Introduction to the Psychology of Ageing for Non-Specialists by Ian Stuart-Hamilton

Author:Ian Stuart-Hamilton [Ian Stuart-Hamilton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857007155
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2014-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Retirement

Although some people think about retirement in terms of a set ‘retirement age’, this is often inaccurate. As noted in Chapter 1, the idea of a formal pensionable age is largely a phenomenon of the 20th century, and even then, it was not obeyed rigorously or indeed at the same age in all countries. For example, the formal retirement age for many public sector workers such as school teachers varies from the late 50s to the 60s, depending upon the country in question. In addition, not everyone waits for the formal retirement age to retire. Companies wishing to shed surplus workers often find it financially easiest to offer early retirement packages to the oldest workers.9 In addition, the advent of more humane employment laws means that early paid retirement through chronic ill health is on the rise. Conversely, other people choose to work past retirement age (if their country’s laws permit it) and in the case of self-employed people, there is almost always no legally defined age at which a person must retire. This means that retirement, although probabilistically an experience of old age, is not automatically so, and the precise age of retirement, and the reasons for it, can vary widely (see McDonald, 2011). It is therefore not totally surprising that a study by Settersen (1998) found that for many people age was now an irrelevant criterion on which to judge retirement. It should also be noted in passing that over the past 40 years, the proportion of men still working from aged 55 to 65 has significantly declined, whilst the comparable figures for women have risen (McDonald, 2011).

From psychological studies of retirement, two recurring questions have emerged. First, what determines the nature of retirement? (In other words, how happy people will be once retired, and what will they do?) Second, how do people plan for retirement?

With regard to the first of these questions, the answer has often focused on the degree to which a person feels they have controlled their retirement for themselves. In general, if a person feels they were forced to retire and/or they had no say in the arrangements leading up to retirement, then they have a lower sense of well-being and mental and physical health (e.g. de Vaus et al., 2007; Gallo et al., 2000). However, other factors also play a part. For example, Price and Balaswamy (2009) found that financial status was a significant predictor. In a study of British civil servants10 opting for early retirement, Mein et al. (2000) found that the principal reasons were high income (i.e. could afford to retire early on a good pension), ill health or dislike of the job. Older workers who had material difficulties (e.g. debts) usually felt compelled to carry on working. Again, van Solinge and Henkens (2007) found that whilst degree of choice over when to retire was a key consideration, so were other measures such as the social environment the retirees lived in. Body satisfaction and perceived health have also been found to be key predictors of retirement satisfaction (van den Berg, Elders and Burdorf, 2010).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.