Ego Integrity And Integrity

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In Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, Integrity (or Ego Integrity) is usually related to the eighth and final stage of life, which is late adulthood (McLeod, 2017). Mainly, integrity, as experienced by older adults, are related to their contemplation of the achievements that they were able to make, as well as the meaning and purpose of the lives that they were able to live. For a significant number of adults in the US, it was reported that the role of integrity vs despair (as a concept) has provided a good measure as to why some older adults experience variating emotions, characterized by feelings of “anger, bitterness, depression, inadequacy, failure and fear of death” (KAHSA, 2007). According to KAHSA (2007), when a person reaches old adulthood, …show more content…

Mainly, our values determine our principles and ideals in life. By having a set of guidelines that we follow to guide our own actions we could avoid falling into the trap of thinking too much about the “utility and the worthiness” of every decision that we take, thus providing the assurance that what we did (or what we are doing) is the right thing (Wong, 2013). Following from this, by knowing that our actions are right relative to the guidelines that we believe in, we see ourselves as a distinct individual who is greatly differentiated from other people. This then emphasizes our meaning in life, seeing that we are not simply the same as anyone else and that we have done the right things in our lives. The second dimension in Krause’s four-dimensional measure is having a sense of purpose. In a study done by Krause (2009), regarding the relationship of old age and mortality, he found out that “having a strong sense of purpose in life-has a stronger relationship with mortality than other facets of meaning”. In line with this, it could be said that by having a purpose in life, one could see mortality not simply as an end to his journey, since he was able to create something that could be enjoyed by the succeeding generations. Particularly speaking, Wong (2013), has defined this sense of purpose as “believing that one’s actions have a set place in the larger order of social life and that one’s behavior

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