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Integrity Versus Despair

As people enter late life, they begin the struggle of integrity versus despair , which involves the process by which people try to make sense of their lives. According to Erikson (1982), this struggle comes about as older adults such as Fatima try to understand their lives in terms of the future of their family and community. Thoughts of a person’s own death are balanced by the realization that they will live on through children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the accomplishments the person had. This realization produces what Erikson calls a “life-affirming involvement” in the present.

The struggle of integrity versus despair requires people to engage in a life review , the process by which people reflect on the events and experiences of their lifetimes. To achieve integrity, people must come to terms with the choices and events that made their lives unique. There must also be an acceptance of the fact that one’s life is drawing to a close. Looking back on one’s life may resolve some of the second-guessing of decisions made earlier in adulthood (Erikson et al., 1986). People who were unsure whether they made the right choices concerning their children, for example, now feel satisfied that things worked out well. In contrast, others feel bitter about their choices, blame themselves or others for their misfortunes, see their lives as meaningless, and greatly fear death. These people end up in despair rather than living with integrity.

Research shows a connection between engaging in a life review and achieving integrity; life review forms the basis for effective mental health interventions (Sion et al., 2020; Villar & Serrat, 2017), especially for older individuals with depression (Tam et al., 2021). A therapeutic technique called structured life review (Haight & Haight, 2007) is effective in helping people deal with stressful life events.

Who reaches integrity? Erikson (1982) emphasizes that people who demonstrate integrity come from various backgrounds and cultures and arrive there having taken different paths. Such people have made many different choices and follow many different lifestyles; the point is that everyone has this opportunity to achieve integrity if they strive for it. Those who reach integrity become self-affirming and self-accepting; they judge their lives to have been worthwhile and good. They are glad to have lived the lives they did.

Well-Being and Emotion

How is your life going? Are you reasonably content, or do you think you could be doing better? Answers to these questions provide insight into your subjective well-being , an evaluation of one’s life that is associated with positive feelings. In life-span developmental psychology, subjective well-being is usually assessed by measures of life satisfaction, happiness, and self-esteem (Ong et al., 2021; Oswald & Wu, 2010).

Given the findings about higher levels of well-being in older adults compared with middle-aged adults, researchers began wondering how well-being was related to emotions. People’s feelings are clearly important, as they get expressed in daily moods and underlie mental health problems such as depression. Older adults show a tendency to focus on more positive feelings and tend to downplay negative ones in general (Alexander et al., 2021; Cacioppo et al., 2011; Zhou et al., 2017). How emotions are regulated in later life may provide insights into people’s subjective well-being.

Emotion-focused research in neuroscience is providing answers to the question of why subjective well-being tends to increase with age (Cacioppo et al., 2011; Mather, 2016, 2020). A brain structure called the amygdala, an almond-shaped set of nuclei deep in the brain, helps regulate emotion. Evidence is growing that age-related changes in how the amygdala functions may play a key role in understanding emotional regulation in older adults. Here’s how. In young adults, arousal of the amygdala is associated with negative emotional arousal. When negative emotional arousal occurs, for example, memory for events associated with the emotion is stronger. But the situation is different for older adults—both amygdala activation and emotional arousal are lower. That may be one reason older adults experience less negative emotion, lower rates of depression, and better well-being (Mather, 2016, 2020).

Rohr writes that the False Self is rooted in a relative identity that each of us creates for ourselves, an identity that depends critically on external indicators of success (e.g., title, prestige, salary, status). The False Self is inherently fragile, tends to be dissatisfied because it depends on external definitions of achievement, and is felt as separate from others in the sense that we want to belong to the “in” group and define others selectively as members of the “out” group. Change is feared. Morality is defined in terms of adherence to rules. In short, the False Self is the result of building one’s ego structure based on incorporating external messages regarding “values” and “success.” There is a heavy emphasis on doing things “correctly” according to the rules of the group or society. In Rohr’s view, achieving the True Self involves (re)discovering the universality and wholeness, an “authentic inner knowing,” that has always been within, but has gone unrecognized or unacknowledged. The True Self does not see anything with absolute certainty. The True Self is the fulfillment of the search for answers to the core existential questions. It entails a letting go and an acceptance of what is.

The spirituality of Buddhist monks can serve as an important coping strategy.

As you probably surmised, the developmental transition from False Self to True Self is a reflection of underlying cognitive (described in Chapters 10, 13, and 14) and personality development (described in this chapter and in Chapters 10 and 13). Other theorists (Fowler, 1981, 2000; McLaren, 2021) describe stages of faith development that closely mirror those in overall cognitive development. Cavanaugh (2017) argues that it is these underlying processes that permit the shifts in perspective reflected in the transition from False Self to True Self or through stages of faith development.

This change in perspective is also a key factor in how many older adults cope with life stresses. According to research, older adults in many countries and from many different backgrounds use their religious faith and spirituality as the basis for coping, often more than they use family or friends (Ai et al., 2010, 2013, 2017; Ardelt et al., 2013; Wink et al., 2021). For some older adults, especially African Americans, a strong attachment to God is what they believe helps them deal with the challenges of life (Cosby, 2020; Pickard et al., 2018).

Think About It

How might the transition from the False Self to the True Self reflect postformal cognitive development?

There is considerable evidence linking spirituality, religious-based coping, and health (Ai et al., 2010, 2017; Krause, 2012; Park, 2007; Wink et al., 2021). In general, older adults who are more involved with and committed to their faith have better physical and mental health than older adults who are not religious. For example, older Mexican Americans who pray to the saints and the Virgin Mary or attend religious services on a regular basis tend to have greater optimism and better health and a significant reduction in mortality from any cause (Hill et al., 2020; Krause & Bastida, 2011). Spirituality also helps improve psychological well-being (Ai et al., 2017; Hayward et al., 2016; Wink et al., 2021) and helps patients following cardiac surgery (Ai et al., 2010; Appel et al., 2020; Wink et al., 2021).

Researchers have increasingly focused on spiritual support — which includes seeking pastoral care, participating in organized and nonorganized religious activities, and expressing faith in a God who cares for people—as a key factor in understanding how older adults cope. Even when under high levels of stress, such as during critical illness or other major life trauma, people who rely on spiritual support report greater personal well-being (Ai et al., 2010, 2017; Hayward et al., 2016; Wink et al., 2021) and to cope better with chronic health conditions (Lucette et al., 2016; Nienke, 2021).