Abstract
Due to the increasingly heterogeneous trajectories of aging, gerontology requires theoretical models and empirical methods that can meaningfully, reliably, and precisely describe, explain, and predict causes and effects within the aging process, considering particular contexts and situations. Human behavior occurs in contexts; nevertheless, situational changes are often neglected in context-based behavior research. This article follows the tradition of environmental gerontology research based on Lawton’s Person-Environment-Interaction model (P-E model) and the theoretical developments of recent years. The authors discuss that, despite an explicit time component, current P-E models could be strengthened by focusing on detecting P-E interactions in various everyday situations. Enhancing Lawton’s original formula via a situationally based component not only changes the theoretical perspectives on the interplay between person and environment but also demands new data collection approaches in empirical environmental research. Those approaches are discussed through the example of collecting mobile data with smartphones. Future research should include the situational dimension to investigate the complex nature of person environment interactions.
Highlights
Trajectories of aging are inter- and intra-individually, and inter- and intra-contextually heterogeneous, complex, and diverse
To understand and explain the elements and processes that guide the development of this heterogeneity, Gerontology requires theoretical models and empirical methods that can meaningfully, reliably, and precisely describe, explain, and predict causes and effects within the complexity of the aging process and the factors influencing it within and across contexts and situations
This research argues for an essential expansion of existing PxE models by adding the term s to represent behavioral variations between different situations in the same contexts
Summary
Trajectories of aging are inter- and intra-individually, and inter- and intra-contextually heterogeneous, complex, and diverse. To understand and explain the elements and processes that guide the development of this heterogeneity, Gerontology requires theoretical models and empirical methods that can meaningfully, reliably, and precisely describe, explain, and predict causes and effects within the complexity of the aging process and the factors influencing it within and across contexts and situations. Powell Lawton and Lucille Nahemow (1973) stated that the environment has a non-negligible influence on the aging process and individual behavior This rationale reaches back to the field theory of Kurt Lewin (1951), which can be expressed as a mathematical formula:. Expanded Lewin’s formula to include observations showing that similar competence under the same environmental press (or richness) does not necessarily generate similar behavior This implies that individuals with identical abilities and identical environments can generate a large variety of (docile or proactive) behaviors, the amount of variety largely depending on the number of opportunities in a given environment. Lewin considered the situation as a relevant factor but did not make it explicit, while Lawton focused
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