Strategies for well-being in later life: a qualitative analysis.

A 70-year-old retired professional man, with some health problems but a high measured level of well-being, was interviewed for his perception of the sources of well-being. A grounded-theory analysis showed that he related well-being most strongly to the freedom to choose activities, and manage his own time. Other well-being strategies within these domains were (i) reconstruing time, so that physical slow-down was assimilated to the positive values of leisure, patience and a steady pace of work, and (ii) social comparisons of self with others. Well-being in the context of age-related symptoms was achieved explicitly through tenacious self-monitoring and self-management of physical and cognitive effort, and implicitly through minimizing or distancing of symptoms. The implicit strategies suggest a reorganization of subjectivity. The Discussion addresses the problems of inferring implicit strategies, and psychological processes specific to the experience of ageing.