Creative productivity of elderly scientists at different stages of professional development

Abstract

The article presents the results of research focusing on substantiation and development of the idea of preservation and multiplication of human capital. The issue of psychological prerequisites and social conditions for top achievements made by scientists is of scientific and practical relevance as well as identification of social and psychological factors encouraging the preservation of high productivity in elderly scientists over long periods of time. The objective of this research is to find the correlation between the key events in the academic biography and top achievements made by well-known elderly scientists at different stages of their professional development. The presented data were obtained with the help of the research interview “Life values and life journey” developed by V.S. Mukhina. The information contained in scientometric databases about the top achievements made by elderly scientists were analyzed and interpreted relying on the principles of differential acmeological analysis of professional activities conducted by famous scientists and their achievements made in the acme of their career. The correlation between the key events in the academic biographies of the interviewed elderly scientists and their top achievements has shown that reaching the acme is the result of psychological prerequisites (scientists’ personal qualities and the physical state) and social conditions of their professional activities (social status, belonging to a certain school of thought, access to organizational and financial resources). Over the whole time of academic activity conducted by senior scientists, there are usually a few productive periods called micro-acme in acmeology. It should be noted that top achievements made by scientists are typically spaced out and fall on the times with the best combination of prerequisites and conditions for scientific creativity. Within this research, identification of the most common combinations of prerequisites and conditions leading to top scientific achievements was beyond our focus. One of the promising research directions would be an attempt to identify the criteria for developing periodization of scientific productivity among elderly scientists.