[Ageing and identity development: ways of coping with one's own ageing process]

The article examines in which ways older people react to their own ageing process. Which types of age identities can be observed as reactions to signs and symptoms of age, and with which social and biographical influences do these age identities correlate? First, the theoretical starting point will be explained that a biographical identity is built up as a story in confrontation with social experiences. The suggested approach of a "narrative gerontology" argues that the lived life is experienced as a totality of interconnected stories. Next, a sketch of the social-gerontological state of research about the problem of biographical identity development and old age identity will be presented. In the empirical section, qualitative results about the process of coping with one's own ageing are discussed, resulting from a research project on "models of life-conduct in old age". Four ideal-typical reaction styles are distinguished and related to the social contexts of their development: "identification with old age", "ambivalent acceptance", "agelessness" and "rebellion against ageing".