Although the work force is aging, views regarding older workers remain negative. As a result, complaints of discrimination on the basis of age have increased. This situation prompts the following questions: what leads aging workers to acknowledge disparities between younger workers and themselves, and what are the consequences for aging workers of integrating into their self-image some of the characteristics commonly associated with their cohort? These questions are examined in light of a new approach to the link between identity and relative deprivation. The following hypotheses were included in a predictive model: the more individuals include characteristics of their group into their self-descriptions, the more they experience personal deprivation when comparing their own situation to that of younger workers. These feelings, in turn, affect them during retirement in terms of lowered self-esteem and decreased satisfaction with their life. This model was tested among 149 young retirees. Hypotheses were confirmed, and it was shown that end-of-career experiences have an impact on the situation of young retirees. The more individuals integrated characteristics of aging workers, the more they felt personally deprived as a result of invidious comparisons with young co-workers. The latter also had a negative impact on self-esteem and life satisfaction. Implications of results and new avenues of research are discussed herein.

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Of working women diagnosed with cancer, approximately one-third will have breast cancer. Communicating about their cancer plays an important role in their workplace experience. It is challenging but helpful in eliciting needed social support and accommodations. Fully understanding such communication experiences is important in order to facilitate the well-being and success of such women in their workplaces. A qualitative study permits a richer account of the details of these workplace communications, and a deeper understanding of how women manage the complex and multifaceted communication process. This study used thematic analysis of semistructured interviews from 19 women working full time at the time of their breast cancer diagnosis. We found 3 themes that encapsulated unfolding individual experiences, representing a complex interplay of challenges to maintaining a sense of personal control in workplace responses: challenges to control posed by the experience of sharing information in the workplace about the woman's cancer, women's very individual attempts to control how information about their cancer was shared, and the mixed responses of those who were told. The result was unique individual trajectories in which empathic responses tailored to the individual's needs and preferences were most helpful. These findings can provide guidance on managing cancer communication for survivors, and on how to best support and accommodate women workers with breast cancer, facilitating their ability to control how their cancer impacts their work experience. Our website (http://www.iwantedyoutoknow.ca/) provides a video, tip sheet, and other resources for facilitating supportive communication in the workplace.

The authors propose that competence need fulfillment within valued role domains (i.e., spouse, parent, worker) will account, in part, for associations between autonomy and relatedness need fulfillment and psychological health. Testing these assertions in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys of women in two independent community samples, the findings are the first to formally examine whether the satisfaction of competence needs within social roles accounts for associations between other types of need satisfaction and affective outcomes as well as depressive symptomology. Evidence supporting the hypothesis was stronger when examining individuals’ affective health as compared to their depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings are discussed with regard to need fulfillment within social roles.

In this paper, we examined the impact of the numerical representation and the intrusiveness of immigrants on feelings of group threat voiced by the majority. The present evaluation of group threat differs from previous studies in its inclusion of temporal comparisons. The relationship between feelings of threat and attitudes toward immigration was also evaluated. In all, 221 college students completed a questionnaire. As predicted, results obtained show that numerical representation was positively associated with feelings of group threat resulting from invidious social comparisons. Intrusiveness was positively related to feelings of group threat resulting from temporal comparisons. Contrary to hypotheses, the final model confirms that only feelings of temporal group threat were associated with negative attitudes toward immigration. Practical implications and the important role of temporal comparisons are discussed.