Possible selves and illness: A comparison of individuals with Parkinson's disease, early-stage Alzheimer's disease, and healthy older adults

Abstract

This study examined how future self-representations are affected by two different chronic illnesses, one focused on cognitive losses, early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), and one focused on physical losses, Parkinson's disease (PD). The impact of illness on possible selves (perceptions of self in the future) was made salient by a comparison with healthy older adults in order to better understand developmental issues in later life. Findings show that although there were no differences in the total number of domains reported by the groups, specific domains were reported differently by patient groups and all domains were likely to become infused with illness. As expected, patient groups had less self-efficacy and lower outcome expectancies for their future selves, and PD patients reported less distance from their feared selves. Although these findings are intuitive, this is the first empirical effort to document the impact of illness on older adults' self-representations. Group differences are explained in terms of disease context, and the importance of possible selves and self-regulatory functions as therapeutic mechanisms for adaptation to illness are emphasised.