This study addresses the question of how retired people's self-image differs from that of working people, and what factors predict people's self-definition as professionals or retirees. Seven hundred ninety-two Swiss persons aged 58-70 (386 men, 406 women; 349 not retired, 443 retired) were asked to rate the importance of different…

The coping styles of four ethnic groups of older adults in response to negative life events were analyzed in a population-based study of 1118 residents of Brooklyn, New York. Using a molecular approach, data regarding the context of events and the corresponding coping responses was obtained. Open-ended semi-structured interviews allowed…

This research investigated stability and change in the self-appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities from midlife to later aging. The subjects were 185 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted, who had been asked to rate themselves with respect to living up to their abilities in 1960 (at an average age of 48) and in 1996 (at an…

Positive psychology has recently developed a classification of human strengths (Peterson & Seligman, in press). We aimed to evaluate these strengths by investigating the strengths and life satisfaction in three adult samples recruited from the community (young adult, middle-aged, and older adult), as well as in the surviving men of the Grant study…