Psychological Factors of Well-Being Aging

The work is devoted to the psychological factors of well-being aging, which is considered as an indicator of psychological health. The generalization of researches demonstrates the importance of coping factors with psychotraumatism and the role of flexible age identity (subjective age of a person) in overcoming growing diseases, mental problems (depression, loneliness), an ability not only to maintain vitality, but also a high quality of life, aspiration for self-realization. The data show a close relationship between the quality of life and subjective age, which indicates the essential role of subjective age identity for maintaining physical, psychological health, social relations, environmental assessment and its safety in the elderly and senile. The relationship between subjective age and health is mediated by a number of physiological factors (working capacity), and psychological factors (self-efficacy, self-esteem, flexibility in assessing the situation). Reducing self-esteem of health leads the elderly to wider use of social comparison to enhance the “physical-I”, which is often a buffer against the negative effects of physical symptoms affecting the self-esteem of health. Reducing the subjective age allows older people to expand their opportunities, to remain active members of society, to counteract negative stereotypes of aging and the processes of aging. Studies have shown that, on the one hand, an elderly person may lack help and attention from other people, but, on the other hand, becomes selective in choosing a subject of social support, who can provide it. In the period of late adulthood, the life experience of a person is individualized and differentiated and endowed with such features that make it appear to a person as a unique life experience. Social support in this case, usually, is universal and not always adjusted in accordance with a specific request. It is shown that the aging period is a special period of ontogenesis, with a characteristic reorganization of all human resources and their integration for successful aging.

Shapovalenko I.V., Kovaleva T.A. Tolerantnoe otnoshenie k protsessu stareniia kak pozitsiia lichnosti [Tolerant attitude to the aging process as an individual’s position]. Sotsial’naia politika i sotsiologiia [ Social Policy and Sociology], 2011, no. 7 (73), pp. 205–211. (In Russian)