Peculiarities of manifestation of the agency characteristics in the later stages of a person’s life cycle (on example of military pensioners)

Abstract

Background. The pronounced world trend of population aging determines the relevance of studying the essential psychological characteristics of a person in the later periods of his life cycle, the relevance of searching for psychological resources to preserve and maintain a person’s agency across the whole life span.

Objectives. The study had its purpose to determine the empirical parameters of the agency characteristics and analyze their specific manifestations in the later stages of a person’s life cycle.

Study Participants. 190 pensioners participated in the study. The main sample included 96 military pensioners. The control sample included 94 civil pensioners.

Methods. The study implemented the following psychodiagnostics methods: “Brief scale for measuring self-actualization” (Jones & Crandall, 1986); Dembo — Rubinstein self-esteem assessment tool including “Self in the past”, “Self in the present”, “Self in the future” (Sidorov, 2013). Statistical analysis of empirical data was carried out using parametric statistics methods (M ( ), Student's t-test, Pearson's r-linear correlation coefficient) and cluster analysis procedures (hierarchical clustering).

Results. The level of self-actualization and the level of self-esteem in the past, present and future are substantiated as empirical — parameters of the subjectivity of an individual at retirement age. The majority of respondents — military pensioners — have an average level of self-actualization, with the highest self-esteem level referred to the past, and the lowest self-esteem level related to the future. The analysis has statistically confirmed a lower level of self-esteem at all periods of life among military pensioners compared to civilians. Hierarchical clustering allowed to identify three types of agency in the military pensioners, differing in the characteristic combination of the agency parameters and socio-demographic specifics: “lost agency” presented among non-working male military pensioners; “agency oriented to the past” — characteristic of female military pensioners and military pensioners of older age categories (60+); “preserved agency” typical for the working male military pensioners.

Conclusions. The authors theoretically substantiated and empirically confirmed the heuristic nature of the agency related approach to the interpretation of the psychological characteristics of pensioners, specified in the context of studying the late period of the personality age cycle. The study results emphasized the importance of considering the retirement period as determined by the characteristics of the previous life stages. This is due to what place a person occupied in the social structure and what social regulations he observed across the life span. In particular, this concerns the differentiation of military and civilian pensioners who live their lives in different niches of social life with their specific structures and regulations. Three types of agency identified in the military pensioners determine different routes to manifest their agency and various mechanisms for its implementation. At the same time, the absence of significant differences between military and civilian pensioners in terms of self-actualization indicates similarities in the manifestations of activity, initiative, and self-regulation, which ensure that a person retains the “authorship of his life” even at retirement age.

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