The research program in the Department of Psychogerontology has been developed to support a coherent system of projects and studies in which the various results and understanding can support each other. It is carried out by the various members of temporal and tenured staff in close cooperation. International cooperation is also stressed, cooperative projects with various other scientists or centers of gerontological research are carried out. 

The research program focuses on the analysis of personal meaning systems (PMS) and its changes and functions in the second half of life. The construction and reconstruction of meaning systems are considered to be of high interest as a topic for research in that the PMS reflects important characteristics and determinants of human development, and provides a basis for predicting choices, decisions and behaviors emerging in the second half of life. The PMS reflects the subjective part of the experience of self and life, and thus also of the experience of aging. 

The PMS consists of the more or less coherent and most significant components (cognitions) of the individual's self- and life constructions. These comprise the meanings assigned to one's relation to oneself and the environment within a temporal perspective, thus including past and future selves and life conceptions. The two main subsystems of the PMS are motivational cognitions (comprising positive and negative goals, desires and sources of life satisfaction), and person-focused cognitions (comprising self-schemata in the areas of personality, ability, and feelings, as well as self-evaluations, self-reflective thoughts etc.)

The nature and reconstruction of personal meaning systems are considered important areas of research for psychogerontology because during middle and late adulthood, external and internal influences may threaten the continuation of existing sources of meaning. This period of life may also present a stimulus or pressure to discover new sources of meaning, which may be related to finding new tasks and styles of living. Thus, the second half of life appears to be a period of change with a potential to both undermine and to reconstruct positive meaning. 

Such changes and reconstructive tasks are, for example, related to age-graded social clocks, changes in social roles and in (the quality of) social relations, closed paths and career cuts, negative cultural stereotypes about the elderly, or the experience of loss and loneliness. For a majority of persons, physical aging and health problems represent a serious threat to finding positive meaning in old age. Illnesses may imply a change in life-style, in abilities and potentials, and in the satisfaction of needs.

As a consequence of such changes and of general developmental processes, personal meaning systems are being restructured in order to compensate for losses of important meaning sources in life. Thus, goals, plans and self-concepts are altered and substituted in such areas as work, leisure and family-life, or self-development. Reappraisal of personal resources, abilities and motivations is also taking place. During periods when old meanings are no longer viable and the new meanings are not yet found and put together in a coherent way, the reorganisation process may cause states of meaninglessness and disorientation.

Most individuals succeed in developing a new balance in personal meanings. Building on life-long experiences, older adults are often able to arrive at good solutions for conceptualizing satisfying lives and selves. Some individuals, however, may settle with impoverished meanings or negative emotional states, and may minimize their active functioning. It is important to study the content and structure of personal meaning systems in order to understand what makes (new) components successful or unsuccessful elements in the renewal of meaning systems.

Theoretical background

The context of theoretical work and empirical studies in this research program is found in psychological study of the self-concept and social cognition, and in research on personal goals and personality development in a life span context. The program of research pursued in the Department of Psychogerontology is thus to the main empirical and theoretical pursuits in current psychogerontological research, such as questions about adaptation to old age, the interrelation between well-being, personal goals and self-concepts, and studies about the composition of meaning systems in different settings and groups. Because meaning systems are considered as being composed of both individual and cultural cognitions, cross-cultural perspectives are also important. Insofar as the construction of meaning systems is patterned by the individual life course and its societal context, sociological perspectives and questions of socio-structural differences are being studied.

In focusing on beneficial and dysfunctional outcomes in the reconstruction of personal meanings for the individual and for society, questions of health and well-being can be framed within a social constructivist approach as well as within a perspective of the life-long development of self-understanding. In a similar approach, questions about the composition of self- and life conceptualizations involve support strategies for life planning and self-development, and the emergence of alternatives for productive and creative life-styles in middle and late adulthood.

Methodological background

Most of the projects making up the research program work with verbal data that have been assembled with the SELE-instrument, a list of sentence stems carefully selected for their stimulation of individually significant personal meanings. (SELE means SElf and LifE conceptualisation). For the analysis of these data, a cognitive representation system and a coding scheme have been developed which allow a detailed mapping of cognitions used in personal meaning systems. For particular research topics, the coding procedure is modified according to the object of the study. For large scale research with several thousand subjects, a coding scheme is being developed which can be more easily applied than the original one. The use of the SELE-instrument is combined with various standardized or other multiple choice questionnaires in order to better understand the interrelations and mutual contributions of open, spontaneous self-description methods compared to closed, reactive ones.

The research projects

The research program on "personal meaning in the second half of life" has been established in 1992 at the Department of Psychogerontology when the Chair was filled after some time of vacancy. Some staff-members work on several projects at the same time, others concentrate on one or two. The first dissertation projects started during 1993. The research program comprises a series of interconnected studies around a common core, the personal meaning system. Examples of projects on personal meaning are:

* A comparison of young and old adults in Germany has been conducted with a view to life span changes in goals and self-concept. The main study is completed, a book has been published (Dittmann-Kohli, F., 1995, Das persònliche Sinnsystem - ein Vergleich zwischen frùhem und spätem Erwachsenenalter. Gòttingen: Hogrefe). The results indicate comprehensive changes in motivational cognitions and self-concept throughout the adults life course. 

* The German Aging Survey is a representative German survey of personal meaning systems and life conditions of 5000 persons from 40-85 years. The project aims at assessing the (subjective) self and life conceptualizations as well as (objective) life conditions and their interrelationships in the current and future generations of German elderly. The study serves to support policies on aging and the development of constructive self- and life-conceptualizations. It is an interdisciplinary project that is executed in co-operation with the Research Group on Aging and the Life Course at the Institute of Sociology of the Free University of Berlin and infas-Sozialforschung in Bonn. The project's main survey has been conducted in 1996, using both closed and open instruments. The project is commissioned by the German Ministry of Family and Elderly. Research reports have been published. 

* A similar large-scale survey (n=1000) of the personal meaning systems and living conditions of persons 40-85 in the Netherlands (the Dutch Aging Study) has been conducted in 1998; This is a multidisciplinary project with the department of Sociology and the Department of Development Psychology at the University of Nijmegen. It is funded by the Innovation Funds of the University of Nijmegen. 

* An educational program was developed to help older women improve their friendships. The aim of the program is to promote subjective well-being and alleviate loneliness. In a four-stage conceptual model the participants gain insight how relational competence influences their relationships. Pilot-studies have shown that women who participate are initially very lonely, but many of them manage to improve their friendships and reduce loneliness. In a combined qualitative and quantitative approach, a larger group of participants are currently followed and compared with a control-group over a nine month period before and after participation. This study is funded by the N.W.O. .

* A dissertation project studies meaninglessness and negative meaning during the second half of life. In this study, personal meaning profiles are related to subjective well-being, situational variables and life stage. Negative meanings are described within the (motivational, cognitive & affective) components of personal meaning. The mental representation of meaninglessness is described by content analyzing the most negative meaning profiles. Four types of meaninglessness can be discerned. Furthermore, the contents of negative meanings are compared for four age groups: young adults (18-25yr.), middle aged (40-54yr.), late adults (55-69yr.) and elderly (70-85yr.).

* A dissertation project has studied future time perspective and the anticipation of gains, losses and maintenance in the second half of life. The contents of future anticipations have been described in detail, and related to age groups, sexe and region (former East or West-Germany). The future anticipations can be linked to developmental constructs like generativity, change of life structure and personal expansion. 

* A project studies how elderly people construct and reconstruct their physical selves in present and future. Research topics focus on health experience, anticipation of illness, and self-perceptions of psycho-physical incompetence. This work is related to a study on the "embodiment of the self" in the aged using self-descriptions related to the physical self and the self-perception of aging.

* In cross-cultural studies self-descriptions from young and elderly adults are compared between Western and non-Western countries, such as Germany, The Netherlands, USA, Zaire and India. Studies focus on cultural differences and similarities in meaning of the life course and aging. Furthermore, the prevalence and content of cultural values, such as individualism - collectivism, are studied in different age groups and countries. The relationships between descriptions of self and life and socio-cultural and economic structures are assessed. 

* A dissertation project studies individuality and belongingness in self- and life conceptions in the second half of life. The study aims to investigate how independent themes (e.g. autonomy, happiness, achievement) and interdependent themes (e.g. wish for contact, quality of relationships, social competency) are expressed within personal meaning. The quality and frequency of the expressed themes is related to sexe and age group. In addition, German and Dutch data are compared to see whether individuality and belongingness in self- and life conceptions are constructed differently as a result of social, institutional and economic differences between the countries. 

* A study investigated work status and the construction of work-related selves. Work status has shown to have an effect on the social construction of the self. By comparing personal meaning systems of employed, unemployed, retirees and homemakers, differences were found in the centrality, valuation and meaning content of work-related themes. These could be further linked to gender and age, and showed that the social construction of the self is influenced strongly by the societal institutionalisation of the life course.

Laatste aanpassing: 28 november 2000