Centre for Policy on Ageing



World views and narrative gerontology — situating reminiscence behavior within a lifespan perspective
Author(s)	Jeffrey Dean Webster
Journal title	Journal of Aging Studies, vol 13, no 1, 1999
Pages	pp 29-42
Keywords	Memory and Reminiscence ; Longevity ; Theory.
Annotation	The field of gerontology has been described as data rich but theory poor. The same can be said for the sub-area of reminiscence research, with little attention paid to the superordinate metamodels framing reminiscence work. Thus, the metatheoretical assumptions and limitations of the dominant approach to reminiscence research remain virtually unknown. This article identifies three "world hypotheses" or metamodels (i.e. the mechanistic, organismic, and contextual) appropriated by developmental psychology because of their heuristic utility, and summarises key strengths and weaknesses of each. The author argues that most reminiscence research has been conducted under the rubric of only one metamodel, namely organicism. He discusses what reminiscence research conducted within each perspective might look like. He provides examples to argue for the advantages of a contextual metamodel and its derivative lifespan for future reminiscence research. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-000120209 A
Classmark	DB: BGA: 4D
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.