Human Growth and Development / Unit 16 HGD 2280 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Phases of Retirement
The idea
Atchley described retirement as a process with phases. In the remote pre-retirement phase, people fantasize about what they will do. In the immediate pre-retirement phase, they make concrete plans. Then comes retirement itself. In the honeymoon phase, retirees travel and take up activities they could not do while working. In the disenchantment phase, some experience an emotional letdown. In the reorientation phase, they adjust by making calmer plans and settling into a routine.
In practice
A retiree who spends her first year cruising and visiting grandchildren, feels restless and flat by the second year, and then builds a steady weekly routine of volunteering and swimming.
Where people slip
Not everyone goes through every phase; the model shows that retirement is a process rather than a single event. Exam items describe a retiree's experience and ask for the phase: the early excitement is the honeymoon, the letdown is disenchantment, and the new routine is reorientation.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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