Schulz, 1976: Controlling or predicting college student visits increased health and well-being among retirement-home residents over 2 months but decreased these outcomes after 42 months
Reference:
Schulz, R. (1976). Effects of control and predictability on the physical and psychological well-being of the institutionalized aged. Journal of personality and social psychology, 33(5), 563.
Download PDFSummary:
Retirement-home residents were given the opportunity to control or to predict when a college student visitor would come visit them over a 2-month period, or received the same number and length of visits but without this predictability, or no visits. At 2-months, residents in the former conditions reported being happier and having more “zest for life” and were rated as being healthier and showed a smaller increase in the use of medications. Then the visits ended. At 42-months, residents in the former conditions were rated as having less “zest for live” and as less healthy and had a mortality rate of 20% as compared to 0% in the random-visit and no-visit conditions (Schulz & Hanusa, 1978).
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
Selves (My Own and Others')How?
Psychological Question Addressed
Can I control important aspects of my life?Can I control important aspects of my life?Psychological Question Addressed
Can I control important aspects of my life?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Health
Intervention Technique:
Prompting by altering situations