“I Felt so Old This Morning.” Short-Term Variations in Subjective Age and the Role of Trait Subjective Age: Evidence from the ILSE/EMIL Ecological Momentary Assessment Data

in Psychology and Aging (2021), 36(3), 373-382

Subjective age, how old people feel compared to their chronological age, is a central indicator of age identity and highly predictive for developmental outcomes. While mostly used as a trait-like concept ... [more ▼]

Subjective age, how old people feel compared to their chronological age, is a central indicator of age identity and highly predictive for developmental outcomes. While mostly used as a trait-like concept in previous research, recent studies employing experimental designs and daily assessments suggest that subjective age can vary after experimental manipulations or between days. However, less is known about whether subjective age varies over even shorter time frames such as within moments on a given day, how such short-term variability differs by age and its association with trait subjective age. We examined these questions with data obtained from 123 young–old (Mage = 67.19 years) and 47 old–old adults (Mage = 86.59 years) who reported their momentary subjective age six times a day over 7 consecutive days as they were going about their everyday lives. Participants felt younger on a large majority of occasions, and 25% of the total variability in subjective age could be attributed to within-person variation. Within-person variability in subjective age amounted to an average of about 3 years from one moment to the next and did not differ between age groups. However, those with younger trait subjective ages exhibited larger moment-to-moment variation. Our findings extend the literature on subjective age by showing that how old people feel can vary on a momentary basis and that state and trait components of subjective age are related. Further research should investigate the contextual predictors of variability in subjective age and the links between trait and state concepts and developmental outcomes. [less ▲]

Age-Stereotype Internalization and Dissociation: Contradictory Processes or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

in Current Directions in Psychological Science (2018), 27(6), 477-483

There is overwhelming evidence that age stereotypes have systematic effects on older adults' development. Regarding the direction of these effects, two seemingly opposing phenomena can be observed. On the ... [more ▼]

There is overwhelming evidence that age stereotypes have systematic effects on older adults' development. Regarding the direction of these effects, two seemingly opposing phenomena can be observed. On the one hand, it has been shown that older adults engage in self-stereotyping and assimilate their self-views and behavior to commonly held age stereotypes, a process described as stereotype internalization. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence for age-group dissociation, showing that when confronted with negative age stereotypes, older adults tend to distance and dissociate themselves from this negative stereotype. In addition to reviewing evidence for both processes and their respective adaptivity, we propose an integrated model of age-stereotype internalization and dissociation to explain when and why older adults internalize or dissociate from negative age stereotypes. [less ▲]