Co-chair –symposium entitled, - Positive Solitude at the Second Half of Life

Positive solitude (PS) is an intuitive concept. People need to be by themselves and enjoy it from time to time. Yet, when looking for supportive empirical literature, there are merely forty essays about solitude, and a handful dealing with PS in old age. Most authors refer to solitude as loneliness and/or social isolation without differentiation, precluding perhaps a precise PS definition. Nevertheless, PS has an impact in our lives, and even more so when it comes to old people, who spend much of their time alone and can have devastating outcomes. Nevertheless, the ability to experience even a part of this time alone as PS might be an empowering experience in later life, as it might be in any other age. As PS in old age is under researched, the current symposia will expose preliminary evidence (qualitative/quantitative) for positive solitude in old age. The first talk (Mrs. Sharon Ost Mor) addresses the confusing solitude literature existing today and presents a new conceptualization of this term and its' relevance to old age. The second presentation (Dr. Dikla Segal-Karpas) will describe disparities between caregivers and old peoples' attitude towards positive solitude in the second half of life. These two qualitative studies served our research team in planning a new inventory measure of PS. Conceptual difficulties, methodological issues and statistical dilemmas surrounding PS will be described on the third lecture (Prof. Yuval Palgi). The forth presentation (Prof. Ehud Bodner) will show associations between PS and mood regulation via music listening and successful aging. The last presentation (Prof. Jennifer Lay) will examine time-ordered associations between PS and affect experience of older adults in Chinese and Canadian cultures. We will conclude the session by discussing future research directives for the implementation of PS in the field of gerontology, e.g., development of interventions that may turn the some of the deleterious effects of aloneness into PS. Co Chair: Prof. Yaakov, Hoffman, Israel