Letter to a Grandchild Cross-cultural comparison of old age adults' wisdom legacy
Principal Investigator in Germany: Dr. phil. Sonja Ehret
Partners: Prof. Dr. Elzbieta Dryll (Initiator and Principal Investigator), University of Warszaw, Prof. Dr. Anna Cierpka, University of Warszaw, Dr. Urszula Tokarska, University of Krakow, Prof. Dr. Iva Holmerowa, Charles University Praha, Prof. Dr. Kate de Medeiros, Miami University
Funding: 4EU Alliance, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
German Polish Day of Generations
Project Description
The subject of the series of research entitled "Letter to a grandchild" is the intergenerational transmission of the life experience and wisdom of seniors (modern grandparents), expressed in the form of messages addressed to the generation entering adult life. The ability to share the wisdom legacy is beneficial for health, and even has therapeutic values (Kotre 2000; Edmondson 2015). For potential recipients - grandchildren, it is a precious source of knowledge about the origin of self, necessary for the process of building an identity (Ehret 2016, intergenerational self, cf. Fivush, Bohanek & Duke 2008). Getting to know the factors involved in constructing the content of that kind of message, the form which seniors choose to express their reflections, and examining various ways of receiving these messages by recipients will contribute to the optimization of transmission process.
One of the factors which undoubtedly influences the quality of life experiences, is participation in specific historical events. But the interpretation of these events depends mainly on the character of ideology shared by a given community (national traditions, language, religion, literature, fashion, etc.) It is, therefore, necessary to examine how people of different cultures formulate their wisdom legacy. This will allow us to answer the question of the extent of universal human experience (considerably independent from the influence of culture) and what might be the common processes of acquiring inheritance from the older generation's.
The potentials of the expected results refer to science, civilisation and society.
