Power, Dependence, and the Complaints of the Elderly: A Social Exchange Perspective

Many of us have known some aged person whose conversation was dominated by a relation of his misfortunes. But many of us have also known elderly persons who were usually cheerful and optimistic. This paper attempts to account for the difference on the basis of social exchange and social power theories. Certain limits to this effort must be specified. Some elderly do have more to bemoan than others; this will not be denied here. But objective troubles are far from perfect predictors of subjective complaints. Much of the unexplained variation can be accounted for by the theory of social exchange and power. Second, the emphasis here is with long-term influences on social exchanges as much as with short-term influences. To anticipate the argument, it shall be asserted that the lonelier an old person is, the more he or she will complain. It could be argued that complaining drives away potential friends and thereby produces loneliness; perhaps it does in some cases. My point, however, is that this is not always the case; and that loneliness, through a possibly “perverse” process, makes people complain even more.