Goals in old age: What we want when we are old and why it matters

Across the lifespan, goals change in response to developmental changes in opportunities and demands, but they also bring about developmental changes regarding the acquisition of skills and resources. Generally, developing (selection), pursuing (optimization), and maintaining goals in the face of losses (compensation) contributes to successful development across the lifespan and to healthy aging in particular. Goals are dynamic; their content changes in sync with developmental goals. Moreover, there is a marked shift from a predominant orientation towards achieving gains in young adulthood and an increasingly stronger orientation towards maintenance and the avoidance of losses in older adulthood, reflecting increases in losses in various domains of functioning across adulthood. This shift in goal orientation appears to be adaptive in that older (but not younger) adults report higher well-being, are more persistent, and perform better when pursuing goals geared towards maintenance and loss-avoidance.

Increases in prosociality across adulthood: The pure-altruism hypothesis

A growing body of research suggests that prosocial behavior increases across adulthood. Yet, whether these age differences reflect "pure altruistic" or selfish motives, or the developmental mechanisms that underlie them, are largely unknown. Within a value-based decision framework, pure altruistic tendencies can be measured and distinguished from impure altruistic motives through neural-level information. Indeed, age differences in donations appear to be driven by a genuine concern for the well-being of others. Candidate mechanisms behind such pure altruistic changes need to show documented age differences and evidence of causal links to prosocial behavior. As examples, we discuss how three factors that meet these criteria--social norms, mood, and cognitive functioning--might explain age differences in pure altruistic tendencies.

COVID-19 protective behaviors: A longitudinal study applying an extended protection motivation theory

OBJECTIVE

Behavioral measures have proven indispensable to slow down the spread of COVID-19. However, adopting new health behaviors is generally challenging. This study aimed at identifying determinants of adopting protective behaviors over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. To explain adherence to protective behaviors over time, this study applied an extended version of the protection motivation theory combined with objective contextual pandemic-specific measures.

METHOD

Six measurement points covered a period of 15 months during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland. The sample of N = 4,001 (Mage = 53.1, SDage = 19.3, rangeage = 18-98, 49.2% female) participated via telephone or online. Data were analyzed on inter- and intraindividual levels using generalized estimating equations with intentions and self-reported engagement in four protective behaviors (hygiene behaviors, physical distancing, adherence to recommendations in case of symptoms, and mask wearing) as outcomes.

RESULTS

Over time, response efficacy and self-efficacy were the most important predictors for all intentions and self-reported behaviors and on both levels of analysis. Moreover, intentions also emerged as important predictor of self-reported behavior. Social norms, measured as subjectively expected disapproval from others, were mostly negatively related to intentions and self-reported behaviors on the interindividual level, but less consistently on the intraindividual level. Perceived risks to oneself and others, as well as objective, contextual variables (incidences, mortality, stringency index) showed inconsistent effects.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that threat appraisals (e.g., risk perceptions) are less important than positive beliefs about the behavior (i.e., coping appraisals) for the adherence to protective behaviors during a pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting the use of a COVID-19 contact tracing application: A study across two points of measurements

Contact tracing mobile applications (apps) were important in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Most previous studies predicting contact tracing app use were cross-sectional and not theory-based. This study aimed at contributing to a better understanding of app use intentions and app use by applying an extended version of the protection motivation theory across two measurement points while accounting for the development of the pandemic. A total of N = 1525 participants from Switzerland (Mage = 53.70, SD = 18.73; 47% female; n = 270 completed both assessments) reported on risk perceptions, response efficacy, self-efficacy, social norms, trust in government, trust in the healthcare system, active search of COVID-19-related information, intentions for and actual (self-reported) app use. Analyses included country-specific incidences and death toll. Increases in response-efficacy, self-efficacy, trust in government, and the active search of COVID-19-related information predicted increased app-use intentions. Increases in self-efficacy, intentions, and the active search of COVID-19-related information predicted increased self-reported app use. Risk perceptions, incidence, and death toll were unrelated to both outcomes. Across an aggravation of the pandemic situation, intentions for and app use were primarily related to response-efficacy, self-efficacy, trust in government, and the active search of COVID-19-related information.

What do you focus on? An investigation of goal focus from childhood to old age

Goals constitute an important construct in developmental psychology. They represent a central way in which individuals shape their development. Here, we present two studies on age-related differences in one important goal dimension, goal focus, that is, the relative salience of the means and ends of goal pursuit. Extant studies on age-related differences in adults suggest a shift from focusing on the ends to focusing on the means across adulthood. The current studies aimed to expand this research to encompass the entire lifespan including childhood. The first cross-sectional study included participants spanning from early childhood into old age (N = 312, age range: 3-83 years) and used a multimethodological approach comprising eye tracking, behavioral, and verbal measures of goal focus. The second study investigated the verbal measures of the first study in more detail in an adult sample (N = 1550, age range: 17-88 years). Overall, the results do not show a clear pattern, making them difficult to interpret. There was little convergence of the measures, pointing to the difficulties in assessing a construct such as goal focus across a large range of age groups differing in social-cognitive and verbal skills.

The Role of Subjective Expectations for Exhaustion and Recovery: The Sample Case of Work and Leisure

We propose a new model of exhaustion and recovery that posits that people evaluate an activity as exhausting or recovering on the basis of the subjective expectation about how exhausting or recovering activities related to a certain life domain are. To exemplify the model, we focus as a first step on the widely shared expectations that work is exhausting and leisure is recovering. We assume that the association of an activity related to a life domain associated with exhaustion (e.g., work) leads people to monitor their experiences and selectively attend to signs of exhaustion; in contrast, while pursuing an activity related to a life domain associated with recovery (e.g., leisure), people preferentially process signs of recovery. We further posit that the preferential processing of signs of exhaustion (vs. recovery) leads to experiencing more exhaustion when pursuing activities expected to be exhausting (e.g., work activities) and more recovery when pursuing activities expected to be recovering (e.g., leisure activities). This motivational process model of exhaustion and recovery provides new testable hypotheses that differ from predictions derived from limited-resource models.

Pay One or Pay All? The Role of Incentive Schemes in Decision Making Across Adulthood

OBJECTIVES

This research addresses how younger and older adults' decisions and evaluations of gains and losses are affected by the way in which monetary incentives are provided. We compared 2 common incentive schemes in decision making: pay one (only a single decision is incentivized) and pay all (incentives across all decisions are accumulated).

METHOD

Younger adults (18-36 years; n = 147) and older adults (60-89 years; n = 139) participated in either a pay-one or pay-all condition and made binary choices between two-outcome monetary lotteries in gain, loss, and mixed domains. We analyzed participants' decision quality, risk taking, and psychometric test scores. Computational modeling of cumulative prospect theory served to measure sensitivity to outcomes and probabilities, loss aversion, and choice sensitivity.

RESULTS

Decision quality and risk aversion were higher in the gain than mixed or loss domain, but unaffected by age. Loss aversion was higher, and choice sensitivity was lower in older than younger adults. In the pay-one condition, the value functions were more strongly curved, and choice sensitivity was higher than in the pay-all condition.

DISCUSSION

An opportunity of accumulating incentives has similar portfolio effects on younger and older adults' decisions. In general, people appear to decide less cautiously in pay-all than pay-one scenarios. The impact of different incentive schemes should be carefully considered in aging and decision research.

Shift Happens

Abstract. Taking a dynamic perspective on goals and their representation over the course of goal pursuit, we explore shifts in goal orientation, particularly when encountering setbacks during goal pursuit. In general, goals can be oriented toward achieving gains, maintaining a current state, and avoiding a loss (i.e., goal orientation; Freund & Ebner, 2005 ). Existing research on goal orientation has focused on age-related differences in goal orientation but assumed that goal orientation is stable over the course of goal pursuit. Taking a short-term, dynamic approach focusing on changes in goal orientation during the pursuit of a given goal, we propose that goal orientation can shift depending on goal progress and the perceived likelihood to achieve the desired outcome. In particular, we suggest that goal orientation remains stable during goal pursuit when progress occurs at the expected rate. However, when goal progress is hampered by setbacks or failures, we propose that people are more likely to shift their orientation toward the avoidance of failure or loss, particularly when they pursue their goal with a backup plan in mind ( Napolitano & Freund, 2016 ). Similarly, when progressing unexpectedly fast in counteracting a loss, we posit that people likely shift from a loss to a gain orientation. After proposing foundational processes for motivational shifts during goal pursuit, we discuss how a “motivational shift” perspective can impact future work on self-regulation and goal striving.

Age and information preference: Neutral information sources in decision contexts

Do adults of different ages differ in their focus on positive, negative, or neutral information when making decisions? Some research suggests an increasing preference for attending to and remembering positive over negative information with advancing age (i.e., an age-related positivity effect). However, these prior studies have largely neglected the potential role of neutral information. The current set of three studies used a multimethod approach, including self-reports (Study 1), eye tracking and choice among faces reflecting negative, neutral, or positive health-related (Study 2) and leisure-related information (Study 3). Gaze results from Studies 2 and 3 as well as self-reports from Study 1 showed a stronger preference for sources of neutral than for positive or negative information regardless of age. Findings also suggest a general preference for decision-relevant information from neutral compared to positive or negative sources. Focusing exclusively on the difference between positive (happy) and negative (angry) faces, results are in line with the age-related positivity effect (i.e., the difference in gaze duration between happy and angry faces was significantly larger for older than for younger adults). These findings underscore the importance of neutral information across age groups. Thus, most research on the positivity effect may be biased in that it does not consider the strong preference for neutral over positive information.

Spelling out some unaddressed conceptual and methodological challenges in empirical lifespan research

The importance of taking a lifespan approach to describe and understand human development has long been acknowledged (e.g., Baltes, 1987). Nevertheless, theoretical or empirical research that actually encompasses the entire lifespan, that is, from early childhood to old age, is rare. This is not surprising given the challenges such an approach entails. Many of these challenges (e.g., establishing measurement invariance between age groups) have been addressed in the previous literature, but others have not yet been sufficiently considered. The main purpose of this article is to present several examples of such largely unaddressed conceptual and methodological challenges and reflect upon possible ways to address them. We discuss the usefulness of a lifespan approach and the generalization of the challenges to other research comparing different groups, such as gender, culture, or species.

For Whom Is the Path the Goal? A Lifespan Perspective on the Development of Goal Focus

Goals are an intensely studied concept in various research areas within psychology. They can be defined as cognitive representations of means-ends relations. The relative focus on the means or the ends (i.e., goal focus) can vary between persons and over time. Taking a lifespan perspective, we use the existing developmental, social-cognitive, and motivational literature to portray how goal focus might develop across the entire lifespan. For this purpose, we take findings on the perception of goal-directed behavior in infancy, the development of (self-)representations and goal pursuit in adolescence, and of goals across adulthood into account. We propose that goal focus changes across the lifespan due to age-related cognitive and motivational development, and that the relative impact of cognitive and motivational processes on goal focus varies across the lifespan. We conclude by integrating different approaches and findings from a lifespan perspective.

Does Goal Orientation Modulate Satisfaction with Cognitive Performance in Different Age Groups?

OBJECTIVES

The current experiment tested the causal effect of goal orientation on subjective satisfaction with performance on a cognitive task.

METHODS

A sample of N = 231 young, middle-aged, and older adults (21 - 79 years) completed a dot-memory task in one of three goal-orientation conditions aiming for improvement, maintenance, or avoidance of decline in performance.

RESULTS

Bayesian analyses showed that in all age groups goal orientation influenced actual performance, but did not affect perceived performance or performance satisfaction. Performance satisfaction was positively correlated with perceived performance, but not with actual performance.

DISCUSSION

The findings suggest that whether goal orientation benefits older adults' subjective well-being might depend on (a) the goal content (previous research targeted personal goals) or (b) whether it enhances their perception of the status quo (and thus reduces the discrepancy between actual and desired states). This study contributes to a better understanding of the role of goal orientation in subjective well-being across adulthood.

Adult age differences in remembering gain- and loss-related intentions

Motivational and emotional changes across adulthood have a profound impact on cognition. In this registered report, we conducted an experimental investigation of motivational influence on remembering intentions after a delay (prospective memory; PM) in younger, middle-aged, and older adults, using gain- and loss-framing manipulations. The present study examined for the first time whether motivational framing in a PM task has different effects on younger and older adults' PM performance (N = 180; age range: 18-85 years) in a controlled laboratory setting. Based on lifespan theories of motivation, we assumed that the prevention of losses becomes more relevant with increasing age: We expected that older adults show relatively higher PM performance in a task with loss-related consequences following PM failure than in a task in which successful PM leads to gains. The opposite pattern of performance was expected for younger adults. The findings suggest that the relevance of reward and positive gain-related consequences for successful remembering appears to decrease with age. As hypothesised, a motivational framing × age interaction indicated that age differences in memory performance were smaller with loss-related than gain-related consequences, supporting a loss-prevention view on motivated cognition.

Goal Changes and Healthy Aging

This article discusses ways in which aging individuals respond to physical, social, and environmental changes and constraints by modifying their goals. We review aging-related trends, which we derive from several theoretical approaches, including goal systems theory, the motivational theory of life-span development and its action-phase model, and the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model. These theories explain how biological and social role changes in later adulthood prompt individuals to make changes to the content, orientation, and composition of their goals, including disengaging from and adjusting previously central goals. They also help identify individual differences in the capacity to do so effectively. We review several motivation-related interventions that address the challenges in goal adjustment and call for more research on identifying processes of goal changes conducive to healthy aging, more interventions, and modifications of societal and institutional (e.g., workplace, nursing home) operations that support adaptive goal change in older adults.

Age-Related Changes in the Role of Social Motivation: Implications for Healthy Aging

Prior research has established the importance of social relations and social embeddedness for motivation in healthy aging. Thus, social orientation appears to be essential for understanding healthy aging. This article focuses particularly on age-related changes in goals concerning social orientation, such as increased prioritization of emotional goals, increased prosociality/altruistic motives, generativity, and ego transcendence. We then consider open questions regarding gaps in the links between goals related to social orientation and healthy aging, as well as the implications of theories and research on social goals for leveraging motivation to promote healthy aging. In particular, interventions to promote healthy behavior in late life may be most effective when they match the themes of older adults' strivings to find meaning and purpose in their personal goals.

Effort Mobilization and Healthy Aging

Healthy aging is in part dependent upon people's willingness and ability to mobilize the effort necessary to support behaviors that promote health and well-being. People may have the best information relating to health along with the best intentions to stay healthy (e.g., health-related goals), but positive outcomes will ultimately be dependent upon them actually investing the necessary effort toward using this information to achieve their goals. In addition, the influences on effort mobilization may vary as a function of physical, psychological, and social changes experienced by the individual across the life span. Building on the overall theme of this special issue, we explore the relationships between motivation, effort mobilization, and healthy aging. We begin by characterizing the relationship between motivation and effort, and identify the factors that influence effort mobilization. We then consider the factors associated specifically with aging that may influence effort mobilization (e.g., changes in cardiovascular and neural mechanisms) and, ultimately, the health and well-being of older adults. Finally, distinguishing between those influential factors that are modifiable versus intractable, we identify ways to structure situations and beliefs to optimize mobilization in support of healthy aging.

The Backup Planning Scale (BUPS): A Brief, Self-Reported Measure of a Person's Tendency to Develop, Reserve, and Use Backup Plans

To mitigate uncertainty in their goal pursuits, people use backup plans, i.e., alternative means that are developed to potentially replace "Plan A." Several studies have demonstrated that backup plans can introduce unexpected costs into goal pursuits that decrease a person's motivation to continue using their "Plan A," and reduce their chances for achieving their goal. These existing studies used time-intensive experimental and/or observational approaches to assess the effects of backup planning. The present research examines the newly-developed Backup Planning Scale (BUPS) for its measurement invariance, reliability, validity, and other psychometric characteristics across three independent samples with more than 1,500 participants. Consistent with prior theorizing, we found support for a nine-item, three factor structure for the BUPS, indexing latent factors for a person's tendency to develop, reserve, and replace with (or use) backup plans. Furthermore, a novel "IRTree" based statistical technique provided evidence for the validity of the measure, as participants' responses to the BUPS were associated with their actual developing, reserving, and replacing backup planning behaviors in a logic task. We conclude that the freely-available BUPS is a simple, brief, reliable, and valid self-reported instrument for assessing backup planning behaviors across adulthood.

Adult age-related differences in appetitive and aversive associative learning

This study investigated age differences in appetitive and aversive associative learning using a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. Appetitive and aversive associative learning is the process by which an initially neutral cue is systematically paired with an aversive or appetitive outcome, eventually itself prompting aversive or appetitive responses. Mimicking the motivational shift from a primary gain orientation in young adulthood toward a stronger orientation toward loss prevention in old age, we expected older adults to learn associations between novel stimuli and losses more rapidly than associating neutral cues with gains (here: donations to charity). A pilot study (N = 214, 18-81 years) established the equivalence of monetary gains and losses for a charitable donation across adulthood. Based on these data, an experiment using an associative conditioning paradigm assessed the extent and temporal dynamics of appetitive and aversive learning across adulthood (N = 122, 19-80 years). Results suggest that younger adults form gain-related associations at a higher learning rate compared to losses. By contrast, with increasing age, adults more rapidly track the valence of conditioned stimuli with losses than gains. This differential learning pattern cannot be attributed to age-differences in arousal or expectancy. Results suggest that the negative valence of losses drives learning more efficiently in older age groups, while younger age groups are more sensitive to the positive valence of gains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Motivation and Healthy Aging: A Heuristic Model

Building on the seminal definition of "healthy aging" by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015; 2020), we present a model of motivation and healthy aging that is aimed at identifying the central psychological constructs and processes for understanding what older persons value, and how they can attain and maintain these valued aspects of their lives. This model places goals at its center, and then proceeds from motivational processes of goal setting, pursuit, and disengagement, to contextual factors (cultural, social, technological, physical, organizational, and life-history related aspects) that provide opportunities and constraints to the healthy aging of individuals. We briefly introduce each of these constructs and processes, thereby setting the scene for the articles included in this supplement that each address one or more of the facets of the heuristic model of motivation and healthy aging.

Sociohistorical Change in Urban Older Adults' Perceived Speed of Time and Time Pressure

OBJECTIVES

Perceptions of time are shaped by sociohistorical factors. Specifically, economic growth and modernization often engender a sense of acceleration. Research has primarily focused on one time perception dimension (perceived time pressure) in one subpopulation (working-age adults), but it is not clear whether historical changes extend to other dimensions (e.g., perceived speed of time) and other subpopulations, such as older adults who are no longer in the workforce and experience age-related shifts in time perception. We therefore examined sociohistorical and age-related trends in two dimensions of time perception in two cohorts of urban older adults.

METHOD

Using propensity score matching for age and education, samples were drawn from the Berlin Aging Study (1990-1993, n = 256, Mage = 77.49) and the Berlin Aging Study-II (2009-2014, n = 248, Mage = 77.49). Cohort differences in means, variances, covariance, and correlates of perceived speed of time and time pressure were examined using multigroup SEM.

RESULTS

There were no cohort differences in the perceived speed of time, but later-born cohorts reported more time pressure than earlier-born cohorts. There were no significant age differences, but perceptions of speed of time were more heterogeneous in the 1990s than in the 2010s. Cohorts did not differ in how time perceptions were associated with sociodemographic, health, cognitive, and psychosocial correlates.

DISCUSSION

These findings document sociohistorical trends toward greater perceived time pressure and reduced heterogeneity in perceived speed of time among later-born urban adults. Conceptualizations of social acceleration should thus consider the whole adult life span.

The bucket list effect: Why leisure goals are often deferred until retirement

The central argument of this article is that historical changes in longevity in Western societies, globalization, and the weakening of social expectations regarding the timing of developmental goals lead to a compression of the time for pursuing highly demanding developmental goals related to work and family in late young and middle adulthood. The expectation of longevity might lead adults to construct a "bucket list," postponing important leisure and social goals to the postretirement phase. Jointly, the weakening of age-related social expectations and the long postretirement phase in Western societies might result in a stronger segregation of the life course: education in "emerging adulthood," work and family in later young and middle adulthood, leisure and social goals in later adulthood. This segregation also conforms to a Western cultural script following the Protestant work ethic of delaying gratification by pursuing obligatory goals first (work, family) and only then turn to "play" after retirement (leisure, social goals), a time with relatively few obligations and social expectations. The segmentation of the life course has implications for self-regulatory demands, such that the importance of goal selection increases in emerging adulthood, the importance of managing multiple goals in late young and middle adulthood, and the importance of self-regulation for the pursuit of ill-defined goals in old age. Taken together, historical changes in the increased life expectancy in Western countries and weakened age-related expectations represent a challenge and an opportunity for developmental regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Determinants of protective behaviours during a nationwide lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVES

Without pharmaceutical measures available, endorsement of protective behaviours, such as hygiene behaviours, social distancing, and adherence to recommended behaviours in case of symptoms is of key importance to curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Based on an extended version of the protection motivation theory, this study examined the role of perceived risks to oneself and to others, self-efficacy, response efficacy, and perceived social norms for intentions to and the endorsement of several protective behaviours and alternative behaviours known to be ineffective. Further, it was hypothesised that effects of risk perceptions depended on high levels of self-efficacy.

DESIGN

Data were collected by telephone at the beginning of the lockdown in Switzerland with a large sample (N = 1,009) representative of the adult Swiss population.

METHODS

All predictors (self-efficacy, response efficacy, perceived social norms, intentions) but risk perceptions were assessed for hygiene behaviours, social distancing, adherence to recommended behaviours in case of symptoms, and alternative measures known to be ineffective.

RESULTS

Across all analyses of intentions for and endorsement of protective and alternative behaviours, response efficacy and self-efficacy emerged as the most important predictors. Social norms were mainly related to intentions, but not to behaviours. The different risk perceptions were rarely and inconsistently related to intentions and behaviours. No consistent pattern of interactions between self-efficacy and risk perceptions emerged.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that even in the face of a pandemic of an unknown virus, the resources (self-efficacy, response efficacy) rather than the risk perceptions have the potential to promote protective behaviours.

How Do Gain and Loss Incentives Affect Memory for Intentions Across Adulthood?

OBJECTIVES

Changes in motivational orientation across adulthood affect cognitive processes. The purpose of this research was to investigate if and how motivational incentives (gains or losses) affect prospective memory for intended actions in younger, middle-aged, and older adults.

METHODS

The consequences of memory hits and misses and the framing of the memory tasks were experimentally manipulated between participants: In a gain-framing condition, participants accumulated rewards, dependent on the proportion of target events to which they responded accurately. In a loss-framing condition, participants received an initial endowment from which losses were deducted, dependent on the proportion of targets they missed. We measured memory accuracy, perceived task importance, and ongoing-task performance.

RESULTS

Gains and losses had different effects on memory across age groups: Age × Motivational Valence interactions emerged across two studies. Older adults showed relatively better memory performance to avoid losses than to achieve gains. Moreover, higher age was associated with lower memory performance (Study 1) and slower but more accurate decisions in an ongoing activity (Study 2).

DISCUSSION

The findings reveal that motivational incentives and the framing of consequences as gains or losses moderate the relation between age and memory performance. Older adults' memory performance may benefit when messages encourage the avoidance of losses. This may also help to design age-tailored interventions in applied settings (e.g., health-related behavior).

Does focusing on others enhance subjective well-being? The role of age, motivation, and relationship closeness

Prosociality (i.e., voluntary thoughts and actions intended to benefit somebody else) is arguably essential for positive social relationships. The present research investigated under what conditions a prosocial focus has positive effects on the subjective well-being of a prosocial person. We addressed this question in an intervention study of daily social interactions. All participants (N = 295, 57.6% women, age 19-88 years) started the study with a baseline day with no intervention. Participants then underwent a video-based intervention that trained them to focus on either the well-being of others or the well-being of themselves. Participants applied the corresponding focus in social interactions on the next day. Compared with baseline, focusing on others did not significantly affect subjective well-being, whereas focusing on self significantly reduced subjective well-being (the latter effect was further moderated by age and relationship closeness). The difference between self- and other focus was moderated by age: Younger participants (<36 years) reported lower subjective well-being in the self-focus condition, whereas older adults (>68 years) showed the opposite effect (there was no difference in the middle-aged adults). Taken together, the results suggest that focusing on a social partner increases concerns about the partner's well-being but not necessarily one's own well-being. In contrast, focusing on oneself reduces concerns about the partner's well-being and-particularly for young adults-one's own well-being, rendering a strong focus on oneself a potential risk factor for young adults' well-being. Further research is needed to understand the negative effect of other- versus self-focus on older adults' well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Managing conflicting goals through prioritization? The role of age and relative goal importance

Three studies tested the role of prioritization in solving conflict between multiple goals in different age groups. Study 1 (N = 185 young, middle-aged, older adults) stressed the importance to solve two competing tasks equally well within a short time. Older adults prioritized more than younger adults. However, contrary to our expectations, prioritization led to higher perceived conflict, more negative affect, and less control. Study 2 (N = 117 younger and older adults) found that, using a more lenient instruction, deemphasizing the importance of performing equally well on both tasks, prioritization was no longer associated with perceived goal conflict. Study 3 (N = 721 young, middle-aged, older adults) was an online study using hypothetical scenarios. This study was run to substantiate the potential mechanism underlying the differences between Study 1 and 2 and supported the hypothesized effect of the instructional strictness of pursuing two goals. Thus, when encountering conflicting goals older adults prioritize more than younger adults, but prioritization might not be optimal for solving short-term goal conflict when both conflicting goals are equally important.

Beyond money: Nonmonetary prosociality across adulthood

Empirical evidence suggests that self-reported prosociality and donations increase with age. The majority of this research was conducted using monetary donations as outcome measures. However, on average older adults hold a significant advantage in financial and material assets compared to younger adults, effectively lowering the subjective cost of small monetary donations. Are older adults also more prosocial when donating a nonmonetary resource that is of equal or even higher value for them compared to younger age groups? A first study (N = 160, 20-74 years) combined data from self-report measures, affective responses, and hypothetical donation decisions to compute a single prosociality factor. Conceptually replicating findings from Hubbard, Harbaugh, Srivastava, Degras, and Mayr (2016) on monetary donations, results suggest that nonmonetary prosociality also increases with age. However, these differences depended on the domain of the donation. Data from two further behavioral studies (Study 2: N = 156, 18-89 years; Study 3: N = 342, 19-88 years) that were analyzed using Bayesian statistics provided evidence that older adults are not more prosocial than younger and middle-aged adults when donating a small amount of their time (in service of a donation to charity). In summary, the three studies suggest that older adults are not consistently more likely to behave prosocially than younger or middle-aged adults in nonmonetary domains. These findings point to the importance of moving research on prosociality and aging beyond financial donations and further explore the role of resources and perceived costs of prosociality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

From gains to losses: Age-related differences in decisions under risk in a non-monetary gambling task

Lifespan theory suggests a shift from a primary orientation towards attaining gains in young adulthood to preventing losses in older adulthood. The current research tested if this motivational shift is reflected in behavioural and emotional responses to risks in non-monetary gains and losses. Study 1 established in a sample of N = 168 younger (18-30 years) and older adults (65-79 years) that a non-monetary gambling task was experienced similarly by the age groups with respect to arousal and valence of the task, and the willingness to continue playing. In Study 2 (N = 83), differences between young (18-30 years) and older (64-85 years) adults' risk-taking in this non-monetary gambling task with mixed gambles were tested while assessing physiological responses (event-related heart rate change) to gain and loss feedback. Behavioural - but not physiological - results confirm hypotheses derived from a lifespan motivational framework regarding age-differential effects of gains and losses.

It Is What You Have, Not What You Lose: Effects of Perceived Gains and Losses on Goal Orientation Across Adulthood

OBJECTIVES

Goal orientation tends to shift from predominantly striving for gains to maintenance and loss avoidance across adulthood. A dominant hypothesis states that age-related increases in losses drive the motivational shift. The present study tests this hypothesis and an alternative, namely that perceived accumulation of resources/assets and discrepancy between the actual and desired state underlie the stronger maintenance and loss-avoidance orientation in older than younger adults.

METHODS

Data from N = 182 U.S. adult participants on Amazon Mechanical Turk (preregistered; 50.0% female; 19-77 years, M = 45.1, SD = 15.86) comprise measures of demographics, goal orientation in 16 selected life domains as well as perceived accumulation, losses, actual-desired discrepancy in the same domains.

RESULTS

Multilevel modeling analyses showed that, as expected and confirming prior research, gain orientation decreased and maintenance orientation increased with age. Moreover, both perceived losses and accumulation of resources/assets increased with age, while the actual-desired discrepancy decreased. Larger perceived accumulation and smaller actual-desired discrepancies were associated with stronger maintenance orientation. Regardless of age, a smaller actual-desired discrepancy was also associated with stronger loss-avoidance orientation. Contrary to predictions, perceived losses were negatively associated with gain orientation, but not significantly associated with maintenance or loss-avoidance orientation.

DISCUSSION

Results replicate the shift in goal orientation across adulthood. Speaking against the loss hypothesis, perceived accumulation of resources/assets and actual-desired discrepancy seem to play an important role in determining goal orientation over adulthood, while the role of perceived losses may be less significant than commonly assumed.

Recovery from accumulated strain: the role of daily mood and opportunity costs during a vacation

OBJECTIVE

Recovery from strains accumulated over longer periods of time is essential for health and well-being. Most people take vacations to ensure that they achieve a state of recovery that will allow them to prevent a state of enduring exhaustion. Extending a recent motivational model of recovery, we examined recovery processes during a vacation.

DESIGN

In the current daily diary study, 147 university students reported their daily recovery, mood, opportunity costs, and subjective time perception over 21 consecutive days (2342 observations) during the summer break.

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses showed that students reported higher recovery on days when they were in a better mood and perceived lower opportunity costs than usual. These results held after controlling for the passage of time and well-established covariates of recovery (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control).

CONCLUSION

Supporting the motivational model of recovery, positive mood, the absence of opportunity costs and, to a lesser degree, the perception of time passing quickly contribute to daily recovery during a vacation. Thus, recovery is not simply the result of elapsed time but also depends on the kinds of experiences people have on a given vacation day.

A consensus-based transparency checklist

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

Do We Become More Prosocial as We Age, and if So, Why?

Older adults contribute—through charitable donations or volunteering—more to the common good than younger adults, an age difference that has profound society-level implications. Yet the reasons for this difference are not well understood. Evidence suggests that a purely altruistic concern for the common good is a major motivation for prosocial behavior and that this concern increases across adulthood. We argue that this finding, and prosocial behavior in general, is better understood using a value-based decision framework than through traditional dual-process accounts. Following the value-based decision approach, we derive specific hypotheses about life-span changes in motivation or resources as factors that explain why older adults show an increased concern for the well-being of other people.

More or less energy with age? A motivational life-span perspective on subjective energy, exhaustion, and opportunity costs

Two studies investigated subjective conceptualizations of energy for goal pursuit across adulthood. Study 1 (N = 276, 20-92 years of age) explored age-related differences in the (a) endorsement of a limited versus nonlimited account of energy for goal pursuit, (b) amount of energy available for physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally demanding activities, and (c) extent to which spending energy on a demanding activity inhibits or facilitates energy expenditure for subsequent activities, both within and across functional domains. Study 2 (N = 147, 18-86 years of age) experimentally induced energy loss through a 20-min physical exercise and examined age-related differences in the increase of subjective exhaustion and opportunity costs as a motivational cue for goal disengagement. With increasing age, adults more strongly endorsed a nonlimited account of energy and perceived having more energy available for personally relevant social activities. However, older adults also reported higher negative cross-domain energy spillover after physical exertion. Multilevel growth curve models further revealed that, compared with younger adults, older adults reported a steeper initial increase in exhaustion and opportunity costs during physical exercise, but converged with the younger age groups again at the close of the exercise session. The discussion centers around the importance of selectivity in older adulthood and motivational accounts of effort and exhaustion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

AGING, TASK DIFFICULTY, AND EFFORT: A META-ANALYSIS

Tasks of increasing difficulty require increasing levels of cognitive engagement from participants. The costs associated with cognitive engagement rise with age in response to normative cognitive decline. Additionally, previous studies have shown an interaction between age and task difficulty, with age differences in effort expenditure increasing along with task demands. Motivational accounts of effort allocation predict the opposite relationship, where increased task difficulty in the face of declining cognitive abilities result in disengagement among older adults, comparatively lowering their effort expenditure relative to younger adults that remain committed to the task. The current study quantitatively reviews the available literature on age and effort expenditure across tasks of increasing difficulty. An initial meta-analysis found no age differences in effort across task difficulty, but inspection of the significantly heterogeneous effect sizes indicated that measurement domain might account for some of the variance found between the effect sizes. A second, post-hoc meta-analysis was conducted, recoding effect sizes giving preference to subjective measures. Subsequent moderator variable analyses found that the combined effect of age and domain of effort measurement explained a sufficient portion of the variance across effect sizes. When using physiological measures, effort was not found to differ across task difficulty for either age group. Alternatively, when measured subjectively, effort was reported to greatly increase (>1 standard deviation) with difficulty, with a larger increase in younger adults. Results are discussed in terms of effort mobilization across adulthood and the importance of measurement domain in the interpretation of results.

When the Fun Is Over

Abstract. How do we know when an activity has exhausted us or helped us recover? In this paper, we present a motivational approach to exhaustion and recovery that takes into account the multidimensional nature of the constructs. The account details three psychological processes that may – individually and in interaction – underlie exhaustion and recovery. Specifically, we propose that changes in mood, subjective time perception, and opportunity costs experienced during an ongoing effortful or relaxing activity indicate a person’s momentary degree of exhaustion and recovery and impact the decision of whether the person should continue or disengage from the activity at hand. Addressing developmental changes across adulthood, we present two opposing hypotheses on how younger and older adults may differ in their experiences of exhaustion and recovery: (i) Older adults may experience an accelerated subjective time perception compared to younger adults and may thus feel less exhausted (more recovered) than younger adults after spending an identical amount of time engaged in an effortful (relaxing) activity. (ii) Older adults may be more sensitive toward increasing opportunity costs experienced during an effortful or relaxing activity and may therefore feel exhausted or recovered faster than younger adults.

Individual Differences in Habitual Social Goals and Daily Well–Being: The Role of Age and Relationship Closeness

There is a robust evidence that social approach goals (i.e. approach of positive social outcomes) have positive consequences and social avoidance goals (i.e. avoidance of negative social outcomes) have negative consequences for subjective well–being in young adulthood. Little is known about individual differences in social goals in later life. The current diary study with young ( n = 212), middle–aged ( n = 232), and older adults ( n = 229) tested––and supported––the hypotheses that age (i) differentially predicts the strength of habitual approach and avoidance goals in close and peripheral relationships and (ii) moderates the relation of approach and avoidance goals in peripheral (but not close) relationships and daily outcomes (subjective well–being, subjective health, and satisfaction with social encounters). Older adults compared to younger adults reported higher levels of avoidance goals in peripheral (but not close) relationships. Younger adults who reported high levels of approach goals and older adults who reported high levels of avoidance goals in peripheral relationships experienced the most positive daily outcomes. In addition, social goals moderated some of the associations between (positive and negative) daily interactions and daily outcomes. Results underscore the importance of the closeness of social partners for individual differences in social goals across adulthood. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology

Reaping the Benefits and Avoiding the Risks: Unrealistic Optimism in the Health Domain

People's perceptions of benefits and risks play a key role in their acceptance or rejection of medical interventions, yet these perceptions may be poorly calibrated. This online study with N = 373 adults aged 19-76 years focused on unrealistic optimism in the health domain. Participants indicated how likely they were to experience benefits and risks associated with medical conditions and completed objective and subjective numeracy scales. Participants exhibited optimistic views about the likelihood of experiencing the benefits and the side effects of treatment options described in the scenarios. Objective and subjective numeracy were not associated with more accurate ratings. Moreover, participants' underestimation of the risks was significantly greater than their overestimation of the benefits. From an applied perspective, these results suggest that clinicians may need to ensure that patients do not underestimate risks of medical interventions, and that they convey realistic expectations about the benefits that can be obtained with certain procedures.

Perception of Risk for Older Adults: Differences in Evaluations for Self versus Others and across Risk Domains

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Proxy decision-making may be flawed by inaccurate perceptions of risk. This may be particularly true when older adults are the targets of the decisions, given the pervasive negative stereotypes about older adults.

METHODS

In study 1, individuals aged 18- to 87 years (as target persons) as well as one of their close social partners (as informants) reported on the risks they perceived for the target person in various life domains. Study 2 additionally explored potential differences in how people make risky decisions on behalf of younger and older adult targets. Younger (age 18-35 years) and older (age 60-81 years) adults (as target persons of the risk evaluations) as well as informants reported on risk perceptions and the likelihood of risk-taking for health, financial, and social scenarios concerning the target persons. Congruence between self-rated and informant-rated risk perceptions and risk-taking were computed on a dyadic as well as a group level.

RESULTS

Informants' risk perceptions were positively associated with the risks their partners perceived for themselves. Informants and their partners agreed that social risks vary little across adulthood, but they disagreed in terms of recreational, financial, and health risks, and in terms of the decisions they would make.

CONCLUSION

Family members, partners, and close friends are sensitive to vulnerabilities of their social partners, but in some domains and according to their partners' age they perceive a greater (or smaller) risk than their partners perceive for themselves. In situations requiring surrogate decision-making, people may decide differently from how their social partners would decide for themselves.

Who Cares? Effects of Social Approach and Avoidance Motivation on Responsiveness to Others

Responsiveness to others (i.e., our understanding, validation, and support of important aspects of others) significantly contributes to positive social relationships. In the present research, we found evidence that responsiveness has motivational origins. In two experiments, participants who were approaching positive social outcomes had a higher level of responsiveness compared with participants who were avoiding negative social outcomes. A third experiment disentangled the roles of motivation and situation valence. Positive (compared with negative) social situations were associated with higher approach motivation, lower avoidance motivation, and a higher level of responsiveness. However, within a given situation, both approach and avoidance motivation were associated with a higher level of responsiveness. This association was even stronger in negative situations, suggesting that both approach and avoidance motivation might be ways of behaving responsively in potentially difficult social situations. The effects were independent of relationship closeness and partly weaker in older compared with younger adults.

Does Medical Risk Perception and Risk Taking Change with Age?

Across adulthood, people face increasingly more risky medical problems and decisions. However, little is known about changes in medical risk taking across adulthood. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study investigated age-related differences in medical risk taking with N = 317 adults aged 20-77 years using newly developed scenarios to assess medical risk taking, and additional measures designed to evaluate risk-taking behavior in the medical domain. Greater expected benefits on the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale-Medical (DOSPERT-M) predicted more active risk taking, whereas higher perceived risk predicted less active risk taking. Next, we examined differences in active and passive risk taking, where passive risk taking refers to risk taking that is associated with inaction. Age was associated with less passive risk taking, but not with active risk taking, risk perception, or expected benefits on the DOSPERT-M. Participants were overall more likely to opt for taking medical action than not, even more so for a scenario about a vaccine for a deadly flu than for a scenario about a chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Overall, participants were more likely to accept medication (vaccine or chemotherapy) for their child than for themselves. Increasing age was associated with a lower likelihood of accepting the treatment or vaccine for oneself. Taken together, our study provides important insights about changes in medical risk taking across adulthood when people face an increasing number of complex and risky medical decisions.

Age, Loss Minimization, and the Role of Probability for Decision-Making

BACKGROUND

Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and the influence of gain/loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk-taking.

OBJECTIVE

The current study extends the investigation of age differences in risk preference by including analyses on the effect of the probability of a risky option on choices in gain versus loss situations.

METHODS

Participants (n = 130 adults aged 19-80 years) chose between a certain option and a risky option of varying probability in gain- and loss-framed gambles with actual monetary outcomes.

RESULTS

Only younger adults displayed an overall framing effect. Younger and older adults responded differently to probability fluctuations depending on the framing condition. Older adults were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of avoiding a larger loss increased and as the likelihood of a larger gain decreased. Younger adults responded with the opposite pattern: they were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of a larger gain increased and as the likelihood of avoiding a (slightly) larger loss decreased.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that older adults are more willing to select a risky option when it increases the likelihood that larger losses be avoided, whereas younger adults are more willing to select a risky option when it allows for slightly larger gains. This finding supports expectations based on theoretical accounts of goal orientation shifting away from securing gains in younger adulthood towards maintenance and avoiding losses in older adulthood. Findings are also discussed in respect to the affective enhancement perspective and socioemotional selectivity theory.

The Ill-Fated Quest for Fame in Psychological Research

The question "Am I famous yet?" directs our attention to the outcome of the journey of being a psychological scientist. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to achieve the highest possible outcomes when pursuing a goal. However, for a researcher, fame is an outcome that is very vague, abstract, distal, and unlikely to be attained. Focusing on this outcome might undermine motivation and persistence in the difficult endeavor of doing excellent research and contributing to psychological knowledge. To become an excellent psychological scientist might be a better outcome to which to aspire. However, focusing on the outcome seems generally less adaptive than focusing on the process of goal pursuit. A focus on the process of research is more likely to lead to higher motivation and persistence, and it might increase performance. In sum, the question "Am I famous yet?" might be ill conceived and might be better replaced by the question "How do I make a contribution to psychological science?"

Social interactions and activity patterns of old Barbary macaques: Further insights into the foundations of social selectivity

Human aging is accompanied by a decrease in social activity and a narrowing in social networks. Studies in nonhuman primates may provide valuable comparative insights in which way aging impacts social life, in the absence of cultural conventions and an awareness of a limited lifetime. For female Barbary macaques at "La Forêt des Singes" in Rocamadour, France, we previously reported an age-associated decrease in active grooming time and network size. Here, we aimed to extend these findings by investigating in which way physical decline, spatial proximity, and aggression vary with age in female Barbary macaques. We analyzed >1,200 hr of focal observations for 46 females aged 5-29 years. As expected, older females engaged less frequently in challenging locomotor activity, such as climbing or running, than younger ones. The previously reported decrease in grooming time was not due to shorter grooming bout duration. Instead, active grooming bouts lasted even longer, which discounts the idea that manual fatigue explains the shift in grooming pattern. We found that older females tended to be spatially reclusive and that they were less frequently the targets of aggression. Although older females showed aggressive behaviors at similar rates as younger females, the proportion of low-level aggression (i.e., threats) increased with age. We suggest that these threats are not simply a signal of dominance, but also function to deter approaches by others. Overall, these findings are in line with the idea that older females aim to avoid potentially negative interactions, specifically if these are costly. In sum, these findings support the idea that shifts in female Barbary macaques' grooming activity, do not simply result from physical deterioration, but are instead due to a higher selectivity in the choice of social partners.

Some evidence for the usefulness of an optimal foraging theory perspective on goal conflict and goal facilitation

Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal systems provides a single index of goodness of a goal system for goal striving. Three quasi-experimental studies (N = 277, N = 145, and N = 210) provide evidence for the usefulness of this approach for goal systems comprising between 3 to 10 goals. Results indicate that persons with a more optimized goal-system are more conscientious and open to new experience, are more likely to represent their goals in terms of means (i.e., adopt a process focus), and are more satisfied and engaged with their goals. Persons with a suboptimal goal system tend to switch their goals more often and thereby optimize their goal system. We discuss limitations as well as possible future directions of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record

Social Motives Predict Loneliness During a Developmental Transition

Abstract. Establishing new social relationships is important for mastering developmental transitions in young adulthood. In a 2-year longitudinal study with four measurement occasions (T1: n = 245, T2: n = 96, T3: n = 103, T4: n = 85), we investigated the role of social motives in college students’ mastery of the transition of moving out of the parental home, using loneliness as an indicator of poor adjustment to the transition. Students with strong social approach motivation reported stable and low levels of loneliness. In contrast, students with strong social avoidance motivation reported high levels of loneliness. However, this effect dissipated relatively quickly as most of the young adults adapted to the transition over a period of several weeks. The present study also provides evidence for an interaction between social approach and social avoidance motives: Social approach motives buffered the negative effect on social well-being of social avoidance motives. These results illustrate the importance of social approach and social avoidance motives and their interplay during developmental transitions.