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Europe is the oldest continent in the world; in the year 2000, about 17% of Europeans (EU-15) were older than 65, and projections say that in the year 2025 one-fourth of the European population will have reached this age. Nevertheless, the threat to the population is not aging but disability; although life expectancy at birth is about 80, the expected number of years with disability runs from 5.7 to 7.2 years ( WHO, 2002 ). The United Nations recently approved the II International Plan of Action on Aging (MIPAA, UN, 2002) with special recommendation for the European region. This situation is highly demanding both for the science of psychology and for European psychologists. This article introduces a set of research programs - linked with the three priority directions of the MIPAA - as examples of how psychology is one of the disciplines calling for improved quality of life and well-being in old age and, therefore, GeroPsychology as an applied field should be consolidated in the next decades.

Psychological assessment is one of the key disciplines of scientific psychology. During this century it has been confused with psychology itself. The activity of any psychologist—whether in basic and applied fields, with sophisticated equipment in the laboratory, or when employing psychological tests or other assessment methods in applied fields—involves assessment at some stage. In this article, a series of challenges at the end of 20th century and avenues for development for the forthcoming decades are described. First of all, a continuation of the progress made during this century can be expected. A second avenue reviewed is related to the relationships between new technologies and the cognitive and neuropsychological sciences. Moreover, it can be expected that new social needs will produce several challenges. Finally, it can be predicted that there will be advances in the control of the assessor's as well as of the subject's behaviors during the assessment process.

Older adults are a population at risk for COVID-19. This study has two independent objectives: (1) to report the impact of COVID-19, as well as psycho-social responses during lockdown, in a sample of older adults in Spain, and (2) to explore through the review of published surveys what extent ageism has increased at the population level. The first objective was to search through an online questionnaire collecting information about self-reported health, lifestyles, psycho-social conditions, and a diversity of concerns. This questionnaire was administered to a volunteer sample of 315 older Spanish men and women (301 COVID-19-free and 14 diagnosed with COVID-19). All individuals reported that they had information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Their self-perception of health was also quite good, most maintaining healthy lifestyles and few reporting unhealthy behaviors. They reported few changes in family and interpersonal relations during lockdown. Those diagnosed with COVID-19 reported higher levels of anxiety, irritation, and fear, in comparison with the COVID-19-free group. Interestingly, instead of being concerned about health, the greatest concern in both groups (COVID-free and those diagnosed with COVID) were politics and the future. Our second objective, to explore ageism during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, was examined across various surveys conducted in several populations by several authors. Results showed an increase in ageism in Spain. Although some new information about health perception, psychosocial responses, and concerns during this unknown stressful situation was obtained, much more research with representative samples is required in order to arrive at more accurate conclusions.

Older adults are a population at risk for COVID-19. This study has two independent objectives: to report the impact of COVID-19, as well as psycho-social responses during lockdown, in a sample of older adults in Spain, and to explore through the review of published surveys what extent ageism has increased at the population level. The first objective was to search through an online questionnaire collecting information about self-reported health, lifestyles, psycho-social conditions, and a diversity of concerns. This questionnaire was administered to a volunteer sample of 315 older Spanish men and women (301 COVID-19-free and 14 diagnosed with COVID-19). All individuals reported that they had information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Their self-perception of health was also quite good, most maintaining healthy lifestyles and few reporting unhealthy behaviors. They reported few changes in family and interpersonal relations during lockdown. Those diagnosed with COVID-19 reported higher levels of anxiety, irritation, and fear, in comparison with the COVID-19-free group. Interestingly, instead of being concerned about health, the greatest concern in both groups (COVID-free and those diagnosed with COVID) were politics and the future. Our second objective, to explore ageism during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, was examined across various surveys conducted in several populations by several authors. Results showed an increase in ageism in Spain. Although some new information about health perception, psychosocial responses, and concerns during this unknown stressful situation was obtained, much more research with representative samples is required in order to arrive at more accurate conclusions

Abstract. Starting with the main goals of the Task Force of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations on Geropsychology, this report presents data from an internet search on European contributions to geropsychology, and from a questionnaire study about research, teaching, and application of geropsychology in Europe with key persons from 30 European countries. Based on these data, conclusions are drawn about future priorities in the field.

This paper sheds light on the issue of how psychology is involved in program evaluation. Several contributions of psychology to this methodological discipline are discussed. Using examples taken from the evaluation of European human-resources programs, the authors emphasize the role of behavioral and subjective variables. Also, the paper contends that the fundamental types of use debated in the evaluation literature can be enriched and clarified if notions from psychological theory are used. Finally, it is pointed out that although psychology is one of the social sciences traditionally involved in program evaluation, in the European context, psychologists seem to be almost absent from the evaluation of European programs. It is therefore suggested that European psychology and psychologists must make their presence more strongly felt in program evaluation.

SummaryThis study applied a gender perspective to establish some of the anthropometric, body composition, health and socio-cultural determinants of active ageing. The variable 'active ageing' (presence/absence) was created based on cognitive and disability/illness/physical functioning, subjective health, satisfaction with life and productive activity performed, and used in predictive models to establish its relationship with anthropometric variables, physical health indicators and educational level. The sample consisted of 456 home-living individuals (169 men and 287 women; age range 54–75 years) from Madrid and Toledo in Spain. The women had a higher prevalence of obesity than the men (37.6% vs 29.0%), significantly greater fat accumulation in the abdominal area and worst perceived health (p=0.003). The frequency of active agers is higher in men than in women (38.4% vs 21.9%; p<0.001). Men and women were found to have distinctive ageing patterns. Health factors condition the presence of active ageing in women, while education factors are also relevant in men.

Cognitive plasticity, learning potential, and rehabilitation potential are new constructs, which are understood as expressions of neural plasticity. They are assessed through dynamic assessment (or testing-the-limits), using experimental test-training-posttest, a form of evaluation closely related to functional or stress testing in medicine. This research strategy has been used for increasing knowledge about several target populations with intellectual handicaps (socially mentally retarded, brain-impaired, schizophrenia patients, etc.), including older people whose fluid intellectual capacity has declined. Recently, cognitive plasticity has been applied to the study of dementia ( Baltes & Baltes, 1997 ), but there are very few other studies in this area. The basic objective of this research program is to test the extent to which learning potential can be a predictor of the course of dementia. The first specific objective of the research is to test whether learning can discriminate healthy people from those diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). In order to assess cognitive plasticity, a Battery of Learning Potential for Assessing Dementia (BEPAD) was developed, incorporating four tests for assessing visuo-spatial and verbal memory, executive function, and verbal fluency. Two hundred subjects participated in the study: 100 healthy elderly, 50 diagnosed with MCI and 50 with AD. All learning strategies included in the four tests making up the BEPAD appear to be effective: All three groups improved their performance in visual memory, verbal learning, and executive function.