PROFILES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING IN THE OLD AND OLDEST-OLD

Cluster analysis was applied to 12 measures of intellectual, personali ty, self-related, and social functioning collected in the Ist cross-se ctional wave of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE: N = 516). Central questi ons concerned the number, profile desirability (functional status), an d membership of the subgroups obtained. Of the 9 subgroups extracted, 4 reflected different patterns of desirable functioning (47% of the sa mple), and 5 reflected less desirable functioning (53%). Relative risk of a less desirable profile was 2.5 times higher for the oldest old ( 85-103 years) than for people between the ages of 70-84 years and was 1.25 times higher for women compared with men. Relationships with educ ation, health, and mortality suggested underlying systemic differences . Consistent with theoretical propositions about a ''4th age'' and the incomplete architecture of life span development (P. B. Baltes, 1997) , the oldest old appear to have a distinct and less desirable psycholo gical profile.