Investigated validity of Goal Instability scale as predictor of adjustment among retirement-aged population of industrial workers. Conducted study to establish norms and internal reliability of modified version of scale and to examine predictive validity of scale within hierarchical model. Results generally support validity of Goal Instability…

Papers included are as follows: "An Overview" (Ross); "The Outlook for Social Security in the Wake of the 1983 Amendments" (Munnell); "The Economics of Aging: Doomsday or Shangrila?" (Schulz); "Retirement Incentives--the Carrot and the Stick. (Why No One Works beyond 65 Anymore)" (Quinn); "Inflation and…

Interviews with 7 retired adults over 55 were thematically analyzed and coded, revealing their learning motivations to be either instrumental (meeting survival and personal effectiveness needs) or expressive (meaningful and purposeful). Needs and goals were related to adult developmental themes; learning was essential to increasing individual…

A study examined 140 persons from nine very diverse settings in the United States and England who had retired in a positive way. Interviews with the retirees revealed that despite their diverse geographical, socioeconomic, and racial/ethnic backgrounds, they all had one thing in common--in retirement, all of them had a new and exciting career.…

The concept of Personal Major Events is proposed as a methodological approach to the study of death and dying with retired couples. A pilot study which elicited the personal major events during retirement of retired couples indicated that these couples tended to place different emphases on death. (Author)

A stress model was developed to explore the impact of role loss upon the lives of the elderly. Cumulative data was used to test the model separately for men and women. Results indicated that role loss does have an indirect and direct effect on coping resources and life satisfaction. (Author)

The sequence of planning was the same for all groups and included a resource-planning stage followed by a relationship-planning stage. Retirement programs for rural couples should focus on those in their forties and should involve both spouses and family members. (Author/JAC)

Retirement may have a negative effect on a person's health, and may even accelerate death. To determine the validity of this effect, time intervals between reported retirement date and death date were tabulated for retirees from a large petroleum corporation. A regression analyses was performed to control for physiological factors, job status, and…

Examined the marriage relationship in relation to the personality of the partners and the context within which the relationship exists. Results indicated that both the amount of love expressed and the amount of marriage problems declined from the first stages of marriage to the last. (Author/RC)

Explores the relationship between retirement planning and demographic and attitudinal factors. One-third of the sample had planned for retirement. Planning was more common among males and high-status individuals. (Author)

This study examined four older adults at the time of retirement to determine the extent to which there was intraindividual variability and stability in self-concept during the retirement transition, and to see whether patterns of change were replicable across subjects. Results showed that three to four dimensions of self-concept variability…

This study hypothisized that when a person perceives his social network as constricted, and this constriction has been a "conscious" decision by that individual, then he or she should express little death anxiety. Subjects were 38 individuals who were at least age 60. Of these, 18 were members of the Gray Panthers (with expanding numbers of social…

The major purpose of the present study was to examine empirically the independent and interactive effects of the situational event of retirement and cumulative influences attributed to the impact of satisfaction with noted life events upon locus of control (LOC). Ss included males over 55 years who had participated in a national survey. Variables…

Research has begun to define the older adult population, not as a homogeneous sample, but as at least two groups with different concerns. To determine the factors contributing to retirement satisfaction, two groups of retirees, i.e., young-olds, aged 75 and under (N=49) and old-olds, over age 75 (N=49), completed the Individual Status Assessment…

This booklet presents a research plan of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) aimed at understanding aging in the United States. The following subjects are discussed: (1) demographic information that outlines major issues affecting aging; (2) priorities for aging research in the biomedical, behavioral and social science and…