Discussion question topics and approaches

Social Factors in Retirement Issues

Individuals differ substantially in their psychological response to retirement and their levels of happiness and contentment with their lives after retirement. In some respects, the response of the individual to retirement is a function of psychological investment in a vocational identity; in other respects, it is a function of previous work and social activity patterns.

Generally, those individuals whose primary personal and psychological orientation is a linked to their work or their role as financial providers for others are most susceptible to depression and discontent in retirement. Additionally, those whose social contacts were limited to professional and industry colleagues, as well as those whose social skills are limited to the professional environment are most likely to experience social isolation in retirement.

Psychological Investment in Vocational identity and Work:

A high degree of psychological orientation to a professional identity is associated with a much higher degree of potentially negative social changes after retirement. In contemporary American (and, more generally, Western) society, males especially tend to rely largely on their professional identity to establish their social role in society. Consequently, contentment in retirement is substantially related to the degree to which the departure from professional life necessarily results in a psychological loss of purpose in life or of the primary manner in which the individual interacts with others.

In that regard, those who work in comparatively insular fields, (such as law enforcement, clinical medicine, or academia), are susceptible to negative experiences to the extent they limit their social networks to their professional colleagues. After the "congratulatory" phase of retirement, they may experience profound loneliness to the extent they have not developed social ties outside of their professional circles.

Differences in Social Activity Patterns and Social Skills:

In other cases, dissatisfaction in retirement is not a function of psychological identity or the exclusion of non-work contacts from social networks prior to retirement. Some individuals maintain few social relationships outside of work simply because their working schedules absorb too much of their time to develop social relationships outside of work; others may lack the social skills to cultivate social relationships in general, but have managed to do so within the vocational environment through proximity, familiarity, or expertise and competence in their fields. In principle, such individuals may have only developed limited social networks outside of work without any specific psychological tie to their work and without any deliberate preference for establishing work-related social relationships.

Conclusion: