Narrative Enactment of Nadir Experiences in Higly Ego-Integrated Older Adults Across Four Cultures

Coming to terms with negative life experiences is a way to reach ego integrity in old age, an development task in the last phase of Erikson´s lifespan theory of human development. This study explores fundamental tension between negative life experiences and ego integrity through the lens of narrative enactment - on how the nadir experiences were actively revived in narratives of the highly integrated older adults from 4 cultural samples: Cameroonian, Czech, German, and Hong Kong Chinese. Based on the results of self-rated ego integrity scale, the life stories narratives of 15 highly integrated aged people were analysed from each culture (out of the total sample of 856). The analysis was grounded in narrative approach, where aging is perceived as autobiographic work, and the nature of narativity is viewed as an enactment of a constitutive trouble. The results are presented with regard to narrative categories: agency, negative event – positive resolution, reflexivity, values and beliefs.

This research has been funded by Czech Science Foundation grant no. GA17-02634S.