COMMENTARY: AGE-RELATED LOSS IN VISION: A CASE TO LEARN ABOUT AGING IN CONTEXT

Abstract

In the preceding chapter, Dr. Wahl and colleagues have provided an overview of a multifaceted research programme on age-related vision loss conducted at the German Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Heidelberg. The scope of this research programme is extremely impressive, not only for its specific contributions to the study of vision loss in later life, but also for informing the more general phenomenon of ageing in context. As such, this commentary begins with a brief discussion of the major contributions of this research programme to understanding psychosocial adaptation to age-related vision loss, and then addresses some specific issues raised in the chapter. One of the most basic, but critical, contributions of this research is that it drew attention to a long ignored area of study. At a time when gerontologists were overlooking, the implications of sensory impairments for life quality, and those studying adjustment to vision impairment were ignoring the elderly, Wahl and colleagues highlighted the importance of studying vision impairment as a prototypical disability of later life; that is, vision impairment as an age-related developmental challenge which propels the older adult to activate his/her internal and external resources to maintain wellbeing. The message that was clearly conveyed was that the study of age-related vision loss would have important implications for the general study of late-life disability as well. Second, and of paramount significance, has been his contribution in bringing a theoretical perspective into what had been a largely atheoretica field. In particular, Dr. Wahl was the first to identify the Life Span Theory of Control (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995) as a theoretical framework with crucial relevance for understanding how visually impaired older adults address daily challenges and strive to balance and rebalance control in their everyday lives. Because the experience of vision loss in later life tends to constitute a major threat to one’s sense of competence and control, as well as being typically characterised by gradual onset and progressive deterioration, it is an agerelated loss that poses increasing and continuously changing adaptational challenges requiring a process-oriented approach represented by the Life Span Theory of Control. Based on this framework, research teams at both the German Centre for Research on Aging at the University of Heidelberg and the Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute of Lighthouse International (http://www.lighthouse.org) were able to collaborate and develop similar study designs, eventually providing an unparalleled opportunity to not only contribute to the theoretical understanding of adaptational processes in later life, but to explore cross-national comparisons as well.