scholarly journals AGE AND OCCUPATIONAL TIME PERSPECTIVE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH PREFERENCE FOR HELPING OTHERS AT WORK

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S127-S128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yochai Z Shavit ◽  
Laura L Carstensen

Abstract Workforces today are more age-diverse than ever before. Despite widespread beliefs that older workers are less productive than younger workers, when productivity is measured at the team level, the presence of older workers appears to positively contribute to productivity. Underlying reasons for this finding have been poorly understood. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) posits that goals change with age and that when time-horizons grow increasingly limited people prefer activities that hold meaning in their pursuit, such as helping others. Reasoning from SST, we hypothesized that age is associated with a preference for helping colleagues. We further hypothesized that expanding time-horizons would reduce age differences such that both younger and older people would prefer projects that help colleagues. 555 workers, aged 20-75, were assigned to one of three experimental conditions where time-horizons were expanded, constrained or not mentioned (control), and were asked to indicate their preferences for projects that benefitted themselves or others. Results from multinomial logistic regression show that collapsing across conditions, age was positively associated with a preference for projects helping friends or colleagues over ones that were career advancing, and participants were more likely to work on a helping project over one that would take the company in a new direction regardless of age. We further found effects of manipulating time horizons- in both the expanded and limited occupational time-horizons conditions workers were less likely to prefer helping compared to advancing their careers, and the positive association between age and preference for helping was attenuated.

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiao-Wen Liao ◽  
Laura L. Carstensen

Abstract. The articles in the present volume enhance the understanding of the role of perceived time in human development. Together, they point to the multifaceted nature of perceived future time and the associations different aspects of time have with goals, preferences, and well-being. Specifically, the articles showcase antecedents and consequences of perceived time left in life, consider ways to optimize measurement of future time horizons, and advance novel questions about the neural correlates of domain-specific aspects of subjective time. Findings are considered within the framework of socioemotional selectivity theory. Future directions for research on time horizons are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 774-774
Author(s):  
Irina Orlovsky ◽  
Rebecca Ready ◽  
Bruna Martins-Klein

Abstract Major theories of adult development posit that knowledge about emotion might evolve across the lifespan. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) and the Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) models imply that the manner in which older (OA) and younger adults (YA) conceptualize emotions may differ in valence, arousal, reference to social partners, time perspective, and the self. Quantitative accounts of age differences in conceptualizations of emotion-terms offer mixed support for theoretical expectations, but many predictions have yet to be tested qualitatively. In this study, 90 OA and 210 YA provided narrative descriptions of 11 (5 positive, 6 negative) emotion-terms. Responses were coded on valence, reference to self/others, and arousal. O/YA used similar synonyms to define emotion-terms. As predicted, YA used high arousal language in their definitions of negative (OR = 10.29, p = 0.018) and positive terms more than OA (i.e. Happy: OR = 1.27, p<0.001); OA referenced other persons such as family and friends (pos: OR = 0.13, p<0.001; neg: OA = 0.32, p=0.002) more than YA. Contrary to predictions, OA self-referenced more often than YA in positive (OR = 0.12, p=0.001) and negative definitions (OR= 0.11, p=0.004); this may be attributed to OA providing more situational examples in their responses than YA. Somewhat consistent with SAVI and SST, OA may reference high-arousal states less when conceptualizing emotions and associate their definitions more with social partners than YA. Future research should address OA greater use of situational examples when defining emotion terms, motivational factors and emotional impact of these age differences.


Author(s):  
Nico Dragano ◽  
Claudio Barbaranelli ◽  
Marvin Reuter ◽  
Morten Wahrendorf ◽  
Brad Wright ◽  
...  

Young workers are in particular need of occupational safety and health (OSH) services, but it is unclear whether they have the necessary access to such services. We compared young with older workers in terms of the access to and awareness of OSH services, and examined if differences in employment conditions accounted for age-differences. We used survey data from Italy (INSuLA 1, 2014), with a sample of 8000 employed men and women aged 19 to 65 years, including 732 young workers aged under 30 years. Six questions measured access to services, and five questions assessed awareness of different OSH issues. Several employment conditions were included. Analyses revealed that young workers had less access and a lower awareness of OSH issues compared with older workers. For instance, odds ratios (OR) suggest that young workers had a 1.44 times higher likelihood [95%—confidence interval 1.21–1.70] of having no access to an occupational physician, and were more likely (2.22 [1.39–3.38]) to be unaware of legal OSH frameworks. Adjustment for selected employment conditions (company size, temporary contract) substantially reduced OR’s, indicating that these conditions contribute to differences between older and younger workers. We conclude that OSH management should pay particular attention to young workers in general and, to young workers in precarious employment, and working in small companies in particular.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Örestig

A central finding in earlier research on work orientation is that there are substantial age-differences regarding attitudes to work. Generally, more older workers describe their jobs as intrinsically meaningful than younger workers. This result has been interpreted in three different ways, the psychological, the cultural, and the structural hypotheses, where the first emphasizes cognitive age-differences, the second sees age-differences as outcomes of generational differences, and the third regards them as expressions of labour-market inequalities. These different approaches lead to quite different hypotheses regarding recent developments, but the relevant research is limited. Drawing on data from the Swedish survey of living conditions (ULF), this study has examined attitudinal change within the Swedish workforce during 1979–2003. Three sub-periods, 1986-1987, 1994-1996, and 2001-2003 were compared with 1979, the year of reference. The results showed that a consistently smaller share of the workforce held extrinsic work values in the subsequent periods, and that this applied to all age-groups. Further, the results did not support the assumption of broader cultural differences between generations. Rather, the results provide support for the structural hypothesis. Older workers held extrinsic work values to a lesser degree than younger workers regardless of period. Most strikingly, the gap between the youngest group on the labour market (ages 16–29) and the older groups widened during the period. Furthermore, class differences in the distribution of the extrinsic attitude were intact throughout the study period; manual employees were consistently more likely to hold an extrinsic attitude than were service-class employees. This implies that differences in the probability of extrinsic work attitudes have been identifiable regardless of period, but that their prevalence has decreased as jobs involving features related to extrinsic work values have decreased since 1979.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 512-513
Author(s):  
Hua (Poppy) Huo ◽  
Lauren Hytman ◽  
Cara Ryan ◽  
Nicky Newton

Abstract Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST; Carstensen, 1993) posits that time horizons - or Future Time Perspective (FTP) - change with age and/or the priming of endings. Fung and Carstensen (2006) found that SARS-CoV in 2003 naturalistically primed fragility, with consequences for both FTP and well-being. The current SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic provides a similar context: During the early months of COVID-19, age and time horizon were related to greater emotional well-being for American adults (Carstensen et al., 2020); Dozois (2020) found that, for Canadian adults, anxiety and depression rose. The current study examines relationships between FTP, COVID-19 impact, and psychological well-being in older Canadian women (N = 190; Mage = 70.38). We found that COVID-19 impact and FTP were both related to well-being; additionally, COVID-19 impact moderated the relationship between FTP and well-being. The complexity of what remains or becomes increasingly important for older women during a global health crisis is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 406-406
Author(s):  
Dannii Yeung ◽  
Alvin Ho

Abstract Building on the theoretical framework of socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 2006), this presentation reports the findings of two studies conducted in Hong Kong Chinese workers to examine whether occupational future time perspective (OFTP) can account for the age differences in conflict strategies. Study 1 is a cross-sectional study with 416 working adults completed an online survey on conflict management (Mage=39.1 years, SD=12.1), and Study 2 is a laboratory study with 123 workers (Mage=40.1 years, SD=12.1) indicated their behavioural responses after watching hypothetical workplace conflict videos. In both studies, five conflict strategies (integrating, compromising, obliging, avoiding, and dominating) and OFTP (focus on opportunities and focus on limitations) were assessed. Parallel mediation analyses were performed. The results of Study 1 showed that both focus on opportunities and focus on limitations mediated the effects of age on obliging (b = -.006, SE=.002; and b = .006, SE=.002, respectively), avoiding (b = -.005, SE=.002; and b =.008, SE=.002, respectively), and dominating (b = -.014, SE=.003; and b = .009, SE=.002, respectively). Focus on opportunities could only account for the effects of age on integrating and compromising. The results of Study 2 showed that only focus on limitation could account for the age variations in the use of avoiding (b = .196, SE = .058) when facing intergenerational conflicts. The findings of this project reveal that the age-related focus on limitations increases older workers’ likelihood to utilize maladaptive conflict strategies, such as dominating and avoiding, to deal with conflicts occurred in the workplace.


2021 ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Hannah Wolfe ◽  
Derek Isaacowitz

This chapter considers the role of motivation in emotion-cognition links and how goals may relate to age differences (and similarities) in emotion regulation. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) posits that, as their future time perspective shrinks, older adults become more motivated to prioritize their emotional well-being and exhibit “positivity effects” in attention and memory. After reviewing basic evidence on age-related positivity effects, the chapter turns to studies that have attempted to highlight the role of goals specifically in contributing to age-related positivity effects. While some studies suggest that goals are important in producing age differences in emotion-cognition links, others have not found support for clear links to goals. The chapter considers these mixed findings in the context of recent work suggesting fewer age differences in emotion regulation than might be expected, as well as presents goals other than emotion regulation that may drive age differences in cognition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaap Oude Mulders

Purpose Social norms about the timing of retirement and stereotypes about qualities of younger and older workers are pervasive, but it is unclear how they relate to employers’ ageist preferences. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of employers’ retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on their preferences for younger or older workers in three types of employment practices: hiring a new employee; offering training; and offering a permanent contract. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 960 Dutch employers from 2017 are analysed to study employers’ preferences for younger or older workers. Effects of organisations’ and managers’ characteristics, retirement age norms and stereotypes are estimated with multinomial logistic regression analyses. Findings Many employers have a strong preference for younger workers, especially when hiring a new employee, while preferences for older workers are highly uncommon. Higher retirement age norms of employers are related to a lower preference for younger workers in all employment decisions. When employers are more positive about older workers’ soft qualities (such as reliability and social skills), but not about their hard qualities (such as their physical capacity and willingness to learn), they rate older workers relatively more favourable for hiring and offering training, but not for providing a permanent contract. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to estimate the effects of retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on ageist preferences for a diverse set of employment practices.


GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiao Chu ◽  
Daniel Grühn ◽  
Ashley M. Holland

Abstract. We investigated the effects of time horizon and age on the socioemotional motives underlying individual’s bucket-list goals. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three time-horizon conditions to make a bucket list: (1) an open-ended time horizon (Study 1 & 2), (2) a 6-month horizon (i.e., “Imagine you have 6 months to live”; Study 1 & 2), and (3) a 1-week horizon (Study 2). Goal motives were coded based on socioemotional selectivity theory and psychosocial development theory. Results indicated that time horizon and age produced unique effects on bucket-list goal motives. Extending past findings on people’s motives considering the end of life, the findings suggest that different time horizons and life stages trigger different motives.


Author(s):  
Sergio Martín-Prieto ◽  
Cristina Alvarez-Peregrina ◽  
Israel Thuissard-Vassallo ◽  
Carlos Catalina-Romero ◽  
Eva Calvo-Bonacho ◽  
...  

Recent studies in Spain have shown that males, younger workers, and people involved in manual jobs had the highest risk of suffering a work-related eye injury (WREI). This study aims to assess the predictors of sick leave associated with WREI and to compare them with risk factors of initial injury. A retrospective and descriptive study of WREI that causes sick leave of one or more days among workers from an insurance labor mutual company in Spain was conducted over a period from 2008 to 2018. The variables of the study were sex, age, occupation, and type of injury. A total of 9352 (18.6% of 50,265 WREI) cases and 113,395 total days of sick leave were observed, with an estimated EUR 4,994,009.59 of associated labor cost. The main predictors of sick leave related to WREI were found to be female (highest incidence; 25.9 (95% CI (24.8–27.1))), >55 years of age (highest incidence; 20.5 (95% CI (19.3–21.7))), not working in the industry (lowest incidence; 13.8 (95% CI (13.3–14.2))), and not suffering “other disorders of conjunctiva” (lowest incidence; 5.7 (95% CI (4.7–6.8))). The consequences associated with WREI are worse for female and older workers, despite the main risk of suffering WREI being observed in males and younger workers.


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