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Shultz, K. S., & Wang, M. (2011, February 21). Psychological Perspectives on the Changing
Nature of Retirement. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. doi:
10.1037/a0022411
Kenneth S. Shultz, Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino; Mo Wang, Department of Psychology, University of
Maryland, College Park.
We thank Deborah Olson and Janet Kottke for their feedback on an
earlier version of this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kenneth S. Shultz, Department of Psychology, California State University,
San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407.
E-mail: kshultz@csusb.edu
retirement (i.e., mandatory or forced retirement) to a prowork (i.e., pro-choice on the part of the older worker to
continue to work or retire) emphasis with regard to older
workers (see Table 1). As a result, the vast majority of what
we know about the psychological dynamics (e.g., the influence of attitudes and personality characteristics) surrounding retirement has been uncovered in the last few
decades. Therefore, it is critical to better understand the
ever expanding phenomenon of retirement, in terms of both
its antecedents and its outcomes, as it is being reshaped and
redefined over time by factors at the individual, group,
organizational, and societal levels (Beehr & Bennett, 2007;
Shultz & Henkens, 2010).
As Ekerdt (2010) recently noted, The designation of retirement status is famously ambiguous because there are
multiple overlapping criteria by which someone might be
called retired, including career cessation, reduced work
effort, pension receipt, or self-report (p. 70). Not surprisingly, psychologists, who are more likely to study individual-level phenomena, are most likely to choose to measure
retirement via self-report. Adding possible confusion to
this self-report definition of retirement is the fact that
individuals can un-retire or re-retire by rejoining the
workforce and starting new careers after they retire, which
is a relatively common phenomenon now (Alley & Crimmins, 2007; Wang, Adams, Beehr, & Shultz, 2009). Thus,
there are individuals now who retire multiple times
throughout their lives. Although starting a second career at
midlife has always been common in some professions (e.g.,
professional sports, the military), it is now becoming the
norm for many older workers (both professionals and nonprofessionals) as well. As a result, it is not only those in
Table 1
The Evolution of Retirement
Historical period
View of retirement
Prior to 1900
1900 to 1950
1950 to 1980
1980 to 2000
2000 to present
Focus of researchers
Mo Wang
their 60s and 70s who are retiring for the first time but more
and more often those in their 40s and 50s as well.
To address this potential confusion, we believe that
viewing retirement from a temporal perspective is particularly useful for psychologists who wish to study and better
understand retirement as a process. Retirement typically
begins with a somewhat distal preretirement preparation
and planning phase in which individuals begin to envision
what their retirement might entail and begin discussing
those plans with friends, family members, and colleagues.
Next, as retirement becomes more proximal, individuals
begin the retirement decision-making process, taking into
account a wide variety of factors, including the current
economic and employment contexts as well as family and
personal considerations. Finally, as individuals make the
transition from full-time workers to retirees, they begin the
retirement and life adjustment process. This process may
include engaging in bridge employment (i.e., temporary or
part-time work) to help smooth the transition to full retirement. However, it should be noted that this process does
not go smoothly for all retirees. Some older individuals
enter retirement experiencing ambivalence, anxiety, fear,
depression, and a deep feeling of loss. We address these
issues later in this article when we discuss clinical and
counseling psychologists contribution to the study of retirement.
Viewing retirement from this temporal perspective
allows researchers to investigate retirement as it unfolds
over time from one phase to another while realizing that
this process is not homogeneous across individuals. Within
these broad phases, of course, are smaller and shorter
segments that individuals go through as they approach
retirement, transition through the retirement decision-making process, and begin life as self-designated retirees. Thus,
April 2011 American Psychologist
Figure 1
Longitudinal Progression of the Retirement Process and Potential Impact Factors
Note. From Employee Retirement: A Review and Recommendations for Future Investigation, by M. Wang & K. S. Shultz, 2010, Journal of Management, 36, p.
182. Copyright 2010 by Southern Management Association.
to positive adjustment outcomes for retirees in their postretirement life. Research by I/O psychologists has shown
that beyond demographics, health, and financial attributes,
job-related psychological variables (e.g., job attitudes and
work role stressors) are important predictors of bridge
employment decisions (e.g., Pengcharoen & Shultz, 2010;
Wang et al., 2008) and that engaging in bridge employment
may be beneficial for retirees physical and mental health
(e.g., Zhan et al., 2009).
Vocational psychologists have also brought a unique
perspective to the study of retirement. As might be expected, there is a strong focus in their research on retirees
vocational skills and abilities, types of preretirement careers, career-specific norms, and postretirement career
changes. For example, retirees who have adequate career
knowledge and skills to function across different job roles,
organizational hierarchies, and national boundaries may
thrive in the current business environment, because they fill
the exact need for substantial speed and flexibility in responding to intensely competitive market forces produced
by the global economy (AARP, 2005). Consequently, these
retirees are likely to enjoy better postretirement workrelated activities because they have more autonomy and
control of these activities and thus are likely to experience
less work-related stress (Zhan et al., 2009).
Different types of preretirement careers and careerspecific norms have also been shown to be important factors influencing individuals retirement planning and decision making. For instance, if a persons career is important
to his or her self-identity and there is high commitment to
the specific career role, it is less likely that the person will
retire from his or her career job (Adams & Beehr, 1998).
Settersten and Hagestad (1996) reported that career norms
regarding appropriate retirement ages produce pressures on
older workers with regard to their retirement preferences
and plans. Specifically, those individuals who are behind
schedule with regard to their career advancement or who
have plateaued in their careers are more likely to feel
pressure to retire.
Finally, clinical and counseling psychology has
tended to focus more on studying how to help retirees
prepare before entering retirement and have a more successful adjustment to the changes created by the decision to
retire. Many individuals are genuinely ready to retire, resolve the retirement process well, and retire in a positive
way. However, some individuals feel ambivalent about
retirement and may become depressed and experience feelings of loss, idleness, and uselessness. Thus, clinical and
counseling psychologists can help these individuals make a
more successful transition to retirement. For example, in
studying financial planning for retirement, Hershey, Jacobs-Lawson, McArdle, and Hamagami (2007) found that
improving older workers psychological goal clarity regarding retirement financial planning and their self-efficacy
in handling investments could lead to desirable financial
planning outcomes. Taylor-Carter, Cook, and Weinberg
(1997) showed that both formal and informal preparation
for retirement increased prospective retirees confidence in
their abilities to make the retirement transition.
April 2011 American Psychologist
In addition, research following a clinical and counseling psychology perspective has shown that an individuals
marital relationship has an important influence on retirement adjustment outcomes. Retirees with happier marriages are more likely to achieve better transition and
adjustment outcomes (e.g., Rosenkoetter & Garris, 1998).
In addition, losing a partner during the retirement transition
was found to have a negative impact on retirement satisfaction (van Solinge & Henkens, 2008). One important
conceptualization from the clinical and counseling psychology perspective regarding retirement adjustment (e.g.,
Goodman, Schlossberg, & Anderson, 2006; Schlossberg,
1981) is that adjustment is reached when individuals are
not preoccupied with the retirement transition but are comfortable with the changed circumstances of their lives in
retirement. In other words, retirement adjustment is
reached when retirees are able to integrate retirement into
their lives. This conceptualization has been very influential
in guiding researchers in operationalizing retirement adjustment and investigating it in the dynamic adjustment
process (e.g., van Solinge & Henkens, 2008; Wang, 2007).
Psychological Conceptualizations of
Retirement
Now that we have reviewed psychologys unique contributions to retirement research, it is important to synthesize
psychological conceptualizations of retirement that have
guided the application of psychological perspectives to the
study of retirement. Providing a conceptual taxonomy is
critical, because theoretical conceptualizations have an impact on how researchers describe the concept in question
and in turn ground their study in relevant knowledge frameworks that lay the foundation for tackling specific research
questions (Wang & Shultz, 2010). Specifically, we discuss
three types of conceptualizations (cf. Wang & Shultz,
2010) that best accommodate the psychological view of
retirement: retirement as a decision-making process, retirement as an adjustment process, and retirement as a career
development stage.
Conceptualizing retirement as a decision-making process emphasizes the psychological underpinnings that impact retirement as a motivated choice behavior. This conceptualization contends that when workers decide to retire,
they choose to decrease their psychological commitment to
work and to behaviorally withdraw from work (e.g., Feldman, 1994). According to this conceptualization, after
workers make the decision to retire, their work activities
should begin to decline over time, and other life activities,
such as family and community-related activities, should
increase. However, not all individuals will follow this path,
and not all retirees will be successful at accomplishing this
transition. Although this hypothesis has received mixed
empirical support (Wang & Shultz, 2010), it highlights the
importance of the retirement decision as a major life event
(Adams & Beehr, 1998).
When conceptualizing retirement as a decision-making process, researchers have typically relied on the informed decision-making approach to conduct their inves5
family structure directly impacts peoples retirement decision making, and gender presents an important boundary
condition of this impact. As such, it will be interesting to
study how people weigh their family-related retirement pull
(e.g., enjoying more time with family) and push (e.g.,
having less flexibility for elder and child care because of
employment) factors in making retirement decisions.
The organizational environment in which peoples
jobs are embedded is also changing in ways that will
influence the enactment and experience of retirement. For
example, jobs are becoming less secure, with persistent
downsizings by corporations. Also, employers have
steadily shifted from defined benefit pension plans with
guaranteed pension benefits to defined contribution (e.g.,
401k) plans and are less likely to offer retiree medical
benefits. As a result, workers have had to bear much more
risk with regard to funding their retirement. These changes
in organizational policies impose new challenges to understanding retirees adjustment process. For example, it is
important to identify the resources different groups of
retirees rely on to accomplish their psychological transition
from employment to retirement smoothly and effectively
(Wang, 2007).
At a broader level, government and employer policies
toward older workers were pro-retirement (i.e., provided
disincentives to work at older ages) for most of the 20th
century (see Table 1). However, over the last few decades,
the tide has shifted in many respects to pro-work policies
for older workers (McNamara, Sano, & Williamson, in
press). That is, older workers in most developed countries
are being encouraged to extend their work lives beyond the
traditional retirement age by local and national governments (van Dalen, Henkens, Henderikse, & Schippers,
2010). For example, Social Security in the United States no
longer has earning limits for those retirees between the ages
of 65 and 70. In addition, the age to receive full Social
Security benefits is slowly increasing from 65 to 67, while
the incentive to delay receiving Social Security benefits
until age 70 has become more financially lucrative. All
these changes in public policies are likely to influence
individuals retirement decision making and postretirement
adjustment outcomes (Shultz, 2003; Wang & Shultz,
2010). However, the financial crisis that began around 2008
may well have even more weight in encouraging older
workers to extend their careers and delay retirement because of reduced retirement savings and loss of pension
benefits. It is unclear at the current time, however, what the
long-term ramifications of the current financial crisis will
be with regard to older workers delaying their retirement.
Many of these policies have significant impact not
only because of their financial incentives but also because
of the social norm and climate that they are creating.
Employers are offering an increasing number of olderworkerfriendly options such as phased retirement, training
to maintain and update older workers skills, bridge employment, and flexible work schedules to encourage older
workers to transition out of career jobs slowly or to recruit
older workers who may be changing careers. These macrolevel changes by employers and governments are dramat7
the trajectories of retirees retirement adjustment. In addition, different specific aspects of planning may influence
different types of long-term outcomes, which deserve more
research attention.
Another important issue to consider is that not all
retirement decisions are voluntary (e.g., Shultz et al., 1998;
Szinovacz & Davey, 2004; van Solinge & Henkens, 2008).
Thus, if we conceptualize retirement as a decision-making
process, we have to recognize that the theoretical utility of
this conceptualization depends on the extent to which the
retirement decision is a result of personal choice. If the
personal choice component is missing, then the informed
decision-making approach would not apply. Therefore, the
voluntariness of the retirement decision can be viewed as a
boundary condition for applying the informed decisionmaking approach in testing predictors of retirement decision. Similarly, if we conceptualize retirement as an adjustment process, the extent to which the retirement is
voluntary may also have an important influence on retirees
adjustment outcomes. Previous research has shown that
involuntary retirement usually leads to negative attitudes
toward retirement (e.g., Shultz et al., 1998). However,
whether involuntary retirement leads to long-term maladjustment issues is still unknown.
Furthermore, Wang et al. (2009) and Shultz and Wang
(2008) have discussed how retirement is becoming an
additional stage in workers careers. That is, retirement is
no longer seen as the end of ones working life but rather
is viewed as an opportunity to continue ones work life in
a different venue and/or form. There is thus a shift from
looking at the retirement transition process broadly to examining the postretirement trajectory (i.e., individual development in postretirement life; Wang & Shultz, 2010).
For example, several individuals may make the same decision to retire from their career jobs; however, if their life
circumstances, psychological planning, financial resources,
and other contextual characteristics are different, then how
their retirement from career employment plays out may be
very different. For example, one person may decide to
slowly phase out of her career job by reducing work hours
and/or responsibilities. Meanwhile, another person may
engage in an encore career that may or may not be similar
to the previous career employment that person held,
whereas another older worker may decide to stop paid
employment altogether to focus on family caregiving
needs.
Finally, the concept of work ability, discussed earlier,
is also particularly relevant to the issue of continued employment options for older workers who may retire from
their career jobs. Although the framework of work ability
has been applied mostly in Europe, it is clearly relevant to
the United States as well. Unless older workers possess the
functional capacities, competence, and values needed to
meet the increasing demands of todays jobs, they will have
little say in their postretirement activities, particularly with
regard to continued employment in some form. However,
work ability is a function of the correspondence between
the older workers resources and the work demands present
in the workplace. As a result, poor work ability can also be
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