PURPOSE: Ego-integrity in Erikson's stage theory is used frequently among health team members related to the care of the elderly and has specific meanings within the context of quality of life in later life. However, the concept of ego-integrity in the elderly has not been well articulated in the literature. This study was conducted clarify and conceptualize the phenomena of ego-integrity in the elderly. METHOD: A Hybrid Model of concept development was applied to develop a concept of ego-integrity, which included a field study carried out in Seoul, South Korea using in-depth interviews with old adults who were admitted as a right person for research subject according to attributes of ego-integrity analysed in the theoretical phase. RESULTS: The concept of ego-integrity emerged as a complex phenomenon having meanings in several different dimensions which encompassed several attributes. CONCLUSIONS: Ego-integrity is a concept having needs that should be treated in a specific way and it is possible to enrich the meaning and methods to manage ego-integrity in nursing interventions for promoting quality of life so that its application may have effects that have positive impacts on the elderly's well being.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Aged/*psychology ; Aging/psychology ; *Ego ; Female ; Geriatric Nursing ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Superego

Erich Fromm said, "A man is fundamentally a lonely being, and he needs love to overcome the loneliness and the sense of emptiness." Marriage offers a resting place for the lonely man or woman, and satisfies a variety of their needs. Marriage is an arrangement where two sexually mature human beings live together because they love each other. It is a loving relationship which is established between the mature man and woman, who have formed their own identities and could understand each other. Infidelity is a mental disorder, which destroys the marital relationship, as well as one's mental health. This paper investigates the causes of infidelity from the evolutionary and psychoanalytic perspectives. Evolutionary psychology explains infidelity as a natural phenominon. A man commits infidelity according to his instinct for spreading his genes as much as possible, while a woman behaves according to her gene's design to receive a more superior gene, in order to produce a more superior offspring. The psychoanalytic approach explains infidelity as a phenomenon which occurs when one's identity lacks an ability to sublimate libido:an unresolved Oedipus complex could also be the cause. The Maria-Prostitute complex and the Don Juan character are presented as examples to illustrate these theories. As for the sex addicts who often weren't loved in their infantile life, they commit infidelity compulsively by confusing the sexual act with mother-like caring. The psychology of a person who tries to enact the primal scene by engaging a sexual act with a prostitute is presented. Someone who is often affected by depression and helplessness due to harsh superego tries to heal themselves by sexual stimulation. Infidelitys's influence on the partner is exaggerated by the parther's inner coflict. In the end, methods to overcome infidelity are investigated. Human instincts are not at all moral. To realize this fact is the first step to maintain one's married life without any infidelity problems.
Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Instinct ; Loneliness ; Love ; Marriage ; Mental Disorders ; Mental Health ; Mercuric Chloride ; Oedipus Complex ; Psychoanalysis ; Psychology ; Sex Workers ; Superego

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of personality factor and defense mechanism and relationship with depression and social disability. METHODS: Study subjects consisted of 35 panic disorder patients diagnosed with the criteria of DSM-IV. Data were collected through Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Ehwa Diagnostic Test of Defense Mechanism, Beck Depression Inventory and Sheehan Disability Scale. Statistics employed for the analyses were Pearson correlation and independent sample t-test. RESULTS: In personality factors and defense mechanisms, there were no definitely abnormal range of scores. But, among personality factors, tension/anxiety factor scored high and unstableness/stableness, shyness/boldness and praxernia/atunia were in low range of score. In defense mechanism, somaticzation and acting-out scored high and humor, suppression, altruism, avoidance and rationalization scored low. The mean BDI score was 18.25+/-9.97. The mean score of SDS were 4.88+/-3.11 in work category and 4.57+/-2.92 in social/leasure category. Male patients were significantly correlated with guit-proneness and atuia in personality factor and passive- aggressiveness, projection, denial and show-off in defense mechanism, compared with female patients (p<0.05). The patients' age was correlated with low intelligence in persolity factor and dissociation and anticipation in defense mechanism. It was negatively correlated with show-off (p<0.05). The BDI score was correlated with low intelligence, superego, unstableness, self-conflict, high superego and atunia in personality factor and dissociation and somatization in defense mechanism (p<0.05). There was a significant relationship between BDI score and SDS work category (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Panic disorder patients show high score of tension/anxiety factor and they frequently use neurotic defense style like somatization. The depressive symptom, which depends on symptom severity, appears to have influence on work category and to cause social disability.
Altruism ; Defense Mechanisms ; Denial (Psychology) ; Depression ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Female ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Male ; Panic Disorder* ; Panic* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rationalization ; Superego