Old age represents a new frontier. The number of older people is increasing throughout the world. This changing demography affects individuals, but also families, communities and societies. The focus of this special issue is the well-being of older adults on different continents. Scientists from around the world address this issue using a wide array of research designs and methodologies to provide a broad perspective on aging. Five topics are considered: Well-Being among Older Adults; Social Support; Functional Status, Well-Being, and Successful Aging; Cross-Cultural Approaches to the Study of Aging; and Research Perspectives in Aging. This volume clearly demonstrates that scientists have much to contribute to the goal of optimizing the experience of aging and creating a society for all ages.
Toni C. Antonucci is Program Director in the Life Course Development Program at the Institute for Social Research, and Professor of Psychology, both at the University of Michigan. Dr. Antonucci obtained her Ph.D. (1973) in Life-span Development Psychology from Wayne State University. Her research interests have focused, for more than twenty years, on social relationships across the life-span. This work has ranged from the role of values in the adjustment of older men to multi-generational studies of the elderly, and most recently with Hiroko Akiyama to comparative life-span studies of social relations among a representative sample of people from eight years of age through old age in the United Stated and Japan. She has also been involved with research in Germany, the Netherlands and France. She has been active in national and international organization. She is a past SPSSI Council Member, Past President of the Adult Development and Aging Division of the American Psychological Association and of the Gerontological Society of America.
Corann Okorodudu is Full Professor of Psychology and African/African American Studies at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. Dr. Okorodudu holds a BA in Political Science and History from Cuttington University College, Liberia and a PhD in Human Development from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her teaching, scholarship, and public service are informed by an international, cross cultural perspective. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, including Developmental Psychology (with life-span emphasis), the Psychology of Women and Cultural Experience, African American Psychology, Racism and Ethnocentrism, and Ethnic Identity and Community. Her research on Liberia has explored achievement motivation among the Kpelle, anthropometry and nutritional status of school-aged children and adolescents, child fostering, and gender relations within and across family systems coping with social change, particularly under conditions of conflict and violence. She is currently involved in a United Nations Development Program-sponsored research on Liberian Women's Peace Narratives. In approaching social issues both in the US and the African context, she has concentrated on the critical role that formal education institutions must exert in the transformation of society and in building and maintaining communities where peace and social justice can prevail. Dr. Okorodudu serves on the editorial boards of the Liberian Studies Journal and Peace and Conflict: The Journal of Peace Psychology.
Hiroko Akiyama is an Associate Research Scientist in the Life Course Development Program of the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan and Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Tokyo. She completed her undergraduate and Master's degrees in Japan and her PhD at the University of Illinois. She is trained as a life-span developmental psychologist with a minor in Anthropology. Her primary research focus has been on the elderly and social gerontology. She has been extensively involved in several large cross-national research projects utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Earlier, she conducted an intergenerational study of Japanese and American families in which she explored the cultural definitions of reciprocity using survey and in-depth interviews. Her anthropological studies continue to be reflected in the mixture of qualitative and quantitative data she has collected. Dr. Akiyama is a past recipient of an NIMH First Award for the Gender and Health: Historical & Cross-Cultural Analysis. Dr. Akiyama has extensively examined cultural differences in depression.
