EUROMEDICA  Hanover 23-24  Mai 2011	Advanced methods of diagnosis, treatment and prophylactics
	European Academy of Natural Sciences, Hanover European Scientific Society, Hanover

Home

Abstracts

Contact

Disclaimer

The ability to cope with the complex human life situations, to go out of stress and resist it, is perhaps the most important skill of a person for its normal and comfortable existence in the modern world. In this context the behavior aimed to cope with stress is actively studied in various science fields, especially in medicine and psychology. Coping behavior is a special kind of social behavior that provides productivity, health and welfare. This is a purposeful behavior, and it allows a person to cope with stress (difficult situation) in ways that are appropriate for his or her personal characteristics and situation.

The study of coping strategies, their correction or creation lets to reduce some difficulties in different periods of human life. For instance, many people who have just retired (so called “third age”) often perceive this situation as difficult, stressful. Indeed, they find themselves in a situation of triple crisis. One crisis affects the social perspective, when a person loses his or her job and, therefore, loses the meaningful participation in social life, the common environment of communication, the life rhythm. The second crisis is in the age or psychophysiology perspective, and it is associated with age-specific changes occurring in the human body and affecting the health and mood. The third crisis is in the time perspective, when the structure of psychological time of an elderly person is changing. His or her share of the future is sharply reducing, and some of them actually lose it, because it is filled with uncertainty and meaninglessness for them. In addition a rupture of links between generations occurs that can be experienced subjectively as a fear of loneliness and the painful feeling of uselessness.

In this situation some older people choose a life strategy aimed to “live the rest days”, which manifests itself through the protective behaviors. Protective behavior is actually rigid, compelled and distorting the reality. Such behavior leads to disadaptation. Another group of people chooses a strategy of “normal life” that accomplishes through coping behavior, in other words through deliberate strategies aimed to the elimination of difficulties and lead to the personal development. The elimination of difficulties can occur either through adaptation to the demands of the situation either through its transformation. Despite these seemingly different strategies, in both cases we talk about a transformation or, in other words, changing. In the first case a greater emphasis is made on inner transformation or, in other words, on the person’s ability to adjust to the situation by changing either attitude or reaction to it. In the second case the emphasis is made on the transformation of the external world, but a person needs to change himself for this. Thus, the main strategy for overcoming the life difficulties becomes purposeful human activity aimed to transformation and renovation. This kind of activity can be defined as a creative activity. These people, so called “transformers” or “creators”, have (according to the statistics) better life interval, health, activity, performance and optimistic sense of life. Creative activity as a basic parameter of personality is a combination of several important components: ideological position (“I am the creator of my life”), personal component (initiative, responsibility, creativity) and behavioral component (transformation, coping of new). Apparently the main component is the ideological position of man. This is the “set of beliefs”, which defines the direction of all human activity at this stage of his or her life. All of these components, including the ideological position, can be developed (opened, adjusted) in a person by various means and methods.

Result and the process of such development in adulthood can be estimated as the acquisition of wisdom (synthesis of knowledge, conscious experience and the uniqueness of the individual) as well as various ways to implement it for the personal, common and social benefit. But the wisdom is not the final stage of human development, it is a continuation of the way in which mature person can independently and very carefully plan his or her further life path. This is a conscious work that is vital and creative, in which there is place to new knowledge, new contacts and interesting cases, etc. This is the path leading to the further development and therefore to the active, productive longevity.