The Effect on Older Adults' Well-being of Gratitude and Types of Life Reminiscence

本研究以幸福感作為成功老化的指標，試圖探究高齡者本身的感恩性情及正向回憶形式對其幸福感的影響。 研究一採「個別差異」的觀點，研究者認為相較於一些隨著老化而改變的生活狀況變項（如，身體健康、日常生活功能、經濟狀況、社交活動等因素），高齡者本身的感恩性情及正向回憶形式應更能影響其自評幸福的程度。研究者主要以調查法的方式，對355名55歲以上的高齡者進行團體或個別形式的量表施測。研究結果顯示，感恩性情及正向回憶形式的確與幸福感有密切的關聯，即使在控制基本人口及生活狀況變項的影響後，感恩性情及正向回憶形式仍有助於提升個體的幸福感（其可增加的預測變異量介於6.0%~9.6%）。研究一也將幸福感的三個成分（生活滿意度、正向情緒及負向情緒）分別做為依變項，進一步探討可能的中介模式，結果發現：（1）「正向回憶形式」能完全中介感恩性情對正、負向情緒的影響，但僅能部分中介感恩性情對生活滿意度的影響。而（2）「感恩情緒」則能完全中介感恩性情對正向情緒的影響，但僅能部分中介感恩性情對生活滿意度的影響，卻完全無法中介感恩性情對負向情緒的影響。此外，正向回憶形式與感恩情緒兩中介變項各有其獨特的中介效果，無法相互取代。 研究二則採取實驗法的方式進行，用以檢視感恩情緒與幸福感的因果關係。受試者為75名參與終身學習的高齡者，研究者嘗試以不同感恩情緒的激發方式，來設計適合於高齡者的幸福感提升方案。有些高齡者被要求聚焦在現在生活中的感恩經驗（日常感恩組），有些則是寫出過去生命裡的感恩事件（人生感恩組），研究者認為當高齡者在回憶書寫這些感恩經驗時，可再經驗及品嚐感恩情緒。另有兩組高齡者則分別被要求書寫現在生活中的重要事件（日常要事組）或僅單純回答問卷、不進行其他書寫（無操弄控制組）來做為對照組。研究者對這些不同組別，分別進行分析，探討這些不同操弄對高齡者幸福感是否有提升的作用。研究結果顯示，經過七週的書寫後，相較於「無操弄控制組」，「日常感恩組」在正向情緒上有提升的現象，但在生活滿意度及負向情緒則未出現明顯差異。進一步分析顯示，幸福感中正向情緒的提升效果完全透過感恩情緒連動正向情緒而得。然而該效果頗為短暫，在研究結束後於一個月所做的追蹤調查就發現該效果已然消失。研究結果也顯示，「人生感恩組」並未能提升幸福感，其可能的原因或許是因為過去人生的感恩經驗已經太過遙遠，因此無法讓高齡者真正再次經驗到感恩情緒，所以也無法有效地提升個體的幸福感。另外，研究者也發現了一個頗為有趣的結果，就是「日常要事組」造成的影響與「日常感恩組」相似，研究者認為之所以會出現這樣的結果，主要是因為「日常要事組」的受試者其所書寫的「要事」多半為正向事件，因此提高了其幸福的感受。 綜合上述兩個研究的結果，研究者認為，感恩及正向回憶形式對高齡者是否能有較佳的幸福感確實有一定程度的影響，且若能引導高齡者多注意其日常生活中值得感恩的事情或是正向事件，將能使其感受到更多的正向情緒，也有助於幸福感的提升。換言之，即使到了老年階段，只要用對了方法，要擁有幸福快樂的銀髮生涯其實並不難！This research, adopting positive emotion, negative emotion, and life satisfaction as the criteria of subjective well-being, tried to examine the effects of grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence on successful aging. In study1, the researcher proposed that grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence, among other life situation variables which changed with age (e.g., health condition, functions of daily life, economic status, and social activities), could predict the well-being of the elderly. Three hundred and thirty five participants who are over the age of 55 were surveyed in groups or individually. The results were as predicted, grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence could predict the well-being of the elderly, even after controlling for some basic life situation variables, they still could explain 6.0% and 9.6% of variance respectively. The mediation effects were also examined and results indicated that, (1) "the positive type of reminiscence” could completely mediate the effects of grateful disposition on positive and negative emotion, but only partially mediated the effects of grateful disposition on life satisfaction; (2) “grateful emotion” completely mediated the effect of grateful disposition on positive emotion, and partially mediated the effect of grateful disposition on life satisfaction, but did not mediate the effect of grateful disposition on negative emotion. Furthermore, these two mediator variables, the positive type of reminiscence and grateful emotion, had its own specific mediating effect, and could not replace each other. In Study 2, an experiment was conducted to examine the causal relationship between grateful emotion and well-being of the elderly. Seventy five elders who actively participated in life-long education classes were recruited. They were assigned to one of four different experimental conditions and received different instructions. The first condition was called the daily gratitude condition and participants were told to write down the grateful experience from their current daily lives. The second condition was called the life gratitude condition and participants were asked to recall the grateful events from their past. Participants in the third condition were told to write down their daily important events. In the last condition, which is also the control condition, participants were asked to fill up questionnaires only. The results indicated that, after seven weeks of writing, the elderly in the daily gratitude condition had significant more positive emotion than those who in the control condition. However, the effect was quite short-lived and it disappeared one month later after the writing manipulation. The results also indicated that writing down grateful events from the past did not enhance the subjective well-being, the elderly in the condition showed neither significantly higher positive emotion nor higher life satisfaction than those who in the control condition. It might be because these events were too far away to elicit the present emotion and feeling effectively. In addition, the result also revealed an interesting finding about the daily important events group. The elderly in this condition showed same degree of positive emotion and well-being as those who in the daily gratitude condition. It might be due to the fact that the elders who were asked to write down important daily events did record more positive events than negative events. In summary, it can be concluded that, gratitude and the positive type of reminiscence did have impact on the well-being of the elderly. We can successfully promote the elders’ well-being by leading them to savor their daily grateful events. We believe, even stepping into elderhood, people are still capable of pursuing their own well-being and can live a good life, if only they choose the right way