Is Retirement Always Stressful? The Potential Impact of Creativity

• Published in: The American psychologist Vol. 67; no. 1; pp. 76 - 77
• Main Author: Fehr, Ryan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01.01.2012
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Creativity; Employees; Humans; Individual Differences; Personality Traits; Predictor Variables; Retirement; Retirement - psychology; Role; Self Actualization; Social Adjustment; Stress Variables; Trend Analysis; Well Being
• ISSN: 0003-066X; 1935-990X
• DOI: 10.1037/a0026574

In their recent and insightful article on adjustment among retirees, Wang, Henkens, and van Solinge (April 2011) provided a comprehensive review of current theorizing on the antecedents of employees' post-retirement well-being. Central to their review is a resource-based model, which conceptualizes retirement as a stress-inducing role transition that requires significant pools of resources to overcome. Prototypical of the resource paradigm are examinations of how monetary resources allow retirees to overcome financial stressors and how familial connections allow retirees to overcome emotional stressors. Despite the explanatory power of Wang et al.'s model, a broader perspective on role transitions suggests that retirement might not always be inherently stressful. Viewed from the perspective of the creative personality, employees may in fact experience retirement as a self-actualizing event that enhances well-being through the provision of desired novelty. Existing empirical evidence on individual difference predictors of role transitions provides preliminary support for this perspective, suggesting that while retirement is often stressful it can also be an energizing and fulfilling experience.