Peculiarities of experiencing past and future by men and women in the middle of the life journey

The contribution is devoted to experimental research of changes in the age paradigm of men and women aged from 30 to 49. According to our main hypothesis, in the middle age most people change their attitude toward their past and future. 90 men working in various Moscow organizations, and 226 women, mostly working in Moscow educational institutions (schools, pre-school educational institutions) were questioned in the course of the experiment. In order to study the attitude toward past, future and present, improved projective method “Unfinished sentences” was used, which included stimulus material: “Sometime...”, “The future seems to me...”, “If I was young again...”, “I am a woman and I am sad...” Besides, the respondents were asked: “Where and when do you experience freedom?” In view of the results of comparison of different age groups, it is shown that in the period of the middle age the respondents change their experience of the life’s time perspective - attitude toward past and future. Changes of experiencing the time perspective have gender differences. The article presents the results of research of transient phenomena which men and women may experience in the middle of life (40-45 years). Men and women at this age cease feeling themselves young. Women start noticing that they are getting old. They perceive future in a new way. The number of women who see their future as misty increases, men’s perception of the future becomes more negative.

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