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Theorizing about Aging Well: Constructing a Narrative*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

Sherry Ann Chapman
Sherry Ann Chapman*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta
*
Requests for offprints should be sent to: / Les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être addressées à : Sherry Ann Chapman, M.M.St., Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta, 302 Human Ecology Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2N1. ([email protected])
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Abstract

Aging well is new, again. The recent interest is part of a 50-year period of research. Contradictory conceptualizations of aging well create an opportunity to consider assumptions that underlie the concept. In this paper, through the construction of an aging-well, theorizing narrative, an underlying assumption is identified in past aging-well conceptual frameworks: to age well is to achieve self-integration in relation to particular sets of resources or forms of engagement. The narrative relates how more recent aging-well theorizing is being shaped by a growing interest in later-life meaning-making. Evidence is presented of a contemporary shift toward describing aging well as the negotiation of the co-construction and reconstruction of multiple selves in an ongoing, open-ended process of meaning-making amid later-life events and transitions. The paper concludes with implications for future research.

Résumé

On redécouvre le concept de la vieillesse réussie. Ce récent regain d'intérêt s'inscrit dans une recherche menée depuis 50 ans. Les conceptualisations contradictoires entourant la vieillesse réussie nous amènent à examiner certaines des hypothèses sur lesquelles repose le concept. Par l'entremise du développement d'une « théorie narrative de la vieillesse réussie », l'auteur cerne une hypothèse fondamentale des cadres conceptuels passés : bien vieillir est la réalisation de l'auto-intégration de certains ensembles de ressources ou de certaines formes d'engagement. L'auteur explique que les récentes théories en matière de vieillesse réussie sont influencées par l'intérêt croissant pour la recherche de sens au troisième âge. Il existe, à l'heure actuelle, un nouveau courant de pensée selon lequel la vieillesse réussie consiste à négocier la coconstruction et la reconstruction de plusieurs sois dans un processus continu et ouvert de recherche de sens à travers les événements et transitions du troisième âge. L'article offre en conclusion des pistes pour la recherche future.

Keywords

aging welltheorizingnarrativeintegratedselvesbien vieillirthéorie narrativenarration/récitintégrésois
Type
Articles: Symposium: Aging Well
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , Spring/Printemps 2005 , pp. 9 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2005

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Footnotes

*

I thank Norah Keating for her invaluable mentorship; my committee members; and the helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers. I also thank Hyekyong Choi, Kees Knipscheer, and Clare Wenger for their insightful thoughts on earlier drafts. This paper was written with the support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship.

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