ABSTRACT
As in Chapters 3 and 5 we have selected three topics to illustrate current research on the psychology of development and adaptation in advanced old age. Because of the relative neglect of late life by psychologists, there is less research material to choose from than in previous chapters. However, our first chosen topic illustrates what has been a major theme in the psychogerontological literature since the 1960s: preservation of the self in later life. There has been a wealth of studies carried out on the subject, but relatively few on the very old. We examine how recent researchers have begun to study selfmanagement in representative samples of people over the age of 85 years.
