Geneviève Grimm-Montel
Experiences of happiness and unhappiness in autobiographical narratives of the elderly: The narrative enactment of favor, fortune, bliss, and grace
Authors
Geneviève Grimm-Montel (University of Zurich)
Brigitte Boothe (University of Zurich)
The narrative gerontology is a rather new branch of research, interested in the “inner” aspect of aging. Basic assumptions on narrative intelligence and analysis lead us to report on a life story interview that we are currently conducting at the University of Zurich. This qualitative study is based on narration analysis using a psychodynamic foundation of ten narrative autobiographical interviews of several hours with mentally healthy persons seventy years-old and up, of both sexes, of different educational and economic standards, and who are not in an acute state of physical or mental crisis. The focus lies on experiences of happiness and unhappiness. The study aims to tap how elderly people, in reminiscing on their lives, structure in narrative the experiences that were significant for them, both in the happy and unhappy sense. We want to discover in what way the narratives reveal their personal model of the good life.
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Valérie-Anne Ryser
Social and temporal comparison in old and very old age: how are they related to self-rated health?
Authors
Valérie-Anne Ryser (University of Lausanne)
Dario Spini (University of Lausanne)
Myriam Girardin (University of Lausanne)
This presentation investigates the relationships between social and temporal comparison with self-rated health among elderly. Despite the health decline during the process of aging, subjective health stays quite stable. Previous results show that both temporal and social comparisons are important resources in this stabilization process. Theoretically, social and temporal comparison function at different levels. Temporal comparison is used when people need to maintain a sense of continuity at the level of their identity in particular during life transitions and social comparison when people need to evaluate their own opinions and abilities; particularly when they don’t have objective information. However is this the case in very old age, which is the last transition in our life? We tested the importance and functions of these two resources for self-rated health regulation using data from the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old research. A sample of 340 participants aged 80 to 84 at baseline were interviewed and followed over 10 years. Results show, at the synchronic level, that both temporal and social comparisons have a positive impact on self-rated health. However, at the diachronic level, no impact of these two variables were observed. In these last models, we also show that death’s proximity and changes in the degree of frailty measured at the previous wave have an important impact on self rated health, not mediated by the two types of comparison.
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Marion Bär
Positive everyday life experiences in individuals with dementia. Findings from an emotion-focussed intervention study in nursing homes
Authors
Marion Bär (University of Heidelberg)
Roman Kaspar (University of Heidelberg)
The experience and expression of emotion is suggested to be a central resource of persons with dementia that is often maintained also in late stages of the disease. Thus, using these resources in everyday care is an important step to improve residents’ quality of life.
A total of 25 nursing homes participated in an intervention study that focussed on the promotion of wellbeing by providing positive experiences. The sample consisted of 98 nursing home residents with mild, moderate or severe dementia. In a first step, those everyday situations were identified that were pleasant for the individual person with dementia. Over a period of 21 days, these situations were offered up to three times a day by the nurses. The choice of individual interventions and the participants’ emotional response was documented by the care staff. Intervention effects were traced by repeated video-documentation and retrospective self- and proxy-reports of affective states.
The results show an extensive spectrum of positive stimuli available to participants even in late-stage dementia. The immediate reactions following individual interventions were most often positive (74%). Several aspects (e.g., disease severity, care facility, duration of treatment) have been found to add to the positive impact of the intervention on respondents’ emotional states. The next steps will explore the possibilities for a permanent implementation of emotion-oriented care principles in long term care.
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Simon Forstmeier
Motivational resources, cognitive status, and well-being in old age
Authors
Simon Forstmeier (University of Zurich)
Andreas Maercker (University of Zurich)
In analogy to the concept of Cognitive Reserve, we introduce the concept of “Motivational Reserve” (MR) to account for the observation that motivational resources such as self-efficacy, optimism, motivation regulation, and emotion regulation are associated with slower cognitive decline, hippocampal atrophy, and Alzheimer’s dementia. Two studies were conducted with the aim to evaluate new and well-established measures of current and premorbid motivational competence in people over 65 years. The first study (N = 106, 51% female, mean age 73 years) examined self-report measures and their relation to satisfaction with life. Measures of motivational competence correlate significantly or highly significantly with life satisfaction (r = .30 - .40). In a multiple regression analysis, motivation and decision regulation, self-efficacy and optimism proved to be the most important predictors of well-being in old age. The second study applied new behavioural tests of self-regulation (e.g., delay of gratification) and rating procedures based on occupational history. Aim of this study is to investigate the differential effect of premorbid motivational and cognitive factors on the current cognitive and health status of older people (ongoing study).
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