Aging Successfully: The Psychological Aspects of Growing Old (Davidson Films, Inc.) [MUSIC PLAYING] - (SINGING) Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you. ANNOUNCER: Mercer brothers-- now this year, they are 81 and 84, not bad, not bad. MAN: For some 35 years, I have conducted psychological studies on human aging, on such topics as memory, intelligence, and wisdom, and what is possible regarding the future of old age. WOMAN: Being dependent involves both gains and losses. I have called this the model of learned dependency. NARRATOR: We will not discuss in any depth extreme old age, the years from about 85 on. We will discuss the traditional inverted-U-shaped model of development in relation to some of the things we now know about the cognitive and personality characteristics of older people. We will then look at a model of adaptive successful competence, SOC, and the psychological components that go into creating individually satisfying life situations for older people. For some physical activities, the inverted U is very steep and narrow, and more gentle and wide in some others. In intellectual functioning, some components have an early peak. And others continue to evolve longer. These tests measure the mechanics of intelligence, that is, speed and accuracy of information processing. In these tests, the performance peak is early in life. Their apex is in early adulthood. And the decline starts, on average, between age 30 to 40, and sometimes even earlier. - Come on. NARRATOR: The first, which they term fluid mechanics, is subject to age-related losses after a certain early peak. The fluid mechanics are largely biologically based, like the hardware of the brain. The second kind of intellectual functioning, labeled crystallized pragmatics of cognition, can continue to grow in healthy old age. The personality factors and cognitive styles that the Berlin Max Planck group has found predictive of wisdom are being open to new experiences, having flexibility in thinking, being creative and empathetic. - Hi, little seal. NARRATOR: How we age, then, is not just a matter of physical changes. Our minds can outwit our bodies and take on lives of their own. Many people in their 60s are as active physically, mentally, and socially as they were in their 40s. Age alone does not define a person, whether she is 4, 36, or 76. People who are adaptive and who thoughtfully approach this challenge, who believe in themselves, who have a good social support system, who pay attention to their health, and who have a certain sense of adventure about the unknown seem to do best at this challenging task of being old.