Meaning-making in memories: a comparison of memories of death-related and low point life experiences.
Because of their extensive experience with death and dying, hospice volunteers may be more successful at engaging in meaning-making regarding their death-related experiences than their low point life experiences (e.g., job loss). Consequently, their memories of death-related experiences will manifest more meaning-making strategies (e.g., bendfit-finding) than their low point memories. Fifty-two hospice volunteers wrote memory narratives of death-related and low point experiences and provided ratings of their memories. Results show that death memory narratives exhibit more meaning-making strategies, are rated as more emotionally positive, and are more frequently rehearsed. The long-term significance of the use of meaning-making strategies is discussed.
Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152, USA. mmmackay@memphis.edu
Michael M
MM
Mackay
Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Susan
S
Bluck
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003643:Death; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D033262:Narration; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology