RESEARCH REPORT - Role-Playing Interviews and Self-Regulated Isolation for Nursing Home Residents

Abstract

Psychodramatists may be interested in both the research methods and the results of a recent study done by Joanna Rowe Kaakinen. The research focused on nursing home residents' perceptions of the communication rules that governed their behavior. Many elderly are segregated from the rest of society when they are admitted to nursing homes. In addition, in American society, the aged are relegated to vague roles. Elderly people have been found to have a significant decline in the number of their daily interactions. Research has shown that there is a paucity of spoken communication among residents in nursing homes. Because nursing homes are social systems that evolve norms to regulate the behavior of the residents, Dr. Kaakinen was interested in discovering the rules that
governed talking behavior and how the residents learn them. Particularly, she was interested in isolation, which might lead to cognitive, social, and emotional impairment.