COPING STRATEGIES OF ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT SOCIAL ORIENTATION

Smolyanskaya Elena I.

The article highlights the relevance of studying the mechanisms of adaptation of aged people to age-related changes. Coping is considered as an adaptive potential of a personality; individual personality characteristics define the choice of coping. Sociotropy – self-sufficiency is considered as individual characteristics, which affect the relations with society. According to the goal, the specific of the use by sociotropic and self-sufficient elderly people of coping and interrelations with psychological well-being have been identified. Intergroup differences were found: self-sufficient elderly people have higher values in terms of the "problem-solving planning" strategy, as well as conditionally adaptive coping in the behavioral and emotional spheres in comparison with sociotropic respondents. Intra-group correlations between coping and psychological well-being discovered a greater number of positive correlations for the self-sufficient, while in the sociotropic negative correlations prevail.

Keywords:autonomy, sociotropy, coping, coping strategies, psychological well-being, elder adults