Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Hands-On Purposeful Activity And Short-Term Memory Retention In Elderly Patients With Cognitive Deficits, Desiree Arah Varner

Masters Theses

This study compared the effects of hands-on purposeful doing with demonstration (HO) versus a demonstration-only (DO) activity in terms of the level of memory retention in elderly females. Twenty-nine females with a mean age of 81.8 years (SD = 11.6) and with moderate cognitive deficits as determined by a score of 3-8 on the Mental Status Questionnaire (Kahn, Goldfarb, & Pollack, 1960) were selected from an extended care nursing facility. Fifteen randomly assigned subjects (in three sub-groups of five) had approximately one hour of demonstration and hands-on involvement with ice cream making. Fourteen randomly assigned subjects in sub-groups of four …

Communication And Aging: Perceptions Of Family And Friend Interaction On Self Reported Life Satisfaction Among Selected Residents Of Three Nursing Homes, Patricia J. Fetzner

Masters Theses

The study of communication and aging provides great potential for enriching the lives of the elderly. Of course this should be of great interest to each of us as we are all inevitably aging. One rapidly growing area in communication research deals with how communication affects the life satisfaction of the elderly. Of particular interest is the attitudinal effect of family and friend interaction.

Early research dealing with the elderly focused on two theories: 1. Activity theory, which is the idea that social activity is essential to an older person's sense of well being and; 2. Disengagement theory, which suggests …