I wrote an article a few years ago talking about the benefits for residents in long-term care who belong to a performing choir. Well, actually, it turns out that belonging to almost any group can bring positive results. And … oh, yeah … we aren’t doing groups right now. That’s too bad, because feeling included in a group does help prevent loneliness. Feeling included in a group can also lead to perseverance. That’s a claim that David DeSteno makes in his book, “Emotional Success” (133). Who cares about perseverance? Everybody is concerned about the loneliness pandemic, not the loss of perseverance. But as an activity professional, I can assure you that perseverance is a big issue in senior care quality of life. It takes perseverance to keep a life from imploding.
DeSteno points out that perseverance is future-oriented (69). It’s actually a measurable behavior calculated to improve the future as opposed to the short term. When our residents lose perseverance they no longer value the future enough to make it better. You know the quote, “Old age sure ain’t for sissies.” It takes perseverance to get out of bed. It takes real perseverance when you live in a long-term care facility. Where I used to work, the CNAs would shake their heads and say so and so is “in the bed.” Not a good sign.
Pride is another topic DeSteno deals with, the good kind of pride that leads to intrinsic motivation. When you do something that your group considers valuable, they will let you know. When you are aware of their approval, you feel pride in your efforts, and your sense of pride will motivate you to cultivate the skill that won the approval (118). The group wins and you win. We entered our resident choir in the county-wide senior games in 2018. They were competing in front of their active peers still out in the community. When our choir got a standing ovation, something good happened. The choir members were invested before, but practice became more serious. Some of them had become focused on being ready for the next year’s competition. Group inclusion and pride encouraged perseverance. The future was being valued.
But now, I can’t get my whole choir together to practice. Depending on the current quarantine restrictions, I could get a few people at a time … or not. Out in the world, I did see that some folks found a work-around. They were using multi-screen technology. They video-recorded individuals singing the same song and then put them together. Huge choirs of individually recorded voices. You’ve probably seen them on YouTube or Facebook. Could we do that in a small assisted living unit? The short answer is, “Yes.” We’re testing the “Acapella” computer app that lets us record 9 people individually on an iPad. Each track is added to the ones recorded before. When you’re done, you see and hear 9 people singing “together.”
Ah, but this wasn’t done as a group. I figured it would be fun for the residents and their families to watch, but it would not produce the documented benefits of group activities. That was before I read “Emotional Success.” On page 150, DeSteno describes an experiment done by Gregory Walton and Geoffrey Cohen at Stanford. Their subjects worked alone. Some were told they were part of a group, though they had never met this group. Others were told they were working by themselves. The results showed that even just telling you that you are a member of a group and that you are helping the group achieve some goal is enough to make you persevere more at a task. And my assisted living residents have much more social connection than that. Our choir has a history. Yes, even singing “by themselves” can help them be motivated to persevere.
©Donna Stuart, ADC August 17, 2020
DeSteno, David. Emotional Success. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.
Walton, G. M., Cohen, G. L., Cwir, D., & Spencer, S. J. "Mere belonging: The power of social connections." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2012): 102(3), 513-532.
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