Adaptation across the Lifespan: Towards a Processual Evolutionary Explanation of Human Development

This paper argues that the project of a lifespan perspective in developmental psychology has not yet been systematically pursued. Overall, the number of age-specific papers far outweighs the number of lifespan approaches, and even approaches that focus on the lifespan as a whole are often restricted to adulthood. Further, there is a lack of approaches that examine cross-lifespan relationships. However, the lifespan perspective has brought with it a "processual turn" that suggests an examination of developmental regulatory processes that are either operative across the lifespan or develop across the lifespan. Accommodative adjustment of goals and evaluations in response to obstacles, loss, and threat is discussed as an example of such a process. Not only is it prototypical of efficacy and change of developmental regulation across the lifespan, but at the same time it makes clear that stability (e.g., of the self)-as a possible outcome of accommodation-is not an alternative to, but a variant of development. Explaining how accommodative adaptation changes, in turn, requires a broader perspective. For this purpose, an evolutionary approach to developmental psychology is proposed that not only views human development as a product of phylogenesis, but also applies the central concepts of the theory of evolution (adaptation and history) directly to ontogeny. The challenges, conditions, and limitations of such a theoretical application of adaptation to human development are discussed.

Endorsement and embodiment of cautiousness-related age stereotypes

Endorsement of implicit age stereotypes was assessed with the propositional evaluation paradigm (PEP) in a high-powered, preregistered study, comprising samples of young (n = 89) and older (n = 125) adults. To investigate whether implicit age stereotypes shape the behavior via self-stereotyping ("embodiment"), we examined whether implicit endorsement of the belief of older (young) people being cautious (reckless) predicts older (young) individuals' spontaneous behavior in a speeded response time task. In both age groups, we found significant implicit endorsement effects of age stereotypical beliefs. However, implicit endorsement effects of the cautiousness-related age stereotypes were unrelated to our indicators of spontaneous cautious/reckless behavior in the speeded RT task (as assessed with the parameter a of a diffusion model analysis) for both age groups. The same pattern of results (endorsement of age stereotypic beliefs but no relation with behavioral indicators) was found for explicit measures of age stereotypes. Replicating previous findings, implicit and explicit measures of cautiousness-related age stereotypes were uncorrelated. In sum, our findings provide evidence for the implicit and explicit endorsement of cautiousness-related stereotypical beliefs about old and young people; individual differences in belief endorsement, however, did not predict differences in spontaneous cautiousness-related behavior in a speeded RT task.

Age Specificity in Explicit and Implicit Endorsement of Prescriptive Age Stereotypes

In this study, we investigated explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes. To achieve that, we captured endorsement of a wide range of prescriptive expectations targeting both younger (younger adults are expected to be ambitious, eager to learn, unconventional, respectful) and older (older adults are expected to stay active, to be generous, dignified, and wise) people. Younger (n = 58, 50% female, M age = 26.07 years, SD = 3.01) and older adults (n = 75, 44% female, M age = 66.69 years, SD = 4.63) participated in the study. We assessed implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes with the Propositional Evaluation Paradigm (PEP) and used a direct measure to assess explicit endorsement. In general, we found strong support for age-specificity in both explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes: Sentences ascribing expectations for young/old to the respective age group (e.g., "young should be ambitious"; "old should be wise") were endorsed much more strongly than sentences in which expectations for young/old were ascribed to the other age group (e.g., "old should be ambitious"; "young should be wise"). Age group differences in the endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes were found. Compared to younger participants, older participants showed stronger endorsement for prescriptive beliefs targeting both younger and older targets. Explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes did not correlate with one another, thus revealing they might assess independent belief systems with different predictive potential.

No elephant in the room: The incremental validity of implicit self-esteem measures

Correlational research aiming to validate measures and the construct of implicit self-esteem (ISE) has produced heterogeneous results in the past. We argue that this might be caused by two underappreciated obstacles: the situational malleability and construct irrelevant variance in conventional ISE measures. To minimize these problems, we applied process and latent state-trait modeling to Implicit Association Test and Name Letter Task data collected on four occasions across six weeks in a preregistered online study (initial N = 360, final N = 302). We investigated the relation of supposed trait ISE parameters with trait explicit self-esteem (ESE) and criteria. Results indicated no latent trait correlation among the different supposed indicators of ISE, small latent trait correlations of indicators of ISE and ESE, and little incremental validity of the supposed ISE measures in predicting potential criterion measures over and above ESE. These findings align with previous critical evaluations regarding the supposed measures of ISE and the conceptual validity of ISE as an association. Implications for future research on ISE are discussed.