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Retirement is typically viewed as a monolithic event which affects all individuals in generally the same way. As a way of beginning to transcend stereotypic views and understand the complex reality of how individuals actually experience retirement, this study was directed toward identifying and describing diversity in modes of retirement adaptation. Twenty-four individuals, drawn from a range of occupational groups, were intensively interviewed one month prior to and six to eight months following retirement. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a phenomenological method which generates systematic descriptions of the structure of an individual's experience. Comparisons among these analyses yielded four distinct ways of conceptualizing and experiencing retirement--as a transition to old age, as a new beginning, as a continuation of preretirement life structure, and as an imposed disruption. Features of each of these patterns of adaptation are described and implications of these findings for preretirement planning and counseling are discussed.

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