Life style variables of Holocaust survivors who became successful

Life Style Variables of Holocaust Survivors who became Successful focused on 30 survivors of the Holocaust who achieved success in their careers, becoming mostly physicians, dentists, and engineers. The purpose of this study was to discern those common styles or choices that contributed to the subjects' abilities to adapt after great loss. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. Adlerian Life Style Inventories provided the Family Constellation and Early Recollection data that allowed for summaries to be written and typologies assigned and coded. Independent raters scored the recollections using a (modified) Manaster-Perryman Manifest Content Early Recollection Scoring Manual. Frequency counts, Chi-Square significance (<.05), and multiple nonparametric Chi-Square analyses (crosstabs) were the statistics employed. Results indicate that the subjects demonstrated great flexibility and future orientation, found significance and identity through education, valued the arts but not religion, and tended to have grown up in wealthier homes as responsible oldest or only children. This study concludes by highlighting the need for a more standardized method of Life Style analysis. New procedures for content analysis are discussed for future empirical studies.