Margaret Baltes' book brings together twenty years of work on a research program attempting to counter the prevailing stereotypes of dependent behavior and incompetence among older adults. Fourteen empirical studies based primarily on theories of behavior and social learning form the core of this volume. Likely to interest those who wish to increase their knowledge of the methodology of observation and its statistical analysis, the book presents the risk, according to the author herself, of irritating the reader by its accumulation of details, especially regarding the presentation of the observation methodology and its statistics. On the other hand, certain chapters constitute an essential contribution to the gerontological debate on these important themes. In this respect, the first chapters situate the problem of dependency and present the theoretical framework that led the research. In the same vein, the final chapter aims to be a questioning by the author of the dominant social stereotypes of dependency and incompetence among elders and the way in which they attract paternalistic behavior and overprotective attitudes within institutions and the community; she also offers some ideas about the scope of her research.