ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses three substantive domains in the field of geropsychology: personality, cognition, and social relationships and emotional needs. It considers psychology's contributions to understanding both the gains and losses of old age. The majority of research in psychological gerontology continues to be organized around the concept of loss. Research findings concerning personality and well-being in old age are considered by many to represent a basic "paradox of aging". A major influence of psychology on the understanding of aging has come through the study of cognitive aging. Cognitive ability is both multidimensional and multidirectional in nature. A good example of the flexibility that results from such multidimensionality and multidirectionality in the domain of cognitive aging has been demonstrated in the work of T. A. Salthouse on older and younger typists. Salthouse found that the older typists were more sensitive to characters farther in advance of the typed work than younger typists.
