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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Meaninglessness in the second half of life: the development of a construct | | Author(s) | Martine van Selm, Freya Dittmann-Kohli |
| Journal title | International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol 47, no 2, 1998 |
| Pages | pp 81-104 |
| Keywords | Emotions ; Engagement ; Attitude ; Depression ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | A new construct of meaninglessness in the second half of life was developed in this study. Four theoretically based components of the construct of meaninglessness were expressed in the self- and life-descriptions of 95% of 153 Dutch independently living adults aged between 58 and 90 years. The descriptions were assessed by a content analysis of participants' answers on a sentence completion questionnaire for personal meaning (SELE). With respect to the content of the components of meaninglessness, a lack of goals and an impoverishment of meaning were responsible for most motivational meaninglessness. On the affective level, meaninglessness was far more characterised by dejection-related emotions than by agitation-related emotions. Alienation from one's self, others, or society appeared to be characteristic for most of the cognitive component of meaninglessness. The self-evaluative component was mainly characterised by low self-esteem. A tentative explanation was presented for the differences in proportion of each of the components, pointing to the cumulative character of the construct itself. Meaninglessness correlated positively with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (SOCQ). (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981110409 A |
| Classmark | DL: DN: DP: ENR: 76H |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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