Varia

The 7th International Congress of Gerontology was held at the previous Hofburgpalacc.There were 2.000 participants from 44 countries (at the 6th Congress in Copen hagen there were 900).They listened to 21 lectures during plenary sessions and to a 1.000 papers (Copenhagen 500) in one of the 11 congress-rooms.Interest for this congress was therefore very big.That this was so could also be derived from the fact that a selec tion of papers to be presented had to be made which resulted in holding back 800 papers.If this selection would not have taken place it would have been even more difficult to obtain a realistic overview of the ideas and findings which were brought to the fore at this gerontological market.Therefore this report contains a rather personal evaluation with special emphasis on the social-gerontological contributions.Firstly, we want to pay special attention to methodological questions.Secondly some attention will be given to the various themes within the separate social-scientific disciplines.Lastly we want to conclude with some remarks about theorizing and training in gerontology.When we compare the present situation with the one at Copenhagen, it appears that now-three years later-much more longitudinal research is carried out.Besides this research often has an interdisciplinary character, most of which is carried out in the United States of America.The oldest research project here is the well-known " California Longitudinal Studies" by J ones, Berkeley, et al., of which the subjects now are 35 to 45 years of age.Other interdisciplinary longitudinal research project with special emphasis on the biological clinical aspects have been carried out sofar by Shock el al. (Baltimore), Busse etal.(Durham, North-Carolina), M.F.Collen (Oakland), A.I. Goldfarb (New York) and W.D. O brist (Durham, North-Carolina); purely biological longitudinal research projects sofar have been those of O. Gsell et al. (Basel) and J. Brozek et al. (Minnea polis, Minnesota); primarily psychological longitudinal research has been carried out sofar by K.F.Riegel (Ann Arbor, Michigan), K.VV.Schaie (Morgantown, West-Virginia) and by J.H .Britten et al. (University Park, Penna).As much longitudinal research has only started shortly, the discussion mainly concerned the general design and organization of the research.Special attention was paid to the problem of the " survivals" and of the restricted possibilities for compairing data.Strangely enough hardly anything was said about the problem of the halo-effect as a consequence of the repeated use of psychological measurement methods.Interdisciplinary research also increases.Of this research we like to mention: Cardio vascular disease and intellectual changes in the elderly (L.W. Thompson, C. Eisdorfer et al., Durham, North-Carolina); Relationships between alpha brain wave frequency, age, heart disease and intelligence (M.Apfeldorf et at., New York); The psychologic evaluation of a program of estrogen administration for older women (H.I. Kanter et al., Dallas, Texas), and Social adjustment in the aged (M.F.Lowenthal, USA).Cross-national research is another approach to problems about which one does not easily obtain sufficient information in cross-sectional research.In Vienna a number of researchers (Shanas, Townsend, Stehouwer) discussed various aspects of a cross national research project which has been carried out in the United States of America, Great-Britain and in Denmark.Though this research revealed only little cultural variation between the three countries, it is nevertheless expected that the cross-national

Sociology · Aging and Gerontology Research · Health disparities and outcomes · Psychology · Technology Use by Older Adults