In Arabic, as in many languages, the future is "ahead" and the past is "behind." Yet in the research reported here, we showed that Arabic speakers tend to conceptualize the future as behind and the past as ahead of them, despite using spoken metaphors that suggest the opposite. We propose a new account of how space-time mappings become activated in individuals' minds and entrenched in their cultures, the temporal-focus hypothesis: People should conceptualize either the future or the past as in front of them to the extent that their culture (or subculture) is future oriented or past oriented. Results support the temporal-focus hypothesis, demonstrating that the space-time mappings in people's minds are conditioned by their cultural attitudes toward time, that they depend on attentional focus, and that they can vary independently of the space-time mappings enshrined in language.

Older people who do not rate their health status positively and indicate low levels of social support have a higher risk of being dissatisfied with their lives and due to this they should receive special attention from gerontologists.

Findings support the view that psychosocial resources are important for successful aging and therefore should be included in successful aging models. Furthermore, interventions aimed at fostering successful aging should take into account the role of psychosocial variables.

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Personality traits should be considered when interventions aimed at promoting life satisfaction in old age and successful aging are designed.

Age, gender or type of stressful situation impact on the coping strategies used by older people. Older men and women were found to use different strategies depending upon the situation they are facing and upon their age group. The results may prove useful to practitioners and clinicians who directly work with older people and may help clinicians provide effective coping strategies to address the specific life events that older adults find stressful.

It has been widely corroborated that recent stressful life events could impact wellbeing; nevertheless, it is not clear whether stressful situations experienced in the past and the individual resources used to deal with them influence older adults’ wellbeing. This study aims to analyse the influence of stressful past events and personal control beliefs, or the extent to which people believe they can control or influence their environment in order to achieve desired outcomes, on negative affect and domain-specific life satisfaction in a cross-sectional sample of 1,177 Spanish people age 50 years and older. For this purpose, the measurement of ten stressful past events, perceived control beliefs, negative affect and life satisfaction were obtained. Preliminary analyses showed that domain-specific life satisfaction grouped into two factors: internal and external life satisfaction. The results of the partial least squares structural equation model indicated that stressful events and control beliefs have an impact on both negative affect and life satisfaction in old age. Stressful past events had a negative effect on life satisfaction, while control beliefs were positively associated with negative affect. The model was able to predict the variance of internal life satisfaction at 37.5 per cent.

Promoviendo el envejecimiento activo en entornos rurales: un programa de intervención implementado en Orense, EspañaReceived: 10 November 2014 | Accepted: 27 January 2017Cristina G. DumitracheUniversidad de Granada, España ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8340-6476 Laura RubioUniversidad de Jaén, España Ignacio BedoyaAsociación Cuarto Sector Desarrollo Social, España Ramona Rubio-Herrera ABSTRACT Promoting health and quality of life among rural older people has received little attention, especially in Spain where the numb er of interventions designed specifically for the rural elderly is sparse. The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of an intervention program aiming at improving quality of life in a group of community-dwelling older adults living in a depopulated rural area in Orense, Galicia, Spain. The sample of this study comprised 86 people (78 people in the intervention group and 8 people in the control group) aged 65 and older (M=70.82; SD=6.35). The evaluation included the MEC, the CDT, and the WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire. The intervention was applied for a period of nine months and consisted of three weekly workshops with a mean duration of four hours that included cognitive stimulation, crafts, and physical activity. The results of the ANCOVA revealed that independently of the age, educational level, gender, and pretest scores, the participants of the intervention group had a lower risk of cognitive impairment. Also they maintained their score on the Psychological health dimension of the WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire while the participants in the control group slightly decreased their score. The intervention program had a positive effect on the participants' perception with regards to their opportunities to participate in leisure activities and improved their cognitive functioning, which in turn contrib uted to their more positive perception of their psychological health. KeywordsActive aging; quality of life; intervention; rural aging RESUMEN La promoción de la salud y la calidad de vida entre las personas mayores del medio rural ha recib ido poca atención, especialmente en España donde el número de intervenciones designadas específicamente para la población mayor rural es escasa. El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar la efectividad de un programa de intervención para incrementar la calidad de vida en un grupo de personas mayores que vivían en la comunidad en un área rural despoblada en Orense, Galicia, España. La muestra de este estudio estuvo compuesta por 86 personas (78 en el grupo de intervención y 8 en el grupo control) de 65 o más años (M=70.82; DT=6.35). La evaluación incluyó los cuestionarios MEC, CDT y WHOQOL-Bref. La intervención fue aplicada durante un periodo de nueve meses y consistió en tres sesiones semanales con una duración media de cuatro horas que incluían estimulación cognitiva, actividades físicas y creativas. Los resultados del ANCOVA revelan que independientemente de la edad, nivel educativo, género y puntuaciones pretest, los participantes del grupo de intervenci...