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POST-RETIREMENT ACTIVITY AND ADJUSTMENT TO OCCUPATIONAL RETIREMENT: A RE-EXAMINATION WITHIN A FRAMEWORK OF ROLE AND SELF THEORY
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the utility of re-examining the relationship between post-retirement activity and personal adjustment to occupational retirement within a framework grounded in role and self theory. The present approach diverges from previous attempts at predicting adjustment from activity in that it takes explicit notice of the potential importance of differing personal orientations toward retirement as these may affect the adjustment-activity relationship. Cavan’s general discussion of the impact of occupational retirement is in part parallel to the position taken here.^- At the point of retirement the individual possesses a self-concept grounded in the favorable reactions of others to him in his role as worker. This role has provided a consistent support for a self-image as, among other things, productive and competent. Retirement signals the loss of this role and hence of support for this self"image. From others he receives a new evaluation that is inconsistent with his long-standing way of viewing himself. "Therefore at retirement we have a man still motivated by his old self-conceptions but separated from his previous roles. . . ,"2 Cavan goes on to suggest that a workable alternative to experiencing this potentially disturbing lack of congruence between role and self-concept is an altering of the self-concept to align it more closely with other roles that are available in retirement. Then, adjustment would be largely a matter of playing these roles and accepting the forthcoming evaluations that support the reformed view of self, While this is perhaps the more reasonable way to maintain adjustment in the face of the loss of this role, Cavan does not so strongly suggest another alternative, namely, that adjustment is possible without alteration of the self-concept under the condition where a substitute role continues to evoke support of the work-rooted self-concept. It is conceivable that there are. in certain conditions, roles open to the retiree which can in large measure serve to substitute for the work role.
Subject Area
Sociology
Recommended Citation
JANOVY, DAVID LEE, "POST-RETIREMENT ACTIVITY AND ADJUSTMENT TO OCCUPATIONAL RETIREMENT: A RE-EXAMINATION WITHIN A FRAMEWORK OF ROLE AND SELF THEORY" (1967). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI6710665.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI6710665