Attachment to Personal Possessions: An Interpretive Study of the Older Person's Experience

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: An exploratory study was undertaken to examine the role of personal possessions in older people's attachment to place. RESEARCH DESIGN: A qualitative research strategy was selected to gather descriptive data and to capture meanings of personal experience (Rowles and Reinharz, 1988). Over a ten‐month period, multiple, in‐depth interviews were conducted with a small sample of volunteer subjects in their homes. ANALYSIS: A phenomenological method of analysis based on procedures outlined by Giorgi (1985) was followed. KEY FINDINGS: A complex pattern of attachment to possessions was revealed through discovery of two interpretive themes, connection/extension and continuity/discontinuity, that provide deeper understanding of the person‐place phenomenon as experienced by the older person. CONCLUSION: The study validates and extends other studies showing relationships between personal possessions and identity of older people. Attachment of a sense of self to micro‐elements of the physical environment has crucial implications for place‐making in the older person's residential setting. Copyright © 1995, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved