Aging and Life Space in Poland and the United States

Many recent studies of older people have been concerned with the validity of the theory of disengagement. Briefly stated, this theory assumes that disengagement is an inevitable process associated with aging which many of the relationships between a person and other members of society are severed, and those remaining are altered in quality. The theory further assumes that ego energy declines with age, and that as persons age they experience increased self-preoccupation and presumably decreased response to normative controls. Data from two nationwide sample studies, one in the United States and one in Poland, permits comparison of the attitudes of successive age cohorts from those age 65 to 69 to age 85. The findings indicate similar attitude changes in both countries. With advanced age people become more preoccupied, but there is no evidence for the decrease in normative controls suggested by the disengagement theory. Old people in the United States, more than old people in Poland, continue to describe themselves as middle-aged until quite advanced ages. In both countries, the overall feeling tone of the aged may be described as quiet optimism.