Martine Hoffmann

''Still the same and better off than others?'': social and temporal comparisons in old age

Cognitive adaptation in the elderly and the motivated use of temporal and social comparisons set the conceptual frame for the present study. Three research questions were investigated in a sample of 2.129 persons aged between 50 and 90 years. First, the direction of social and temporal comparisons for three domains (physical fitness, mental fitness, psychological resilience) was studied, and findings did show that especially lateral followed by upward comparisons were most frequent under both perspectives; downward comparisons clearly showed the least frequency. Second, the distribution of comparison directions was investigated across four age groups. These analyses showed that upward comparisons increased and lateral comparisons decreased across age groups; differential results were observed for the domains under consideration. Third, the relation between social and temporal comparisons and self-esteem was studied. Results obtained here indicated a motivated use of specific comparison directions since downward social comparisons and upward temporal comparisons were most frequent in persons with low self-esteem. Taken together, the study underlines the different functions of social and temporal comparisons in adulthood and old age; it indicates a predominant need for consensus and consistency, and it highlights the importance of self-esteem in cognitive adaptation.

Designing for older people: a case study in a retirement home

This paper discusses the design process of a system aiming to support daily life of older people in a retirement home. This system called Sammy was designed on a participatory basis by a multidisciplinary team. The main results are the importance of communicating with all the stakeholders regarding both strengths and weaknesses of the new system, the importance of the social factors in system acceptance, the need to combine various evaluation methods during the design process, the importance of contextual factors and the need to take into account the dynamics of population in a retirement home.