal space. Forty-five male students, 16–17 years old, who had been in Israel approximately a year, comprised three background-nationality groups: Argentinian, Iraqi, and Russian. The personal space tasks required them to arrange silhouettes in interacting situations between a self-referrent figure and four other figures representing: (a) a good friend, (b) an Israeli, (c) a person with the same national background, and (d) a stranger. The results indicated that there were basic differences in personal space contingent upon culture, that the smallest distance was displayed toward a friend and the largest toward a stranger, and that cultural and situational variables interacted significantly, since certain cultures, as opposed to others, did not reveal a large space range across situations. It was also found that a relatively small personal space was displayed toward desired (Israeli) and background (native) cultural...

Communicative Patterns of Self-Disclosure and Touching Behavior

Summary One hundred ninety, male and female Israeli high school students responded to questionnaires inquiring into self-disclosure and touching behavior toward four target persons: father, mother, same-sex friend, and opposite-sex friend. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the two patterns were significantly positively correlated, indicating a consistent structural context expressed through interpersonal interaction. The results also found that the males engaged in significantly more touching behavior than the females, while for self-disclosure the trend was reversed. The implications of these and other findings are discussed in terms of sub- and cross-cultural norms in personality research.

MOTIVATIONS AND ATTITUDES OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS REGARDING TREATMENT OF THE ELDERLY

The “reluctant therapist” phenomenon has been suggested as one explanation for the insufficient provision of mental health services to the elderly. This study explored the motivation for work with the elderly in Israeli students and practitioners of clinical psychology. The results confirmed the lower motivation for treating elderly adults as compared to other age groups. The two most powerful predictors of motivation were the attitude toward psychotherapy for the elderly and past professional experience in this field. Generally, the subjects’ motivation was better predicted by professional characteristics and attitudes than by personal ones. The discussion deals with theoretical implications, possible applications, and suggestions for further research. This study was supported by a grant of the P. Sapir Center for Development, Tel Aviv University, Israel. We are greatly indebted to Ron Shouval, Dalia Gilboa, and Daniel Lombroso, as well as to many other psychologists and professionals. We thank Avi Eidel...

An Image of Aging and the Concept of Aintegration

The field of social gerontology has grown enormously in the last decade. However, the abundance of theories, information, and publications leaves the reader somewhat bewildered. On the one hand, there are the many “medically influenced” publications that present “aging as a catastrophe,... (the elderly) as damaged (and) incapable of new growth” (Gutmann, 1994, p. 9). On the other hand, social gerontology, with its branches of personality, cognitive, and social psychology, basically portrays a very positive picture of aging; it depicts the aged enjoying years of happiness and well-being as they move through outlined adult stages and tasks to be fulfilled. It is easy to arrange the publications in two piles labeled “optimistic” and “pessimistic.” Given the ease of such an exercise, one wonders what gives rise to such divergent findings and theories? What are their overt and covert assumptions? Here, one is led to the underlying notions of human nature or the image of man.

Time orientation in Nazi concentration camp survivors: forty years after.

Temporal aspects were evaluated in 44 Nazi concentration camp survivors and 31 control subjects, all 50-60 years old. The survivors attached to the Holocaust a more intense role within time orientation; they were more past-oriented, less future-oriented, and had a generally more pessimistic attitude toward life events. Implications of the findings are discussed, with emphasis on the role of time orientation in the long-term effects of the Holocaust on survivors.

Amplified comment: the triangular relationships between the Holocaust, aging, and narrative gerontology.

The three articles by de Vries et al, Schiff, and Suedfeld et al. illuminate and enrich as well as challenge. They address the most basic questions about human nature and coping with extreme adversity, loss, and growth. Inherent in each of the three articles are three core domains of life stories (including life events), aging, and the Holocaust. Together these form a triad to be comprehended triangularly. Triangulation signifies having access to different sources or works of research so that one’s perception and comprehension of phenomena—approached from different angles—can be compared, interrelated, understood, and justified. The three studies provide us with an opportunity to explore triangularly the issues of life stories, aging, and the Holocaust, since they approach Holocaust survivors from different as well as common angles. My leading questions in reading the articles are: Do Holocaust survivors age differently (a question only covertly embedded in the three articles)? Aging requires much of individuals coping with losses, finding meaning, adjusting to retirement, reconceiving time and life lived, and facing death. Will survivors be able to cope with such developmental demands? Or given their past traumatic experiences, their assumed inability to mourn and low hedonic potential (Krystal, 1988), their vulnerability (Lomranz, 1990), possible postponed or late-onset of PTSD and depression (Dasberg, 2001; Krell, 1990), will old age reactivate the Holocaust experience in a destructive manner, making it difficult for survivors to cope constructively with the phenomena of aging?

Extraversion-introversion and time perception

Abstract The relationship between stimuli complexity extraversion-introversion and time perception was tested. It was found that extraverts estimated the exposure duration of simple figures to be longer compared to introverts and that this discrepancy vanished in regard to complex figures. The findings were explained in terms of Hogans (1978) model and on the basis of differential utilization of cognitive mechanisms for time perception by extraverts and introverts.

The Meaning of Time-Related Concepts across the Life-Span: An Israeli Sample

Three-hundred-thirty-eight Israeli participants rated five time-related concepts on Semantic Differential Scales. Participants constituted six, age-based, groups, representing different life stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, late adulthood, and old age. The concepts rated were: time, past, present, and future. In addition, each group rated its own life stage. Results were analyzed in terms of the relationship between age and attributed meaning of these concepts, as denoted by the three Semantic Differential dimensions: evaluation, potency, and activity. The results indicate that people of different ages differ significantly in the way they construe most of the time-related concepts. Past ratings show a significant tendency to increase with progressive age, while future ratings decrease with progressive age. The ratings of present tend to remain stable across the life-span, and the ratings of life stages are significantly lower in older groups as compared to the younger ones. Results are discussed in light of developmental processes, the role that meaning of time-related concepts play in psychological adjustment, and methodological aspects.