Coping with Crucial Change

Abstract

Following a previous pilot study, the Change Study of the IZZ Institute for Psychological Future Management examines in the online demoscopic survey “Life events and change competencies” (n = 1,951) how people perceive and cope with real change processes in their lives. Key results of the representative survey are presented and analyzed in this paper. Section 1 explains the task, concept and implementation of the study. Section 2 shows how respondents perceive the phenomenon of change from the perspective of specific transformational life events. Section 3 examines how the participants arrive at an evaluation of their experiences of change as positive or negative. The following factors are identified: the kind of change event, the benefit and degree of burden attributed to it, and whether it was driven by an internal or external change impetus. The final overall evaluation seems to be holistic, intuitive and primarily emotive. Section 4 analyzes the central role of life satisfaction and personal development in the coping process. Section 5 shows how the change experiences of the participants are reflected in the model of change competence of the IZZ in the fields of orientation, stabilization, problem-solving and practice. Each competence of the respective competence field is examined for correlations with positive or negative change experiences, occupational and age groups. It becomes apparent that the development of some competencies is linked to increasing life experience, others thrive through positive change experiences, while some can be seen more as general factors. Overall, it should be noted that the respondents show a high degree of optimism and life satisfaction. They succeed in doing this in spite of high burdens from change processes by focusing on manageable life events and making a continuous positive shift in the perception of their own possibilities for action. In this way, they create a space for action in which they gain life experience and acquire change competence. Section 6 summarizes the results and theses and discusses the limitations and potentials that result from the respondents’ behavior in dealing with change.