Sussman (1972), Taylor (1972), and Atchley (1971) have all succinctly challenged the crisis rationale postulates. Atchley (1971) found that, while retirees in two quite different occupational settings carried over their work role identity into retirement, they had very low work orientations. He concluded that identity continuity rather than identity crisis was a more appropriate characterization of the retirement transition. Additional evidence comes from the Cornell study confirming that retirement per se has no negative impact on individual health, morale or psychological well being (Streib and Schneider, 1971).
Many point to the apparently increasing older workers' acceptance of retirement as reducing the urgency for formal programs to ease adjustment, documented by studies during the 1950s (Ash, 1966). The growing trend of early retirement is often cited as evidence; some studies indicate good adjustment in early retirees (Barfield and Morgan, 1969; Streib and Schneider, 1971; Pollman, 1971).
Data Are Inconsistent
A note of caution: The data are not fully consistent on this point. For example, Davidson (1969) found that relatively few eligible for early retirement, and early retirees are not necessarily voluntary retirees. In the 1950s, poor health precipitated most early withdrawals from the labor force (Steiner and Dorfman, 1957); in the 1960s, adequate retirement income was a more important consideration (Pollman, 1971). Nevertheless, Palmore (1971), using data from a 1963 survey of Social Security beneficiaries, found that seven in 10 still retired involuntarily.
Some workers clearly do resist retirement. Palmore (1965), Palmore (1971) and Jaffe (1970) confirm that retirement rates vary inversely with income, occupation and education. Resistance to the idea has been consistently related to a high work orientation, commitment or intrinsic work satisfaction (Chandler, 1950; Hall, 1954; Simpson, et al., 1966; Eaton, 1969; Monk, 1971; Streib and Schneider, 1971). The 30 per cent of the over 65 age group who elect to continue working are generally motivated by high work involvement rather than financial need (Fillenbaum, 1971a, 1971b; Jacobsohn, 1970; Powers and Goudy, 1971).
Those most resistant to the idea of retirement are concentrated in upper occupational status groups. At the same time, they constitute the group most likely to have the resources to plan for retirement and to have made some plans (Burgess, et al., 1958; Thompson, 1958; Thompson and Streib, 1958; Davidson and Kunze, 1965; Simpson, et al., 1966; Greene, et al., 1969; Charles, 1971; Fillenbaum, 1971). These upper occupational groups have the greatest opportunity to continue working if they wish. If forced into retirement, even they show a good adaptation after the first few years (Stokes and Maddox, 1967). Thus, it appears retirement constitutes a psychological crisis for only a small segment of the working population, that with the greatest number of resources to cope with any crisis.
If there is, then, no real crisis, how effective are retirement preparation programs in performing this counseling function? One of the most comprehensive studies to date suggests it is difficult to change basic attitudes toward life, retirement, health or income, but that such programs have had a positive effect on stimulating workers to prepare for retirement (Hunter, 1968c). Hence, the counseling function was inadequately performed, although the planning function seemed reasonably effective.
Evaluation Prognosis Poor
Several factors, first in program designs and second in evaluation researches, militate against a more favorable evaluation of the programs to perform effectively their counseling function of promoting better retirement adjustment. Even the best company programs involve only one and a half to two hour weekly group sessions for five to 12 weeks. How can individual attitudes toward life, work and retirement change from such brief, impersonal encounters? Generally designed to feed information in only one direction, from informant to participant, they do not allow the exchange of ideas and information necessary to promote attitude changes. But any significantly new program formats for either new or existing programs do not now appear to be on the horizon.
A second counteracting influence to documented attitude changes involves a second factor in program design; namely, that all participants are volunteers. As a result, generally only individuals with initially favorable retirement attitudes are likely to enroll; people with negative or neutral attitudes subject to potential influence are simply unlikely to expose themselves to the program. More than one researcher has had to apologize for the inability to document more substantial attitude changes because initially high satisfaction levels did not allow room for much positive change (Mack, 1958; Streib and Thompson, 1958; U. S. Civil Service Commission, 1961; Hunter, 1968c; Charles, 1971). Any satisfactory evaluation of these programs would require randomly assigning individuals to a participant/nonparticipant group and then monitoring attitude changes in both groups by before and after program tests. But such improved sampling techniques are not likely to occur soon.
How Permanent Are Changes?
Finally, few studies have attempted anything beyond a pre-test and post test design immediately connected with the program. At best, follow up studies occur one or two years after participation, and the few reported results are not particularly encouraging. Hunter (1968) observed that participants' gains recorded in the first year were attenuated somewhat in the second year follow up. And there is always the question of whether attitudinal changes lead to behavioral changes (Charles, 1971). Only a handful of studies have been attempted to measure behavioral changes; findings are spotty and inconclusive. Charles (1971), for example, notes changes in information seeking and behavior planning and increased involvement in social organizations after participation in a retirement preparation program. But Charles admits the important question is still unanswered: How permanent are these changes?
In summary, the weight of evidence appears to be against retirement preparation programs successfully performing the counseling function. But the findings of these evaluation studies may be so biased by the inability to apply rigorous experimental design techniques to gather data (specifically, randomization of participants and longitudinal studies of adjustment) as to make even this weighty body of evidence highly inconclusive.
A fair assessment of how these programs fulfill counseling objectives to ease retirees' adjustments waits for the day when programs are better designed and implemented and evaluation studies can monitor their success over a long period of time using proper research design. At present, the hit and miss character of evaluation research seems intimately tied to the hit and miss fashion in which these programs are administered.
