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Volume XC Number 8	University of Southern California	Tuesday, July 14, 1981
HAS TO BE LEARNED
Making friends a skill
to analyze stress
To insure oneself against the twin plagues of old age — loneliness and depression — there is an important skill to learn.
According to Dr. Steven H. Zarit, assistant professor of gerontology and psychology at the university.
“The older person’s most precious asset — next to health and financial security — is the ability to make friends. And that's a skill best learned in youth, long before the need becomes critical and the opportunity becomes limited in old age."
Zarit speaks from poignant first-hand experience as director of USC's Andrus Older Adult Center, a Mac Arthur Park-area public counseling center and training clinic for graduate students of gerontological mental health.
“Over and over,” said Zarit, “older people come to our clinic and say to us, ‘Please, can you help me find a friend? Someone who will be interested in me? Someone I can call on the telephone, and who
would call me? Someone who would go with me to the movies?”
Typically, Zarit said, these are people who no longer have close relatives. Or their relatives no longer live nearby.
“Such people are often vry depressed and in need of all the help and counseling we can give. But we can’t find them friends. Nobody really can supply anyone with a friend. Everyone has to learn ho to do that for himself, and everyone should.”
Zarit acknowledges that friends may not be important for everyone, and they may be important for some persons only in certain stages of life.
“There’s nothing necessarily wrong with a friendless person whose needs are otherwise met by family and/or by fulfilling work. But, for many people, a friend plays a vital role as a companion, a confidante, as someone who is on your side.” The ability to make friends, said Zarit, dependes on social skills that sould be taught to (Continued on page 6]
Ability
Coping with stress requires the ability to recognize, analyze and resolve your condition, according to various researchers in stress-management.
Dr. Milton Holmen, professor of organizational behavior at the university described malstress as “any level of stress above each individuals ideal level that’s unhealthy for the body.”
Malstress can be determined through warnings like frequent headaches and tension, said psychology professor Dr. James Birren. A more common behavioral sign is hearing people speak, but not listening comprehensively. High stress levels are also the reason for intense physical fatigue without reason.
Both researchers have found some individuals to be more susceptible to conditions of stress under certain situations, although anyone can suffer from malstress. “The person who’s
not making it by not meeting his goals is under malstress,” said Holmen. “The person may even be considered highly successful by colleagues, but may have set unrealistic goals.”
Birren added that people who are frequent complain-ers and take no action to relieve the causes of their problems soon find themselves victims of malstress. However, there are those who have no control over stressful conditions.
Birren has found creative procrastination to successfully overcome excessive stress. Birren explained creative procrastination as “the art of waiting until a problem has taken on a shape you can deal with” By temporarily putting the problem aside, it can take on a more manageable form when you’re ready to tackle it again,” he said. Instead of upsetting the physical and emotional state of the body, the practice can
allow you to deal with situations with a new perspective and more objectively.
Birren offered other stress reduction techniques. Leisure time can be used constructively for this reason. Enjoying a walk, reading, meditation or visual imagery or helpful ways to relax and clear you head before beginning a new task. Then you can focus on completing one project at a time without worrying about other problems that remain unsolved.
In job related situations, Holmen suggests writing down some things you don’t like about the job or with your life in general. A person will find many sources of stress to be overcome by first handling those situations they have the most control over.
Exercise, careful diet analysis and non-stress producing hobbies can also help eliminate stress.
(Continued on page 6)
UNIVERSITY WOMAN SWIMMER
Female lifeguard shows the men the business
can overcome any social impediment.
All-American Maura Walsh has lined up on the starting blocks with the finest women’s amateur swimmers in the nation during her two-year career at the university but she never faced a more intimidating field than the one she competed against at the California State lifeguard qualification tests.
“The initial test was a 1,000 meter buoy swim and we had about 350 people, most of them guys,” Maura recalled. “About half of the applicants were eliminated in that first test but I swam well and placed fourth.”
Walsh’s finish was the best ever by a woman but it only meant that she had qualified for the second round of the grueling competition, to be held later that day. Most lifeguards acknowledge that the
1,000	meter run-swim-run event is the most demanding test of an applicant’s physical endurance, A participant must run 200 yards in the water, swim the next 600 yards and then sprint for the final 200 yards. The 175 remaining hopefuls were split into two groups for the test and Walsh again placed fourth in her heat.
“They were freaked out that
I	did so well,” Walsh said. “I finished in twelve minutes and they had never had a girl go that fast. But I still had to go through a personal interview a month later and they really drilled me. They wanted to be sure that I had the proper background including maturity, knowledge of the ocean and EMT (emergency medical training).”
Apparently, Maura passed the verbal tests with flying colors because shortly after her interview she received a letter insturcting her to prepare for a comprehensive training period in May. For three consecutive weeks she practiced the run-swim, completed the half-mile buoy swin and practiced mock rescues. She also spent hours in the classroom listening to lectures on EMT and CPR techniques.
The rookies are scrutinized by a core of veteran guards who have set a high standard of performance over the years. These men screen the newcomers to make sure that the quality of lifeguarding at a particular beach does not suffer because of the inexperience or immaturity of one or two upstarts. Many of the seasoned guards have been working each summer for five o ten years and they continue o come out each year even after they obtain a professional position.
“I continue to lifeguard because I enjoy the responsibility and challenge required in performing this vital public service,” said Doug Frantom, a
1979	university Business School graduate and a finance and credit management official. “It is an invigorating outdoor activity, and in addition a challenge, both mentally and physically. I still lifeguard because I still enjoy it.”
Frantom, a former Orange County high school and college All-American water polo player, added that among his colleagues — who like himself are professionals during the working week and veteran lifeguards on weekends — are at-(Continued on page 2)
In most parts of America young boys spend part of their childhood daydreaming about someday becoming a fireman. But in Southern California, those same male youths often trade images of red fire engines for the sunny, sandy shores of Newport or Santa Monica.
Kids watch the bronze figures in the lifeguard towers and fantasize about someday becoming a king of the beach. Few occupations combine an aura of virility with a sense of public responsibility, and even fewer so completely convey a sense of a male dominated
world.
However, in the past decade women have made a significant impact on all branches of the armed forces, the police and fire departments. It was only a matter of time before females hit the beach and proved once again that natural ability
ROOKIE AND VETERAN— Novice county lifeguard Maura Walsh with seven year veteran Doug Frantom. Walsh is a university junior and Frantom is a 1979 business graduate.