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Dwelling and Seeking: Post-Retirement Pathways

April 11, 2003
Paul Wink associate professor, psychology, Wellesley

Paul Wink suggests that there is more than one way to age gracefully, based on his findings in two long-term longitudinal studies. Successful adaptation to life in the post-retirement age is commonly assumed to require a "life review" in which the individual takes stock of his or her life and arrives at a new level of self-understanding. Professor Wink uses data from two long-term longitudinal studies of psychosocial function among men and women to challenge this assumption. While a minority of the study's participants ("seekers") did undertake and benefit from reviewing their life, the majority of the men and women in the study ("dwellers") did not show signs of life review in old age and did not appear to suffer any negative consequences. These findings suggest that there is more than one way to age with grace.

WGBH
Wellesley College
Image of In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change
Author: Paul Wink, Michele Dillon
Publisher: University of California Press (2007)
Binding: Paperback, 295 pages