engleski

Strategies for goal-achievement in older people with different levels of well-being

The studies related to the well-being of older people have already been carried out with two types of variables: those that reflect socioeconomic factors and those that refer to psychological and psycho-social variables. Research referring to the second category has shown that self-reported well-being is more positive when participants report of: more positive health status, regular physical exercise sense of control over their environment, independence, more frequent and more quality social relationships and a sense of belonging to a supportive social network. Since one of important psychological variables - strategies for goal-achievement can be differently implemented in older age, relationships between the strategy use in older people and their well-being are valuable to explore. In this research the model of goal-achievement strategies in elderly proposed by Baltes and Baltes (1990) was used. It includes three strategies that older people employ: selection, optimisation and compensation. The authors state that the limitation of resources (e.g. time, energy, physical or mental capacities) inherent to human existence necessitates selection of goals. In order to reach optimal levels of functioning in the selected domains, people need to optimise their resources, and finally, in order to maintain a given level of functioning the compensatory processes are needed. The short version of SOC questionnaire (Selection, Optimization and Compensation ; Baltes and Baltes, 1999) was individually administered to 355 people 65-98 years old in Western Croatia at their homes. The global Happiness item and the global Satisfaction items as measures of two dimensions of subjective well-being were also used. Results indicate that older people with higher level of well-being use the strategies of optimization and compensation in goal-achievement more frequently, while those with lower level of well-being use the strategy of loss-based selection more frequently. The strategy use as a way to enhance well-being is discussed.

goal-achievement; strategy; well-being; elderly

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