What Can We Learn About the Concept of Meaning in Life from Older Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease? A Directed Content Analysis Study

Meaning in life has grown into a topic of great interest in psychological research. Conceptually, scholars differentiate between sources and components of meaning. However, the current scholarly views on meaning are highly cognitive and it is unclear to what extent they correspond with the understan...

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Published inJournal of happiness studies Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 2845 - 2871
Main Authors Dewitte, Laura, Schellekens, Tine, Steger, Michael F., Martela, Frank, Vanhooren, Siebrecht, Vandenbulcke, Mathieu, Dezutter, Jessie
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.10.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Alzheimer's disease
Cognition
Content analysis
Economics
Meaning
Older people
Personality and Social Psychology
Philosophy
Positive Psychology
Psychological research
Quality of Life Research
Research Paper
Social Sciences
Qualitative analysis
Meaningfulness
Nursing home
Old age
Dementia
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Summary:Meaning in life has grown into a topic of great interest in psychological research. Conceptually, scholars differentiate between sources and components of meaning. However, the current scholarly views on meaning are highly cognitive and it is unclear to what extent they correspond with the understanding of lay people with cognitive difficulties, like those with Alzheimer’s disease. Using directed content analysis, we analyzed short descriptions of meaning in life of 126 older adults with Alzheimer’s disease, exploring whether the components (i.e., coherence, purpose, significance) and sources from the current literature could be identified and what additional themes emerged in their accounts. Replicating findings in other populations, family and relationships were the most prominent sources. Coherence and purpose were each described by 15% of participants, significance was almost not mentioned. We discuss the entanglement of components and sources in people’s descriptions and the possibility of a connection facet underlying meaning. We provide evidence for a distinction between cognitive and felt coherence and show that many participants talked about fulfilled and purpose instead of future-oriented purpose, emphasizing the need for a developmental understanding of meaning.
ISSN:1389-4978
1573-7780
DOI:10.1007/s10902-020-00351-4