Abstract

This study was conducted via questionnaire among high status (224 nurses) and lower status (71 civil servants) older workers. The first goal was to determine whether the meaning of work (job, career or calling) and collective self-esteem (public and membership esteem) facilitate or prevent psychological disengagement which includes two mechanisms: the discounting of feedback received and the devaluing of the domain. Results show that seeing one’s work as a job or a career leads to greater discounting, whereas a calling is negatively associated with devaluing; membership esteem leads to less discounting and public esteem is associated with less devaluing. The second goal was to establish whether group status (high vs. low status) moderates the progression through psychological disengagement, i.e., from discounting to devaluing. As predicted, discounting was more strongly linked to devaluing among older workers in a lower status occupation. Implications of these results are discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives. The latter focuses on results suggesting ways to reduce if not eliminate recourse to psychological disengagement.