Book Reviews

The field of health psychology and ageing offers a diversity of challenges and opportunities for research.Aldwin, Park, and Spiro III (2005) highlight that diversity in this edited collection.One of their stated goals is to provide a comprehensive handbook on ageing and health, and in our opinion, they have succeeded in that objective.Through this work, the editors have provided a timely collection that captures the wide range of theories, methods, psychosocial issues and processes, as well as the gaps in our knowledge, which are specific to the cross-section of ageing and health.The handbook is organized into four sections that address these issues in various chapters.Theoretical and methodological issues is the topic of the first section.The opening chapters provide a general introduction to theories of health psychology and ageing.Golub & Langer begin with a provocative chapter in which they tackle two key assumptions frequently found in psychological theories of adult development: the 'unconditional equation of ageing with physical and cognitive decline' and the 'identification of coping with loss as the central task of ageing' (p.9).They argue that although these assumptions have utility, they pose a psychosocial risk to seniors, which can occur via the biases of health care professionals or seniors themselves, because both groups may see seniors as less deserving of care.This effectively challenges some of our traditional models of ageing, and would be a valuable text to utilize in geriatric training contexts.The final two chapters focus more on the methods used in ageing research.For example, Young and Vitaliano present a paradigm for examining the influences of psychosocial and behavioural factors on disease risk, and discuss common confounding variables that have an impact on designs and measures typically used in life-span health psychology.In contrast, Spiro examines the methodological implications of investigating health using a developmental life-span approach.Section 2 comprises three chapters highlighting biological issues of health and ageing.These chapters include discussions of psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR).Specifically, Cooper, Katzel, and Waldstein provide a solid review of the literature linking CVR to cardiovascular disease (CVD).They begin with an overview of agerelated changes in the cardiovascular system, and follow with a discussion on how these changes may result in heightening or lengthening cardiovascular stress responses in older adults.The discussion on CVR also incorporates other factors such as age, gender, and psychosocial influences.Of particular interest is the authors' discussion of the association between alexithymia, 'a cognitive-affective style in which one has a limited ability to understand, express, or differentiate one's own emotions' (p.156), and increased mortality from CVD.The authors note that this emerging area of research will need further investigation in order to determine the nature of the relationship between alexithymia and CVD.In Section 3, several excellent chapters explore psychosocial issues such as spiritual issues in ageing, changing social relationships, emotional regulation and resilience, and personality variables.For example, Friedman and Martin discuss the contribution of conscientiousness.They define conscientiousness as a 'tendency to be prudent, planful, persistent, and dependable : : : ' (p.172), as defined by McCrae and John (1992).In studying conscientiousness as part of the Terman Life Cycle Study, Friedman and Martin found that both child and adult conscientiousness (measuring slightly different facets of conscientiousness) predicted longevity.The authors offer an overview of other studies that have found similar results, and then move into a sophisticated discussion of dynamisms, mechanisms, and tropisms, and how conscientiousness influences each of these in ways that extend the life-span.The final section comprises three chapters focused on clinical issues.The chapter by Qualls and Benight, in its discussion of 'The Role of Clinical Health Geropsychology in the Health Care of Older Adults', is particularly informative as an introductory text for clinical students.While the first part of this chapter will be less interesting to someone familiar with the literature on clinical

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