REGRETS IN LATER LIFE

With the various options of life choices in the American culture and t he great opportunity for choosing one's own path in life, there is als o great opportunity for regretting paths taken and not taken. Informat ion on regrets in later life was collected both qualitatively and quan titatively through interviews and mailed questionnaires from 140 retir ed individuals. Regret was measured using the Life Revision Index (LRI ) (DeGenova, 1992) and the Regrets Self Inventory (Klein & Gotti, 1992 ). Both men and women reported they wish they would have pursued more education, but women had significantly higher regrets in this area. In general, the desire to have spent more time understanding the self an d developing the mind and intellect was especially evident among women .