A number of quantitative and qualitative research studies provide evidence to support the association between self-transcendence and increased well-being in populations that typically are confronted with awareness of their own personal mortality. The research studies related self-transcendence to depression among elders (Reed, 1986b, 1989, 1991). Other research reported similar relationships in depressed older adults (Klaas, 1998; Stinson & Kirk, 2006; Young & Reed, 1995). Buchanan, Ferran, and Clark (1995) examined self-transcendence and suicidal thought in older adults. Upchurch & Mueller (2005) explored the relationship between self-transcendence and activities of daily living in noninstitutionalized older adults. Two studies explored self-transcendence and older adults’ …show more content…
It is related to the extent to which the theory is able to inform nurses about the human health experience of well-being or adversity. Reed proposes that developing theories may be influenced by adverse circumstances, depending on how science is defined at the time of the theory’s development. In addition, considering how the theory deals with patients’ experiences with any misfortune, as well as how it provides guidelines for restoring theory, would be an important evaluative point. The theory of self-transcendence provides concepts that focus on client development and nursing interventions, which promote the client’s ability to experience self-transcendence and thus improved well-being (Reed, 2014). Based on the underlying assumptions that person and environment are essential to each other, the person’s ability to use self-transcendence activities as a means of healthy development during life challenges is thus assumed to be related to improved well-being (Coward, 2003). Therefore, undoubtedly, the theory informs nurses about the human health experience of wellbeing and