This quasi-experimental research investigates developmental regulation around a critical life-span transition, the "biological clock" for childbearing. The action-phase model of developmental ...regulation proposes contrasting control orientations in individuals approaching versus those having passed a developmental deadline. Individuals in an urgency phase close to the deadline should be invested in goal pursuit, whereas those who have passed the deadline without attaining the goal should focus on goal disengagement and self-protection. In 2 studies, women at different ages and with or without children were compared with regard to various indicators of primary and secondary control striving for goal attainment versus goal disengagement and self-protection. Findings support the action-phase model of developmental regulation. Patterns of control striving congruent with the participants' status as pre- versus postdeadline were associated with superior psychological well-being.
This commentary discusses the theoretical roots of the concept of goal disengagement in the construct of secondary control, the motivational theory of lifespan development, the dual-process model, ...and the personality model of control. These approaches have proposed and shown that goal disengagement is adaptive when opportunities for goal attainment have waned below a threshold of feasibility, and when action resources can be more productively invested in alternative or adjusted goals. Goal disengagement involves deactivating motivational commitment and withdrawing the investment of effort. Key challenges arise from having to overcome biases associated with goal engagement, multiple goals competing for resources, and disparate commitment and effort. Individual differences in goal engagement capacities predict important developmental, goal attainment, and health outcomes. The articles of the special issue are discussed with regard to their contribution to clarifying these specific issues. A prospectus for future research on the lifespan development of disengagement and the discrete versus gradual nature of disengagement is briefly discussed.
This paper develops the argument that goal disengagement forms an essential aspect of effective self-regulation. The argument derives from a consideration of processes inherent in the life-span ...development of the individual, as well as processes inherent in the moment-to-moment regulation of action. Evidence is reviewed to support the idea that goal disengagement can be beneficial to psychological well-being. In addition, the article addresses the nature of disengagement. It is argued that disengagement requires a person to withdraw not only effort but also commitment from unattainable goals, and is most adaptive if it leads to pursuing new meaningful goals. The paper also discusses the manner in which various aspects of the self might support or hinder the disengagement process. The paper closes by addressing the break point between goal engagement and disengagement and suggesting several directions for future research.
The study examined the relation among three types of control strategies (persistence, positive reappraisals, lowering aspirations) and subjective well-being across adulthood (
N
= 3,490). ...Specifically, the authors investigated whether age-adapted endorsement of control strategies is conducive to subjective well-being if individuals experience health or financial stress. The results reveal an overall enhanced reliance on control strategies in older as compared with younger adults. In addition, persistence showed a stronger positive relation to subjective well-being in young adulthood as compared with old age. In midlife and old age, positive reappraisals had a stronger positive relation to subjective well-being than persistence. Lowering aspirations was negatively related to subjective well-being, independent of age. Age differences in the relation of control strategies to subjective well-being were particularly salient in individuals who faced either health or financial stress.
We argue that a comprehensive understanding of emotional development across adulthood must go beyond broad dimensions of affect and consider discrete emotions. Current evidence focuses on sadness and ...anger, two negative emotions that exert contrasting age trajectories because anger has high adaptive value in young adulthood, when people have abundant resources and need to carve out a niche in society, whereas sadness has high adaptive value in old age, a time of declining resources that requires adaptation to increasingly unattainable goals. We conclude that our position about the age-graded experience and adaptive value of emotions should hold for a variety of negative and positive emotions.
This article addresses the motivational processes that enable older adults to manage health-related threats and to protect their psychological and physical functioning. Based on the Motivational ...Theory of Life-Span Development (MTD) 1, we describe how an age- and opportunity-adjusted use of control strategies can support the regulation of important developmental goals across the lifespan. In addition, we apply the premises of the MTD to the management of health threats in later adulthood and review the pertinent empirical literature. Finally, we use the Lines-of-Defense model 2 to show how an orchestrated and strategic use of control strategies can help older adults to manage the experience of progressive health declines and remain engaged in the pursuit of important health goals.
We discuss the major processes involved in individuals’ motivation and self-regulation of goal striving throughout the life course. While much is regulated based on the biological and societal ...scaffolding of lifespan development, certain challenges for motivation and self-regulation are more substantial and need to be managed by the individual, providing opportunities for researchers for testing the limits of individual capacities in developmental regulation. These challenging circumstances include major changes in age-graded opportunities for goal pursuit, uncertain or obfuscated opportunities, and major unexpected losses of control. Under such challenging circumstances, the consequences of individual differences in motivational self-regulation, such as optimism, action vs. state orientation, and goal-disengagement capacity are enhanced and may contribute to adaptive patterns of developmental regulation.
Suls provides a useful review of research interested in the contribution of chronic negative emotions to coronary heart disease (CHD). Despite widespread support for a link between negative emotions ...and the etiology of disease, it is largely unknown if discrete negative emotions, particularly anger, sadness, and anxiety contribute to the development of physical disease in different ways. In this comment, we argue that answering this question will require a more comprehensive analysis of the unique characteristics of discrete emotions as well as conceptually refined assumptions about how discrete emotions develop and change across the adult lifespan.
How can individuals regulate their own development to live happy, healthy, and productive lives? Major theories of developmental regulation across the life span have been proposed (e.g., dual-process ...model of assimilation and accommodation; motivational theory of life-span development; model of selection, optimization, and compensation), but they have rarely been integrated. We provide an integration of key processes and predictions postulated by the 3 theories. Moreover, we present evidence from 2 age-heterogeneous, cross-sectional studies showing that the different processes of developmental regulation proposed by the different theories center around 3 key processes (i.e., goal engagement, goal disengagement, and metaregulation), which are positively associated with age and well-being. We conclude by proposing an agenda for future research.
This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the ...experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 to 90). Regression analyses showed that goal disengagement capacities buffered 6-year increases in older adults’ cold symptoms, and that this effect was significantly pronounced among older-old participants. Mediation analyses further indicated that changes in depressive symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the age-related association between goal disengagement and changes in cold symptoms. The study’s findings suggest that goal disengagement capacities become increasingly important for protecting emotional well-being and physical health as older adults advance in age.
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