Generational differences in cultural life scripts and life story memories of younger and older adults

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 1324-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Bohn
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Life Scripts

The Relations between Cultural Life Scripts, Individual Life Stories, and Psychological Distress

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Anne ◽  
Steve M. J. Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Positive Individual ◽  
Life Scripts

Cultural Life Scripts (CLS) are shared knowledge about personal events expected to be experienced by individuals within a society, and used as a framework for life story narration. Differences in CLS for individuals with depression and trauma, and their relations to anxiety, stress, and well-being, have not been investigated. Malaysian participants (N = 120) described and rated seven significant events most likely to be experienced by a prototypical infant from their culture, and seven significant events they had experienced or expected to experience in their own life. Participants then answered questionnaires about depression and trauma symptoms and about anxiety, stress, and well-being. The subclinical depression group listed less typical CLS events, whereas the subclinical PTSD group listed less positive individual life story events. The findings indicate that, although individuals with depression and trauma possess knowledge of the CLS, there may be small differences in the cognitive processing of CLS and individual life story events.

scholarly journals Exploring underexposed stories: the experienced lifecourse of financially excluded older adults

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofie Van Regenmortel ◽  
An-Sofie Smetcoren ◽  
Sara Marsillas ◽  
Deborah Lambotte ◽  
Bram Fret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Life Story Interview ◽  
Individualised Care ◽  
Uncertain Future

AbstractTo gain insights into vulnerable lifecourses and give a voice to those often underrepresented in quantitative research, this study examines the life stories (past, present and future) of 19 financially excluded older adults using an adapted version of McAdams’ life-story interview scheme. Although these life stories demonstrate an accumulation of many disadvantages and an uncertain future because of current financial situations, the stories also reflect the generativity, resilience, coping strategies and agency of financially excluded older adults. We demonstrate how the experienced lifecourse is built around both negative and positive turning points and transitions which go beyond the classical education–work–retirement triumvirate, and how socio-cultural life scripts are used as a framework to build one's own life story in order to achieve continuity. The discussion highlights the potential for deploying the life-story method as a qualitative resource for providing individualised care.

Relations Between Cultural Life Scripts, Individual Life Stories, and Psychological Distress

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329412091349
Author(s):  
Michele Anne ◽  
Steve M. J. Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Positive Individual ◽  
Life Scripts

Cultural life scripts are shared knowledge about personal events expected to be experienced by individuals within a society and used as a framework for life story narration. Differences in cultural life scripts for individuals with depression and trauma, and their relations to anxiety, stress, and well-being, have not been investigated. Malaysian participants ( N =  120) described and rated seven significant events most likely to be experienced by a prototypical infant from their culture, and seven significant events they had experienced or expected to experience in their own life. Participants then answered questionnaires about depression and trauma symptoms and about anxiety, stress, and well-being. The subclinical depression group listed less typical cultural life scripts events, whereas the subclinical post-traumatic stress disorder group listed less positive individual life story events. The findings indicate that, although individuals with depression and trauma possess knowledge of the cultural life scripts, there may be small differences in the cognitive processing of cultural life scripts and individual life story events.

scholarly journals Some personal life events are more prominent than others: Younger and older adults agree on which life events matter most

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-569
Author(s):  
Sharda Umanath ◽  
Dorthe Berntsen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Life Script

Some important life events are part of the cultural life script as expected transitional events with culturally sanctioned timing. However, not all personally important events align with the cultural life script, including some events that are widely experienced. Here, we ask whether there are specific characteristics that define the events that become part of a culture’s life script and what role life experience plays. In Experiment 1, younger adults rated life events on different measures tapping central event dimensions in autobiographical memory theories. Cross-culturally extremely frequent cultural life script events consistently received higher ratings than other commonly experienced life story events. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these findings did not interact with age. Both younger and older adults rated the extreme cultural life script events most highly. In addition, older adults rated all types of life events more highly than younger adults, suggesting a greater appreciation of life events overall.

scholarly journals Retirement Without God: Activism and Community Among Secular People Over 60

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 441-441
Author(s):  
Joseph Blankholm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Vast Literature

Abstract There are more than 1,400 nonbeliever communities in the United States and well over a dozen organizations that advocate for secular people on the national level. Together, these local and national groups comprise a social movement that includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other kinds of nonbelievers. Despite the fact that retired people over 60 dedicate most of the money and energy needed to run these groups, the increasingly vast literature on secular people and secularism has paid them almost no attention. Relying on more than one hundred interviews (including dozens with people over 60), several years of ethnographic research, and a survey of organized nonbelievers, this paper demonstrates the crucial role that people over 60 play in the American secular movement today. It also considers the reasons older adults are so important to these groups, the challenges they face in trying to recruit younger members and combat stereotypes about aging leadership, and generational differences that structure how various types of nonbeliever groups look and feel. This paper reframes scholarly understandings of very secular Americans by focusing on people over 60 and charts a new path in secular studies.

scholarly journals Generational Differences in the Prevalence of Hearing Impairment in Older Adults

2009 ◽  
Vol 171 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Zhan ◽  
K. J. Cruickshanks ◽  
B. E. K. Klein ◽  
R. Klein ◽  
G.-H. Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Generational Differences

Reducing depression among community-dwelling older adults using life-story review: A pilot study

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moon Fai Chan ◽  
Katherine S.P. Leong ◽  
Boon Ling Heng ◽  
Blessy Koottappal Mathew ◽  
Sher Banu A.L. Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Community Dwelling Older Adults

Life Review in Pastoral Counseling: Background and Efficacy for Use with the Terminally III

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. LeFavi ◽  
Marcia H. Wessels
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Pastoral Counseling ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Review ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
Traumatic Death ◽  
Spiritual Assessment

Research continues to confirm that sharing one's life story through the process of life review enhances psychological well-being and increases life satisfaction. Although researchers have outlined techniques and activities that may be used in life review with older adults, little work has focused on the use of life review methods with terminally ill patients. Additionally, researchers have suggested that life review can take on the form of a spiritual assessment; and that such spiritually oriented life reviews may enhance a sense of meaning and foster reconciliation as one approaches dying. In this article, the authors provide a brief review of the research on and the practice of life review. Further, by merging concepts of life review with systematic theology, they offer a sample instrument—using the example of one faith framework—with which pastoral caregivers can better approach the spiritual needs of patients and facilitate a less traumatic death in the terminally ill.

scholarly journals Cultural life scripts structure recall from autobiographical memory

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorthe Berntsen ◽  
David C. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Life Scripts
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