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Yelena V. Tikhomirova
Kostroma State University
Anna G. Samokhvalova
Kostroma State University
Subjectivity and life authorship in middle-aged women: trial by separation
Tikhomirova Ye.V., Samokhvalova A.G. Subjectivity and life authorship in middle-aged women: trial by separation. Vestnik of Kostroma State University. Series: Pedagogy. Psychology. Sociokinetics, 2020, vol. 26, № 4, pp. 41-47 (In Russ.). DOI https://doi.org/10.34216/2073-1426-2020-26-4-41-47
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/2073-1426-2020-26-4-41-47
УДК: 159.923
Publish date: 2020-11-18
Annotation: The problematic field related to middle-aged women’s life construction features characterised by different styles of psychological separation from the mother’s figure, is outlined in the study. The authors proceeded from the following assumptions. 1) There are differences in indicators of psychological well-being in middle-aged women with high and low levels of separation from the mother. 2) The connection between mothers' and daughters' life strategies during adulthood, as manifested by conjugate measures of cognitive-behavioural coping strategies, sense-behavioural orientations and time perspective perception, is type-specific and it depends on the degree of separation. 3) Psychological separation from the mother determines the authors' construction of the adult daughter's life. 170 women from Kostroma and Kostroma Region took part in the study, of whom 85 were adult daughters (M = 33 ± 5.3); and 85, their mothers (M = 58 ± 6.7). The main methods included the "Unfinished Sentences" (Yelena Soldatova, 2007); Dmitriy Leont'yev’s "Life-Meaning Orientation Test" (Dmitriy Leont'yev, 1988); Cognitive Behavioural Coping Strategies Questionnaire (Inessa Sizova, Svetlana Filipchenkova, 2002); Own Life Path Methodology (Igor' Solomin, 2007); the survey Psychological Separation Inventory by Jeffrey A. Hoffman (Tat'yana Sadovnikova, Veronika Dzukayeva, 2014). The study is a combination of nomothetic and idiographic approaches. Conclusions – if the daughter is not psychologically separated from her mother in adulthood, then close conjugation of the mother’s and the daughter’s cognitive-behavioural coping strategies, goal orientations, and life planning features is traceable, which in turn negatively affects the functioning and life functioning of the daughter. Separation from the mother during middle adulthood is crucial for the realisation of a woman's subjective position in constructing and making sense of her own life, for the choice of cognitive-behavioural strategies in difficult situations, for taking personal responsibility.
Keywords: women, middle age, psychological separation, life strategy, cognitive-behavioral strategies, life path, time perspective, psycho-emotional state
Funding and acknowledgments: The study was carried out with the financial support of the state order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education FZEW-2020-0005
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Author's info: Yelena V. Tikhomirova, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3844-4622, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor, Kostroma State University, Kostroma, Russia E-mail: tichomirowa82@mail.ru
Co-author's info: Anna G. Samokhvalova, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4401-053X, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor, Kostroma State University, Kostroma, Russia E-mail: a_samohvalova@ksu.edu.ru