MEANING OF LIFE AND PRESERVATION OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES: LINKAGE TO THE PLACE OF LIVING IN OLD AGE

摘要

An old person’s identity in the present decade is the identity of a person rejected by the society in which he lives, and one who society determined should abandon his social functions because of chronological age (Hazan, 1996). In such a situation, the question of meaning in life becomes central and dominant (Ryff, 2013). Our work presents a study combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which explore the effect of the nature of one’s type of residence on a meaningful lifestyle and the capability to maintain cognitive abilities in old age. Based on the concepts of meaning, presented by Frankl (1946) and categorization performed by Fontana (1977), we created three levels of significance, which examined using multi-qualitative indicators. Along with these, performance capabilities were also examined with emphasis on cognitive inhibition, which is age-sensitive cognitive competence. The research was based on 60 participants who lived at home and another 57 living in different types of residential settings outside their home. Our findings indicate that there is dependence between the residential style and the ability to lead a meaningful life during old age. We found more people with high meaning among those who lived in their own homes, compared to others living in other residential settings. In addition, their inhibition capabilities were clearly better. Our work inspires new thinking about the appropriate style of living for elderly persons in a postmodern society, and thoughts on the importance of further integration into the existing social system.