Purpose and Meaning in Highly Active Seniors

Abstract

The authors investigated the sources of meaning for active seniors. Results indicated that seniors who were most active were relatively high in a wide range of sources of meaning as well as in life satisfaction in general. The importance of meaning and purpose in relation to counseling with older adults is discussed. ********** The United States and other nations are witnessing a rapid rise in the numbers of retired, older adults (i.e., those who are 65 years old or older). This global phenomenon is predicted to be a demographic transformation with wrenching economic and social costs (Peterson, 1999, p. 4). In considering the needs of older adults, developmental psychologists, gerontologists, counselors, and professionals who focus on long-term care are giving more attention to the role and development of personal meaning in late adulthood. The need for such perspectives is a major theme of the present article. The greatest demands in the growing population of older adults are expected to come from the even greater proportionate growth in older individuals who describe themselves as thriving and healthy. Two thirds of adults over 65 years old describe themselves as having good or excellent health, and that percentage is expected to rise (Rubinstein, 2002b; Verbrugge, 1989). Retirees at age 62 can expect to experience another 20-30 years of challenges and transitions in which purpose and meaning take on greater importance. There are many advantages for counselors to adopt teleological approaches that emphasize meaning and purpose in the planning, treatment, and care of older persons. A focus on meaning and purpose provides a positive, optimistic perspective that is counter to disempowering views of based on losses and deficits. Bleak and pessimistic images of growing old as a sad and negative occurrence have typically prevailed (Sperry, 1992, p. 387). Strategies to maintain purpose will be especially important when the transitions of old age center around losses of role or function in life, such as the loss of the parenting role, widowhood, chronic physical conditions, and retirement (Solis & Brink, 1992). Gerontologists and developmental psychologists have long thought that personal meaning is a key aspect of successful (Birren, 1964; Butler, 1973; Erikson, 1963). This is especially true because old age is a time when one's sources of meaning are at greatest risk by virtue of the losses of personal relationships as well as the loss of career and community roles. In fact, professionals in treatment and caregiving arenas are paying more attention to the maintenance of purpose and meaning in old age. Health fields such as nursing and health education, through their focus on wellness, have also grasped the importance of perspectives that emphasize the maintenance of personal meaning throughout the life span. Hospice care programs have a primary mission of maintaining meaning in later stages of life. The Eden Alternative approach to long-term care helps individuals in nursing homes to maintain a purposeful life by reducing loneliness, helplessness, and boredom (Thomas, 1996). The successes of the leisure industry aimed at seniors, continuing education programs for the retired, and the efforts of senior centers to provide meaningful activities for individuals who have retired all demonstrate the significance of meaningful pursuits. Prager (1996) has praised calls for more symbolic, philosophical, and heuristic orientations toward ... the process ... Though still in an embryonic stage, epistemological, idealist, or humanist models of gerontological inquiry are coming into their own, complementing and supplementing the empiricist models of the natural sciences. (p. 118) Leder's (2002) suggestions for conscious aging encourage meaning and purpose in passages through later life. Counselors have a role and a responsibility in assisting individuals in late adulthood to continue to define themselves in terms of having meaningful life goals and a sense of purpose. …