Implications for Theory and Practice
Implications for Theory and Practice
These stories of avoidance, resistance, and adaptation
to adversity support the concepts of resilience and
successful aging (Wild et al., 2013 ). They relay the
process by which vulnerable people interact with
their environment as they cope with the indignities
of institutional life, violations of intimacy, and loss
of autonomy. The complaints of the residents were
both condemnations of false claims of person-centred
care and evidence of a resilience and resistance to
adversity. Their enthusiastic participation in our study
revealed also a desire to tell their story as a means of
managing or buffering the adversity of their environment (Gattuso, 2003 ; Nakashima & Canda, 2005 ).
The intensity of the descriptions and feelings expressed
by some participants suggests that activity theory,
with all the historical, cultural, and institutional concepts of power and authority, explains the concerns
about care, dignity, and autonomy. The residents were
engaged actively with institutional life and its restrictions as activity theory predicts (Lemon, Bengtson, &
Peterson, 1972 ). They sought sa
