Women's psycho-social well-being through ego synthesis: Integrating constructs of intra-psychic and extra-psychic continuity in a "good life story".

详细信息   

• 作者：Bazuin-Yoder ; Amy.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2008
• 导师：Dreyer, Philip
• 毕业院校：The Claremont Graduate University
• 专业：Psychology, Social.;Women's Studies.
• ISBN：9780549548492
• CBH：3308394
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：8924489
• Pages：169

文摘

This mixed-methods narrative study (and corresponding literature and research reviews) was conducted to: (a) integrate individual constructs of ego continuity and women's psycho-social well-being into a framework reflecting both intra-psychic and extra-psychic aspects of women's sustained psycho-social well-being across the life-span; and (b) observe the potentially gendered relationship of intra-psychic continuity and extra-psychic continuity to women's well-being. Based upon the concept of a "living culture" that provides narrative structure beyond which the self cannot easily be made, Erikson's (1980) "triad" of ego synthesis - ego identity, personal identity and socio-organismic identity - provided a framework by which to explore the following hypotheses about women's sustained psycho-social health: (1) In adulthood, women's successful ego identity formation requires a coherent and sustained integration of multiple "selves" made up of: ego identity (CHARACTER); personal identity (CONNECTION); and socio-organismic identity (CONTEXT) which are each anchored in and sponsored by the greater socio-cultural environment. (2) Women's long-term intra-psychic and extra-psychic well-being is experienced in a way that is gender-specific. (3) Continuity redefined through "coherence" or "consolidation" of the self reveals a unification of multiple selves embedded in an environmental "other". (4) Narrative assessment of a "good life story" through the utilization of "causal connections" provides insight into intra-psychic (internal) and extra-psychic (external) components of women's long-term psycho-social well-being.;The current study comprised an "outcome" data set of twelve psycho-socially and socio-economically "successful" women ranging in age from 38 to 64, inclusive of and expanding upon Levinson's (1996) "midlife" range. Participants who completed two written questionnaires and received high scores indicative of subjective well-being and ego integration were asked to participate in a semi-structured narrative interview about "Women's Lives". These interviews, referred to by McAdams (1993, 1996) as "good life stories", were assessed for intra-psychic and extra-psychic themes of continuity by utilizing a narrative method of "causal connections" (McAdams, Josselson & Lieblich, 2001; Pals, 2006). Based upon a "paradigm of discovery", each participant shared her "inner script" of meaning-making by which she uncovered, created and sustained both subjective and socially-reflected psycho-social well-being despite life changes, challenges and transitions (Josselson, 1995; Loyttyniemi, 2001).;The structure of this study provided a lens by which to observe women's self-integration of multiple roles, relationships and socio-environments as both "absorbing and reflecting culture" (Hoare, 1991, p. 45). The women comprising the data set shared both personal and socio-cultural characteristics as an outcome group (e.g., professionally successful, high socio-economic status, associated as leaders in their communities and/or professions), yet their individual profiles included unique intra-psychic qualities and extra-psychic experiences indicative of multiple paths to sustained psycho-social wellness. Twenty-five percent of the women in this study grew up in extreme poverty, often exposed to physical and/or mental abuse. One-third of the women in the data set navigated at least two cultures. Over half of the women in this data set had, either personally or through a loved one, experienced a life-threatening illness, a debilitating condition or the horrors of war. Emotional "resourcing" - problem-focused coping, particularly during either a transition or an environmental event which is externally-imposed--became one focus in the examination of gendered aspects of psycho-social sustenance. Themes of both agentic and relationally-based resilience and thriving presented themselves as a dialectic of intra-psychic and extra-psychic continuity where both contribute to long-term bio-psycho-social (mental, emotional, physical and environmental) health.;Josselson (1996, p. 191; see also Hofer, Kartner, Chasiotis, Busch & Kiessling, 2007) notes that psychological research which has stressed positive growth in adulthood as primarily that of independence and autonomy has yet to accurately address the integration of deep relationships which support both intrapsychic and extra-psychic continuity and a sense of self and agentic opportunity which, for the women in this study, appear to coexist (e.g., see Whitbourne, 2001; Wright, 2006). Data collected from the research participants, in the aggregate, proved the necessity of incorporating mixed narrative research methods in order to increase the validity of measures of stability and change as both experiences affected women's ego synthesis and subjective well-being across adulthood.