Age and Awareness of Finitude in Developmental Gerontology

Abstract

In developmental theory, awareness of finitude is held to initiate processes of disengagement, self-focusing, and life-review. Age has been assumed to be inversely related to awareness of finitude, and employed in testing these conceptions. Rather then being a simple inverse function of age, awareness of finitude is an estimate based on social-comparison processes. These data demonstrate the weaknesses inherent in any attempt to substitute age as a measure of awareness of finitude. Selected aspects of reminiscence are examined in relation to awareness of finitude in illustration of the fruitfulness of a direct use of awareness of finitude as a variable in relation to developmental aspects of aging.