Paul A. Roodin

SERVICE-LEARNING IN GERONTOLOGY: AN OUT-OF-CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

Service-learning is a useful means of helping students understand gerontology. It allows for the ideal integration of theory, research, and application of the study of aging. Students provide meaningful service to the community, by engaging in direct contact with members of the populations they are studying while integrating course content with real-world experience. Students gain additional insight by participating in reflective activities in class discussions; through journal keeping and other writing assignments; and in meetings with instructors, other students, and professional staff members who provide support and services to the older adults at service-learning sites. In this study, qualitative data on service-learning were obtained from 104 students over two consecutive semesters. Content analysis identified six themes: (a) insights about aging and older adults, including overcoming negative stereotypes; (b) enhanced feelings of pride, self-worth, and personal efficacy from being able to provide a ...

Intergenerational Service-Learning: A Review of Recent Literature and Directions for the Future

This review examines recent studies that have addressed outcomes of intergenerational service-learning courses in gerontology. The history of service-learning pedagogy in higher education and its place in todays colleges is also reviewed. Particular attention is given to evaluations of stakeholders: students, older adult participants, agencies and staff, faculty, community residents, colleges, and the community itself. The need for adopting research designs that permit clear conclusions and for utilizing assessments that have psychometrically sound foundations is important in future studies to permit unambiguous comparisons from study to study. The value of the pedagogy for students in particular has been documented over a number of years. Equally important is todays need to assess the impact of the pedagogy on the community.

Intergenerational service learning: linking three generations: concept, history, and outcome assessment.

In August 2006, the Foundation for Long Term Care (Albany, New York) received funding for a variant on service learning in elder care in which Boomers, other older adults, as well as college students would jointly engage in service-learning projects designed to address community needs in five different college towns and cities. This article reviews the historical antecedents to this project describing how it evolved from service of youth for the benefit of elders to the conceptualization of intergenerational service learning as service with elders. This new conceptualization ties in with Eriksons concept of generativity and the rising interest in civic engagement among elders. Recent research on the impact of volunteerism and health on an older population is reviewed, as is a summary of the different service-learning projects at each academic institution. This article discusses culminating evaluation findings on civic engagement, generativity, and satisfaction from participants at the five colleges in the project and describes challenges associated with evaluating outcomes of the diverse service-learning projects. Recommendations for future work are also discussed.

Young adults' scores on the defining issues test as a function of a “self” versus “other” presentation mode

One hundred college students were randomly divided into four groups and were administered the standard version (i.e., other-orientation) of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and/or a Modified version (i.e., self-orientation) of the same instrument on two separate occasions. Subjects displayed greater amounts of principled moral reasoning when responding to the standard (other-orientation) rather than the modified (self-orientation) version of the DIT. Also, significant test-retest reliability was obtained for the standard, but not the modified, version of the DIT. The role of affective factors in the evaluation of moral problems involving the self versus hypothetical others was discussed.

Moral judgment and sex role orientation as a function of self and other presentation mode

Gilligans concern for a negative bias in assessing moral reasoning based on feminine interpersonal orientations and corresponding positive bias in favor of masculine orientations of justice and equity was explored. Bems Sex Role Inventory provided a psychological index of orientation rather than only biological sex. College men and women completed Rests moral dilemmas (DIT) in the usual manner-other condition-or assumed the role of the central character-self condition. The latter procedure augmented affective dimensions assumed to underlie orientation differences. Males in the other condition scored higher on the DIT than those in the self condition; females revealed the opposite pattern. Using the sex role categories, it appeared that androgynous males had higher DIT scores in the self condition than in the other condition, in direct contrast to the overall results for males. For females who were androgynous or masculine in orientation, the self condition resulted in higher DIT scores than the other condition. Generally, the greater affective demands in the self condition produced a higher frequency of Stage 3 use for men and women regardless of sex role orientation. The other condition showed a higher percentage of Stage 4 use among males and females independent of sex role orientation. Sex role orientation and affective arousal were discussed in terms of Gilligans view of moral judgment development.

Developmental curves for the portable rod-and-frame test

Developmental curves for males and females between the ages of four and 13 were presented for the portable rod-and-frame test. The present findings extended the work of Witkin, Goodenough, and Karp (1967) and was generally supportive of their finding that increased field independence accompanies increases in age.

Multiple Generations at Work: Current and Future Trends

The multi-generational workforce of the past 20 years or so is the focus of this special issue of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships (JIR). The challenges and realities of having multiple generations on the job are of growing concern to all organizations. An age-integrated workforce has brought new challenges to human resource professionals. They have had to address some of the myths that younger workers hold toward their older colleagues and vice versa. They also have had to explore issues that influence workers’ attitudes toward one another, toward work itself, and toward supervisors. Some of the varied concerns of human resource professionals today include:

Intergenerational Solidarity: One of Many Perspectives of Intergenerational Relationships

This issue of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships highlights three essential themes. The first is the importance of understanding the guiding concept of intergenerational solidarity as it was originally proposed. Lüscher has gone back to this concept, adopting a dialectical view, to frame intergenerational relationships. Dialectics has been clearly embedded in intergenerational solidarity from its beginning as he outlines in his “Advancing the Field” essay, “Ambivalence: A ‘Sensitizing Construct’ for the Study and Practice of Intergenerational Relationships.” He sees intergenerational relationships as a mix of both positive and negative ambivalences, a theme consistent with the original hypothesis of intergenerational solidarity. Both young and old discover essential tensions or “ambivalences” in the relationships they create and sustain across generations. This process model could well serve as the context for interpreting all of the studies in the current issue of the journal. Intergenerational tensions may not be so easily identified or concretely observable in everyday behavior, attitudes, and emotions. But, consistent with the dialectical framework, they are part of all intergenerational relationships at some level. Identifying these underlying tensions is important so that we do not glorify or idealize the interactions of young and old whenever and wherever they occur. Solidarity is not the only outcome of intergenerational relationships; ambivalence as well as conflict is a part of the theory that has often been neglected (see Even-Zohar, this issue). For example, consider the adult, single parent who, in order to work, is dependent on an older parent (grandparent) providing child care. While child care may help an adult, single parent to be somewhat financially

HAPTIC-VISUAL FORM IDENTIFICATION IN CHILDREN AGED 4 THROUGH 13

Children 4 through 13 yr. of age performed on a haptic-to-visual form-identification task. The obtained curves showed that for both sexes, rate of improvement slowed down at approximately 9 yr. of age.

Grandparent-Grandchild Relationships and the Life Course Perspective

In this chapter, we outline the importance of grandparent-grandchild relationships, review previous research, and consider the life course perspective as a theoretical framework for studying grandparent-grandchild relationships.