SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE UNEMPLOYED ABOUT COPING WITH JOB LOSS SITUATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE PENSION REFORM ADOPTION

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the problem of the unemployed elderly people’s adaptation to the changing conditions of their vital activities in connection with the pension reform adoption. The research has been aimed at detecting differences in the contents of the social representations shared by the unemployed about coping with job loss situation in the periods before (spring 2018) and after (spring 2019) pension reform adoption. The basic technique used is the questionnaire which includes 36 assertions about the means of coping with job loss situation, structured like 5-score Likert scale. The respondents sample comprised the unemployed aged 46-55-60 years (196 persons). It has been demonstrated, that perception of the pension reform by the elderly unemployed as a traumatic event has influenced the altering contents of social representation on coping with job loss situation in the direction of amplifying its affective component, driving down significance of the previously known ways of solving problems (registration in the labor registry office and cutting the expenses). In the spring of 2019, social representations of the unemployed have facilitated the group’s attention switch, directing it on the search for new ways of solving the difficult life situation. The obtained results may be considered as a contribution to the development of macro-social approach to analyzing the mechanisms of mental familiarization with social phenomena causing anxiety and disturbance for large social groups representatives.