“The Ages of Me”: Toward Personal and Interpersonal Definitions of Functional Aging

Personal age (how old a person seems to himself) is proposed (a) as a potential component of total functional age and (b) as a basis of classification in attempts to create and modify “old behavior.” Companion constructs are those of interpersonal age (how old a person seems to others) and consensual age (degree of agreement between personal and interpersonal ages). Illustrative data are reported from a sample of 75 adults (38 women, 37 men) who range in age from 20 to 69; 43 are enrolled in advanced gerontology training programs. The results suggest that personal age is comprised of at least two fairly distinct components: how old S looks and how old he feels. There is a strong bias toward reporting personal age as more youthful than chronological age—a bias that becomes more pronounced with advancing chronological age level. All of the age constructs are related to chronological age, although not always in a linear or simple manner. At this point in the research program, gerontology specialists do not appear conspicuously different from nongerontologists in their response to personal age and other related questions.