Lifespan Hyperdoc PDF

Lifespan Hyperdoc Session 2 – Methods for the Study of Development Research Goals Intraindividual changes o E.g.: How does wellbeing typically change over the course of life? o It is relatively stable across adulthood and even in old age – still declines a bit...

Lifespan Hyperdoc Session 2 – Methods for the Study of Development Research Goals Intraindividual changes o E.g.: How does wellbeing typically change over the course of life? o It is relatively stable across adulthood and even in old age – still declines a bit in old age. Interindividual differences in intraindividual changes o E.g.: Does wellbeing decrease for some but increase for others? o Yes, huge interindividual differences Relationship between changes in different domains of life o E.g.: How are changes in well-being related to those in cognitive functioning or physical health? Causes of intraindividual changes o E.g.: Why is wellbeing typically stable across adulthood? o Improved emotion regulation, lowering reference standards, improved self- regulation, change of everyday life Causes of interindividual differences in intraindividual change o E.g.: Why does wellbeing decrease for some but increase for others o Bad: Disability, welfare, unemployment, death of spouse; Good: Mariage, childbirth o Bad events have higher impact than good events, off-time events (death of child vs death of parent) have worse impact The Meaning of Age Age as an independent variable Carrier of information (not a cause itself): Developmental Processes o Biological factors (e.g.: maturation or puberty) o Psychological factors (learnings and experience) o Social factors (social roles influence systems (disposition, environment and their interaction) Age as a dependent variable Correlation between biological age and chronological age is only.5-.7 Methods, Instruments and Theories Good theory should be: fruitful, operationally definable and testable, parsimonious, valid and have explanatory power. Experimental Methods: Experiment: Advantages  o Causality o Can be done quickly (few weeks) o Control of confounding variables Disadvantages o Hard to measure development o Many phenomena cannot/ can’t be manipulated (eg. age) o -> quasi-experiments: groups are formed based on known characteristics o -> natural experiments: groups are formed based on environmental conditions. o -> no randomization Non-experimental Methods Cross-sectional research: Different age groups, one measurement time point Advantages o Fast and efficient o Study of large age ranges o Representative groups are possible Disadvantages o Cohort and age effects are confounded o Only inferences about age differences, but not age-related changes Longitudinal research: One age group, examined over a long time, many measurement time points Advantages o Inferences about age related changes and differences therein are possible o Cohort effects are kept constant Disadvantages o Confounds age and historical time o Time- and cost intensive! Because of duration o Sample attrition (e.g.: people die, people move away etc.) § Selective, high functioning individuals live longer -> confounds results o Retest and training effects o Limited generalizability Cohort Sequence Research: New group is added to study at every measurement time point. o Longitudinal research (when looking at one age group) § Confounds age and historical time o Cross-sectional research (when looking at different groups at the same time point) § confounds age and cohort o Time-lag analysis (when looking at different groups at different time-points, diagonals, group1 at 25 vs. group 2 at 25 (5 years later) § confounds cohort and historical time o Cross-section sequences (time sequences) § Confounds age and cohort o Longitudinal sequences (Cohort sequences)  § Confounds historical effects Age effects: Differences due to underlying processes that are closely related to age. Biological, psychological, social Cohort effects: differences due to formative historical and often generation specific experiences and circumstances. Period effects: Difference due to social-cultural events at data collection. E.g.: Covid. Session 3 – Heredity and environment Behavioral genetics Rationale: Phenotype is a product of environment and genetics. Behavioral genetics investigates the relative weight of environmental factors and genetic disposition in producing a trait (e.g.: intelligence 50% of individual differences in measures of intellectual performance in the population studied are genetically determined) o Heritability at 100% if everyone develops under perfect conditions o Heritability at 0% if intelligence is tested with writing and the participant comes from a culture without written language Study design: Twin studies o Monozygotic vs. dizygotic twins (50% vs. 100%) Adoption studies o Similarity between siblings (50% same) and adopted siblings Heritability differs across domains Vocational interests 50% Reasoning 20% General intelligence 50% Big 5 Personality – around 50%, no shared-environment influence (except anti-social behaviour) Heritability changes across life Height – low as baby and toddler; increasingly higher ?? Conservatism – low heritability, high shared environment as child; high heritability, low shared environment as adult Religiosity -low heritability, high shared environment as teenager; higher heritability, lower shared environment as adult Cognition – same pattern, no shared environment effects starting at age 12; get lower at 75! Correlation IQ DZ – high in youth; decrease in adulthood MZ – high (higher than DZ) in youth; stable in adulthood Influence of genetics, shared and non-shared effects Genetics has highest influence; big increase in adulthood Shared environment – high influence in childhood; no influence in adulthood Non-shared environment – small influence in childhood and adulthood Effect of genes on experience Genotype-environment interaction: Passive – parents are genetically related to child, parents select environment of child o High influence in beginning of life, decreases through childhood Evocative – predisposition triggers reactions of the environment o Stays medium high throughout life (pro)active – Individuals select environments; their niche fits their predisposition and fosters the expression of their genes. o Low as baby, increasing with age Educational Pessimism Differences in parenting have only small effects on childs interests, intelligence and personality. IF: parents are not abusive, average expectable environment is provided Average expectable environment: Minimum conditions for stimulation and knowledge acquisition No abuse, neglect or violence -> promotes normal development SES IQ: SES effects primarily at the extremes High SES: o Genetics account for most (>80%) of variance in IQ o Environment effects are small Low SES o Genetics account for very little variance  o Environmental effects are large o Shared > non-shared Heritability across training sessions MZ – correlation increases with training o Initial differences reduce DZ – correlation decreases with training o Genetic differences become pronounced Summary No natural development without genetic predisposition AND supportive environments Heritability varies o As a result of variability of genomes and environments o Across domains (intelligence >personality) o Across life (childhood < adulthood) Diposition-environments are dynamic and changing High heritability =|= unchangeable Session 4 – Developmental Contextualism Bronfenbrenners Ecological systems theory -> specifies different socialization contexts, emphasizes interactions between systems Individual: biological constitution, personal characteristics Microsystem: immediate surrounding environment Mesosystem: direct connection between microsystems Exosystem: indirect connection between environments Macrosystem: cultural context, Zeitgeist  Ontogenetic time, historical time Pros & Cons Pros: Very comprehensive Context is emphasized Cons: Not parsimonious Biological factors are neglected Cannot be tested (as a whole) -> more of a metatheory Social address approach: is descriptive monitor and track existing differences Process-oriented approach: understand underlying processes and mechanisms and the role of context. Identify modification-relevant interactions (of environment) Example: Headstart program – extra-curriculum for low-ses children o Process (headstart), context (community), person (gender) o Process x context -> might work in one community but not in other o Process x person -> might work for girls but not boys o Might work for most but not boys of specific community Empirical development ~Forests close to home are good for health ~County explains 8% of variance in wellbeing! (same as objective health) Kurt Lewin – the person Behavior = person x environment; actually perceived environment (perceived environment x environment) -> perception is more important The perception ladder thing Raymond Catell – person-environment interactions Behavior = traits * press Behavior = f( trait X * situation-specific press + trait Y * situation-specific press) Interesting talk about movie stars = Extraversion*high press + political knowledge * low press) as the press on a given trait increases, the importance of that trait for behavior in that situation increases if a given situation does not press for a trait, the person’s standing on that trait is irrelevant for the behavior  good/bad match between personal characteristics and the demand characteristics of the situation (Goodness of fit) Powell Lawton – environment interactions Competence & Environmental press Competence: an individual’s (upper) ability to function Environmental press: physical or social demands that an environment puts on an individual Adaption level: press matches individual competencies o Slightly higher press -> zone of maximum performance o Slightly lower press -> zone of maximum comfort o Too low or too high -> negative affect and maladaptive behavior o High competence people have a large adaption level and large zone of maximum performance o Low competence people have small adaption level and zone of comfort Stability of development Can refer to both: level stability (means of population) Interindividual differences (relative stability) o Rank-order stability disregards mean change Development is: Lifelong Multidimensional and multidirectional o E.g. intelligence fluid decreases crystalized stays the same until late adulthood Intraindividual change and interindividual differences Quantitative and qualitative o Increase/decrease of performance, frequency, something new emerges, change in structure/organization o Differentiation and de-differentiation: F- and C-intelligence are correlated in early and late life Plastic o Development has potentials and limits, is moldable The dynamic of gains and losses o More subjective gains than losses until very late in life o Development goals are more goal oriented than loss prevention Shaped by different systems of influence o Normative-age graded, normative-histrorically graded and non-normatively graded Session 5 – Physical Development, Health and Biological Bases of Development Physical Development Motor functioning Interindividual differences regarding motor functioning of babies and toddlers o Sleeping on back is better for motor development o Mother responsiveness better for verbal development o Boys and girls weight and height develops similarly until puberty Sensory functioning Sensory function and cognitive skills are related o Much stronger in older adults than young adults Why? 4 Hypotheses: Sensory deprivation: reduction in sensory functioning reduces stimulation -> lower cognitive ability Cognitive permeation: reduction in cognition reduces how fast sensory info is processed Common cause: brain aging causes both cognitive and sensory reductions Testing: Cognitive tests require sensory functioning o Disproven with old people suit lol Dual task paradigm Two tasks are performed: simultaneously and separately; if performance losses are observed in simultaneous condition -> tasks require same resource In old age motor performance requires more resources Old people prioritize motor Biological theories of aging Functional Aging o Cognitive functioning o Physical functioning o Mood o Mental Health Phenotypic Aging o Brains Health o Body composition o Homeostatic Mechanisms o Energetics Biological Aging o Molecular Damage o Defective Repair o Energy Exhaustion o Signal/Noise reduction Health Dimensions & Facets Definition: Health is a state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing and not the mere absence of disease. physical health o physical losses and diseases, especially of a chronic nature (such as cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the musculoskeletal system) functional health o functional limitations often as a result of physical diseases but also as a result of age physiological changes subjective health o perceived, self-reported health subjective health > physical health > functional health (overall decline, rank-order stays similar) Dynamics with other domains of functioning Psychological and social wellbeing predicts physical functioning Higher memory is linked to less decline in physical health Psychological wellbeing protects against cardio-vascular disease (and harmful behavior) Aging leads to less physiological flexibility (longer high blood pressure) but also to better coping strategies (reappraisal, situation selection) o -> less wellbeing during negative event, more wellbeing before and after Historical change Better cardio vascular health today Older adults have higher functional health than older adults 20 years ago Death rate of heart disease, cancer, diabetes decreases But: Higher prevalence of cancer and diabetes today Increase in multimorbidity Malnutrition, Obesity, and low activity level are historically on the rise Session 6 – Intraindividual Variability What can we do with longitudinal Data? Describing Trajectories Describe average trajectories of change o E.g. Sadness is stable, increases with very old age o Carrer goals lose importance with age o Openness decreases with age Describe individual differences in change of trajectories: o Level o Rate of decline o Onset (timepoint) of decline  Correlates of individual differences in onset of decline o E.g.: disabled people spend more time in terminal decline o Those feeling in control (self-regulation) spend less time in terminal decline o Old adults today have a higher cognitive functioning; this is not true for people close to death Linking trajectories o Lower wellbeing predicts faster decrease in perceptual speed Context Effects Family o Happiness between partners correlates County (Region of living) o 8% of between person variance is between-county variance Natural quasi-experiments and case-matched controls Event-related change in well-being o Little ups big downs o Back to start in 5 years o Some events have more homogenous effect than others What can we NOT do? Traditional longitudinal studies are cool but: Remain descriptive and correlational. No inferences about: o Underlying mechanisms o Ecological validity o (momentary) within person associations Ecological inference fallacy Definition: Conclusions about the individual are incorrectly drawn from group level data. Reference standard: other people/population vs. a given person Inference: people who are more/less…. Than others vs. in moments when E.g.: Higher ses people are more educated. If I get a promotion my education level will not rise. Collecting multi-time scale data Possible solutions collect data more regularly e.g. every few hours incorporate context (e.g. partner affect) quantify within person fluctuations o Cortisol Example Monitor testing-the-limits situations in everyday life and interventions o Exam Stress Example-> social contacts helped reduce the effect of exam induced increases of anxiety Session 7 – Cognitive Development and Plasticity Influences on test-performance Performance =|= Ability Assumptions o Stereotype threat and motivation o E.g. stereotype threat has a large effect on old adults for memory test Bias o Previous experience, health, sleep o E.g. test-taking familiarity, training effects Cross-sectional Assessment o Cohort effects o Period effects o Meaningful group comparisons are not possible in cross-sectional research Test conditions o Test fairness: tests have the same results for individuals with the same trait level regardless of group membership o Unfairness in children tests due to ses and parents Physical health o Healthy and relaxed -> better scores Previous experience with standardized tests o Lower familiarity lower results Sensory impairment o Problems in understanding test instructions-> underperformance Speed, coordination, and mobility o Time limit vs. lower perceptual speed in old adults Attitude towards test situations o Fear -> self-fulfilling prophecy, emotion regulation is an additional cognitive process o Lack of confidence § Aging 5 years in 5 minutes – Vocab vs. memory test -> no test, only expectation of memory increases subjective age o Lack of motivation o Low importance How important are relevance and meaning of tasks? Lab vs. everyday tasks o Lab: Causality, control confounders o BUT: no ecological validity -> not relevant Cognitive age differences are often located in zone of maximum performance o Seldomly needed in everyday life o Lack of generalizability o Old people adapt to memory weakness -> write things down Socioemotional selectivity o Time-left-in-life defines how much value individuals assign to goals Cognitive tasks should be designed closely to and relevant to everyday tasks!!! age differences are smaller for everyday tasks  predicts mortality rate unclear whether effects remain after basic cognitive skills have been covaried (unique vs shared effects) Cognitive decline. What to do? SOC – Selective Optimization with Compensation selection o elective – choose and define goals o loss-based – change of goals and reference standards optimization o increase practice, acquire new skills compensation o therapeutic intervention, use of aids (e.g.: hearing aids), increased effort Environmental support instruction o avoid words like "memory test," "intelligence performance" reduction of the amount of information presented at the same time reduction of time pressure technical developments navigation systems, external memory aids, … shifting the ratio of internal processes and external information (Craik, 1986): o à provide external, contextual cues for memory tasks Cognitive training and plasticity of cognitive aging Cognitive Training: significant, medium to strong, long-lasting effects possible (even 10 years later) self-guided practice is as effective as guided practice BUT: o Improvement specific to skill, low transfer o More effortful for older adults (to achieve same results) o Brain jogging not convincing o Only narrow transfer o Manifest skills are trained not underlying latent constructs The Dilemma: Cognitive interventions less effective with declining cognitive resources interventions require cognitive resources probability of success of cognitive interventions diminishes with decline of cognitive resources success and need for cognitive resources is negatively correlated Training has direct and indirect effects on cognitive abilities: direct effect o training of specific skills or acquisition of new skills indirect effects  o experiencing of intellectual competence -> might increase control beliefs and thus increase activity in everyday life What works best? Aerobic training o Executive > controlled > spatial > speed Aerobic + strength training -> even better for cognitive skills Testing the limits baseline reserve capacity: at a given time, available opportunities for improvement of the individual (e.g., through strategy instruction) developmental reserve capacity: resources that can be activated in addition through targeted training and intensive practice -> performance is less influenced by initial differences All benefit from instructions; older adults only benefit slightly of training o -> training helps all but helps young people a lot more Session 8 – Social development Dimensions of social relationships Structure o Social network § Network size, type of relationships, homogeneity, network density, frequency of contact Functional o Frequency and duration of activities (e.g.: volunteering, leisure activities) o Social support § Emotional (care), informational (advise), instrumental (help), self- serving (no reciprocity) § Perceived as available, actually received, needed, provided, reciprocal Qualitative o Relationship quality, closeness of relationships, trust, social conflict o Loneliness (difference in what we expect from our social relationships and what we get -> not absence of relationships! Socioemotional selectivity – Laura Carstensen Future time perspectives: The perception of time left.  Unlimited time perspective: o Focus on growth: new people, skills, experiences o Predicts knowledge focused goals § Meeting interesting people; acquiring info through social contact Perceived limited time: o Old and terminally ill people o Focus on positive emotional stimuli, situations, and people o Focus on wellbeing and maximizing it o Predicts emotion focused goals § Social contacts help regulate emotions o Emotion focused goals become more important starting middle age (also relevant in infancy). o Social circle decreases with age BUT very close relationships are quite stable - > no loneliness in age? § Seems voluntary and selective people with limited future time perspective: focus on the here and now instead of the future invest their remaining time wisely o superficial and loose social relationships are cut o close social relationships are maintained and expanded seek meaningful activities for them try to optimize emotional well-being Have better emotion regulation strategies o (e.g. de-escalation of potential conflicts, positive sentiment override) Family contact remains stable; friend contact declines Positive and negative sides of social relationships Positive o Attachment, love, emotional security o Erik Erikson: Intimacy vs. Isolation; intimate relationships provide an important foundation for other tasks that we accomplish during life Negative o Stressors and conflict o Divorce o Bereavement Effects of social relationships: Marriage decreases mortality (confounding factors might be at play) Marriage increases happiness Social integration mitigates terminal decline of life- satisfaction Satisfaction with partnership decreases and increases after when children get older o General lowpoint after 10 years o Same pattern for childless couples Partner wellbeing is correlated Partners share disease risks Partners share health behaviors  Divorce: Most common: between year 5-10 Predictors: young when married, divorce in family Why is divorce “heritable”? Transmission of skills o Dysfunctional interpersonal behavior that undermines close relationships o Don’t learn conflict resolution etc. Transmission of marital commitment o People don’t stay in unhappy relationships o Mariage is not holy Effect of divorce on children: Small negative effects on: o Conduct o School performance o Parent relations o Social adjustment o Self-concept Communication between partners (John Gottman) Absence of conflict is a sign of emotional distance Criticism o generalized critique, accusations, allegation, constant nagging o Attacking and Blaming o E.g.: you don’t care Contempt o belittling, insults, derogatory, cynical remarks o Belittling o E.g.: Sarcasm, Eye rolling, “you are stupid” Defensiveness o defense, justification, counter-accusations, blame o Denying responsibility o Cross-complaining o Making excuses Stonewalling o blocking, refuse communication, not listen, ignore the other o Withdrawing from conflict o E.g.: Whatever Ratio 5:1 positive: negative -> good relationship Session 9 – Life goals, Personality, and Wellbeing Structure Goals are: Hierarchically organized (values, life-goals have priority)  Organize behavior and structure development Cognitive representations of desirable end states that impact cognition, emotion, and behavior Desirable stuff depends on: personality, age, gender, historic context Session 10 – Views on aging across adulthood What are views on aging? Definition: Expectations, experiences, perceptions or feelings about the process of aging. Differentiation: Personal views on aging and general views on aging. Views on aging are multidimensional Subjective age Attitude towards own aging Awareness of age-related change Subjective Age By age 40 the majority of individuals feel younger than they are (Rubin & Bernstein) By age 25 individuals usually feel younger than they are (Pinquart & Wahl) Might be limited to western culture Mean level increase in subjective age with age; people still feel younger when close to death State and Trait -> o can fluctuate from one day to the next o people feel older when experiencing pain Attitude towards own aging Attitude towards own aging deteriorates with age o Less in younger cohorts o Especially pronounced in very old age and close to death Awareness of age-related change Definition: refers to a person’s state of awareness that his or her behavior, level of performance, or way of experiencing life has changed as a consequence of having grown older. Domains (Gains and Losses possible): Health and physical functioning Cognitive functioning Interpersonal relationships Social-cognitive, social emotional functioning Lifestyle and Engagement Gains and Losses Gains and Losses are positively correlated with chronological age Gains and losses differ across domains  Gains outweigh losses throughout most of life o This usually changes in very late adulthood (90s) o 80s for institutionalized individuals o We experience gains until death! Outcomes of views on aging Negative self-perceptions of aging cause a substantial amount of health care costs. Subjective age predicts mortality (younger = lower) o Up to 7.5years longer (never smoking only 4.3) Positive views on own aging (and lower subjective age) are associated with o Higher wellbeing; quality of life o Better health o Better cognitive abilities, lower risk of cognitive impairment o Greater longevity Possible underlying mechanisms for these positive relationships Psychological o Control beliefs o Self-efficacy Physiological o Stress reactions o inflammations Behavioral pathways o Health behaviors Predictors of positive and negative views on aging and subjective age: Positive for Subjective age o Low negative affect o Little pain o Few physical symptoms o Few stressors, less stress o More psychosocial resources o Higher sensory abilities o More physical activity o Perceived control in life o Health, affective wellbeing, social integration o Some life events??? Negative for subjective age o Higher stress o Rheumatism o Cancer o Anxiety o Depression Negative for views of aging o Anxiety o Depression o Rheumatism  o Back pain o Steep increase in disease burden Session 11 – The Role of Historical Change for Adult Development and Aging Lifespan 11 24.01. The Role of Historical Change for Adult Development and Aging Exam: Open questions (3-10words), multiple choice and fill in the blank questions - results are drawn from these two studies Flynn effect: generations outperform the generations before them Lifespan 11 24.01. HIDECO (HIstorical changes in DEvelopmental COntexts) framework expanded access to individual resources (inner ring) — more and better education changing social life - friendship and non-kin more important - more age peers around - positive ramifications preserved into higher ages advances in technology - smartphones as a window to the world - communication despite geographic distance or poor health - devices help monitor health and intervene in- time changing Zeitgeist - old age is not anymore synonymous with decline - considered also an active and productive phase of life - particularly in the self-conception of older adults - (Now we can see older people engaging in physical activity outside like nordic walking, was not done before) (1) the good news cognitive aging: Older adults today are acting younger - digit symbol test: get presented with symbols, should get as many substitutions in 90 seconds - There is a high reliability, fast people will be fast the next time too - Measures fluid intelligence which goes down in age quickly - We loose „half a symbol per age“ ! —> get considerably slower Lifespan 11 24.01. - increase in cognitive performance with year of birth (across the world) - what about self report data? Good news part two - psychosocial aging: Older adults today are feeling younger - 75 year olds are more satisfied with their lifes, experience more positive affect and less frequently negative affect than 75year olds 20 years ago - so interesting, we do not only observe this increase when measuring their performance, but also when we ask them Lifespan 11 24.01. (Same pattern:) - lonelieness is spreading article is wrong. (It is a problem on population level but no evidence for many population segments) - Later-born older adults report lower levels of loneliness: Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) —> narrative is not correct But these positive effects in aging (70 is the new 50 etc) are NOT for VERY OLD AGE (2) the not-so-good news today’s older adults do NOT maintain advantages into very old age and the end-of-life - flynn effect in old age: newer born outperform older generations. But if we exchange the x-achsis. Instead of chronological age we use time to death the pattern is eliminated - If anything, the later born experience steeper decline (take away: the difference is gone) Lifespan 11 24.01. - ppl who are born later I historical time in very old age perform worse in cognitive functioning - For people in their 90s /100s (so people of really old age) we don’t see this Flynn effect anymore, more the other way round - reasons for that: - manufactured survival: - Older adults survive sickness that would have killed generations earlier but comes with high cost of cognitive functioning & quality of life - Reduced efficiency of cultural ressources late in life - We need more cultural resources (eg rollator) but these massive interventions won’t suffice for very old people - Population selection: - When more people are reaching these high ages, the selection is less strong. Reduced degree of selection - „Yes 75 is the new 60 (good news!) but 90 is NOT the new 75 (bad news!)“ Reconcile the evidence: Integrate good news and not- so-good news How age/aging and historical time may interact: 3 scenarios to explain these effects Lifespan 11 24.01. Scenario 1 - What has changed is not the onset of decline but the decline is the rate of decline (less steep). - Still loose cognitive ability at the age of 60 - Nowadays, people age longer and more slowly - age curve is more drawn out Scenario 2 - other way round: onset of decline is later, but decline is at the same pace (invariant) - Age curve is prospered to the right, but in parallel Scenario 3 - start of decline is even more postponed, but when it goes down, it goes down even steeper, maybe even two sd from 75 on - (Mix of the two scenarios before) - Late life deterioration compressed and exacerbated - we do not know which scenario holds true, but the scenario 1 is the most unlikely (because the reduction in amount of change is too drastic to be likely) - next some examples on the table Lifespan 11 24.01. Control beliefs Initial empirical evidence: Perceptions of control (Whether you think that the things that happen in your life are due to your own doing) - people born later show higher perception of control, but there is not really a decline, it even goes up a little - the earlier born feel less young and over time the amount of feeling younger gets reduced (not the case for people born later Lifespan 11 24.01. Personality (level shift yes but not change - see table) —> we see level shits: later born score higher on openers & extraversion - but no evidence for a shifted rate of change Loneliness (level shift yes but not change - see table) Cognitive aging (level shift yes but not change - see table) - huge level shift, but otherwise in parallel —> need a 4th scenario to capture this Lifespan 11 24.01. 4. Whats next? Projecting the future Physical health Historical improvements in physical health among older adults? - its complicated, because it depends on a number of different things - A lot of factors against it, but have again good and not so good news from literature Good news - Better cardiovascular health - Better score of 75 year olds today - :) - better functional health - grip thrength is much higher now, - longer lifespan - lower death rate for those who suffer from major diseases but also in the other groups - higher life expectancy Lifespan 11 24.01. Not so good news… - there are several medical conditions that are historically on the rise (eg. Diabetes, cancer) - multimorbidity = suffering at two or more diseases - Risk for multi morbidity is lower when you are younger compared to older, but the level at which this multimorbidity is developing is different … now the risk for multi morbidity is much higher at the same age :( Negative Flynn effect amongst young men (conscripts) - now they perform worse than their parents - Maybe due to lower attention span? - More likely because they are conscripts (and the conscripts of today are not the same as in ww2) - unclear whether these generalize across genders and age, and to future cohorts Lifespan 11 24.01. Daily life …. In midlife (vs. young adulthood and old age) - but have everyday lifes changed? Is student life more stressful now than before? - more than 2.000 people have answered phone calls for 8 consecutive days at evening - Compared data to 1995 - Life has not changed when it comes to stress related events for young and old adults, but it changed for middle age ti the worse - For middle aged adults, the extend to which daily stressors were evaluated at posing risks to ones future rose by 25% - these also elicit more negative effect even on non stressor days For exam: learn the outline/conclusions - he will not ask about any specifics (e.g sample sizes etc.) Literature: only bolded literature is exam relevant. When we are able to summarize the paper in 10 sentences in your own words, than its enough  L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being Overview How are (life) goals conceptualized? Life) goals in developmental theory Excursus: Different measures of change Study 1 how does the importance of different life goals change across the lifespan ? Personality Development Are life goals part of our personality? Study 2 Do changes in life goals and the Big Five go hand in hand? Conceptualization of life goals Conceptualization is not really uniform a lot of constructs that are related but not the same Related constructs:  Life tasks ▪ possible selves ▪ personal strivings ▪ narratives ▪ life stories L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 1  → jingle jangle fallacies! (two things labeled the same not being the same and vice versa) There are no agreed upon validated measures Goals are: hierarchically organized organize behavior and structure development are cognitive representations of desirable endstates that impact cognition, behavior and emotion what is considered desirable depends on many factors categorizations of goals  Agency vs. communion  internal vs. external  approach vs. avoidance developmental regulation theories L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 2  Goals as subjective evaluations of developmental tasks  Age-graded societal norms and expectations about what should be achieved and when goals can have or dont have hard developmental deadlines (e.g. becoming a mother vs. eing there for friends) Adaptive goal pursuit of goals with hard Developmental Deadlines should align with peak opportunity time → doing things whenever it fits best some examples of theories: Model of selection, optimization and compensation SOC Dual process model Motivational Theory of lifespan development Socioemotional selectivity theorie both goal engagement as well as disengagement (except life purpose) have positive effects on life outcomes → do both: pursue goals but also let go of them once unrealistic Predictions based on the developmental regulation theories:  Pronounced changes in early and late adulthood, relative stability in midlife SOC, MTD  Different trajectories for goals with and without developmental deadlines (MTD  Different trajectories for future- and present-oriented goals SST L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 3  Different measures of change: rank order stability mean-level change individual level change goal disengagement for having kkids in women but not in men selection effect: those becoming mother later, rate the goal as more important earlier mothers have lower importance of career success in the beginning cohort effects: the younger the cohort, the less important career success no effects on having kids and happy relationship But changes in GenZ possible! Conclusion: more mean level change in life goals that are bound to a deadline Changes mostly corresponded to normative developmental tasks or future time perspective (socioemoional selectivity theory demographic variables matter L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 4  Personality development heterogeneity in changes across studies also heterogeneity of development between facets within a domain how personality works core personality (hexaco, big5 surface personality: how people desire to be charactersitic adaptions A newer perspective: central distribution of personality states that represent the traits L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 5  descriptive side: describing personality explanatory: why is it so? what life goal is the trait serving? Many models propose a feedback loop between life goals and traits momentary trait-relevant behaviors are shown when they help achieving desirable goals if, in order to achieve goals, the behaviors repeat themselves, they manifest → the trait changes. This is how life goals can impact personality Corresponsive principle: Interconnectedness of selection and socialization processes → we select goals based on traits, which then amplify these traits Self-regulation perspective / Feedback Loop: Trait-specific behaviors, feelings and thoughts are performed to attain desirable goals Study 1: Chages in goals over lifespan L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 6  Laten Results How much did changes of goals correlate with personality? Career success & Conscientiousness and Extraversion change together self-fulfillment & Neuroticism (-), Extraversion and Openness ⇒ matches self determination theory! having children and openness(-), not expected being there for others & agreeableness (but those are close concepts) Conclusion: Evidence for codevelopment ▪ Agentic life goals codeveloped with agentic traits  Effect sizes small to moderate  Findings less clear for communal goals and traits  Personal growth goals codeveloped with “healthyˮ traits  SDT ▪ Age moderated codevelopment of traits and highly normative goals → developmental deadlines/ developmental tasks L9 Life Goals, Personality, and Well-Being 7