title: Alive and well: the state of behavioral gerontology in 2011.
abstract: In this paper, the authors present a brief personal account of the senior author's 30 years of exploration in behavioral gerontology. The main thesis of the paper is that behavioral methods and interventions have found a home both in mainstream gerontology and at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are three sections: (a) a personal vignette discussing the problems inherent in using operant terminology in a nonoperant world; (b) a discussion, with examples from NIH sources, of the Institutes' views on behavior change; and (c) using Burgio and Burgio (1986) as a reference point, the authors show evidence of progress and vitality of behavioral gerontology in 2011.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Social Work, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. lburgio@umich.edu
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burgio
authors.forename: Jennifer D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kowalkowski
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000639:trends*; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000639:trends*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D054561:National Institute on Aging (U.S.) / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States