For citation:
Mustafina L. S. Moral Beliefs of an Individual as a Psychological Resource in the Period of Late Adulthood. Izvestiya of Saratov University. Educational Acmeology. Developmental Psychology, 2018, vol. 7, iss. 4, pp. 359-363. DOI: 10.18500/2304-9790-2018-7-4-359-363
Moral Beliefs of an Individual as a Psychological Resource in the Period of Late Adulthood
The article views the interrelation between strategies of coping with stress, satisfaction with social support and the ideas of elderly people about conscience, which act as a reflection of the assertion of moral values in the respondent’s daily life. The study involved 55 elderly people, whose average age was 62.4 years, among them 40 women and 15 men. It is suggested that: 1) elderly people with high rates of problem-oriented coping often agree with the statement that conscience does not depend on external evaluations, as well as with statements that most fully reflect the content of the phenomenon of conscience and 2) elderly people with high rates of satisfaction with social support often agree with positive statements about conscience. The author’s questionnaire consisting of 39 judgments about conscience, the technique called «Coping behavior in stressful situations» adapted by K. L. Kryukova and the technique of perceived social support of G. Sommer and T. Fydrich were used. The results revealed that high rates of problem-oriented coping among elderly people increase the frequency of agreement with the statements characterizing independence of conscience from external assessments. The second assumption was not confirmed, and a significant correlation between cynical and pragmatic attitude towards conscience among elderly respondents and their high rates of subjective satisfaction with social support was revealed. This result can be explained by the fact that elderly people, provided with everything necessary for good health and subjectively satisfied with such social support, do not need an «additional» psychological resource, i.e. conscience, and underestimate its role in their lives. This fact can indirectly confirm that the conscience and moral beliefs of the individual as a reflection of the attitude towards conscience are a psychological resource in coping with difficult life situations in old age.
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