ABSTRACT
If we try to imagine what could be learned from studying the elderly, two characteristics might come readily to mind. The first is that the elderly possess more "wisdom" than younger members of our society. Having recently recognized the intriguing psychological aspects of this problem, a few investigators have engaged in creative preliminary efforts to define and understand what forms such wisdom might take (Baltes, Smith, Staudinger, & Sowarka, in press; Clayton & Birren, 1980; Dittmann-Kohli & Baltes, in press; Holliday & Chandler, 1986; Meacham, 1982). Other developmental theorists have avoided the difficult definitional problemsposedby the concept of wisdom,by translating theelderly'spotentially unique ways of viewing the world into theories of "postformal operational" thought processes (Arlin, 1975; Basseches, 1980; Commons, Richards, & Armon, 1984; Commons, Richards, & Kuhn, 1982; Labouvie-Vief, 1982; Riegel, 1973). Eventually, we will return to this special quality of the elderly and how we, somewhat indirectly, came upon our own theory of the wise elderly. But first, we will consider the second distinguishing characteristic, the elderly as society's quintessential victims, and their intriguing reactions to this victimization.
