Reference : Age-related differences in evaluating developmental stability
Scientific journals : Article
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology : Neurosciences & behavior
http://hdl.handle.net/10993/19435
Age-related differences in evaluating developmental stability
English
Mustafic, Maida[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Education, Culture, Cognition and Society (ECCS) >]
[en] adult development ; developmental loss ; developmental stability ; gains ; losses ; motivational orientation ; subjective conceptions of development
[en] Two studies examined the hypothesis that the evaluation of developmental stability changes across adulthood. Results of Study 1 (N ¼ 119) supported the expectation that older adults (Mage ¼ 65.29 years)—compared to younger (Mage ¼ 23.38 years) and middle-aged adults (Mage ¼ 38.68 years)—evaluate developmental stability more positively and losses less negatively across all life domains included in this study (subjective well-being, social relationships, cognition, physical functioning). Replicating and extending these findings, Study 2 (N ¼ 182, age-range: 18–86 years) demonstrated that these age-related differences exist only for stability on an explicit and implicit level of evaluation. Moreover, Study 2 shows that the positive evaluation of stability increases after resource investments into maintaining stability were made salient. We discuss the results in relation to motivational orientation and psychological adjustment to developmental change.
This research was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Project ‘‘Process and outcome focus – The role of age,’’ ID: 100014-116528; PI: Alexandra M. Freund) as well as the Forschungskredit of the University of Zurich (Project ‘‘Specificity and Adaptivity of Process and Outcome Goal Focus,’’ ID: 56230803, awarded to Maida Mustafic´).
[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Education, Culture, Cognition and Society (ECCS) >]
