Psychotypes of the elderly in the course of interaction with social workers

The subject of the research is the study of personality types in old age. The relevance of the work is determined by the need to identify and describe the personality types of older people who exercise their right to receive social assistance from the state. This is important because the effectiveness of social support for the elderly depends on the targeting of its provision. At the same time, only general types of elderly people are traditionally studied, without regard to the factor of an organized form of social work. There are no typologies of elderly people seeking help from government agencies designed for the purposes of social assistance and protection. Taking into account the identity of the client of social services is of paramount importance for the full satisfaction of the diverse needs of an elderly person, including respect, however, technologies for such accounting have not been developed. A focus group interview was used as the main research method. The focus group included psychologists working in the center of social protection of the population and other specialists of this service. A case method was associated with the main method. The materials obtained using the case method were used in the formulation of typologies of the elderly. The scientific novelty of the study consists in identifying and describing three types of personality typologies in old age. We are talking about universal, particular and situational typologies. It was found that for the purposes of customer service in social protection centers, situational typologies are most effective, taking into account the nature of the situation in which work with an elderly client takes place. Typologies were described for three typical situations of social interaction with the elderly: the provision of humanitarian assistance, the provision of social services at home and the organization of communication groups based on the center for social protection of the population. A special contribution of the author is to establish the need to take into account the type of behavior and, accordingly, the type of personality in old age, when interacting with older people.

old age, psychotype, personality, social work, focus group, personality typologies, case method, social service, social support, psychological assistance