老年人生命意義之敘說研究

Abstract

本研究旨在藉由老年人之生命重大事件及其老化與生死態度探究生命意義。研究 方法採敘說研究法,以立意取樣方式訪談三位老年人,使用半結構訪談大綱,對研究 參與者進行三~四次生命故事訪談。透過錄音、逐字稿謄寫,及研究參與者檢核等過 程,形成故事文本。資料分析採用「整體—內容」敘說研究分析模式。 研究發現老年人生命意義從生命重大事件內涵以及對老化與生死態度體現,其中 老年人生命內涵建構之意義包括:(1)性格特質—正向樂觀性格特質有助於體現生命 意義;(2)工作生涯—從工作生涯直接或間接獲得不同面向的生命意義;(3)生活目 標—目標具有一致性,非刻意去追求目標而是自然產生意義;(4)家庭子女—家庭子 女並非是重要充分的生命意義來源;(5)與人連結—與重要他人產生連結,將意義建 立在自身之外的關係中;(6)幫助他人—藉由利他間接滿足自我實現或人際連結的生 命意義感;(7)挫折超越—遇到挫折後原有的人生轉化出不同的意義。老年人老化與 生死態度顯現之意義包括:(1)身心狀況—心理身體功能影響對生命意義的感受;(2) 生命回顧與統整—回顧生命發掘內心渴望與意義,年紀越大越邁向統整;(3)老化態 度—不同適應老化方式增加正向老化態度但不一定賦予生命意義;(4)死亡態度— 死亡代表意義的消逝但因思考死亡更加珍惜把握生命。 生命意義絕對不只是追求快樂,更深層的意義來自於自我實踐、自我超越、與人 連結,而不論何種身份背景人生經歷其實所體現的生命意義核心大同小異。對於老年 人來說,當將生命軸線拉長來看,許多事能以更知足感恩的胸襟看待,也更能活在當 下。The purpose of this study was to explore how the elderly constructed their life meaning through their life events and the attitude toward life and death. Narrative research method was applied to collect life stories of 3 elderly participants. Three in-depth interviews, each were 3 to 4 times, were conducted for the participants to narrate their life stories. The narrated texts were analyzed by the holistic-content approach. The results were explored through their life events, and there were seven core issues: (a) Personality traits- positive and optimistic personality traits helped to explore the meaning in life; (b) Career life- elderly people obtained different life meaning from career life directly or indirectly; (c) Life goals- life goals were consistent and life goals create meaning in life naturally; (d) Family- family and children were not an sufficient or the most important meaning in life; (e) Connection with people- elderly established meaning in relationships outside of themselves, and through the connections with important others; (f) Helping others- elderly were satisfied with the sense of self-realization or interpersonal connections through altruistic behaviors; (g) Frustration and transcendence- the original life transformed into different meanings after encountering setbacks. With regard to the attitude toward life and death, four core issues were found in this study: (a) Physical and mental conditions- psychological and physical functions affected the meaning of life; (b) Life review- review of life inspired inner desires and meanings, and the older elderly, the more they were moving towards unity; (c) Aging attitudes- adapting to aging would increase positive aging attitudes, but didn’t bring meaning to life; (d) Death attitudes- death represented the passing of meaning but thinking about death made elderly cherish life more.