Stemming the "ageism pandemic": A qualitative inquiry with older adults in residential care facilities during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Covid-19 pandemic added to collective concerns, making health risks salient especially for the older population. The health emergency exacerbated an already widespread negative representation of aging, and phenomena such as ageism. With the present qualitative inquiry, 21 episodic interviews were collected with the aim of understanding the experience of older adults in residential care facilities, exploring their ideas of aging and the viewpoints that helped them to respond to the pandemic successfully. A thematic analysis was conducted using NudIst software. The results show that participants described multiple personal and relational resources they used to cope with the pandemic, and they were able to express counter-narratives to the ideas of aging as coinciding with decline, and of lockdown as a source of distress alone. The paper concludes with reflections on the relevance of research capable of challenging unhelpful dominant discourses and averting the risk of them turning into negative prophecies.

Self-positions and narratives facilitating or hindering posttraumatic growth: A qualitative analysis with migrant women of Nigerian descent survivors of trafficking.

OBJECTIVE: The literature on sex trafficking has given a great deal of space to the effects on mental health, while little has been devoted to the stories of survivors. This study aims to explore the first-hand stories of immigrant women of Nigerian descent trafficking survivors, describing a qualitative analysis of psychotherapy sessions with them. Within the theoretical framework of Dialogical Self Theory, we explored and invited into dialogue the I-positions generated when individuals have traumatic experiences such as sex trafficking. Analyzing the themes emerging from 5 psychotherapy pathways developed taking a narrative and dialogical approach, we explored the narratives that facilitated posttraumatic growth (PTG) and those that hindered it. METHOD: Five women survivors of sex trafficking were followed in a narrative psychotherapy journey. A thematic analysis was conducted on the transcripts of the therapeutic pathways, highlighting the positions of the self identified in the narratives and the main content of the women's stories. RESULTS: We identified 2 main themes in the narratives facilitating PTG, and 3 in the narratives acting as barriers thereto. CONCLUSION: When addressing traumatic experiences, taking into account the polyphony of the individuals narrating them, and identifying which of their narratives can facilitate or hinder their PTG can be a useful resource in therapeutic and social work with survivors of trafficking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Resisting ageism through lifelong learning. Mature students' counter-narratives to the construction of aging as decline.

This study aims to investigate the narratives of some "mature" students who are challenging the widely-shared view that studying, and learning new things, is a prerogative of young people. Twenty-five narrative interviews were conducted with older people enrolled at the University of Padua, Italy, to shed light on the motives, values, self-image, and personal solutions that supported their decision to resume and successfully pursue a path of studies at a "non-canonical" age. Starting from perspectives that emphasize the social dimension of meaning-making activity, we explore the counter-narratives functional to the deconstruction of "age prejudice". The results that emerge from a thematic and structural narrative analysis show some common themes and three different counter-narratives through which respondents try to challenge the idea that they are too old to study. The paper ends with some considerations on the degree of efficacy with which these counter-narratives can resist age prejudice, identifying cases in which they favor change on a personal, social, or cultural level.

"I'm too Old for " looking into a self-Sabotage rhetoric and its counter-narratives in an Italian setting.

The aim of this study was to analyze a narrative amply shared in the social and cultural spheres that makes people tend to see themselves as 'too old for …' (TOF) making personal life choices or following up their projects. This social construction risks preventing people from taking action to achieve their goals and develop their potential for self-fulfillment, with negative consequences on a personal level. Seventy-eight episodic interviews were conducted with adults of various ages to shed light on the recurrent topics with which the TOF narrative tends to be associated. Taking a pragmatic stance, the counter-narratives available for its deconstruction were also elicited and explored. The results emerging from a content analysis indicate that the TOF narrative is associated with different topics, partly depending on an individual's age and gender, while the counter-narratives identified by respondents hinge on several ideas and dominant beliefs that can be classified as belonging to three essential types. The implications of the investigation are discussed, also with reference to problems of social relevance such as those relating to the NEET (not in education, employment or training) issue, and to the social isolation of the elderly.

Change in psychotherapy: a dialogical analysis single-case study of a patient with bulimia nervosa.

Starting from the critical review of various motivational frameworks of change that have been applied to the study of eating disorders, the present paper provides an alternative conceptualization of the change in psychotherapy presenting a single-case study. We analyzed six psychotherapeutic conversations with a bulimic patient and found out narratives "for" and "against" change. We read them in terms of tension between dominance and exchange in I-positions, as described by Hermans. These results indicate that the dialogical analysis of clinical discourse may be a useful method to investigate change from the beginning to the end of therapy.

[From Eysenck to Costa and McCrae: a proposal for a change in CBA--Schedule 5]. / Da Eysenck a Costa e McCrae: una proposta per il cambiamento della Scheda 5 del CBA.

UNLABELLED: This study is an explorative research aiming to revise Schedule 5 of Cognitive Behavioural Assessment 2.0 (CBA), that is a reduced version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R). The main goal of this work is to adapt this inventory to the Big Five model by adding new items with good psychometric characteristics, according to the up-to-date Five-Factor personality model. METHODS: These items were chosen on the basis of correlations between the scales of three personality inventories: EPQ-R, Neo Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) test. The questionnaires have been submitted to a sample of 159 subjects, aged 35 to 65. RESULTS: First results confirm good indicators for the dimensions extraversion and Neuroticism, while Psychoticism did not exhibit significant correlations. Moreover, three dimensions in the NEO PI-R and IPIP test (Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) showed good psychometric characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: To obtain a new revised form of CBA 2.0 Schedule 5, we suggest the substitution of Psychoticism with three more consistent dimensions belonging to both the NEO PI-R and IPIP test: Openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness. We also propose the new items for these dimensions to be selected from the short form of the NEO PI-R, the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), as such selection has been already validated.