Effects of Life Review on Happiness and Life Satisfaction in Older Adults

Life review involves a systematic, chronological review of an individual’s life from birth to death as well as an examination of the meaningfulness of life experiences and events. The purpose of the current study was to discover the effects of life review on happiness and life satisfaction in the older population. Participants from 71 to 85 years of age completed a demographics questionnaire, the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). SHS and SWLS were completed every other day from the beginning to the end of the data collection process. Once a consistent baseline was reached for the individual, the life review process began. Participants shared experiences from childhood and adolescence, adulthood, and older adulthood during the course of three sessions. At the end of the third session, participants were asked to write a letter to their younger self. It was hypothesized that engaging in the life review process would increase life satisfaction and happiness in the elderly. Results revealed that the life review intervention did not affect participants’ levels of life satisfaction and subjective happiness, with the exception of participant four who displayed increases in these variables.