Alexandra M Freund
Biographic Data
| ID | 1751977 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexandra M Freund |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexandra M |
| FAMILY NAME | Freund |
| SIGNATURE | FREUND A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9953-523X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 175 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 59 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Perceived Gains and Losses, Perceived Constraints in Control, and Goal Orientation in Adulthood
This study investigated how perceived gains and losses relate to goal orientation (striving for gains, maintenance, or loss avoidance) in adulthood and examined the role of control beliefs (measured as perceived constraints in control) as a potential mediator. Data were collected from 404 US adults (18-78 years; 51.0% female) via an online survey measuring these variables in four life domains (happiness, physical fitness, life experiences, and mo…
Uncertainty in Work-Related Transitions over the Life Course
Many aspects of one’s life are uncertain due to missing information about situations, probabilistic events, and decision outcomes. In this article, we argue and show that diverse perspectives from lifespan development as well as work and organizational psychology can be integrated into a fuller picture of individuals’ experiences of work-related transitions over the life course through the lens of uncertainty. Drawing from a panel discussion amon…
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 do…
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…
Chasing the “How” and “Why” of goal pursuit: A multimethod approach to the study of goal focus
Goals are cognitive representations of means-ends relations that reflect what a person wants to approach or avoid. Previous research has demonstrated that the relative salience of the means and ends (i.e., goal focus) differs across adulthood. Due to inconsistent findings in recent studies, this study systematically investigated the convergence of goal focus across different dimensions (i.e., goal content, complexity, type, i.e., hypothetical vs.…
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 a…
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 be…
Pay One or Pay All? The Role of Incentive Schemes in Decision Making Across Adulthood
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
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, …
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 …
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 stronge…
Age Discrimination in the Context of Motivation and Healthy Aging
Age discrimination can undermine older people’s motivation to stay engaged with their lives and poses a major challenge to healthy aging. In this article, we review research on age discrimination in different life domains, including health and work. Motivation and health constitute potential antecedents as well as outcomes of age discrimination, with reduced motivation and impaired health increasing the likelihood of becoming a victim of age disc…
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 se…
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…
Does Goal Orientation Modulate Satisfaction With Cognitive Performance in Different Age Groups
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
Sociohistorical Change in Urban Older Adults’ Perceived Speed of Time and Time Pressure
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
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 conside…
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.…
Adult age differences in monetary decisions with real and hypothetical reward
Age differences in monetary decisions may emerge because younger and older adults perceive the value of outcomes differently. Yet, age‐differential effects of monetary rewards on decisions are not well understood. Most laboratory studies on aging and decision making have used scenarios in which rewards were merely hypothetical (decisions did not have any real consequences) or in which only small amounts of money were at stake. In the current stud…
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 …
How Do Gain and Loss Incentives Affect Memory for Intentions Across Adulthood
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)
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 leisur…
On Gains and Losses, Means and Ends: Goal Orientation and Goal Focus Across Adulthood
Personal goals guide behavior toward a desired outcome, motivate behavior over time and across situations, provide direction and meaning, and contribute to the acquisition of skills and subjective well-being. The adaptiveness of goals, however, might vary with dimensions such as their orientation toward the achievement of gains, maintenance of functioning, or the avoidance of losses. We argue that goal orientation is most adaptive when it corresp…
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
Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
Life-management strategies of selection, optimization and compensation: Measurement by self-report and construct validity
The authors examined the usefulness of a self-report measure for elective selection, loss-based selection. optimization, and compensation (SOC) as strategies of life management. The expected 4-factor solution was obtained in 2 independent samples (N = 218, 14-87 years; N = 181, 18-89 years) exhibiting high retest stability across 4 weeks (r(tt) = .74-82). As expected, middle-aged adults showed higher endorsement of SOC than younger and older adul…
Age-related differences in altruism across adulthood: Making personal financial gain versus contributing to the public good
Four studies utilizing different methodological approaches investigated adult age-related differences in altruism (i.e., contributions to the public good) and the self-centered value of increasing personal wealth. In Study 1, data from the World Values Survey (World Values Survey Association, 2009) provided 1st evidence of a negative association between age and the self-reported wish to be rich. Ecological concerns, a form of contributing to the …
Managing Life Through Personal Goals: Intergoal Facilitation and Intensity of Goal Pursuit in Younger and Older Adulthood
Two studies varying in design (cross-sectional and longitudinal) and methods (questionnaires, diaries, and objective information) support the notion that personal goals are among the phenomena that show positive development throughout adulthood: Older adults (M = 64 years) reported more mutual facilitation among their personal goals and were more engaged in goal pursuit than were younger adults (M = 25 years). Results were robust when age-group d…
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 leisur…
The end is (not) near: Aging, essentialism, and future time perspective
Beliefs about aging influence how we interpret and respond to changes within and around us. Essentialist beliefs about aging are defined as views that link chronological age with inherent and immutable properties underlying aging-related changes. These beliefs may influence the experience of aging-related changes and shape people's outlook of the future. We hypothesized that people who endorse essentialist beliefs about aging report a more limite…
The Dynamics of Possible Selves in Old Age
Future-oriented motives are thought to be cast off in old age. Transcripts of the hopes and fears of participants in the 4-year longitudinal sample of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 206, 70-100+ years) were coded for central domains and motives (e.g., gain, maintenance, avoiding loss) and evaluated for the amount and direction of change. Domains of personal characteristics, health, and social relationships predominated together with gain motives. Ov…
Going beyond work and family: A longitudinal study on the role of leisure in the work–life interplay
Going beyond the relation of work and family, the present three-wave longitudinal study spanning one year assessed different forms of conflict and facilitation between leisure and the life domains work and family and their relation to subjective well-being. A sample of N = 277 employed men and women reported their perceived conflict and facilitation between leisure, work, and family and subjective well-being. Results suggest that leisure is a sou…
Toward a developmental psychology of Sehnsucht (life longings): The optimal (utopian) life
The topic of an optimal or utopian life has received much attention across the humanities and the arts but not in psychology. The German concept of Sehnsucht captures individual and collective thoughts and feelings about one's optimal or utopian life. Sehnsucht (life longings; LLs) is defined as an intense desire for alternative states and realizations of life. Presenting a first effort at capturing this phenomenon, the authors conceptualize LLs …
The Adaptiveness of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation as Strategies of Life Management: Evidence From a Preference Study on Proverbs
Proverbs were used to examine whether laypeople’s conceptions of or preferences for life-management strategies are consistent with the model of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC model). The SOC model posits that there are three fundamental processes of life management: selection, optimization, and compensation. In two studies ( N
Content and Function of the Self-Definition in Old and Very Old Age
Spontaneous self-definition was investigated in a heterogeneous sample of N = 516 participants of the Berlin Aging Study, aged between 70 and 103 years. The content of the self-definition revealed that old and very old persons view themselves as active and present-oriented. The self-definition also reflected an inward orientation, and central themes of life-review, health, and family. Participants generated more positive than negative evaluations…
The role of age and motivation for the experience of social acceptance and rejection
A study with n = 55 younger (18-33 years, M = 23.67) and n = 58 older (61-85 years, M = 71.44) adults investigated age-related differences in social approach and avoidance motivation and their consequences for the experience of social interactions. Results confirmed the hypothesis that a predominant habitual approach motivation in younger adults shifts toward a stronger avoidance motivation in older adults. Moreover, age and momentary motivation …
Adult age differences in monetary decisions with real and hypothetical reward
Age differences in monetary decisions may emerge because younger and older adults perceive the value of outcomes differently. Yet, age‐differential effects of monetary rewards on decisions are not well understood. Most laboratory studies on aging and decision making have used scenarios in which rewards were merely hypothetical (decisions did not have any real consequences) or in which only small amounts of money were at stake. In the current stud…
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
Feeling loved and integrated or lonely and rejected in everyday life: The role of age and social motivation
Social approach and social avoidance goals (i.e., approach of positive and avoidance of negative outcomes in social situations) are important predictors of the feeling of being socially integrated or isolated. However, little is known about the development of these goals across adulthood. In a large diary study with N = 744 young (18-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years), and older adults (60-83 years), we tested the hypothesis that the adaptivene…
When wanting and fearing go together: The effect of co‐occurring social approach and avoidance motivation on behavior, affect, and cognition
Three studies investigated the association of social approach and avoidance motivation with cognition, behavior, emotions, and subjective well‐being. Study 1 ( N = 245), a correlative self‐report study, showed that approach and avoidance motivation mediated the effects of adult attachment‐styles on social anxiety. A secure attachment‐style was associated with co‐occurring approach and avoidance motivation. Study 2, a social‐interaction study ( N …
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…
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.…
Mastering developmental transitions in young and middle adulthood: The interplay of openness to experience and traditional gender ideology on women's self-efficacy and subjective well-being
The present research focuses on 2 factors that might help or hurt women to cope with the uncertainties associated with developmental transitions in modern societies (i.e., starting one's first job, graduating from high school, reentry to work after parental leave). We investigate (a) the role of openness to experience in coping with challenging transitions and (b) the (mal)adaptive consequences of adopting a traditional gender ideology. Starting …
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 conside…
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 …
Is longing only for Germans? A cross-cultural comparison of Sehnsucht in Germany and the United States
Sehnsucht, the longing or yearning for ideal yet seemingly unreachable states of life, is a salient topic in German culture and has proven useful for understanding self-regulation across adulthood in a German sample (e.g., Scheibe, Freund, & Baltes, 2007). The current study tested whether findings for German samples could be generalized to the more individualistic and agentic U.S. American culture. Four samples of U.S. American and German partici…
Pay One or Pay All? The Role of Incentive Schemes in Decision Making Across Adulthood
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
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 se…
How Do Gain and Loss Incentives Affect Memory for Intentions Across Adulthood
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)
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 s…
The Resilience of the Aging Self
Two issues are raised concerning the "aging self" as conceptualized by many current theories about the life span course of self-maintenance. In particular, we address the model proposed by Brandtstädter and Greve (Developmental Review, 14, 52-80, 1994). First, this model assumes that the process of aging places considerable strain on the self. Although we acknowledge that aging people experience losses, and that the ratio of gains and losses beco…
Selection, optimization, and compensation as strategies of life management: Correlations with subjective indicators of successful aging.
Content and Function of the Self-Definition in Old and Very Old Age
Spontaneous self-definition was investigated in a heterogeneous sample of N = 516 participants of the Berlin Aging Study, aged between 70 and 103 years. The content of the self-definition revealed that old and very old persons view themselves as active and present-oriented. The self-definition also reflected an inward orientation, and central themes of life-review, health, and family. Participants generated more positive than negative evaluations…
Self-Regulation of Normative and Non-Normative Developmental Challenges 1
The article develops the argument that successful management of normatively less expected life events and transitions requires from the individual a greater degree of self-regulatory skills than the management of normative events. It is argued that, based on recent historical change, individuals have to master both normative and non-normative developmental demands. With regard to the mastery of non-normative developmental demands, the individual …
Understanding Developmental Regulation in Adolescence: The Use of the Selection, Optimization,and Compensation Model
Scholarship pertinent to the nature of human plasticity and the contemporary theoretical stress on developmental systems theories suggest that the regulation of dynamic person-context relations should be the key focus of inquiry in the study of adolescent development. An exemplar of a theory congruent with this relational conception of adolescent development is the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) model offered by Baltes, Baltes, a…
The Adaptiveness of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation as Strategies of Life Management: Evidence From a Preference Study on Proverbs
Proverbs were used to examine whether laypeople’s conceptions of or preferences for life-management strategies are consistent with the model of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC model). The SOC model posits that there are three fundamental processes of life management: selection, optimization, and compensation. In two studies ( N
The Dynamics of Possible Selves in Old Age
Future-oriented motives are thought to be cast off in old age. Transcripts of the hopes and fears of participants in the 4-year longitudinal sample of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 206, 70-100+ years) were coded for central domains and motives (e.g., gain, maintenance, avoiding loss) and evaluated for the amount and direction of change. Domains of personal characteristics, health, and social relationships predominated together with gain motives. Ov…
Life-management strategies of selection, optimization and compensation: Measurement by self-report and construct validity
The authors examined the usefulness of a self-report measure for elective selection, loss-based selection. optimization, and compensation (SOC) as strategies of life management. The expected 4-factor solution was obtained in 2 independent samples (N = 218, 14-87 years; N = 181, 18-89 years) exhibiting high retest stability across 4 weeks (r(tt) = .74-82). As expected, middle-aged adults showed higher endorsement of SOC than younger and older adul…
Managing Life Through Personal Goals: Intergoal Facilitation and Intensity of Goal Pursuit in Younger and Older Adulthood
Two studies varying in design (cross-sectional and longitudinal) and methods (questionnaires, diaries, and objective information) support the notion that personal goals are among the phenomena that show positive development throughout adulthood: Older adults (M = 64 years) reported more mutual facilitation among their personal goals and were more engaged in goal pursuit than were younger adults (M = 25 years). Results were robust when age-group d…
Developmental changes in personal goal orientation from young to late adulthood: From striving for gains to maintenance and prevention of losses.
Using a multimethod approach, the authors conducted 4 studies to test life span hypotheses about goal orientations across adulthood. Confirming expectations, in Studies 1 and 2 younger adults reported a primary growth orientation in their goals, whereas older adults reported a stronger orientation toward maintenance and loss prevention. Orientation toward prevention of loss correlated negatively with well-being in younger adults. In older adults,…
Toward a developmental psychology of Sehnsucht (life longings): The optimal (utopian) life
The topic of an optimal or utopian life has received much attention across the humanities and the arts but not in psychology. The German concept of Sehnsucht captures individual and collective thoughts and feelings about one's optimal or utopian life. Sehnsucht (life longings; LLs) is defined as an intense desire for alternative states and realizations of life. Presenting a first effort at capturing this phenomenon, the authors conceptualize LLs …
Successful Aging as Management of Resources: The Role of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation
One of the central tenets of life-span psychology is that the process of development entails gains and losses that occur over the entire life span. Thus, Paul and Margret Baltes (1990) Baltes, P. B. and Baltes, M. M. 1990. “Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation”. In Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences, Edited by: Baltes, P. B. and Baltes, M. M. 1–34. New York:…
Psychological Consequences of Longevity
How do changes in life expectancy and longevity affect life-span development? This paper argues that historical increases in life expectancy primarily have an impact on the later and less on the earlier parts of the life span. Increased life expectancy is both a challenge and an opportunity for positive development. A perspective is outlined according to which self-regulation is a key factor for successful aging. Assuming a compensatory relations…
Handbook of Life-Span Development
Individuating Age Salience: A Psychological Perspective on the Salience of Age in the Life Course
Commentaries| January 21 2010 Individuating Age Salience: A Psychological Perspective on the Salience of Age in the Life Course Subject Area: Psychiatry and Psychology , Women's and Children's Health Alexandra M. Freund Alexandra M. Freund Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, Berlin, Germany Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Human Development (1997) 40 (5): 287–292. https://doi.org/10.1…
When wanting and fearing go together: The effect of co‐occurring social approach and avoidance motivation on behavior, affect, and cognition
Three studies investigated the association of social approach and avoidance motivation with cognition, behavior, emotions, and subjective well‐being. Study 1 ( N = 245), a correlative self‐report study, showed that approach and avoidance motivation mediated the effects of adult attachment‐styles on social anxiety. A secure attachment‐style was associated with co‐occurring approach and avoidance motivation. Study 2, a social‐interaction study ( N …
Normal Aging and Decision Making: The Role of Motivation
The main argument of this review is that motivational development associated with normal aging affects decision making. With increasing age, the ratio of gains to losses becomes more and more unfavorable. Reflecting the increasing losses in resources, goal orientation changes from a predominant orientation towards gains in young adulthood to an increasingly stronger orientation towards the prevention of loss in older adulthood. As goals serve as …
Is longing only for Germans? A cross-cultural comparison of Sehnsucht in Germany and the United States
Sehnsucht, the longing or yearning for ideal yet seemingly unreachable states of life, is a salient topic in German culture and has proven useful for understanding self-regulation across adulthood in a German sample (e.g., Scheibe, Freund, & Baltes, 2007). The current study tested whether findings for German samples could be generalized to the more individualistic and agentic U.S. American culture. Four samples of U.S. American and German partici…
Successful Aging
Historically, life expectancy has only recently extended into old age and has dramatically increased over the past 100 years. Early accounts of aging have characterized this phase in life as one of more or less uniform decline and focused on the question how people can react to and cope with the many losses they encounter. Although this question remains one of the topics of aging research, more recent approaches to the notion of “successful aging…
Mastering developmental transitions in young and middle adulthood: The interplay of openness to experience and traditional gender ideology on women's self-efficacy and subjective well-being
The present research focuses on 2 factors that might help or hurt women to cope with the uncertainties associated with developmental transitions in modern societies (i.e., starting one's first job, graduating from high school, reentry to work after parental leave). We investigate (a) the role of openness to experience in coping with challenging transitions and (b) the (mal)adaptive consequences of adopting a traditional gender ideology. Starting …
Misinformation, disinformation, and violent conflict: From Iraq and the “War on Terror” to future threats to peace.
Beyond Age Comparisons: A Plea for the Use of a Modified Brunswikian Approach to Experimental Designs in the Study of Adult Development and Aging
This article makes a plea for experimental designs in the field of adult development and aging using an approach to research inspired by the work of Egon Brunswik. Our recommendations are intended to complement correlational approaches and to enhance the testing of explanatory mechanisms. Our arguments are predicated on the fact that the field of adult development and aging faces particular methodological challenges stemming from the investigatio…
Wanting to Get More or Protecting One’s Assets: Age-Differential Effects of Gain Versus Loss Perceptions on the Willingness to Engage in Collective Action
The findings highlight the role of motivational processes for involvement in collective action across adulthood. With increasing age, (anticipated) loss or perceived disadvantages become more important for the willingness to participate in collective action
Age-related differences in altruism across adulthood: Making personal financial gain versus contributing to the public good
Four studies utilizing different methodological approaches investigated adult age-related differences in altruism (i.e., contributions to the public good) and the self-centered value of increasing personal wealth. In Study 1, data from the World Values Survey (World Values Survey Association, 2009) provided 1st evidence of a negative association between age and the self-reported wish to be rich. Ecological concerns, a form of contributing to the …
The role of age and motivation for the experience of social acceptance and rejection
A study with n = 55 younger (18-33 years, M = 23.67) and n = 58 older (61-85 years, M = 71.44) adults investigated age-related differences in social approach and avoidance motivation and their consequences for the experience of social interactions. Results confirmed the hypothesis that a predominant habitual approach motivation in younger adults shifts toward a stronger avoidance motivation in older adults. Moreover, age and momentary motivation …
Psychology (55 works) · Developmental psychology (39 works) · Social Psychology (35 works) · Aging and Gerontology Research (34 works) · Cognitive psychology (25 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (24 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research (17 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (15 works) · Cognition (14 works)