Suchergebnisse

Levensverhalen zijn voor een wetenschapper een gevaarlijk onderwerp. Want wat is er vluchtiger en onbetrouwbaarder dan dat? Elk levensverhaal is een uniek gegeven, dat voor iedere persoon anders is. Daarnaast is een levensverhaal gebonden aan de situatie waarin het wordt verteld en daarmee variabel. Sommige psychologen beweren zelfs dat mensen niet één groot verhaal over hun leven hebben, maar dat er alleen vele fragmenten zijn. Omdat het perspectief op het eigen leven verandert met het verstrijken van de tijd veranderen levensverhalen ook door de tijd. Een levensverhaal is daarom ook nooit af.

AbstractIntroductionPeople with intellectual disability have a higher chance of developing mental disorders than the general population. Yet, few evidence‐based interventions exist. This article evaluates My Lifestory, a narrative intervention tailored to people with intellectual disability and depressive or trauma‐related complaints.MethodA quasi‐experimental research design was adopted with an experimental condition (My Lifestory) and a matched control condition (care as usual). Measurements took place before the intervention, at the end of the intervention and at follow‐up two months later. Measurements focused on psychiatric complaints, well‐being, life satisfaction, mastery, and purpose in life.ResultsParticipants in the intervention condition improved more in psychiatric complaints, well‐being, life satisfaction, and purpose in life, but not in mastery, than participants in the control condition. Effect sizes were large in the intervention condition and small in the control condition.DiscussionDespite some limitations, this study adds to the evidence base of this narrative intervention.

This study compares age identities of middle-aged and older adults in the United States and Germany. Differences between countries in social systems and cultural meanings of old age are expected to produce different age identities. Data are from respondents between ages 40 and 74 in the United States (MIDUS; n = 2,006) and Germany (German Aging Survey; n = 3,33 1). Americans and Germans tend to feel younger than their actual age, but the discrepancy is larger among Americans. The bias toward youthful identities is stronger at older ages, particularly among Americans. In both counties, persons with better health have younger identities and role losses are not related to age identities. The study shows that different social and cultural systems produce different subjective experiences of aging. As these differences exist within Western culture, the study makes clear that one should be careful in generalizing findings from aging research across countries.

Dokumentation des Erhebungsdesigns und der Instrumente (CAPI und Drop-Off-Fragebogen) der ersten DEAS-Erhebung 1996. Der Deutsche Alterssurvey (DEAS) ist eine Langzeitstudie zum Wandel der Lebenssituationen und Alternsverläufe von Menschen, die sich in der zweiten Lebenshälfte befinden. Grundlage sind bundesweit repräsentative Befragungen im Quer- und Längsschnitt von jeweils mehreren tausend Teilnehmern im Alter ab 40 Jahren. ; Documentation of the survey design and instruments of the first DEAS survey year 1996. The German Ageing Survey (DEAS) is a longitudinal survey for the analysis of life situations and biographies of people in the second half of their lives. The data is based on nationally representative surveying (cross-sectional and longitudinal) of some thousand participants from the age of 40 onwards. ; Die Dokumentation wird als Forschungsbericht 61 der Forschungsgruppe Altern und Lebenslauf zum Download im PDF-Format angeboten und enthält 125 Seiten. ; The documentation (Research Report No. 61 of the Research Group on Ageing and the Life Course) is available as a PDF file and contains 125 pages.