scholarly journals Age Differences across Adulthood in Interpretations of Situations and Situation–Behaviour Contingencies for Big Five States

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik E. Noftle ◽  
Charleen J. Gust

In the last two decades, a burgeoning literature has begun to clarify the processes underlying personality traits and momentary trait–relevant behaviour. However, such work has almost exclusively investigated these questions in young adults. During the same period, much has been learned about adult personality trait development but with scant attention to the momentary processes that contribute to development. The current work connects these two topics, testing developmental questions about adult age differences and thus examining how age matters to personality processes. The study examines how four important situation characteristics are experienced in everyday life and how situations covary with Big Five trait–relevant behaviour (i.e. situation–behaviour contingencies). Two samples were collected (total N = 316), each assessing three age groups: young, middle–aged, and older adults. Using experience sampling method, participants completed reports four or five times per day across a representative period of daily life. Results suggested age differences in how situations are experienced on average, in the variability around these average situation experiences, and in situation–behaviour contingencies. The results therefore highlight that, across adulthood, age groups experience chronically different situations, differ in how much the situations they experience vary moment to moment, and differ in how much situation experience predicts their enactment of traits. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Leigh Seaman ◽  
Sade J Abiodun ◽  
Zöe Fenn ◽  
Gregory Russell Samanez-Larkin ◽  
Rui Mata

A number of developmental theories have been proposed that make differential predictions about the links between age and temporal discounting; that is, the valuation of rewards at different points in time. Most empirical studies examining adult age differences in temporal discounting have relied on economic intertemporal choice tasks, which pit choosing a smaller, sooner monetary reward against choosing a larger, later one. Although initial studies using these tasks suggested older adults discount less than younger adults, follow-up studies provided heterogeneous, and thus inconclusive, results. Using an open science approach, we test the replicability of adult age differences in temporal discounting by conducting a preregistered systematic literature search and meta-analysis of adult age differences in intertemporal choice tasks. Across 37 cross-sectional studies (Total N = 104,736), we found no reliable relation between age and temporal discounting (r = -0.081, 95% CI [-0.185, 0.025]). We also found little evidence of publication bias or p-hacking. Exploratory analyses of moderators found no effect of experimental design (e.g., extreme-group vs. continuous age), incentives (hypothetical vs. rewards), amount of delay (e.g., days, weeks, months, or years), or quantification of discounting behavior (e.g., proportion of immediate choices vs. parameters from computational modeling). Additional analyses of 12 participant-level data sets found little support for a nonlinear relation between age and temporal discounting across adulthood. Overall, the results suggest that adult age is not reliably associated with individual differences in temporal discounting. We provide recommendations for future empirical work on temporal discounting across the adult life span.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ypofanti ◽  
Vasiliki Zisi ◽  
Nikolaos Zourbanos ◽  
Barbara Mouchtouri ◽  
Pothiti Tzanne ◽  
...  

Goldberg’s International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) big-five personality factor markers currently lack validating evidence. The structure of the 50-item IPIP was examined in two different adult samples (total N=811), in each case justifying a 5-factor solution, with only minor discrepancies. Age differences were comparable to previous findings using other inventories. One sample (N=193) also completed additionally another personality measure (the TIPI Short Form). Conscientiousness, extraversion and emotional stability/ neuroticism scales of the IPIP were highly correlated with those of the TIPI (r=0.62 to 0.65, P=0.01). Agreeableness and Intellect/Openness scales correlated less strongly (r=0.54 and 0.58 respectively, P=0.01). The IPIP scales have good internal consistency (a=0.88) and relate strongly to major dimensions of personality assessed by the two questionnaires.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Buecker ◽  
Marlies Maes ◽  
Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽  
Maike Luhmann

This preregistered meta–analysis ( k = 113, total n = 93 668) addressed how the Big Five dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) are related to loneliness. Robust variance estimation accounting for the dependency of effect sizes was used to compute meta–analytic bivariate correlations between loneliness and personality. Extraversion ( r = −.370), agreeableness ( r = −.243), conscientiousness ( r = −.202), and openness ( r = −.107) were negatively related to loneliness. Neuroticism ( r = .358) was positively related to loneliness. These associations differed meaningfully in strength depending on how loneliness was assessed. Additionally, meta–analytic structural equation modelling was used to investigate the unique association between each personality trait and loneliness while controlling for the other four personality traits. All personality traits except openness remained statistically significantly associated with loneliness when controlling for the other personality traits. Our results show the importance of stable personality factors in explaining individual differences in loneliness. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-411
Author(s):  
Kate A. Barford ◽  
Peter Koval ◽  
Peter Kuppens ◽  
Luke D. Smillie

In this study, we examine how daily life fluctuations in positive affect (PA) and negative afect (NA) relate to mixed emotions—that is, simultaneous positive and negative feelings. We utilised three experience sampling studies (total N = 275), in which participants reported their affect 10 times each day for up to 14 days. Because people generally experience fairly stable moderate levels of PA in daily life, we proposed that mixed emotions would typically occur when NA increases and overlaps with, but does not entirely eliminate, PA. Accordingly, within individuals, we found that mixed emotions in daily life were more strongly predicted by changes in NA and the occurrence of negative events than by changes in PA and positive events. At the between–person level, individuals with more variable NA, more stable PA, and higher trait Neuroticism scores experienced higher average levels of mixed emotions. Further, we found evidence that the average magnitude of NA increases may partially mediate the association between Neuroticism and mixed emotions. We also found that positive predictors of mixed emotions are negative predictors of individuals’ within–person PA/NA correlations—that is, affective synchrony. Our findings elucidate trait predictors and affective dynamics of daily life mixed emotions, which appear closely intertwined with NA variability. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naemi D. Brandt ◽  
Michael Becker ◽  
Julia Tetzner ◽  
Martin Brunner ◽  
Poldi Kuhl ◽  
...  

Abstract. Personality is a relevant predictor for important life outcomes across the entire lifespan. Although previous studies have suggested the comparability of the measurement of the Big Five personality traits across adulthood, the generalizability to childhood is largely unknown. The present study investigated the structure of the Big Five personality traits assessed with the Big Five Inventory-SOEP Version (BFI-S; SOEP = Socio-Economic Panel) across a broad age range spanning 11–84 years. We used two samples of N = 1,090 children (52% female, Mage = 11.87) and N = 18,789 adults (53% female, Mage = 51.09), estimating a multigroup CFA analysis across four age groups (late childhood: 11–14 years; early adulthood: 17–30 years; middle adulthood: 31–60 years; late adulthood: 61–84 years). Our results indicated the comparability of the personality trait metric in terms of general factor structure, loading patterns, and the majority of intercepts across all age groups. Therefore, the findings suggest both a reliable assessment of the Big Five personality traits with the BFI-S even in late childhood and a vastly comparable metric across age groups.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1060-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon P. Wendt ◽  
Aidan G.C. Wright ◽  
Paul A. Pilkonis ◽  
William C. Woods ◽  
Jaap J.A. Denissen ◽  
...  

Researchers are increasingly interested in the affect dynamics of individuals for describing and explaining personality and psychopathology. Recently, the incremental validity of more complex indicators of affect dynamics (IADs; e.g. autoregression) has been called into question (Dejonckheere et al., 2019), with evidence accumulating that these might convey little unique information beyond mean level and general variability of emotions. Our study extends the evidence for the construct validity of IADs by investigating their redundancy and uniqueness, split–half reliability based on indices from odd–numbered and even–numbered days, and association with big five personality traits. We used three diverse samples that assessed daily and momentary emotions, including community participants, individuals with personality pathology, and their significant others (total N = 1192, total number of occasions = 51 278). Mean and variability of affects had high reliability and distinct nomological patterns to big five personality traits. In contrast, more complex IADs exhibited substantial redundancies with mean level and general variability of emotions. When partialing out these redundancies by using residual variables, some of the more complex IADs had acceptable reliability, but only a few of these showed incremental associations with big five personality traits, indicating that IADs have limited validity using the current assessment practices. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Leone ◽  
Marta Desimoni ◽  
Antonio Chirumbolo

Previous research has suggested that the association between right–wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) is moderated by political interest and involvement. It is here hypothesized that interest also strengthens the association of authoritarianism with political self–placement and that higher levels of interest in politics shape voting choices that are more strongly associated with authoritarianism. Authoritarianism was defined as a second–order factor reflecting onto SDO and RWA in a structural equation modelling approach. In Study 1 (two samples, total N = 873), interest was found to moderate the impact of authoritarianism, as hypothesized. In Study 2 (N = 721), a higher order interaction involving interest and political expertise was detected. These results were obtained with different measures and in different electoral campaigns. The motivational and cognitive underpinnings of the moderating effects are discussed. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology.


1986 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-196
Author(s):  
Susan E. Mason ◽  
Patricia Baskey ◽  
Diane Perri

The visual search technique was used to assess adult age differences in visual information extraction. The study included three adult age groups. In Experiment 1, participants searched for targets embedded in a list of unrelated words. Targets were defined structurally, phonemically, or semantically. Search for structural targets was faster than search for phonemic and semantic targets. This was true for all three age groups. In Experiment 2, targets were embedded in prose. The oldest age group required additional time to detect each target type, but the largest age difference was associated with semantic search.


2012 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-718
Author(s):  
Olga Remick ◽  
David Ross ◽  
Richard Metzger ◽  
Tonya Benton ◽  
Jill Shelton

Four groups of adults, ages 40 to 70+ years, took the Modified Lag Task which requires that participants remember lists of words and subsequently recall the first, second, or third word from the end of the list. Previously, the task showed convergent validity with the operation span (a complex span measure) and a divergent validity with the digit span (a simple span measure). To establish predictive validity, the present study was designed to assess if this task could separate four age groups in working memory performance. The present study found support for the validity of the Modified Lag Task; however, additional research is warranted to further develop the construct validity of this task.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka J Jaroslawska ◽  
Stephen Rhodes

Normal adult aging is known to be associated with lower performance on tasks assessing the short-term storage of information. However, whether or not there are additional age-related deficits associated with concurrent storage and processing demands within working memory remains unclear. Methodological differences across studies are considered critical factors responsible for the variability in the magnitude of the reported age effects. Here we synthesized comparisons of younger and older adults' performance on tasks measuring storage alone against those combining storage with concurrent processing of information. We also considered the influence of task-related moderator variables. Meta-analysis of effect sizes revealed a small but disproportionate effect of processing on older adults' memory performance. Moderator analysis indicated that equating single task storage performance across age groups (titration) and the nature of the stimulus material were important determinants of memory accuracy. Titration of storage task difficulty was found to lead to smaller, and non-significant, age-differences in dual task costs. These results were corroborated by supplementary Brinley and state-trace analyses. We discuss these findings in relation to the extant literature and current working memory theory as well as possibilities for future research to address the residual heterogeneity in effect sizes.


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