A German Research Program on the Psychosocial Adaptation to Age-Related Vision Impairment

The present paper argues that psychosocial adaptation in visually impaired older adults is substantially mediated by the use of control strategies. Our first research question against this general conceptual background is whether there are differences between visually impaired older adults and unimpaired older adults in control strategies or variables considered as major adaptational outcome variables in the behavioral and emotional domain. Our second research question addresses the kind of relations between control strategies and outcomes in visually impaired older adults. The findings are based on a sample of N = 90 visually impaired older adults (mean age: 79.5; 64 women, 26 men; all suffering from age-related macular degeneration; visual acuity less than 20/70) as well as a reference group of N = 35 unimpaired older adults. All participants underwent a standardized psychological assessment program based on internationally well-established measures. Findings support the notion that differences between the visually impaired and the unimpaired are most pronounced in behavioral indicators such as activities of daily living and leisure activity level, while control strategies were different in only one instance, pointing to a stronger tendency in visually impaired persons toward compensatory control efforts. Furthermore, selective control, which is investing time and effort to change one's environment, covaries most strongly with behavioral outcomes, while selective control aimed to strengthen the motivational commitment to important life goals covaries most strongly with emotional adaptation. The results generally illustrate the heuristic fruitfulness of psychological control theory in understanding adaptation in visually impaired older adults.