Lecture 5: Introduction to the Lifespan Perspective and Socioeconomical Processing in Older Age

Question 1

What are the common perceptions vs reality of ageing?

Answer 1

-People (aged 16-64) expect aspects of life, such as memory loss, loneliness and being a burden to be prominent in later life (65+)
- Whereas people aged 65+ ranked their experience with these aspects at a much lower rate than expected

Question 2

What is the stereotype effect? Lamont et al., 2015 Psychology and Aging

Answer 2

an ironic effect of underperformance on a stereotype-relevant task due to the anxiety that an individual feels about confirming negative stereotypes

e.g. it is widely assumed intellectual performance declines with age
——-> task performance d= 0.52

Question 3

What did they measure for the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA)? Levy et al. (2009, 2015)

Answer 3

• Measured hippocampal volume
  
  • Measured number of cardiovascular events (angina attacks, congestive heart failures, myocardial infarctions, strokes, and transient ischemic attacks)
  • Measured many other possible factors to control for: age, BMI, depression, education, elevated blood pressure, family history of cardiovascular death, gender, marital status, number of chronic conditions, race, self-rated health, serum total cholesterol, smoking history
  • All participants were physical healthy (i.e., no CNS disease, severe cardiovascular or pulmonary disease, or metastatic cancer) and free of dementia at first test
    Internalizing effects of stereotypes have long-term consequences

Question 4

What were participants asked to do in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA)? Levy et al. (2009, 2015)

Answer 4

complete an attitudes towards old people survey
- including “Old people are absent minded” YES/NO
- “Old people are helpless” YES/NO

Question 5

What were the results of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA)? Levy et al. (2009, 2015)

Answer 5

Internalizing effects of stereotypes have long-term consequences
- participants who viewed ageing in a negative way (had negative age stereotypes) were more likely to experience a cardiovascular event (earlier)
- + more likely to lose hippocampal volume

Question 6

What is the current global share of old people? (How many old people are there?)

Answer 6

• The global share of older people (>60 years) has increased from 9.2% (1990) to 11.7% (2013) and is projected to reach 21.1% (2050).
  2 billion people will be aged 60 and older by 2050.

Question 7

Why do we study ageing?

Answer 7

• Understanding the full picture of development
  ○ How does ageing impact on people’s lives?
  ○ What psychological and physical changes occur with age?
  • Consider methods that sustain/improve autonomy and wellbeing
    ○ How can different environments be adjusted to accommodate changes in physical and cognitive ability?
    ○ What tools can be developed to assist older people and accentuate the positive sides of getting older?

Development is a lifelong process – a full picture of lifespan development provides a more comprehensive understanding of human psychology and prepares us individually and societally for age-related changes.

Question 8

Lifespan Perspective
Paul Baltes (1939-2006)
Development + Ontogenesis definition

Answer 8

• Development as change that lasts a lifetime
  
  • Ontogenesis: individual development is the continuum in which changes are observed
    an individual from birth to full maturity and death—and all the changes that come with that process

Question 9

What are the 7 theoretical propositions that characterise the Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006)

Answer 9

1. Development as a life-long
   process
   
   2. Multidirectionality
   3. Development as gain/loss
   4. Plasticity
   5. Historical embeddedness
   6. Contextualism as paradigm
      
      7. Multidisciplinary

Question 10

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) DEVELOPMENT AS A LIFE-LONG PROCESS

Answer 10

○ No age period holds supremacy in regulating the nature of development
§ e.g., child development
○ All stages of the lifespan, both continuous (cumulative) and discontinuous (innovative) processes are at work during development

EXTRA
- Life-long development may involve processes of change that do not originate at birth but lie in later periods of the life span (e.g., reminiscence and life review are examples of late-life phenomena/behaviours).
Life-long development is a system of diverse change patterns that differ in timing (onset, duration, termination), direction, and order.

Question 11

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) MULTIDIRECTIONALITY description

Answer 11

○ Even within the same domain, diversity or pluralism are evident in the directionality of ontogenetic change
○ The direction of change depends on the behavior
Even within the same developmental period, some systems of behavior show increases while others show decreases in functioning

Question 12

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) MULTIDIRECTIONALITY- basic information processing vs acquired knowledge

Answer 12

BASIC INFORMATION PROCESSING
- content poor
- universal, biological
- genetically predisposed

ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
- content rich
- culture dependent
- experience based

Question 13

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) MULTIDIRECTIONALITY- mechanics vs pragmatics of intelligence

Answer 13

MECHANICS OF INTELLIGENCE
- The basic architecture of information processing and problem solving.
- It deals with the basic cognitive operations and cognitive structures associated with such tasks as perceiving and classification.

PRAGMATICS OF INTELLIGENCE
- The content- and knowledge-related application of the mechanics of intelligence:
- fairly general systems of factual and procedural knowledge, such as crystalized intelligence,
- specialized systems of factual and procedural knowledge, such as occupational expertise, and
knowledge about factors of performance or skills relevant for the activation of intelligence in specific contexts requiring intelligent action.

Question 14

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) GAINS AND LOSSES- definition

Answer 14

There is a joint occurrence of gain (growth) and loss (decline).

- Lifespan development is not just simple incremental increases efficacy and growth—traditionally the view in early development. Furthermore, it’s not just loss/decline in older age.

Question 15

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) GAINS AND LOSSES- Traditional view vs current view

Answer 15

TRADITIONAL VIEW
There has been a string push to define the essence of ageing as a decline (e.g. a unidirectional process of loss in adaptive capacity)

CURRENT VIEW
Behavioural scientists tend to reject this view of a unidirectional decline of ageing because of their findings and expectations of some gains in old age

Question 16

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) GAINS AND LOSSES- Gains vs losses

Answer 16

Development at all points of the lifespan is a joint expression of features of growth (gain) and decline (loss)

- Any developmental progression displays at the same time new adaptive capacity (e.g., crystalized knowledge) as well as the loss of previously existing capacity (e.g., fluid intelligence). No developmental change during the lifespan is pure gain.
	○ This does not imply that throughout life gain and loss exist in equal strength. Systematic age-related changes in the gain/loss proportion are likely to be present.  This is essentially the SOC (selective optimization and compensation) framework concerning the dynamics between gain and loss, especially in successful aging.

Question 17

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) PLASTICITY- definition

Answer 17

○ Intraindivudal plasticity (i.e., within-person modifiability) in psychological development
○ Depends on life conditions and experiences
What is the range of the plasticity and what are the constraints?

Question 18

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) PLASTICITY- A. Baseline Performance, B. Baseline Reserve Capacity, C. Developmental Reserve Capacity

Answer 18

a. Baseline performance: a person’s initial level of performance on a given task; what a person can do in a specified task without intervention or special treatment (e.g., how fast can you run a 5k?)
b. Baseline reserve capacity: the upper range of an individual’s performance potential, when, at a given point in time, all available resources are called on to optimize an individual’s performance (e.g., how fast can you run a 5k with special sneakers?)

    c. Developmental reserve capacity: when conditions have been added that strengthen an individual’s baseline reserve capacity through intervention or development (e.g., how fast can you run a 5k after training with a personal trainer for many weeks?)

Question 19

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) HISTORICAL CONTEXT- definition

Answer 19

○ Ontogenetic development varies with historical-cultural contexts
Development is influenced by the sociocultural conditions in a given historical period, and how they evolve over time.

Question 20

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) HISTORICAL CONTEXT- explanation

Answer 20

• The historical context matters greatly for the way development proceeds
  ○ e.g., improvements in health care, increased access to education, etc. all affect development
  
  • Development does not exist in a vacuum.
    ○ Are the older adults we test in our current research in 2020 going to be the same older adults in 50 years’ time?
  • A strong argument from Baltes (1987):
    “Depending on the prevailing cultural conditions, the level and course of intellectual aging can vary markedly. Any single cohort-specific observation does not tell the final story on the nature of intellectual aging.”

Question 21

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) CONTEXTUALISM- definition

Answer 21

Individual development is affected by a complex interaction between age-graded, normative history-graded, and nonnormative factors.

Question 22

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) CONTEXTUALISM- Age-graded influences

Answer 22

Three categories of influences, which developing individuals need to deal with (i.e., process, react to, act on) as their lives progress. They operate throughout the life course and their effects accumulate with time. As a dynamic package, they are responsible for how lives develop.

a. Age-graded influences: Those biological and environmental determinants that (a) have a fairly strong relation with chronological age and are therefore predictable in their temporal sequence (onset, duration), and (b) are for the most part, similar in their direction among individuals. Biological maturation and age-graded socialization events are examples of age-graded influences. For example, puberty, menarche, and menopause are biological and represent major changes in the lives of most people, regardless of history/culture. They are not always biological but could include sociocultural forces like marriage and retirement.

Question 23

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) CONTEXTUALISM- Normative influences

Answer 23

c. Nonnormative influences:
Also include both biological and environmental determinants, whose occurrence, patterning, and sequencing are not applicable to many individuals, nor are they clearly tied to a dimension of developmental time, whether ontogenetic or historical. They do not follow a general and predictable course. For example, the war and conflict in Syria that has caused some people to become refugees will be a completely unique developmental trajectory that others have not experienced. Perhaps less tragic would be something like winning the lottery.

Question 23

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) CONTEXTUALISM- History-graded/”normative” influences

Answer 23

b. History-graded/”normative” influences:
Involve both biological and environmental determinants that are associated with historical time and define the larger evolutionary, biocultural context in which individuals develop. Two types exist: long-term change functions (e.g., toward modernity) and more time/period-specific (e.g., war, the coronavirus pandemic).

Question 23

The value of positive networks with age

Answer 23

• Better cognitive functioning (Seeman et al., 2001)
  
  • Reduced signs of dementia (Fratiglioni et al., 2000)
  • Better recovery from stroke (Glymour et al., 2008)
    Lower risk of morbidity and mortality (Berkman et al., 2000; Burg et al., 2005)

Question 23

Lifespan Perspective Paul Baltes (1939-2006) MULTIDISCIPLINARY- definition

Answer 23

• Interdisciplinary context: anthropology, biology, and sociology in addition to psychology is concerned with human development.
  
  • A “purist” psychological view has an incomplete picture of behavioral development from conception to death.
    Integration of knowledge vs. separatist differentiation of disciplinary knowledge bases.

Question 23

How does socioemotional processing change with age?

Answer 23

• Social network sizes tend to decrease with age
  
  • Social pruning begins in 30s-40s (Carstensen, 1992)
    Older people tend to show a preference for familiar and emotionally close partners (Frederickson & Carstensen, 1990) – quality over quantity

Question 24

The quality of social relationships

Answer 24

• Compared to younger adults, older adults…
  ○ Experience higher levels of positive emotions and less intense negative emotions when interacting with friends and family members (Charles & Piazza, 2007)
  ○ Derive greater support from their close relationships (Field & Minkler, 1988; Schnittker, 2007)
  Report greater satisfaction and fewer negative interactions with members of their social network (Birditt & Fingerman, 2003)

Question 25

What is the ageing paradox?

Answer 25

Despite declines in physical and cognitive health, older adults often report positive relationships and well-being

Question 26

Social Preferences (Fung et al., 1999)

Answer 26

When their time horizons were EXPANDED, older adults shift their typical preference for familiar social partners

LIMITED time horizons shifted both age groups toward preferring familiar social partners

Question 27

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1995 Current Directions in Psychological Science)- explanation + 2 primary trajectories

Answer 27

These results in reports of age-related improvements in emotional affect might be due to the improved emotional regulation older adults exhibit relative to younger adults.

This is predicted by the socioemotional selectivity theory: we can consciously and subconsciously monitor time which plays a fundamental role in motivation and emotion in the sense of the goals that we set, pursue, and evaluate

Two primary trajectories of social motives operate throughout life: (1) the emotion trajectory and (2) the knowledge trajectory
Motives to achieve emotional satisfaction and meaning
Motives to acquire new information and to achieve in domains that are relevant to successful adaptation in the future (e.g., educational and occupational domains).

Question 28

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1995 Current Directions in Psychological Science)- motivations + predictions

Answer 28

• Young Adults (YAs) are motivated by (2) because they have much to learn and long futures to prepare for—time is seen as boundless and open-ended
  • Old Adults (OAs) are motivated by (1) because time is perceived as constrained. They have already accrued considerable knowledge and thus prioritise emotional goals because they are realised in the moment of contact rather than banked for some nebulous future time.

Predictions that fall out of this:
* Age-related increase in attention to emotional regulation and goals should lead to more cognitive resources allocated to emotional tasks: a positivity bias
Emotion regulation becomes more automatic with age, and thus is relatively easier to engage such strategies than effortful strategies involving acquiring new information.

Question 29

Positivity (Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)- results

Answer 29

overall, positive affect tends to increase and negative affect tends to decrease as we grow older

Experience sampling research also confirms this: the frequency of positive relative to negative emotional experiences increases with age (Carstensen et al., 2011)

Question 30

Positivity (Mather & Carstensen, 2003 Psychological Science)- procedure

Answer 30

• The task was for participants to press a left- or right-hand key when a dot appeared on that side of the screen as fast as they can
  
  • Importantly, faces briefly appeared just before the dot that were either positive, negative, or neutral
    The idea is that if you are biased to look at a specific emotion, then you will be faster to react to the dot, thus showing an attentional bias

Question 31

Positivity (Mather & Carstensen, 2003 Psychological Science)- results

Answer 31

Younger adults did not show much of a bias in either direction, but older adults were strongly biased toward positive faces and against negative faces relative to the neutral baseline

Question 32

Emotional regulation (Luong & Charles, 2014 Developmental Psychology)- procedure

Answer 32

SST: limited time horizon a shifting priorities to emotional goals à less negative social experiences and better emotional regulation in older age. Is this true?

Participants had an option:
a. steal an antidote to save a family member’s life?
b. do not steal the antidote, but then they will die

Question 33

Emotional regulation (Luong & Charles, 2014 Developmental Psychology)- Results

Answer 33

Compared to younger adults, older adults…
* Appraised the task and the confederate more positively
* Endorsed goals to perform well on the problem-solving task
* Less likely to endorse goals to change their partner’s opinions

Consistent with work that shows, compared to younger adults, older adults…
* Are less negatively reactive to daily stressors than younger adults (Luong et al., 2023)
* Decision avoidant strategies for interpersonal conflict (Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007)
* Less willing to take social risks (e.g., admitting different tastes; Rolison et al., 2013)

* The difference in emotional regulation between the two age groups came down to how they differently appraised the situations
* This is consistent with other work showing that older adults better regulate their emotions and use different interpersonal strategies than younger adults

Question 34

How does socioemotional processing change with age?

Answer 34

Older adults tend to report positive relationships with fewer close social partners and are disproportionately oriented toward positive stimuli compared to younger adults. SST explains these shifts according to shifting motivations to prioritise emotional goals due to changes in time horizons.