Age salience in older adults' spontaneous self-concept

Distinctiveness theory predictions were examined by the salience of age in older adults' spontaneous self-concept with variation in age composition of residential setting. The hypothesis that elderly respondents in ordinary housing would mention age more often than those in senior housing apartments or nursing homes was not supported. The findings suggest that developmental contingencies exert a differential influence on trait salience in self-concept less during later adulthood than in earlier years.