The effects of a brief reminiscence task on mood for older adults living in residential aged care.

The study aims to investigate the impact that a brief instrumental reminiscence intervention has on mood, hopefulness and mastery for older adults living in residential aged care. Using a pre-test/post-test experimental design the study explores the impact that a reminiscence task has on mood, hopefulness and mastery using the following instruments: - The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Watson, Clark & Tellegan, 1988) - Adult Hope Scale (AHS) (Snyder, et al. 1991) - Pearlin Mastery Scale (Pearlin et al, 1981) - Memories of Mastery Experiences Scale (Bhar, Brown & Beck 2007) The research will be conducted face to face with individual participants using a standardise reminiscence script for the experimental condition and a current events script for the control condition. Both conditions will be conducted by the student investigators. Participants are asked general questions about their personal and family history. Such questions refer to participant’s work and schooling history, early family environment, and relationships with parents and siblings. The purpose of these questions is not to elicit comprehensive information about the participants’ history but rather to prime participants to think about their past, thus creating a psychological climate involving the recollection of memories. For participants in the intervention condition, these questions create a context for asking more specific questions about mastery related experiences (i.e., the mastery memory activation task). This discussion should take approximately 10 minutes. The research will be conducted in residential aged care facilities in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.