Discussion of Bechtel's Paper

              Discussion of Bechtel's paper Gerontological Society meeting, St, Louis, May 1973 M. Powell Lawton Philadelphia Geriatric Center Before going on to the substantive sections of Dr. Bechtel's presentation, I ought to suggest just for the record that there have been other attempts to deal with environment as a total influence on the behavior of older people. Carpfs study of the impact of Victoria Plaza* one of the first public housing sites for the elderly, should be mentioned as well worth the attention of anyone interested in either the design, the program, or methodology for research on. housing for the elderly? I'd also like to mention that I now have in "first draft a longitudinal impact study of tenants in 5 varied housing sites, as compared with older people who remained in the community. By and large, out study confirms Carp?s finding of favor ble impact, though the size of effect in considerably smaller than that reported by Carp. We conclude that the value of such housing is thus absolutely confirmed, but warn planners that the effects of good housing have their limits. We cannot expect it to transform the lines of older people who bring their own lifelong needs into a situation where they are still subject to the pressures of our society1s ageism. Schooler demonstrated the relatedness of environmental factors such as size of dwelling unit, nearness to and knowledge of community resources, and condition of dwelling unit and neighborhood to morale, suggesting that these factors affected morale directly, and not through the mediation of -2- social relationships, y The large body of literature on the negative effects of relocation of vulnerable individuals also should be acknowledged of which Pastalan's recent demonstration of overwhelming negative effect is the most compelling* Among the interesting concepts advanced by Dr. Bechtels I'd like to conraent first on the concept of environmental regression, I think that the term itself is useful because if fixes the regression itself on the environment, rather than the aging individual. He may, of course, regress concurrently, but I think it very necessary for1 us to be reminded of the facts that the environment literally shrinks away from the older person- in our culture. Fewer behavior settings are offered hinu Even though his ex- posure to the physical environment (that is in territorial range) stays a little ahead of his actual participation, the implication is clear that the extra exposure does not include meaningful roles in the community1s activity structure* ' '; I do hope that the aaming of this phenomenon as ^environmental regression11 will not mean that the age is accepted as BTI isolated fact and simply allowed to stand as further evidence that the elderly relate to their environment "just like children/1 We have seentiiis oversimplification some- times in the interpretation of results of some lifespan developmental psychological studies inspired by the theories of Werner :& Piaget, While the mean territorial range of adolescents and elderly is the same, and the number of hours spent in community activities the same for both pre-schoolers and aged, the responses of the individuals to the situation are clearly -3- different. While the environmental regression certainly needs documenta- tion, the mechanisms behind it are in desperate need of exploration. Undermanning theory has majpr implications for designing for the elderly. I hope everyone here will feel impelled to read and re-read Dr. Bechtelfs words on this concept, go bach to some of the source material he quotes, and attempt to apply the ideas to some of the knotty social and physical planning issues in this area. Dr. Bechtel points out that flthe elderly are clearly in a grossly overmanned situation*11 I think we have to ask "overmanned with respect to what?19 and go on to analyze the answers in terms of their implications for a variety of specific situations. Perhaps the most obvious overmanned situations are those where people of all ages are competing for roles, resources, service priorities, and so on. Overmanning of this type results in excess unfilled time for the aged, fewer roles to perform, and so on. One could say that almost all situations are overmanned with respect to the elderly* considering all ages as the reference point. To some extent, intervention in this situation is possible. As Dr. Bechtel has intimated, the creation of age-segregation behavior setfciags cuts down the total numbers in the pool of actors. It also allows for easier redefinition of requirements for behavior setting occupancy, that is, a lowering of standards in a way appropriate to the elderly alone. Age-segregated housing, golden age clubs, and church groups composed of people over 60 are examples. However, it is important to note that overmanning of age integration are relatively independent concepts, A small setting composed of members of all ages and subject to the pressure of undermanning may provide roles irrespective of age. Many of the settings in which older people behave are age-segregated, however, the effect of overmanning needs particularly careful examination in these, as it leads to questions like those of determining whether there is an ideal size of housing project, or the aggregate elderly population necessary to make a cosmunity service work* and so on. It seems to me that we really have a continuum from undermanning to ovemanning, and that the undermanning phenomenon detailed by Dr. Bechtel represents a small piece of the continuum +* the area of optimal motivating power to the individual, particularly the individual of marginal competence. It seems just as im- portant to locate the inflection points at which the pool of possible behavior setting inhabitants becomes so small that one simply cannot recruit enough people to keep the setting alive. Surprisingly, we know very little yet about the relationship of size of a housing project- to the level of activity and tenant involvement that occurs in it. I can guarantee that Dr. Bechtelfs presentation of thse notions will lead me to examine this issue very closely as data come in from a survey of 150 federally assisted housing projects now under way at the Philadelphia Geriatric Center. Whether we shall ever get a clear answer regarding the ideal sisse of such an environment* however, I cannot be that hopeful about. For example, earlier work from our Center has indicated that characteristics of the environment determine who will n?ve into the housing. Thus, if one builds very small or scattered housing, where too few people will be available for activity programs to thrive, the people #10 apply for the housing may -5- already be self-selected on relevant variables. They may be people who have enough outside resources to enabl the support of an activity program* them to live enriched lives without On the other hand, they may be loners Thus, we would who wouldn't need or utilize an on~site activity program. have a complex causul system where it would be difficult to ascribe low involvement exclusively either to size or to selective recruitment* When planning a community service, one will frequently have occasion to ask what the minimum number of possible participants will be to keep an activity alive, and then calculate on the basis of population data how wide an area will be necessary to attract this minimum number of people. Distance to the activity and available transportation could also be worked into the projection and one might be able to build up empirical data on the probably "yield11 one might expect, giVen the type of activity, population, and transportation information. On the basis of the effect on participation rate of differint sized pools of possible participants, one could recruit so as to define a pool large enough to make the activity function, but small enough to maximize participation. One might thus publicize plans for an activity only widely enough to yield this optimum number, and avoid a situation such as one sometimes sees in a senior center where the performance of significant roles by only those with the highest ?kills actually discourages those with modest talent from taking any part. Methodology In terms of methodology, the power of direct behavior observation is very apparent, particularly in the light of various effects on the response styles of elderly Ss, such as "yea-saying ,if fear of appearing dissatisfied, and simple inarticulateness. However, the very major limitation of direct observation is that it is generally limited to public areas, unless it is in a place where intrusion is legitimized? such as a total institution. This limitation is particularly restrictive in light of the general tendency of the older person1e behavioral space to shrink, so that for many, the dwelling unit may become increasingly the locus for much behavior. Therefore, we simply have no choice but to be vigilant in improving alternative data-gather ing methods. We probably shall never be able to do without the interview or questionnaire, though we certainly may attempt to improve the way w@ ask our questions or present our stimuli. Other methods whose utility needs to be explored include - The time diary, perhaps using categories such as those developed by Chapin, but tailored fox- the elderly - Daily verbal reporting to the researcher of material similar to what might go in a time diary - Electronic n&nitorlng devices, of a type where the examiner could "ring'1 the subject and ask him to report what he was doing at a given moment. - Closed-circuit TV and audio within the dwelling unit, where the occupant would have control over when it was turned on and off - Subject-conducted tf toursf!t where the ? shows the researcher what [ areas he uses and what he does there. All of these methods are in the tradition of good ecological research, and are necessary to complement the very expensive direct behavior observation.