Title: Intellectual Functioning in Relation to Mental Health
Abstract: Competent intellectual functioning is essential for the positive mental health of the elderly. Humans generally, including the old, should be sensitive to their environments. They must also be aware of nuances in the reactions of others and be able to remember the joys, the triumphs, the accomplishments of a long life, the sorrows, and frustrations. They should be able to remember useful information to share with their children, now adults, and their peers. They should be able to carry out simple cognitive tasks with reasonable speed and be able to bring reasoning and insight to bear on intellectual and concrete problems. Information about intellectual functioning is often important to the clinician to allow selection of optimal therapy leading toward better mental health. This chapter reviews what is known about normative decline at different age levels and the significance of decline and dicsusses various extraneous variables that may either affect intellectual functioning or complicate the interpretation of test data obtained from elderly persons. The chapter also focuses on some practical issues of intellectual assessment and the possibility of further test development and construction with respect to the mature capacities of elderly people. Research on aging and intellectual functioning may be divided into three broad categories: studies of structure, studies of change in level, and considerations of various antecedents or extraneous variables that may have an important impact on intellectual functioning in the elderly.
Publication Year: 1992
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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