Good memories not key to older people's happiness
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New research into the relationship between memory, identity and wellbeing in older people could lead to better support for people with dementia.
Changes in memory, as people grow older, can have a major impact on daily life and relationships with others. As well as forgetting simple day-to-day tasks, people can forget personal and life events.
“This type of memory – autobiographical memory – plays a central role in our sense of identity, and we wanted to explore how it would relate to well-being,” explains Dr Clare Rathbone of Oxford Brookes University.
As part of this three-year study, researchers tested 32 younger and 32 older adults on their memory, sense of identity and well-being. Surprisingly, perhaps, findings show that general forgetfulness, a common experience among many older adults, is not related to well-being at all.
“Not being able to remember things or life events to the same extent as younger people didn’t mean older people felt unhappier with life,” Dr Rathbone poin...
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