life span cognition and emotion week 5 Flashcards
Jung’s personality theory
Theory about the collective unconscious and the universal collective symbolism (archetypes). Cross-cultural studies about personality dimensions
Into/extraversion - more introverted with age
masculinity / femininity (yiyang) - at the peak of life, the inegration of parts of opposite gender into the own self are main aim/ anima / animus
Erikson’s personality theory
Stage model
each stage has a specific age-dependent challenge that can lead to a crisis
achievement of a positive solution reinforces and empowers the self and expands the social world
positive solutions increase the likelihood of success in solving the challenges of the next stage
Eriksons life span model of identity development
- basic trust
- autonomy vs shame n doubt (1-3)
- Initiative vs guilt (3-6)
- Industry vs inferiority (6-12)
- identity vs role confusion (adolescence)
- intimacy vs isolation (20-40)
- generatively vs stagnation (40-65)
- ego-integrity vs despair (65+)
Studies re eriksons life span model
Hannah, Domino, Figueredo + Hendrickson (1996) tested the stage transitions from generativity vs stagnation stage to integrity vs despair stage
520 participants
generativity was highly correlated with ego-integrity
Is there a 9th stage?
Joan Erikson assumes that there is a 9th spiritual stage, because of the struggle for survival you need to accept the partial decline of the force of your body
a re-occurence of previous problems about dependency occurs
early problems such as trust vs distrust become important again
Types of memories in life reviews
Wong und Watt (1991) classified types of memories
- story-telling - informative, stock-taking
- integrative - positive and negative aspects of past problems are integrated and newly evaluated
- intrumental - problem-focuesed, orientated towards goals and plans
- transmissive- missionary, educational, moralistically evaluated memories
- obsessive - past conflicts are continued
- escapist - glorification of the past
neuroticism
high untill age 21, in korea till age 29 (Mccrae, costa et al. 1999)
extraversion
extraversion is high until age 21, in korea till 29
openness
decreases continuously, in portugal and korea only from age 30 (mccrae, costa et al 1999)
agreeableness
increases only from age 50, in kora with lower onset it increases continuously (mccrae, costa et al 1999)
conscientiousness
continuously increases everywhere during the life span (mccrae, costa et al 1999)
cross cultural developments of emotion during the life-span
neuroticism, extraversion and openness decrease with age
agreeableness and consciousness increases with age
do these trends continue in older age (+90)
terracciano, mccrae et al 2005:
- confirmed decrease of neuroticism
- but does not decrease any futher after end of working life
- vulnerability increases from age 80
- confirms decrease in extraversion in mccrae et al
- excitment seeking and activity decrease the most
- ambition increases till age 70 and only decreases thereafter
- positive emotion and wamth constant across the life-span
-confirms decrease in openness
differences in sub-scales
-openness for values, feelings and actions decreases
-openness for ideas, aesthetics and phantasies constant across the life-span
- confirms the increase of agreeableness with age
- trust decreases from age 70, modesty remains the same
personality changes in old age
not a lot of differences in longitudinal and cross sectional studies except for conscientiousness
confirms the importance of working life for this dimension
subscales of the five personality factors can develop differently
vulnerability, ambition and reflection can increase in pensioners
trust decreases
protective measures for the self concept
AAI Model (Assimilation-Accommodation-Immunization)
Assimilation - intentional persuit of aim
Accommodation- flexible adjustment of aims, often without awareness
Immunisation - temporary rationalisation
Perceptions of self and others
Self perception:
- people aged 85+ have the feeling of being themselves despite changes in physiology
- rating of 5 personality factors with regards to the self: dominant personality traits are seen as constant
Perception by others:
-some personality traits are seen as desirable wile others are evaluated as best to be avoided
stereotypes: typical traits of older people (HUMMERT ET AL 1994)
young adults perceived older people as depressed and tired but also humorous, socially and politically engaged as well as religious and successful
middle aged adults perceived older people with all kind of traits except for being troubled by financial difficulties
old adults perceived older people as troubled by financial difficulties and by anxieties about health
general positives: similar traits as young people oks decisiveness, independence, ability to learn, well travelled and well groomed
control belief, income and depression
high control beliefs eliminated effects of differences in income when predicting depressive symptoms
low control beliefs allowed income differences to correlate with depressive symptoms
control belief, income and general health
income and control belief impacted on report of health symptoms
high control belief eliminated differences in income and produced reports of well being and fewer symptoms
control beliefs and income had independent effects on functional limitations
conclusions
normative models of personality define age-specific personality traits
empirical studies about the development of personality show positive trends but also reactions on aging
effects of control beliefs of the self were demonstrated to have a strong psychological impact independently of age and real income
