Two main theories of effective psychological adjustment to aging were tested: activity theory, which proposes that elderly persons should remain in active contact with their environment; and disengagement theory, which suggests that adjustment comes through a reduction of activity and social contact. A group of community-living, disengaged elderly were identified. Disengaged subjects in the experimental group were exposed to an activity group experience. Experimental subjects demonstrated significant improvement over the untreated control subjects on six of seven measures of psychological adjustment and well-being. The results supported the activity theory of effective psychological adjustment to aging.
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