Lesson 39: Work, Friends, and Family in Late Life

Attention

This is actually the actor Michael Douglas in his tricked out golf cart.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

• Identify the roles that peers, siblings, and spouses play in late life.

Teaching

Continuity Theory

People tend to cope with daily life in later adulthood by applying familiar strategies based on past experience to maintain and preserve internal and external structures.

In essence, we deal with life using the same strategies we always have!

Integrity vs. Despair

Here we are in Erikson's last stage of the lifespan. In this stage people take on the task of weaving together the threads of their lives and putting them all together into a unified sense of self (integrity) to fail to do so is to have extreme regrets and sorrows of past opportunities and decisions (despair)

Work

One of the major transitions we experience is leaving work...remember how important work has been in shaping our identity (whether that work has been in a business or raising a family) our role and status is changing.

Up until the 1930s, when the railroad union promoted a bill to mandate retirement and when Social Security was inagurated (1935) most people did not think of retiring. (The life expectancy at that time was 65...so it was was presumed that only half of the people who would become eligible to collect Social Security would actually live long enough to get it!)

What about now? Certainly the generation that is about to retire (Baby Boomers) are ready...but does the next generation expect to retire?

Change of Identity

Retirement means a change in identity...occupational identity, but this is a very important part of our selves. For many the transition is gradual...some might continue working part time, work another "bridge job", or may not be able to fully retire due to financial need.

For some, retirement is a time to return to generativity...volunteering, projects, helping others, leadership in civic organizations, hobbies, etc.

Friends and Siblings

Interestingly, through this transition, friends and siblings (rather than children) become increasingy important.

These changes can be a challenge for marriage partners as well.

When the Golden Years are not so Golden

We make plans about retirement, but illness, finances, and other circumstances can get in the way of the plan. How golden do you think your retirement years are going to be?

Assessment

Lesson 39 Discussion

In this discussion I would like to have you report on the retirement status of your biography subject. Did their plans go as planned? What happened?