Psychological security of a pensioner’s personality in conditions of social choice
The article is devoted to the problems of establishing psychological conditions extending the active longevity of the elderly persons. It is assumed that the solution of the elderly persons about careers or staying after reaching retirement age plays the decisive role in creating such environment. The aim of the study is to determine the psychological characteristics of the adoption of the pensioner of the decision that establishes his social status in retirement. The main hypothesis was the assumption that the choice by an older man of the way of the future life is based on the analysis of their resources of psychological security. The subjects were 200 persons at the age from 55 to 65 years differing by voluntary choice of employment or retirement. The collection of empirical data is based on methods of survey and subjective scaling. It was established for the first time that regardless of the outcome, the social choice of a pensioner is based on a holistic analysis of his security and capacity for further development that generally characterizes the resources of psychological security of the pensioner. The novelty consists in the establishing that these resources are dominated by the volume and temporal expansion at the working pensioners, which confirms the greater stability of their psychological security than psychological security of non-working pensioners. For the first time, the importance of voluntary choice of social status for ensuring psychological safety during the pension period of life is confirmed. The results of the study indicate the necessity of organization of psychological support of the social choices of older persons, defined in the organization of the retirement period of their life. They allow identifying the most promising directions of such support as the development of the resources of psychological security of the elderly persons and addressing the impacts on their choice of negative social influence.