인생의 보람과 후회: 성공적 노화여부에 따른 비교

초록

The purpose of the study is to examine reflections of the elderly on their life course and how they evaluate their life success. The relationship between their reflection(how they reflect) and their psychological well being(happiness) is analyzed by comparing two groups: the "success" group and the "unsuccess" group. From 1405 elders, 44 were selected for the "success" group and 36 for the "unsuccess" group according to rigorous criteria. They were interviewed and the data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings are as follows. First, family is the most important part of the elderly's life reflection. Both the "success" group and the "unsuccess" group review that family has fulfilled their life or has made it happy, while "unsuccess" group consider family to be the most regrettable area. Second, the seniors of the "success" group give meaning to their life in the higher level of needs such as helping others and contributing to the society. On the contrary, the "unsuccess" group evaluated their lives based on the practical difficulties such as broken family relationships, loneliness and poverty. Third, the "success" group consider their lives to be generally successful and regret about specific events in the past, while "the unsuccess" regret about their entire lives in general and think that their happy days are limited in specific periods in the past. Finally, the implications of the study along with the intervention strategy for the "unsuccess group" who are vulnerable to the mental health problems are discussed.

키워드