Aging and The Sense of Self

A review of a research article-Dan McKinnon

Review & critique of:

• Troll, L. E. & McKean M. (1997). Perceived continuity of self in very old age. Psychology and Aging, Vol. 12, No. 1, 162-169.

• Who am I now?: Speculations on how the aging brain affects an elder’s sense of self.

But first, a thought experiment

The Ship of TheseusImagine this….Thinking about What is self ? It’s a perennially persistent problem.....

Purpose & rationale of the study• Implement a novel approach to

investigating change in self vs. continuity of self in late life.

• How? Interviewed very old individuals (85+yrs.).

• Not personality traits, but a descriptive approach.

• Asked, how have you changed or stayed the same?

The Literature Review

• What is Self?• Too brief, too

sketchy• Most writers focus on

the “self-concept”, “self-esteem, or the self in a reflective, subjective manner.

• OR, personality traits.

• Missed noting the deficiencies in those approaches.

• Needed a critical evaluation of recent psychological conceptions of self, For instance…..

…Three recent notions of self,• Labouvie-Vief (1995): the self is not

unitary, conscious-rational and integrated, BUT,

• a set of processes, multiple and situated.• Gergen (1991): there is no self-

knowledge at all, just a collage of socially conditioned interpretations.

• Nesser (1988): there are five kinds of self-knowledge and they are 1…2….3….4…5.

Troll & Skaff’s definition of self is• Derived from William James and

George Herbert Mead.• And it is a duplex notion of self…• …with the “I”, the self as observer,

AND• …with the “me”, the self as the

observations of that observer.

Sound familiar?

They didn’t admit it, but they borrowed a very famous dictum of self from...

Rene Descartes (1641/1960)

You remember?“I think, therefore I am.”It’s dualism from here on….

BUT, operationally defining, What is self?, that’s tough to do.• They deserve credit for focusing on…

• the self as a self-perceived continuity in the sameness of the person, The “I”, OR

• the self-perceived continuity in the person’s self attributes, The “me”.

In their study Troll & Skaff also relate self perceptions to:• Recent upsetting

events,• current social

resources,• physical & mental

well-being,• and mortality

• Although they do not state it as such…..

…..Troll & Skaff’s implicit null hypothesis is

There is little empirical evidence for either continuity or change in identity in very late life.

Method

So how did they do it?

They drew a random sample of• 150 caucasian men (25%) and women

(75%) over the age of 85• All participants lived in the community

and50% of them lived alone• Interviewed as to their….• willingness to participate and if they

were• competent enough to respond

The Interviews

• 6 interviews in total over a 7 year period

• In-depth, focused interview format• Only interviews at Time 1 & Time 3

dealt with perceptions of self-continuity

• 30 months lapsed between T-1 & T-2

30 months, how did the sample change? A weakness?• 19% died, 9% became too impaired

and 11% declined to participate or moved

• Dropout = 150 to 90 participants• Did the sample remain

representative of the population?• Troll & Skaff claimed that their were

no major differences

Another concern or weakness that Troll & Skaff overlooked was

No attempt was made to control for any possible research participant effectsA participant’s need for positive self-presentation can distort things

The Questions

• Questions about either….

• The person’s sense of being the same essential person (“I”)

• and The person’s observations of particular aspects of his/her being (“me”)

• Questions about….• Recent, disruptive

and upsettting events in the last year

• Current social resources

• Physical and mental well-being

• Thoughts of mortality

Scoring the responses ?

• 3=no change, 2=some change• 1=slight change, 0=ambiguous answer• Both authors scored the responses

independently and then discussed them until a consensus was reached.

• Discrepancies between ratings were consistently within 1 point.

• Overall the questions & ratings seemed appropriate and well done.

Results

Reported in a systematic and detailed mannerGood use of tables/charts to display their results

Results, continued...

• Time 1• 74% of participants

perceived a clear continuity of self on the subjective feeling of self or the “I” dimension

• Consistent with the literature

• Time 3• 92% of

participants perceived a clear continuity of self on the “I” dimension.

Results continued….

• Time 1• 77% of the

participants pereived themselves as QUITE DIFFERENT on the content of self or the “me” dimension

• Time 3• 60% perceived

themselves as QUITE DIFFERENT on the “me” dimension

• Using t-tests for paired differences these results are stat.sig (p <.001)

Results continued...

• None of the other potential correlates…

• ... not recent upsetting events, not current social resources, not physical or mental well-being, not thoughts of mortality…

• ... displayed a stat.sig. relationship with perceived continuity of self.

Discussion

Their discussion of the findings was informative and well integrated with the literature review.

Key points in the discussion:• Elders (+85 yr.) retain a coherent

sense of self ( The “I” dimension) over time.

• 80% of these elders felt that some of their self-attributes (The “me” dimension) did indeed change.

• Elders are able to readily assimilate these changes into their core self, the “I” or observer self.

Key points continued….

• Intriguing that disruptive events did not affect their continuous sense of self.

• Elders have an “aura of survivorship”• The “I” - “me” distinction is a useful

way to understand how elders can describe themselves as essentially the same.

Conclusion

“Even among the oldest old, then, there seems to be a sense that although the mirror might tell a different story, the person inside is still the same.”

Some alternate explanations?• Sense of self as overlapping memories.• Sense of self as a bundle of

perceptions.• Sense of self as a narrative structure

and story.

• THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #2– The Heap Problem