THE SELF-CONCEPT OF THE ELDERLY - A CROSS-CULTURAL-COMPARISON

This study examines the self-concept of the elderly in a cross-cultura l perspective. An open-ended sentence completion methodology was emplo yed. A sample of elderly Spanish and elderly Dutch were compared to ga in an idea of the cross-cultural generality of the content of the self -concept. Analysis focuses on responses to sentences which probed the respondents' motivations and future plans and goals. Differences could be interpreted as reflecting an individualistic (Dutch) vs. collectiv istic (Spanish) distinction between the two cultures. Furthermore, the findings had implications for how to interpret dimensions of meaningf ul aging. For example, a dimension such as ''purpose in life'' was mor e generalizable across the two samples than a dimension such as ''auto nomy.''