Group Life Review and Denial of Death

Abstract

In order to assess the utility of structured reminiscing with the elderly a series of five Life Review Workshops (LRW) were offered. Sixty-three seniors participated in the treatment or no-treatment conditions and were administered four attitude measures pre- and post-treatment. Workshop participants also filled out a Workshop Evaluation Form. Analyses showed that the treatment group significantly decreased in denial of death (t = 2.66, p = less than .01) while the control group did not. There were also moderate but significant correlations between age, education, religiosity, and health measures and the perceived benefit accrued from the workshop, the amount of reminiscing which participants reported after completing the workshop, and the number of functions which reminiscing served for LRW members.

The Content of Older Adults’ Autobiographical Memories Predicts the Beneficial Outcomes of Reminiscence Group Participation

“…As initially proposed by Butler (1963), work has also shown that reviewing one's life, as part of a reminiscence group, can help older adults to prepare for death by alleviating fears and increasing death acceptance (e.g., Fishman 1992;Georgemiller and Maloney 1984). At the same time, there are many studies showing that reminiscence groups are not necessarily beneficial, or at least not any more so than a control group or comparison therapeutic technique (e.g., Engels and Vermey 1997;Richeson and Thorson 2002).…”