Changes in Behavior and Personality
Corresponding to the stereotype of inevitable intellectual decline with aging are stereotypes of regressive behavior and increasing inflex-ibilily of personality traits. However, these are more a sign of psychiatric disturbance than a manifestation of aging. Consider the issue of cautiousness. Research shows that (he elderly are more cautious than younger adults about risk taking when the payoff is predictable and constant. If the size of the payoff depends on the degree of risk, however, older persons are no more cautious than younger persons.
Anxiety can resull in cautiousness, causing delays in decision making and reactions. In other words, excessive cautiousness in the elderly may signal underlying anxiety or a related clinicaldisorder. However, it is entirely appropriate for a frail or disabled older person to he more careful in general. A maladaptive overcautiousness resulting from anxiety must be distinguished from an appropriate, adaptive response to reality.
If older adults appear to be more rigid lhan younger adults, then cohort differences (ie, generational differences that stem from having grown up during different hisloric periods)—and no! age differences— are more likely involved. Research shows no( only that personalities remain stable with aging but also that behavioral and psychologic adap-tiveness continues and docs not normally give way to regression or rigidity. If certain behaviors or traits become increasingly exaggerated, maladaptive, and unmodifiable, neurosis rather than normal aging may be to blame. Treatment rather than acceptance is in order.