The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

ATTITUDE: POSITIVE AGING

Since the late 1990s, a new movement known as positive psychology has emerged and taken hold in the popular press as well as in academic circles. Although only limited attention has been paid specifically to older adults in this movement, there is a parallel interest in resilience associated with growing older (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2008), for example among survivors of earlier life trauma (Greene, 2010; Corley, 2010). While reflection and solitude have positive benefits in later life, it is important to balance these with activity. “Continuity theory” (Neugarten, Havighurst, & Tobin, 1968) suggests that people’s lifelong propensities help them adapt to aging. The burgeoning area broadly defined as “positive aging” has spawned ...