The volume explores how and why some people adapt more successfully than others to age-related stressors such as chronic illness, disability, and loss, and identifies ways to promote coping and resilience.

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Meeting a growing need, this authoritative reference and text comprehensively examines the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in health and illness in older adults. The volume explores how and why some people adapt more successfully than others to age-related stressors such as chronic illness, disability, and loss, and identifies ways to promote coping and resilience. With contributions from leading researchers in health psychology and gerontology, the Handbook integrates state-of-the-science theories and methods from both fields. Key topics include how aging affects the cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune systems; the influences on adult development and health of personality, emotions, social support, and religiousness; and effective interventions in healthcare settings.

"This book comes just in time, as the first wave of the baby boomer generation is finishing its sixth decade of life. It is an impressive volume that provides a comprehensive overview of critical issues related to aging. It will be a major resource for those who are concerned about the social, psychological, and health issues facing our aging population, including researchers, graduate students, and practitioners. The editors are to be congratulated for their vision and for bringing together such a distinguished and thoughtful group of contributors."
-Nancy E. Adler, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

Pages: 423 + Index, 6 x 9

I. Theoretical and Methodological Issues

1. Health Psychology and Aging: An Introduction, Carolyn M. Aldwin, Crystal L. Park, and Avron Spiro III

2. Challenging Assumptions about Adult Development: Implications for the Health of Older Adults, Sarit A. Golub and Ellen J. Langer

3. A Developmental Approach to Psychosocial Risk Factors and Successful Aging, Cynthia A. Berg, Timothy W. Smith, Nancy J. M. Henry, and Gale E. Pearce

4. Methods in Health Psychology: Relevance to Aging, Heather Young and Peter Vitaliano

5. The Relevance of a Lifespan Developmental Approach to Health, Avron Spiro III

II. Biological Issues

6. Psychoneuroimmunological Processes in Aging and Health, Tara L. Gruenewald and Margaret E. Kemeny

7. The Psychoneuroendocrinology of Aging: Anabolic and Catabolic Hormones, Elissa S. Epel, Heather M. Burke, and Owen M. Wolkowitz

8. Cardiovascular Reactivity in Older Adults, Denise C. Cooper, Leslie I. Katzel, and Shari R. Waldstein

III. Psychosocial Issues

9. A Lifespan Approach to Personality and Longevity: The Case of Conscientiousness, Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin

10. Sense of Control and Health: A Dynamic Duo in the Aging Process, Marilyn McKean Skaff

11. Coping, Health, and Aging, Carolyn M. Aldwin, Loriena A. Yancura, and Daria K. Boeninger

12. Health and Psychological Consequences of Caregiving, Richard H. Fortinsky, Howard Tennen, Natalie Frank, and Glenn Affleck

13. Psychosocial Stress, Emotion Regulation, and Resilience among Older Adults, Mary C. Davis, Alex J. Zautra, Lisa M. Johnson, Kate E. Murray, and Heather A. Okvat

14. Optimizing Social Relationships as a Resource for Health and Well-Being in Later Life, Karen S. Rook, Shahrzad Mavandadi, Dara H. Sorkin, and Laura A. Zettel

15. Issues of Diversity in Health Psychology and Aging, Barbara W. K. Yee and David A. Chiriboga

16. Religious and Spiritual Issues in Health and Aging, Crystal L. Park

IV. Clinical Issues

17. Self-Regulation of Health Threats, Affect, and the Self: Lessons from Older Adults, Howard Leventhal, Rachel Forster, and Elaine Leventhal

18. Role of Clinical Health Geropsychology in the Health Care of Older Adults, Sara Honn Qualls and Charles C. Benight

19. Effects of Changes in Diagnostic Thresholds on Health Care for Older Adults, Robert M. Kaplan

20. Health Psychology and Aging: Moving to the Next Generation of Research, Carolyn M. Aldwin, Crystal L. Park, and Avron Spiro III

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