Nora Leibovich de Figueroa

Perceptions of Aging across 26 Cultures and their Culture-Level Associates

College students (N=3,435) in 26 cultures reported their perceptions of age-related changes in physical, cognitive, and socioemotional areas of functioning and rated societal views of aging within their culture. There was widespread cross-cultural consensus regarding the expected direction of aging trajectories with (a) perceived declines in societal views of aging, physical attractiveness, the ability to perform everyday tasks, and new learning; (b) perceived increases in wisdom, knowledge, and received respect; and (c) perceived stability in family authority and life satisfaction. Cross-cultural variations in aging perceptions were associated with culture-level indicators of population aging, education levels, values, and national character stereotypes. These associations were stronger for societal views on aging and perceptions of socioemotional changes than for perceptions of physical and cognitive changes. A consideration of culture-level variables also suggested that previously reported differences in aging perceptions between Asian and Western countries may be related to differences in population structure.

Um Instrumento para a Avaliação de Estressores Psicossociais no Contexto de Emprego

The contexts in which human activities occur show distinctive characteristics with important implications when evaluation procedures are developed and administered. The employment context is important for many people in our society. Moos has developed a socioecological conceptual frame in which the relationships among stressful events and adaptative behaviors are influenced by personal and contextual systems, social network resources, and evaluation and coping responses. The objective of this paper is to present an instrument (IMPAL) that measures the degree of uneasiness (excessive, moderate, limited) caused by events related to: physical environment at work, factors inherent to the task, organization of work time, institutional aspects, technological changes and personal aspects. Results of the impact of specific stressors of the employment context in the sample studied are presented. The instrument showed sensitivity to assess the impact of daily stressors in the employment context and arranging hierarchically the areas where the stressors originate.