The structure of well-being in the life narratives of the elderly

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility that the manner and form in which the elderly tell their life stories (i.e., life narratives) might be indicative of their morale and adjustment in late life. In-depth interviews were conducted with a subsampling of 40 respondents from a questionnaire survey sample (N=100) of elderly persons from four senior service centers. The subsample was selected on the basis of certain patterns of adjustment indicated by an ego-integrity measure and the Affect-Balance Scale from the questionnaire survey. The tape-recorded interviews followed Jerome Bruner's procedures for obtaining “self-told life narratives.” The tapes were analyzed by independent raters according to the experiential level of the narratives and a schema for determining the structure of the narrative from social psychological research. Findings from the qualitative analysis of the taped narratives suggest that recognition of the experiential level and structure of life-narratives should be helpful to gerontological practitioners in assessing adjustment and facilitating life-review processes in the elderly, and the structural schema holds potential heuristic value and promise for gerontological researchers.