University of Twente Student Theses

Login

Body full of language - The relationship between characteristics of autobiographical memories and the body language of healthy older adults

Tran, Diem (2020) Body full of language - The relationship between characteristics of autobiographical memories and the body language of healthy older adults.

[img] PDF
487kB
Abstract:With growing age, not only changes in cognitions occur, but also in emotions. It is important to facilitate the sharing of autobiographical memories to enhance the well-being of older adults. This partly qualitative and partly quantitative study explored the relationship between characteristics of autobiographical memories and the emotion expression of healthy older adults. Using an adapted version of the Autobiographical Memory Test, 5 participants were asked to recall and share three sad and three happy memories. The memories were transcribed, coded and analyzed. It was found that the vividness and positive valence, compared to the non-vividness and negative valence of autobiographical memories, is related to the emotion expression of the mouth. It was also found that the vividness and positive valence is less related to the emotion expression of the hands than the non-vividness and negative valence of autobiographical memories. As there is little research done with these four components, the findings encourage further investigation, taking individual differences and other pitfalls into account to broaden the knowledge about emotion expression in autobiographical memories. These findings can be used as a stepping stone for comparison and future investigation of older adults diagnosed with dementia.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:70 social sciences in general, 77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/80807
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page