Purpose of the study: To clarify the construct of social usefulness by merging several influential theoretical perspectives on the findings of a qualitative investigation of late life prosociality.
Design and methods: In-depth interviews with 20 older adults probed the meaning and psychological significance of the socially useful relationships they maintained with people and organizations.
Results: Based on identity theory, the thematic analysis yielded nine classes and more than 100 distinct properties of social usefulness. Self-determination theory was employed to organize and interpret the findings in relation to older adults' needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence.
Implications: Also addressed are the study's implications for multidimensional measurement of social usefulness in future epidemiological and psychosocial studies.
Keywords: generativity theory; identity theory; self-determination theory; socioemotional selectivity theory; thematic analysis.
© The Author(s) 2016.