EGO INTEGRITY AND RETIREMENT

The proposed study will examine for associations between degree of death anxiety, degree of self-identification with one's occupational role, and life satisfaction in a sample of post-retirement males. These examinations will be conducted in relation to the Eriksonian crisis of old age associated with the development of ego integrity.

Understanding of the proposed research is enhanced by an explication of the Eriksonian developmental model and by a brief review of the retirement process in relation to its possible effects on Erikson's psychosocial crisis of old age, namely the crisis of developing ego integrity versus despair. This information is here presented as background information central to the research problem.

Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Model of Development

Developmental theory holds that throughout one's life, the ego (sense of self) changes in response to several psychosocial forces (Sue, Sue & Sue, 1994). One of the most comprehensive models of the challenges and changes associated with ego development throughout the lifespan was constructed by Erik Erikson (1950, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1985).

Since this model serves as the conceptual foundation of this study, it is helpful to delineate it. In general, Erikson's psychosocial development model traces personality development across the life span emphasizing societal and cultural influences on the ego at each of eight states.

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Retirement: As used in this study, this term is conceptually defined as a process associated with the termination of one's social role as an economically employed worker in society (Eshleman, 1991). This process is said to consist of a pre-retirement stage, a retirement transition stage, and a post-retirement stage. Worker Identification: This term will be used in the study to refer to the extent to which retirees' concept of self is invested in their occupational role (Eshleman, 1991). The term will be operationally defined as retirees' scores for two retirement items on the Demographic Data Sheet. Organization of the Remainder of the Proposal The first chapter of this proposal delineated the basic parameters of the research, defining its essential nature in terms of statements of the problem, hypotheses, and purpose of the study, background research, and basic definitions of terms. The second chapter of the places the proposed research in context through an examination of the existing literature. This examination covers two specific areas of study, the general research on men's experience of retirement and specific research on retirement and its relationship to ego integrity. The third and final chapter of the proposal
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Psychosocial Crisis, Robert Atchley, Ego Integrity, Null Hypothesis, Research Approach, Satisfaction Index, Woods Witte, Anxiety Scale, Experience Retirement, Okamoto Yamamoto, life satisfaction, psychosocial crisis, death anxiety, crisis age, psychosocial crisis age, ego integrity, life satisfaction index, satisfaction index, life review, integrity versus, occupational role, versus despair, integrity versus despair, death anxiety scale, life satisfaction degree,
Approximate Word count = 9710
Approximate Pages = 39 (250 words per page)

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