Discuss the three phases of retirement decision making and adjustment to retirement.

Answers will vary. The three phases of retirement decision making are:
• Imagining the possibility of retirement
• Deciding when to let go of one's job
• Deciding how and when to put concrete retirement plans into action
Research has consistently shown that older adults who are best adjusted to retirement are highly involved in a variety of activities, such as community activities and organizations. In the case of community activities, the experience and devotion of retirees renders their participation an important asset for the community, and the activities promote the adjustment of older adults into retirement. Pinquart and Schindler found in a retirement study that retirees could be broken down into three groups, according to their satisfaction with retirement and various other factors. The group that was most satisfied with retirement maintained leisure and other non-work-related activities as sources of life satisfaction, or replaced work with more satisfying activities. They retired at a typical retirement age and had a wealth of resources to compensate for the loss of work: They were married, in good health, and of high socioeconomic status. The majority of the second group retired at a later age and tended to be female; the majority of the third group retired at a younger age and tended to be male. The second and third groups were not as satisfied with retirement. They were in poorer health, less likely to be married, and lower in socioeconomic status than the first group. The third group had a spotty employment record. Another way to look at this data is to suggest that retirement per se didn't change these people's lives in major ways. A two-year longitudinal study found that the adjustment of older retirees was affected by their pre-retirement work identities. For example, upscale professional workers continued to be well adjusted and had high self-esteem. They weren't simply "retirees"; they were retired professors or retired doctors or retired lawyers and the like. On the other hand, hourly wage earners and other blue collar workers had somewhat lower self-esteem and were more likely to think of themselves as simply "retirees." Data from Dutch and American retirees found that the following factors impeded adjustment to retirement: a lengthy attachment to work, lack of control over the transition to retirement (e.g., forced retirement at age 65), worrying prior to retirement about what retirement would bring, and lack of self-confidence. Nevertheless, a wide range of feelings about giving up work surface just before retirement. Some people are relieved; others are worried-about finances, about surrendering their work roles, or both. Even so, most retirees report that their well-being has increased a year after they have retired, and that much of the stress they felt before retiring has diminished.