THE ROLE OF THE HOME ENVIRONMENT IN MIDDLE AND LATE ADULTHOOD

Human development over the life span is characterised by person–environment (p–e) exchange processes (Bronfenbrenner, 1999), covering subjective experiences as well as objective behaviour. In order to address the complexity of ageing in place from a predominantly psychological point of view, a conceptual framework that emphasises two processes of p–e exchange in later life is suggested, and integrates many of the theoretical approaches offered in the field in the last decades. These processes are labelled “belonging” and “agency” (Oswald & Wahl, 2004; Wahl & Lang, 2003; Wahl & Oswald, 2004, in press) (Figure 1). Processes of belonging account for the full range of subjective experiences, while processes of agency emphasise the full range of objective behaviours. Having experienced life-long bonding to certain places in later life, processes of belonging are based on the increasing amount of environmental experience, leading to subjective evaluation and interpretation of places, allocation of meaning, as well as to cognitive and emotional representation and place attachment. Processes of agency, in contrast, deal with behaviour in relation to passive and active use, compensation, adaptation, retrofitting and creation of places, which are especially important in old age because of the decrease in functional capacity and behavioural flexibility. Both processes are considered to be particularly important for p–e exchange in the immediate home environment. The home becomes more relevant to people as they age, due to the increased time older people spend at home, as well as the many activities that take place at home (Baltes, Maas, Wilms, & Borchelt, 1999). Thus, the research programme underlying this work is driven by the basic assumption that processes of housing-related belonging and processes of housing-related agency are two fundamental processes of ageing in place. However, both types of processes are not considered independent from each other in everyday life. Furthermore, we would argue that processes of p–e exchange are related to housing-related outcome variables. Two types of outcomes are introduced by way of dichotomisation into housing-related identity and housing-related autonomy. As far as the ageing self at home is concerned, a major goal in later life is to maintain identity and personality—as far as the ageing body is concerned, a major goal is to remain independent at home for as long as possible. To reach both aims, processes of housing-related agency and belonging are assumed to be instrumental. Finally, we argue that both outcomes are