[The relation between work activity and retirement plans]

In the course of the research project "Work Activities and Retirement Plans" financed by the National Foundation of Research, a study was made to explore the consequences of longterm working activities on planning of the time of retirement. 200 persons at the age of 64 years, working on shop floor of enterprises in the metal industry were asked about their work, leizure and plans about the approaching retirement. It was hypothesized that plans are necessary for the successful coping of the retirement situation. For the setting up of plans it is required that social and cognitive competence can be acquired and constantly trained. It has been shown that the proportion of persons with none or unspecific plans rises with the span of action getting smaller. Furthermore the study showed that persons who could train their cognitive competence at work set up more plans with cognitive content than persons who could not: the analogical result has been found with the social competence.