Life Longing in Older Adults.

摘要

There is a growing interest within the psychological literature in Life Longings (Sehnsucht), which are intense desires for utopian or ideal states in life that are not easily attained. This construct has been researched in adults aged 18-81 where the connections with well-being and coping have been explored. The present study investigates the most important longings of 66 adults over 65 years of age, examining the content of their longings, the structure of each particular longing, and how this may interact with their emotional coping. The results show that the most common longings the participants reported were for companionship, maintaining/improving family relationships and family happiness, and personal faith/religion. Religious commitment was the best predictor of satisfaction of life, however, there was no significant relationships between satisfaction with life and control over the experience of longing. Implications for developmental psychology and views of religious longings are discussed. The limitations of the study, including a small sample size and the self-report method of data collection, are discussed.