Feelings of dependency on others were measured, by different scales, in two different samples of elderly people: 33 acute in-patients and 25 attenders at a geriatric day hospital. Findings were similar in each location. Dependent attitudes increased with the duration of patients' previous in-patient experience, and correlated negatively with subjective well-being but not at all with behavioural status. These results are consistent with theories which attribute low morale to feelings of dependence and this, in turn, to the experience of residential care. They are inconsistent with the view that dependence on others is a positive feature of old age. In addition, patients' subjective well-being was completely unrelated to nurse ratings of their behavioural status, and subjective ratings by nurses correlated somewhat with patients' behavioural status but not at all with their subjective well-being.