ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to answer that question by discussing some common ideas of personal development and by examining the criteria for their application to old people. It helps to start by reflecting on some general conditions for an adequate concept of personal development in old age. Thus we have identified three general conditions to be met by an adequate concept of personal development in old age. It must concern the ‘personality’ as that term is generally understood; it must identify a process of cumulative change; and it must represent that process as one of betterment or improvement. The final condition to be mentioned here is that there must also be reasonably definite criteria for its use; in other words, we must know when the concept applies, when we have a genuine case of personal development and when we do not.
