earticle

영어

In order to lead a healthy and happy life for their remaining years, older people want to be healed up the past hurts they had ever experienced. One way to be healed up should be to forgive the persons who gave the hurts to the older people. Forgiving process is very much related to cognitive change, and factors of the cognitive changes in the forgiving process in old age are ➀ children’s ascent in their SES level, ➁ interaction with the others, ➂ deterioration in health, ➃ observation of death owing to a natural disaster, ➄ retrospection and healing of life through a religion, and ➅ indirect intervention such as educational programs. This study was to explore if there would be any differences in the cognitive change factors according to the time or age when older people had forgiven the persons. Participants were 80 men and 85 women who were aged from 60 to 83 years, and they were all who had ever experienced the serious emotional hurts in the past as well as had ever forgiven the persons who gave them the hurts. None of them have ever had any professional help on their hurts. They were asked when they had forgiven the past hurts, and asked to assess how much each cognitive change factor affected for their forgiveness acts on a 5-point scale, 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Data were collected thru a one-to-one interview. Data concerning the influence of each factor over the forgiveness were tabulated according to gender as well as the time when older people had forgiven the hurts. The major findings were that there were differences in cognitive change factors according to the time when older people had forgiven. For instance, interaction with the others was the most influential factor when the time of older people’s having forgiven was in their 30s or 40s, whereas children’s ascent in their SES level was in their 60s.

한국어

노인들은 건강하고 행복한 삶을 영위하기 위해 과거의 정신 적 상처를 치유하고자 한다. 그 치유 방법 중 하나는 상처를 준 사 람을 용서하는 것이다. 노년기 용서과정에 영향을 주는 인지적 변화 의 요인은 ①자녀의 사회경제적 지위 상승, ②타인과의 상호작용이 나 직간접적 관찰, ③자신과 타인의 건강악화, ④자연재해로 인한 죽 음 관찰, ⑤종교를 통한 삶의 회고와 치유, ⑥교육 등의 간접적 개입 의 6가지이다. 본 연구는 노인들이 용서를 경험했던 시기/연령에 따 라서 인지적 변화 요인의 차이가 있는지를 탐색하였다. 연구대상자 들은 과거에 다른 사람과의 관계에서 정서적 상처를 심하게 받았다 가 그 상처를 준 사람을 용서해준 60-83세 사이의 남성 80명과 여 성 85명이었다. 노인들은 용서 시 앞의 요인들이 어느 정도 영향을 미쳤는지 5점 척도로 평가했다. 그 결과 용서시기에 따라서 용서에 영향을 미친 인지적 변화 요인의 차이가 있었다. 젊은 시절에 용서 했을 때는 타인과의 상호작용이 가장 중요한 요인이었지만, 고령에 서는 자녀의 사회경제적 지위의 상승이 가장 중요한 요인이었다.