Understanding of an emotional component of hardiness

Abstract

The article theoretically analyses elderly people’s emotional sphere and various emotional phenomena existing in their life. Emotional phenomena can be characterized by their subjective quality (modality) and subject matter. Emotional phenomena (anxiety, aggressiveness, fear, intrapersonal conflict, psycho-emotional stress) have specific characteristics and specific influence on elderly people.
 The article emphasizes that the emotional component of hardiness is important, since an individual’s certain actions and behaviour is a response to external conditions and circumstances. Hardiness as an integral personal characteristic is associated with the emotional, cognitive, conative spheres of personality. Hardiness allows an individual to maintain a balance between internal and external aspects.
 The article describes experimental data obtained with psychological methods examining the emotional component of hardiness. The correlation analysis between hardiness and components affecting elderly people’s lives is presented.
 The empirical data determined that the emotional aspect of elderly people’s hardiness was linked with: their satisfaction with life; satisfaction of their basic needs (these needs come to the fore at the older age, since body functioning depends on their satisfaction especially at this age and this affects elderly people’s well-being); a sense of comfort; an optimistic perception of everything that happens around; active involvement in life events, in other words, an interest that evokes positive emotions. Elderly people have difficulties to restrain emotionally themselves under psychosocial stress, under acute negative emotions, frustration, aggressiveness, self-blame, which seem to knock them out of a usual life rhythm, limiting their positive experiences.
 Further study of hardiness components is considered based on elderly people’s orientation to the past, the present or the future. This can be especially important for development of psychological correctional programs for elderly people’s hardiness improvement.