Agitation is a mental health problem of significant dimensions. This proposal aims to investigate agitated behaviors in nursing home residents. The construct of agitation, the characteristics of the agitated population and precipitating factors for agitation will be examined. The study involves two projects exploring agitation on macro and micro levels. The first project will assess the agitation level of 400 nursing home residents and will relate it to demographic, medical, social and psychological variables. Additionally, this study will obtain information regarding the frequency of agitated behaviors and syndromes in which agitation is manifested. The second project involves in-depth observations of 24 agitated demented subjects through behavior mapping of their agitation and its physical and social context. The observations, covering both day-time and night-time periods, reflect the agitated behaviors, the object of the behaviors, the resident's social environment, the resident's physical location, the general activity in which the resident is occupied, and background variables. The project will examine the relationship between manifestations of agitation and possible precipitating factors such as time of day, hunger, constipation, other resident's behaviors, etc. The impact of these factors on agitation will be tested both within and across individuals.