ABSTRACT
The individual who is growing older meets a decreasing number of situations in which he can interact with contemporaries. Sometimes, through ageing with a marriage partner, friend or sibling, some learning about the ageing process can take place and sometimes this can happen through social clubs for the elderly. Ageing brings a slowing down of performance at all levels and it is commonly suggested that this is linked to a lack of motivation. The evidence for this is sparse and it has been demonstrated that older and younger people spend proportionately similar amounts of time on actually solving easy or difficult problems. Ageing brings many loss situations for the individual: in facing up to these the ageing person will behave according to the ways in which he learned to function in earlier life. The process of biological ageing involves two parallel processes: that of growth and that of involution.
