[Competence in the life course of older survivors--comments on methodological problems in assessment of subjective competence].

Abstract

A problem became apparent while analyzing intensive conversation between very "competent" elderly that a) were eye-witnesses of National Socialism in Germany as well as of wartime including the bombardment of larger cities, and b) volunteered to participate in the project as such witnesses. This problem seems worthy of being scrutinized in a sophisticated and systematic fashion: It is methodologically difficult to assess divergent--or even contradictory--information pertaining to the specific subjective foundations of an individual's competence and there are problems with integrating this information to a plausible and tenable statement about their action orientations. This holds especially for the assumptions related to the concept of "locus of control," since this concept could prove itself relevant in regard to a differential intervention strategy as well as for basic research on aging, in which the concept's potential for explaining aspects of the aging process remains to be further clarified. Finally, a possible solution to this assessment problem is presented.