On October 23, 2014, a scientific seminar with international participation was held at the University of Prešov in Prešov on the topic: Life perspectives of seniors, meaning of life, satisfaction and social saturation of seniors living in Slovakia and abroad. This action is one of the outputs of the VE4GA grant task, no. 1/0124/12 entitled: Life perspectives, meaning of life, satisfaction and social saturation of seniors living in Slovakia and abroad.
The organizer of the event was the Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Prešov. Individual participants reported on current researches focused on the current life of seniors in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation. At the seminar, 17 contributions were given, mostly of a research nature: S. Hvozdík's contribution entitled Older adulthood, dynamics and metaphysics of a person's lifelong journey. The biodromal approach concerned the dynamics and metaphysics of the lifelong journey, in which the author draws attention to the transfer of developmental tasks conditioned by performance roles to permanent developmental tasks that are connected to spiritual needs.
T. Búgelová, co-authored with M Čuchranová, in the paper Personal and social predictors of loneliness in the younger and older generation dealt with the topic and causes of loneliness of older people compared to the younger and middle generation. In their research, they came to the knowledge, among other things, that loneliness is not a "privilege" of the older population, but is conditioned by specific personality characteristics, e.g. the occurrence of psychoticism, neuroticism and a decrease in extraversion. These characteristics paradoxically contribute to the experience of loneliness to a higher degree than the monitored sociodemographic variables, e.g. joint household vs. living alone, gender and education.
In another contribution by T. Búgelová and J. Lukáčová Social saturation of seniors in Slovakia and in the Russian Federation, the authors tried to analyze in detail the manner and degree of social saturation and satisfaction, or dissatisfaction with the given situation among Slovak and Russian seniors. In the study, they report differences in the psychological and social experience of seniors in the mentioned countries. They state that the common critical moment for the emotional experience of seniors in both countries is primarily the fear of social isolation, feelings of loneliness and fear of feeling worthless to others.
Thematically related contribution by E. Pavluvčíková and I. Nagyová Adaptation to senior age and depression was focused on the mechanisms of human adaptation to the senior period. The authors found that the predictor of depression is statistically significantly negatively correlated with the constructive strategy of adaptation to old age.
With Kostelníková, Majerová, in the pilot study Anticipated social support of seniors, it was found that seniors differ in the level of anticipated social support with regard to some independent variables, e.g. age, marital status, way of living, satisfaction with the financial situation, etc.
K Poláková in the contribution Differences in the degree of presence of life goals of seniors. She managed to confirm that the inner goals of seniors are primarily related to age and marital status, and the outer goals are mainly related to economic saturation, maintaining health and the place of residence of seniors.
Authors O. Kozlova and T. Kuprina in the study Working and creative potential of seniors in Russia and other countries develop the basic idea that for any progressive economy, seniors represent valuable sources of experience, professional qualifications and cultural heritage. The authors specifically present analyzes from the domestic and foreign environment and at the same time present proposals on how to increase and protect the work and creative potential of seniors.
G. Kravčáková's contribution entitled Subjective perception of the economic situation by seniors touches on the economic environment. Based on the analysis, more than 400 respondents state and confirm that the economic situation of seniors is not good, only 46% of respondents are capable of creating savings from their income. Despite the previous statement about the generally low economic level of seniors, the author noted a somewhat surprising figure that up to half of the respondents believe that they have enough money for their lives compared to their peers.
In his contribution Seniors in retirement homes, satisfaction and some connections with personality characteristics, B. Vašina focused attention on some factors for evaluating the situation of seniors living in five retirement homes of different types in the context of their temperamental characteristics.
Homelessness of a dependent senior - as a consequence of the loss of the meaning of life is a contribution by B. Balogová and B. Kvašňáková. The intention of the authors was to emphasize the issue of homelessness of seniors addicted to alcohol and drugs. The authors drew attention to the concepts of self-care and self-control as tools of change in the context of the change of the senior citizen and his life perspective.
Contributions of the literary scholar V. Žemberová were a special contribution to the scientific seminar. In the first of them The meaning of life in artistic literature (thematization of time in the life of seniors) he points out that artistic literature in its geneological structure clarifies the uniqueness and universality of time and space of life in its social and historical era.
In the second contribution entitled Generational tension in the issue of art (in artistic literature) he follows two lines in its establishment and further application in literary research. Both contributions offered a very interesting and research-enriching view of the issue of seniors from a less traditional angle of knowledge.
The following contributions were presented in an applied, practice-oriented manner. And Rusnáková in the contribution in Psychosocial aspects of active participation of seniors in community musical art - the case of the Young Hearth choir. He appeals to the importance of music in the lives of seniors. At the level of practice, it presents a highly positive effect on the lives of older people engaged in musical activity.
G. Brutovská and K. Mayerová conducted a survey of the educational interests and needs of seniors living in a residential facility. They pointed out the possibilities and effects of cooperative education of children and seniors in these types of senior facilities.
Authors S. Kostelníková, majerová and Š. Churchman. In the topic Seniors as a fraud risk group, they provide an overview of the basic characteristics of seniors that attract fraudsters and also provide information on how to identify the ways and methods used by fraudsters to rob and defraud seniors. At the end of the paper, they propose the outline of a preventive program to protect seniors from fraud.
Authors E. Gašparová and a. Solarová contributed to the program of the seminar with two contributions. In the first of them, Cognitive training for seniors, the authors presented, in addition to theoretical principles, the effectiveness of cognitive training for seniors in retirement homes, which were also enriched with a number of practical examples.
The second contribution entitled Use of canistherapy in therapeutic work with seniors was, let's say, the "icing on the cake" because the authors used their own experience from many years of experience working with seniors who have been placed in a nursing home for a long time and seem to be "forgotten". With the use of dogs, which became perhaps the most attractive participants in the event, the authors documented the possibilities of using canistherapy and the positive effect of a dog as a motivational element in the activation of seniors, the possibilities of using a dog in training gross and fine motor skills, memory and achieving psychological well-being.
The scientific seminar was very positively evaluated not only by the active participants, but also by a large number of students and teachers from other fields than psychology. Another output from the above-mentioned grant task will be a collection of scientific works, in which peer-reviewed contributions of the authors will be published.
Taťjana Búgelová, doc. PhDr. CSc. Institute of Psychology FF PU in Prešov