Dr. William Randall, Professor of Gerontology and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative, has been awarded a research grant of $4,000 to study the relationship between the ability of adults to tell a ‘good, strong story’ about their lives and resilience in later life.

Gerontology Professor William Randall Awarded Research Grant to Study ‘Resilience in Later Life’

  
Published: Thursday, Apr 12, 2012

Dr. William Randall, Professor of Gerontology and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative, has been awarded a research grant of $4,000 to study the relationship between the ability of adults to tell a ‘good, strong story’ about their lives and resilience in later life.

Randall is one of six faculty who have been awarded a grant from St. Thomas University.

“Dr. Randall has been a consistently creative, thorough and prolific researcher and his work with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative team has garnered international praise,” said Dr. Gayle MacDonald, Dean of Research.

“In this project, he will examine the implications of narrative for resilience in later life, and this this project demonstrates the type of innovative thinking for which CIRN is becoming known.”

Randall said that research has indicated that narrative interventions such as reminiscence and life review can reduce the symptoms of mental distress like depression and increase one’s sense of personal mastery.

Taking this as a starting point, he and other members of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative team—Dr. Sue McKenzie-Mohr, Dr. Michelle Lafrance, Dr. Elizabeth McKim and Dr. Clive Baldwin—will be looking at the types of stories told by older adults across the spectrum of resilience. They will attempt to determine whether or not it is possible to detect differences in story-telling styles according to degree of resilience, and if so, how narrative interventions can be tailored to enhance older adults’ well-being.

“We hope that findings from this project, which will begin this summer, will assist in a proposed larger international study of the efficacy of ‘narrative care’ being developed by CIRN in conjunction with Ernst Bohlmeijer of Twente University in the Netherlands and Marvin Westwood of University of British Columbia,” said Randall.

General Research Awards

Samira Farhoud - $2,000
Revisiter la littérature francophone coloniale et postcoloniale du Maghreb, du Moyen-Orient et des Caraibes: une écriture de contestation et de révolte (1800-2012) 

Jane Jenkins - $2,000
Baptism of Fire: The 1918 Influenza Epidemic and Public Health Reform in New Brunswick 

Haydee Sainz - $1,047
Hispano-Canadian Poetry as a Reflection of Identity in New Brunswick Society 

Julia Torrie - $2,000
Living like God in France: The German Forces of Occupation, 1940-44 

Luc Walhain - $2,000
US Military Bases in Korea: A History of Collateral Profits 

Ray Williams - $2,000
Investigating the Impact of Professional Learning Communities on Student Achievement: the View from School District 10