Heedful of the theoretical insight that the differential approach in the most adequate for investigating the process of adjustment among old people, the investigation covered 126 older persons of both genders. Their average age was 76 years and they were sorted into three groups: a group living alone in their own house, a group living with their family and those living in a home for the elderly. The psychological functioning of these individuals was measured on the scales of locus of control, well-being, self-reflexivity, self- respect, loneliness and general satisfaction with life. An orally presented questionnaire (as were all the scales) collected evidence pertaing to the number of activities, the feeling of usefulness and an estimate of their health. The results of comparing the psychological functioning of these three groups show that the group from the home for the elderly differs from the other two. These differences are stable and point in the same direction in the sense of a higher degree of externality, lesser activity and a diminished feeling of usefulness. The group living alone and the group in the home for the elderly do not differ as far as wellbeing, loneliness and the general satisfaction with life are concerned but they do differ from the group living with their family. When it comes to self-conceptualization there is no difference between the three groups of elderly folk. Generally speaking, the results indicate that the effects of the living conditions are manifest in those aspects of the personality which can be considered conditions and not in those called traits.
