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Motivational Changes Across Adulthood: The Role of Goal Representations for Adult Development and Aging
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Motivational Changes Across
Adulthood: The Role of Goal
Representations for Adult
Development and Aging
ALEXANDRA M. FREUND
Abstract
The importance of goals for understanding behavior and performance over time
and across situations, for a sense of purpose and psychological well-being, has
been acknowledged in the areas of motivation and lifespan development for more
than a quarter-century (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). More recently, the field of motivated
cognition has pointed to the role of the cognitive representation of goals for
self-regulation, affect, and goal achievement (Fujita & Carnevale, 2012). Owing to
the decline in the perceived availability of goal-relevant resources across adulthood,
I argue that the representation of goals and their effects on behavior, performance,
and well-being changes across adulthood. More specifically, I propose that goal
representations change dynamically as a response to—and help managing—the
developmental gains and losses regarding (i) the orientation toward achieving
gains, maintaining performance, or avoiding losses, and (ii) the focus on the means
or the outcome of goal pursuit.
SUCCESSFUL ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND AGING IN THE FACE OF
CHANGING RESOURCES
Whether we like it or not, one of the inevitable changes that happens to all
of us over time is that we grow older. We might not like to age because
aging is strongly associated with the perceived availability of internal and
external resources that help us to pursue and achieve our personal goals.
In fact, maybe one of the most dramatic changes that occurs in adulthood
is the increase in developmental losses and the simultaneous decrease in
gains (Baltes, 1997). For example, although adults still have gains in some
areas of cognition well into old age such as in knowledge, they experience
losses in the more biologically based cognitive functions such as information
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Robert Scott and Marlis Buchmann (General Editors) with Stephen Kosslyn (Consulting Editor).
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
processing speed. Across domains of functioning, research suggests that the
ratio of gains to losses favors young adults and is unkind to older adults (for
an overview, see Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006).
Adults of different ages are acutely aware of this change in the ratio of
gains to losses (Heckhausen, Dixon, & Baltes, 1989). Mustafic and Freund
(2012a) asked younger, middle-aged, and older adults what changes they
expect to experience in the next 10 years. A clear pattern emerged: younger
adults expected substantial gains in all functional domains under investigation (subjective well-being, social relations, cognition, physical functioning). Middle-aged adults were somewhat less optimistic, although they still
expected some gains except in the domain of physical functioning. In sharp
contrast, older adults expected to experience losses in all domains of functioning. Moreover, in a second study Mustafic and Freund (2012a) found
that young, middle-aged, and older adults largely agreed on this pattern of
changes in gains and losses across adulthood.
With increasing age, then, adults expect to have fewer resources available
to pursue and achieve their goals. Goals are central for development across
the life span as they help guide behavior over time and across situations,
thereby organizing behavior into higher order action units that structure the
interaction of a person with his or her environment, and provide people with
a direction and purpose in life. In short, having and pursuing personal goals
seems essential for successful development (Freund, Nikitin, & Riediger,
2012). Thus, one of the central questions regarding successful development
and aging is: How do people advancing in age manage the threat to the ability to
pursue and achieve one’s goals resulting from the decline and loss of goal-relevant
resources?
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE FIELD
GOALS IN MODELS OF SUCCESSFUL AGING
Given the central role of goals for development across adulthood and into
old age, it is not surprising that all of the central theories in this area are
concerned with the question of how people manage the changing ratio
of gains and losses across adulthood through the setting and pursuit of
goals: The model of optimization through primary and secondary control
(OPS, Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010), the model of accommodative and assimilative coping (Brandtstädter & Greve, 1994), the model of
selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC, Baltes & Baltes, 1990), and
socioemotional selectivity theory (SST, Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles,
1999). At the same time, these theories assume that the way people set and
pursue their goals changes as a response to changes in the availability of
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
3
goal-relevant resources. The significance of these theories notwithstanding,
I will focus on what I believe to be an emerging trend in the study of life
management across adulthood, namely, the role of goal representations. In
particular, I argue that goal representations do not only reflect the changes
in gains and losses across adulthood, but that they are most adaptive when
they correspond to the availability of resources.
COGNITIVE REPRESENTATION OF GOALS
The area of motivated cognition is on the one hand concerned with the cognitive representation of goals, and, on the other hand, with the effect of goal
representations on cognition, behavior, and affect (Fujita & Carnevale, 2012).
The motivated cognition approach conceptualizes goals not as direct expressions of fundamental needs, drives, or unconscious (implicit) motives, but
as the cognitive representations of ends (desired or dreaded states) that can
be brought about (achieved or avoided) through specific means (Kruglanski,
1996). Note that this conceptualization comprises two important dimensions:
(i) the orientation of goals toward achieving desired versus avoiding undesired outcomes and (ii) the distinction of means and ends within a given goal.
In the following, I will elaborate on how these two dimensions change with
age and how these age-related changes contribute to successful development
and aging.
GOAL ORIENTATION
One of the prominent models of successful development, the model of
SOC (Baltes & Baltes, 1990), argues that in response to the changing ratio
of gains to losses across the life span, goals oriented at the optimization of
gains are more important and adaptive for younger age groups and that
goals oriented at the maintenance and avoidance of losses become more
important and adaptive when people experience more losses as they grow
older (Staudinger, Marsiske, & Baltes, 1995).
AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THE IMPORTANCE TO ATTAIN, MAINTAIN, AND AVOID LOSING
RESOURCES
An evolutionary perspective and a developmental perspective converge in
assuming that it is advantageous to accumulate and maintain goal-relevant
resources. Resources, defined as means that are instrumental in pursuing
one’s goals, are not only linked to goal achievement and higher levels of functioning, but they also serve to signal success to others as they are related to the
relative social standing within a group. With this, they enhance one’s social
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
attractiveness and, thereby, also the likelihood to find a resource-rich partner
with whom to have and bring up offspring (Buss, 1999). Given that young
adults have not yet had much time and opportunities to accumulate many
resources that are advantageous for their further development, the attainment of important developmental goals such as finishing their education,
advancing their professional careers, and, relatedly, achieving social status
and gaining resources should be a primary motivation during this phase of
life. Moreover, in many functional domains, young adults have substantial
potential for gains that they need to realize in order to ensure continued successful development.
In middle adulthood, people likely have reached their personal asymptote
of performance in many areas of life, such as occupational power, which
is highest in middle adulthood (Eaton, Visser, Krosnick, & Anand, 2009).
Most people view middle adulthood as a time that still holds possible gains
(Freund & Ritter, 2009) but they believe that there are fewer opportunities
for gains compared to young adulthood (Heckhausen et al., 1989; Mustafic
& Freund, 2012a). Moreover, middle-aged adults face the first losses in
some areas of cognitive and physical functioning (Baltes et al., 2006). Taken
together, middle-aged adults have fewer potential gains, have accumulated
resources in many areas of life such as skills, material belongings, or social
relations that are worth maintaining, and have to compensate for the occurrence of first losses in functioning. The maintenance of functioning and the
avoidance of losses should become even more important in old age when
losses become more and more prevalent in different areas of life (Staudinger
et al., 1995).
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL ORIENTATION
Empirical evidence supports the developmental trajectory of goal orientation from a predominant gain orientation in younger adults to an increasing
importance of maintenance and avoidance of losses as people grow older. For
instance, Heckhausen (1999) found that compared to middle-aged and older
adults, younger adults reported more goals in domains associated with gains
and fewer goals in domains reflecting the avoidance of losses. Ebner, Freund,
and Baltes (2006) asked adults of different ages to rate their personal goals
regarding their goal orientation. As expected, the goal orientation toward
gains was stronger in younger than in middle-aged and older adults, who
in turn reported a higher maintenance and loss avoidance orientation than
younger adults.
Going beyond self-reported, personal goals, Ebner et al. (2006) asked
younger and older participants to put together a physical fitness training consisting of five training modules. Each module was presented in
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
5
two alternative variants, one geared toward achieving gains (i.e., higher
levels of physical fitness) and one aimed at maintenance/avoidance of
loss in physical fitness. As expected, younger adults were more likely
to choose modules that targeted the increase in fitness, whereas older
adults selected more modules that promised to counteract impending
losses in physical fitness. This result was replicated in the domain of
cognitive functioning. Importantly and supporting the assumption that
the age difference in goal orientation is driven by the perceived availability of resources, younger adults shifted to a preference for maintenance
goals when the perception of resources as limited was experimentally
induced.
Is this age-related shift in goal orientation adaptive? To address this question, Ebner et al. (2006) not only assessed the individual goal orientation of
young, middle-aged, and older adults, but also their subjective well-being.
They found that none of the age groups profited particularly from adopting a
gain orientation, but that maintenance and avoidance of loss orientation was
negatively associated with subjective well-being in younger adults. In contrast, maintenance orientation was positively related to subjective well-being
in middle-aged and older adults.
In order to investigate the adaptiveness of goal orientation on goal pursuit,
Freund (2006) asked younger and older adults to pursue a simple sensorimotor task that was either oriented toward achieving higher performance (gain
orientation) or toward counteracting losses (loss avoidance). As expected,
younger adults worked longer at the task when it was oriented at achieving
gains, whereas older adults were more persistent when the task was oriented
at counteracting losses. Finally, Duke, Leventhal, Brownlee, and Leventhal
(2002) found that activities that counteract losses are related to positive affect
in older adults.
Taken together, the existing research suggests that the representation of
desired (or dreaded) outcomes of goal pursuit changes in line with the
decrease in expected gains and the simultaneous increase in expected
losses across adulthood: Whereas younger adults orient their goals more
toward gains, maintenance/avoidance of losses becomes a more and more
important outcome as people grow older. As expected, this age-related
shift in goal orientation that matches the expected availability of resources
appears to be adaptive regarding the subjective well-being as well as the
persistence in pursuing goals across adulthood.
GOAL FOCUS
As defined above, goals comprise the representation of means and ends.
When pursuing a goal, either the means or the ends might be more salient.
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
For instance, when working out in the gym, one might focus more on
the exercises (e.g., which muscles to contract, when to breath) or on their
intended effect (e.g., enhancing one’s health or physical attractiveness). In
the first case, one focuses on the process of goal pursuit, and in the second,
on the outcome. Accordingly, process focus is defined “as the degree to which
a person attends to aspects of the goal that are related to the means and
outcome focus as the degree to which a person attends to the desired outcomes
and consequences of goal pursuit” (Freund & Hennecke, 2015, p. 149). In
other words, goal focus denotes if the means or the outcomes of a given goal
are more salient.
Process and outcome focus differ regarding (1) their level of concreteness
(process focus)/abstractness (outcome focus), (2) the degree of contextualization (higher in process focus), as well as whether they make more salient
(3) the standard of comparison to measure goal progress (outcome focus) or
(4) the necessary goal-relevant means (process focus). Research on goals suggests that these differences in the cognitive representation of goals are related
to successful goal pursuit (Carver & Scheier, 1998):
1. A process focus directs attention to goal-relevant behaviors, which are
more concrete than the outcome. The more concrete the representation
of a goal, the more it provides guidelines for actions, which, in turn,
are more likely to be implemented than abstract representations of
goals. Thus, a process focus should be related to a higher likelihood
of engaging in goal-relevant actions compared to the more abstract
outcome focus. In contrast, the more abstract the representation of a
goal, the more likely it directs attention to higher order outcomes that
are related to providing meaning and a sense of purpose than the more
concrete representation of a goal in terms of the means (Klinger, 1977).
2. Typically, actions are more contextualized than outcomes. To get back to
the example of the goal to work out, the means of doing certain exercises
on specific days in the gym is more contextualized than being healthy,
which is a state that a person does not only demonstrate in the gym but
carries with him or her to various contexts. As is the case for abstract
versus concrete goal representations, contextualized actions are more
likely to be carried out compared to the more general goal representations in terms of outcomes. This has been demonstrated convincingly
in numerous studies on implementation intentions (for an overview see
Gollwitzer, 1996).
3. Building on cybernetic models of goal pursuit, Carver and Scheier (1998)
have elaborated on the importance of a clear standard of comparison
of the desired state against which to measure the actual state as well as
goal progress. A constant comparison of the actual with the desired state
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
7
indicates whether goal-relevant means are effective and bring about a
sufficient rate of change in the desired direction. If this is not the case,
corrective actions or a switch to different means is necessary. This suggests, and again has been supported by ample empirical research (Locke
& Latham, 2002), that clearly defined outcomes should help to keep
goal-relevant behaviors on the right track. Given that an outcome focus
is defined as the salience of the end state of goal pursuit, adopting an
outcome focus should lead to a higher accessibility of the standard of
comparison (compared to the salience of means in a process focus) and
thereby support goal achievement.
4. Again drawing on research by Gollwitzer (1996), the specification of
goal-relevant means is essential for goal pursuit. According to this
research, the specification of goal-related actions and the situations
in which and the time when to act guide information processing in
that they focus attention on goal-relevant information and situational
cues signaling opportunities to implement the actions and ward off
distractions. Thus, focusing attention on the process rather than the
outcome of goal pursuit should increase the likelihood of actual goal
pursuit.
Taken together, the goal literature provides good theoretical and empirical support to suggest on the one hand that a process focus—by being more
concrete, contextualized, and highlighting goal-relevant means—should be
more adaptive for goal engagement and achievement and, on the other hand,
that an outcome focus—by being more abstract and providing a clear standard of comparison—should be more adaptive for providing meaning as
well as keeping goal-relevant actions directed toward achieving the desired
outcomes.
AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL FOCUS
At least three factors that are likely to contribute to adopting a process
or outcome focus are also related to age, namely, (1) goal orientation
toward gains or maintenance/avoidance of loss, (2) the availability
of resources, and (3) future time perspective (for a more detailed discussion see Freund, Hennecke, & Mustafic, 2012). Taken together, the
three factors suggest that an outcome focus should be more prevalent in younger adulthood and a process focus should increase with
age.
1. As mentioned above, the developmental goals in young adulthood
are primarily concerned with the achievement of gain-oriented goals.
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Such goals are inherently bound to attaining a certain outcome (e.g.,
finishing education, getting a job, getting married, having a child).
Thus, due to the developmental and social importance of attaining
these outcomes, young adults might be more likely to focus on the
consequences of their goal pursuits rather than the process. As goal
orientation shifts toward maintaining one’s level of functioning and
avoiding losses across adulthood and into old age, the process of goal
pursuit might become more salient. This should be the case because
pursuing maintenance/avoidance of loss goals does not provide a
new outcome but, instead, the actual state constitutes the desired state.
Thus, the focus of maintenance goals is inherently on the means and the
process of stabilization rather than on achieving an outcome. Therefore,
associated with the age-related shift in goal-orientation, goal focus
should shift from a primary focus on the outcomes of goal pursuit
in young adulthood to an increase in process focus across adulthood
(Mustafic & Freund, 2012b).
2. The sharp decrease in the perceived availability of resources with age
might also contribute to a stronger process focus in older compared
to younger adults depending on their goal orientation. High resource
investment is feasible only when it leads to relatively fast goal attainment, so as to not overtax the available resources that might be needed
for other goal pursuits. When goals require long-term and repeated
investments of means, they need to be carefully selected and monitored
regarding their availability over a long period of time. This is typically
the case when pursuing a maintenance/avoidance of loss goal that
requires investment of resources as long as the goal itself persists.
For instance, the maintenance goal to stay healthy requires one to
continue eating healthily, exercising regularly, and generally taking
good care of oneself. In contrast, the goal to pass an exam is achieved
at a certain point in time after which resources can be directed to other
goals. In other words, the means invested into temporally extended
goals (such as maintenance/avoidance of loss goals) require more
attention and, thus, are more salient than their outcomes. This should
be particularly the case when resources are perceived as limited as they
have to be invested more carefully. Thus, with increasing age, when
maintenance/avoidance of loss goals are more prevalent and when
resources are perceived as more limited, a process focus should also
become more likely.
3. Another factor that is strongly related to age and that might also influence goal focus is future time perspective. In line with SST, empirical
evidence (Carstensen et al., 1999) suggests that an extended future
time perspective is related to goals with a potential long-term pay-off
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
9
(e.g., spending time with people who might be able to offer useful
information), whereas a limited future time perspective is related to
a stronger emphasis on goals that offer immediate gratification (e.g.,
spending time with emotionally close partners). Thus, results from
studies in the context of SST are consistent with the view that a longer
future time perspective might be associated with a focus on the more
distant outcomes of goal pursuit. In contrast, a shorter future time
perspective seems to be related to a focus on the present and, thereby,
on the immediate process of goal pursuit. This expectation is also in line
with construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003), which suggests
that temporally close goals are represented in a more concrete way and
in terms of the means, whereas temporally distant goals are typically
represented in an abstract way and in terms of ends. Thus, younger
adults who have an extended future time perspective should be more
likely to adopt an outcome focus, while older adults who have a more
limited future time perspective should be more likely to adopt a process
focus.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THE ADAPTIVENESS AND AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL FOCUS
Several studies have tested the hypothesis of an increase in process focus
over adulthood. This research supports the hypothesis that, in contrast
to younger adults, older adults adopt a stronger process focus. This has
been shown for relatively trivial goals such as engaging in short thinking
exercises and for long-term goals that have high demands on self-regulation
such as starting to exercise regularly (Freund, Hennecke, & Riediger,
2010) or losing weight through a low-calorie diet (Freund & Hennecke,
2011).
Regarding the adaptiveness of process and outcome focus for goal pursuit
and subjective well-being, these studies have found that, in contrast to
an outcome focus, a stronger process focus is related to more positive
evaluations of the goal (e.g., perceived goal progress, involvement in goal
pursuit, satisfaction with the goal) and actual goal pursuit and achievement
(i.e., exercising regularly, losing weight) as well as subjective well-being (for
converging evidence see Houser-Marko & Sheldon, 2008; Pham & Taylor,
1999). Interestingly, none of the studies including different age groups
found evidence for age-related differences in the adaptiveness of goal
focus. In other words, process focus was advantageous for all age groups
under consideration. Thus, given that older adults tend to adopt a stronger
process focus compared to younger adults, this goal representation might
contribute to the maintenance of well-being in old age despite a decline in
resources.
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The research on the cognitive representations of goals and their role for managing the changing availability of resources is still in its infancy, and more
questions are open than answered yet. Obvious questions concern the optimal “mix” of goal orientation in different age groups (e.g., is it adaptive to
have certain degree of gain orientation throughout the life span and into old
age?) and the limits of the adaptiveness of adopting a process focus (e.g.,
when the process is highly aversive). There are some less obvious questions
that seem promising in helping us understand the interplay of motivation
and successful development that I will briefly address in the concluding paragraphs.
TACKLING THE PROCESSES UNDERLYING AGE DIFFERENCES IN GOAL REPRESENTATIONS
Although the existing research has identified some important age-related differences in goal representations, very little is known about the underlying
processes. The role of the availability of resources and time perspective is
assumed to be crucial but has not been systematically investigated. Experimental research limiting or expanding the perceived as well as the actually
available goal-relevant means or time perspective in different age groups
seems a particularly promising avenue.
DIFFERENCES IN LIFE DOMAINS
Similarly, motivated cognition approach implicitly assumes that the content
of goals does not play an important role in their cognitive representations and
their consequences for goal pursuit and achievement. However, it might very
well be the case that there are domain-related differences in the adaptiveness
of goal representations. For instance, adopting an outcome focus for goals in
the social domain (e.g., friendship, family) might not only be less adaptive
than adopting a process focus, but it might actually stand in the way and
harm successful goal pursuit. This might be the case because social goals are
often defined by the process. Having fun while spending time together is an
important aspect of friendship and seeing it primarily as a means toward the
end of being friends might kill the fun and thereby undermine the friendship. This might also apply to experiential goals such as dancing or enjoying
to listen to music. Older adults, due to their shorter future time perspective, might be more likely to focus on the experiential aspect of goals, and
might profit even more from adopting a process focus when pursuing such
goals.
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
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THE DYNAMIC ASPECT OF GOAL REPRESENTATIONS
Although goal researchers would probably agree that goal representations
are likely to change over the course of goal pursuit, this aspect has only
rarely been investigated. Goal representations might not only change with
age over longer periods of time, but also on a momentary basis depending
on the motivational phase (Freund et al., 2012). Moreover, such fluctuating
states as exhaustion or mood might affect goal representations. For instance,
when in a good mood, one might perceive the available resources more optimistically and plentiful than when being in a bad mood, and accordingly be
more likely to orient one’s goals toward gains and adopt an outcome focus.
It is an open question as to how such momentary fluctuations affect goal
pursuit and achievement and if there might be age-related differences in this
regard. Again, this line of inquiry could be addressed using experimental
designs manipulating such states as exhaustion or mood and assess the subsequent goal orientation and goal focus in different age groups. In addition,
momentary fluctuations in goal representations as well as mood states could
be assessed using experience sampling methods in everyday lives in different
age groups.
Taken together, the research on age-related changes in goal representations
has begun to reveal systematic age differences in goal orientation and goal
focus, but many questions are awaiting future theoretical and empirical
research. One of my goals is to tackle them and hopefully be able to provide
more answers in the years to come. I am certain that there will always be
more questions than answers, but I am also certain that we will enjoy the
process of research.
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Staudinger, U. M., Marsiske, M., & Baltes, P. B. (1995). Resilience and reserve capacity
in later adulthood: Potentials and limits of development across the life span. In D.
Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology (Vol. 2, pp. 801–847).
New York, NY: Wiley.
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 110,
403–421.
ALEXANDRA M. FREUND SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Alexandra M. Freund is a professor of psychology at the University of
Zurich. She studied psychology at the University of Heidelberg and the
Free University of Berlin, where she also received her PhD. She was a
post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and returned to Germany to
co-direct a project on successful aging and developmental regulation with
Paul B. Baltes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in
Berlin for 7 years. After that, she was an assistant professor and later an
associate professor at Northwestern University (Evanston). Since 2005, she
is at the University of Zurich where she holds the chair of “Developmental
Psychology: Adulthood.” She was a guest scientist at Brandeis University
(Waltham), the University of Florida (Gainesville), Columbia University
(New York City), and the German Primate Center in Goettingen (Germany).
She is on the advisory board of several research institutions. She was also
elected one of the founding members of the Young Academy of Sciences.
In 2013, she received a mentoring award of the section Developmental
Psychology of the German Psychological Association, and in 2015 the
14
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Humboldt Research Award. Since 2010, she is associate editor of the APA
journal Psychology and Aging and is on several editorial boards.
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-
Motivational Changes Across
Adulthood: The Role of Goal
Representations for Adult
Development and Aging
ALEXANDRA M. FREUND
Abstract
The importance of goals for understanding behavior and performance over time
and across situations, for a sense of purpose and psychological well-being, has
been acknowledged in the areas of motivation and lifespan development for more
than a quarter-century (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). More recently, the field of motivated
cognition has pointed to the role of the cognitive representation of goals for
self-regulation, affect, and goal achievement (Fujita & Carnevale, 2012). Owing to
the decline in the perceived availability of goal-relevant resources across adulthood,
I argue that the representation of goals and their effects on behavior, performance,
and well-being changes across adulthood. More specifically, I propose that goal
representations change dynamically as a response to—and help managing—the
developmental gains and losses regarding (i) the orientation toward achieving
gains, maintaining performance, or avoiding losses, and (ii) the focus on the means
or the outcome of goal pursuit.
SUCCESSFUL ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND AGING IN THE FACE OF
CHANGING RESOURCES
Whether we like it or not, one of the inevitable changes that happens to all
of us over time is that we grow older. We might not like to age because
aging is strongly associated with the perceived availability of internal and
external resources that help us to pursue and achieve our personal goals.
In fact, maybe one of the most dramatic changes that occurs in adulthood
is the increase in developmental losses and the simultaneous decrease in
gains (Baltes, 1997). For example, although adults still have gains in some
areas of cognition well into old age such as in knowledge, they experience
losses in the more biologically based cognitive functions such as information
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Robert Scott and Marlis Buchmann (General Editors) with Stephen Kosslyn (Consulting Editor).
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.
1
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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
processing speed. Across domains of functioning, research suggests that the
ratio of gains to losses favors young adults and is unkind to older adults (for
an overview, see Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006).
Adults of different ages are acutely aware of this change in the ratio of
gains to losses (Heckhausen, Dixon, & Baltes, 1989). Mustafic and Freund
(2012a) asked younger, middle-aged, and older adults what changes they
expect to experience in the next 10 years. A clear pattern emerged: younger
adults expected substantial gains in all functional domains under investigation (subjective well-being, social relations, cognition, physical functioning). Middle-aged adults were somewhat less optimistic, although they still
expected some gains except in the domain of physical functioning. In sharp
contrast, older adults expected to experience losses in all domains of functioning. Moreover, in a second study Mustafic and Freund (2012a) found
that young, middle-aged, and older adults largely agreed on this pattern of
changes in gains and losses across adulthood.
With increasing age, then, adults expect to have fewer resources available
to pursue and achieve their goals. Goals are central for development across
the life span as they help guide behavior over time and across situations,
thereby organizing behavior into higher order action units that structure the
interaction of a person with his or her environment, and provide people with
a direction and purpose in life. In short, having and pursuing personal goals
seems essential for successful development (Freund, Nikitin, & Riediger,
2012). Thus, one of the central questions regarding successful development
and aging is: How do people advancing in age manage the threat to the ability to
pursue and achieve one’s goals resulting from the decline and loss of goal-relevant
resources?
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE FIELD
GOALS IN MODELS OF SUCCESSFUL AGING
Given the central role of goals for development across adulthood and into
old age, it is not surprising that all of the central theories in this area are
concerned with the question of how people manage the changing ratio
of gains and losses across adulthood through the setting and pursuit of
goals: The model of optimization through primary and secondary control
(OPS, Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010), the model of accommodative and assimilative coping (Brandtstädter & Greve, 1994), the model of
selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC, Baltes & Baltes, 1990), and
socioemotional selectivity theory (SST, Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles,
1999). At the same time, these theories assume that the way people set and
pursue their goals changes as a response to changes in the availability of
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
3
goal-relevant resources. The significance of these theories notwithstanding,
I will focus on what I believe to be an emerging trend in the study of life
management across adulthood, namely, the role of goal representations. In
particular, I argue that goal representations do not only reflect the changes
in gains and losses across adulthood, but that they are most adaptive when
they correspond to the availability of resources.
COGNITIVE REPRESENTATION OF GOALS
The area of motivated cognition is on the one hand concerned with the cognitive representation of goals, and, on the other hand, with the effect of goal
representations on cognition, behavior, and affect (Fujita & Carnevale, 2012).
The motivated cognition approach conceptualizes goals not as direct expressions of fundamental needs, drives, or unconscious (implicit) motives, but
as the cognitive representations of ends (desired or dreaded states) that can
be brought about (achieved or avoided) through specific means (Kruglanski,
1996). Note that this conceptualization comprises two important dimensions:
(i) the orientation of goals toward achieving desired versus avoiding undesired outcomes and (ii) the distinction of means and ends within a given goal.
In the following, I will elaborate on how these two dimensions change with
age and how these age-related changes contribute to successful development
and aging.
GOAL ORIENTATION
One of the prominent models of successful development, the model of
SOC (Baltes & Baltes, 1990), argues that in response to the changing ratio
of gains to losses across the life span, goals oriented at the optimization of
gains are more important and adaptive for younger age groups and that
goals oriented at the maintenance and avoidance of losses become more
important and adaptive when people experience more losses as they grow
older (Staudinger, Marsiske, & Baltes, 1995).
AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THE IMPORTANCE TO ATTAIN, MAINTAIN, AND AVOID LOSING
RESOURCES
An evolutionary perspective and a developmental perspective converge in
assuming that it is advantageous to accumulate and maintain goal-relevant
resources. Resources, defined as means that are instrumental in pursuing
one’s goals, are not only linked to goal achievement and higher levels of functioning, but they also serve to signal success to others as they are related to the
relative social standing within a group. With this, they enhance one’s social
4
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
attractiveness and, thereby, also the likelihood to find a resource-rich partner
with whom to have and bring up offspring (Buss, 1999). Given that young
adults have not yet had much time and opportunities to accumulate many
resources that are advantageous for their further development, the attainment of important developmental goals such as finishing their education,
advancing their professional careers, and, relatedly, achieving social status
and gaining resources should be a primary motivation during this phase of
life. Moreover, in many functional domains, young adults have substantial
potential for gains that they need to realize in order to ensure continued successful development.
In middle adulthood, people likely have reached their personal asymptote
of performance in many areas of life, such as occupational power, which
is highest in middle adulthood (Eaton, Visser, Krosnick, & Anand, 2009).
Most people view middle adulthood as a time that still holds possible gains
(Freund & Ritter, 2009) but they believe that there are fewer opportunities
for gains compared to young adulthood (Heckhausen et al., 1989; Mustafic
& Freund, 2012a). Moreover, middle-aged adults face the first losses in
some areas of cognitive and physical functioning (Baltes et al., 2006). Taken
together, middle-aged adults have fewer potential gains, have accumulated
resources in many areas of life such as skills, material belongings, or social
relations that are worth maintaining, and have to compensate for the occurrence of first losses in functioning. The maintenance of functioning and the
avoidance of losses should become even more important in old age when
losses become more and more prevalent in different areas of life (Staudinger
et al., 1995).
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL ORIENTATION
Empirical evidence supports the developmental trajectory of goal orientation from a predominant gain orientation in younger adults to an increasing
importance of maintenance and avoidance of losses as people grow older. For
instance, Heckhausen (1999) found that compared to middle-aged and older
adults, younger adults reported more goals in domains associated with gains
and fewer goals in domains reflecting the avoidance of losses. Ebner, Freund,
and Baltes (2006) asked adults of different ages to rate their personal goals
regarding their goal orientation. As expected, the goal orientation toward
gains was stronger in younger than in middle-aged and older adults, who
in turn reported a higher maintenance and loss avoidance orientation than
younger adults.
Going beyond self-reported, personal goals, Ebner et al. (2006) asked
younger and older participants to put together a physical fitness training consisting of five training modules. Each module was presented in
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
5
two alternative variants, one geared toward achieving gains (i.e., higher
levels of physical fitness) and one aimed at maintenance/avoidance of
loss in physical fitness. As expected, younger adults were more likely
to choose modules that targeted the increase in fitness, whereas older
adults selected more modules that promised to counteract impending
losses in physical fitness. This result was replicated in the domain of
cognitive functioning. Importantly and supporting the assumption that
the age difference in goal orientation is driven by the perceived availability of resources, younger adults shifted to a preference for maintenance
goals when the perception of resources as limited was experimentally
induced.
Is this age-related shift in goal orientation adaptive? To address this question, Ebner et al. (2006) not only assessed the individual goal orientation of
young, middle-aged, and older adults, but also their subjective well-being.
They found that none of the age groups profited particularly from adopting a
gain orientation, but that maintenance and avoidance of loss orientation was
negatively associated with subjective well-being in younger adults. In contrast, maintenance orientation was positively related to subjective well-being
in middle-aged and older adults.
In order to investigate the adaptiveness of goal orientation on goal pursuit,
Freund (2006) asked younger and older adults to pursue a simple sensorimotor task that was either oriented toward achieving higher performance (gain
orientation) or toward counteracting losses (loss avoidance). As expected,
younger adults worked longer at the task when it was oriented at achieving
gains, whereas older adults were more persistent when the task was oriented
at counteracting losses. Finally, Duke, Leventhal, Brownlee, and Leventhal
(2002) found that activities that counteract losses are related to positive affect
in older adults.
Taken together, the existing research suggests that the representation of
desired (or dreaded) outcomes of goal pursuit changes in line with the
decrease in expected gains and the simultaneous increase in expected
losses across adulthood: Whereas younger adults orient their goals more
toward gains, maintenance/avoidance of losses becomes a more and more
important outcome as people grow older. As expected, this age-related
shift in goal orientation that matches the expected availability of resources
appears to be adaptive regarding the subjective well-being as well as the
persistence in pursuing goals across adulthood.
GOAL FOCUS
As defined above, goals comprise the representation of means and ends.
When pursuing a goal, either the means or the ends might be more salient.
6
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
For instance, when working out in the gym, one might focus more on
the exercises (e.g., which muscles to contract, when to breath) or on their
intended effect (e.g., enhancing one’s health or physical attractiveness). In
the first case, one focuses on the process of goal pursuit, and in the second,
on the outcome. Accordingly, process focus is defined “as the degree to which
a person attends to aspects of the goal that are related to the means and
outcome focus as the degree to which a person attends to the desired outcomes
and consequences of goal pursuit” (Freund & Hennecke, 2015, p. 149). In
other words, goal focus denotes if the means or the outcomes of a given goal
are more salient.
Process and outcome focus differ regarding (1) their level of concreteness
(process focus)/abstractness (outcome focus), (2) the degree of contextualization (higher in process focus), as well as whether they make more salient
(3) the standard of comparison to measure goal progress (outcome focus) or
(4) the necessary goal-relevant means (process focus). Research on goals suggests that these differences in the cognitive representation of goals are related
to successful goal pursuit (Carver & Scheier, 1998):
1. A process focus directs attention to goal-relevant behaviors, which are
more concrete than the outcome. The more concrete the representation
of a goal, the more it provides guidelines for actions, which, in turn,
are more likely to be implemented than abstract representations of
goals. Thus, a process focus should be related to a higher likelihood
of engaging in goal-relevant actions compared to the more abstract
outcome focus. In contrast, the more abstract the representation of a
goal, the more likely it directs attention to higher order outcomes that
are related to providing meaning and a sense of purpose than the more
concrete representation of a goal in terms of the means (Klinger, 1977).
2. Typically, actions are more contextualized than outcomes. To get back to
the example of the goal to work out, the means of doing certain exercises
on specific days in the gym is more contextualized than being healthy,
which is a state that a person does not only demonstrate in the gym but
carries with him or her to various contexts. As is the case for abstract
versus concrete goal representations, contextualized actions are more
likely to be carried out compared to the more general goal representations in terms of outcomes. This has been demonstrated convincingly
in numerous studies on implementation intentions (for an overview see
Gollwitzer, 1996).
3. Building on cybernetic models of goal pursuit, Carver and Scheier (1998)
have elaborated on the importance of a clear standard of comparison
of the desired state against which to measure the actual state as well as
goal progress. A constant comparison of the actual with the desired state
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
7
indicates whether goal-relevant means are effective and bring about a
sufficient rate of change in the desired direction. If this is not the case,
corrective actions or a switch to different means is necessary. This suggests, and again has been supported by ample empirical research (Locke
& Latham, 2002), that clearly defined outcomes should help to keep
goal-relevant behaviors on the right track. Given that an outcome focus
is defined as the salience of the end state of goal pursuit, adopting an
outcome focus should lead to a higher accessibility of the standard of
comparison (compared to the salience of means in a process focus) and
thereby support goal achievement.
4. Again drawing on research by Gollwitzer (1996), the specification of
goal-relevant means is essential for goal pursuit. According to this
research, the specification of goal-related actions and the situations
in which and the time when to act guide information processing in
that they focus attention on goal-relevant information and situational
cues signaling opportunities to implement the actions and ward off
distractions. Thus, focusing attention on the process rather than the
outcome of goal pursuit should increase the likelihood of actual goal
pursuit.
Taken together, the goal literature provides good theoretical and empirical support to suggest on the one hand that a process focus—by being more
concrete, contextualized, and highlighting goal-relevant means—should be
more adaptive for goal engagement and achievement and, on the other hand,
that an outcome focus—by being more abstract and providing a clear standard of comparison—should be more adaptive for providing meaning as
well as keeping goal-relevant actions directed toward achieving the desired
outcomes.
AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL FOCUS
At least three factors that are likely to contribute to adopting a process
or outcome focus are also related to age, namely, (1) goal orientation
toward gains or maintenance/avoidance of loss, (2) the availability
of resources, and (3) future time perspective (for a more detailed discussion see Freund, Hennecke, & Mustafic, 2012). Taken together, the
three factors suggest that an outcome focus should be more prevalent in younger adulthood and a process focus should increase with
age.
1. As mentioned above, the developmental goals in young adulthood
are primarily concerned with the achievement of gain-oriented goals.
8
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Such goals are inherently bound to attaining a certain outcome (e.g.,
finishing education, getting a job, getting married, having a child).
Thus, due to the developmental and social importance of attaining
these outcomes, young adults might be more likely to focus on the
consequences of their goal pursuits rather than the process. As goal
orientation shifts toward maintaining one’s level of functioning and
avoiding losses across adulthood and into old age, the process of goal
pursuit might become more salient. This should be the case because
pursuing maintenance/avoidance of loss goals does not provide a
new outcome but, instead, the actual state constitutes the desired state.
Thus, the focus of maintenance goals is inherently on the means and the
process of stabilization rather than on achieving an outcome. Therefore,
associated with the age-related shift in goal-orientation, goal focus
should shift from a primary focus on the outcomes of goal pursuit
in young adulthood to an increase in process focus across adulthood
(Mustafic & Freund, 2012b).
2. The sharp decrease in the perceived availability of resources with age
might also contribute to a stronger process focus in older compared
to younger adults depending on their goal orientation. High resource
investment is feasible only when it leads to relatively fast goal attainment, so as to not overtax the available resources that might be needed
for other goal pursuits. When goals require long-term and repeated
investments of means, they need to be carefully selected and monitored
regarding their availability over a long period of time. This is typically
the case when pursuing a maintenance/avoidance of loss goal that
requires investment of resources as long as the goal itself persists.
For instance, the maintenance goal to stay healthy requires one to
continue eating healthily, exercising regularly, and generally taking
good care of oneself. In contrast, the goal to pass an exam is achieved
at a certain point in time after which resources can be directed to other
goals. In other words, the means invested into temporally extended
goals (such as maintenance/avoidance of loss goals) require more
attention and, thus, are more salient than their outcomes. This should
be particularly the case when resources are perceived as limited as they
have to be invested more carefully. Thus, with increasing age, when
maintenance/avoidance of loss goals are more prevalent and when
resources are perceived as more limited, a process focus should also
become more likely.
3. Another factor that is strongly related to age and that might also influence goal focus is future time perspective. In line with SST, empirical
evidence (Carstensen et al., 1999) suggests that an extended future
time perspective is related to goals with a potential long-term pay-off
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
9
(e.g., spending time with people who might be able to offer useful
information), whereas a limited future time perspective is related to
a stronger emphasis on goals that offer immediate gratification (e.g.,
spending time with emotionally close partners). Thus, results from
studies in the context of SST are consistent with the view that a longer
future time perspective might be associated with a focus on the more
distant outcomes of goal pursuit. In contrast, a shorter future time
perspective seems to be related to a focus on the present and, thereby,
on the immediate process of goal pursuit. This expectation is also in line
with construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003), which suggests
that temporally close goals are represented in a more concrete way and
in terms of the means, whereas temporally distant goals are typically
represented in an abstract way and in terms of ends. Thus, younger
adults who have an extended future time perspective should be more
likely to adopt an outcome focus, while older adults who have a more
limited future time perspective should be more likely to adopt a process
focus.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THE ADAPTIVENESS AND AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN GOAL FOCUS
Several studies have tested the hypothesis of an increase in process focus
over adulthood. This research supports the hypothesis that, in contrast
to younger adults, older adults adopt a stronger process focus. This has
been shown for relatively trivial goals such as engaging in short thinking
exercises and for long-term goals that have high demands on self-regulation
such as starting to exercise regularly (Freund, Hennecke, & Riediger,
2010) or losing weight through a low-calorie diet (Freund & Hennecke,
2011).
Regarding the adaptiveness of process and outcome focus for goal pursuit
and subjective well-being, these studies have found that, in contrast to
an outcome focus, a stronger process focus is related to more positive
evaluations of the goal (e.g., perceived goal progress, involvement in goal
pursuit, satisfaction with the goal) and actual goal pursuit and achievement
(i.e., exercising regularly, losing weight) as well as subjective well-being (for
converging evidence see Houser-Marko & Sheldon, 2008; Pham & Taylor,
1999). Interestingly, none of the studies including different age groups
found evidence for age-related differences in the adaptiveness of goal
focus. In other words, process focus was advantageous for all age groups
under consideration. Thus, given that older adults tend to adopt a stronger
process focus compared to younger adults, this goal representation might
contribute to the maintenance of well-being in old age despite a decline in
resources.
10
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The research on the cognitive representations of goals and their role for managing the changing availability of resources is still in its infancy, and more
questions are open than answered yet. Obvious questions concern the optimal “mix” of goal orientation in different age groups (e.g., is it adaptive to
have certain degree of gain orientation throughout the life span and into old
age?) and the limits of the adaptiveness of adopting a process focus (e.g.,
when the process is highly aversive). There are some less obvious questions
that seem promising in helping us understand the interplay of motivation
and successful development that I will briefly address in the concluding paragraphs.
TACKLING THE PROCESSES UNDERLYING AGE DIFFERENCES IN GOAL REPRESENTATIONS
Although the existing research has identified some important age-related differences in goal representations, very little is known about the underlying
processes. The role of the availability of resources and time perspective is
assumed to be crucial but has not been systematically investigated. Experimental research limiting or expanding the perceived as well as the actually
available goal-relevant means or time perspective in different age groups
seems a particularly promising avenue.
DIFFERENCES IN LIFE DOMAINS
Similarly, motivated cognition approach implicitly assumes that the content
of goals does not play an important role in their cognitive representations and
their consequences for goal pursuit and achievement. However, it might very
well be the case that there are domain-related differences in the adaptiveness
of goal representations. For instance, adopting an outcome focus for goals in
the social domain (e.g., friendship, family) might not only be less adaptive
than adopting a process focus, but it might actually stand in the way and
harm successful goal pursuit. This might be the case because social goals are
often defined by the process. Having fun while spending time together is an
important aspect of friendship and seeing it primarily as a means toward the
end of being friends might kill the fun and thereby undermine the friendship. This might also apply to experiential goals such as dancing or enjoying
to listen to music. Older adults, due to their shorter future time perspective, might be more likely to focus on the experiential aspect of goals, and
might profit even more from adopting a process focus when pursuing such
goals.
Motivational Changes Across Adulthood
11
THE DYNAMIC ASPECT OF GOAL REPRESENTATIONS
Although goal researchers would probably agree that goal representations
are likely to change over the course of goal pursuit, this aspect has only
rarely been investigated. Goal representations might not only change with
age over longer periods of time, but also on a momentary basis depending
on the motivational phase (Freund et al., 2012). Moreover, such fluctuating
states as exhaustion or mood might affect goal representations. For instance,
when in a good mood, one might perceive the available resources more optimistically and plentiful than when being in a bad mood, and accordingly be
more likely to orient one’s goals toward gains and adopt an outcome focus.
It is an open question as to how such momentary fluctuations affect goal
pursuit and achievement and if there might be age-related differences in this
regard. Again, this line of inquiry could be addressed using experimental
designs manipulating such states as exhaustion or mood and assess the subsequent goal orientation and goal focus in different age groups. In addition,
momentary fluctuations in goal representations as well as mood states could
be assessed using experience sampling methods in everyday lives in different
age groups.
Taken together, the research on age-related changes in goal representations
has begun to reveal systematic age differences in goal orientation and goal
focus, but many questions are awaiting future theoretical and empirical
research. One of my goals is to tackle them and hopefully be able to provide
more answers in the years to come. I am certain that there will always be
more questions than answers, but I am also certain that we will enjoy the
process of research.
REFERENCES
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optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. American
Psychologist, 52, 366–380.
Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. M. (1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging:
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Baltes (Eds.), Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences (pp. 1–34).
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (2006). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1:
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Brandtstädter, J., & Greve, W. (1994). The aging self: Stabilizing and protective processes. Developmental Review, 14, 52–80.
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Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A
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Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1998). On the self-regulation of behavior. New York, NY:
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ALEXANDRA M. FREUND SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Alexandra M. Freund is a professor of psychology at the University of
Zurich. She studied psychology at the University of Heidelberg and the
Free University of Berlin, where she also received her PhD. She was a
post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and returned to Germany to
co-direct a project on successful aging and developmental regulation with
Paul B. Baltes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in
Berlin for 7 years. After that, she was an assistant professor and later an
associate professor at Northwestern University (Evanston). Since 2005, she
is at the University of Zurich where she holds the chair of “Developmental
Psychology: Adulthood.” She was a guest scientist at Brandeis University
(Waltham), the University of Florida (Gainesville), Columbia University
(New York City), and the German Primate Center in Goettingen (Germany).
She is on the advisory board of several research institutions. She was also
elected one of the founding members of the Young Academy of Sciences.
In 2013, she received a mentoring award of the section Developmental
Psychology of the German Psychological Association, and in 2015 the
14
EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Humboldt Research Award. Since 2010, she is associate editor of the APA
journal Psychology and Aging and is on several editorial boards.
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