Facing retirement can be a stressful experience for sonne older adults. A
cognitive-behavioural intervention was designed to help older wonnen cope with
retirement anxiety, specifically targeting positive images of self in the future,
described by Markus and Nurius (1986) as possible selves. Sixty-one preretirement
women ranging in age from 49 to 71 (/W = 59.9) were randomly
assigned to either a targeted-change group, a structured-discussion group, or a
wait-list control group. The targeted-change group and the structured-discussion
group met for 2 hours a week for 8 weeks. A modified state form of the State-
Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983),
the Short form of the Multiscore Depression Inventory (Berndt, 1986), the
Retirement Self-efficacy questionnaire (Poser & Engels, 1983), and a measure of
possible selves were administered pre- and post-treatment, with a 3-month
follow-up. Following the post-test, participants in the wait-list were assigned to
one of the retirement seminars. It was predicted that from pre- to post-test
participants in the targeted-change group would show a greater change in the
measures than participants in the structured-discussion groups who would in turn,
show a greater change than participants in the wait-list. The predictions were
tested using planned orthogonal univariate tests. Retirement self-efficacy and
positive possible selves increased more for participants in the targeted-change
group and structured-discussion groups than for participants in the wait-list from
pre-test to post-test. In addition, positive possible selves increased more for
participants in the targeted-change than for participants in the structureddiscussion
group from pre-test to the average of post-test and follow-up. It was
concluded that the interventions were effective in changing how participants
saw themselves in the future. Conclusions with regard to treatment efficacy,
however, were restricted by observed change in the wait-list group on the anxiety measure following the initial interview, The results are discussed in terms of
non-specific treatment effects, along with issues relating to research on possible
selves, and implications for retirement programmes. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/8778 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Comish, Sara Elizabeth |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 5523814 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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