Longitudinal Patterns of Stability and Change in Tenacious Goal Pursuit and Flexible Goal Adjustment among Older People over a 9-Year Period (original) (raw)
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International Psychogeriatrics, 2013
ABSTRACTBackground: Previous research has shown that tendencies to tenaciously pursue goals and flexibly adapt goals independently relate to well-being in adults in mid-to-late life, but research has not tested whether these tendencies interact. For example, tenacity may only predict well-being in combination with flexibility. This research tests whether these tendencies interact to predict changes in health-related outcomes.Methods: A large cohort of people (n = 5,666), initially aged 55–56, completed measures of flexibility, tenacity, health-related outcomes (physical health, depression, hostility), as well as demographics. Participants provided follow-up data on all measures ten years later. Moderation analysis was used to test whether flexibility and tenacity interacted to predict changes in the health-related outcomes over the period.Results: The interaction between tenacity and flexibility significantly predicted changes in depression, hostility, and physical ill-health sympto...
Psychology and Aging, 1990
Crises and critical life transitions activate 2 distinct but complementary modes of coping, (a) transforming developmental circumstances in accordance with personal preferences (assimilative tendency) and (b) adjusting personal preferences to situational constraints (accommodative tendency). Assimilative and accommodative tendencies were measured by a questionnaire comprising 2 independent scales (Tenacious Goal Pursuit and Flexible Goal Adjustment). Both scales predict high life satisfaction and low depression and are positively related to generalized internal control beliefs. The scales evinced an opposite relation to age: Cross-sectional analyses on a sample of 890 Ss in the age range from 34 to 63 years revealed a gradual shift from an assimilative to an accommodative mode of coping. Implications for theories of depression and successful aging are discussed.
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
Background As people age, functional losses may limit the potential to get outside the home and participate in desired activities and community life. Coping with age-related losses has been reported to be important for psychological well-being. Hitherto is not known whether active use of coping strategies also helps maintain out-of-home mobility. Aims We investigated how two coping strategies, tenacious goal pursuit (TGP; persistency in reaching one's goals) and flexible goal adjustment (FGA; adjusting one's goals to changed circumstances), are associated with life-space mobility and perceived autonomy in participation outdoors among community-dwelling older people. Methods Participants (n = 186) were aged 79-93 years. TGP and FGA were self-reported using separate scales. Perceived autonomy in participation was assessed with the Impact on Participation and Autonomy Outdoors-subscale, and life-space mobility with the Life-Space Assessment. Two-step cluster analysis was used to create data-driven coping profiles of TGP and FGA. Results General linear model analyses showed that the profile including highly tenacious and flexible older people had the highest life-space mobility and perceived autonomy outdoors, whereas the profile including people with low TGP and low FGA showed the lowest scores. Depressive symptoms attenuated the associations. Conclusions Active use of both TGP and FGA is favorable for out-of-home mobility and enables more active participation in society in later life.
Goal disengagement capacities and severity of disease across older adulthood
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2015
This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 to 90). Regression analyses showed that goal disengagement capacities buffered 6-year increases in older adults’ cold symptoms, and that this effect was significantly pronounced among older-old participants. Mediation analyses further indicated that changes in depressive symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the age-related association between goal disengagement a...
Age Differences in Goal Concordance, Time Use, and Well-Being
Educational Gerontology, 2012
The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate age differences in goal concordance, time use, and Well-Being. Past research has found that despite age-related decline in life circumstances (e.g., health), the Well-Being of older adults is as high as young adults. The present study used a novel approach to explore the Paradox of Well-Being. One hundred and seventyseven adults participated in the study. They first generated their three most important personal strivings and rated levels of goal concordance for external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic reasons. Then, they reported their actual and ideal time use in 10 categories of activities in the past 24 hours. Finally, Well-Being was assessed by the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (Diener, Wirtz, et al., 2010). Older adults did not differ from young adults in overall Well-Being. However, they held higher levels of goal concordance and were more likely to spend time in spirituality and religion-related activities than young adults. The relationships between goal concordance, time use, and Well-Being were examined separately for young and older adults. Implications were discussed to improve Well-Being for young and older adults. Well-Being is a multifaceted construct of both global evaluation of life satisfaction and momentary experience of positive and negative emotions (Diener, 2009). Some theorists (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryff, 1989) have suggested that Well-Being is based on universal human needs and positive functioning. There is growing evidence from the Well-Being research that positive functioning, including both experienced positive emotions and evaluative components of Well-Being, plays an important role in motivating behavior change and predicting important health outcomes (Fredrickson, 2001, 2006). For example, individuals who frequently experience positive emotions are more likely to show greater self-regulatory and coping abilities (e.g., Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002); have bolstered immune systems (Stone et al., 1994); and even live longer lives (e.g., Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001). Well-Being has been associated with a wide variety of factors including demographic status (accounting for 8%-15% of the variation, see Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999); personality traits and attitudes (e.g., Diener & Lucas, 1999); and goal characteristics (e.g., McGregor & Little, 1998). Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and Schkade (2005) summarized three primary types of determinants of the chronic happiness level: (a) the genetically determined happiness set points (e.g., affective personality traits such as neuroticism and extraversion)
Psychosocial outcomes in later life: a multivariate model
Psychology and aging, 2007
A conceptual model was developed to identify developmental self-regulatory pathways to optimal psychosocial outcomes in adulthood. The model delineates influences among age, possible selves, developmental processes (i.e., coping, control), and well-being. Results showed age effects on all constructs except selective control. Three consistently common predictors of well-being (i.e., goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and optimization) emerged. The effects of age on well-being were differentially mediated by developmental processes. Specifically, negative age-related changes in offensive processes (i.e., goal attainment) were offset by positive influences of defensive processes (i.e., goal adjustment), which had the net effect of preserving well-being. The model demonstrates a more optimistic pattern of aging in which gains offset losses leading to positive outcomes and highlights the importance of examining both independent and combined influences of age, self, and developmental processe...
The Life-Course Dynamics of Goal Pursuit and Goal Adjustment: A Two-Process Framework*1
Developmental Review, 2002
A dual-process framework is proposed for understanding how the self-system negotiates the conflicting demands of ensuring a stable pursuit of goals and plans while adjusting to changes that affect their attainability. The model distinguishes two basic modes of reducing discrepancies between desired and factual situations or developmental outcomes: The assimilative mode comprises intentional efforts to modify the actual situation in accordance with personal goals, whereas the accommodative mode engages mechanisms that promote the adjustment of goals to constraints and changes in action resources. Differential conditions, underlying cognitive mechanisms, as well as life-course implications of these regulatory modes are specified. Empirical findings are presented that illustrate the explanatory scope of the model and its implications for well-being, efficacy, and successful aging. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA)
Social possible selves, self-regulation, and social goal progress in older adulthood
Lifespan development involves setting and pursuing self-guided goals. This study examines how in the social domain, possible selves, a future-oriented self-concept, and self-regulation, including self-regulatory beliefs and intraindividual variability in self-regulatory behavior, relate to differences in overall daily social goal progress. An online older-adult sample worked towards a self-defined meaningful social goal over 100 days. Multilevel analysis showed that participants with social possible selves made higher overall daily goal progress, especially those with both hoped-for and feared possible selves, than those with possible selves in nonsocial domains. Self-regulatory beliefs were positively whereas variability was negatively associated with overall daily goal progress. The findings suggest that possible selves, in combination with two distinct self-regulatory constructs, significantly guide social goal progress.
Self-Determination Structure in Aging: From Theory to Practice.
In modern society aging becomes a challenge for scientists and researchers from all scientific domains. Modern psychological aging paradigm, proposed by P. Baltes and developed by researchers all over the world propose, that older adults and aging people have strong intrinsic potentials and resources that occur in all possible mental domains – from health to cognitive, personality and social abilities. Still the mechanisms that provide such potentials stay uncovered. Present study approaches this issue from the position of self-determination theory. We studied 80 older adults aged 55-78, in terms of three self-determination domains: competence, autonomy and relatedness. To estimate impact of those domains on quality of life we measured Life satisfaction index and Health. Results showed that though to some extent every domain impacts quality of life measures, still self-determination structure needs further investigation and widening of the parameters, included in the analysis. doi: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP14.31