The Effectiveness of Structured Group Reminiscence on the Enhancement of Elderly's Positive Self-Concept

Aging is one of the stages of human life in which the lower levels of positive self-concept is common due to the erosion of some of the capabilities of the individuals. Therefore, this study was performed to examine the efficacy of structured group reminiscence on the enhancement of positive self-concept of the elderly in Hamadan. This study was quasi-experimental of pretest, post-test with control group type and its statistical method was variance analysis with repeated measure analysis. The study statistical population consists of all the elderly half-residents of nursing homes in Hamadan city. The sample was chosen from 112 elderly who were members of the nursing home of Habib Ibn Mazaher, Hamadan. Twenty elderly with age ranges of 60-82 (M=73.46, SD=5.76) qualified to participate in this study were selected and placed randomly in two control and experimental group. The elderly who were in treatment group, participated in reminiscence meetings for 24 sessions. There were used demographic questionnaire and Tennessee Self-Concept Scale: Second Edition (Fitts & Warren, 1996). In this study to record the trend of change in scores, the researchers asked the participations to fill the questionnaire in pretest, the sixth session, the twelfth session, the eighteenth session, the twenty- fourth session and one month after the intervention termination. The results showed that structured group reminiscence have significant effect on self-concept score of the elderly and these achievements were kept in a one-month follow up. Therefore, the clinical psychologists are encouraged to use structured group reminiscence to improve the positive self-concept in the elderly.