Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
2.Thepsychologyofhumandevelopmentinlateadulthood
15
allyreducingworkingtime.Job-sharing,whichisnowadaysverypopular,
allowstoadjustreducedworkingtimetoprivatelife.Obviously,alongwith
approachingthestandardretirementage,moreformalactionsaretaken.
Suchpreparationsareobservedinthosewhocannotwaitforretirement,
whoareunsatisfiedwiththeirworkorwhoseclosepersons(aspouse
orafriend)havealreadywithdrawnfromprofessionallife(Evansetal.,
1985).Eventhosewhohavefearofretirementandavoidanyplanningalso
beginroutinepreparations.
Incollectingallpatternsofprofessionallifeofthemiddle-aged,one
receivesaportraitofaperson,whoseroleintheirprofessionliterallyand
psychologicallydecreases,becausehisorherworkingtimeisreduced,but
whoisthinkingaboutretirementmoreandmoreoften.Thesatisfaction
ofprofessionallifeislessimportantforwell-beingandhappiness;thisis
arationalargumentforflexibleformsofemploymentwhich,despitetheir
badreputationas"rubbishjobs”,canbeachancetoreachthelaststage
ofprofessionalliferetirement,aswellasserveasagoodjobfulfillingall
needs,avoidingfull-timeengagementandallowingtocombinefamilyand
professionallife.
Personalitydevelopment.Peoplebetween45and65turnawayfromsuc-
cess,independence,assertivenessandindividualism.Thewayoffunction-
ingoftheirpsychecanbedescribedfromvariousperspectives.
Theinterestinone’s"inside”.Itisatypicalprocess,inwhichtheattention
isdivertedfromtheouterworldtooneself,tomemoriesandtothecon-
templationofone’sownlife.Itisconnectedwiththelevelofintroversion,
whichgrowsintheperiodoflateradulthood(Costaetal.,1986).
TheErikson’stheory(1963)presentsadifferentmodel,accordingtowhich
thecourseofmidlifeismainlyinfluencedbytheconflict"generativity
vs.stagnation”,inwhichtheabilitytocareisdeveloped.Thisinterestto
createandleadthenextgenerationmanifestsitselfinteachingandadvi-
sing.Eriksonemphasisesthathavingchildrenisnotsufficienttoexpress
generativity.Itrequireslosinginterestinoneselftowardsconcernforoth-
erswhichmakespeoplemorereflective.Peoplewhodonotwanttoaccept
thesecommitmentsstagnateandconcentrateonthemselves.
Thefeelingofself-confidencegrowsattheageof50andassertiveness
reachesitspeakat40andthenfalls;theexibilityinadjustingtotheenvi-
ronmentincreases,butthetenacityofpurposediminishes(Brandtstädter,
Baltes-Göts,1990).
Maturityofdefencemechanisms.Defencemechanismsofpeopleinmidlife
graduallymature.Maturedefences(suppression,humourandaltruism)ac-
countfor40%ofthewhole.Otherdefencesdivideintotwolevels:imma-
ture(projection,transformationsanddenial)andneurotic(disclaimer,dis-
placementandintellectualisation),(Vaillant,1977).Thismeansthatpeople